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When we look at the title for _Mai-HiME_ and _Mai-Otome_ it's written in 2
ways

  * Mai-HiME/Otome
  * My-HiME/Otome

We can see this in [Manga
Updates](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=114), [My Anime
List](https://myanimelist.net/anime/98/Mai-HiME), [Anime
Planet](https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/my-hime) and
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My-HiME) where either they list the
alternate names showing both Mai and My to making a choice between My or Mai.

When we look at the list of Associated names on Manga Updates it shows

  * 舞-HiME
  * Dancing Princess
  * Mai HiME
  * My HiME
  * My Princess
  * My-HiME
  * Princess Mai

considering that one of the characters (the main one in Mai-HiME) is Tokiha
Mai and the Japanese used for the title is 舞-HiME with [google
translate](https://translate.google.com.au/#ja/en/%E8%88%9E) showing 舞 is
pronounced as "mai" which it translates to "dance", the associated names have
different 3 different meanings

  * Possession of a Princess/Hime
  * Referring to Mai as a Princess/Hime
  * matching the google translation of 舞 (mai)

I am wondering why does sites associate "My" and "Mai" for the title? to me it
seems both "My" and "Mai" give the title different meanings


CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-07T00:59:31.307
44561
2018-02-07T02:41:33.150
1587
question
mai-hime
Why is it both "Mai" and "My" used for the title?


There doesn't seem to be any official word on why both romanizations are used.
However, Funimation's official name for the show is [My-
Hime](https://www.funimation.com/shows/my-hime/), while the technical
romanization of 舞 is mai. As such, it seems as though sites use Mai-Hime
because that is the technically correct romanization of "舞 Hime" and use My-
Hime because that's the title that companies such as Funimation and Bandai use
for the show (just as how Attack on Titan is also listed as Shingeki no
Kyojin).

EDIT: to add/expand on what Aki Tanaka mentioned from [Japanese
Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%88%9E-HiME#%E6%A6%82%E8%A6%81),
it seems the name is also a pun, where because it's about moe characters, the
creator wanted people to "please find (My) princess (HiME) for oneself"
(approximate translation, because my Japanese is rusty and direct translations
are hard). [HiME](http://mai-otome-hime.wikia.com/wiki/Mai-HiME_terminology)
is also a backronym for Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment, which is the
ability that the main characters have.


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answer