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german words in animes
Nikkoru:
Why shouldn't they use German? Or also in the case of Bleach, Spanish? They have no obligation to use English simply because it's widely spoken. It's sort of self-involved to think that manga artists should be concerned about using your particular language for their creative aesthetic.
fuentefox:
I think that the addition of extra foreign languages provides a little panache to an anime. I mean it would be acceptable to say something like "Crazy Lightning Ball of Death" but if there were some Germanic word that summed it up and sounded kinda cool wouldn't you say the Germanic equivalent. English is also used enough to the point that it's more commonplace and so perhaps something more foreign a la French or German adds an air of class or mystique. I also think that the American English and British English languages aren't commonly tied to magic or mysticism so a language associated with a deeper, more macabre or midieval past is used for dramatic effect.
quekmeister:
^ I agree with most of that. In a similar way, Western fantasy writers often use old-English and Latin words especially to show arcana.
One example of anime which breaks this trope is Scrapped Princess, where mages simply cast spells by speaking their mind. A good Western author who also averts this is Diana Wynne Jones, (prominently in, but not confined to) her Chrestomanci novels.
Lovedrive:
Because EVERYTHING sounds cooler in German.
Sonderkraftfahrzeug!
c614h2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigo
--- Quote ---In the Meiji era, Japan also had extensive contact with Germany, and gained many loanwords from German, particularly for medicine, which the Japanese learned from the Germans.
--- End quote ---
But in all fairness, I only found that because I know Japanese had borrowed some words from German in the past (e.x. arubaito).
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