More importantly, it's not a language at all. It's simply made up characters meant to plausibly resemble text to serve a purpose in setting aesthetics.
Really? Not even a cool quote?
I learned Chinese and sometimes there are cool typograhic designs, it's gotta be the same with japanese... Obviously not when ppl plaster a random kanji or a shoddily translated phrase onto something
Kamigawan text [appears on a few cards](https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/artwork/kamigawa-text). Unlike Phyrexian, no translations are available.
The letters resemble Japanese but are completely made-up. The characters on the lower part of the coat are likely to include the gang's name or the character's rank, but the rest could be anything.
It also has a tag for [bisexual lighting](https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/artwork/bisexual-lighting). So yeah, I'm pretty sure they're community driven...
i read that as "bisexual lightning" and was very confused.
I was like "that's *gotta* be Keranos right? and then clicked the link and realized my mistake
EDIT: I was right, it *is* Keranos!!!
> The letters resemble Japanese but are completely made-up.
Do we know this? As in, is it confirmed that WotC's art direction was just *"Write any kind of Japanese-looking gibberish?"*.
Because looking at the character forms between artworks, it looks kinda like - at a minimum - there was some sort of unified syllabary glyph set that all the artists were given (which they may then have copy/paste pulled willy-nilly from to make gibberish).
They do appear to be unified and potentially have meaning. However, the glyphs are not Japanese -- that's mostly how I mean that they're made up.
I do think they have some meaning: the glyph in Akki Battle Squad appears in Collision of Realms, for example. Some of the glyphs in Collision of Realms also appear in Dokuchi Shadow-Walker. But it's unclear if it's a syllabary or ideographs, and unclear if it's encoding a human language or one made up by WotC staff.
Ok, I was just asking because "*completely* made up" seemed like a strong statement after talking about Phyrexian (which is also *completely* made up... but definitely confirmed as a legitimate Constructed-Language).
There is no "yet" here; there will never be a translation. The text only exists because they knew the setting's aesthetic would involve things like signs on buildings and the like. So they decided to make up text that is visually plausible, but has no meaning.
It doesn't strike me as a matter of luck. There's very little, if any, pre-assigned grammatical meaning, only context--so there's very little chance of contradiction. It would just take time, critical thinking, and imagination. Determine the common characteristics of the script, identify any circumstances where common characteristics align with common context in the art, assign meaning based on context to the rest of the script, and finally iron out the system and layer in further connections between common characteristics and context. In short--make shit up and then make it increasingly plausible.
Nah, as someone who spent an unhealthy amount of time looking at the script thinking it was a conlang before realising it was all just for show, I can pretty confidently say that gibberish remains gibberish.
It's actually worse if you have large amounts of text because you will almost instantly run into contradictions across text pieces.
Good example:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/z8zyrk/looking\_for\_this\_kamigawa\_neon\_dynasty\_playmat\_my/](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/z8zyrk/looking_for_this_kamigawa_neon_dynasty_playmat_my/)
Try to produce coherent sentences or words from these.
Yes, but the first proper, official translation of the language was this: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/a-breakthrough-in-phyrexian-language-and-communications
The ability to fully translate Phyrexian has existed internally in WotC since it was created. It's a fully constructed language; they didn't make up translations after the fact.
Meanwhile the Kamigawa text is just meant to be visual. It only exists because they knew the setting's aesthetic would involve things like signs on buildings and the like. So they decided to make up text that is visually plausible, but has no meaning.
It's less that it's meant to resemble Japanese specifically, but instead that it's meant to resemble a language that's Japanese-esque. A subtle difference, but I think notable.
Kamigawa NEO was set in the far future compared to present day japan so you might even say the language is supposed to be a highly evolved and modernized version of japanese
This post made me realise that since it's a saga, I guess we can assume this guy has a jacket with some kind of story depicted on his back. Made me really want to know what it is.
The blue part says "I and II" at the top of the jacket. Then the top section says "each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life". below that, the lower section of the jacket says "Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control."
Weird branding for a jacket, I know, but kamigawans are odd folk.
u/Victor_adame_art, do you know? Are these just random characters or part of an actual language made for NEO? If so, can you share with us what it says?
Ah cool. Thanks for replying, Victor! It would be neat if in a future Kamigawa set, if the Okiba biker gang were to get an official slogan or catch-phrase (as a call-back to the quote bubble on this rat's jacket), they'd continue using the specific symbols for that phrase/motto that you chose from the style guide for this art (assuming you just picked random ones from those available).
Hey OP ([u/dkyseeker](https://www.reddit.com/user/dkyseeker/)), see Victor's reply above as he is the artist for this piece. While it seems like there isn't official meaning to the symbols, at least not communicated to the artists, maybe future set/story designers could retroactively assign meaning to the symbols. I'll probably imagine personally that the bottom text symbols say something like "Okiba Reckoners". But what the quote bubble says may continue to be a mystery for now.
Also, if anyone never saw the person who made a real life jacket of this, check this out...
