Forum - View topicSlayers Use of English in Spell Casting
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jaybug39
 Posts: 552 Location: Oregon, Is it FOOTBALL yet? |
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I just finished watching Slayers A,B,C,D. And I find it amusing that the characters use english words in casting their spells. Even more odd in that this is the series I started to watch the subs, and not listen to the dubs.
I am sure there are more anime that use this convention, or english words for other purposes. I was hoping you could tell me of a few. |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1818 Location: アメリカ |
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You only want a few? Lots of foreign words have found their way into Japanese vocabulary. I'm sure the list of anime without any English peppered in is much shorter than the list of anime with English words mixed in. At least in anime made in the last 10-20 years.
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I think it's just "cool". Kind of like how you hear(or read) people going "Nani? How so?" or "Arigatou, that really helped."
Being able to speak another language is pretty nifty but simply adding in these words is kind of "cool" and "trendy". Personally, I find it tacky in both instances. I'll add japanese when I speak/write when I can actually say thoughts in japanese, not one or two words. The more anime you watch the more instances you'll find of this. It's pretty common. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6897 Location: Kazune City |
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First off, welcome to the dark, shadowy world of elitist sub purist fandom
Second, if you watch more subtitled anime, you'll find that English attacks (and English words in general) are very, very, common. Especially in Magical Girl anime like Sailor Moon, where all the transformation, Sailor Senshi names, and attacks are in English...or Sakura's "Release!" in Cardcaptor Sakura, the word "Practice" used by any magic-user in Ultra Maniac, and all the way up to "Materialise" said by the girls in Mai Otome. I'm fairly sure that this has been covered in detail in other threads, but basically, English is "cool" over there in Japan, so they throw it in for effect. As a sidenote, many words in English have been borrowed in Japanese, so you'll hear stuff like "hero" or "percent" or "restaurant," filtered through Japanese pronunciation of course. To get an idea of how common English is, just think of series titles...it's more rare to see a title that's completely in Japanese than it is to see a title partially or completely in English. "Slayers," to start with. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Ya, English is in anime all the time. The funniest scenes are when the characters are supposed to be English speaking and they do horrible dubbing (thinking of a certain thing from Beck, can't stop laughing).
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Such as Excel Saga or Puni Puni with English talking soldiers.
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Two of the English words I hear alot in the subtitled versions are "okay" and "thank you." So some words can become universal or like some countries feel...we're Americanizing the world and destroying cultures!
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jaybug39
Posts: 552 Location: Oregon, Is it FOOTBALL yet? |
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I had always assumed that titles were translated into english from the original language. The only instance I can think of that does not follow this rule was the german film Das Boot.
Oh puh-lease, destroying cultures?!? Nope, won't go there, it's off topic. I think I may have to watch twice, in case the dubs are good. BUt I do feel as if I have done more to increase my understanding of japanese, just by listening to this one series, than anything I have done in the 16 years since I had that one year of japanese. Call it the Victor Borge method of learning foreign languages. |
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