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Yen Press licenses Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery
TrueShadow:
Crow Sky Dog Reporter, Aya Shameimaru
Lt Colonel Summers:
--- Quote from: TrueShadow on May 29, 2017, 05:35:44 PM ---Crow Sky Dog Reporter, Aya Shameimaru
--- End quote ---
They might go with "Sky Elf" if they don't want to sound ridiculously silly.
Speaking of which, at least they're not going the 4Kids route of butchering all things non-American. :V
Adding to that...
Kappa > goblins
Youkai > monsters
Youma books > evil/demon tomes
Umatsuki > horse-head phantom
That's all I got at the moment...
TresserT:
Honestly.... I never understood why some things were translated as they are in the first place. Certain things like Amanojaku or Kappa or Tengu have no obvious western equivalent, but really, what's wrong with translating "youkai" as "monster"? They pretty much have the same connotation, especially with things like pokemon and monster rancher being popular in the west...
It's even funnier, since we translate certain things, like Inchling, Celestial, or Hermit, which have pretty different connotations than the original word. Not that I'm suggesting these get changed, it's just kind of like, why get so worked up if someone has an equally valid, just different interpretation of a word?
TrueShadow:
As an Asian, what connotations do 'hermit' have in the West? I've always thought of them as those guys who train in some secluded places to get superpowers.
What's the original words for Celestial and Lunarians again?
TresserT:
In the west, hermit really just means someone who secludes themselves from the rest of the world. Think, like, hermit crab. They hide in their shells. The word has a somewhat religious meaning, sometimes. It does describe people like Miko very well, it just doesn't exactly have quite the same meaning as the original word.
Celestial is Tennin (天人). I'm no translator at all, mind you. It's just that Celestial has connotations in English that don't really apply to touhou Celestials. Celestial usually refers either to space, such as the planets or stars, or godly beings. Like, "Holy Being" or "Angel" give a similar impression, I think. If you're using it in the second sense, it's a pretty Christian thing.
Lunarian is Tsukibito (月人), which I think probably gets the same point across.
And again, not that I'm really trying to argue that these words should be changed, cause they do get across the point pretty well. It's the opposite, actually, I think it's silly that someone would say "translating youkai into monster is dumb", since monster is close enough to youkai, just like how celestial is close enough to tennin and hermit is close enough to sennin. It feels kind of like a double standard, almost.