Anime?

[Carrehz]

Anime films do get subtitled screenings over here, but they tend to be special "event cinema" rather than a regular screening. I think Showcase is screening Suzume with subs... I haven't really looked into it since I'm not really familiar with Makoto Shinkai's stuff, it doesn't really grab me.

There's also the annual Scotland Loves Anime film festival which does limited screenings at select arthouse theatres, although I'll admit I only know about that because they did the Ojamajo Doremi movie last year :B I'd never heard of it before then, heck I only found out about it last year purely by chance.

[Taffeta]

Anime films do get subtitled screenings over here, but they tend to be special "event cinema" rather than a regular screening. I think Showcase is screening Suzume with subs... I haven't really looked into it since I'm not really familiar with Makoto Shinkai's stuff, it doesn't really grab me.

There's also the annual Scotland Loves Anime film festival which does limited screenings at select arthouse theatres, although I'll admit I only know about that because they did the Ojamajo Doremi movie last year :B I'd never heard of it before then, heck I only found out about it last year purely by chance.

Yeah, sorry, I phrased that badly. I meant here as in where I currently live. I saw both Tenki no Ko and Kimi no Na wa in London in Japanese, but it's not something they roll out everywhere, and, well, this is not the cutting edge of international culture...seeing as we technically don't even have a city.

I think my sister saw Kimi no Na Wa in Japanese in Oxford. She doesn't do that a lot, so the memory stood out.

[Carrehz]

Ohhh I get you - sorry, I thought you meant "here" as in England in general. Yeah, my town doesn't get many subbed screenings either.. I *think* the cinema in town might have Suzume but I'm not certain. I had to travel for the Doremi screenings.

[Ponyfan]

I have been looking out for any information on Daiya Act II getting another season, but nothing yet. I guess April 2023 isn't going to happen. Maybe autumn? Maybe next year? I can't imagine it won't happen.

I keep hoping for news too. Every time I see a post about new key art, opening themes or anything about a new anime season, I get excited for a second because I think maybe it will be about Daiya, but then it's not.   I can't see it not happening either

Spoiler

due to the way the final game ended between Seidou and Inashiro ended.

I was also hoping for a new season this spring, but now it looks like it will either a fall or winter release.

I've also been waiting for news about Free Final Stroke being released outside of Japan but haven't heard anything about that either.


I think the theater where I live is running limited screenings of Suzume/Suzume no Tojimari. Last week there were 3 a day and this week there are only 2.  None of the screening really work for me right now and I also haven't been in a theater since the pandemic.  I'll just wait for the Blu Ray release and hope that I won't be disappointed. 

Makoto Shinkai's movies are hit or miss for me.  I love Your Name/Kimi no Na Wa and most of Weathering with You/Tenki no Ko although I think W with You gets a little lost towards the end of the movie and could have had a better ending.  I didn't like Garden of Words at all or Fireworks.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Yeah, Tenki no Ko (shorter to write, LOL) kind of has a plot, works, and then goes off on a weird meander which doesn't seem to end satisfactorily. The art is pretty but I admit, I didn't even notice the brief scene of the characters from Kimi no Na Wa.

I love that one though. I think it's beautifully put together.

Also, Weathering With You is a bad joke, really, it doesn't make a lot of sense in English. Tenki no Ko just means "The Weather Girl" or "The Weather Child" - which would have worked as an English title, right? :/

[Carrehz]

I don't understand why a lot of anime movies get retitled, honestly. It makes sense if it's some untranslatable pun, or something that just doesn't sound good in English, but then you get perfectly translatable titles getting renamed for no reason. (I think I already ranted about Ghibli's "The Cat's [cats'?] Repayment" being renamed to "The Cat Returns" earlier in the thread? )

[Taffeta]

True.

Mind you, it's difficult to know where these kinds of translation things happen. Whether it's in a Japanese office somewhere or a western one or somewhere inbetween. Certain English words that have very defined meanings in English have completely different meanings in Japanese, so it's possible something got lost in translation with some of them.

