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This anime/manga called Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shōmei Shite Mita (seemingly an anime/manga version of the Sheldon and Amy parts of The Big Bang Theory) is translated as 'Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It.'

Now, both the series title and each episode title (for all s1 and s2 so far, except the s1 finale) really begin with the same wording '理系が恋に落ちたので' (Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de).

But the episode titles are translated differently eg 'Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Kaiseki Shite Mita' is translated like 'Science-types Fell in Love, So They Tried to Analyze It.'

Based on the episode title translations, I'd think the series title should be translated like 'Science-types Fell in Love, So They Tried to Prove It.' Currently, the series title is translated to say that

  1. Science as a concept fell in love instead of that 'science-types' fell in love.

  2. 1st person pronoun 'I' tried to do something about it, instead of that 'they' (the 'science-types') tried to do something about it.

Which is right? Both? The series title only? The episode title only?

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Traditionally Japanese schools divide academic subjects into Rikei(理系) and Bunkei(文系). Medicine, science, engineering, etc. are categorized as Rikei and law, economics, literature etc. as Bunkei.

By extension Rikei can mean people majoring in those subjects. A stereotypical image of a Rikei person is logical and generally less emotional (and sometimes otaku-ish) type.

The title clearly refers to a Rikei person/Rikei people, not science itself. Since I don't know the story, I can't tell if the subject is I, but more literally it means A science major (or majors) fell in love. So s/he (they) tries to prove it.

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  • Thanks sundowner. The story is about these 2 STEM graduate students and their colleagues who try to explain love/romance mathematically/scientifically/statistically. Basically like Amy and Sheldon from TBBT. So the translation of episode titles make sense: the rikei people fell in love and so they try to do X (eg analyse something). What I notice is...
    – BCLC
    Apr 19, 2022 at 11:33
  • ...that starting of the show title is the same as the starting of the episode titles (理系が恋に落ちたので) and yet the translations are different. So really the translations of the episode titles are the ones that are correct while the translation of the show title is wrong? (Note: I edited post to include the starting of the titles.)
    – BCLC
    Apr 19, 2022 at 11:33
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    @BCLC Yes, the title is wrong if taken literally and the episode titles as you give are correct. I don't know if it is official though.
    – sundowner
    Apr 19, 2022 at 11:46
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    They're official in as much as they're the titles of the officially licensed English version of the show. It's likely that whoever translated the show title either (a) didn't have enough information or context to know what 理系 referred to, (b) wad relying on an automatic translation, (c) took poetic license with the meaning, (d) didn't have the time (or motivation) to translate it properly, or some combination of the above. When it came to episode titles, there was presumably enough momentum to get past those issues (and probably someone else was doing the translating).
    – ConMan
    Apr 20, 2022 at 5:54
  • @ConMan Ah thanks for commenting. Maybe my question was wrong. The title science instead of science-types could be official English series title, but maybe the science-types instead of science in wikipedia aren't the official english episode titles?
    – BCLC
    May 27, 2022 at 5:16

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