OK, so we were wrong. We were all wrong. All we had to do was ask a Japanese Mother 2 fan, but we're not all aficionados of the Japanese language. Who in the world could have guessed what was really said when you would enter a character's name in EarthBound? Okiska? Bokista? Obiska?
Well, we've figured things out. And we've realized that, of all our favorite guesses, none of them are right. The real pronunciation of Shigesato Itoi's saying is 'Ok desu ka'
" What? You're a psycho, reidman, " you might say. Well, thats understandable, but 'ok desu ka' really is said. Here's Tomato with more information. Tomato is a college student who plans on majoring in the Japanese language. He has already written to one of our links to the Japanese world, Hajime.
What was thought to be "bokista" is actually "ok desu ka".
"Ok" means "ok", "desu" means "is", and "ka" makes the sentence a question.
Literally, it means "Is it Ok?", but more colloquially it means "Ok, got it". I know this because I have said it myself several times, and
have also heard it used before (by Japanese). When spoken quickly, the "de" is almost not pronounced at all, but it's still there. The "Ok" and
"su ka" (which is pronounced by Japanese as "ska") are easily heard. At the end of this page is what I believe is even better support for my
theory. It's a snapshot of the credits, which lists the voice actors. For their middle names, the sound effects which they helped make is listed.
For Shigesato Itoi, he's listed as saying "Ok?".This seems to support my theory very well. So please announce this, as everybody will be
making fools of themselves if a Japanese person visits their EB sites or talks with them.
-Tomato-
Guess that takes care of that EarthBound mystery... :)