A post by the official Fate/Grand Order US X account regarding the game’s upcoming “Murder at the Kumano Hot Springs” event has caused complete confusion in the Japanese side of the player base. While the English text and attached GIF clearly indicate that the announcement is for a Witch on the Holy Night collaboration, the automatic Grok AI translation (which is now displayed by default for many users) mistakenly labels it as “Puella Magi Madoka Magica collaboration.”
“Witch on the Holy Knight: Murder at the Kumano Hot Springs – The Robin Saw It! Magicians Only Live Twice” is the English version equivalent of the collaboration event that originally ran from April 26 to May 17, 2024 in the Japanese version. A marriage of two of TYPE-MOON’s iconic IPs, it features three collab servants (Aoko Aozaki, Alice Kuonji, and Sojuro Shizuki), a main quest consisting of six acts, a unique school uniform for the protagonist, and several in-game rewards.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, on the other hand, is a dark magical girl anime series created by Akiyuki Shinbo, Atsuhiro Iwakami, Gen Urobuchi, and Ume Aoki (collectively known as “Magica Quartet”) and animated by Shaft.
Given that the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order is years ahead of the English version and has never seen a Madoka Magica collab so far, some Japanese fans originally mistook the Grok AI translation as the developers creating exclusive content for English speakers. Closer inspection of the post (i.e., clicking the attached Fate/Grand Order news bulletin) reveals details on the aforementioned Witch on the Holy Knight collab. While the error has caused much amusement in the fandom, it has also brought attention to how unreliable AI translation can be, especially when it comes to proper nouns.
Though Grok and other AI translators can be convenient, they can make mistakes. Given X’s default translation feature, it’s even more likely for readers to misunderstand posts that are not in their native language. However, they could give rise to some interesting ideas, as a Fate Grand/Order collaboration event featuring the magical girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica doesn’t sound like a bad one.
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