"I can't possibly believe that this light novel series' title is so long!"

[Triple_R]

On the one hand, I can see certain marketing cleverness in turning a (short) synopsis into a (very long) title. It's a way of ensuring that people who even just glance at the cover of your LN are likely to know its synopsis. Basically, its a way of getting the core "starting point" idea of your LN out there without someone having to actually pick it up and find it elsewhere (presumably on the back cover, or on the first page).


On the other hand, let's face it - These names are very long and cumbersome, and that does have some potential downsides. And while we foreign anime fans tend to have an easy time shortening these names to something actually usable for quick references, I have to wonder if it's so easy for the Japanese.

I mean, one of these titles in Japanese in romaji are basically just a series of random syllables to us, so shortening it down to a few key syllables is child's play. But in Japanese, "Ore no Imouto" might be nonsensical or overly generic like "She my sister" or something like that. In other words, "Ore no Imouto" might read and sound fine to us, but I wonder if it works that well in Japan itself.


While I applaud Xion Valkyrie's creativity and cleverness in using this title approach for several popular anime titles with shorter names, I can also say that for those that I'm familiar with, I greatly prefer the actual title of the show (the possible exception being "One Piece"; in this case, laying out the synopsis of the show sounds way cooler than "One Piece", imo).



As for the quality of an anime based on one of these long "Synopsis Titles" - I wouldn't assume anything about the quality of the show in a general sense, but it does make me think "romcom" because the shows with these sorts of titles tend to be "romcoms" in my experience. Of course, the Synopsis Title itself will tend to gives its genre away anyway.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

On the other hand, let's face it - These names are very long and cumbersome, and that does have some potential downsides. And while we foreign anime fans tend to have an easy time shortening these names to something actually usable for quick references, I have to wonder if it's so easy for the Japanese.

I think you're underestimating the Japanese ability to shorten things. Ore no Imouto in Japan is simply OreImo. MoshiDora, OreShura, NakaImo, Haganai, KoreZon, etc, etc.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

I think you're underestimating the Japanese ability to shorten things. Ore no Imouto in Japan is simply OreImo. MoshiDora, OreShura, NakaImo, Haganai, KoreZon, etc, etc.

So what happens the next time you have a Synopsis Title with "Ore" and "Imo" as core parts of it? Given how popular "Imouto" tends to be, I can easily see that happening.

Edit: Credit to SilverSyko for coming up with a good Synopsis Title for One Piece. Sorry for missing that before.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

So what happens the next time you have a title with "Ore" and "Imo" as core parts of it? Given how popular "Imouto" tends to be, I can see that happening.

I can only say that the Japanese will find a way

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

I can only say that the Japanese will find a way

In any event, I think that you're missing my point.

"Ore no Imouto" sounds like a foreign language to us (because it is). This has a certain benefit in that, to English ears, it sounds nicely exotic rather than sounding weird or nonsensical.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "ore" actually means something in Japanese, doesn't it? I mean, isn't it a Japanese pronoun or something like that?

Would "OreImo" sound to a Japanese-speaking person like how "HerSis" or "SheTer" would sound to an English-speaking person? Do you see what I'm saying here?

Admittedly, this is somewhat speculative on my part, as I'm certainly not fluent in Japanese. Perhaps it's not as much of a concern as I think it might be.

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by Sheba

A twitter guy have come up with this



Source

Originally Posted by SilverSyko

"Kanojo" (girlfriend) is a pretty common word to see in these kinds of titles too.



God dammit. Now I have to try a few:

"I Will Sail to the End of the Grand Line and Find the Ultimate Treasure So I Can Become King of the Pirates!"

"I Play Trading Card Games While Having the Soul of a Thousand-Year Deceased Pharaoh Possess My Body!"

"My Planet is Always Threatened by Overly Powerful Aliens Who Desire to Utilize the Power of Orange Spheres With Stars On Them to Grant Wishes!?"

I'll take my turn :

I Become a Young Teacher at Magic School so I can build my own Harem !

Make a Contract with Me and become a Magical Girl !

I recently joined the Student Council but realizes that the President is my Childhood Friend !

I want to Become a Legendary Ninja so I can rule the World !

I Accidentally exchanged my soul to a Grim Reaper but I suddenly turn into one !

These kind of titles are humourously funny and stupid yet creative at the same time, right ?

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

In any event, I think that you're missing my point.