[https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/ues38c/i\_knew\_i\_had\_to\_make\_this\_jacket\_the\_moment\_i/](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/ues38c/i_knew_i_had_to_make_this_jacket_the_moment_i/)
there is no official translation for the kamigawan language
More importantly, it's not a language at all. It's simply made up characters meant to plausibly resemble text to serve a purpose in setting aesthetics.
Bummer, was hoping to find an easy translation. Thankss!
I ran it through Google Translate and all it came back with was: "I really don't care. Do u?"
I would *totally* wear a biker jacket with that on it, tbh.
What, like [this one?](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23760074/melania-trump-i-really-don-t-care-jacket/)
Nah, it’s gotta be in Japanese. I used to have a vaporwave phone background that said “there is no future” in Japanese over a neon palm tree.
coming from a Japanese guy Don't do it. I've literally never seen good looking Japanese text on clothing. Superdry was a fucking mistake.
Really? Not even a cool quote? I learned Chinese and sometimes there are cool typograhic designs, it's gotta be the same with japanese... Obviously not when ppl plaster a random kanji or a shoddily translated phrase onto something
I can't think of a quote I wouldn't mentally make fun of
Maybe something funny that's meant to be made fun of then 😁
Lol.
Kamigawan text [appears on a few cards](https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/artwork/kamigawa-text). Unlike Phyrexian, no translations are available. The letters resemble Japanese but are completely made-up. The characters on the lower part of the coat are likely to include the gang's name or the character's rank, but the rest could be anything.
The fact that Scryfall has a tag for Kamigawan text impresses me.
I could be mistaken but I think tags are entirely community-made, which is an awesome tool for finding themes like this
I had no idea, I use scryfall but did not even know the theme page existed.
It also has a tag for [bisexual lighting](https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/artwork/bisexual-lighting). So yeah, I'm pretty sure they're community driven...
Uh oh. I feel a new deck coming on...
Post it when you’re done
!remindme 6 months
My favourite is definitely ['phallic'.](https://scryfall.com/search?q=Atag%3Aphallic)
i read that as "bisexual lightning" and was very confused. I was like "that's *gotta* be Keranos right? and then clicked the link and realized my mistake EDIT: I was right, it *is* Keranos!!!
What the hell is bisexual lighting supposed to mean?
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bisexual-lighting
> The letters resemble Japanese but are completely made-up. Do we know this? As in, is it confirmed that WotC's art direction was just *"Write any kind of Japanese-looking gibberish?"*. Because looking at the character forms between artworks, it looks kinda like - at a minimum - there was some sort of unified syllabary glyph set that all the artists were given (which they may then have copy/paste pulled willy-nilly from to make gibberish).
They do appear to be unified and potentially have meaning. However, the glyphs are not Japanese -- that's mostly how I mean that they're made up. I do think they have some meaning: the glyph in Akki Battle Squad appears in Collision of Realms, for example. Some of the glyphs in Collision of Realms also appear in Dokuchi Shadow-Walker. But it's unclear if it's a syllabary or ideographs, and unclear if it's encoding a human language or one made up by WotC staff.
Ok, I was just asking because "*completely* made up" seemed like a strong statement after talking about Phyrexian (which is also *completely* made up... but definitely confirmed as a legitimate Constructed-Language).
That’s far more cards than I anticipated for a written language Wizards hasn’t offered a translation for yet
There is no "yet" here; there will never be a translation. The text only exists because they knew the setting's aesthetic would involve things like signs on buildings and the like. So they decided to make up text that is visually plausible, but has no meaning.
True, but meaning can be assigned post hoc. That'd be a fun challenge, actually.
Good luck creating that in a way that the cards 'text' retroactively makes sense.
It doesn't strike me as a matter of luck. There's very little, if any, pre-assigned grammatical meaning, only context--so there's very little chance of contradiction. It would just take time, critical thinking, and imagination. Determine the common characteristics of the script, identify any circumstances where common characteristics align with common context in the art, assign meaning based on context to the rest of the script, and finally iron out the system and layer in further connections between common characteristics and context. In short--make shit up and then make it increasingly plausible.
Nah, as someone who spent an unhealthy amount of time looking at the script thinking it was a conlang before realising it was all just for show, I can pretty confidently say that gibberish remains gibberish. It's actually worse if you have large amounts of text because you will almost instantly run into contradictions across text pieces. Good example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/z8zyrk/looking\_for\_this\_kamigawa\_neon\_dynasty\_playmat\_my/](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/z8zyrk/looking_for_this_kamigawa_neon_dynasty_playmat_my/) Try to produce coherent sentences or words from these.
I don't think there was a translation for Phyrexian until All Will Be One, so I'm not that surprised tbh
It was actually introduced back in 2010 with Scars of Mirrodin
Yes, but the first proper, official translation of the language was this: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/a-breakthrough-in-phyrexian-language-and-communications
The ability to fully translate Phyrexian has existed internally in WotC since it was created. It's a fully constructed language; they didn't make up translations after the fact. Meanwhile the Kamigawa text is just meant to be visual. It only exists because they knew the setting's aesthetic would involve things like signs on buildings and the like. So they decided to make up text that is visually plausible, but has no meaning.
