Why do Japanese developers love giving foreign characters super complicated names?

[Kawasumi]

I would try to make a chuunige purely in german and market it only to the japanese audience, people would buy it only because its in german. And then they will have a german chuuni forum where they talk about how hard it is to learn german.

[Clephas]

The funny thing is that that might actually work, lol. 

 

Edit: To clarify, this is a tendency that actually appeals to most modern cultures with a strong entertainment industry and a love for melodrama...  the love of long names is pretty much universal to lovers of high fantasy and historical fiction, lol. 

 

Edit2: Also, it is a function of the German language, which has a tendency to create lots of really long compound words rather than create new words from scratch...  For all that the Germans themselves tend toward efficiency as a society, their language is the exact reverse, from what I've studied.

[XReaper]

i would say they name them that way, because the character in question is most likely a foreigner or to make them fit better into the overall setting (medieval world, fantasy, exchange student etc). other reason is simply that japanese people, like other in cultures as well, are interested in the unknown or have a faible for exotic appearaces.

[Satsuki]

i would say they name them that way, because the character in question is most likely a foreigner

That's in the thread's title...

[XReaper]

aye overlooked it, but still, isnt it normal to have them common names from where they are? would find it abit weird if we have a russian exchange student named hayato, or if he/she would be named in the easiest & most generic way, just saying...

edit: NOT every russian for example, goes by the name of boris, or olga...

edit2: dont think them names in the links are that complicated, as they sound halfway normal to me.

[ittaku]

To Japanese, all foreign names are foreign. If they want to add a character that's Russian they'll use a Russian name. If English speaking, an English sounding name. It only sounds strange to English speakers if they come across a non-English, non-Japanese name in a Japanese VN. To the Japanese, an English name is as foreign sounding as a Russian name.

[Decay]

Do Russians commonly use their entire names? Most anglophones will never even mention their middle name except in very rare circumstances.

 

The only problem I have with foreign names in Japanese media are how incredibly generic the english names are. But that's to be expected.

[Silvz]

My only problem with them is like they speak the name as if it was japanese

[Flutterz]

Do Russians commonly use their entire names? Most anglophones will never even mention their middle name except in very rare circumstances.

 

The only problem I have with foreign names in Japanese media are how incredibly generic the english names are. But that's to be expected.

In Russian the respectful way to address a stranger, especially one of superior status, is to call them by their name + middle name (which is always a patronym so for example Kudryavka Anatolyevna Strugatskaya's father's name is Anatoly). You rarely use the first, middle, and last name, though.

[Satsuki]

Russian is difficult, huh...

[Flutterz]

Russian is difficult, huh...

Yup

[Nashetania]

Russian is difficult, huh...

Every Slavic language is.

[Clephas]

My only problem with them is like they speak the name as if it was japanese

Generally speaking, there are very few cultures that make an effort to speak foreign names correctly.

[Yeah Way]

Why are their names for English-speaking foreigners always so damn weird though?

 

Patty? Shirley? L Lawliet? The most normal name I've encountered is Chris, from 'Symphonic Rain'; and he's supposed to be Italian, ffs. xD

 

Also, holy shit, I just found the first ever actual English speaker I've ever seen in an anime.

Like seriously, is it that hard for these companies to find someone who talks proper English, or does it just not matter to them at all? They always just seem to get their usual VAs to talk some Engrish.

[wyldstrykr]

it is like the "keytrain of blinkahhh daggahhh" from the advertisement of wodota......

[ittaku]

Like seriously, is it that hard for these companies to find someone who talks proper English, or does it just not matter to them at all? They always just seem to get their usual VAs to talk some Engrish.

 

Japanese understand Engrish spoken with a Japanese accent better than they understand proper English. For the bulk of their target audience, getting native English speakers to do the English dialogue would actually make it harder for them to understand. Of course they can/do use Japanese subtitles, but that's not universal and doesn't change the understandability of the spoken dialogue to those who do know some English.

[Sparkker]

It's probably just uncommon names or names we don't usually encounter. It's harder for us to pronounce since we don't speak it in syllables or something like that.

[firecat]

i know the problem, english ways is about rules that has to follow. in other countries, they do not follow the english rules but the way in which their language should be follow. remember english was never meant to be a language, its more like a code for the military. if you were to spoke english in the war days of british vs (name eu area here) you would likely be killed for being in the military.

 

so yes english is a mistake to begin with, you americans never knew that and decided to use it 

[fapaczer]

i dont have a problem with actually pronouncing their names because im polish and polish and russian languages are both slavic, so it depends on the person

[Yeah Way]

Japanese understand Engrish spoken with a Japanese accent better than they understand proper English. For the bulk of their target audience, getting native English speakers to do the English dialogue would actually make it harder for them to understand. Of course they can/do use Japanese subtitles, but that's not universal and doesn't change the understandability of the spoken dialogue to those who do know some English.

I'd actually never thought of this. I suppose I was presuming that the intention was always for it to be incomprehensible anyway, but your argument makes sense.