TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON THE SERIES
In Japanese, suffixes called "honorifics" are attached to
people's names to indicate the speaker's relation to the one
spoken about. We have left these honorifics largely
untranslated to preserve the nuances of the original dialog.
Some common honorifics follow:
- -sama:
- In modern Japanese, an indication that the speaker holds
the one spoken about in very high esteem. Can also be used
facetiously (like Wakaba toward Utena) to indicate that the
speaker has a crush on the subject.
- -san:
- An honorific indicating a neutral distance between speaker
and subject. Connotes a "working" familiarity with the subject,
but not usually camaraderie or intimacy. -san is normally not
used toward male social inferiors.
- -chan:
- A diminutive, this indicates not familiarity and often
some degree of affection. The "little" connotation means this
term is frequently applied to children, especially female ones.
- -kun:
- Used toward social equals or inferiors with whom one is
more intimate than "-san". Most commonly used toward males.
Examples include Utena toward Miki and Touga toward Utena.
- -sensei:
- Means teacher, master, instructor, physician, etc. Used
to address people in such respected occupation.
- -senpai/-sempai:
- Means senior, superior, elder, predecessor, old-timer,
etc. You use it to address people who joined in your social
class earlier than you did, regardless of age or social
superiority, to indicate some degree of due respect. In Shoujo
Kakumei Utena, Utena calls Juri by "-sempai."
Since we use Japanese suffixes in our English translations, we
also use the Japanese name order, that is family-name
given-name. The reason is that while "Tenjou Utena-san" sounds
all right, "Utena Tenjou-san" sounds wrong.
Basically, we adopt the letter-by-letter romanization in
spelling Japanese names such as: "Tenjou Utena", "Kiryuu Touga",
"Saionji Kyouichi." We do not follow this rule for a few names:
- Himemiya Anthy:
- This is the official spelling. "Anthy" is the Greek word
for "flowery."
- Ohtori Academy:
- We decided to spell "Ohtori" to keep consistent with the
visual you will see in later episodes.
- Kaoru Miki/Micky:
- Both "Miki" and "Micky" are used, and they clearly sound
different in Japanese. "Micky" is his nickname, and it is the
official spelling on the laser disc covers and other sources.
- Arisugawa Juri:
- Although the official spelling is "Jury," we decided to
spell her name "Juri" instead since "Jury" seemed out of place.
The Japanese title of the series "Shoujo Kakumei Utena"
literally means "(young) girl(s) revolution Utena," where
"Utena" is the name of the leading character. It seems that the
original creators expect the audience to think about the real
meaning of the title. The French title of the series "la
fillette revolutionnaire" literally means "the (young)
revolutionary girl." The official English version brought by
Central Park Media is titled "Revolutionary Girl Utena."