Trivia: Difference between revisions

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A place for general trivia that are not necessarily worth mentioning in a character's page or anywhere else on the wiki, for that matter. If you find it interesting, put it here to talk about it.
This is supposed to be a digest overview of (or portal to) things-worth-knowing about Oni. Please keep in-depth discussions for [[:Category:Added value|added value sections]] elsewhere. Also feel free to elaborate on the [[Talk:Trivia|talk page]].


==The Meaning of Konoko==
==Events==
The page for [[Konoko]] offers the interpretation of her name ("this child") that [[User:Iritscen|I]] most prefer. However, I think it's important to note here, for those who aren't familiar with the way Japanese works, that one must always be careful when interpreting names based on a breakdown into syllables. The actual meaning of a name must be determined by the [[wikipedia:kanji|kanji]] with which it is written. Simply hearing a word or seeing it written in Roman letters like "Konoko", you don't know what kanji make it up, or even how many kanji. ''Therefore, you cannot know the real meaning of the name.'' If a person only knew the syllables, they could just as easily break down "konoko" as "ko no ko", meaning "child of child", "child of sin", "price of sin", etc., but none of these are likely to be correct if you consider Konoko to be a "proper" Japanese name that is based in kanji. To my knowledge, there is no official representation of Konoko's name in the form of kanji.
===Emergency Override Griffin Alpha Zero===
:People can't always tell why (zombie) Shinatama, after engaging Omega Security Mode, continued to advance on Griffin despite the emergency override and the order to "stay back".
:It turns out that Griffin was using one of the low-level emergency overrides that had been turned off by D. Joost and P. Tamte (Bungie staff cameos) without Griffin being notified.


Stepping out of the world of the game, one could ask, Well, what did the creators intend Konoko to mean? There is evidence that they were not just randomly slapping Japanese syllables together, as "Mukade" likely refers to the [[wikipedia:mukade|insect]] (again, we can't know this without kanji, but this is a case where the word "mukade" has a traditional usage in Japanese myths (and real-life, if you are unfortunate enough to have them in your house), so we can make a reasonable ''assumption'' as to the meaning). However, the notion that Bungie West had a meaning in mind for "Konoko" is pretty much blown out of the water by [http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html this interview]. Stepping back into the game's world, we can still pretend that it means "this child", or whatever we want it to mean, when plotting an [[Oni2|Oni 2]], or trying to be clever in an [[:Category:Added value|Added value]] section. Just don't make the mistake of asserting your opinion as if it's fact.
==Names==
===[[Oni_(myth)|Oni]]===
:There are the buddhist oni (either imps or patron deities) and the pagan oni (malicious ogres or beasts). Food for eerie tales, oni-slaying epics and more.
:A relevant expression is "Oni ni Kanabô" ("strong beyond strong"). It can also have the proverbial meaning that great power should only be granted to the worthy.
:Oni-gokko is the game of tag. The "it" in the game of tag is the "oni" in oni-gokko. Another interesting reference is the "oni warrior" Musashibo Benkei.


==Occurrences of Oni Names in the "Real World"==
===[[Konoko]]===
Do the quotes on "real world" seem strangely disdainful of reality as we know it? Oops. Oh well. Here is a place for listing actual places where names and places from Oni show up. Again, it's not a matter of whether these occurrences have any significance, but just for the sake of showing that we found something weird/interesting. If it's not self-evidently weird or interesting, explain why you find it so.
:''More notes on the meaning of "Konoko" and where it occurs in the real world can be found on the [[Talk:Trivia]] page.''
Konoko's name is never written in a Japanese script in Oni, and so one can't really be sure what kanji/hiragana it would be composed of. Given the many meanings of "ko", tentative decompositions and interpretations can get rather wild. Thus, the meaning depends a lot on the context. But if you watch subtitled animé, you'll encounter this phrase fairly often, with the meaning "this child" ("kono ko").


*'''Konoko No Nanatsuno Oiwaini'''. Can also be written as "Konoko no nanatsu no Oiwai ni", which is easier to parse.
===[[Shinatama]]===
::You can find a mention of this phrase [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/930041/47103 here] and [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228493/fullcredits here]. IMDb [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619958/ gives the literal translation] as "For My Daughter's Seventh Birthday". My limited understanding of the language tells me that, out of the three significant words in that phrase, "nanatsu" is "seven" or "seventh", and "oiwai" is probably "birthday", leaving "konoko" to mean "daughter" or "my daughter". This is quite interesting. Once again I am astounded at the beneficial coincidence that "Konoko" can mean something significant even though Brent Pease, in the interview linked to above, claims it 'just popped into my [non-Japanese-knowing] head'. I would really like to know whether the "konoko" in the title means "daughter" or "my daughter", but I'm guessing it's just plain "daughter".
Among the animated dolls of the Edo era, a shinatama was a "trickster puppet", guarding the contents of a jewel box.
::That still doesn't tell me why on earth a Japanese video game has a song by that title, but hey, why start trying to understand the Japanese now?
:The puppet could also make the contents of the jewel box disappear, with a "magic trick" animation.
::The initial decomposition of SHINA-TAMA in this case is probably "precious jewel".


