Forum - View topicBouken De-show De-show vs. Bouken Desho Desho
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Calathan
 SubscriberPosts: 9112 |
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I noticed this error report where there was a link to animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=381872#381872 . Despite the Japanese CD showing the song's name as "Bouken De-show De-show", I think ANN has made the wrong decision in going with that name.
First, the official U.S. version of the same CD in Dormcat's post consistently calls the song "Bouken Desho Desho". I know ANN generally uses offical English names for the titles of anime (i.e. for the encyclopedia page names), so I don't see why it should be different for songs. I don't know if ANN has an actual policy for songs on using offical English language names vs. transliterations by Japanese companies, but I think I would prefer the offical English transliteration. A native English speaker would be confused when seeing that the name ANN has doesn't match what is on their CD, but conversely a native Japanese speaker visiting the site is probably going to just read the Japanese characters and not notice the English transliteration. Second, if you want to buy a copy of the CD, you will have a much easier time if you look for it under the name "Bouken Desho Desho" than if you look for the name "Bouken De-show De-show". ANN's release page lists it as "Bouken Desho Desho", and several of the sites selling it there list it as "Bouken Desho Desho". Furthermore, I tried searching both www.amazon.com and amazon.com.jp for "Bouken Desho Desho" and "Bouken De-show De-show". In both cases, "Bouken Desho Desho" got me the CD (both the U.S. and Japanese versions on both sites), while "Bouken De-show De-show" didn't get either version of the CD on either site. I just don't think we should use a name for the song that isn't the name you can buy it under (that is what really pushed me into deciding to make this thread). In fact, the inability to buy the CD under the title Bouken De-show De-show has me wondering if maybe that was just put on the Japanese CD to make sure Japanese speakers got the pun, and wasn't actually intended as an official transliteration of the name. Finally, Bouken Desho Desho is used so much more often than Bouken De-show De-show throughout the Internet (754,000 Google hits vs. 14,200 Google hits) that I think it would be confusing to people to not use Bouken Desho Desho. I'm not sure if that is something we should take into consideration, but I thought I would point it out. Also, regardless of which name we use here, I just want to mention that by Wikipedia guidelines "Bōken Desho Desho" is the name that should be used there, so you can expect people who visit Wikipedia to keep wanting to use that name. I also think Dormcat's suggestion that she would ban people who keep reporting the name as erroneous (in the post I linked to) is unreasonable, as anyone with the U.S. verison of the CD is going to see the name "Bouken Desho Desho". I don't know if Dormcat has actually banned anyone for that since making that post, but I just don't think it is reasonable to do so even if you disagree with me and want to keep the name Bouken De-show De-show. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Our own style guide is to use revised hepburn which would actually make it "Bōken Desho Desho".
What we do here depends on whether we want to go down the "use official spelling" or "use standardised romanization" route. Danbooru (page safe for work, site not) uses the latter with a few exceptions: "For Japanese names, the Danbooru standard takes precedence over any officially provided spelling." I don't think we have an official policy on this matter. |
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Calathan
Subscriber Posts: 9112 |
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I was thinking more about whether we would want to use the official Japanese spelling or official U.S. spelling for De-show/Desho. The question of Bōken vs. Bouken is another question on top of that. Personally I prefer the ou because it is easier to type and a lot of websites get confused if you put in an ō (e.g. Amazon changes the ō to some sort of arrow when I try searching for a title with an ō in it). But if the style guide here calls for an ō then maybe we should go with that.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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If ANN is officially set to serve the need of US English speaker above everything else then I shall resign. |
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Calathan
Subscriber Posts: 9112 |
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Dormcat, it seems from your response that you are upset by my suggestion that we use the U.S. name in this case, and if so I apologize. However, I never suggested anywhere that ANN should exclusively serve the need of the U.S. English speaker, or anything close to that, and I don't really understand what prompted this response. I'm honestly not even sure if you are upset because you think I am advocating the U.S. transliteration over a transliteration used by English speakers in other countries, or if you are upset because of my suggestion that a native Japanese speaker wouldn't be very concerned with the transliteration. It has seemed to me that ANN tends to use U.S. names for things (e.g. Tweeny Witches as opposed to Mahō Shōjo Tai Arusu), which was why I was suggesting that songs would be the same way, but if there isn't such a policy then I didn't mean to advocate one be instated. Regardless, I was really hoping to get your opinion on this specific case of this one song, as you seemed to be the person most strongly in favor of "Bouken De-show De-show". I still feel that Bouken Desho Desho is a more useful transliteration, not only for English language speakers in the U.S. but for anyone wanting to buy the CD anywhere who would want to search for it using a romaji transliteration. Given that in my opinion both are official transliterations, I think the one that is more commonly used and more useful for buying the CD is the one we should go with. If you think there are good reasons why that should not be the case (for this specific song), then I was hoping you would state them. |
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