naming a series by its translation instead of pronunciations?

[guest]

As everyone already knows, most of fansubbers name the series they sub according to the pronunciations of the name. That is very difficult to remember and doesn't mean a thing. Most people who watch fansub are non Japanese speaking people, wouldn't it be easier for most of us to understand and hence, remember the name of series we watched?

For example, "Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito." My God, this is such a long name (and so hard to remember) and there are longer ones out there. I bet few people can remember its full name. It makes it difficult to do search and find the correct ones. When you are talking about it, you are like, "umm, what's the name again? Sorry I can't recommend this series because I can't remember the name!" That's why those long names are often cut-short when people are posting here. Therefore, why don't we just use a name that makes sense to most of us?

Isn't the prupose of fansubbing to help people learn the series that probably will not get chance of being licensed? What good would it do if nobody remember the name just because this ridiculous reasons?

[ShocWave]

Actually, any anime with an official English name will be named in english rather then in Japanese.
If people started naming anime without an official English name after it's meaning, you'll end up with many different variations of the same title depending on the translator, causing even more confusion
Then, not even fans of the same series can understand each other...

[Alcy]

Originally Posted by ShocWave

Actually, any anime with an official English name will be named in english rather then in Japanese.
If people started naming anime without an official English name after it's meaning, you'll end up with many different variations of the same title depending on the translator, causing even more confusion
Then, not even fans of the same series can understand each other...

Very true. Not to mention, situations like this can cause confusion between similarly named series, such as the recent issue between Gakuen Tengoku (which was being translated as "Gakuen Heaven"...should've been "School Heaven" if that was the case though) and Gakuen Heaven (original, unrelated title).

Besides, if someone likes a series, they should at least know its correct name. What's difficult about Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito?

[Dark Steno]

It is because all short and cool names already been taken.

[NoSanninWa]

Personally, I'd rather that fansubbers translated the titles of the shows. Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito is a good example because none of the fansubbers bothered to translate that name in the credits either. Any fan would have to do some additional research to discover that what it should be translated as. And then a little bit more reasearch to realize that Yami is a name and shouldn't be translated as Darkness, even though Boushi and Hon are translated as Hat and Book.

I feel that it would have been proper for the name to be translated, at least in the credits. After all, fansubs are to make the anime accessible to fans who don't speak any Japanese at all. Some people out there don't even know what the word "no" means in Shinigami no Ballad, but only one group bothers to translate that.

I'm not sure why it started to be in vogue to not translate a show's name when you translate everything else.

Originally Posted by Alcy

Besides, if someone likes a series, they should at least know its correct name. What's difficult about Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito?

Well, I know the name and I even know that it means "The Travellers: Hat, Book and Yami." Though I still prefer to call it YamiBou, and so do 95% of it's Japanese fans, because the full name is just too darn long. The problem is that fans shouldn't have to research the show on their own to know what the title means.

[Obi-Wan]

Yeah, I'd prefer series titles to be translated too. Personally I am against leaving things romanized unless its someone's name (i.e. Ichigo in Bleach, TLing his name to Strawberry would be retarded) or the name of a weapon or something like a magic spell... but sometimes even that can get carried away. I bailed on Naruto a long time ago, but all the "blahblahblah no jutsu" crap was beginning to grind on my gears when I was watching it. That's my opinion anyway. It'd be nice to have series titles translated, and I'm beginning to see a trend in anime having and English sub-title and I like that.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

I'm beginning to see a trend in anime having and English sub-title and I like that.

This isn't a new trend. It's been going on for quite a long time. I first noticed it with Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Nadia of the Mysterious Seas) which was subtitled The Secret of Blue Water. Since then I've noticed a lot of anime like to have English subtitles, though it is very far from universal.

[Alcy]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

I feel that it would have been proper for the name to be translated, at least in the credits. After all, fansubs are to make the anime accessible to fans who don't speak any Japanese at all.

That part I can agree with, if it's something that can be reasonably explained in English, a sidenote could be very helpful for people. Still, I strongly feel that the original name should be present, for clarification's sake if nothing else.

[CelesAurivern]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

Y(i.e. Ichigo in Bleach, TLing his name to Strawberry would be retarded)

Ichigo is not strawberry <_<

[nyaa-san]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Well, I know the name and I even know that it means "The Travellers: Hat, Book and Yami."

Actually, you could read something like "The traveller of a book, with yami and hat"(i can't remember the exact title used, grammatical errors included) written really small on an ad banner on orbit soft website a long time ago...

[TougeSil80]

Well, I think the meaning should be mentioned somewhere in the sub, but I think having pronunciation as title is just fine. Because as mentioned before, each group will use a different translated name, it will cause confusion.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by CelesAurivern

Ichigo is not strawberry <_<

Wrong. Ichigo does mean strawberry.

