I’ve always assumed this is because english speaking anime culture has its roots in fan subs and “piracy”. The official English names only show up once it is licensed. Creates a bit of a language divide based on how the shows are watched.
I once overheard someone call Aggretsuko "Aggressive Retsuko". An American in America where it's widely known as "Aggretsuko" but he just fucking had to use the original Japanese title
This is usually fine. I say 'usually' because sometimes the English title is generic, inaccurate or downright lame. And sometimes all three, like 'tHe BoY aNd ThE hErOn'. Seriously, whoever thought that was a better title than How do you Live? needs to be [redacted].
"The Boy and the Heron" sounds like a better title imo. It has more marketability for foreign audience. Maybe the original title in Japanese carries weight for Japanese sensibilities, but the title "How Do You Live" in English sounds like a heavy drama, when the movie is an adventure movie.
I just want to be about to find the episode later. I'm going to have a lot more luck with "The Boy and the Heron" than "How do you live?", though both are way better than "Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka" (no way I'm remembering that as an English speaker).
Dont like this guy. if i tell him my favorite movie is whatever and he starts going off about what language im using, i will gladly stay very far away from this person in the future and keep enjoying things in whatever way i want.
Delicious in Dungeon can be shortened as D&D. The author actually came up with the title, they are an old school RPG fan and takes inspiration from them.
But I'm not gonna get anyone to talk about Dan Machi by calling it "Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?" One is a lot easier than another.
Gate keeping anything is a fool's errand. It makes you look more like a jackass than someone with a respectable opinion.
I just only know one of the names half the time, and more often than not that's the japanese one. Same with english movie titles when I'm speaking german.
My ultimate point was call it what you want. Who gives a shit what you call it if both names are ultimately correct and both names are understood by the other person in a conversation?
The point of communication is to be understood. More people will understand what you mean by saying "Kiki's Delivery Service" rather than the untranslated name in Romaji. I'm a huge Ghibli fan, but I've never heard "Majo no Takkyuubin". I know 'majo' means magic, but that's it.
If the person you're talking to knows it by that name, then go ahead. If you're tweeting to a larger audience, it's better to just use English.
I can get behind that logic. And I entirely agree that the point of language is to be understood. I will die on that hill with you. The only reason I bring up Dan Machi is that by using the English name, people judge the anime quickly, when ultimately the anime does not align with its title. In this case, using language to avoid prejudgement makes a difference.
But that is an exception. Not the rule. So in that vein, I concede to your argument.
Danmachi is the shortened name. If you wanted to compare apples to apples, the actual name would be Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka. I think most English speakers would still prefer Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon, but being shortened to danmachi is a bit of an edge case, as the portmanteau doesn't quite carry over
As mentioned deeper in the thread, I agree that this is an edge case. I should have considered that when making my original argument. However, this edge case is brought up in an attempt to explain that not ever scenario should have the same solution. Leading me back to my point, that we should use the names that best serve the purpose of the speaker and/or their audience.
Ultimately, as stated, language is meant to be used for the sake of being understood. I'm not saying use Japanese names because they are better, but because they might be preferred by an individual. And if the audience becomes confused, then perhaps the person using the Japanese name should simply get off their high horse and use the English name instead.
Yup, I'd look it up as "Wrong pickup girls dungeon anime," whereas I'd probably butcher "Danmachi" and probably not recognize it when searching ("Danmachi" doesn't show up anywhere in the title, it's split across two very separated words).
So I absolutely would prefer the English title because I'd probably actually find the anime.
If Japanese is not your first language and you start throwing it around because of cartoons... maybe reconsider your life choices. Specifically consider getting one: it's not all about pointy hair, side mouths, and painfully and autistically explained emotions and social interactions. But hey what do I know, I'm just an outsider to this deep and rich culture... 🙄
That's true, but it only shows results in Japanese. If I'm looking for A Place Further Than The Universe, it's probably the top result, but Sora yori mo Tooi Basho could be anything to these ignorant American eyes
True. It would be nice if they had both names. Usually I know what the thumbnail is supposed to look like so I match it up that way. And for those that I don't, knowing how the search works means I just pick the one at the top first.
