4669


Second to English, German seems to be the most popular foreign language in
anime. You see it in titles, names, and even quite a few characters are of
German descent.

For example, many characters in [_Shingeki no Kyojin_](http://anidb.net/perl-
bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=9541) appear to be German/have German names and
there are a lot of German references. [_Elfen Lied_](http://anidb.net/perl-
bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1544) is also German (translates to "elf/elvish
song").

Is there a reason for this?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2013-08-07T11:01:13.163
4663
2022-01-28T13:08:31.503
2019-07-16T12:20:11.523
2516
66
question
anime-history
Why the popularity of German?


Historically speaking, Germany and Japan have been on friendly terms since the
1930s (and even before), due to their [shared militaristic
ambitions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany%E2%80%93Japan_relations) just
prior to the second world war (which led to their Axis Alliance).

> After the Second World War, the economies of both nations experienced rapid
> recoveries; bilateral relations, now focused on economic issues, were soon
> re-established. Today, Japan and Germany are, respectively, the third and
> fourth largest economies in the world, and benefit greatly from many kinds
> of political, cultural, scientific and economic cooperation.

As a result, there is a lot of cross-cultural sharing, which is why you see a
lot of German outside of just anime as well ([for
example](http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/german.html), the Japanese word for part-
time job (アルバイト) is based off the German word for work (arbeit).


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-07T14:01:52.170
4669
2013-08-07T14:01:52.170
2175
4663
answer


This may supports your theory that an old affection for German ideas exists in
Japan.

As a lawyer, I can add that the Japanese civil law is based on German law to a
significant extent. During the late 19th century, Japanese officials planned
to westernize. As a result, they established a strong scholarly exchange
between the universities of Japan and Western Europe. After the first attempt
to adopt a French inspired system in 1893, Japan enacted a civil code in 1898
in the German fashion. Just imagine, they voluntarily dropped core aspects of
their legal tradition. This does not happen often in world history! I guess
they were totally fascinated by German system... and probably by a lot of
other things, too.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-02T16:38:37.623
11618
2015-04-12T17:44:54.057
2015-04-12T17:44:54.057
1398
6464
4663
answer


From the perspective of someone from Japan, I suppose there are some reasons.

First, the saturation of English names. Because there are quite a lot of
anime/manga contents in Japan, it is really hard to find a new nice English
name for a new character. One handy solutions is to pick a German name.

Second, the ease of pronunciation. Because Japanese language has only 5
vowels: "あいうえお", some European names are a bit hard to hear and/or pronounce
for Japanese-speakers, though most German names are not really hard to
pronounce.

Finally, Japanese just love Germany. They (we) have learned many things like
constitutions, medicals and chemicals from Germany. They also love German
products like BMW automobiles, artificial hearts, etc. and believe Germans are
hard-working, honest and industrious. (Personally, I also rely on German
middle-wares).

I guess past military relationships between Germany and Japan **don't** make
Japanese love Germany, because Japanese regret WW2 and grieve what happened in
Europe. Years ago, a Japanese comedian said black jokes which affirm the Axis
on TV (of course, he was just joking). After that, he was heavily criticized
and had to apologize in public.

Anyways today's era is wonderful because we all can talk about anime and manga
here, isn't it. See you. ;)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-12T16:29:57.940
20792
2015-04-12T22:46:00.117
2015-04-12T22:46:00.117
13871
13871
4663
answer


From a German POV:

Shortly after the opening to Japan in 1853, the Norddeutsche Bund, a group of
several Northern German countries (including Luxembourg) that was the pre-
organisation of the late German Empire tried to make friendship treaties with
Japan like other Western states. Japan said no because the confederation was
quite weak. They made a treaty with Prussia though and started to have a
scientific exchange with it.

Seeing the Prussia and the German states fight in several wars and at the end
becoming united made them think of the new Germany Empire as a militarily
strong country and so, when they went to Europe and America to learn, they
also went to Berlin. The university system, school system, a lot of teaching
books for medicine and other sciences, the constitution in the year 1889 and,
of course, the military was inspired by the Prusso-German system and advised
by German-Jewish advisors.

In WW1, Germany and Japan fought on different sides because Germany tried to
gain power in China. There were German war prisoners in Japan, but they were
treated relatively well, which lead to some of them staying in Japan even
after they were officially released (because in Germany, there was a financial
crisis and a very political insecure situation at that time.)

Then WW2 came and they became friends again, and since then, Germany and Japan
were more-or-less friends. A lot of German cities have Japanese partner
cities, and since both countries had to build up their country, society, and
economy again, there was a lot of economical exchange in the following
decades. :)

I think it also has something to do with the mentality of the countries; both
have a strong working ethos, a relatively strict social system that builds on
politeness and certain aloofness. I suppose that these similarities paired
with the exoticness of being Caucasian make the stereotypical German
interesting and cool for the Japanese that write the manga. Not to forget that
our language is just really badass and beautiful and awesome. ;)


CC BY-SA 4.0
2015-10-19T15:42:24.727
26706
2019-07-16T12:20:14.833
2019-07-16T12:20:14.833
2516
18604
4663
answer


In the old days Germany had al lot of fancy elite schools for the rich. This
is might be the reason behind all of those rich school elite anime with
Germans in them. In general I can only speak for myself and some other
Germans. We love Japanese culture and this might also be the case for some
Japanese Manga autors

this might be helpful

[one of many sources](https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Education-in-
the-20th-century)


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-16T10:31:56.480
53632
2019-07-16T10:31:56.480
48019
4663
answer


German used to be the lingua franca among scholars in Japan, just like Latin
has been in Europe.

So when you want to give things a scholarly vibe in the West, you use Latin
and when you want to do this in Japan you use German.

But unlike with Latin, there's actually still people around that actually
speak German, so you can have German characters in a modern settings without
having to use time travel.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-28T13:08:31.503
66283
2022-01-28T13:08:31.503
22562
4663
answer