Talk:Heroes of the Exodus Manga

Note on Genji's Name

Genji is simply a Japanese name. I don't think it's wise to attribute it as being taken from Murasaki's Tale of Genji, as the character in the novel has nothing in common with the character in the manga. As a similar example we ought not assume that Ophelia the barmaid is named for the Shakespearean character, given that she has no personality traits which would suggest a similarity.--Blu3vib3 21:41, 12 February 2011 (PST)

Hi there! In breaching the suggestion in the translation, I wasn't thinking of character traits so much as contexts. It's like if an author of a romance names the heroine "Guinevere"; yeah, maybe they just like the name, but there's an association there of which you'd reasonably expect the author to be conscious. To use your example: in a modern work, Ophelia the barmaid is probably not a reference, no, but Ophelia the heroine of a medieval tragedy almost has to be.

While we're on the subject of names, about Aida: it's not uncommon for manga to make puns in katakana names based on kanji words. Offhand, I can think of a versatile metalworker manga character named Tagak (タガク, tagaku in raw katakana) whose name was a pun on 多 (ta, "many") and 学 (gaku, "study"/"learning"), leading to a portmanteau meaning "many-skilled," and a character named "Rouj" (ロージ, rooji in raw katakana, a pun on 老人, roujin, "old person") who was indeed the elder of his group. In both cases, the artist stated in production notes that the wordplay was intentional. In the Popful Mail game franchise (again, just drawing offhand from things I like), there's a painfully polite magician named Tatto whose name had to be derived from 尊ぶ, tattobu, "to respect" or "to revere," whose root kanji is used in many of the honorific terms of which Tatto is so fond.

As noted in the translation, the choice of the heroine's name is probably a coincidence, but the possibility of an intentional pun is worth noting - perhaps not in a short encyclopedia entry, but in the translation itself, absolutely. I can say that such puns do happen.

(On a third note, my goodness, I did not catch the Nagaraja reference! Must've been distracted by the gentleman's...distinctive appearance. I'll be sure to adjust that.) RACapowski 07:23, 14 February 2011 (PST)

Whoa! Thanks for all the info! I don't actually read Japanese outside of knowing my hirigana/katakana and a few basic kanji and simple words. I've been leaning on my better-versed (but less-Ultima-happy) fiance for input as I try to muddle through. I'll try to rework this all in ASAP. :) --Blu3vib3 13:14, 14 February 2011 (PST)

Ack, a lot of the "info" is just me prattling on. I'm fine with the possible-name-etymology info being left out; the speculation has a place in a translation but might be a bit thorny territory to cross in an encyclopedia entry. Do what you think is best, obviously.

I note I asserted definitively that Genji's name was from the Murasaki tale in the translation - that was a mistake. It's fixed now, along with the Nagaraja edit. (I'm going to have to revise that entire translation eventually due to stiltedness; it's an old work.)

Also fixed: Daranor's name in the U4 manga translation. Man, I was never aware of that character's existence. RACapowski 20:18, 19 February 2011 (PST)