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Answerman - Why Are So Many Anime's English Titles Total Nonsense?

peno wrote:

I see no one yet mentioned Chrno Crusade, official Japanese romanisation for what ADV later changed to Chrono Crusade. Still, the original spelling stayed for airing on Czech Animax, for some weird reason. Even this weird tittle, however, doesn't change the fact that in the end, it was the best Czech Animax dub made, at least in my opinion. But I digress here.

IIRC (and that's a very big IF) the title that that was originally intended to be used was Chrono Crusade, but the production committee was unable to use that name in Japan because of a copyright issue -- an issue that does not exist in the U.S., hence Viz Media being able to use it in the U.S.

Take the above with a grain of salt, because I am not certain that that I am recalling everything correctly.

The original English name for SukaSuka, that anime that aired last season, was:
"Do you have what THE END? Are you busy? Shall you save xxx?"

I find that hilarious.

Anybody remember Elemental Gelade? It's original English title was "Erementar Gerad"! I love trying to say that out loud.)

If you want real nonsense titles try looking at a lot of hentai english titles. Have fun with that.

I dropped Plastic Memories at about ep 3, but my interpretation of the title (from the theme of "the fleetingness of life") is your memories of someone you cherish should be like plastic and stick around for a real long time.

As long as it's cool and memorable it doesn't matter what it's called.

I don't know the show in question, but the term "plasticity" refers to the ability of a material to change its shape in some irreversible way. In terms of memories in particular, the term "neuroplasticity" refers to lasting changes in the brain's structure over an organism's life. So something being plastic is actually the opposite of it sticking around unchanged forever (despite what happens in a landfill), but I think it's a very fitting title for a show about memory and humanity.

Most of the arrancar's names are at least based on real life architects/designers/artists. Aaroniero being named after Eero Aarnio.

Huh, I always thought it meant malleability at will, rather than it changing and then becoming irreversible, hence the meaning behind Plastic Man's name. (That is, he's not made of plastic, but rather, he can shapeshift to whatever he feels like and whenever he feels like.)

Quote:

"Ghost in the Shell". I didn't know ghosts could enter shells.

Okay, this poster just has to be trolling, because this is one of the blatantly obvious "hidden meaning" titles ever in anime & manga.

Riddle Story of Devil. Why couldn't they just call the show "The Devil's Riddle?"

"Sakura Trick". What trick is Sakura pulling?

This season has some good alphabet soup character names too courtesy of WorldEnd: Elq Hrqstn, Chtholly, Nygglatho, Rhantolk, Nopht, Phyracorlybia

The term " bodacious" orginally meant " some one (a woman) willing takes risks, or do something shocking". it was coined from the famous early ancient indigenous Britain female named Boudicca. Boudicca was queen of the Iceni people of what is now Eastern England and led a major uprising against occupying Roman forces in the 7th Century AD. Unfortunately the term got hyjacked by a porn producer in the 1970's so now it can mean " a woman with large breasts, or large stature".

Huh, I knew about Queen Boudicca, but, as was brought up earlier, I always thought "bodacious" was a portmanteau of "bold" or "body" + "audacious."

"Bodacious" was also 80's slang to refer to something impressive, hence all the remarks about the title of Bodacious Space Pirates using outdated slang, especially due to the heavy use of the word in this way in Wayne's World and the accompanying Bill & Ted movies.