Those tiny hiragana/katakana are called âfurigana,â and in most texts, are used as a reading aid to clarify the pronunciation of certain kanji.
However, some creative writers â like Hoshino â have taken to using furigana for other purposes.Â
Hoshinoâs typical trick is to make up brand new terminology by sticking multiple kanji together â the kanji each have a separate meaning, and when you combine them, they imply a certain combined meaning â and then using the furigana to create a pronunciation for the term.Â
For example â Crown ClownÂ
The kanji that Hoshino gives for Crown Clown donât make an actual word in Japanese. She uses the éć from éććž«, which means âclown,â and ç„, the kanji for âgod.â
The furigana she writes next to ç„ăéć is ăŻă©ăŠăłă»ăŻă©ăŠăł, which is âCrown Clown.â (You may notice that is actually the same word twice â itâs because in Japanese, âLâ and âRâ are the same sound.)Â
So the reason people find Hoshino so frustrating to translate is because sheâs, well, very difficult to translate. She pulls linguistic tricks like this all the time, and itâs very hard for non-native speakers to decode some of her terminology. (FYI, she also uses archaic language every now and then, just for added fun.)
TLDR: DGM translations make translators run for the hills. :)
izzy806
jbbartram-illu
titsay
blakekathryn
2087
andulkaphoto
stormborns