Eg  'Tension' in Japanese means excitement, which is not how I'd describe it
'Anniversary' is a vexed word too, the Japanese word 'kinenbi' and their katakana version of our word often doesn't mean anniversary like we think of it, but more like a red letter day.
Revenge also has some odd nuances in Japanese...
And so on.

Mind you, Tenki no Ko is very simple really. Tenki means weather. If you break it down into characters it means 'heaven's spirit' which means the Japanese name may be a play on words given the plot, but otherwise...'weathering' doesn't go into that at all. As for 'ko', it's technically child, but it's often used colloquially for a girl. So I would still think 'The Weather Girl' makes for a snappier English title.

On the other hand, you have names like Spirited Away, which takes the concept of kami-kakushi from the original title (literally the concept of kami abducting or hiding people who go missing) and anglicises it in a way that makes the underlying idea comprehensible, even if the words are totally different.

So eh. Sometimes it works I guess.

I am still on the fence with Kimi no na wa. It doesn't mean 'your name' exactly, because of the last 'wa' - it's more like a question, 'what's your name?' or a vague unended sentence 'Your name is'...but I guess those don't work well in English either.

/Japanese language ramble xD.

[Ponyfan]

I think "The Weather Child" or "The Weather Girl" both would have been good English titles instead of Weathering with You.


 

Yeah, Tenki no Ko (shorter to write, LOL) kind of has a plot, works, and then goes off on a weird meander which doesn't seem to end satisfactorily. The art is pretty but I admit, I didn't even notice the brief scene of the characters from Kimi no Na Wa.

I think Taki and Mitsuha are kind of just there in W with Y for no reason other than Your Name is so popular.  Taki shows up in his school uniform at his grandmother's house when the main characters from W with Y are there also.  Taki also comments about them being "little kids" which makes me question how old Taki is supposed to in W with Y.  Mitsuha is working as a cashier in a store that Hodaka shops at.

I've heard that one of the teachers in Garden of Words is also one of Mitsuha's teachers in Your Name, but I don't remember any character names from Garden of Words.

I read somewhere (although I can't find it now) that in the Japanese version Hina's brother name is Nagisa, but in English it's shortened to Nagi.

True.



On the other hand, you have names like Spirited Away, which takes the concept of kami-kakushi from the original title (literally the concept of kami abducting or hiding people who go missing) and anglicises it in a way that makes the underlying idea comprehensible, even if the words are totally different.

There's an early episode of Sailor Moon where Rei explains being spirited away when a lot of people suddenly go missing and she is suspected of being involved because she was one of the last people to see a child alive before she disappeared.



Ponyfan

[Carrehz]

yeah, I understand retitling if the original title is either a hard-to-translate pun/meaning/etc, or if it just straight-up does not sound good in English. the other Ghibli example I always think of is Only Yesterday.. the original title is "Omohide Poroporo" - omohide (or omoide, they used an archaic spelling) = memories, poroporo = onomatopoeia for something falling, like raindrops, say. Sounds good in Japanese but there's not really any way to put that in English without it sounding clunky... the official English title gets the idea across *and* doesn't sound awkward.
(I don't like the film at all, but I can at least admit they did a good job with the title )

Tenki no Ko... eh. I can see that "Weathering With You" is a snappier-sounding title (to an English ear) than "The Weather Child/Girl", but there's nothing wrong with translating the title literally, either. That one just seems like change for the sake of it, to me. Not a big deal, but at the same time, why bother changing it?

Sometimes the Japanese crew mess up the titles too, though. thinking of the Ojamajo Doremi film - the original title was Majo Minarai o Sagashite - Looking for Witch Apprentices. The official English title was Looking for Magical Doremi. Honestly neither title is brilliant - the English title actually probably is less misleading - but it's weird because the writers did an interview where they explained they specifically DID NOT put "Doremi" in the title to make it clear this was a spinoff and not a sequel. So.... why put it in the English title? o.O And that was definitely picked by someone at Toei; it was all over Japanese promotional stuff... outside of Japan, it only got a very very limited screening in UK and... France, I think? don't think the US got it at all... so not sure which market they'd have had in mind when they picked that - "Magical" is the official English title for the series and they have used it on Japanese materials, merch etc before, but they usually just stick with the original title "Ojamajo". the series was popular in most European countries back in the day, but the English dub was a typical crappy early 2000s 4Kids dub, they only just barely finished out the first season before dropping it... it's never had a huge presence in the US/UK... so it'd be weird for them to consider those markets when titling it??? Especially given how limited a release it received in the West? It's obscure enough that I can't really imagine there were a lot of people who saw the English title and went "Oh cool, Doremi, I remember that! Gotta see THIS film!", you know?
(Ahh, I went on a tangent, sorry. )

