Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreyakis
Two reasons: One, Shiba Tatsuya isn't "officially" with the military. He's a member of the armed forces under a pseudonym. Referring to military officers with "Yes, sir" or "Roger" would imply that he's actually part of the outfit, which is a point that everyone involved has taken great pains to conceal. On the same topic, Ono-sensei's comment regarding teenagers using the term "this one" to self reference often correlated with those teenagers eventually joining the military. This way, if someone happened to eavesdrop or overhear Tatsuya referring to himself this way, they may come to the (reasonable) assumption that he's just doing so to butter up the military types. Now let's assume someone overhears him saying "Yes, sir" to Major Kazama. What does that imply? "Sir" implies he's a subordinate, which would break his cover.
Second, "Yes, sir" or "Roger" are responses to other people talking to you. The words in question are how Tatsuya refers to himself, so it doesn't flow in the conversation anyways.
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Keeping it as "this one" is probably the most reasonable thing you can do; there is not many terms in military language to refer to your self (I know in the U.S. it's "Second Lt. Tatsuya reports" but that would be a dead give away that he's military and it would sound dumb in the context). It's just one of those things that doesn't translate too well outside of its original culture. Kinda like Onii-chan. In the states no one refers to older brothers as older brothers we generaly just use names, but when anime little sisters do it everything i right in the world... because it's wonderful.