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Hellsing


Susano

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For thsoe who've seen the anime... I just watched all 13 episodes and took 14 pages of notes. Conversion data and world info to follow in the upcoming weeks.

 

I'm wondering if Arucard is going to break 1,000 points... I'm fairly sure he's going to shatter 500 and am pretty sure he will hit near 750.

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Very cool series

1) There are several points in the anime were they hint strongly that Arucard is really Dracula.

2) I hated the ending, which did not, I hear, follow the original manga.

3) IIRC, the BESM writeup of Arucard ended up with more points than Ifurita.

4) I think they got the effects of freak chips wrong in the BESM writeup. From what I saw in the Anime, they artificially trigger vampirism, essentially duplicating the effect of a vampire bite. This disturbed the organisation, as it implided that vampirism was an inherent possibility in everyone, rather than being something alien.

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Originally posted by Jinx999

Very cool series

1) There are several points in the anime were they hint strongly that Arucard is really Dracula.

 

Without a doubt, he is. (IMO)

 

2) I hated the ending, which did not, I hear, follow the original manga.

 

As I understand it, the original managa isn't done yet, which is why season 2 of HELLSING is delayed.

 

3) IIRC, the BESM writeup of Arucard ended up with more points than Ifurita.

4) I think they got the effects of freak chips wrong in the BESM writeup. From what I saw in the Anime, they artificially trigger vampirism, essentially duplicating the effect of a vampire bite. This disturbed the organisation, as it implided that vampirism was an inherent possibility in everyone, rather than being something alien.

 

Sounds about right.

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Please, Susano, don't leave his name Arucard. I don't know what sorry SOB decided that the inability of Japanese voice actors to clearly intone the phonetic "L" should define the characters name, but he should be taught a severe lesson. The name Alucard used by the count when incognito is well established in film and books (Son of Dracula with Lon Chaney Jr was the first place I remember the name Alucard used). I severely doubt that when a Japanese writer (perhaps Shinchiro Watanabe himself) put the name to paper, after referencing any amount of vampire lore, that it was meant to be "Arucard". The scene of the last fight in episode 13 strongly suggests that Alucard is the good count himself. That being so, using his name backwards is a good way to both conceal his identity and suggest his presence.

 

Please, at the very least put a notation in your writiup suggesting that the name "Arucard" might be mispelling of the name Alucard. Thank you and thanks for doing a write-up of Hellsing characters. It's another one of my favorite anime' stories.

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If the original author himself has made a note (not a Translator's note, as is often done) that the name is "Arucard" and not "Alucard" then Arucard it is.

 

However

 

It is a well known fact that the Japanese language does not posses the letter "L" and when mimicking english words that posses the letter "L" they replace it with the letter "R".

 

The Japanese use a system called Katakana to represent words and names they borrow from English and other languages. It is made up of characters that represent sounds...not letters like the Greek Alphabet.

 

If I were to spell my name (Franklin) in Katakana it would come out like this:

 

Fu

Ra

Ka

Ri

N

 

Furakarin. When said quickly enough, it almost sounds like "Franklin", but with a heavy Japanese accent.

 

Thus, the Katakana for "Alucard" would be written as such:

 

A

Ru

Ka

Ru

Do

 

The second "Ru" has the "U" effectively silent, as is the "o" in Do.

(note that in Japanese words cannot end on a consanent except in the case of "N", all their words must end in vowels. In many cases, with words ending in "o" or "u" the vowel is effectively silent)

 

Of course, take all this with a grain of salt, as I am far from knowledgable on the Japanese language. I was merely taught the basic structure of the language by an old girlfriend. I'm sure there are some subtle nuances in there that I missed.

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It seems I was wrong. I quote from a website:

 

Did you know Alucard is Dracula backwards?

Er, yeah. So does the rest of the world.

 

Is Alucard really Dracula?

Gonzo animation seems to be of that opinion, and the manga leaves no doubt, judging from a flashback Alucard experiences.

 

You morons! It's Arucard, not Alucard. Says so on the DVD package.

The nature of the Japanese language is such that certain translations from Japanese to English are not as precise as they could be. The most literal translation of Alucard's name is Aakaado, so either one is taking a certain amount of liberty from what's written in the manga. Even if his name were written Arukado, as it is for a certain dhampir in the Castlevania games, the sounds of l and r are interchangable in the Japanese language. In addition, the name is written in katakana, one of the two sets of symbols used to represent syllabic sounds in Japanese. Katakana is used almost exclusively for foreign words and names, indicating that the best attempt has been made to transliterate the sounds into Japanese. In such case, translating back to English must take this into account, and seek out not just a similar sounding word, but the word that was most likely to be meant by the author. Because of the obvious Dracula references, it seems clear that Alucard was the intended name. Pioneer just spelled it wrong.

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Pioneer? no.

The writer of the original Hellsing Manga is the guy who got it wrong. If you want to be true to the Dracula mythos, you can call him Alucard. If you want to be true to the Hellsing Anime and Manga, his name's Arucard.

I can't believe we're spending so much time arguing about 1 letter. I'm as guilty as anyone else, but still. . .

 

Jinx

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Originally posted by Susano

It seems I was wrong. I quote from a website:

 

 

 

 

The nature of the Japanese language is such that certain translations from Japanese to English are not as precise as they could be. The most literal translation of Alucard's name is Aakaado, so either one is taking a certain amount of liberty from what's written in the manga. Even if his name were written Arukado, as it is for a certain dhampir in the Castlevania games, the sounds of l and r are interchangable in the Japanese language.

 

This statement is incorrect. It is the most common mistake made by translators when trying to translate names written in Katakana.

 

L and R are not "interchangable" as many people think. The letter "L" does not exist within the Japanese language. They replace the "L" sound used in other languages with "R" when pronouncing words that contain the letter "L", thus, there is no interchangability. One must look at a particular word and translate it according to its sound and feel, not literally, as many translators often do.

 

The Alucard/Arucard delima is a perfect example of this mistake.

 

Another example is in a recent translation of the Five Star Stories manga. There is a character in that manga named Sarion. In fact, the author of the manga has written the characters name in english as "Sarion". However, in the manga itself, the characters name is written in Katakana, so the translator took the liberty of translating what is obviously supposed to be an "R" to an "L" simply becuase of the R/L problem in the Japanese language...so when reading the manga, I see this characters name written as Salion.

 

Silly, no?

 

No professional should ever make a mistake of that nature if a person with a minimal knowledge of the language like me can spot it.

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Re: Hellsing

 

Originally posted by Susano

For thsoe who've seen the anime... I just watched all 13 episodes and took 14 pages of notes. Conversion data and world info to follow in the upcoming weeks.

 

I'm wondering if Arucard is going to break 1,000 points... I'm fairly sure he's going to shatter 500 and am pretty sure he will hit near 750.

 

Answer: 1376.

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