On the other hand, if spelled with the kanji that Ichigo spells his name with, it then takes on the meaning of protecting one thing.

Japanese has a lot of homophones, words (or short phrases) that are entirely different, but pronounced the same way.

[CelesAurivern]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Wrong. Ichigo does mean strawberry.

Nope, I specifically pointed out Ichigo in Bleach does not mean strawberry.

[lomeando]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Personally, I'd rather that fansubbers translated the titles of the shows. Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito is a good example because none of the fansubbers bothered to translate that name in the credits either.

Yes, this is an excellent idea. Except, of course, I recall seeing a half dozen or so different ways of translating this one when the series first came out, and not one of them treated Yami as a name (don't bother pointing out if someone did do it correctly as it won't prove anything, I didn't pay that close of attention; locally, we just call the series Look At My Big F*cking Hat).

But that's just an exceptionally difficult title. Surely most series won't have these problems. Like Hameln no Violin Hiki. Oh, wait, 3NA translated that as "Hameln the Violinist" instead of "The Violinist of Hameln", the latter being the correct one. Hameln was a place (as in, Pied Piper of), not a person.

Anyway, the point is, fansubbers screw up names and titles. A lot. There's a lot of context involved that might not be understood by the people involved. The translator in question may not be familiar with the franchise, may not even think they need to do "a little research" (I know it never even occurred to me that Yami was a name). Of course a translation should be included on the title screen, but basing file names, database entries, indexes, etc., on a fansubber's translation is just silly. Especially since you'd likely be using the one from the first release, which is likely to be the least reliable.

My opinion is, let the Japanese/American anime companies worry about the English branding. If fans can't learn 3 or 4 Japanese words per series, well, then I can't help them.

[DeathWolf]

i hereby ask that we rename all fansubs of naruto to whirlpool (for those that get it)
as well as renaming mushishi to "bug hunter" and ichigo mashimaro to the "strawberry marshmallow"
oh and yakitate to "FRESHLY BAKED BREAD"

[LytHka]

Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito was translated by Miyuki-Fansubs in one of their in-episode notes, so that one fails as a good example.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by CelesAurivern

Nope, I specifically pointed out Ichigo in Bleach does not mean strawberry.

Except when the author says it is

Originally Posted by DeathWolf

i hereby ask that we rename all fansubs of naruto to whirlpool (for those that get it)
as well as renaming mushishi to "bug hunter" and ichigo mashimaro to the "strawberry marshmallow"
oh and yakitate to "FRESHLY BAKED BREAD"

Except, Ichigo mashimaro IS (officially) Strawberry Marshmellow. And Naruto is fishcake.

The problem now is that groups have entirely stopped translating titles even when they should be. And then there are those where there are 15 different translations for the same title (which we used to have but stopped ~1 year ago.)

For some stupid reason, those so called "hardcore fans" scream bloody murder if you actually translate something like one of the Bleach Bankai's or Naruto's abilites or...

[DeathWolf]

Originally Posted by bayoab

Except when the author says it is

Except, Ichigo mashimaro IS (officially) Strawberry Marshmellow. And Naruto is fishcake.

The problem now is that groups have entirely stopped translating titles even when they should be. And then there are those where there are 15 different translations for the same title (which we used to have but stopped ~1 year ago.)

official or not it's the same.(and ichigo's official title is officially gay, that's well known, and afaik it's just the us title(i could be wrong))
Just dont freakin make it r1like releases.
Some might say it's a matter of taste, i personally think that the bastardization of anime
for pokemon and digimon fans that grew up too fast is evil.

[Srin Tuar]

I would prefer if titles were not translated, especially not in a haphazard and random fashion.
If someone gets easily frustrated by words or customs that they dont understand, perhaps
anime is not the most ideal passtime for them.

Originally Posted by bayoab

Except when the author says it is

Ichigo's name is 一護, which does not literally mean strawberry.
Sure its a homophone, and that may be the reason Kubo picked it- to impart a sortof
cognitave dissonace perhaps. I recall reading an interview with him where he discussed it.
Im not sure what the significance of that link is though, except perhaps to disparage viz.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Srin Tuar

Ichigo's name is 一護, which does not literally mean strawberry.
Sure its a homophone, and that may be the reason Kubo picked it- to impart a sortof
cognitave dissonace perhaps. I recall reading an interview with him where he discussed it.
Im not sure what the significance of that link is though, except perhaps to disparage viz.

The reason is because I was too lazy to find the JP version which has the same english subtitle on it just to say Kubo put "Strawberry" for some reason.