Do You Know the Japanese Anime Name?

A fun way to learn Japanese is trying to figure out the anime's name by looking at its Japanese writing. In this article we'll share this game and some fun facts about anime names written in Japanese.

When I was studying Japanese, whenever I watched the opening of an anime I would try to read its name in Japanese when the anime's logo appeared. This made me learn several words and kanji indiscreetly.

Do you know the Japanese anime name?

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Challenge – Guess the Anime by the Name

I created a video below where you have 10 seconds to try to guess the anime by the name written in Japanese. We do not use any font or anime logo to not give clues. Try to find out just by your basic knowledge of Japanese.

Even if you don't know any Japanese at all, the video is going to be an interesting challenge as you've probably seen the name hundreds of times in the opening of an anime.

If you are a person who already has advanced knowledge of Japanese, you can use the video below to train your reading speed and comprehension of Japanese Ideograms.

Easy Test with Hiragana and Katakana only

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Normal Test with Ideograms

I hope you enjoyed the challenge! It was a lot of work to make this video, we appreciate it immensely if you can share and leave a like and comment!

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How is the name of anime chosen?

Sometimes we come across different names of strange animes, from short to long, mixing numbers, English and funny and strange words. This has some purpose!

Anime titles are usually written in kanji, hiragana and katakana. The Katakana script is present even in titles that are written entirely in Japanese words.

The use of Katakana in anime titles is often used to highlight and differentiate from standard and traditional titles that carry anime names that are usually everyday things or common words.

usually some anime titles are giant and funny because of the popularity of descriptive titles in Light Novels.

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- do you know the name of the anime in japanese? — Japanese anime logos

Translating Anime Names

How about studying the meanings of the names of some animes?

Remember that the Japanese language is quite complex and has a different way of thinking, so it can sometimes be confusing to understand the order and grammar of sentences.

Meaning of anime names

俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない
Ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai.
There's no way my sister can be that cute.

俺 - ore - me (俺の ore no - my, my);
妹 - imouto - younger sister;
こんなに - konna ni - like this;
可愛い - kawaii - cute, beautiful, pretty;
わけがない - wake ga nai - not at all, not at all

さくら荘のペットな彼女
Sakurasou no peto na kanojo.
The pet girl from the sakura dorm.

さくら - sakura - cherry
荘 - am – dorm, inn, inn
ペット - peto - pet, pet
彼女 - kanojo - she / girlfriend (girl)
obs: sakurasou also means primula, but it is written differently;

ニセコイ - Nisekoi - False love.

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偽 - nise - false;
恋 - koi - love, passion;

ダンガンロンパ希望の学園と絶望の高校生.
Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei.
Bullet of the refutation: The academy of hope and the collegials of despair.

弾丸 - dangan - bullet;
論破 – ronpa – winning an argument, rebuttal;
希望 - kibou - hope;
学園 - gakuen - academy, school;
絶望 - zetsubou - despair;
高校生 - koukousei - high school student, high school;

変態王子と笑わない猫.
Hentai Ouji to warawanai neko.
The perverted prince and the cat who doesn't laugh.

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Although the English name is the perverted prince and the stony cat, the original Japanese name uses the verb “not to laugh” to indicate a person without feelings, stony, insensitive and inflexible. The name of the anime in English uses the word “stony”, this is ironic because in the anime there is literally a stone cat.

変態 - hentai - perverted;
王子 - ouji - prince;
笑わない - warawanai - no laugh, don't laugh;
猫 - neko - cat (a);

私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い!
Watashi ga mote nai no wa dō kangaete mo omaera ga warui!
I be unpopular, it's your fault!
It's not my fault if I'm not popular!

私 - watashi - me;
モテない - undesirable, unpopular, has nothing;
どう - I give - how, in what way;
考えても - be considered, thinking;
お前ら - omaera - you (rude);
悪い - warui - bad, evil;

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The word motenai is the negative of the expression “持て持て – motemote” which refers to a sexy, popular, desirable person. It is difficult to explain the meaning of the formation of this sentence or to translate it literally. The Japanese way of thinking is different, just experiencing it to better understand the way of speaking.

Re ：ゼロから始める異世界生活
Re: Zero kara hajimeru i sekai seikatsu
Starting life from scratch in a different world

ゼロ - zero zero;
から - kara - from (do);
始める - hajimeru - start;
異世界 - isekai - different world, parallel universe.
- 異 - i - different 世界 - sekai - world;
生活 – seikatsu – life, live, live

あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。
Year hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai.
We still don't know the name of the flower we saw that day.

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あの日 - hi year - that day
見た - mita - we saw (see past)
花 - hana - flower
名前 - namae - name
僕たち - bokutachi - we
まだ - feed - yet
知らない - shiranai - not knowing

やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。
Yahari ore at seishun rabu kome wa machigatte iru.
The romantic comedy of my youth is different from what I expected.

やはり - yahari - as expected
俺 - ore - me (俺の - my, my)
青春 - seishun - youth, adolescence
ラブコメ - rabu kome - romantic comedy
まちがっている - machigatteiru - it's different, it's wrong
- 違間う - machigau - make a mistake, incorrect, confused

銀の匙
Gin no Saji
Silver spoon

銀 - gin - silver
匙 - saji - spoon

This expression silver spoon refers to someone who inherited some good, who has wealth and is prosperous ... It's funny, the author used a name with "silver" in this manga, while in the fullmetal manga she used the name "steel". Those references ...

I hope that the translation of these names will be enough for this article. You can send anime suggestions to translate and understand their names in future articles.

Do you know the Japanese anime name?

Japanese Anime Name List

Finally, let's leave a complete list with the names of the most popular animes in Japanese. We will not put the meaning or translation, it is up to you to use the title to try to guess or research its meaning using your own ability:

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