Quote:
Originally Posted by Potatochobit
alot of japanese tend to say their own names when talking.
like, "Yayoi loves you!" when speaking of her own affections.
which in proper english would be, "I love you!"
or even grammatically, "I, Yayoi, love you!"
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I think that statement's a bit of an over generalisation. Sure, some Japanese
do refer to themselves in the third-person, but such a way of addressing one’s self tends to only be used by younger females (in my personal experience, anyway). You can hear it a fair bit within anime, often as a device which is part and parcel of making a character’s personality appear more ‘cutesy,’ for want of a better word. I’m personally an advocate of not translating such occurrences of third-person usage to refer to one's self literally, even if part of the cute sentiment is lost in translation. However, admittedly, I would perhaps flout such a rule in the case of a scene of elevated drama (like you mentioned), for additional emphasis and whatnot (of course including the first-person singular pronoun before the name itself).
As for the “-tachi” discussion, like many others, I understand your plight. But nevertheless, I really could not bring myself to use “-tachi” within any translation. I'm probably stating the obvious, but I'll say it anyway: although finding the right wording can be tricky at times, I think it’s just an inevitable part of translation that we need to accept and overcome the best we can in the target language. The honorific debate is another story altogether. I prefer keeping them intact for ‘cultured’ viewers, but I’d definitely opt for not using them should I be delivering a professional translation/translation geared towards those who don't possess basic cultural knowledge (not to say that
all fansub viewers are versed in cultural understanding of Japan, of course).
Anyhow, just my two cents or whatever!