Forum - View topicQuestion about Japanese titles (are they too long?)
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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Ever noticed how long the names can be? I have limited knowledge of Japanese vocabulary. However, why doo they make the names so long and are they too long? I like how they will shorten it to an "abbreviated title".
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bahumut75
 Posts: 65 Location: Rochester, NY |
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I don't really think that the titles are too long, I mean for the most part (at least things I've seen) titles aren't really much longer than maybe 3 or 4 words (except things like "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid," but I don't really look at that as a long title).
Of course, compared to popular American Titles like "The Simpsons" "Futurama" "Family Guy" etc I guess it doesn't take much to seem long (I actually don't watch much American TV  ). Movies I think seem to have longer titles in English although I don't really have the energy to think of any.
There are of course shows with titles that are kind of long Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (The Moment the Cicadas Cry) comes to mind as one I've heard people say is too long but if you look at the english I don't think its really excessive. I think that titles that are entirely in Japanese have a tendancy to appear longer, even if you have some knowledge of Japanese just because you might not know all the words so its like trying to memorize the sounds instead of just knowing the words themselves. That being said, I do think that alot of Japanese words do end up looking kind of long when they are english-afied just because most characters in Japanese translate into two or three characters in english, and kanji which have usually anywhere from one to three japanese characters as a reading end up translating into long words in english. I'm not really sure that this ramble necessarily makes total sense but I hope you can at least see what I'm trying to get at <.< |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11352 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I personally think some of the long ones can be descriptive, such as:
"Piccolo's Self-Confidence! I Will Be the One to Defeat Freeza, Explosion of Anger" vs. something lame like the alternate title "Deja Vu" Whatever the heck that has to do with anything... Or, you can just be real simple like: 
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PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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The longest title I know of in the anime Encyclopedia is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Super S Sailor 9 Senshi Shuuketsu! Black-Dream-Hole no Kiseki. But as long as they're not something that ridiculously long, I don't really mind.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11352 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Whoops. I wasn't sure if we were talking about episode titles or full-fledged titles of the franchise itself. Well, my first post makes reference to episode titles. I don't care at all about title-titles unless it actually makes a difference, like Peace Maker Kurogane vs. Peacemaker.
The original title implies that the story and content take place in PMK and not the original Shisengumi Immon Peace Maker. Add to the fact that ADV licensed the PMK manga/anime while not even throwing in the original PM until Tokyopoop decided to do things right over a year later, and you've got one disjointed little franchise going. Good one, ADV... Oh yeah, and of course there's "Samurai X," in which Kenshin is neither a samurai, nor does he have an X-shaped scar (it's a cross). But at least they gave the option of reversible covers (which everyone should flip to). |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1818 Location: アメリカ |
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I would just attribute it to cultural differences in naming conventions. In the U.S., we prefer titles that are short and to the point. Japan seems to prefer longer, more descriptive titles, but will generally abbreviate them in a casual context.
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Bl00dHoUnD
Posts: 95 |
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Just on a side note, that was... an (unintentionally? I have no idea) incredibly funny post. For long series titles, on something like Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien vs. Rumbling Hearts, I prefer the japanese title. [EDIT: Please try to not quote pictures, I don't want Photobucket getting mad at me. -TK] |
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Hitsu
 Posts: 23 |
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This is kinda of the subject, but why does most anime have alternative titles? What's the purpose of it?
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Well, some alternative titles are there to provide an English translated title so people will know what the heck long Japanese titles like "Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na" actually mean. Others are there to provide the most popular abbreviations for some longer (and shorter) title names. Because, you know, Japanese people can be lazy just like we are, and like to abbreviate titles to make less work for themselves. Examples of abbreviated titles: "KimiNozo" (Kimi ga Nozomu Eien), "HanTsuki" (Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora), "HachiKuro" (Hachimitsu to Kuroba), "HagaRen" (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi). |
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Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
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Care to explain this one then? 
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Also bear in mind that, for example, the word "I" is one character in both English and Japanese (私), but when you write the Japanese in romaji you get "watashi" which is a heck of a lot longer.
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Stupidman007
 Posts: 394 |
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That's what I would consider to be the main reason for the Japanese titles to seem so long. Written in romanji, which is what most non Japanese speakers would read as Japanese, words are often very long because it is a direct written pronounciation of the Kanji, which is what Japanese communicate with. Also, you may come across titles that are something like "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" where it is necessary to give the second part of the title to differentiate it from other of the same franchise. In the end, if you look at the Japanese Kanji for the titles, you usually won't see more than what it takes to make a phrase. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6883 Location: Kazune City |
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joel_s95387
Posts: 1804 Location: California... The Village Hidden In The Porn |
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Well, I guess the subtitle part also technically goes with the title, which one again is really long. I saw that movie today, funny if you watch it with the "right" people. As for titles being too long. I would say I always laugh with long episode titles. Street Fighter II V has some of the longest English episode titles, they are probably direct translations of the original titles. The Dragonball thing too, the romanji didn't fill up as much of the screen as the subtitles do. Are they too long? There is no limit so I guess my answer would be "No". |
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