[Taffeta]

Tangents! My favourite thing! LOL

Yeah, Omohide is a classical Japanese spelling おもひで so that's interesting. I think that spelling might still have been in use up till the war but I've seen them use those kinds of spellings in anime titles and so on to add the sense of an older time. There are a whole bunch of Harukanaru Toki no Naka De character songs that use archaic grammar constructs like kikite instead of kiite for 'listening' and so on.

Japanese is full of onomatopoeic words, too, like the pika from pikachu comes from pikapika, it doesn't actually mean electricity although Pikachu is often translated as electric mouse. It's more like sparkle sparkle mouse - but with only half the sparkle (I raise you one tangent, LOL).

The Japanese absolutely mess up their own translations too, and especially their own name spellings when they try to romanise character names, because they don't always transliterate it in a way that makes sense. The thing they do most often is forget their own rules about long/short vowels, even though it matters so much (eg Yuuki vs yuki, courage vs snow, biiig difference). With for example Daiya no Ace, you see the school often written as Seido in Japanese material as well as English, even though it's Seidou, because the character for 'path' (michi/dou) always has a long vowel. I also see Seidoh. I hate that form of romanisation, it's a thing but it's an ugly thing that doesn't make any real sense. Still the Japanese do use it, probably more than we do *lol*.

So you get short vowels where you should have long ones. A random H appearing where it shouldn't be. Things like Jya instead of Ja, or sya instead of sha. Sometimes you see a random W in the middle of a word too, where the long vowel is. I feel like this vowel thing is a problem when people want to learn Japanese since the Japanese themselves don't represent it always when they try to romanise, and then English speakers also don't, and although you can hear it if you listen, I think it really confuses people. Especially when they don't learn kana.

I remember when I was following Bleach, Ukitake Juushirou's name would be rendered Jyuushirou, Jushiro, Juushiroh, and so on. And I saw Japanese sources write out Kyouraku Shunsui as Kyoraku Syunsui...so yeah.

Then there's wo and o, but that's not actually incorrect, tbh, it just looks a bit left behind in modern Japanese from when there was also wi and we, which are seldom if ever used today.

[Carrehz]

That'd make sense - Omohide Poroporo is basically all 50s/60s nostalgia, so I suppose the older spelling helps convey that.

Don't even get me started on romanizations :p Especially wonky official ones. You mentioned Pokemon - the one that always drives me nuts is how they insist on romanizing Plusle's name as "Prasle" I mean, yes, that's a valid way of reading プラスル, but it's etymologically wrong - it's meant to go with Minun - plus and minus. It's particularly annoying since they DID change the official romanizations around at some point and make them more consistent across the board! Suicune went from "Suikun" to "Suicune", for example. Same name, just standardizing the spelling across all merch/countries. And the English name is Plusle, so you'd think they'd want to coordinate... but Japanese merch continues to use "Prasle" and just, argh.

Going back to the Doremi film for a mo, I found out last night it's getting a BD/DVD release over here!
https://animeuknews.net/2023/04/anime-limited-reveals-april-2023-pre-orders-with-pompo-the-cinephile-free-final-stroke-looking-for-magical-doremi-more/
I didn't think it would! It's been over a year since the screening... I figured if they were going to release it, they would've done by now. It's such an odd, niche thing to release, a 20th anniversary film for a series that never really properly made it over here x) Although it was popular in other countries that actually got a proper dub (France and Italy LOVED it), so it could be that we're just getting it because of that, I dunno.

