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Related to this. At this point, the speaker has won the preliminaries. The elderly chairman of the event, a friend since the previous tournament, comments that the speaker has won a second time (やはりこの地域で一番のブレーダーはspeaker君でしたか). Speaker responds with:

  • あったりまえだぜっ!
  • だいたいそんなことは
  • バトルする前から
  • わかっているのに会長も
  • 人がわるいなぁ〜

I get as far as "Naturally!" I'm also thinking バトルする前からわかっているのに is a full clause and means "even though {you} have known {this} well before I did battle", but I don't know how to put だいたいそんなことは and 会長も人がわるいなぁ together. Specifically, そんなこと is marked as the subject, so how does that relate to the adjective/verb 人がわるい? Is it something like "That sort of thing essentially makes the chairman a [bad person]?"

Furthermore, I can find little on the translation potential of 人がわるい. I've two questions about this term. For one, I assume that the speaker takes issue with the chairman not being 100% certain he'd win, so would "having poor judgement (of skill)" be a reasonable translation? For two, 人がわるい strikes me as a harsh thing to say, so I'm curious about the politeness level here. How rude is the speaker being?

If it matters, the chairman responds that he knows how hard everyone else has trained since last year and that it was justified not to presume the speaker would dominate the preliminaries once more (それはちがいますよspeaker君.あなた達が海外へえんせいしている間, みなさんは今回の大会のためにとしもつらいとっくんをかされていたのです.だからけっしてspeaker君が勝つとはかぎらないと私はそのようにおもいました). The speaker acknowledges he's been a jerk after that.

Thanks in advance.

Andrea
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2 Answers2

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I think your source of confusion is the interpretation of のに, which in this case is sentence-end のに described in the following questions:

You should read this as two sentences, like this:

だいたいそんなことはバトルする前からわかっているのに。会長も人がわるいなぁ〜。
To begin with, you should've known this (result) even before I battled, but (you actually made me go through the preliminaries)! You're so wicked!

だいたい is "in the first place", "to begin with", "before discussing this". そんなこと ("such a thing") refers to the the result of the preliminaries. 人が悪い is a set phrase meaning "mean" or "wicked". It does not sound that harsh in a friendly conversation. So the boy is complaining because he believes the chairman sent him to the preliminaries even though the result was evident to everyone (including the chairman).

naruto
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  • That explains a lot about my inability to link だいたいそんなことは and 会長も人がわるいなぁ. However, this leaves me with another question I could use an answer too. When you say のに is a sentence ender, what do you mean? As the text is displayed, 会長も follows のに. If it were a different sentence, 会長も would start on the next line. Considering that, am I dealing with a typing error here? Or do you mean のに does not end the sentence in Japanese, but does in English for translation convenience? If so, wouldn't "the preliminaries); You're so wicked!" better express the sentence, as the ";" leaves things connected? – Andrea May 13 '19 at 16:42
  • @Andrea For the meaning of this のに, did you see the links? This type of のに normally comes at the end of a sentence, but in this case it's used in the middle of a sentence. That's why the plain "even though" did not work. Although it's still technically a single sentence, it's easier to interpret this it if you read it as if it were two sentences (provided if you're already familiar with sentence-end のに). How to translate it into English is another problem. – naruto May 13 '19 at 16:59
  • I did, and I think I've got a grasp on the meaning. But I didn't see much on のに midsentence in the links other than in a set combination with せっかく and わざわざ, which doesn't apply here, and I'm not seeing a translation cut up the sentence like you suggest to do. That's what not just confused me, but also worried me, because I'm not ready yet to spot typing errors. But with this last bit of information you've given me, I should be able to proceed with my translation. Thank you ever so much. – Andrea May 13 '19 at 18:09
  • @Andrea Keep in mind that you are dealing with an exceptional instance of のに, where what appears to be a mid-sentence のに is working like a sentence-end のに. Typical mid-sentence のに is interchangeable with けど, but that's not the case here. – naruto May 13 '19 at 18:25
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Firstly, although 人が悪い means "mean" (in terms of personality), it is very often used in a friendly/light-hearted fashion, in which case the meaning would be closer to "mischievous". I'm not sure I've ever heard it used in a serious way, although it can have a negative connotation, e.g. when somewhat annoyed or slightly "shocked" by the purposefully ill-intentioned behavior of another person.

In any case, I feel there is insufficient context to pinpoint what the actual meaning is here. Two possibilities that come in mind:

  1. The speaker is referring to the fact that the chairman is making fun of him by "congratulating him" on a victory that was so obvious from the start that 'congratulations' would only come off as sarcasm. I.e., to his ears, it sounds like "Yeah, good job mercilessly beating the crap out of those poor lads. I hope you're proud of your great achievement" pats back
  2. The speaker is referring to how the chairman had intentionally arranged for the other party to lose by pairing them with the speaker.

In case 1, you could translate it as "(now) you're just making fun of me" etc, and in case 2 as "You really enjoy watching people suffer, huh" or something similar. A more liberal translation could also work.

If the chairman had the power to let him skip the preliminaries altogether, you could also interpret it as leaning towards 2., i.e. "You just wanted to see me obliterate those noobs, huh." Alternatively it could be as suggested in naruto's answer, and he's complaining (in a friendly way) about how the chairman made him waste time battling opponents far below his level. In this case, I'd probably just translate it liberally as "you could've just let me skip the preliminaries" or something.

VVayfarer
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  • Ah, okay. That certainly clears things up regarding 人が悪い. Thanks! I've added the chairman's lines before and after the speaker's words in case that might help contextualize. – Andrea May 12 '19 at 17:13
  • More important is the context surrounding the "battle". I.e. whether or not the chairman is the one who decides who battles whom and whether the speaker knew about it (in this case, 2. would be possible). I assume 1. is more likely given the current information. – VVayfarer May 12 '19 at 18:16
  • This is a video game with minimal story to justify the "defeat every NPC" gameplay, but based on the anime and the fact the chairman doesn't show up until after the preliminaries (which for the game is just five kids duking it out in the local park), he did not decide who battles who. However, he would have had a voice in deciding the rules of the tournament to be changed so that the speaker has to go through the preliminaries despite being the titleholder from last year. 1 seems more likely to me too, but that would leave 2 still a possibility, right? – Andrea May 12 '19 at 18:51
  • Yeah, it's still a possibility. Still, if the game is meant to be a standalone, I'd go with 1. Otherwise you might want to revisit the source (anime?) and check if there's some indication in favor of 2. Also, you could add the whole conversation here as well, including the part where the chairman congratulates the speaker, in case there's something that could serve as a clue. – VVayfarer May 12 '19 at 19:41
  • Between your answer and Naruto's, I think I now understand 人が悪い and what emotion the sentence holds. Thank you very much for your help! – Andrea May 13 '19 at 16:44