Forum - View topicNEWS: Utawarerumono to Keep Name
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Whearn9999
Posts: 211 Location: Texas City TX |
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HitokiriShadow: You were at the panel too? That's cool. I was actually going to ask David Williams about the name change, but chickened out because I wasn't sure how to pronounce Utawarerumono. Yeah...maybe that was a silly reason not to ask
The first hint I got that they were keeping the original name was an article in the Oct. Newtype USA. Not once did they call it Shadow Warrior Chronicles. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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They have said so in public that they do this kind of thing to gain viewer interest. Build controversy, gain fans, reverse desicion.
Its been done before. |
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Frankly, I see no problem with anglicizing a name if means the title will sell better. Honestly, Utawarerumono is something that even seasoned anime fans have to pause and really read, and will probably still transpose syllables in until they've said it/read it a few times. It's a 7-syllable word, that's fairly unwieldy for MOST English speakers....we don't have that many 7-syllable words.
In situations like this, I have no problem with the anime company giving it an anglicized or catchier name (although Shadow Warrior Chronicles is a pretty limp and generic name) and placing the original Japanese name as a subtitle, like, say, "Legend of the Overfiend (Urotsukidoji)", "(Shuten Doji) The Star Hand Kid", etc. I mean, with all the issues regarding a licensed series, what name they put on the outside of the box is pretty low on my priority list. |
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Well, in this case, Shadow Warrior Chronicles had nothing to do with the show or its title. It was off base 100% imo.
Since that name is different, people can remember it and easily search for it at stores or online, like Elemental Gerad, imo. Shin Angyo Onshi is another acquisition with the same problem. Blade of the Phantom Mask doesn't fit well either with the title. Besides, anime fans, even casual ones, should be able to spell foreign words. This title is easier to spell than Utawarerumono. People do take foreign languages in school, after all. |
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Right. What I was saying was I'm fine with the idea of renaming the series. That particular lame, as I said, is lame.
I thought it was Elemental Gelade. 
In both of these situations, I have no idea what the names translate to, but I don't see why companies don't translate the name to their English equivalent when there clearly is one. I mean, "shin" means "new", right? Why not at least translate that if there's no English analog to "angyo onshi" (which there very well could be, I have no idea). Generic, bland titles like "Blade of the Phantom Mask" aren't the solution, but I don't think leaving it as "Shin Angyo Onshi" is the best solution either, personally. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I think most people felt this way (myself included). I didn't see very many people complaining simply because the name was changed, rather it was that the name was so utterly generic and uninspired and had nothing to do with the series. |
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aorta
Posts: 24 |
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Yotsuba&! has the same problem. Volumes 4 and 5 have been out in Japan for a while. Volume 4 should at least be out by now. |
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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Exactly. I haven't even SEEN the series, but I have to say that the proposed name was so horribly generic and cliche, it really wouldn't've sparked by interest much. And they coulda translated the Japanese name, anyway. "the one who is sung of"/"those who are sung of" would first of all fit, and secondly sounds a whole lot more intriguing, even if it does have grammar issues. ;p It'd be understood, it'd get people curious, etc. |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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Yeah, but Yotsuba&! came out after ADV indefinitely suspended 98% of their manga line. By the time the first volume of Yotsuba&! came out, Gunslinger Girl had gone a year and a half without a new volume. Its safe to say that more Yostuba&! will come out eventually, they are just waiting for more to come out in Japan. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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My two-year college offered Spanish and. . . . Chinese. (Which was apparently being taught as if your very soul depended on learning it. I stayed away.) Is Spanish remotely useful for learning Japanese, because I'm almost 100% sure that my upcoming return to college in preperation for law school will feature courses in Spanish. (Maybe this time I'll actually learn it!) Oh, and just to add on the topic, translating names is just fine by me. Making up names is just wrong. Period. |
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hikaru004
Posts: 2306 |
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Well, this is what happens when you're tired. Sorry for the typo. Here is an explanation of Shin Angyo Onshi manga. Sando is the blade wielder, not Munsu (the main character and reference of the title). Maybe those who know Korean history can chime in on "angyo onshi". Actually Richard J., My high school had Spanish, French and Latin. The high school in my area offered Japanese. If you are familiar with different languages, you can remember how to spell foreign words imo. Heck, for Utawarerumono, you only needed to memorize it by breaking it up at the consonants and reconstituting it at the end. Last edited by hikaru004 on Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:11 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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It can help with learning how to pronounce anglicized Japanese words, but for the most part, no. Asian languages developed completely unrelated to European ones, so the Latin root words that are the basis for so much of English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, etc. etc. have no bearing whatsoever on Japanese. The one way it might help is simply getting used to different sentence structures. Spanish and Japanese don't seem to have similar structures to each other, but both can be pretty different from English (such as the Spanish, and French, placing adjectives after the noun they modify instead of before, for example).
I actually didn't think it was a typo! I figured you were using just a different romanization (since "l"s and "r"s are frequently interchanged, and ANN's own encyclopedia uses "Erementar Gerad" as an alternate title). No worries! |
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Korb
 Posts: 19 |
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Actually it's 7 fairly easy syllables. U-ta-wa-re-ru-mo-no. Heck, Underwater Ray Romano is 8 syllables when you break it down, and that's not hard to say, is it? I think it's worse marketing to alienate the fans that watch the show and spread the word about it to their friends by giving it a retarded title that in no way shape or form describes the series. They could have gone with a straight translation of "The One Being Sung" and I wouldn't have cared at all. But Shadow Warrior Chronicles? No, sorry, that's just plain stupid. I'm sure some would complain that Ai Yori Aoshi, Fushigi Yuugi, or Kannazuki no Miko were hard to pronounce, and yet all 3 of those were released predominently under their original titles. |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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Individually, yes, they are easy syllables. But put it together into one meaningless word, and its not so simple. In the case of Underwater Ray Romano, you have words that mean something making it easy to remember.
Agreed. No one is really arguing this part since just about everyone is in agreement on it.
Yes, although the fact that the words where split up probably helped. |
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jgreen
Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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I'm calling this series "Underwater Ray Romano" from now on.
It should also be noted that Pioneer's original VHS dub release of "Fushigi Yuugi" was under the translated title "The Mysterious Play" (while the sub was sold under the Japanese title). |
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