By: Rei Hino
Let's straighten a few things out here, people. Rumors
have been
running rampant lately about senshi names and such, or so
it seems to me.
The foremost example of this is the civilian names of the
StarLights. I
recently came across a page (and I can't for the life of me
remember the
title or URL now) that claimed yet again that Seiya, Yaten,
and Taiki are
the boys' given names, Kou being their family names. The
web author stated
that this is true because the three were foreigners who
were saying their
names in the Western fashion (given name first) rather than
in the Eastern
way (family name first).
The author went on to claim that he/she knew this to be
true because
the furigana (tiny kana above kanji to distinguish what the
kanji means)
above the kanji for the Lights' names was actually
katakana, the script used
for writing foreign words. If this were true, then it
would make sense in a
way to assume that the Lights' given names are Seiya,
Yaten, and Taiki.
But there's no way this could ever possibly be factual,
and there
are a number of very good reasons for that. One, no
Japanese person would
ever use kanji to write the name of a foreigner. The only
writing form that
would ever be used to that end is katakana. Two, the Three
Lights' names
themselves are Japanese. Why would foreigners have
Japanese names? And
lastly, the claim that the furigana above the kanji for the
boys' names is
katakana is utterly ridiculous, because furigana is only
ever hiragana.
I really wish I could remember the URL of that page,
because (and
this may sound cruel, but ignorance annoys the hell out of
me) I would love
bursting that web author's little bubble of delusion.
People, if you're
going to attempt to discuss Japanese or the three kana on
the web, make sure
you know what you're talking about first! Otherwise you
just look like a
fool.
As for the Three Lights, their given names are Kou.
Their family names are Seiya, Yaten and Taiki. Case
closed.
Comments on this article can be sent to:
Rei Hino.
