Why do Japanese games use English?

[GaijinPunch]

I guess it couldn't be written properly in Kanji so it was miswritten in japanese, not in english.

I'm confused. What do you mean it couldnt' be written properly in Kanji so was miswritten in Japanese?

It probably started a lot earlier then the post-WWII US occupation of Japan.

Seriously doubt it. Not that the youngsters are any better, but old Japanese people can't speak a lick of English. No joke, I think my in-laws English speakability starts and stops at "hello" and they are not that old. They would've been in school during the post-war occupation. I would like to see when English lessons became a requried course though. I'd bet my house it wasn't before 1945 (if not 1955).

What was the purpose of changing it from "damashii?"

Well for starters, "ii" looks pretty queer in English or other western langauges. The pronunciation? Even worse, and probably lost anyway. Secondly, there really is no "real" way to romanize things. Regardless of what you hear from 3rd your Japanese students, there is no consortium on the subject... there is only what's been used and excepted, but there are obviously deviations. I wish they'd get a policy on middle names for foreigners first though.

[Moogs]

I guess it couldn't be written properly in Kanji so it was miswritten in japanese, not in english.

I'm confused. What do you mean it couldnt' be written properly in Kanji so was miswritten in Japanese?

I'm assuming he meant since there isn't a Kanji character for "damacy" (I'm assuming), they just used the Kanji character for "damashii." What I find even more interesting is that the character is like one stroke different from the one for "katamari."

What was the purpose of changing it from "damashii?"

Well for starters, "ii" looks pretty queer in English or other western langauges. The pronunciation? Even worse, and probably lost anyway. Secondly, there really is no "real" way to romanize things. Regardless of what you hear from 3rd your Japanese students, there is no consortium on the subject... there is only what's been used and excepted, but there are obviously deviations. I wish they'd get a policy on middle names for foreigners first though.

Well, they could have just dropped one "i." The way it's spelled now sounds even sillier to me. I mean, I don't know about every one else, but I can't help but pronounce "damacy" as "duh-may-see," and that just doesn't sound or feel natural to me at all.

But hey, who knows why we all do the things we do?

[GaijinPunch]

They have different radicals... stuff like that can get really tricky. The JLPT 1 will put two kanji like that, then two others, and you have to pick the right one. :/

Anyways, I remember when this came out, and I never reallly thought anything weird until I saw the US release. I'll take it for what it is -- bad (or fashionable?) romanization, and nothing more, and definitely not worth pondering over.

I hear it's a great game. I should pick it up one day.[/quote]

[it290]

Ok, while we're on the subject of 'ii', can someone clarify the name 'Ishii' for me? Because in Kill Bill vol. 1, you can hear the name of Lucy Liu's character being pronounced as 'e-she-e', but I was talking to a Japanese dude a while ago about Ken Ishii, and he pronounced it as 'e-she', which is the way I've always heard the name pronounced. What's the deal?

[GaijinPunch]

It is very likely the same kanji (and pronunciation). It is written as:

石井

石 - ishi
井 - i

Kudos to Ken for pronouncing his name properly. He's a fluent English speaker... I'd expect him to just go the "easy" route.

[Minzoku]

Tangent:

The actual name of Katamari Damacy is....

"Katamari Damacy"

I guess it couldn't be written properly in Kanji so it was miswritten in japanese, not in english. So all of the people writing it like, "Katamari Damashii" just look like futher elitest tools. Don't believe me? Watch the presentation where the creator fires up the first working builds of the game

So what the hell is "damacy" then? What was the purpose of changing it from "damashii?"

I'm confused.

I recall Kiken looked it up and found it was actually "tamashii" [spirit] [Katamari = lump/mass], which is itself an approximation of the Chinese character 魂. Damacy is Chinese, tamashii/damashii is the Japanese approximation of it [there technically is no "cy/si" sound].

The idea is, in Japanese, the similarity of the characters Katamari and Damacy is their version of a pun.

[Moogs]

The brief time I spent studying the Japanese language, I was always under the impression that "ii" signified elongation of that sound, kind of like our "long vowel" sounds in English. As for that wacky Kill Bill pronunciation, I have no idea.

[Zweihander]

You know what irked the fuck out of me?

In the demo/attract mode for Vagrant Story (the Japanese version), there were english subtitles. Tons of stores had the demo running, so I was like, "oh fuck, I'm so buying that shit". I bought it. Took it home. Realized that the intro/attract mode was the only place in the game were there were fucking subtitles and the rest of the game was unsubtitled japanese.

That kinda pissed me off. Eat my ass, Squaresoft

unsubtitled japanese? Vagrant Story never had voices... >_>