Visual Novels Help You Learn Japanese Names?

[DragonmasterX]

It seems to me, that of all game genres, visual novels are the best genre for learning Japanese names in kanji. Most other genres use katakana for names, unless it's a historical game. For instance, I learned a lot of historical names from:

End of Heian/Beginning of Kamakura:
Yoshitsune Eiyuuden Shura, Yoshitsune Shoujo 2, YoushitsuneKi, Genji

Sengoku:
Sengoku Musou 1,2, Tenkabito, Sengoku Basara, Kessen 3, and Ikusagami

Bakumatsu:
Last Blade 1,2, Way of the Samurai, Rurouni Kenshin, Shinsengumi Gunrouden

But those only good for learning historical names. For more modern names, visual novels are the way to go!

A former English teacher in Japan told me he got good with names by teaching so many 30 student classes. But for many of us, who don't have that privilege; the next best learning tool is visual novels! Some, like Mahou Sensei Negima have 30 girls which means 30 names in kanji to remember! That's just like a real Japanese class!

[AstCd2]

Bear in mind, however, that the names of characters in visual novels are usually pretty outlandish and often feature unconventional pronounciations (TH2's 愛佳（まなか）, for example). Names like 'Saber' and '笹瀬川佐々美' aside, even something like 水瀬名雪 would be considered pretty unusual in real life.

As obscure as historical names can be, I'd probably still favour them over visual novels in terms of educational value, as at least some of them are still in common use today.

[zalas]

And this is why you should practice translating opening and ending credits for anime >_> *runs*

[DragonmasterX]

And this is why you should practice translating opening and ending credits for anime >_> *runs*

Isn't that a little more annoying? By checking the name in a name dictionary, some names might have multiple pronounciations and how do you tell which prnounciation to use? Or do you google the names directly to look for the pronounciation of the name in kana. But that means you have to google every name, and that gets annoying.

With visual novels, all the character names with pronounciations can be found on the official site.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by DragonmasterX

Isn't that a little more annoying? By checking the name in a name dictionary, some names might have multiple pronounciations and how do you tell which prnounciation to use? Or do you google the names directly to look for the pronounciation of the name in kana. But that means you have to google every name, and that gets annoying.

But by doing that, you'll get to know all the quirky ways of pronouncing names, even if they're not the right ones. And yes, when I do credit translations I cross check pretty much everything. The hardest ones to cross check for the opening are the producers. For the ending, pretty much anything other than seiyuu are ridiculously hard to check, except for maybe Kyoto Animation stuff. :D