Xenogears - On the meaning of the pointy brackets **WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!**

After finding online some raw Japanese scans of Xenogears Perfect Works, I did a more careful study on what the pointy brackets ("＜" and "＞") were supposed to mean. It turns out I was right and wrong at the same time! There are times in which they are indeed furigana (i.e. the intended reading of a kanji/kanji compound written in either hiragana or katakana). One example is 塵＜ごみ＞ (see below). 塵 means trash, garbage, and its reading is, in fact, ごみ (gomi).

And it turns out that the Xenosaga Wiki was right about the case below being furigana.

謎の少女

「任務中に接触した

　地上人＜ラムズ＞は誰であれ

　消去せよと命令されているのよ。

Nazo no shoujo

「Ninmu-chuu ni sesshokushita

 chijoujin <Ramuzu> wa dare de are

 shoukyo seyo to meirei sareteiru no yo.

謎の少女

「ラ……地上人＜ラムズ＞に名乗る

　名前は持ち合わせていないわ。

Nazo no shoujo

「Ra......Chijoujin <Ramuzu> ni nanoru

 namae wa mochiawaseteinai wa.

If you've paid attention, she stuttered at the beginning of this sentence. She said ラ (ra), not ち (chi). So the 地上人 (ちじょうじん, chijoujin) part is unspoken. And the proof is right below:

フェイ

「何だ、そのラムズって？

　俺達はどちらも樹海で迷ってるんだ。

　ここにはやばいモンスターも多い。

Fei

「Nanda, sono Ramuzu-tte?

 Oretachi wa dochira mo jukai de mayotterunda.

 Koko ni wa yabai monsutaa mo ooi.

The first line is "What's this 'Lambs' thing?". Fei didn't say 地上人 (chijoujin) at all, so it means he didn't know what she was talking about. And if you're still not convinced that the name in that bracket is furigana, below's a screencap of Perfect Works:

Kana in parentheses are sometimes furigana. A random example from Wikipedia (in Japanese, of course):
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC

By the way, 地上人 was originally translated as "surface dweller(s)" or "land dweller(s)". 地上 (ちじょう, chijou) literally means "surface", but I think the term 地上人 is better translated as "earthling(s)".

But are the words in those pointy brackets always furigana? The short answer is: it depends. As you play through the game in Japanese, they get crazier and crazier. There are times that the kanji and its reading are partly disconnected (e.g. 福音の劫＜とき＞). 劫 is kalpa ("eon"), and this word is associated with Buddhism; its readings are こう (kou), ごう (gou) or きょう (kyou), but never とき (toki). とき (toki), however, is the reading of 時 ("time").

（やはり迫っているのか？

　……福音の劫＜とき＞…が……）

(Yahari sematteiru no ka?

 ......Fukuin no kou <toki>...ga......

 天帝

「そう、福音だ。

Tentei

「Sou, fukuin da.

　神の眠りと共に楽園から追放され、

　異郷の民として、過酷な地上で

　生きることを余儀なくされた

　我等ヒト。

 Kami no nemuri to tomo ni rakuen kara tsuihou sare,

 ikyou no tami toshite, kakoku-na chijou de

 ikiru koto o yoginaku sareta

 warera hito.

　地に満ちた我等が再び神の御下、

　楽園へと回帰し、

　永遠の生を得る。

　それが福音の劫＜とき＞だ。

 Chi ni michita warera ga futatabi Kami no oshita,

 rakuen e to kaikishi,

 eien no sei o eru.

 Sore ga fukuin no kou <toki> da.

　その劫＜とき＞が迫っておる。

 Sono kou <toki> ga sematteoru.

天帝

「我等ガゼルはそれまでに

　神の眠る地を見つけだし、

Tentei

「Warera Gazeru wa sore made ni

Kami no nemuru chi o mitsukedashi,

　神を復活させねばならぬ。

 Kami o fukkatsu saseneba naranu.

　それが叶わぬ時は……

 Sore ga kanawanu toki wa......

シタン

「叶わぬ時は？

Shitan

「Kanawanu toki wa?

天帝

「我等は

　原初からの運命＜さだめ＞により

　……

Tentei

「Warera wa

 gensho kara no unmei <sadame> ni yori

 ......

This one's a little weird, too. Both 運命 and さだめ mean destiny, but the reading of 運命 is normally うんめい (unmei), and the kanji of さだめ (sadame) is 定め. Why didn't they simply use 運命＜うんめい＞, or simply 定め＜さだめ＞?

There are also a few instances in which a kanji compound and its alleged reading are totally disconnected in both meaning and reading (e.g. 障壁＜ゲート＞). 障壁 is read しょうへき (shouheki) and means wall, barrier; the word in the bracket is "gate" (If you're wondering, the word "gate" is 門 (もん, mon). Totally different).

And sometimes, the same brackets may appear after a word in katakana (e.g. グラーフ＜ラカン＞). In this case, it's definitely not furigana, there's no kanji or kanji compound there.

　父さん……

　いや、グラーフ＜ラカン＞！

　あなたが退かないつもりなら……

 Tou-san......

 Iya, Guraafu <Rakan>!

 Anata ga shirizokanai tsumori nara......

I've translated this as "Graf/Lacan", since it was already revealed at this point that Graf and Lacan were, in fact, one person (And yes, I took these screencaps from YouTube videos. I didn't feel like playing through the entire game just to take these screenshots :P).

And here is when things get really messed up:

波動という、それ以外何もない、

一つの存在であったあの刻に……。

これは私＜ヒト＞のエゴではない。

波動＜神＞の意志なのだ……。

Hadou to iu, sore igai nanimo nai,

hitotsu no sonzai de atta ano toki ni.......

Kore wa watashi <hito> no ego de wa nai.

Hadou <Kami> no ishi nano da.......

私 is the pronoun "I" and it's normally read わたし (watashi). But here, it's saying it should be read as ひと (hito), which is another word and means "person" or "human", depending on the context. And what's worse, the devs used a kanji as a reading to a kanji compound with a completely different meaning! The compound 波動 (はどう, hadou) means "wave", and the word that follows it is 神 (かみ, kami), which means "God".

エリィは、そう選択した

俺達に未来＜あした＞をたくして、

今こうやって、俺達の星から

デウスを遠ざけようとして

くれている。

Erii wa, sou sentakushita

oretachi ni mirai <ashita> o takushite,

Ima kouyatte, oretachi no hoshi kara

Deusu o toozake you toshite

kureteiru.

The compound 未来 means "future" and is normally read みらい (mirai), but the "furigana" after it tells you to read it as あした (ashita), which means "tomorrow". Why didn't they simply use 明日 (あした, ashita) instead? They're both common in the Japanese language, I don't get it.

ならばそれを私に見せてくれ。

神の下から巣立とうと言う

お前達ヒトの力＜愛＞を……。

Naraba sore o watashi ni misetekure.

Kami no shita kara sudatou to iu

omaetachi hito no chikara <ai> o.......

I'll be honest here, I don't know what the hell the word in this bracket is supposed to be. Definitely not a reading. No wonder Squaresoft had trouble translating this game. And sorry for censoring out the nudity in the last two screencaps. I wanted this post to be 100% safe for work.

I'll post my next update some time later. Whew, time to call it a day.