User talk:Fast Moon

Welcome

Welcome
Welcome to InuYasha Wiki! I just read your profile and am very pleased to have someone who has such an experience in Japanese-English translation in the wiki. Thank you! Ryoga Godai (talk)  13:34, July 14, 2012 (UTC)

Re: "Saiten"
You're my hero. Damaijin (talk) 12:43, March 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * Heh, thanks, at least someone appreciates it. Your original question was valid and correct and a simple enough thing to fix, so I have no idea why it blew up the way it did. *checks the edit history for the "Saiten" page* Oh, that's why. Fast Moon (talk) 21:44, March 22, 2013 (UTC)


 * Oh, yeah, you noticed that too, huh? That's why I made the comment about her being right. Which is actually why I'm here. I'm sorry I got your argument killed. Although I will say I don't think it would have mattered how well you argued the point. I could tell when she said, "you obviously missed my point so let repeat it for you" that she wasn't changing jack. That's why I dropped the subject. But then you picked it up and argued the point better than I ever could have. And then I got smart-mouthed and wrecked it for you. Sorry. Damaijin (talk) 22:18, March 23, 2013 (UTC)
 * Eh, no hard feelings. It was obvious long before then that this was one of those "you can't reason someone out of an opinion they weren't reasoned into" situations. I ran into exactly the same problem, with exactly the same "I don't care if it's wrong, it's what lots of people believe, so it stays" argument when I tried to rewrite the Lord of the Western Lands page to indicate that the term is from the fandom, not the series (check out its talk page to see what I mean). I came armed with a buttload of evidence to argue my case, but it was an act of futility as all my carefully-worded arguments were dismissed by ignoring everything I said in favor of dismantling an argument I never made. The entire reason I joined this Wiki in the first place was because of the rampant fanon and overreaching fan speculation that I wanted to correct, but I've been thwarted at most every turn by people more concerned with preserving content that's popular over content that's accurate.
 * I'm half-tempted to make a satirical request to have the page Inu no Taishō renamed "Inutaisho", using the exact logic thwarting me on the Seiten page. "Inutaisho" is, by far, the most popular method fans use to refer to Inuyasha's father, if DeviantArt and Tumblr tags are any indication. Even though it, like "Saiten", is a fan misspelling of a canon term. It's more popular than the correct spelling, so wouldn't using the right term be confusing to people using the wrong term? "Inu no Taisho" is a Japanese transliteration, after all, so it should be irrelevant when deciding what to call him in English, right? This Wiki isn't about being accurate and informative, it's about preserving and perpetuating the misguided opinions of the fandom!
 * Also the demand for someone with credentials to settle the argument just made me laugh. Apparently someone didn't bother to check my profile (I rarely ever pull creds since I strictly argue from evidence, not authority, and I get the feeling that even flashing my "Translator" badge at this point won't do anything) Fast Moon (talk) 00:46, March 24, 2013 (UTC)

I just read that talk page, and you're right: it's total crap. You know, I didn't even know that page existed? I always watch my anime in Japanese, so the idea that there could even be a title like that never even occurred to me. And you're right twice: the misconception probably came up because the English title "Lord" doesn't necessarily carry the same connotations as the Japanese honorific "sama". Yet another reason why trusting the English dub pronunciation of "Saiten" to be accurate is--to use your phrase--patently absurd. Damaijin (talk) 02:51, March 24, 2013 (UTC)
 * To their credit(?), the "Lord of the Western Lands" thing predates the English dub of the anime. I started watching the series fansubbed in 2000 or so and I remember "Lord of the West" already being rather prevalent online at that time.  I'd assumed that I simply hadn't gotten to the part where he was called that yet, but once I caught up with all the episodes, I discovered that nothing even resembling such a title was ever mentioned.  I asked a Japanese Inuyasha blogger about it a few weeks ago to get her input on how Sesshoumaru and his father's positions were interpreted by their native culture.  She confirmed that really the only solid things you could garner from the series were that Inuyasha's father lived in the west, he was powerful, and he was the head of the family (according to her, the term "Taishou" doesn't even necessarily have to be a military rank, and can be interpreted as broadly as "patriarch").  So whether he was a supreme military dictator of a region of the country, or just some strong guy who happened to live there and had social clout, it's all up to fan interpretation because the series doesn't say either way.
 * But for whatever reason, this fandom in particular is rife with misinterpretations and outright fabrications that nevertheless spread like wildfire until they're so ingrained in the fandom consciousness, there's battles like this one over correcting them. It got so bad that a group of us on DeviantArt made a series of comics illustrating many popular fan misconceptions. Fast Moon (talk) 15:40, March 24, 2013 (UTC)

Takemaru
Hey Fast Moon. Does "Takemaru" have an exact meaning? I know -maru is a suffix added to male names (?), but that's all. I thought I'd ask you because you have experience as a translator :) Ryoga (talk) 11:35, March 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, Ryoga. Takemaru's full name in Japanese is "Setsuna no Takemaru" (刹那猛丸), which the English version translates as "Takemaru of Setsuna" (in ancient times, most people aside from nobility did not have surnames, and instead would identify themselves by where they were from). Therefore, "Setsuna" is the name of a place, and "Takemaru" means "Ferocity". Fast Moon (talk) 21:56, March 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Fast Moon. So, what should I write in the "literal meaning" field of the infobox? Would "Ferocity of Setsuna" be enough? Btw, are you a member of Perfect Edition too? Ryoga (talk) 11:26, March 27, 2013 (UTC)
 * I thought we had already had this conversation, but Setsuna is just the place and/or clan that Takemaru is from, so it wouldn't be included in the translation of his name.--Suzaku 朱雀 Maze Castle 13:07, March 27, 2013 (UTC)

Lord of the Western Lands (ROUND II)
I just wanted to let you know that I rebooted the discussion. Damaijin (talk) 22:17, March 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, Suzaku is still having none of it. I made the most minimal edit possible to correct the page, and she immediately reverted it (as she's done to probably 90% of the edits to remove fanon that I've made on this site).  It's laughable that she's complaining that the majority of my contributions to the site have been in the talk pages, when she's the one perpetuating them.  I'll edit a page, she'll revert it, then I'll take to the talk page to state my case and bring forward my citations and evidence, and she will proceed to ignore them and declare that I'm not allowed to edit the page.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  I wouldn't have to spend so much time on the talk pages if she didn't constantly force me there by following me around and undoing all my edits. x_x Fast Moon (talk) 02:55, March 26, 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I saw that. And I kinda wasn't surprised he reverted it. You kinda made the fans sound like idiots. Just a little bit, LOL. Damaijin (talk) 23:40, March 26, 2013 (UTC)

In Need of Your Expertise...
Just a small question to put to that big translator brain of yours: Kotodama no Nenju. When I checked my JED it said kotodama meant "language power", so that's how I translated it on the page. But I think I vaguely recall seeing "kotodama" being translated as "magic word" somewhere else. What's the word? (Pun intended! Yuk, yuk!) Damaijin (talk) 23:34, March 26, 2013 (UTC)
 * "Kotodama" literally means "word spirit", and is used to refer to the power of the spoken word. It doesn't really translate as a specific term in English, it's more of an idea.  So, really, either translation will work. Fast Moon (talk) 00:18, March 27, 2013 (UTC)