Confusing Terms (Archive Repost - MSN)
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:39 am
This is just something I came up with that I thought would be helpful. Please exscuse my speling errors, I don't have a spell checker handy.
The name of this group is Japanese, and there's a lot of terms floating around, so for people who aren't die-hard fans of Lodoss War, I thought I'd make a little guide to the terms. Now I'm no Japanese language scholar, but this this is just what I gather from knowing some basic conversational "where's the bathroom?" words from the language and using Japanese to English dictionaries.
Eiyuu Kishi Den (Kishiden) : This is a subtitle to the Lodoss War TV series. Chronicles of the Heroic Knight is the translated version. I believe that it's closer to something like "Heroic Knight Legend" but I dunno.
Eiyuu: hero, great man
Kishi: Knight
Lodoss Shima Senki: This translated to "Lodoss Island War Record," (I think) which was turned around to sound better as "Record of Lodoss War."
Neece-chan: "Little Neece" In order tell Neece (the high priestess) and Neece (the female lead) apart, the latter was reffered to as "Neece-chan" which is just a common endearment that the Japanese use for a small child or a girl. Since the English language doesn't use suffixes for terms of endearment like that, it's common for characters in translations to say "little" before the name instead. That's why it's a little awkward but now, hopefully, you will understand better!
Kiseki no Umi: Miracle (of the) Ocean
Other common terms:
Anime: "animation." Calling anime a cartoon isn't sacralidge like everyone seems to think. In Japan, they refer to all animation as anime, including Warner Brothers or Disney.
Manga: "Comics." Like the word "comics," manga started out meaning something light-hearted or humourous in nature, but now it applies to all graphic literature, sequential art, comic books, funny pages, whatever you want to call it.
Hentai: Perverted, a pervert, pornography. You can call someone a "hentai" and you can call perverted pictures "hentai."
Kawai: A term that means "cute."
Otaku: A person who's obsessed with someone, not necesarily anime. Like "geek" or "nerd." Otaku is actually an insulting term, but some people call themselves otaku. It literally means "house" and the reason it is used to describe people is these geeks stay at home all day obsessing over something. In the west, it's come to be a word with no negative side hat means anime fan. (Kind of ironic, most people that call themselves that would complain about bad translations.)
Sakura: cherry blossom
Shojo: "girl." It can also mean a genre aimed at a girl audience. Shoujo manga is very stylistic and usually has characters with flowing hair, impossibly long legs and wide shoulders, huge watery eyes, and lots of random sparkles and flowers. Deedlit's Tale is a shoujo manga.
Shonen: "boy." It too can refer to a genre, typically having a lot of action and probably some big robots.
Other terms not Japanese:
OAV: Original Animation Video -- There is a market for straight-to-video releases when it comes to anime. OAVs are anime series that never aired on telivision. They are ussually shorter, and have a higher quality of artwork.
The name of this group is Japanese, and there's a lot of terms floating around, so for people who aren't die-hard fans of Lodoss War, I thought I'd make a little guide to the terms. Now I'm no Japanese language scholar, but this this is just what I gather from knowing some basic conversational "where's the bathroom?" words from the language and using Japanese to English dictionaries.
Eiyuu Kishi Den (Kishiden) : This is a subtitle to the Lodoss War TV series. Chronicles of the Heroic Knight is the translated version. I believe that it's closer to something like "Heroic Knight Legend" but I dunno.
Eiyuu: hero, great man
Kishi: Knight
Lodoss Shima Senki: This translated to "Lodoss Island War Record," (I think) which was turned around to sound better as "Record of Lodoss War."
Neece-chan: "Little Neece" In order tell Neece (the high priestess) and Neece (the female lead) apart, the latter was reffered to as "Neece-chan" which is just a common endearment that the Japanese use for a small child or a girl. Since the English language doesn't use suffixes for terms of endearment like that, it's common for characters in translations to say "little" before the name instead. That's why it's a little awkward but now, hopefully, you will understand better!
Kiseki no Umi: Miracle (of the) Ocean
Other common terms:
Anime: "animation." Calling anime a cartoon isn't sacralidge like everyone seems to think. In Japan, they refer to all animation as anime, including Warner Brothers or Disney.
Manga: "Comics." Like the word "comics," manga started out meaning something light-hearted or humourous in nature, but now it applies to all graphic literature, sequential art, comic books, funny pages, whatever you want to call it.
Hentai: Perverted, a pervert, pornography. You can call someone a "hentai" and you can call perverted pictures "hentai."
Kawai: A term that means "cute."
Otaku: A person who's obsessed with someone, not necesarily anime. Like "geek" or "nerd." Otaku is actually an insulting term, but some people call themselves otaku. It literally means "house" and the reason it is used to describe people is these geeks stay at home all day obsessing over something. In the west, it's come to be a word with no negative side hat means anime fan. (Kind of ironic, most people that call themselves that would complain about bad translations.)
Sakura: cherry blossom
Shojo: "girl." It can also mean a genre aimed at a girl audience. Shoujo manga is very stylistic and usually has characters with flowing hair, impossibly long legs and wide shoulders, huge watery eyes, and lots of random sparkles and flowers. Deedlit's Tale is a shoujo manga.
Shonen: "boy." It too can refer to a genre, typically having a lot of action and probably some big robots.
Other terms not Japanese:
OAV: Original Animation Video -- There is a market for straight-to-video releases when it comes to anime. OAVs are anime series that never aired on telivision. They are ussually shorter, and have a higher quality of artwork.