Hard for me to imagine a first time user of the site and anime since I've been using it for so long now.
I come from an era before widespread official anime translations, when the only name an anime show had was the original Japanese name. So that's still the paradigm I'm using.
Edit: Out of all the shit I post, I wouldn't have expected this comment to be the controversial one
Sure, there were lots of anime which did have official English names. Hell, I call it Kiki's Delivery Service too. But there were equally many anime which did not have an English name. Particularly the seasonal alring anime which either never got an official release outside of Japan, or only got one long after the airing in Japan had ended.
Exactly. If you want to be a goofy weeb and use the Japanese names for well known (by their English names) anime and sprinkle Japanese words into everyday conversations, go for it, whatever makes you happy.
But don't try to act like you're some og that got bootlegs from Japan before there were subs/dubs and did the translation by hand.
I didn't say there weren't subs, I said there weren't (that many) OFFICIAL translations. Fansubbers rarely called the shows they translated with any other title than the Japanese one.
Well, I never bought any bootlegs, that's even before my time. I'm talking about the time when anime fansubs were distributed digitally as torrents and such. There were lots of fansub groups and by the end almost every anime was getting translated, but the shows were almost never called anything else but the Japanese name by the fan translators.
When I was dodging viruses downloading shit off limewire in the mid 00s, the vast majority of the time I searched for English names, people recommended things in English names, and the title card of the opening credits had a subtitle for the title of the show that everyone knew it by.
You're just being an insufferable "I was into it before it was mainstream" dork.
Why are you being so confrontational about this? Everyone called it oreimo, or baka to test, nobody used "my little sister" or "idiot exam" (I don't even know the official name of this one). You porpusely went to the more mainstream cool stuff to try and "own" the other person.
Just because some shows did have official translations and English names it does not mean that there weren't tons and tons of shows which didn't have any English name.
And you're in a paradigm, because you were into all those deep cuts without a translated name. We've probably never heard of them, because you're into that real shit, right?
Well, some can be lots because the volume is so large. At any rate, it wasn't anywhere close to the majority. The bulk of anime did not have a translated name. Look at the old list of releases of almost any fansub group and you'll be hard pressed to find titles other than the original Japanese one.
Edit 2: I'm not sure how exactly I'm being unclear. All I'm trying to say is, there used to be lots of anime which only got fan translations, no official licensed translations. The fan translation groups almost always referred to the anime with the original Japanese name. Because this was the anime scene I grew up in, I'm just used to that way of doing things.
I mean I know I'm a fucking weeb. Is it my use of the word "paradigm" that made people so mad? My intention was not to do a "before it was cool." I simply wanted to explain my own experiences getting into anime and explain why someone might be more inclined to to use the Japanese names for anime shows: because that's what they got used to back in the day and it stuck.
You call it "backtracking," but I'm just trying to clarify what exactly I was referring to with my comment because many people clearly don't seem to agree with some parts of it.
I'm honestly just very confused because that was my actual experience. Almost always referring to shows using their Japanese titles and searching for Japanese titles on torrent trackers like Tokyotosho and Nyaatorrents.
Edit: Maybe the hangup is in what exactly I mean by "Japanese" title? As in, just because a title is in English doesn't mean it's not the Japanese title. Like Sword Art Online is English but it is also the original Japanese title. No dweeb would call it Soodo Aato Onrain.
Dude, you need to take several deep breaths and then stop harassing this person for having an opinion. It's ok for someone to disagree with your life experiences.
On ProZD's let's play channel they had this exact conversation the other day! SungWon was called out on using the Japanese name and sheepishly explained he watched it before it had an English name. He then chanted weeeeeeb at himself.
As someone who doesn't watch much anime, but does enjoy a show from time to time, if you say the Japanese name, there's no way I'm finding it later. If it's online in text, I can copy/paste, so do what you want online, but please use the English title if you know it.
