Unwieldy anime titles and the term 'another world'

ayase

ayase

State Alchemist
Can someone who knows Japanese please send Japan a polite letter telling them to stop including “another world” in the title of every other piece of media they release, or maybe at least consult a thesaurus from time to time if they’re going to be so unoriginal in their titling.
 
ayase said:
Can someone who knows Japanese please send Japan a polite letter telling them to stop including “another world” in the title of every other piece of media they release, or maybe at least consult a thesaurus from time to time if they’re going to be so unoriginal in their titling.
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It appears to be a standing descriptor for parallel universes in Science Fiction, so much I was actually wondering, if there is even another word in usage for it. Turns out there is "Ijegen", which is for diffrent dimensions, though, I guess, it's still not quite saying as much.
 
Neil.T said:
"In Another World with My Thesaurus".
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Argh. I asked for that.

Seriously though, this literalism in titles is getting me down. Whatever happened to just combining English words with zero relevance to the show in question, Japan? Bubblegum Crisis, Cowboy Bebop, that was a naming convention I could get behind.
 
ayase said:
Argh. I asked for that.

Seriously though, this literalism in titles is getting me down. Whatever happened to just combining English words with zero relevance to the show in question, Japan? Bubblegum Crisis, Cowboy Bebop, that was a naming convention I could get behind.
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Probably because Anime got international. Those titles were for fanciness, but now they'd probably fear getting laughed at for illiteracy.
Not that it prevents Shoujos from still having them.
 
ayase said:
Argh. I asked for that.

Seriously though, this literalism in titles is getting me down. Whatever happened to just combining English words with zero relevance to the show in question, Japan? Bubblegum Crisis, Cowboy Bebop, that was a naming convention I could get behind.
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You're telling me Bubblegum Crisis isn't about the world's supply of gum suddenly evaporating overnight and exploring the aftermath of a gumless world? Well, that's that one crossed off the Plan to Watch list...
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
You're telling me Bubblegum Crisis isn't about the world's supply of gum suddenly evaporating overnight and exploring the aftermath of a gumless world? Well, that's that one crossed off the Plan to Watch list...
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Who said it wasn’t? I think I remember priss smoking in 2045/whatever it was, but I don’t remember anyone chewing gum
 
Luna said:
Probably because Anime got international. Those titles were for fanciness, but now they'd probably fear getting laughed at for illiteracy.
Not that it prevents Shoujos from still having them.
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I'm not so sure, I think anyone not familiar with anime would probably laugh at these descriptive titles just as much if not more. It would be like if say, Lord of the Rings was called "That Time I Had to Destroy the Ring of Power Before the Dark Lord Conquered the World" (which for all I know, I suppose might be what it's called in Japan).
 
ayase said:
I'm not so sure, I think anyone not familiar with anime would probably laugh at these descriptive titles just as much if not more. It would be like if say, Lord of the Rings was called "That Time I Had to Destroy the Ring of Power Before the Dark Lord Conquered the World" (which for all I know, I suppose might be what it's called in Japan).
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Avoiding the entire isekai genre wherever possible helps; my current schedule is full of nicely eccentric titles from 'Boogiepop And Others' to 'Dororo', and 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' to 'Double Decker'. The 'another world' shows suffer from similarities which run far deeper than their copy-pasted titles and how the trend is still snowballing without losing momentum baffles me.

The weird titles don't bother me as much as the recent increase in titles written in grammatically-offensive English, like 'How much heavy dumbbells can you lift?', 'And you thought there is never a girl online?' and 'Fireworks, should we see it from the side or the bottom?'. I don't mind deliberately bonkers titles like 'The Legend of the Legendary Heroes' or 'Bobobo-bo bo bobo', but if they're going to be pretentious and use a verbose phrase as an official international title would it kill them to get someone to check whether it makes sense first?

R
 
ayase said:
I'm not so sure, I think anyone not familiar with anime would probably laugh at these descriptive titles just as much if not more. It would be like if say, Lord of the Rings was called "That Time I Had to Destroy the Ring of Power Before the Dark Lord Conquered the World" (which for all I know, I suppose might be what it's called in Japan).
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Actually Western movie titles do get longer descriptive titles in Japan it would seem. (Manga Answerman - Why Do Some Shojo Publishers Use The Same Spine Design For Every Series? names some.)
Though the massively long titles do have some sort of self-irony in there. It probably started with some parody-ish release and than it got a lot of copy cats. I can't really remember what was the first longish title of that style that there was out there. OreImo most likely? (Haven't watched that one though, but it was quite popular.) By its S2, OreGaIru with a long title also aired. In between there were the likes of Chuuniyou demo Koi ga shitai and Hataraku Maou-sama, which are still fairly moderate.
Technically Suzumiya Haruhi's single volume titles are pretty long, too, but they don't fit into that style.

Since we are at that, was there some title that ever beat SukaSuka's monstrous title?
 
I feel as though OreImo was the first big hit (LN to anime) with a ridiculous title. The 'more descriptive' titles referenced in that article are still not all that long in Japanese; the title 'Anna and the Snow Queen' (アナと雪の女王) is only one character longer than 'Frozen' in spite of the density of information contained within. The daft trendy titles which are full of multiple prepositions and other 'filler' words are the ones which get ridiculously long, though even SukaSuka avoided the trap of making its title a referential 'another world' joke.

I should probably split this into a new thread since I'm actively participating in the derailment...

R

(LotR is the more succinct four-character 'Yubiwa Monogatari' in Japanese. It's a shame that the English title of the harem manga 'Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari' went with the literal 'Tales of Wedding Rings' instead of risking re-importing the joke into its translation.)
 
Luna said:
I can't really remember what was the first longish title of that style that there was out there. OreImo most likely?
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Yeah, that's one of the earliest I can remember, but the trend does seem to have taken on a life of its own with Isekai in particular.

Rui said:
Avoiding the entire isekai genre wherever possible helps
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Probably good advice, I've managed to do so without even really trying so far, though I'll still remain aware of them...
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Google translate comes up with Untitled, is that correct? Seems a bit odd as each word individually is Marriage Rings Story.
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I think Google Translate may be confused. Tales of Wedding Rings is a perfectly accurate title - it's just that Lord of the Wedding Rings would be closer to the original gag.

R
 
Rui said:
even SukaSuka avoided the trap of making its title a referential 'another world' joke.
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But the SukaSuka isn't an Isekoi, much like how Danmachi is none.

D1tchd1gger said:
Google translate comes up with Untitled, is that correct? Seems a bit odd as each word individually is Marriage Rings Story.
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kekkon = marriage
yubiwa = (finger) ring
monogatari = story

Not sure what google is trying to tell you.

ayase said:
Probably good advice, I've managed to do so without even really trying so far, though I'll still remain aware of them...
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Isekai in itsel isn't bad though. You know, Digimon was Isekai. Fushigi Yuugi and Escaflowne, which are considered classics (though I didn't like them.) Technically even Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and Mawaru Penguindrum have Isekai pieces in there.
 
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