Katakana Analysis Revision

プロフエッサーX/Professor X

This katakana word is a loanword from the english show X Men. This is a poster for the Japanese anime version of X Men. This is especially interesting since this show is borrowed from America yet a Japanese spin is put on it. Also this version has even added an additional character, 市木久子, her name is in Kanji but everyone else is in Katakana. I believe that this serves  a special purpose in that Japanese viewers of the show will be able to directly identify with her and retain a sense of pride in their nationality. Also with the use of Professor X. The Japanese already have a word for Professor but probably choose to retain the English word in Katakana that way they preserve the popularity of X men. This is also to retain the novelty of the show. For example, when we see Japanese words for things we don't find english replacements, we use the original Japanese word. Sushi is a prominent example. By keeping the name sushi instead of changing it fish wrapped with seaweed it keeps its exotic nature. In this case the creators want to keep the american names. Another note is that these characters in the show have special abilities, thus in conjunction with being a foriegn show along with special abilities the producers use katakana to recognize this inherent nature of the characters and show. 

ジャンプアルテイメットスターズ/Jump Ultimate Stars 

Strangely enough this katakana comes from putting together a whole lot of Japanese characters into one game. This game isn't planned on being released in the US because of the licensing issues between the many characters in the game. It is strange to me why they use katakana. I think it is to preserve the brand name of Jump (from Shonen Jump). I think Katakana serves here to create a clear and cohesive title. Most the characters names in the game are also in katakana. It is worth noting that even though this is the Japanese cover of the game the English is larger than the katakana which looks like subtitles compared to the title. In this case the katakana is also used to make the box art appealing to look at as well as a centerpiece for the box art. 

The different books describe katakana in different ways because after the more obvious reasons, onomatopoeia and loanwords, it is difficult to tell exactly when to use katakana. When you have one language like English it tries to represent everything so no matter what you have to express it in that set alphabet. With Japanese there are three different written styles therefore there is bound to be gray area in-between the three. To me it seems as though there was Kanji then hiragana to explain kanji and then katakana for anything else. Now it has become so much more complex mainly because of globalization. It seems as thought when the Japanese imports word they have to use katakana such as the X man example. It is definitely nice to have a written style devoted to this concept.