How do you like Japanese to be treated in your Naruto fanfiction? It seems to vary in both fanfiction and online translations of the manga, so there's often inconsistencies in what's written in English and in Japanese. This applies to other anime/manga fanfiction but Naruto is most common.

In the past, I was fairly adamant about having what I read in Japanese but more recently I've gotten a lot more open-minded about it. Sometimes it just sounds better in Japanese but other times I find myself wanting it in English because it's simpler and easier to understand. And when I think about writing it, I find it hard to decide whether I want to go through the hassle of butchering Japanese for something that sounds right or sticking with English. But sometimes it's just awkward in English like how "Nidaime-sama" sounds fine but "Second-sama/Lord Second" would sound bizarre.

So I wanted to know what readers and writers of Naruto prefer:

How do you want honorifics e.g. Hokage-sama or Lord Hokage?

How do you want titles e.g. Kyuubi/Kyuubi no Youko or Nine Tails/Nine Tailed Demon Fox?

How do you want nicknames e.g. Sabaku no Gaara or Gaara of the Desert?

How do you want the character names e.g Ei or A/Maito Gai or Might Guy?

How do you want the country names e.g. Hi no Kuni or Land of Fire/Fire Country?

How do you want the village names e.g. Konoha/Konohagakure/Konohagakure no Sato or the Leaf/Hidden Leaf/Village Hidden in the Leaves?

How do you want the jutsu names e.g. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu or Shadow Clone Jutsu? And if in Japanese, would you include/want the translation somewhere?

Do you go all English, all Japanese or do you mix and match?

 

I would prefer everything to be in English.

So, Lord Hokage, Nine Tails, Gaara of the Desert, Might Guy, Shadow Clone Technique.

I'd even go as far as to change sensei to teacher.

 

I prefer Japanese. I'm used to it from the manga translations I read and it just feels weird with the English translations. If the author invents a new technique I'd like to see a translations in the AN.

 

Jutsu, Suffix's, and Titles are all fine.

But using baka or teme is going too far.

 

It depends

Honorifics are usually kept, not just in fanfiction, but also in Japanese to English translations of anime, manga and visual novels - and for good reason. They have meanings subtly different from the English words we use to replace them. The honorific -sama, for instance, denotes great respect for the person addressed; "Lord", on the other hand, is a title and has numerous political connotations not made by -sama. Other common honorifics (-san, -kun, -chan, -sensei) or pronouns (ototo, oneesan, otousan) imply subtle degrees of familiarity, respect and intimacy - which will be lost if replaced. For instance, Itachi calling Sasuke "Ototo" shows their intimiacy and an older brother's affection; him calling Sasuke "Little Brother", conversely, implies an aloof distance.

On the other hand - for cases where using the literal English translation doesn't change the meaning of the words (Name, titles, epithets), I think using the English translation is preferable, for the clarity it brings.

Regardless, I don't think it's tenable to maintain that every idea or word be expressed by a literal translation to English. Where will it end? Fire Shadow for Hokage? Ocean Waves for Namikaze? Steamed fishcake for Naruto?

I would be interested seeing the efforts of a person trying to translate every last Japanese loanword into English.

The Adventures of Steamed Fishcake, anyone? Join Steamed Fishcake as he strives to become a Person who Endures, within the Hidden Leaf Village. He gets on a team with Teacher Scarecrow, the asshole Fan and his love interest Cherry Blossom.

 

I think Lionheart tried doing that for Chunin Exam Day. I'm having horrible flashbacks of Naruto yelling "Spiraling Sphere!" every time he used a Rasengan.

 

I kind of hate Naruto (well, like most shonen stuff it's decent enough when it starts out but it gets retarded fast), but this applies to anything translated from Japanese. I find it very irritating when they put the "samas" and "sans" and "chans" after names, or use obviously Japanese terminology when English words for it already exist. We have our own wording for those meanings. Unless there's a good reason for it, it's unnecessary and just makes you seem like a dumbass weeaboo. So yes, going by your examples I'd much prefer "Lord Hokage," "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox," etc.

 

My take on it is basically "is the word in question a proper noun?". Proper nouns should remain in their original language (see: Hokage, Kyuubi no Kitsune, Rasengan, etc), while everything else is translated. There shouldn't be any suffixes, especially when the author doesn't know wtf they actually mean, any random Japanese insults, etc. It makes the story confusing and distracting to read, and that should be avoided as much as possible.

Unless there's an actual purpose to the language, like in a crossover that introduces a language barrier. Then it's fine to include the Japanese pretty heavily.

 

I agree with Luckylee, except jutsus should have English names. Otherwise you end up with stories full of made up techniques in glossaries at the end of each chapter.

Character names/nicknames should definitely be Japanese though.

 

Proper nouns and suffixes are about the limit of what I can take. I don't mind the suffixes because, really, they're a more accurate way of showing social status/relationships in the culture of the story (this applies to all anime/manga). I try to choose the precise word for what I mean in real life as much as in text as well, so I'm not going to fault people for doing the same in their story.

Of course that's only if they get it right. Getting it wrong, repeatedly, is as bad as getting character names wrong to me.

 

I can't even think of how many times I've seen "nee-san/sama" and "nii-san/sama" swapped.

 

Well, I'm fine with the keeping the Japanese things in there (especially nouns), just as long as Hinata doesn't start every damn sentence with "A-ano...", or if Naruto and Sasuke don't go around using "teme" and "dobe" as a suffix every time they refer to each other.

Also, if characters sweatdrop or faceplant, I stop reading immediately.

 

Yeah, that's painful to read. People just need to realize that sight gags don't work the same way when written.