"Ore no Imouto" sounds like a foreign language to us (because it is). This has a certain benefit in that, to English ears, it sounds nicely exotic rather than sounding weird or nonsensical.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "ore" actually means something in Japanese, doesn't it? I mean, isn't it a Japanese pronoun or something like that?

Would "OreImo" sound like "HerSis" or "SheTer" to a Japanese person? If so, that sounds weird. Do you see what I'm saying here?

Admittedly, this is somewhat speculative on my part, as I'm certainly not fluent in Japanese. Perhaps it's not as much of a concern as I think it might be.

Oh...OK, let's see.

Japanese kanji for OreImo is 俺妹, "Ore" is a masculine way to address a first person, and the "imouto" part can be read as just "imo". To those who don't know, it may come off as meaning "I(masculine) am a sister", but everyone in the otakudom knows what it actually means.

Btw, take this example:Boku ha tomodachi ga sukunai 僕は友達が少ない = haganai
This shortening probably wouldn't make sense to most other people (outside otakudom) because they're not using the core words that actually have independent meanings. In English, it's probably like shortening "I don't have many friends" to "Dovriends" instad of "Don'tFriend" or other words that slightly makes more sense.

The Japanese are good at making these nonsensical yet widely used shortenings. The "catchiness" of the pronounciation is probably also a factor.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Oh...OK, let's see.

Japanese kanji for OreImo is 俺妹, "Ore" is a masculine way to address a first person, and the "imouto" part can be read as just "imo". To those who don't know, it may come off as meaning "I(masculine) am a sister", but everyone in the otakudom knows what it actually means.

Well, if it comes off meaning/sounding like "I(masculine) am a sister", then I really have to tip my hat to the Japanese. That's hilarious!

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Well, if it comes off meaning/sounding like "I(masculine) am a sister", then I really have to tip my hat to the Japanese. That's hilarious!

It "may", I don't know if there really is anyone who understood it that way

In proper Japanese, sometimes the "no" is omitted for the more obvious one like Kinoshita 木下. But 俺妹 is not so obvious because it can be anything other than "no" in there.

[Archon_Wing]

I'll donate $10 to anyone that makes an anime called "This anime is totally awesome and kickass because there's a bunch of explosions and shit and tits and ass and you suck for not watching it"

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

On the one hand, I can see certain marketing cleverness in turning a (short) synopsis into a (very long) title. It's a way of ensuring that people who even just glance at the cover of your LN are likely to know its synopsis. Basically, its a way of getting the core "starting point" idea of your LN out there without someone having to actually pick it up and find it elsewhere (presumably on the back cover, or on the first page).


On the other hand, let's face it - These names are very long and cumbersome, and that does have some potential downsides. And while we foreign anime fans tend to have an easy time shortening these names to something actually usable for quick references, I have to wonder if it's so easy for the Japanese.

I mean, one of these titles in Japanese in romaji are basically just a series of random syllables to us, so shortening it down to a few key syllables is child's play. But in Japanese, "Ore no Imouto" might be nonsensical or overly generic like "She my sister" or something like that. In other words, "Ore no Imouto" might read and sound fine to us, but I wonder if it works that well in Japan itself.


While I applaud Xion Valkyrie's creativity and cleverness in using this title approach for several popular anime titles with shorter names, I can also say that for those that I'm familiar with, I greatly prefer the actual title of the show (the possible exception being "One Piece"; in this case, laying out the synopsis of the show sounds way cooler than "One Piece", imo).



As for the quality of an anime based on one of these long "Synopsis Titles" - I wouldn't assume anything about the quality of the show in a general sense, but it does make me think "romcom" because the shows with these sorts of titles tend to be "romcoms" in my experience. Of course, the Synopsis Title itself will tend to gives its genre away anyway.

You might want to know that these titles usually get contracted by volume 2.
Sometimes, the contraction is official and appears right in the afterword of volume 1 (usually created by the author him/herself): one example is Haganai (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai which contracts by eliminating kanji; also adopted unofficially by some other titles like Towanai - Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko). Other times, the fans made a contraction in 2ch discussions and these are adopted by the author: example Otaria (Omae wo OTAku ni Shiteyaru kara, Ore wo RIAjuu ni Shitekure!).
There are also times where contractions are created officially when the series gets a twitter, and the fans start following this official contraction (eg. OreShura - Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba sugiru).

