Forum - View topic#9685 Merhen Ōkoku Error in Title
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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It's a German word, spelled Märchen, not Merhen.
Remember, Märchen is always with you~. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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IIRC from seeing things like this come up before, the problem is that, in Japanese, it is written "Merhen" (メルヘン is ME RU HE N). And a quick google search doesn't give me any official sources that have it written in romaji.
A similar, but opposite situation, would be the multiple Weiß Kreuz series. The Japanese title is ヴァイスクロイツ (VA I SU KU RO I TSU), but it is regularly written Weiß Kreuz in multiple official Japanese sources and merchandising. Therefore, Weiß Kreuz is the official romaji spelling. Whereas with Merhen, there is no official Japanese source confirming Merhen or Madchen, so the encyclopedia goes with the romaji of the Japanese title. That being said, this entry does look confusing, it looks like it's a single entry in an anthology series (like World Fairy Tales), and probably needs some cleaning up. |
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jymmy
Posts: 1244 |
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That argument doesn't really make sense. You're claiming ambiguity where there isn't any. メルヘン is how Märchen is written in Japanese and it doesn't mean anything else. There's no need for an official romaji spelling (German, actually), because you already know what it is.
Pretend for a moment that there actually weren't an official English rendering of "Cowboy Bebop". It would be silly to say it should be Kauboi Biboppu in lieu of an official English title, because it's obvious exactly what the title is and it couldn't reasonably be anything else. Whoever created the page obviously just didn't know that メルヘン was a katakana rendering of a German word which is relatively commonly used in Japanese as a loanword. Mädchen is a different word entirely and would be rendered in katakana differently. |
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Dessa
Posts: 4438 |
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That's not what I'm saying at all.
ヴァイスクロイツ is written, in official Japanese media, merchandise, releases, etc, as Weiß Kreuz. Therefore, Weiß Kreuz is listed as the romaji spelling of ヴァイスクロイツ, because that is what the creators have officially indicated is the "correct" spelling. For メルヘン王国, there is no official spelling from the Japanese source. So it's spelled as the transliteration rules dictate, which is "Merhen." Unless you can find an official Japanese source that lists the name differently... |
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horseradish
Posts: 574 Location: Bay Area |
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Toei simply lists anime#9685 with the English title "WORLD FAIRY TALE SERIES".
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/lineup/tv/merhen/ http://lineup.toei-anim.co.jp/en/tv/merhen/ http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=299 Well...two URLs have "merhen" in the address. 
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jymmy
Posts: 1244 |
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So even when there's no reasonable doubt about something, you can't correct an obvious error without an official source? It's a real word you can find in a dictionary, not an invented term or something that could be from several different languages.
But whatever. I reported an error as instructed when I spotted one. If that's the way the encyclopaedia is run and an official source which probably doesn't exist is required to fix a spelling mistake ("Merhen" is also wrong), then so be it. I've already spent more time writing these two follow-up posts than is worth it, and I'm not interested in discussing it further. edit: horseradish's post came in between beginning and finishing my post. I guess that's the official title, then, and Meruhen is the rendering in romaji (which is not the same thing as just writing the title in English; see my Cowboy Bebop / Kauboi Biboppu comparison earlier). |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2939 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I've gone ahead and added Märchen as jymmy is right, this is the common katana rendering of the word and is obviously applicable to the title itself. The "Merhen" version used in the URLs seems like it's also common even with the intention is Märchen (example, this sandwich shop: http://www.meruhenk.co.jp/) but this seems more like typical playful Japanese linguistics and not a reflection of "merhen/meruhen" being a legitimate word in any sense. Sometimes common sense wins out.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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For the record, those "Meisaku" and "Fairy Tales" title can be really confusing to Encyclopedia contributors. This specific one has less problems thanks to its later production date (1990s) and by the veteran and giant Toei keeping records on their database, but many older titles animated by smaller studios are suffering due to their vintage and based on similar sets of popular folk tales. Early adaptation / licensing / heavy editing by Western countries makes it even more chaotic.
I'm still looking for sources other than Planète Jeunesse and Wikipedia in French for its broadcast date it France; so far, no Japanese source I've visited has mentioned this 5-month gap or the French (co-)production and/or advance licensing. |
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