The problem with blindly naming characters things in Japanese...

[amae]

..is that you'll later read some of the names and realize how horrifically hilarious they are. One particular moment happened this year during one of my Japanese classes. See, way back in the day I had this character named Jishin back in the day. Jishin's not that bad of a name admittedly, especially if you don't imagine it has any kanji and thus don't try to attach a meaning to it (otherwise, yeah..."self confidence"? "accident"? yeah.) But of course, I couldn't be satisfied with just that, no, Jishin was only a nickname.

His real name was Jishinkaminarikajioyaji.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyway, during this class we had just finished reading a short scary story and were discussing scary things in Japanese. At one point my teacher puts this word up: 地震雷火事親父. AKA "Jishinkaminarikajioyaji". She explains that it's a proverb describing things that are generally feared such as earthquakes (jishin), thunder (kaminari), fires (kaji) and...one's father (oyaji).

Needless to say I had to try very hard to not burst out laughing in class.

I have a lot more characters with ridiculous Japanese names, but I think poor Jishin had the worst of it.

*gets back to work*

Comments

[phoenixflorid.livejournal.com]

Oh jesus I try not to think about it.

Which is impossible now that I'm revisiting Manmaru/"Wayward Souls" because everybody had a fucking Japanese-word name.

[maiteoida.livejournal.com]

Hey, I tried to switch it up a bit sometimes! Aan and Maite aren't that bad...! Admittedly Atlantys is, and it's not even Japanese lol.

If I tried to explain to you how I came up with Noiraika's name...y'know what, I'm just gonna let that stay untouched.

*is really happy you're returning to the Manmaru world btw*

[phoenixflorid.livejournal.com]

FRENCH AND JAPANESE = FRAPANESE.

Oh man, stupid Manmaru, I can't leave it alone. (in regards to your post: "manmaru" is japanese for "circle" aurgh)

Also I think I'm liking my do-over so far? :Da I get excited about redesigning the characters, lol.

[maiteoida.livejournal.com]

Hey, but at least it's an exact circle...only perfection for us. Only perfection.

Is it just the Wayward souls people you're recycling? I just realized that I inadvertently recycled Atlan for the comic pitch I'm working on...um.

[phoenixflorid.livejournal.com]

The original set of gods from Cursed Blessings are all making an appearance (um.. I sort of kill Yashoku as a big part of the plot, is that okay?). Akaimu has a cameo at the very beginning. Uh. Other than that I haven't thought much about it :D

[maiteoida.livejournal.com]

I see how it is...you just wanted me GONE, didn't you? D:

Totally fine, it's not like she was a particularly fleshed out character of mine or anything lol.

All of this is making me nostalgic...I'd reread Cursed Blessings and Wayward Souls but I'm terrified of reading my old writing because wow do not want.

[phoenixflorid.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought I'd ask anyway, to be polite! lol

Oh my god tell me about it. It's terribly painful to read that stuff again XD; Uhhh.... we were creative, to say the least.

[eclectic-gi.livejournal.com]

=) XD

I love when stuff like that happens. It just makes things in the world, so much more amusing.

[cetriya.livejournal.com]

My character "Lai" used to be called "shichime" with a last name I dont remember (thought the current Silversten, isnt that great either).

I believe I was worse when doing names that wasn't realy japanese like " Yotsurei Fyzonxi". explain me that?

and other retarded names (that I might use for comedy) like "Shiriri" "Jiman" "Tatsuteko" and other such non sense.

But why so long of a name?