Forum - View topic

Answerman - I've Got A Blank Space Baby

With AoT, perhaps the Japanese decide to use the word "attack" and "titan" because it might sound more appealing/catchy than to use the words "advance" and "giant".

Greed1914 wrote:

I didn't think Angel Beats! was that strange since there is a character named Angel and music is featured heavily in the show, hence "Beats."...

Actually, the latter part of the title most likely comes from the fact that.. (Warning, heavy spoilers!)
spoiler[..after Otonashi died following the train incident, Tenshi was the one who received his heart as a transplant. It's even revealed to the characters themselves at one point when Tenshi doesn't hear his beating heart because it's missing...)]

Fan-speculation at one point was, prior to the revelations, that the title was because of all the bullying Yuri was subjecting Tenshi to ...

Edit; Didn't see Key's post which already explained it.

I haven't seen that one, but given the parameters mentioned, how about "The Girl With Twenty Faces." "Musume" can be used to simply mean "girl," "no" is not necessarily an apostrophe-s, and if she's not the daughter of the "real" Fiend with Twenty Faces whom Edogawa Rampo wrote about, this would seem the way to go about it.

It was just an overall emotionally mature movie, and featured the parents as much as the girl to emphasize the theme of the guesswork in parenting, which should really appeal to those older Oscar voters. I hope it does.

Interesting enough, if you try to look back and think about classic titles like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Mobile Suit Gundam, they don't much sense for native English speakers. English wasn't my first language so a lot of anime titles didn't sound illogical to me in hindsight.

Weird naming is also common in Japanese video games. Bravely Default is a recent one. The game has a Brave-Default battle system, but the name still irks me as an English speaker.

I think my favorite recent strange English title is "Encouragement of Climb."

Key, I can help you with understanding Bleach's title. In addition to what Nonaka Machine Gun B wrote, the title also refers to Ichigo's hair. That's because it looks bleached (at least to other characters), even though it is a natural colour (from his mum's side). Because bleached hair is a supposed sign of delinquency (moreso in Asia than Anglophone countries), Ichigo has been treated poorly by many people.

His teachers thought he was a no good miscreant, and so his good grades are the result of his desire to spite them and prove them wrong. And whenever he walked down the street, thugs would look at him and think he's a fellow hooligan, so they would attack him thinking that he also wants to fight. That's why he learned how to defend himself in a fight even before becoming a shinigami, because he kind of had to.

So yeah, Ichigo's hair explains a lot of about what makes him tick, and also why he has his current rough attitude; he used to be a crybaby, but not anymore. The fact that it got its colouration from his mother made him even more sensitive about it.