Another LBGT character in II that was localized to be straight (A Random NPC)

Also the only reason I said that he was a "stereotypically gay man in the 80's" was because someone on a comment on a Censored Gaming Video said that, and I took their word for it since they seemed to get the Japanese culture and understand that he wasn't transgender. I wasn't alive in the 80's so I wouldn't know, but I assumed they were saying that they were like that in Japan or China not necessarily America. Lol.
 
This archive of Shenmue.com that @Switch found lists his name as Ewan O’Neill (ユアン・オニール). The included email address seems to confirm that his name is Ewan rather than Yuan.
Omg! Thanks for the link! So that's where those sites found the info! I never use the web archive, so thank you! Now I finally know the truth about my favorite character!
 
Iirc, Ewan’s full name is Ewan O’Neil, which would suggest that his family was originally from Ireland rather than HK. As @Truck_1_0_1_ points out though, it really doesn’t matter.
Of course it doesn't matter. It's a fictional character and like I said, the more differences and extra content to dive in the better for all us.
I wish there were even more edits done back then, just in nowadays study perspective.

Well, im leaving a while confused. I never felt offended, I hope/suppose neither of you here did. Gotta go to my crayons.
 
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This archive of Shenmue.com that @Switch found lists his name as Ewan O’Neill (ユアン・オニール). The included email address seems to confirm that his name is Ewan rather than Yuan.

Wait. What?
Since 2001, I've thought of this character as being a flamboyant chinese weirdo simply called "Yuan" (no last name. He's a villain). And now you're telling me his name is actually "Ewan O'Neill", and he's been Irish for 22 years?!

This is kinda blowing my mind right now...also a bit of a letdown if I'm honest :ROFLMAO:
 
Wait. What?
Since 2001, I've thought of this character as being a flamboyant chinese weirdo simply called "Yuan" (no last name. He's a villain). And now you're telling me his name is actually "Ewan O'Neill", and he's been Irish for 22 years?!

This is kinda blowing my mind right now...also a bit of a letdown if I'm honest :ROFLMAO:
Yeah I was really shocked too when I saw Japanese sites say his name was actually Ewan and that he had a surname. He always looked Asian to me. I didn't know if it was false info that spread, but that link to Shenmue.com definitely confirms that it's real. Even the Shenmue Master site said he was Chinese.
 
It's so weird that his full name is not in any of the Japanese guidebooks, yet the full names for Wong, Sam, Larry, and Cool Z are there. Why would they omit Yuan's? It's interesting to see the actual source of the Ewan name though.

So presumably, as our original English language versions on the Dreamcast/Xbox changed his gender to female, they changed the name from Ewan to Yuan to also better facilitate that change.


I wonder if that email address was ever used for anything back in the day :LOL: Like would he respond to messages or something??
 
It's so weird that his full name is not in any of the Japanese guidebooks, yet the full names for Wong, Sam, Larry, and Cool Z are there. Why would they omit Yuan's? It's interesting to see the actual source of the Ewan name though.

So presumably, as our original English language versions on the Dreamcast/Xbox changed his gender to female, they changed the name from Ewan to Yuan to also better facilitate that change.


I wonder if that email address was ever used for anything back in the day :LOL: Like would he respond to messages or something??
Yeah I wondered if they translated it to Yuan in English because of the gender change since Ewan is obviously not a woman's name. And the last name not being listed in the guide books is the exact reason why I wondered if it was a fact that his last name actually was O'Neill.
 
Yeah I wondered if they translated it to Yuan in English because of the gender change since Ewan is obviously not a woman's name. And the last name not being listed in the guide books is the exact reason why I wondered if it was a fact that his last name actually was O'Neill.
Given how rushed the localization was, I suspect that the team doing it simply mistook the character for being female due to the way that he acts and dresses and then made the katakana fit their female image of him. I really don’t think it was a conscious decision to straightwash a gay character, more that nobody on the localization team had any idea that he was supposed to be male in the first place. Don’t forget, the original localization of S2 was text only, so by the time they got around to redubbing the game for Xbox Ewan was already Yuan.
 
Given how rushed the localization was, I suspect that the team doing it simply mistook the character for being female due to the way that he acts and dresses and then made the katakana fit their female image of him. I really don’t think it was a conscious decision to straightwash a gay character, more that nobody on the localization team had any idea that he was supposed to be male in the first place. Don’t forget, the original localization of S2 was text only, so by the time they got around to redubbing the game for Xbox Ewan was already Yuan.
Actually Yu Suzuki was the one who decided to alter his gender in the PAL version. He said that he wasn't sure how players outside of Japan would take a obviously gay character. He revealed it in this interview:


And Lisle Wilkerson revealed in a interview with SEGAbits that she knew he was originally a male and so did Sega of America, but that they decided to make his gender ambiguous to not anger western fans. And that they were considering on making him a male in the dub, but decided against it
 
Yeah I was really shocked too when I saw Japanese sites say his name was actually Ewan and that he had a surname. He always looked Asian to me. I didn't know if it was false info that spread, but that link to Shenmue.com definitely confirms that it's real. Even the Shenmue Master site said he was Chinese.
Perfectly possible he has a Chinese mum and an Irish (or Irish-origin) dad, which would explain the surname.
 
Actually Yu Suzuki was the one who decided to alter his gender in the PAL version. He said that he wasn't sure how players outside of Japan would take a obviously gay character. He revealed it in this interview:


And Lisle Wilkerson revealed in a interview with SEGAbits that she knew he was originally a male and so did Sega of America, but that they decided to make his gender ambiguous to not anger western fans. And that they were considering on making him a male in the dub, but decided against it

I guess there's an echo in here ;)
 
Actually Yu Suzuki was the one who decided to alter his gender in the PAL version. He said that he wasn't sure how players outside of Japan would take a obviously gay character. He revealed it in this interview:


And Lisle Wilkerson revealed in an interview with SEGAbits that she knew he was originally a male and so did Sega of America, but that they decided to make his gender ambiguous to not anger western fans. And that they were considering on making him a male in the dub, but decided against it
Interesting, but it’s worth noting that both changes are in relation to the US/Xbox version of Shenmue 2. By the time full localization took place Sega of Europe had already settled on Yuan. It’d be interesting to know if Yu Suzuki was involved in that.
 
Sounds to me like it's another "Galsia" situation.

The infamous first punk you annihilate in Streets of Rage.
The Japanese team took the surname "Garcia", transliterated it to something like ガルシア ("Garushia")....before subsequently re-adapting it into English as "Galsia".

They essentially bastardized an ordinary last name and made it legendary.
 
Sounds to me like it's another "Galsia" situation.

The infamous first punk you annihilate in Streets of Rage.
The Japanese team took the surname "Garcia", transliterated it to something like ガルシア ("Garushia")....before subsequently re-adapting it into English as "Galsia".

They essentially bastardized an ordinary last name and made it legendary.
Also sometimes the mistranslation can be for the worst, like in the Chaos Wars game that was a JRPG on the PS2. It's known for it's horrendous English voice acting since the developers family members who have no experience in voice acting did all the voices. Anyway, there was a guy that's name was originally "Nicolai" but it was mistranslated to "Nicole" giving him a girls name. Lol.

However it does make the English dub even funnier though! 🤣
 
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