Magnamon the Jihadist

So this is a throwback from my burgeoning adulthood, a card I'd seen from one of my all-time favorite series Digimon.

A little background for the unaware:

Digimon are digital monsters, creatures that exist in a virtual/computer world that have the ability to evolve into superior forms as their energy increases. In the case of this one, Magnamon, a specific lower-level digimon (often one called Veemon) takes hold of something called a digimental (an ancient power object, essentially) and evolves into Magnamon, one of the most powerful digimon in existence.

As a rule of anime in general, whenever there are named attacks, the attacker (often a good guy and often the leader-type) has 必殺技 (hissatsu waza, or a “sure-kill attack”), an attack that completely disarms, makes harmless, or destroys the target.

In the English versions of the cards (and in the anime dub), they've interpreted Magnamon's sure-kill attack to be "Magna Blast". For the record, though, I've included the image of an original Japanese card to show what the original name of the attack is, bringing me to the point of this post.

Anime has been a hot-button topic for a lot of people because the Japanese creators of these manga/shows often seem to have blissful ignorance of what the things they create might mean to audiences outside Japan, or how sensitive they might be to it (at least until the late 90's to early 2000's when it really took off internationally).

I mean, I don't think many Japanese had even thought about jihadism until the IS/ISIS/ISIL agent "Jihadi John" beheaded two of their citizens recently, so Magnamon's "Japanese-language" attack (even though it is, essentially, borrowed English) would barely phase them whereas the rest of the world would probably be in an uproar because of it.

Magnamon's sure-kill attack is エクストリーム・ジハード.

Literal translation into English is "Extreme Jihad."

Expansion: I have been remiss to mention the character of Magnamon is a holy warrior in the card mythology.

Translation Woes

The Best Translation Ever.

http://www.tickld.com/funny/t/841598

This is why one should beware translation requests. That's been a peeve of mine, sometimes. If I want to know what something says and I don't know the language, I seek out the tools to try translating it, not go asking what something says.

Did this person learn nothing in elementary school?!

Taking in The Foreign Content

This half-season of two shows I like, Teen Wolf and Supernatural, decided to take different tacks than what I've known them to do: they've taken elements of foreign mythologies and made plot points out of them.

And for some reason, while I'd enjoyed that fact, it felt a little weird at first. Thinking about that underlying reaction, I had to reflect about that because I also happen to be a somewhat-passionate anime fan. Anime, the animated Japanese-originate phenomenon, often borrows elements from non-Japanese and Japanese mythology and history (often the former) to drive their stories, and it's never felt odd.

One of my favorite anime series is Digimon, and there are thousands of digimon that have names coming from all kinds of sources. For example, you have Sakuyamon, coming from Japan, Wolfmon (pronounced 'vollfmon'), from Germany, and Shinduramon, from India. Another favorite series, The Big O, borrows highly in style and feel from the American cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. Yet with Teen Wolf, bringing in kitsune, oni masks, and demon warriors into the werewolf and coyote spirit mix, and Supernatural having in its most recent episode a Peruvian/Andean beast called a pishtaco, it felt weird for the first couple seconds hearing it.

Might it have been because Teen Wolf and Supernatural, for the majority of their histories, have used United States-based (more or less) creatures, beasts, and myths? That's more than likely probable. Bringing in other bits so late into the game might have been a little jarring, though the anthropology major in me jumps for joy at the chance to learn different aspects of other culture's artefacts and how American writers use them in their creations as much as learning that one of the Pokémon, Ooper, looks like the Mexican amphibian the axolotl.

It might be as well that one's imagination can accept animated series bringing in other myths more easily than a series with human actors. I suppose I should stay tuned to see what other shows I like start importing things, especially the live action ones. 

Exciting stuff!