*'''"Shounen A" Konoko wo Unde'''
===[[Mukade]]===
::http://www.sasugabooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=30417 is a book with an interesting title that I can't translate. I know "Shounen A" is "Kid A", which is pretty amusing for fellow Radiohead fans out there.
:Mukade are large centipedes that are known for infesting Japanese houses. Several mukade species exist.
:Mukade was also a mythical giant centipede, which bothered dragons and was slain by a human warrior.


==Translating Names==
===[[BGI]]===
::There aren't many (free) resources on the Web for translation. The only two I'm aware of at the moment are:
:Placeholder name standing for "Bad Guys International" ([http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19685 source]). Reinterpreted as "Be Good, Inc." by [[User:Geyser|geyser]].
*http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
 
*http://babelfish.altavista.com/
==Numbers==
::The FreeDict is the only good choice when getting translations for romanized Japanese, because Babelfish apparently expects kanji/kana as input. But the FreeDict is quite limited. For instance, looking at the items above, if you wanted to know what "oiwai" or "unde" mean, you're out of luck. Also, Babelfish is the only tool that accepts whole phrases, whole web sites even. On the other hand, Babelfish is notoriously poor at syntactical interpretations, and its actual vocabulary is quite limited too.
The mystical Bungie number 7 is found throughout the game, as broken down on the [[Seven]] page.
::If anyone out there reading this really knows their Nihongo, we'd welcome their input on translating any of the above Japanese.
 
==Foreign scripts==
===Kanji in Oni art & trailer===
The Japanese text that appears in various promotional images is broken down on the [[Oni matrix]] page.
 
===Chinese in Hasegawa's lab===
The definite meaning of [[:Image:28686-CALIG.TXMP000.jpg|this sign]] has never been determined.
 
[[Category:Added value]]

Revision as of 20:54, 2 October 2014

This is supposed to be a digest overview of (or portal to) things-worth-knowing about Oni. Please keep in-depth discussions for added value sections elsewhere. Also feel free to elaborate on the talk page.

Events

Emergency Override Griffin Alpha Zero

People can't always tell why (zombie) Shinatama, after engaging Omega Security Mode, continued to advance on Griffin despite the emergency override and the order to "stay back".
It turns out that Griffin was using one of the low-level emergency overrides that had been turned off by D. Joost and P. Tamte (Bungie staff cameos) without Griffin being notified.

Names

Oni

There are the buddhist oni (either imps or patron deities) and the pagan oni (malicious ogres or beasts). Food for eerie tales, oni-slaying epics and more.
A relevant expression is "Oni ni Kanabô" ("strong beyond strong"). It can also have the proverbial meaning that great power should only be granted to the worthy.
Oni-gokko is the game of tag. The "it" in the game of tag is the "oni" in oni-gokko. Another interesting reference is the "oni warrior" Musashibo Benkei.

Konoko

More notes on the meaning of "Konoko" and where it occurs in the real world can be found on the Talk:Trivia page.

Konoko's name is never written in a Japanese script in Oni, and so one can't really be sure what kanji/hiragana it would be composed of. Given the many meanings of "ko", tentative decompositions and interpretations can get rather wild. Thus, the meaning depends a lot on the context. But if you watch subtitled animé, you'll encounter this phrase fairly often, with the meaning "this child" ("kono ko").

Shinatama

Among the animated dolls of the Edo era, a shinatama was a "trickster puppet", guarding the contents of a jewel box.

The puppet could also make the contents of the jewel box disappear, with a "magic trick" animation.
The initial decomposition of SHINA-TAMA in this case is probably "precious jewel".

Mukade

Mukade are large centipedes that are known for infesting Japanese houses. Several mukade species exist.
Mukade was also a mythical giant centipede, which bothered dragons and was slain by a human warrior.

BGI

Placeholder name standing for "Bad Guys International" (source). Reinterpreted as "Be Good, Inc." by geyser.

Numbers

The mystical Bungie number 7 is found throughout the game, as broken down on the Seven page.

Foreign scripts

Kanji in Oni art & trailer

The Japanese text that appears in various promotional images is broken down on the Oni matrix page.

Chinese in Hasegawa's lab

The definite meaning of this sign has never been determined.

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