MOE

[Nando]

/Moe.png

if any of you japanese speaking folk have a better translation, let me know.

[Digi.k]

MOE as in budding ?  girl going into puberty  ?  ie innocent school girls in bloom ??

lucky star anime

[kamiboy]

When did MOE turn into loli?

I look away for a few years and everything went to hell.

[Ji-L87]

lucky star anime

Well, Lucky*Star is good (Kagamin! <3) )but there are some moe-type shows that just make me cringe so bad.

Now, regarding this:

/Moe.png

It's very possible my (very humble) skills is on the whack today but I can't help thinking that image is lacking a ず　(zu) at the very beginning. Adding that, it would read something like:
"Moe can only exist little by little".

Without that zu though, I can't make sense of it. Maybe the others can : )
Or the joke is going way over my head...

[Tatsujin]

lol, what do you wanna say anyway?

[Nando]

lol, what do you wanna say anyway?

There can be only one...

[Ji-L87]

Maybe something like:

一人しか存在できない
Hitori shika zonzai dekinai

Now for somebody to correct this :0

[SamIAm]

I think the problem with trying to write that is that Japanese people aren't familiar with the Highlander phrase either directly or indirectly. Think of it this way - what would that have meant to English speakers 50 years ago? There's plenty of room for interpretation when you don't have pop-culture context.

Think of what lies at the heart of what you want to say. Is it trying to express his individuality, like "the one and only"? Is it trying to express that he's the strongest in his arena? Or do you really mean that when everything comes to pass in the universe, the only thing that will remain is Moe?

All of those things can be written in interesting ways in Japanese, but each one is very, very different from the others. The two sentences so far have less of a problem being grammatically impenetrable and more of a problem of leaving the reader thinking "OK. Why the hell did you write that on this photo?"

[Nando]

I think the problem with trying to write that is that Japanese people aren't familiar with the Highlander phrase either directly or indirectly. Think of it this way - what would that have meant to English speakers 50 years ago? There's plenty of room for interpretation when you don't have pop-culture context.

Think of what lies at the heart of what you want to say. Is it trying to express his individuality, like "the one and only"? Is it trying to express that he's the strongest in his arena? Or do you really mean that when everything comes to pass in the universe, the only thing that will remain is Moe?

All of those things can be written in interesting ways in Japanese, but each one is very, very different from the others. The two sentences so far have less of a problem being grammatically impenetrable and more of a problem of leaving the reader thinking "OK. Why the hell did you write that on this photo?"

http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/the-highlander-sequel-that-does-not-suck/




Ok someone rent the japanese sub one please


Sam: how would one express the "one and only" sentiment. That was a very succinct way of explaining the structure of the language. Thanks!

[NecroPhile]

Moe so lonely.

[SamIAm]

I thought of a couple good ones for you:

右に出る者がいない
Literally, it means that nobody can stand at his right. Idiomatically, it means that he is peerless, in a league of his own.

唯一無二
"There's one, not two" It's maybe closer to "The one and only".

Also,
掛け替えがない
"Irreplaceable". I don't recommend this one, though.

EDIT: Whatever the subtitles used just might work. Take my suggestions with a grain of salt, too, because I'm not a native speaker and I can't judge how well the lines really work with that photo.

[Nando]

Moe and Moe don't like Moe!

[SamIAm]

After brief reflection, I suggest going with the second one that I posted.

An interesting related story - Terminator 2 was a mega-hit in Japan just like America, and Arnold is just as well known among Japanese people who remember his heyday. However, the infamous "Hasta La Vista, baby!" line didn't make the same impact here at all, and a couple Japanese people I talked to about it needed time to understand what I was even trying to say. To them, it's just another line in the movie.

It goes to show that the popularity of a movie and the catch-phraseability of a line can often have nothing to do with each other.

Moe so lonely.

Looks to me like he needs to find Amanda Hugginkiss.

[Arkhan Asylum]

MOE MONEY
MOE PROBREMS.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, I would just find a Japanese subtitled copy of Highlander, if that's what you're referencing. Whatever their translation was, it's the only phrase Japanese Highlander fans are going to actually recognize.

Japanese Highlander fans...what a disgusting concept...

[Nando]

Ze power of ze net


一つだけがあ いられる , des ne?

http://japanese999.com/2011/04/how-to-say-there-can-be-only-one-in-japanese.html

 


Anyway, may just make it in english and give Moe an anime look 

 

[SamIAm]

Should be 一人だけがいられる just to be grammatically correct (because it's a person, not an object). Still, that's only if you feel the need to go the super-literal route. I personally don't think it's hitting the mark at all like it seems you want it to. I'd also bet money that the line they used in the Japanese movie is quite different, because 一人だけがいられる sounds like the number of people allowed to use the break room or something equally mundane.

I don't mean to sound like a snob, but one thing I see a lot of is signatures and profile-text in forums where the member obviously went to a place full of Japanese-language students and asked how to say something, and they gave him a half-baked literal translation that he then used and it's just weird. We've all seen Engrish before, right? Honestly, it goes both ways.

If you're really serious, either get the exact movie line or check with a native speaker. Trust me, I've done both English and Japanese subtitles working side-by-side with Japanese people, albeit on an amateur basis, and you'd be surprised how much some things have to change to work much at all. Also, I teach a lot of private one-on-one lessons with Japanese people, and they ask me "how do you say x in English?" all the damn time. My answer about 50% of the time is "you don't". What I mean is, you shouldn't focus on recreating a Japanese expression in English, but rather on what English-speaking people say at times when they are in the same kind of situation and/or feel the same kind of emotion. This, too, goes both ways.

The only reason to go literal is if you're making this for native English speakers who know a little Japanese. I see shitty English in advertisements all around me day in, day out, and it used to drive me nuts. However, I've come to terms with it on the basis of accepting that it's not written for me in the first place, but rather for Japanese people who know a little English. In other words, it functions like it's supposed to for whom it is supposed to.