Shuriken Sentai name discussion topic

[dancercotillion]

Especially don't trust them if the person running them doesn't have a basic knowledge of Japanese (*cough*wikipedia*cough*)

Like that fuckin' sperglord who runs the Toku wikiproject?

[msf232]

I would prefer Ninninger because it looks like more 'Sentai-esque' to me than -ja, but I'll be following the official spelling when it comes out.

[Phoenix512]

It sounds like that most of you want to have the -ger because it's for the sake of it which it's a rather dumb reason. So what if decades of past series have -ger? There have been series that didn't have -ger and some of them were pretty awesome like Jetman and Go-Buster. It doesn't have to be a -ger in it because of the past. Give a better reason for it to be -ger than it's been like that many years now.

[HowlingSnail]

It sounds like that most of you want to have the -ger because it's for the sake of it which it's a rather dumb reason. So what if decades of past series have -ger? There have been series that didn't have -ger and some of them were pretty awesome like Jetman and Go-Buster. It doesn't have to be a -ger in it because of the past. Give a better reason for it to be -ger than it's been like that many years now.

First of all, it's "Go-Busters", not "Go-Buster". Secondly, that's the stupidest thing I've read in a while. You're ignoring that fact that the series' name has "ger" right there in the title. No-one's saying that EVERY Sentai should have "ger" in it. We're saying that if it's there in the Japanese, it should be there in the romanisation. The "ger" is there just like it's been in every series since 2001 bar one. It should be there to be consistent with all of those series. To take that link out would have the same effect as Overtime's multitude of meanings for the word "Sentai", or translating "Zyuden" and "Zyudenryu" as the same thing; to completely remove the fact that they're the same.

The pronunciation argument that people have mentioned doesn't even stand up because those people aren't accounting for the fact that different accents exist. We Brits would pronounce "Ninger" and "Ninja" identically, and anyway, anyone with the slightest iota of intelligence would be able to work out what it's supposed to be.

[takenoko]

Past precedent is important to take into consideration. In this argument, I don't really feel like anything is stupid. Both sides have good reasons backing them up, hence the lively nature of this discussion. It ultimately boils down to preference.

[Kogashi]

Everyone wants it to be 'ger' cause 'well that's how it was for years now' despite the fact that the Japanese is 'jaa' and we translated it into reading 'ger'. This feels like one of the most pronounced of 'does this translate' issues around.

[FirenOh]

IMO if the show is not currently spelling it any different, it should not be translated any different. If there is substantial effort on Toei's part change the naming scheme, then sure Go with Ninninger. If nothing changed from the previous sentais, then no difference is needed in the translation.

[Banjo]

On the one hand I do like Ninninja because it contains "ninja" and that's how it will be pronounced. The team names will end in ninja too, like AkaNinja. But I'm a big fan of official spellings for names, characters, mecha, etc. That way there's no confusion or need for debate. I admit Ninninger does look a bit weird the way it's written out. It's close... but I vote for Ninninja!

[jonty]

The final "ー" is supposed to mirror (or at least evoke) the final sound in other "-Ranger" names, right? My point being that if they were really only concerned with expressing the word "ninja", what would be the point of adding it? (Knowing next to nothing about Japanese, though, let me know if I'm misinterpreting)

So going with "Ninninja", while easily the most aesthetically pleasing and natural sounding/reading option, does lose some of the nuance. (Side note: it's also kind of awkward to read, frankly. All of those Ns flying all over the place like shurikens is kind of disorienting, but I guess that's kind of the fun of alliteration)

But the other options aren't really that great. "Ninninger" restores the "ranger" connotation, but it's kind of clunky and phonetically looks like the G should be pronounced hard since "-ing" is rarely (if ever?) pronounced with a soft G in English. Not that English phonics should dictate how everything goes, but there you go. "Ninninger" also hides the "ninja" part of the portmanteau a tad too much for my liking.

"Ninninjer" is perhaps a decent compromise since the "ninja" part is more obvious and the pronunciation is more straightforward, but for a reason I can't put my finger on, it kind of has an off look to it.

I'm actually surprised they haven't tried to portmanteau "ninja" and "ranger (renjaa)" before.

[takenoko]

>The final "ー" is supposed to mirror (or at least evoke) the final sound in other "-Ranger" names, right? My point being that if they were really only concerned with expressing the word "ninja", what would be the point of adding it?

The honest answer would be, because they want it to end in -ger like ranger. Whether it's out of habit from previous series or because they really want to write it Ninninger, that's probably why there's a line still. But hey, it wouldn't surprise me if they decided to go with ninja anyway because sometimes they ignore that stuff when writing it in English.

[Go-On Macaroni]

(Sorry, I couldn't resist; it's the only thing the topic made me think of)

[Sauce]

I'm late on this but I don't imagine there's any reason they'd end it in ジャー and not have it be "-ger". Obviously the intention is that "ninNINJAa" contains the word ninja but also ends in the same ranger-derived suffix every series besides Busters ended in since 2001. I'm down for "Ninninger" or even "Ninninjer" but I'll need some crappily romanized official material to justify any other transliteration.



...hahah I didn't actually read this thread at all because I was loath to read any dumb proposals before I typed this up but I just scrolled down and jonty pretty much said everything I said but better whoops here's a post anyway swiggity diggity

[rizeveedramon]

What? Why is this even a question? The pattern is obvious and pretty fundamental to the vast majority of Sentai names. They called it ニンニンジャー for a reason, not ニンニンジャ. I haven't seen a single person here give a decent reason why you would ever romanize it as Ninninja besides "Waah I don't like how it looks!", which is irrelevant. Unless Toei makes a conscious effort to make the spelling something unintuitive (like ToQger, for example, which isn't exactly pretty either), then there is absolutely no reason to spell it in a ridiculous way. Even if Toei gives an "official" spelling, it doesn't really mean anything. Unless there is some kind of pun that not a single person has picked up on yet, the correct spelling is Ninninger. That is the spelling that is being used by everyone, and that is the spelling that will continue to be used by everyone regardless of a few naysayers. It's counterintuitive and pretentious to call it anything else in my opinion.

That being said, I would personally prefer if it was romanized as Nin-Ninger, but that's probably not a popular opinion, and I accept that. You "Ninninja" people should do the same.

[takenoko]

It's a discussion man, chill out. It doesn't hurt to think about things in different ways. Open your mind a little, y'know?

Also, ToQger isn't the official Toei spelling, they don't capitalize the q like that. That's just something the fans came up with. And until we see an official spelling, who knows whether it'll be Ninninger or Ninninja. It's pretty hypocritical to say there's a "correct" way of spelling something then to say "the official spelling doesn't matter" or "what's correct is what the fans say". I mean, which is it? It just makes it seem like you believe what is correct is based on completely arbitrary reasons. What's correct depends on a person's reasons, which vary from person to person.

[Sauce]

ToQger isn't the official Toei spelling, they don't capitalize the q like that.

Is there really no material that says ToQger? Weird.