So excited! They're even including a translation of the booklet included with Japanese home video releases, omg <3 I wish they'd license the actual series already, but I didn't think we'd ever see anything Doremi-related make it outside of Japan again... it's a start!

[Taffeta]

The Omohide spelling is obsolete by 1950s but to create that idea of 'old', it probably works I guess? I dunno. The Japanese are very clever at using their language on multiple levels that isn't easy to convey in English, but that would be another tangent sooo I won't go there

I remember when I was in Japan, visiting pokemon centres, and not really knowing more than 5 Japanese pokemon names so that was interesting xD. Agreed on Plusle. In English that makes more sense. That seems half-romanised, which is also annoying.

People putting an accent on the e in Pokemon also annoys me. Do we need it? I mean, does anyone actually say Poke Mon after hearing the anime theme? I dunno. Weird.

I actually like Suikun, it makes me think 'water lord'. LOL

There are so many things Japan has that don't come over into English. I mean, Daiya's manga is literally years behind in translation, and only available digitally I think? Daiya's a longer running series than Haikyuu and massively successful over there, but even in the US, where baseball is a big deal, it hasn't had the attention Haikyuu has. Haikyuu is cool and all, but very safe in comparison to Daiya. Maybe that's part of the reason. I dunno.

All that said, there's so much more now than we had going back even ten years. I'm showing my age now, but I love that it's possible to stream so many series now that would never have made it here before.

And then Netflix picking up series like Tiger and Bunny, which was originally in 2011. I am still sure that it influenced BnHA in regards to the idea of a superhero industry scenario, but of course it's less well known because it's older and, until Netflix picked it up, difficult to get a hold of. I wanted to watch it back in 2011 because of Morita Masakazu voicing Barnaby, but never managed to find it then (no licencing and such). So happy that I can see it now. Great series. Although I still need to watch the 2nd half of season 2, I just don't want to because I know it is 'the end' xD.

Oh, going back to my name transliteration rant for a moment - Saiyuuki. Ignoring the fact the names are all based on Chinese ones, I still don't understand how or why the official translit of Gojou's name is Sha Gojyo. Especially the 'Sha' part, because it's literally written SA GO JOU さごじょう. Gojyo is what I said before, people writing out j-yo instead of jo, and then ignoring the long vowel. But Sa? Nope. Don't understand.

Genjou Sanzou and Son Gokuu also get contracted to Genjo Sanzo and Son Goku, but they irk me less than Gojou's name does.

[Carrehz]

I'm not a huge fan of the accent in Pokemon, either, though it's better than the Romanization early Japanese merch used - "Pockemon" which arguably makes more sense, but it reads weirdly to my English eyes. I always want to read it as Pocky-mon.

I think the accent's probably an artefact of the series being first localized in the late 90s, though. going back to Doremi again - how that's been stuck with the official English title "Magical Doremi". And I get it, it's cause "Ojamajo" is an untranslatable pun (ojama = clumsy, majo + witch, she's a clumsy witch) and there's not really any snappy way to localize it, that's the best title Toei could come up with back in the day. But it's hard not to feel like they'd have just kept it as-is if it had been localized nowadays instead of in the late 90s/early 2000s, you know? I've noticed these days, a lot of titles like that are just being kept in Japanese and explained on the back blurb of the book/DVD/whatever. And the English subs for the movie DID keep it as "Ojamajo" for the one line of dialogue where it's used as a phrase and not when referring to the series (which must've confused anyone who wasn't familiar with the show, lol, they didn't explain it or anything). So it's hard not to get a bit frustrated at being stuck with these, I guess you'd say almost outdated localizations, just because they want to stick with it for consistency's sake. If that makes sense?
The accent thing bugs me less, but I still wonder if they'd have done it nowadays, now that anime/manga/Japanese pop culture in general is so much more of a widespread thing and there's not really the sense of "this is a scary foreign word, we need to make sure the pronunciation is clear!", you know?

(but then idk, Flabebe's name is spelt with accents in the English ver as well, but not in Japan, so *throws hands up in the air* who knows! haha)

I like Suikun, too. Just looks cooler somehow. I can see why they'd want it to be consistent though.

