

I'm guessing this has something to do with "queer" having political/social
connotations in the West. Or maybe it's a difference of translation? I'm
watching a sub release that uses the former but i've seen the latter used in
various articles and on different websites.


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question
from-the-new-world
Why do some translations call them "Queerrats", while others call them "Monster Rats"?


This is purely a matter of different translators translating a word in
different ways.

The Japanese word in question is バケネズミ（化鼠） _bakenezumi_. This can be taken as
"monster rat1" (化物の鼠) or as "transformed rat" (化けた鼠). It is quite reasonable
to translate _bakenezumi_ as "Monster Rat", but it is also easy to see how a
translator wishing to be a bit more flashy might choose the term "Queerrat"
(with "queer" in the classical sense of "weird, peculiar", not the modern
sense of "homosexual").

This latter choice makes some sense insofar as _bakenezumi_ is (I believe) an
original coining for _From the New World_ , and so it is not a bad idea to
coin an original English word to correspond to it.

It seems unlikely to me that the translators who chose "Queerrat" did so as a
form of social commentary.

* * *

1 Technically, Japanese _nezumi_ can refer to mice, rats, and a number of
related rodenty organisms. If you've watched the entire show, you will
understand why "rat" is the correct choice here.


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