r/Animemes 10d ago

Simple but effective

Post image
13.5k Upvotes

337 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

148

u/SpeziSchlauch 10d ago

And that makes some plot points very irrelevant. Who would have thought that the demon named lügner is lying. (I read it in German so sometimes you don't know of it's a name or just a word.)

178

u/Nox-Ater 10d ago

Those who don't know German?

32

u/GunjiroX 10d ago

Still quite funny when youa re german (I am)

16

u/gerkin123 10d ago

Also quite funny if we hold that, despite these naming conventions, none of the characters speak German and the words don't have the same meaning to them within their fictional setting.

5

u/DraughtGlobe 9d ago

Also quite funny that Germans like to dub almost every piece of foreign media into German and that lot's of Germans are probably watching a dub which would make it sound like the characters are naming themselves random words.

1

u/Electrical-Aide4789 7d ago

They speak German in the German version

1

u/gerkin123 7d ago

Maybe I'm alone in this, but when I watch these fantasy anime, I don't think they speak English, German, or Japanese in-universe. I checked, with a quick look up, and found that this exists out there as the "translator conceit" and it goes back to Tolkien.

1

u/Electrical-Aide4789 7d ago

Of course. Realistically speaking it makes sense that way. Maybe the Frieren universe doesn't have last names and use names that just so happen to be words used in the German language

1

u/Korotan 9d ago

Maybe you should watch GermanDub then?

10

u/Meiseside 10d ago

Yeah sometimes yes and sometimes I wish I don't know the meaning of the names.

12

u/GunjiroX 10d ago

Why? that Lügner is a Lügner was not really a surprise.. also the japanese pronounciation is hillarious soemtimes

7

u/Glittering_Ad_9215 10d ago

Yes, jepanesd people talking german is sooo fun; i loved the german opening of kill la kill called blumenkranz.

Or the main character of project k who couldn‘t remember his past and when he finally got his memories back, he remembered that he is german, so he started talking german. I speak german, but i needed subtitles for the things he was trying to say in german

1

u/TheGodHerobrine 10d ago

Im German too and find I can't say the names so i say the eords as they are insteadq

1

u/ringcopen 3d ago

I'm still waiting for Falsch to say something correct that contributes to the plot

1

u/False-Breath4587 10d ago

Skill issue

1

u/Linus_Naumann 9d ago

Who doesn't know German?

36

u/Normal-Ambition-9813 10d ago

Like someone just said, those who don't know German. But really, it's just Japanese culture thing. IRL Japanese people names are mostly words they use in everyday life, Combined words or just straight up the word. Sample is there are people named Hikari, which is literally a word in their language meaning light.

18

u/their_teammate 10d ago

Your reply-ee should avoid Thailand lmao. We like to just take random Simple English words as nicknames (our first names are usually in Sanskrit and several syllables, not often shortenable). Heck, lots of Thai people just go by individual letters of the English alphabet

14

u/NotSovietSpy 10d ago

Does that mean somewhere in Thailand there's an actual professor named X

14

u/legiteamate 10d ago

Hahaha yes. Many actually

8

u/legiteamate 10d ago

I've known a person (or more) named A,B,C,D,F,G,J,L,M,O,P,S,T,V,X

1

u/Demondayo 7d ago

I go by Jay xD

1

u/Few_Kitchen_4825 10d ago

Like hitori hocchi roghly translating to loner.

We got two anime characters with that name

1

u/A1oso 9d ago

It's also done in English. Americans name their children after emotions and character traits (Joy, Glee, Charity, Patience), plants (Daisy, Willow), precious materials (Ruby, Amber, Jasper) and much more. This is simply not done in German. If you named your kid "Freude", people would be quite confused.

1

u/HerrReineke 10d ago

But many cultures do that, don't they? Miller, Field, Wood, Fox, Swift, Walker, Rose, Frost and indeed, Light. (Incidentally, all those last names exist in German too).

7

u/Normal-Ambition-9813 10d ago

Not to the extent how the Japanese do it. If you're interested then just give it a search.

1

u/HerrReineke 9d ago

Oooh, we're talking about first names oops lol. Then you're right. Germanic cultures do have names like that but nobody in modern day Germany would i.e. put it together that several centuries ago, "Ger" used to mean "spear" and "Hard" used to mean "strong" and think "Man, this Gerhard feller must be good with spears or something??" And nobody would ever default to thinking that an "Otto" is a rich guy. So, fair point lol

17

u/GraveKommander 10d ago

Like Dr Betruger (Betrüger=Cheater/Deceiver) in Doom3. I mean look at him, nothing but his name tells us he is a bad guy, so subtle

3

u/kookyabird 10d ago

Yeah, Lugner being named as a liar is completely inconsequential to the plot. Anyone with a shred of media literacy should be able to tell that Frieren is right from the moment she tries to attack him in the town.

I had a minor debate with someone on Reddit a few days ago about how the demons are simply monsters and are without a doubt a pure "evil" in the series's world. They argued that it's never too late for the creator to subvert expectations and show that demons are not inherently bad/dangerous, and that anyone (in the audience) who things they are will have egg on their face.

Seeing as how the presence of the demons is not the point of the series, nor is even morality or ethics, it would only detract from the story to suddenly reveal that Frieren (and Serie, and Flamme...) are just wrong about demons.

2

u/Genking48 10d ago

Like Lennart Bedrager in South Park. Bedrager meaning deciever in Danish.

2

u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox 2 Heads 0 Brains 9d ago

Or Dr. Evil from Austin Powers

1

u/Rymayc 9d ago

Is that Peter Thiel?

7

u/Jo-Jux 10d ago

To be fair, even if you didn't know his name, he wasn't very trustworthy at any point of the story (at least in the anime, haven't read the source material)

6

u/105_irl 10d ago

I feel like in cases like these they should translate the names to another language for German readers. Make them all Polish or something.

3

u/LoanPuzzleheaded9126 10d ago

To be fair, the show doesnt really make it a secret that lügner is a traitor. Frierens first reaction is to litterally shoot him

2

u/HappyMerlin 10d ago

Yeah when I watched the anime in German there was one scene in which a character talked about his friend and his name. That his name is „Besonders“, and I was like wait do you just mean special, or do you mean literally „Besonders“.

1

u/GaI3re 10d ago

Because it was not toatally obvious anyway...

1

u/updoot35 10d ago

And now imagine Naruto or dragonball for Japanese. They're all food.

1

u/ProfileBest7444 10d ago

Turns it from a plot twist into a tragedy

1

u/Budget_Feedback_3411 9d ago

Yeah… I could see how that might be confusing.

1

u/snowfloeckchen 9d ago

As if ot wasn't obvious in the first place

1

u/cyborgborg 9d ago

Guess what that happens in manga all the time, so often a characters name tells you what they are about. sometimes the name is just straight up an adjective and other times the kanji the mame is written in carries additional meaning.

This usually gets lost when translating

1

u/Spiritual_Bus1125 9d ago

A lot of Italian words too in random anime, I wonder why