quick Japanese translation for anime

[Skade]

I just watched the anime Kaze no Yojimbo, which was pretty good once I got past the first episode and its over use of one particular animation trick. I have not seen the Kurasawa movie it is based on, but I intend to now.

My question is what is "kaze no"? I understand yojimbo to mean basically bodygaurd, and I thought no denoted ownership, but there is not a person or a place called Kaze in the show. is George the English equivalent of Kaze?`

 

[LightPhoenix]

My question is what is "kaze no"? I understand yojimbo to mean basically bodygaurd, and I thought no denoted ownership, but there is not a person or a place called Kaze in the show. is George the English equivalent of Kaze?`

"No", if I recall correctly, basically means "of"... it's a possesive indicator. Kaze no Yojimbo would translate loosely as "bodyguard of Kaze" (or whatever kaze is)

 

[RangerWickett]

"No", if I recall correctly, basically means "of"... it's a possesive indicator. Kaze no Yojimbo would translate loosely as "bodyguard of Kaze" (or whatever kaze is)

Kaze, in the most common form that I'm familiar with, is 'wind.' As in kamikaze (divine wind). Also, 'Kaze o hiite imasu' is 'to catch a cold.'

 

[s/LaSH]

'Kamikaze'... should have spotted that as one of the few Japanese words I can remember. (And for those Dragonball watchers, note how they carefully didn't translate Kami.)

Anyway, between reading the query and everyone else posting, I remembered the opening title for Neon Genesis Evangelion mentions kaze, so I hauled out my lyric sheet and indeed 'aoi kaze ga ima' is the first line of the first verse, translating (presumably roughly) to 'although the blue wind now'. So there's another source for Wind.

 

[Alzrius]

(And for those Dragonball watchers, note how they carefully didn't translate Kami.)

It would have been rather hard for them to do so, since the only thing he's ever referred to as is "Kami-sama" (with "-sama" being an honorific). The interesting thing to note is that "Kami-sama" means "God" (yes, with a capital G) - so given the especially non-omnipotent/omniscient/omnibenevolent nature of the DBZ Kami-sama, the American editors were probably wise to stick with his literal, phonetic name.

 

[barsoomcore]

Yeah, people seem to have it down.

"Kaze no Yojimbo" means "Guardian of the Wind", or "Warrior of the Wind".

 

[Uzumaki]

Yeah, 'kaze' is wind. As for 'no,' it's a particle the connects two nouns. The exact role it takes depends (like so much other syuff in Japanese) on the context of the rest of the sentence. Usually, though, it functions as eveyone else here has said as "of" or an "(apostrophe)s" if you want to translate it into more acceptable English.

 

[Darkness]

(And for those Dragonball watchers, note how they carefully didn't translate Kami.)

Interesting.

'course, they did translate him in the German version. In which Mr. Satan also wasn't renamed to 'Hercule'.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

I would have gone with 'God' for Kami-sama (but see where you might be forced to go with "Kami-sama" for marketing reasons in the US with so many ultra-sensitive people) but I agree with changing Mr. Satan. He really doesn't have anything to do with Satan, the name was created for Japanese audiences and it has a totally different nuance in English. I'm a strong believer that sometimes Japanese character creators need to be protected from their own stupid names.

 

[Alzrius]

Ibut I agree with changing Mr. Satan. He really doesn't have anything to do with Satan, the name was created for Japanese audiences and it has a totally different nuance in English. I'm a strong believer that sometimes Japanese character creators need to be protected from their own stupid names.

To be fair, Toriyama loves giving his characters joke names, usually on a similar theme for characters we meet at certain places, or are parts of a certain organization. Mr. Satan was apparently on the "diabolic" theme, despite his character having nothing to really do with that (but hey, it's not like Freeza had any particular cold-based power either). Don't forget that Mr. Satan's daughter is named Videl, an anagram of "devil".

And also, the entire anime/manga was created for Japanese audiences. Virtually no writers/animators make their anime/manga with specific thoughts of how well it will sell outside Japan.