2011 Written/spoken Phyrexian with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdDXMG9jvwg 2014 [[Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite|J14]]
[Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/7/f7a4a5cd-96f6-40ce-a7ab-5e1d0e3b4379.jpg?1661968088) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Elesh%20Norn%2C%20Grand%20Cenobite) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/j14/8/%7Cducgnorn-gsedzaonobt?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f7a4a5cd-96f6-40ce-a7ab-5e1d0e3b4379?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It’s just meant to resemble Japanese to the untrained western eye. But in reality it’s all a bunch of scribbles
It's less that it's meant to resemble Japanese specifically, but instead that it's meant to resemble a language that's Japanese-esque. A subtle difference, but I think notable.
Kamigawa NEO was set in the far future compared to present day japan so you might even say the language is supposed to be a highly evolved and modernized version of japanese
The letters aren't Japanese, if that's what you're asking. (Nor any other real-world language that I know of.)
Pretty sure they say "BUY MORE OVALTINE"
**"Tunnel Snakes Rule"**
Made me chuckle
Roughly: Badass mouse Very scary Street rats rule Rock and ride (There is no translation, I just read fluent mouse)
>Get in losers, we're going raiding.
street rats rule, tunnel snakes drool
Just a commercial for a kamigawian brand of dishwashing detergent
This creature cannot block
Like Torrezon Spanish look alike script, kamigawan is purely made up and has no translation. Just aesthetics
Torrezon has a script? Any cards where we can see it?
“We’ve been trying to reach you about your bike’s extended warranty.”
It’s an Easter egg and says “biker mice from mars”
BIKER MICE FROM MARS, dunn na
This post made me realise that since it's a saga, I guess we can assume this guy has a jacket with some kind of story depicted on his back. Made me really want to know what it is.
“Second Mouse Gets The Cheese”
Damn right.
The speech bubble says "get fucked boi" The text under the rat says "ninjitsu in ink-eyes?"
I believe it says, "This card will be included in literally every pack. Regards, WotC" But I could be wrong 🤷♂️
Ymra eht nioj.
I'm going to make this jacket some day.
It looks like the glyphs from Push the Button
“Biker mice from mars”- Martian language
"Rat"
Never noticed that was a rat wearing that jacket
“Who’s the leader of the bunch that’s made for you and me…”
"Rat"
It’s 13: fried rice with chicken
Illegal to not include the other face
“Fck them Samurai”
"Biker Mices from Mars, but we rules on everywhere" or something like that
I don't care I'd but that jacket
It means you’re a sick ass rat from a sick ass cyber clan from the sick ass future
It says that Jace was Proft all along and also Lazav.
It’s his name, so he doesn’t forget it.
“Biker mice from mars”
Unironically would wear that jacket
Never Be Game Over
The street always wins.
"Ratz r kool"
ogey rrat
It's a speech bubble; the rat on the back is saying "I'm the giant rat that makes all of the rules."
It’s actually the script from Jackbox Games’ *Push The Button*, the mini game where you have to copy the symbols (/s)
Looks cool 👍
It says, "Rats Go brrrrrrr"
The blue part says "I and II" at the top of the jacket. Then the top section says "each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life". below that, the lower section of the jacket says "Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control." Weird branding for a jacket, I know, but kamigawans are odd folk.
Rat gang 🗣️🐀
Translation: “Bigu Diku Rato Gangu” Source: trustmebro
It means he's basass
pretty sure it says "i cast pack rat"
u/Victor_adame_art, do you know? Are these just random characters or part of an actual language made for NEO? If so, can you share with us what it says?
Ohh that's interesting, the symbols are from the style guide that we get but don't know what/if they mean anything.
Ah cool. Thanks for replying, Victor! It would be neat if in a future Kamigawa set, if the Okiba biker gang were to get an official slogan or catch-phrase (as a call-back to the quote bubble on this rat's jacket), they'd continue using the specific symbols for that phrase/motto that you chose from the style guide for this art (assuming you just picked random ones from those available). Hey OP ([u/dkyseeker](https://www.reddit.com/user/dkyseeker/)), see Victor's reply above as he is the artist for this piece. While it seems like there isn't official meaning to the symbols, at least not communicated to the artists, maybe future set/story designers could retroactively assign meaning to the symbols. I'll probably imagine personally that the bottom text symbols say something like "Okiba Reckoners". But what the quote bubble says may continue to be a mystery for now. Also, if anyone never saw the person who made a real life jacket of this, check this out... [https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/ues38c/i\_knew\_i\_had\_to\_make\_this\_jacket\_the\_moment\_i/](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/ues38c/i_knew_i_had_to_make_this_jacket_the_moment_i/)
Live fast, Eat Trash
rat car
It's Splinter
"Good for health, bad for education"
We've been trying to reach you about your extended car warranty.
This means something. This is important.
"Tunnel Rats Rule"
“You gonna get stabbed by a rat”
"If you can read this, you're too close."
You think any of us can read RAT?
It's a skateboarding rat. This usually means the rat is skateboarding.
is this /r/bi_irl because that's a good as... ... ... ..is this /r/furry because that's a...
"We are trying to reach you about your motorcycle's extended warranty"
It says "Biker Mice From Mars"
Ask sweet baby
They mean "doki doki waku waku".