5428


A lot of producers these days seem to change the original Japanese name to
English alternatives. Why do they do this? Does this add any value to the name
of the anime in other countries or is it just that it is easier to read for
people outside of japan/otaku society?

Because some of the cases are really weird and in my opinion not necessary. An
example of this would be _"Ace of Diamond"_ also known as _"Diamond no Ace"_.

Is there anything to gain from translating the title? Also, why don't all
series do this?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-08T11:09:13.753
5426
2015-06-14T12:28:17.293
2015-06-14T12:28:17.293
191
1458
question
anime-production
Why do producers translate some anime titles?


Since you don't specify who is "they" I would like to give some insight:

**"they" the English Comercializator** :

  * Promotional/Marketing desition which take into account the public, if the program/title has an extensive fan-base that knows the name by the Japanese title, it would be counter-productive to translating the title and maybe lossing buyers that don't know the "product" by the english title.
  * Attractiveness: some titles are more atractive if they have mixed/full english translation, again a marketing move.

There could be others reasons but most of them will boil down to marketing
tactics to sell, through the Japanese trademark holders may like to
commercialize under a specific name, or, at petition of the author, use a
translation.

**"they" the fan** :

Fans most of the time are purist, and call series by the original Japanese
pronunciation which in some cases is rather painful (any long/big title almost
impossible to pronounce out there?). Short names are also used (ex. PapaKiki)
but most of them are stablished by the Japanese fans rather than the english-
speakers. Through, some fans knows the title both by the translation and
original Japanese, when distributing/discussing the most popular name takes
precedence over the other possible uses.

**other cases** :

Some titles are already in English (or attempt of English), so no translation
is made and is pronounced with correct english. Example of this, english-
speakers may use _Death Note_ instead of _Desu Nōto_ as they would know the
correct pronunciation and was what the author tried to convey.

In this cases, english marketers normally just use the correct english
spelling when commercializing, and the only exception I know is _'Cardcaptor
Sakura'_ which was commercialized as _'Cardcaptors'_.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-08T15:36:34.967
5428
2013-10-08T22:54:42.920
2013-10-08T22:54:42.920
2159
2159
5426
answer