(no subject)
Jun. 6th, 2005 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bobcatmoranI was bitten by a Fullmetal Alchemist plot bunny while hiking around the park over the weekend, and I've gotten it to sit still for long enough to let me try and get it on paper. Normally, I'm against the use of Japanese in settings where Japanese is not the native language--in FMA, it's made pretty clear that the language they're using is actually either English or something extraordinarily like it if you look at any of the written material that shows up onscreen in the anime and, if I remember correctly, in the manga as well. However, as I've been writing, Al keeps referring to his brother as "Niisan," and I have no problem with it.
If you haven't seen the anime, the two main characters are the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric. Ed is older by about a year. In the original Japanese manga and anime, Al refers to his older brother as "Niisan," or "Niichan" when they're younger. I've seen all sorts of ways that fan translations and fanfics deal with this. "Brother" seems to be the most common one, although I've also seen people use "Older brother," his brother's name, and "Bro," which I think sounds very un-Al like and very like something I'd expect from a Ninja Turtle. The official manga translation uses "Big brother," which, while it is an accurate translation, gets kind of clunky in a lot of situations.
In fact, using any permutation of "Brother" as a substitute for Al's "Niisan" bugs me. I have never heard a native English speaker call their siblings "Sister" or "Brother." "Niisan," "Neesan," and various forms of those terms are perfectly normal terms for Japanese speakers to use for their older siblings (my grandma's sisters still call her "Neechan"), but the equivilant English terms don't have the same common usage.
Of course, there is the option of just having Al call his brother "Ed," which he does do on occasion even in the Japanese, but I kind of like the more intimate feeling of "Niisan." Maybe I don't find the usage of this Japanese word stuck in an otherwise all-English fic jarring because I grew up speaking all English, except for family terms used for the Japanese side of my family. I have a Baachan and Jiichan on one side, Grandma and Grandpa on the other. Or maybe I'm just a hypocrite for claiming that "Niisan" is okay because it has no good English equivilant, but Japanese honorifics have no place in an FMA fic.
If you haven't seen the anime, the two main characters are the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric. Ed is older by about a year. In the original Japanese manga and anime, Al refers to his older brother as "Niisan," or "Niichan" when they're younger. I've seen all sorts of ways that fan translations and fanfics deal with this. "Brother" seems to be the most common one, although I've also seen people use "Older brother," his brother's name, and "Bro," which I think sounds very un-Al like and very like something I'd expect from a Ninja Turtle. The official manga translation uses "Big brother," which, while it is an accurate translation, gets kind of clunky in a lot of situations.
In fact, using any permutation of "Brother" as a substitute for Al's "Niisan" bugs me. I have never heard a native English speaker call their siblings "Sister" or "Brother." "Niisan," "Neesan," and various forms of those terms are perfectly normal terms for Japanese speakers to use for their older siblings (my grandma's sisters still call her "Neechan"), but the equivilant English terms don't have the same common usage.
Of course, there is the option of just having Al call his brother "Ed," which he does do on occasion even in the Japanese, but I kind of like the more intimate feeling of "Niisan." Maybe I don't find the usage of this Japanese word stuck in an otherwise all-English fic jarring because I grew up speaking all English, except for family terms used for the Japanese side of my family. I have a Baachan and Jiichan on one side, Grandma and Grandpa on the other. Or maybe I'm just a hypocrite for claiming that "Niisan" is okay because it has no good English equivilant, but Japanese honorifics have no place in an FMA fic.
