Alternate episode title translations (from Gainax!)

[svenge]

I was poking through the old Gainax site ca. 2000 when I found their English-language page for their DVD releases. The interesting thing is that the page had translated episode titles, many of which I'd never seen rendered exactly as such anywhere else (i.e. Hurricane Asuka.) To be honest, I prefer this different translation for Magokoro wo Kimi ni (For You, My Heart and Soul) as it sounds the least artificial of all the ways I've seen it translated (although as a non-Japanese speaker I can't vouch for its accuracy...)

Episode 1: Angel Attack
Episode 2: Unfamilar Ceilings
Episode 3: A Phone That Doesn't Ring
Episode 4: The Rain, After You've Gone
Episode 5: The Other Side of Rei's Heart
Episode 6: Showdown: Tokyo-3
Episode 7: That Which Men Make
Episode 8: Hurricane Asuka
Episode 9: An Instant When Hearts Come Together
Episode 10: Magmadiver
Episode 11: Within the Silent Darkness
Episode 12: The Worth of a Miracle Is
Episode 13: Angel Intrusion
Episode 14: Seele, Throne of the Soul
Episode 15: Lies and Silence
Episode 16: A Sickness Unto Death, And What Came After
Episode 17: Fourth Children
Episode 18: A Choice For Life
Episode 19: A Battle For Men
Episode 20: The Shapes OF Hearts, The Shapes of People
Episode 21: The Birth of NERV
Episode 22: Humanly, If Nothing Else
Episode 23: Tears
Episode 24: The Final Harbinger
Episode 25: The End of the World
Episode 26: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
Episode 25': Air
Episode 26': For You, My Heart and Soul

Source: http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20000309150358/http://www.gainax.co.jp/soft/evadvd/index-e.html

[esselfortium]

The 26' name seems more natural this way, but some of the others are way off. "The Shapes of Hearts, The Shapes of People", "Humanly, If Nothing Else", and "A Battle For Men" are probably not what the titles were intended to mean in Japanese :P

[UrsusArctos]

I'm in agreement. "At least, be human" is way better than "Humanly, if nothing else", and it segues with the English title "Don't be." Seems like whoever translated it didn't ask the Gainax staff about 22's title.

And "Hurricane Asuka" seems more than a little...off.

[Mr. Tines]

And "Hurricane Asuka" seems more than a little...off.

Quite -- it's in the Pacific, so it should be a typhoon.

[UrsusArctos]

Double-checking with our wiki and google, there's no suggestion of a hurricane, typhoon, tropical depression or any other storm in the episode title. "Asuka, Rainichi" very literally means "Asuka comes to Japan" or "Asuka arrives in Japan". Whoever translated it as "Hurricane Asuka" simultaneously read too much into it and messed up their geography.

[svenge]

Double-checking with our wiki and google, there's no suggestion of a hurricane, typhoon, tropical depression or any other storm in the episode title. "Asuka, Rainichi" very literally means "Asuka comes to Japan" or "Asuka arrives in Japan". Whoever translated it as "Hurricane Asuka" simultaneously read too much into it and messed up their geography.

That's most likely true, but then again it *could* be more of a American-style colloquial reference to how Asuka is so forcefully introduced in this episode (using the format of "Hurricane [insert name]" for a nickname). It would also be an analog to the official English title of "Asuka Strikes!"...

[shito]

Since it's Gainax... I'd say it was a reference to Hurricane Polimar

[cd603]

I love the title for episode 26. It just jumps off the page for me.

[tomrule123]

You know, I wonder why Gainax would give two alternative titles for each episode. It's more confusing when this is applied. If one person says the Japanese translated name and the other only got used to the Alternative title, they'll be like "wait, I've never heard of this episode before." What Gainax should've done? Keep only the Japanese titles. (Wait... Funimation did give their alternative titles on DBZ and a few other shows...) ...it now came to my attention that Gainax just gave two titles so that American companies would only choose the English title. Not a bad move, Gainax.

[Ornette]

One title for the first half, one title for the second half.

[tomrule123]

One title for the first half, one title for the second half.

WHAT?! Well, it makes sense now... but why didn't ADV give both titles on their DVDs? Laziness, possibly?

[BrikHaus]

WHAT?! Well, it makes sense now... but why didn't ADV give both titles on their DVDs? Laziness, possibly?

Nobody wants to see each half an episode with multiple titles, because it's pointless.

[NAveryW]

I love the title for episode 26. It just jumps off the page for me.

It's 'cause Harlan Ellison came up with it.

[COACH]

I prefer "The Beast That Shouted I at the Heart of the World." Makes more sense in the context of the episode.

[Born of Lilith]

So... the old translation is just like the newer one, but with worse English?

[rhfxz1s]

Some of these are nice ("Hurricane Asuka", "For You, My Heart and Soul") and actually sound a bit better than the canon ones. Others are definitely sloppy English though, like "That Which Men Make".

[Mr. Tines]

sloppy English though, like "That Which Men Make".

Perfectly grammatical, if perhaps a little archaic.

[Reichu]

I prefer "The Beast That Shouted I at the Heart of the World." Makes more sense in the context of the episode.

In Japanese, "ai" (katakana) acts as a homophone for both "love" and "I", but translations have to pick one or the other, and "love" wins out because of the sci-fi reference.

[Trajan]

I've always liked these episode titles better just because they make more sense within the context of the episode. For instance the "Oral Stage" episode which while Freudian in nature has subject material completely unrelated to the title while "The Shapes of Hearts, the Shapes of People" refers / alludes to the whole Jungian Collective Unconscious plus Shinji is shapeless during the majority of the episode.