All that said, there's so much more now than we had going back even ten years. I'm showing my age now, but I love that it's possible to stream so many series now that would never have made it here before.

God, yes. It still absolutely blows my mind at the fact that this stuff is fairly mainstream nowadays. I remember when you were lucky to find ANYTHING anime/manga-related in a brick and mortar store over here, now I'm seeing stuff like Sailor Moon drinks at TK Maxx, Hatsune Miku birthday cards at Tesco. Alright, most of my favourites are still Japan-only that's the trouble with being a magical girl fan, if it isn't Sailor Moon or Madoka Magica (maybe Cardcaptor Sakura, I still don't see stuff for that as much as the other two though), good luck seeing it in the UK/US. But still, just that we've come this far, it's so amazing and wonderful.

[Taffeta]

Accents clearly for us ignorant english speakers, although English is an accentless language mostly so it's kind of ironic and lol xD.

Ah, yeah, mahoushoujo stuff hasn't massively jumped the ocean, has it? I remember the Pretty Sammy stuff that was spoofed off Tenchi Muyou (my first anime back in the dark ages), but that's about all other than Sailor Moon.

In my case it's the Neoroma, which are technically otome game franchises that have a lot of media spinoffs. I got sucked into them through seiyuu, live events, learning Japanese and stuff which began with Fushigi Yuugi and chasing up other things those voice artists had done. But it's a good example. The original Angelique stuff wasn't subtitled for a long time, and I remember using Etoile as my 'how good is my Japanese now' guide as I only had it without subs. Used to watch it every so often and see how much more I understood *lol*. It's all subbed now though I don't know that it's had a western licensed release. Neoangelique has, though. Think it's still on CR. Angelique is a lot silly but I have fun with it anyway.

Kiniro no Koruda (Corda D'Oro) and Haruka did a bit better, there are English manga volumes for both and the anime series were both released in the west - though with Haruka, it's only the Hachiyoushou series from Haruka 1 and the specials from 3 (the best release) have never got out of Japan. I brought one back with me from when I was there, as well as the Haruka 1 movie complete with Suefumi plush

Kiniro no Koruda 1 and 3 have both been on CR and thus pretty mainstreamed.

But all the extraneous stuff - live events, music CDs, drama cds, etc - are all Japan only.

And then there's Sotsugyou M, another series (from around 2000) that I got into because of seiyuu, that has literally nothing released in English. The (very bad) OVA is/was on YT with fansubs but the manga, novels, drama CDs (in which the real characters/story reside) never got a release here.

I think that's a sign of the time it was released. Now it might've made it because of the increased exposure manga gets through sites and so on.

The UK was particularly slow in getting anime and manga in stores. It's nice to see more of it now, but 9/10 the series I'm interested in don't show up in the high street. Still, it's something, and having more asian drama/animation on netflix has been a boost as well.

[Ponyfan]

There are so many things Japan has that don't come over into English. I mean, Daiya's manga is literally years behind in translation, and only available digitally I think? Daiya's a longer running series than Haikyuu and massively successful over there, but even in the US, where baseball is a big deal, it hasn't had the attention Haikyuu has. Haikyuu is cool and all, but very safe in comparison to Daiya. Maybe that's part of the reason. I dunno.

All that said, there's so much more now than we had going back even ten years. I'm showing my age now, but I love that it's possible to stream so many series now that would never have made it here before.

I don't understand why there's hasn't been more effort to bring Daiya over in English to as much as some other series.  You're right the English manga is only available as e books and is still in Act 1 (volume 43 comes out this month).   It's not easy to find if you're not looking for it either and even then, it feels like you have to jump through hoops to get to the e books.  Information on new volumes is limited and only appear a few weeks before the release date.  I feel that the only people who are going to go through the effort to find the e books are the ones that are already fans of Daiya.   I'm glad it's available in English in some format in the US, but I don't think it's trying to get new fans, only relying on the established fan base. 

There used to be a Daiya calculator app in the App store but the last time I looked for it, it wasn't there anymore.


Ponyfan