

In [Kabaneri of the Iron
Fortress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabaneri_of_the_Iron_Fortress), one of
the "steam smiths" speaks in Japanese with bits and phrases in plain English.
His name is [Suzuki](http://koutetsujou-no-kabaneri.wikia.com/wiki/Suzuki),
and he is one of the steam smiths that fixes damage to the train:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1nET9.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1nET9.png)

As you can see [here in this
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyVR5jcxLWE), he mixes in regular
English words like "captain," and "tank," with the rest of his Japanese
dialogue. There are no other characters that do this. Why does he include
random English words in his sentences (it seems that the English words may
even be voiced by someone else, as they sound incredibly out of place with the
Japanese dialogue)?


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2016-09-25T09:38:29.747
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question
koutetsujou-no-kabaneri
Why does Suzuki speak in both English and Japanese?


In the _Kabaneri_ universe, the steam technology that powers all their
steampunk stuff was [initially developed outside
Japan](http://kabaneri.com/sp/keyword/03.html). The particular system that
drives the railforts is named the ["McRucky
engine"](http://kabaneri.com/sp/keyword/01.html), and is of British design.
The first major outbreak of kabane was [reportedly somewhere in eastern
Europe](http://kabaneri.com/sp/keyword/).

It seems plausible that most steamsmiths would be from Europe (perhaps Britain
in particular) given that that's where steam technology originated. Suzuki
could well be a steamsmith from Europe who ended up in Japan, perhaps fleeing
the kabane (Japan, being an island on the periphery of Afro-Eurasia, is about
as far as you can get from eastern Europe without hopping over to the
Americas). In this case, it would be unsurprising that his speech is 1.)
heavily accented; and 2.) has a heavy admixture of English.

(Don't be fooled by his Japanese-seeming name - in the real world around the
time of the Industrial Revolution, it was common for Westerners in Japan to
take Japanese names. See, for example, [Lafcadio
Hearn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn), who was known in Japan
as "Koizumi Yakumo".)

It is likely that [the manga and/or light
novels](http://kabaneri.com/mediamix/) will have more detail about this, but I
have not read any of them. Likewise, if they ever release one of those
production-notes compilations, that'd be a good thing to have a look at.

* * *

> it seems that the English words may even be voiced by someone else, as they
> sound incredibly out of place with the Japanese dialogue

Suzuki's voice actor, Maxwell Powers, is fluent in both languages. [His
YouTube
channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn7oWq3ADi2YjdYBUm4tfiQ/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd)
has some examples of his non-anime voice work. According to [his Japanese
Wikipedia
article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%91%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA),
he grew up in the US, so he's clearly a native speaker of English, and his
mother is Japanese and he went to college in Japan, so it's no surprise that
his Japanese is pretty good too. It's pretty clear to me that he voices all of
Suzuki's lines.

(Incidentally, he apparently is emceeing the live event ["Koutetsujou no
Utage"](http://kabaneri.com/event/utage/) which is happening as I type.)


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answer