One for the devs: character names through project history

[DuaneMoody]

Taking a break from trolling here. I notice in the earliest sketches Shizune was originally named Rosa. Do the devs have any stories to tell about how the characters got their names (since RAITA didn't name them).

For example, I have no idea whether "Tezuka" is any more common a surname than "Disney."

Also, it's been observed that at least two of the names appear to have been completely made up -- were the weaboos responsible too bored to open a phonebook, or are there clever meanings behind names like "Iwanako" (perhaps implying cold fish once Hisao was in the hospital)?

[Suriko]

Lilly's first proposed name was Sonomi Mamina (from me). That was fairly quickly changed to Lily Sato (a suggestion from Dark Mercury which was accepted by pretty much everyone at the time), which eventually evolved to Lilly Satou.

Relatedly, Akira was the name of a proposed younger brother in her first pitched scenario.

[DuaneMoody]

Back when I was studying Japanese in college we were still romanizing with doubled vowels rather than literal "ou". I wonder how many non-weeaboos still think "shoujo" is pronounced "shoe-jo." (not that "shoojo" doesn't have its own misreadings)

[Aura]

There are multiple names that are very improbable, and yes I suspect they indeed are the product of weeaboos not being savvy enough to know what is a name and what is not. Then again, anime/eroge are known for weird names and writings so we are not too fussed.

I recall the names being very serious business, and one of the first things to voted on back when the project was a horde of anonymous trying get something done.

[DuaneMoody]

Yes, but how did the whole Rosa/Shizune thing go? Was there initially a sentiment that they should all have Western first names?

[JamiroquaiAlien]

I wonder how many non-weeaboos still think "shoujo" is pronounced "shoe-jo." (not that "shoojo" doesn't have its own misreadings)

Fuck.

I mean, uh... I knew all along.

[Caesius]

What would possibly make someone pronounce "shou" as "shoe"?

[Aura]

Shizune was renamed thus because it was weird to have two girls with western flower names.

What would possibly make someone pronounce "shou" as "shoe"?

I assume the same thing that makes them pronounce anime "any-may"

[Lon]

"Any-may" isn't that terrible. I've heard it rhymed with "a lime".

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

Anime pronouced "uh-neyem"?! O_o Really, someone needs to lurk more...

[Validus Razgriz]

What would possibly make someone pronounce "shou" as "shoe"?

I've been pronouncing it that way. My apologies for taking one year of German instead of Moonspeak in high school.

What is the correct pronunciation for Katawa Shoujo?

[Caesius]

What is the correct pronunciation for Katawa Shoujo?

kah-'tah-wah 'shoh-joh

The "oh" in "shou" is about 1.5x longer than the "oh" in "joh" (Finnish has a similar system for syllable length). Otherwise all syllables are the same length, unless they missed some macrons in "katawa". Not sure about stress, I didn't take moonspeak either - I took 4 years of Latin and 1 year of French in high school and last fall semester I took German I. And I tend to spend a lot of time on Wikipedia articles relating to language, soooo yeah.

[Aura]

with my crappy IPA, something like [kataw̜a ʃo:dʒo] should be more or less correct.

Pronounciation help with English words/mora is the most retarded idea ever and I want to strangle the person who invented it.

[Validus Razgriz]

At least I was saying Katawa right, lol.

I would love to learn Japanese, then I would be able to play so many videogames that I've been missing out on.

[Caesius]

To be clear, all the "u" does is lengthen the "o" sound; normally lengthened vowels would be represented with a macron i.e. Katawa Shōjo. The other vowels don't have a similar way of lengthening them by adding a letter, so it's kind of dumb to single out "o" for lengthening, but at least it's relatively unambiguous (or so it should be). You can't just double vowels like you would in Finnish either, because doubled vowels in Japanese have a glottal stop between them, changing the meaning - e.g. the difference between "shi" and "shii" is that the former sounds like English "she" while the latter sounds like English "she-e" (the letter "e"), but faster and with a much more subdued glottal stop.

At least I think that's how it is; I'm no expert in Japanese, like I said I just browse Wikipedia.