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The Title: The actual kanji reading of the title is "Kyuuketsuhime Miyu," which literally translates to "Vampire Princess Miyu." However, the series creator, Kakinouchi Narumi, used a variant reading of "Kyuuketsuki Miyu," which translates to just "Vampire Miyu," and this is the official Japanese title of the series. With the permission of Sooeishinsha, we decided to use "Vampire Princess Miyu" because it more accurately conveyed the original meaning of the Japanese title. "Shinma": We decided to use the term "Shinma" as it appeared in the original because there is no equivalent English term that properly expresses the concept. "Shinma" is in fact a made-up word that was created by Ms. Kakinouchi by combining the kanji for "Kami (God)" and "Ma (Demon/Devil)." As any given kanji may be read one way by itself, and in one or more other ways when used in combination with other kanji, a Japanese writer who decides to coin a new word has a great deal of flexibility in deciding how it will be read. Thus, in "Shinma:" the first kanji, "Kami," is read "Shin." "Larva" and "Lemures": The Japanese language uses fewer distinct sounds than English; one example is the lack of distinction between "R" and "L" sounds in Japanese, which results in the old joke about "Flied Lice." This presents problems for the translator when an English word (especially an obscure one) is rendered in Japanese and subsequently must be converted back into English. What is actually being said in the videos is "Labaa" or "Lavaa" ("B" and "V" are almost indistinguishable in Japanese) and "Remuresu," but there was no clue, either in scripts or other published materials, of the proper English versions. Was "Lavaa" supposed to be "Laba," "Lover," or "Lavah?" We didn't have a clue, so we went right to the source: Ms. Kakinouchi, the author, who provided the correct romanizations. Sometimes, however, even the author doesn't know. Those of you who have seen AnimEigo's subtitled version of "Bubblegum Crisis" will remember the evil Largo from episodes 5 and 6. When we asked Suzuki Toshimichi, the creator, whether it was "Largo" or "Ralgo," his answer was "I never gave it much thought; it just sounded like a good name." Mr. Suzuki was kind enough to choose one of the possibilities to be the official answer. |