0

There is an anime named "はるかなレシーブ" this season. While the official English name is just using the Romaji (i.e. Harukana Receive) instead of translating the meaning, from the Chinese official translation, it seems that the name of the anime means "Haruka's Receive". As the main character is named Ozora Haruka, I guess this translation is correct?

If that's the correct meaning, then my question will be why な instead of の is used to connect the 2 nouns? (i.e. why "はるかなレシーブ" but not "はるかのレシーブ"?)

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Why would you base your argument on the Chinese translation in the first place? Translation is a translation.

「はるかなレシーブ」= 「はる」+「かな」+「レシーブ」

「はるかなレシーブ」≠ 「はるか」+「な」+「レシーブ」

That is because the names of the two main characters are:

大空{おおぞら} 遥{はるか}

and

比嘉{ひが} かなた

That is 「はるか」 and 「かなた」.

Thus, 「はるかな」= 「はる」+「かな」

There never was a reason to name the story 「はるかのレシーブ」.

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    to be fair to the poster, unless you're aware that this kind of "name conflation" is sometimes done (we do it in English too, sometimes) and unless you knew off the top of your head that the other main character's name was something beginning with かな, a beginner in Japanese might naturally assume that there was a play on words going on, with only that one character's name. Had her name been はるこ、はるあ or anything but はるか, it might have been more obvious.
    – ericfromabeno
    Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 13:57
  • Thanks for your answer, but I refer to the translation because I don't understand what it means in Japanese, and dictionary don't tell what is "はるかな". (and choosing Chinese because it is my mother language) However, I understand translation may not be directly reflecting the meaning in Japanese, that's why my first question is if the translation is showing the Japanese meaning. With that consideration in mind, I think using translation as a reference is not that bad?
    – cytsunny
    Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 14:30
  • 4
    If the Chinese translation is actually "Haruka's Receive" then that's a bad translation and the fault lies there.
    – Kurausukun
    Commented Aug 6, 2018 at 14:40
  • 1
    It could also have been a choice to give it a name that wasn't a direct translation, which happens frequently in other cases (e.g. almost every Disney film's Japanese title, many Ghibli films' English titles).
    – ConMan
    Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 3:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .