Talk:Robot Daughter/@comment-24277243-20150314163251/@comment-26357212-20150430082521

The answer isn't straightforward because the question isn't actually known. I forget the exact kanji, but I was becoming increasingly confused with the term "foster child" in the robo-translations of the various blogs and other things I found on the subject. It seems to be something like "village child" or something, which sounded only vaguely like it could have meant the same thing as foster child.

And the exact relationship between Dr. Shida and this character are highly confused via translation. One thing this site has failed to mention is the presence of a second (technically the first) human sized robot, being Dr. Shida's "robot wife," who accompanied the expedition to the hollow Earth where the giant fleas, mermaids, second Anguirus, and third Godzilla are encountered (along with some Mammoths, etc.). Japanese improper nouns don't seem to work the same way, I guess, and often when reading about this story the translation becomes confused as to whether or not the "foster child" is one or more of the following:

1. The model for the human sized robot wife

2. The model for the giant sized robot daughter (this one is at least certain, it seems)

3. The object of Dr. Shida's unrequited love and/or creepy sexual advances

4. An adult and engaged at the time the story takes place

5. Was actually Dr. Shida's foster child at all, and this isn't a poorly translated reference to something else altogether

At times I have been under the impression that there are two women on Dr. Shida's mind: an adopted daughter that he lost somehow and has taken to building robots of out of a sense of - creepy or otherwise - love, and an adult woman who is engaged who LOOKS like this aforementioned daughter, but is engaged, whom Dr. Shida becomes obsessed with. I don't believe this is the correct interpretation of the text I've read, but it just goes to illustrate exactly how poor the auto-translation is and how even with several public book reviews detailing the story, unfortunate unilingual English speakers like myself can still be left in the dark with some of the intricacies of the plot.

But one thing that IS very certain, is that Dr. Shida has a very unhealthy desire/obsession with SOMEONE involved in the inspiration of the robots. This appears to be glossed over here, but I can assure you that from what I've read a major source of the reaction to this story is based on the extremely adult nature of the story.

Short version of the most conservative interpretation of the auto-translated text: Dr. Shida's daughter is a foster child, not his biological offspring, and when she grew up he became infatuated with her in an inappropriate way, and builds both a human and giant sized robot with her facial features because he can't have the real thing.

p.s. Wait a minute the article CLEARLY states this is his foster child, how did you come to believe she was his biological daughter?