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Answerman - How Are Official Names For Anime And Manga Developed?

On occasions where an English title hasn't come up yet, the licensing office will often confer with the US publisher to come up with a name that would suit Americans.

In other cases, the licensor will say, "The English title (or abbreviation) is the official overseas name for the property, so please use that."

I would add that when it comes to different countries using different English titles, the reason usually is that they want to make the title simpler and easier to understand. Not every Italian ten-year-old might know what "delicious" means. But they all know what "food" is.

For example, in Germany To Love-Ru is called "Love Trouble". Re:Zero's first story arc is called "Capital City" instead of "A Day in the Capital". And so on.

Example of this that I noticed: I was buying the manga anthology Dengeki Daioh monthly for a while, and the series Yagate Kimi Ni Naru started taking off. However, it wasn't until Seven Seas licensed it that it got an official English title: Bloom Into You. Once that happened, though, the English title started showing up back in Daioh, like on a clear-file included with the January 2017 issue.

The operative question, if I may say, is whether Rumbling Hearts could have enjoyed a less sentimental name had a similar trans-Pacific conversation occurred beforehand.

So could anyone explain to me what happened to "Recovery of an MMO Junkie?" This is the "official" title on Crunchyroll, but if you watch the actual show, it gives a very different title in English. (I think it was "Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life.") I've heard Crunchyroll helped fund/produce the anime, so why is there disagreement? Will it be fixed when the North American BDs are released?

Case in point: the trailers for those three anime that Crunchyroll is dubbing into French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese all use their English titles: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Rokka -Braves of the Six Flowers, and Schwarzesmarken. Well, OK, the last one isn't English, but it ain't German either (it's a long story…)

IIRC, there was an interview with, I believe it was the director of RoaMJ, who said Crunchyroll, since they were basically co-producing the show, suggested the English title of "Recovery of an MMO Junkie" to reflect the central plot of the show, that of Moriko reentering society after becoming a NEET.

Technically, only Yamada-kun and Schwarzesmarken keeps their original titles, at least in the Spanish dubs. Rokka did get a different name in Spanish.

Regarding this, while I agree when they keep the original name if the name is difficult to translate or its a punny name,

IIRC, there was an interview with, I believe it was the director of RoaMJ, who said Crunchyroll, since they were basically co-producing the show, suggested the English title of "Recovery of an MMO Junkie" to reflect the central plot of the show, that of Moriko reentering society after becoming a NEET. I think it was stated that the original Japanese and English titles, while they described Moriko's attitude towards MMOs, doesn't reflect the plot and can be misleading. Crunchyroll felt that a more descriptive title would help show what the story was about to potential viewers.

On occasions where an English title hasn't come up yet, the licensing office will often confer with the US publisher to come up with a name that would suit Americans. They might have a few suggestions already, and ask for input. The publisher will often come up with some notes and suggestions, and the licensor will take those suggestions back to the original creator. Those suggestions are usually completely ignored and the creators will insist on whatever weird English title they want.