gikun-overlord-ch01.png

Translation

• Context: the first chapter of Overlord uses furigana creatively a lot. Overlord is a story about a character who playing a virtual reality MMORPG.
• yugudorashiru
  ＹＧＧＤＲＡＳＩＬユグドラシル
  (name of a place.)
  • Here, the furigana is a katakanization of the Latin script. While furigana used like this is unusual, it's a reading aid, not a creative use.
• (komando) meirei
  命令コマンド
  (Command) order.
  • This and examples below are game terms that are in katakanizations of English words being spelled with kanji that mean basically—and sometimes literally—the same thing in Japanese.
  • They're all gikun, since it's the spelling that is used in THIS GAME specifically, and not outside this context.
  • In this case, a "command" is an "order" given to an NPC.
• (tanjou) wando
  短杖ワンド
  ("Short stick," wand) wand.
• (waarudo) sekai-kyuu aitemu
  世界級ワールドアイテム
  (World) world-level item.
  • This term is read "world item," with sekai-kyuu, "world level," being a high item level.
• (riaru) genjitsu sekai
  現実世界リアル
  (Real) real world.
  • riaru, a katakanization of "real," is a Japanese slang referring to real life, as opposed virtual life, on a virtual world, like in an online game, or online forum, etc.
• (emooshon) kanjou
  感情エモーション
  (Emotion) emotion.
• (raundo-teeburu) entaku
  円卓ラウンドテーブル
  (Round table) round table.
  • As in "knights of the round table," entaku no kishi-dan 円卓の騎士団.
• (kurasu) shokugyou
  職業クラス
  (Class) job.
  • In RPGs, the term "class" or "job" refers to a role a character has that defines their abilities, such as the "mage" class having magic abilities, or the "knight" class using a sword, etc.
• (bijuaru) gaisou
  外装ビジュアル
  (Visual) exterior.
  • In the sense of how a character looks, with certain appearance settings, cosmetic items equipped, etc.
• (majikku-kyasutaa) mahou eishou-sha
  魔法詠唱者マジック・キャスター
  (Magic caster) magic chanter.
  • A mage class in this game.
• (konthinyuaru-raito)
  ＜永続光コンティニュアル・ライト＞
  (Continual light) persisting light.
  • The name of a magic spell in this game.
  • This word is excerpted as-is: in the page it was found, the line wraps after 永 with コン as furigana.
• (erudaa-ricchi) shisha no dai-mahou-tsukai
  死者の大魔法使いエルダーリッチ
  (Elder lich) great magic user of the dead.
  • The name of a class. A lich is an undead sorcerer.
  • This example, and the ones below, have a furigana that annotates a whole noun phrase. In particular, shisha no dai-mahou-tsukai contains the no の particle, which is in hiragana, not kanji.
• (oobaaroodo) shi no shihaisha
  死の支配者オーバーロード
  (Overlord) ruler of death.
  • shihai suru
    支配する
    To rule over. To control (a land).
• meido-fuku wa (jasuthisu) ore no subete!
  メイド服は俺の全てジャスティス！
  Maid clothes are (justice) my everything!
  • A character proclaims his love for maids, and maid uniforms.
  • Likely from the sense of "cute is justice," and "you are my everything," except maid is justice, and maids are my everything.
• (enu-pii-shii) non pureyaa kyarakutaa
  Ｎｏｎ　Ｐｌａｙｅｒ　ＣｈａｒａｃｔｅｒＮＰＣ
  In a game, a character a player controls is a player character, while a NPC is any character that no player controls, like shop-keepers, quest-givers, monsters, and so on.
  • This isn't a reading aid. A reading aid would be non pureyaa kyarakutaa ノンプレイヤーキャラクター, the katakanization of "Non Player Character." This isn't even a transliteration, as NPC is in the same Latin script as Non Player Character.
  • The reason why NPC is used here is because while readers may be familiar with NPC abbreviation found in games, they may not be familiar with the extension "Non Player Character" that comes from English, so NPC works as a Japanese translation for Non Player Character.
• (keeryukeion) Herumesu-shin no tsue
  ヘルメス神の杖ケーリュケイオン
  (Caduceus) staff of Hermes.
  • In Greek mythology, the caduceus is a staff carried by Hermes, so the base text contains the true meaning of the katakanized gikun.
  • Note that both Hermes and caduceus are in katakana, so this furigana usage can't even be mistaken for a transliteration.
• (makuro wo kumu) jidou-ka shori suru
  自動化処理するマクロを組む
  (To program a macro) to take care of [it] automatically.
  • In programming, a macro is a single command that instructs a computer to execute a sequence of commands.
  • In this example, the base text explains what the gikun means: programming a macro means making a computer (an NPC in this case) execute a sequence of commands without you having to tell it each and every command every time. In particular, this could be a macro executed in response to something else.
• (poppu su~) jidou-teki ni waki-de~ru
  自動的にわき出ＰＯＰする
  (To pop) to spawn automatically.
  • In gaming, the Japanese slang poppu suru ＰＯＰする means for an enemy (or other character) to appear (spawn) in an area. The base text is explaining what this slang means.