Utawarerumono Q & A
 

This thread is for those with questions about the Utawarerumono anime, game and manga. Please keep discussion about episodes in the relevant threads, the purpose of this thread is to ask questions that can actually be answered as facts from the anime, game or manga.

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Been trying to ask this for a while now, so here goes:

Did the fox girls (Aruruu & Eruruu) names got changed in the anime?

I ask because I have seen a couple of places where their names are written as

Eluruu & Aluruu

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6990/g171ne.th.jpg

I remember hearing something about how the japanese sometimes change the "L" sound for a "R" one, and was wondering if that was the case here.

There is no "L" sound in japanese, so they usually use "ru" instead of it, for example "coral" is written as "kooraru". So in cases of foreign names it is sometimes difficult to say is there a "l" or "r". If they that is official then maybe they should be written that way.

In Yesy's version they are Aruruu and Eruruu, I don't know about other groups. I listened how they pronounce those names and I couldn't hear any difference between the two r's.

"エルルゥ" and "アルルゥ" probably are not non-Japanese names. They might be nonsense names in Japanese. Unless there are official sources that specifically use "l" instead of "r," I'd go with the "r." But if that picture is an official source, I'd use the spellings on it.

How many ep will the series have...

26 -- or so says the series page and ANN. I'm sure xris will update the How Many Episodes: Answered here! thread eventually ;)

Here is a post I made from an anime-planet thread regarding the romanization:
(speaking as a representative of SS)
I guess we should've put in an explanation on the website or something. Basically, Utawarerumono has heavy Ainu influences. The people in Tusukur's village all dress in Ainu-ish garb. Their village is situated on the northeastern part of the continent, whereas the Ainu are currently situated on the northeastern part of Japan. The names used have an Ainu flair to them, including ????, ???? and ?????. The Japanese word for the sung vocal traditions of the legends of the Ainu people are called ???????, though that is not the only interpretation of the title. Thus, considering all these Ainu influences, it seems appropriate to use their romanization system to bring forth the exotic quality that comes with it. Hence, Aruruw and Eruruw are romanized according to the official Ainu romanization system. The Ainugo Jiten (Ainu dictionary) published by Sanseido was used to determine the proper way to romanize Ainu (and in this case, the Ainu-ish language used by the people in Utawarerumono). To be a bit more specific, Aruruw is essentially 3 syllables in Ainugo: A ru ruw. The 'ruw' is the r consonant sound, followed by the u vowel sound and then ending with a consonant sound of w. Oh, and fun trivia fact, Tusukur means "sorcerer"/"magician" in Ainugo.

Me thinks it's not. Can't really say for sure.

Edit: Oh and before I forget (again), thanks for the answers.

One of the extra cool things about this show is the representation of Ainu culture borrowings ... it gets little attention when people think of Japan.

So far from what you seen, is this series any good? Would you recommend it?

Oh yes. Although this is coming from someone who can appreciate medieval stuff like Scrapped Princess. But yes, I'd recommend it without a doubt for the tailgra......I mean, stuff that unravels the identity behind Hakuoro, the masked man.

short answer: yes... and yes.

Problem is that "good" is a meaningless word since we don't know what you like to watch. You might browse through the original thread for the series:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=27496
to get an idea.

Its a "medieval Japan-like" fantasy setting with lots of Ainu culture riffs. The people are genetically unusual ("fox-girls" is the easy way to describe it) for reasons not revealed yet. It is a mystery along with a looming epic war that involves a mysterious hero who has lost his memory. Though its rather pretty and cute, some of the sequences are pretty grim. Its nice to see a medieval fantasy setting with hardly any "magic" and no damned "D&D" races (elves, etc). I also like the Shinto-like religious riffs.
Some romance, some terror, reasonable amount of action after the introduction.

It would be nice if the animation were higher quality but they're doing a reasonable job for a tv budget series. I like the primitive style musical scoring.

edit: bento-cube speaks truth .. its all about the tailgra... I mean the mystery and political intrigue.

Yes it is... but you shouldn't ask this here...

Simple Reason :

Everyone who posts in a specific forum thinks the series is good... otherwise they wouldn't post... or they would be trolls and tell you it's stupid and stuff like that, no matter how good it is...

Description of the show :

Short : BleachXNaruto would be the shortest way to describe it...

Medium :

The show is fantasy + action + slight touch of gore...
The main cast consists of cute characters and bleach type male characters from what I can tell...
The story seems to follow the same way Naruto does... basically multiple story show (little ones in the big one)... expect the little story telling ep here and there but the show should pick up eventually... I think ep4 should be it...
If you're searching for humor then don't expect much here... I suspect that the reason why most people label it as medieval is the lack of jokes... usually it's just the serious humor type not really the viewer oriented type(the filler type)
Fanservice is also absent...

P.S.
@NightWish - Thanks for the info :D...

:hmm: ... http://forums.animesuki.com/images/icons/icon5.gif was Naruto labeled a 26 ep show in the beginning... I really think this one looks like one of those big series... because of the cast...

Regarding the 'like one of those big series' comment, I highly doubt it, since the anime is loosely based off the game, and the game wraps its plot completely already. Besides, I know I (and probably Vexx) would appreciate more tailgrab. Mmmm tailgrab.

@blackcat: no, I label it "medieval" because that is the technology setting.... actually closer to Dark Ages countryside European style (800AD) or maybe Japanese Edo period or earlier. It has nothing to do with the humor factor ... "medieval" was full of humor (if a bit simpler).
To some extent, it exactly matches some D&D Japanese setting motifs minus most of the "magic" (so far).

Interesting that you label it a Naruto+Bleach (since Bleach was, mmmm, "ok" imo and I can't stand Naruto (again imo)

What attracted me to this show was a combination of the culture and setting plus the interest of watching how the relationship between Eruruu and Hakuoro evolve. I hope the latter isn't completely washed out by the "big story" - if this degrades into "verbal posturing -> fight -> recover -> fight" my interest will fall like a paralyzed falcon.

/mod edit: Added spoiler tags just in case.

When does Utawarerumono air on Japanese T.V.?

I seem to remember that it was on Mondays (I assume it's sometime late on Monday night / Tuesday morning). Could someone confirm or correct this?

This is probably a good reason why I need to get that Spoiler Q & A thread going. ;)

According to these two sources -- (Mahou Showtimes | Anime Spring Season '06) -- it looks like Monday @2:40 AM (or Tuesday 2:40 AM or is it Monday 26:40 ... hrmmm, well however one says that :heh: ). Using the conversion on Date and Time.com, it looks like it's around Monday, 1:40 PM - EST for me.

:)

i got a bad feeling this anime going to end bad, since the history of Ainu, they always lost against Japan.

but i am crossing my fingers :D, someone should get Zhuge Liang and Han Xin in there to secure their victory.