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 The latest in a series of never-ending hurdles for the USA release of Miyazaki's 1997 blockbuster MONONOKE HIME is nothing less than the film's very title. Apparently, executives feel that the official English title of PRINCESS MONONOKE would make this mature film sound like just another kids animation film which, as we all know, it is definitely not. The suggested replacement titles, however, fare little better. In fact, one of them, PRINCESS OF THE FOREST, seems even more childlike than the original. Companies must try to market their product to
a USA audience, which is very different from a Japanese
audience, but this is not a new concept. "The Name Game" has been played with
many anime titles over the years, for different reasons, and with mixed results.The first, and probably strangest, issue is one
of copyright. If you own an old copy of Streamline's CASTLE OF
CAGLIOSTRO, you will notice that Lupin isn't called Lupin, he's called
"Wolf." And in the AnimEigo releases of Lupin OVAs, he's
not Lupin but "Rupan." Both of these were different attempts to get around
copyright issues. When Monkey Punch came up with Lupin III,
he based him on a previously existing (fictional) character. As a result, he had
to secure copyright permission to use the name. And he did—but only in Japan.
And that's why Lupin couldn't be called Lupin in USA releases
of LUPIN III anime.The second is marketability. Titles with excessive
amounts of Japanese don't sell well. Does the average American know what a
HAKKENDEN is? What about SHIN KAITEI
GUNKAN? Nope. So oftentimes companies will change titles so there is less
of a "foreign" feel about the title. Sometimes, of course, the original titles
are kept, and can develop into something that has mainstream recognition, like
RANMA or TENCHI MUYO. But too much
Japanese in a title can be a turnoff to retailers and casual viewers.One other case of marketability also involves
trying to either tie something into a currently hot property, or to steer a
release away from a previous product that was less successful. And, although a
sneaky tactic, it sometimes does work. (I'll leave it to you readers to figure
out which show titles are products of this tactic.)Of course, sometimes titles just don't work in
English, for whatever reason. The term POCKET MONSTER,
for example, can easily be twisted into more than one sort of double-entendre.
And that's just not something that a kids' show needs. Luckily, the term
POKÉMON seems to have caught on rather well.But this MONONOKE title
debate is merely the latest in a long line of title changes designed to make
anime more palatable to the American public. And if you think that Miyazaki's
PRINCESS MONONOKE presents a marketing problem, you haven't
seen anything yet. Most likely, when LAPUTA sees its American
video release later this year, it won't be called LAPUTA,
due to its Spanish meaning. A final decision has yet to be made (or at least
released to the public), but I'd guess they're just going to go with
CASTLE IN THE SKY.
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  Charles McCarter
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