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.
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
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!
How is the name of anime chosen?
Sometimes we come across different names of strange anime, 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.
Translating Anime Names
How about studying the meanings of the names of some anime?
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);
- 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
- ペット - peto - pet
- 彼女 - kanojo - she / girlfriend (girl)
- obs: sakurasou also means primula, but it is written differently;
ニセコイ - Nisekoi - False love.
- 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.
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;
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
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.
- 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 no 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)
- 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 has inherited some good, who has riches 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”. These 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.
Japanese Anime Name List
Finally, let's leave a complete list with the names of the most popular Anime 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:
- アイ★チュウ
- アイドリッシュセブン
- アクダマドライブ
- ありふれた職業で世界最強
- あんさんぶるスターズ!
- イナズマイレブン
- ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン
- うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪
- おそ松さん
- カードキャプターさくら
- かくしごと
- かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～
- からかい上手の高木さん
- ギヴン
- けいおん!
- コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ
- ゴールデンカムイ
- この素晴らしい世界に祝福を!
- ジョジョの奇妙な冒険
- スタミュ
- ソードアート・オンライン
- ダーリン・イン・ザ・フランキス
- ダイヤのA
- デュラララ!!
- とある科学の超電磁砲
- とある魔術の禁書目録
- ノーゲーム・ノーライフ
- ハイキュー!!
- ハイスコアガール
- バクテン!!
- はたらく細胞
- ひぐらしのなく頃に
- ヒプノシスマイク
- ブラッククローバー
- プリパラ
- フルーツバスケット
- ホリミヤ
- マギ
- マクロスF
- モブサイコ
- やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。
- ユーリ!!! on ICE
- ゆるキャン△
- ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ
- ラブライブ!
- ワールドトリガー
- 七つの大罪
- 五等分の花嫁
- 僕のヒーローアカデミア
- 名探偵コナン
- 呪術廻戦
- 地縛少年花子くん
- 夏目友人帳
- 妖怪学園Y ～Nとの遭遇～
- 宇宙よりも遠い場所
- 富豪刑事 Balance:UNLIMITED
- 幼女戦記
- 弱虫ペダル
- 彼女、お借りします
- 怪物事変
- 憂国のモリアーティ
- 文豪ストレイドッグス
- 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン
- 暗殺教室
- 東京リベンジャーズ
- 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
- 炎炎ノ消防隊
- 神様になった日
- 約束のネバーランド
- 終わりのセラフ
- 結城友奈は勇者である
- 蒼穹のファフナー
- 転生したらスライムだった件
- 進撃の巨人
- 銀魂
- 青の祓魔師
- 青春ブタ野郎シリーズ
- 鬼滅の刃
- 鬼灯の冷徹
- 魔入りました!入間くん
- 魔女の旅々
- 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ
- 魔王学院の不適合者
- 魔道祖師
- 黒執事
