ATD p. 293

[Anville Azote]

TRP uses the same typographic convention to indicate a native Japanese
speaker's English as he did in VL to represent Japanese, translated
intertextually into English:

"'Over here,' the visitor was saying, 'the American West---it is a
spiritual territory! in which we seek to study the secrets of
your---national soul! [...] An edge of steel---mathematically without
width, deadlier than any katana, sheathed in the precision of the
American face---where mercy is unknown, against which Heaven has
sealed its borders!  Do not---feign ignorance of this!  It is not
a---valid use of my time!"

I can't help but think this is an intimation of a bad dub job.

-A. A.