For your info, it's not just 'sentence-based titles' that get shortened, practically any LN that has more than a few words have their own contractions, some of them official, some of them unofficial but always used in discussions. Some examples of non sentence-based titles with contractions:
Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu: Denyuuden
Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagai: Itsuten
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Mahouka
Infinite Stratos: IS
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Horizon
The list goes on......

Incidentally, the contractions do not always need to make sense. The Japanese have a knack of shortening stuff that makes it catchy. At least, AFAIK, everyone active in the LN community knows which contraction is for what title. In fact, you can even call the habit of contraction a 'disease' of the Japanese . Even not looking at titles, this is already evident in the language itself, where many English loan words get shortened:
American Football: Amefuto
Animation: Anime
Anime Song: Anison
Department Store: Depaato
Family Restaurant: Famiresu
Personal Computer: Pasokon
Convenience Store: Konbini
Photo Sticker (Print Club): Purikura

Come to think of it, even some native Japanese names or nouns get contracted sometimes:
Nihon Kezai Shinbun (japan economic times): Nikkei
Toukyou Daigaku (tokyo university): Toudai

So BOT, these long titles do get contracted ultimately, one way or another


EDIT: I just remembered another one, Pocket Monster = Pokemon (yup, contracting things is in the blood of the Japanese)

[Triple_R]

larethian, thanks a lot for that very informative post. I was previously unaware of the Japanese fondness for contraction.

That being the case, this Synopsis Title trend now makes a bit more sense to me. The "first volume" gets the benefit of getting its synopsis right there on the front cover. Then it'll inevitably (and quickly) get a contracted name for the future, which directly addresses the potential downside I saw here.

[Ithekro]

And then we have stuff like "C"

You see something like that in the store and go "What's that suppose to be about?"

[Archon_Wing]

It's okay. That doesn't even change after you watch it.

[Darthtabby]

Anyone want to try to take a shot at coming up with an overly long descriptive title for Full Metal Panic? I think that one could be particularly fun. After all there's a reason one of Shoji Gatou's quotes from an interview about the series was translated as "I always have trouble whenever I try to explain it to people."

[Solace]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Oh...OK, let's see.

Japanese kanji for OreImo is 俺妹, "Ore" is a masculine way to address a first person, and the "imouto" part can be read as just "imo". To those who don't know, it may come off as meaning "I(masculine) am a sister", but everyone in the otakudom knows what it actually means.

Btw, take this example:Boku ha tomodachi ga sukunai 僕は友達が少ない = haganai
This shortening probably wouldn't make sense to most other people (outside otakudom) because they're not using the core words that actually have independent meanings. In English, it's probably like shortening "I don't have many friends" to "Dovriends" instad of "Don'tFriend" or other words that slightly makes more sense.

The Japanese are good at making these nonsensical yet widely used shortenings. The "catchiness" of the pronounciation is probably also a factor.

In English, it would be more like acronyms or shorthand abbreviations. For example, Shin Sekai Yori is shortened to SSY, or Battlestar Galactica is shortened to Battlestar or Galactica, or BSG. Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition Tournament Edition is shortened to SSF4AETE, New Super Mario Bros. U becomes NSMBU. Troubled asset relief program becomes TARP. That kind of thing. There's no hard and fast rule, but the similarity is there.

We don't usually go for shorthand like the Asian languages do (combining words into "new" ones). And we certainly can't capture the multiple meanings quite like they can (our language lacks the character language combinations and our mnemonics aren't as good). But to say the English language is overloaded with abbreviations is an understatement.

[erneiz_hyde]

Ah, right. I guess it's similar to that.

As Larethian pointed out better than I do, the Japanese has it in their blood to make abbreviation in things. I noticed this early because my mother language (Indonesian) share this trait as well. We just love to shorten things!

[Vexx]

I think the long titles are annoying but I guess it lessens the chance of duplicate titles ... okay I don't really mean that. They're just annoying.

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Anyone want to try to take a shot at coming up with an overly long descriptive title for Full Metal Panic? I think that one could be particularly fun. After all there's a reason one of Shoji Gatou's quotes from an interview about the series was translated as "I always have trouble whenever I try to explain it to people."

"How I learned to stop worrying and love my Arm Slave driving bodyguard"?

[serenade_beta]

These long titles are only the most interesting and entertaining things I've ever read. They make me want to watch the anime.
( 　ﾟ,_ゝﾟ)ﾌﾞﾌﾞｯ

I usually don't.