Reason for so many german words in the saga?

[Chris1984]

Hi there,

I was just wondering, why there are soooo many german words used in the entire saga. Either people have german names, or some of them talk german, or even hotels and Co. have respective names.

Best,

Fredi

[Meredius]

I notice a lot of JRPG's/anime tend to have german and french names. Often somewhat bastardised as well... I'm not sure why.

Maybe it's in part a localisation choice for english version of places?

[Gabby]

Fun fact: Modern English actually shared it's roots in Germanic languages.

[myhr2]

Because western Europe is very exotic for japanese people, it works both ways. Liberl and Erebonia do give this "western Europe" vibe, and using actual german and french names help to build this.

And England is heavily associated with the USA, with which Japan relations are a little more complicated than with Europe (aka, it has been conquered by them)

[pibedetorres]

Originally posted by Meredius:

I notice a lot of JRPG's/anime tend to have german and french names. Often somewhat bastardised as well... I'm not sure why.

Maybe it's in part a localisation choice for english version of places?

As far as I know The "German" names in Trails games are also present in the original Japanese script.

As you mentioned, many Japanese videogames and anime make often use of foreign names and terms in their stories, because they all sound kind of exotic to Japanese audience and are considered a good source of words for fantasy setting.

EDIT: Well, myhr was faster XD

[irg Horse Edition]

The established countries of the series tend to parallel real world ones. Erebonia seems to hold the most Germanic influence while Liberl feels a bit more French. Calvard is presumed to be more like USA but with a heavy Eastern influence and population.

It's likely that the Japanese version still isn't what they'd actually be speaking in-universe, at least not for the western side of things we've only seen so far. The only exception may be any martial artists that have kanji show up in their S-Crafts

[HunterRassius]

There's actually a much simpler reason that you often see german words/areas/people being used in Japanese media. Japan still likes Germany. Yes, I typed still. For most of us we haven't experienced things that happened getting closer to a century ago but the world still remembers or perhaps just Japan still does. When nations are being described America is usually the greedy "overlord" or indifferent capitalist out for only personal gain, Britain is an "enemy", Russia an "enemy" and France is a neutral foreign nation (then again they didn't really participate back then...). Germany however, they're the good friend and sometimes it's completely worthwhile to create media in Germany or a German like nation. Pretty sure that shows some *very* clear lines of how they view things no?

The fresh perspective is nice and I can't really say I blame them. I have some germanic ancestry myself and there's a lot of history there. A LOT of history... and the more one learns the better off you are.

[myhr2]

I think you're the one reading too deep into this...Of course, there is no denying that there are some historical influences, but politics of every single country you named are very different that what they were 70 years ago. Western Europe is simply as exotic for Japan nowadays than Japan is exotic for Western Europe.

[pibedetorres]

Originally posted by myhr2:

I think you're the one reading too deep into this...Of course, there is no denying that there are some historical influences, but politics of every single country you named are very different that what they were 70 years ago. Western Europe is simply as exotic for Japan nowadays than Japan is exotic for Western Europe.

I agree. Moreover, many Japanese games and anime set in fantasy worlds specifically make large use of names and words from different languages to better highlight differences between the groups existing in those worlds. The first example that comes to my mind is Bleach, where members of Quincy make large use of German words for their terminology while the hollow/espada are more focused on Spanish words. Why do I still follow that manga I do wonder...

[Domi]

Because after spending so much time reading Bleach, you'd rather endure a few more years and see how it ends than just "giving up". Specially now that we are at the end of the last arc (I think). Don't worry, most of the people that still reads Bleach is doing that.

[HunterRassius]

I've seen too many subtle jabs at America to consider this a real "coincidence" by this point. I'm not saying that suddenly we'd see the exact same "sides" in the next conflict only that not everything has likely been entirely forgotten. I think it's just a simple extension of how the nation views itself and thus dictates how it's media portrays other nation states. In American media America = da best and all other nations are some minor backdrop assuming they're acknowledged at all. In Japanese media Japan is naturally going to be saving the day because they're the best. The lens is different. This isn't necessarily good or bad.

If anything it makes for some amusing conventions. Or what? Do we need examples?

Also Pib you're absolutely crazy for still following Bleach. I'd about had it when Eizen for whatever reason purposely doesn't use his "I win" sword to beat Ichigo... about the most contrived fight i've ever seen.

[pibedetorres]

Originally posted by HunterRassius:

Also Pib you're absolutely crazy for still following Bleach. I'd about had it when Eizen for whatever reason purposely doesn't use his "I win" sword to beat Ichigo... about the most contrived fight i've ever seen.

Ha! Then you missed way worse things from the last arc

[Azerate]

Because Japanese think German/French/Portugese sound cool/distant/alien. So whenever htey need a cool name they will use one of the European languages. It almost feels like ancient Egyptian to them.

[Meredius]

That's odd I saw Liberl as more like a Norwegian country than France.
Switzerland would be that duology Ao no Kiseki.
Cavard sounds french - the wine and eating but it has the martial arts and eastern vibe so.. hmm..
Erebonia as germany sure.

But the point - "We see these names appear often - maybe it's sort of romantic to Japan?!" I find the simple argument of saying that it's exotic a little too easy since that would mean every American or French game would go for asian names to be exotic.

We only get Jack though.... always Jack.... :(

And no I don't want every protagonist to be named Kirito or Kyosuke or whatnot. :P

[DDR]

President Kondo has shared a bit about how Liberl was inspired by real-life countries during the development of the game.

"At first, we were thinking of scenic/beautiful countries like Switzerland and Austria. As we carried on we came up with the setting of a small buffer state surrounded by other mighty countries. And a famous buffer state is Thailand. So what I did was draw a draft map of Liberl while thinking of Thailand's geographical setting." (Source: Interview transcript on Dengeki Online)

Of course this isn't all that related to why they use German words (or at least German-sounding words.)... I just thought it was interesting to share here. I'm not complaining about their choice to use such words because I agree they tend to sound very exotic and cool (maybe because I'm an Asian myself). Air-Letten is therefore my favourite checkpoint in the series :)

[pibedetorres]

Originally posted by Meredius:

That's odd I saw Liberl as more like a Norwegian country than France.
Switzerland would be that duology Ao no Kiseki.
Cavard sounds french - the wine and eating but it has the martial arts and eastern vibe so.. hmm..
Erebonia as germany sure.

But the point - "We see these names appear often - maybe it's sort of romantic to Japan?!" I find the simple argument of saying that it's exotic a little too easy since that would mean every American or French game would go for asian names to be exotic.

We only get Jack though.... always Jack.... :(

And no I don't want every protagonist to be named Kirito or Kyosuke or whatnot. :P

Well, remember that "Western" names in Japanese media are mostly used for fantasy settings, and instead Western games and shows set in fantasy worlds tend to use made-up names because our respective languages allow for completely random names like "Glork the goblin" or names that recall character features or personality ("Shortleg", "Littlefinger" etc.) which aren't really used for "real" names. I'm not completely sure on this, but I think Japanese wouldn't get the same effect if they tried to pull that off with their own language.

Also, we already have an almost infinite source of fantasy names: Celtic languages. Whereas words from Asian languages (particularly Japanese and Chinese) are too radicated in our minds as something linked to those countries and would sound too weird if used in a non-Eastern fantasy setting. I mean, if I heard of a fantasy world where all characters have Japanese or Chinese names I'd just think about a world with cool martial arts and people shooting fire from their fists...[en.wikipedia.org]