 

In my case, it is that proper nouns sound better in japanese but that they can be translated to English if there is more than one word in the name ans should definitely be translated if the names are made out of more than three words.

For honorifics they are ok if they transmit meaning that is relevant for the story but lose ground depending if they can be replaced by English words. So -sama should be okay though it can be omitted if you use really formal speech when addressing them, -chan too since it is a way to talk to kids and girls but lose meaning as the ones speaking get older as it can be replaced by flirtation unless one wants to be condescending.
-kun stays if you are using -chan or if you want to make a distinction between familiarity (no honorifics to those closer to the character but with honorifics if wanting to keep distance). I wanted to write a Naruto next generation a while back and I needed the honorifics to make a joke about familiarity but couldn't be bothered to use them all the time. At the time I didn't come up with a solution but if I tried to rewrite it today I would put a character reflecting on how it is becoming rarer for people to use them except when talking to strangers, so that when someone used them in story it was either a character trait (traditional education, reads old novels, keeps everyone at a distance) or something of the moment to mark an interaction between the characters and use it for comedy with sudden change of distance when one does something awkward (from no honorifics to treating him as if they barely know each other)
-san doesn't give you that much information that you can't give another way so it would be used as -kun above but less often, similarly for -dono. Though -dono is bearable to mark extremely formal characters (another trait!) -san doesn't show quite as much so I don't like to see it since it would mean that it will either appear a lot, tiring me, or that the author will be inconsistent with how they use it, only putting it if they remember or want to show just how Japanese Naruto is in a certain scene.

Insults should be translated as otherwise it ruins the purpose of the insult, to show that the character is displeased and how much.

For jutsu names usually in Japanese unless they are too long. As a rule it is better to use them all in Japanese or all in English and it depends on how often you use them in a fight. If your writing style wants you to use a jutsu every paragraph or so, then it is better in English to avoid confusion. If you want to milk each one you use and will have to describe them anyways, it it better in Japanese and use a maximum of five words for the names of the new ones, with five being generous. Alternatively, if the jutsu is really well known for the reader then it could be used in Japanese even if the others are in English and treated like a proper noun as long as it is only one word long (as per the rules given above about the treatment of proper nouns). This would work for Rasengan, Chidori, Kirin but not for Kage Bunshin no Jutsu since it is too long.

 

Im fine with both ways, as long as it doesn't get mixed up. "Shadow Clone Jutsu" is a huge turnoff, as is "Kagebunshin Technique". I'm a bit more fussy about the suffixes. How often did I read shit like "Tou-kun"? If suffixes are used correctly and the characters also react towards them, then I'm all for them. If not, don't even bother.

 

On the other hand, I don't mind 'the Body Flicker technique' in place of the Shunshin. I suppose I view it in the same way I do HP spells: Avada Kedavra should always be the proper noun, but the Killing Curse can be used in much the same way.

 

I thought about this a little bit, so I may as well post.

How do you want honorifics e.g. Hokage-sama or Lord Hokage?
This is the big one for me, and pretty much the reason I'm sharing my thoughts: under most situations, I consider honorifics to be a crutch. Most of the time, they realistically don't add anything meaningful to the story that decent writing can do better, and people have a bizarre tendency to fuck them up. That said, I can see where weirdness comes in when you're trying to refer to a Kage by their title. The best workaround I can think of offhand is to just treat the term like you would any normal high ranking official. Throw in a lot of sirs, basically. "Mr. Hokage, sir, [x]?" etc. It's a weird situation all around.

How do you want titles e.g. Kyuubi/Kyuubi no Youko or Nine Tails/Nine Tailed Demon Fox?
If it's a proper noun, don't translate it. I'd include the Kyuubi's title/descriptor in this case.

How do you want nicknames e.g. Sabaku no Gaara or Gaara of the Desert?
Honestly? I'm kinda ambivalent on this. I'd generally prefer it in English, but if you can make it sound decent in Japanese, go for it.

How do you want the character names e.g Ei or A/Maito Gai or Might Guy?
With proper nouns I'd generally prefer them in Japanese, but Gai and A/Bee are basically loan words, so things get muddier. I tend to prefer Gai because it's what I'm used to, but Guy is generally fine too. A, on the other hand, must be translated. It's so clearly a loan word that it makes no sense to leave it in Japanese.

How do you want the country names e.g. Hi no Kuni or Land of Fire/Fire Country? How do you want the village names e.g. Konoha/Konohagakure/Konohagakure no Sato or the Leaf/Hidden Leaf/Village Hidden in the Leaves?
These are basically the same question, so I'll answer them both at the same time: they're proper nouns, so Japanese is generally preferred. That said, feel free to pepper in "land of fire" or whatever as a general descriptor for the area.

How do you want the jutsu names e.g. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu or Shadow Clone Jutsu? And if in Japanese, would you include/want the translation somewhere?
I don't care if you're using English or Japanese so long as you're consistent. When it comes to this, it's all or nothing. Fully Japanese (ala Kage Bunshin no Jutsu), fully English (ala Shadow Clone Technique), or nothing.

Do you go all English, all Japanese or do you mix and match?
I guess I tend to mix and match. Generally speaking, if it's appropriate to translate into English, I'd prefer it in English, but there are places where that's clearly not appropriate.

Also: nakama isn't really special. It really is just friends/comrades/whatever. Don't overthink it. As far as One Piece is concerned, "crew" is a fine translation for that.

 

I'm reminded of this line from Dreaming of Sunshine:

It was basically an excuse not to stick the suffixes all over the place, yeah, but it worked surprisingly well. Relationships were made clear by dialogue and tone, while the few occasions suffixes came up were because they were relevant/added something, not because the author had to spew -san, -chan, and -kun everywhere.