The region is called “Nanairockku” (ナナイロック) in Japanese. Perhaps a play on “Nanairo”, meaning 7 colors. “Prismarock” is a good localization and I think the Japanese one sounds a bit cheesy.

Aria has 2 monikers often coming after each other : “zenchuousha” (全中王者) the 中 alludes to middle grade school (they are now in high school), and it literally means “the ruler of all middle school”, perhaps because she won many middle school events. This becomes “reigning champ of the National Middle School Tournament”, which is less edgy. And then “kokou no tensai” 孤高の天才 is the “Solitary Prodigy” in English.

“Senshu” (選手) meaning “competitor” is always added to the name when the announcer speaks about the competitor. English won’t say “Competitor Aria” repeatedly every time like in Japanese. But I think the “senshu” makes it feel more immersive and more formal as a competition event.

“Haru taikai” (春大会), which is the Spring Tournament, is first mentioned here. But the English one has capitalization that makes it more defined, which I thought was interesting.

Not something major but a bit of trivia, here “beginner” (shoshinsha / 初心者) is used in the Japanese, but in the THUNDERBOLT lyrics it really refers to Kakeru as “rookie” (ルーキー), like the English translation here.

“Groove Hai” (グルーヴ杯) literally means “groove cup”, is appropriately Groove Cup in English. However, “Groove Hai” is also a wordplay on the playable opening ceremony song “GROOVE HIGH”, and English players will miss the connection.

Linka knows Kakeru’s “Inazuma” (稲妻) play style by now and refers to it. In THUNDERBOLT the lyrics sing “like inazuma” going into the post-chorus. So in Japanese this is an early tease of the song.

Aria uses “Kakeru” (カケル) to refer to Kakeru and not any other variants of “you”. In the first instance, the English translation managed to get “Kakeru” in there. But the 2nd one would sound strange if it tried to match the Japanese exactly, so it has to become “you”. However, in Japanese Aria consistently uses “Kakeru” everywhere and this has story meaning, as the player will soon learn that this is a point in the future, and when they return to the present, Aria uses a generic “you” with Kakeru. So a lot of nuance is lost in translation.

This reveals Kakeru also refers to Aria as “Aria” (アリア), but he always does this by default, unlike Aria.

English often arbitrarily omits the long six dots (……) that are used mid-sentence. Aria especially likes to use them, and I think that adds to her quiet character, but I also understand that it’s weird in English unless it starts the sentence.

Kakeru’s fiery way of speaking, like “majide” (マジで / for real), is lost here and the English one sounds more generic.

The “Gurukosu” (グルコス) shorthand is used for the first time here, but English is forever stuck with the long official name. This shorthand is not often used unless the character is happy-go-lucky like Kakeru.

“Bakkari” (ばっかり / only) implies he never met a single bad person through Groove Coaster. Not that different from English though.

“Nijimiya” (虹宮) is already mentioned here, so Japanese players know the school name earlier than English players.

But English and Japanese players both learn about Kyoka here.

I know the “LET’S GROOVE COASTER!” that the Japanese one uses here is grammatically wrong (unlike the in-game intro’s corrected “Let’s Groove!”), but I do think English should have used just that. It’s quirky, iconic, and more satisfying. Plus it is chanted for real in the “Story of Groove” song and soundtrack you can hear throughout the story.

You are not supposed to know at this point, but “Let’s” being before a comma is also important.