Anime and language

[darlingfox]

I had forgotten to post this back in May.

Now, this particular phenomenon has a lot to do with Japan, the western countries and the difficulty of translations. I've been watching anime for the past few months and the word youkai and the way it's translated is rather interesting. I've watched several series' with English subtitles (although only two of them handle the theme humans-and-youkai; Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho) and youkai is always translated as a demon. The problem is that the two words don't mean the same thing.

Demon is usually seen as a minion of the devil. Evil, an opposite to an angel. Someone who seduces souls and more or less drags people to Hell.

A youkai, on the other hand, simply isn't human. In Japanese mythology, there are different kinds of youkai, all living in their own world, Makai (that name was used in YYH and I use it here, too), which is not Hell. Every now and then they come to human world (Ningenkai), not to steal souls but simply visit for one reason or another. Some of them are good, some of them are evil, and some of them are neither. Just think humans with superpowers and an occasional horn or two.

So, in English there isn't an exact word for a youkai, or at least I don't know one. Demon clearly isn't the same. The roots of this, I believe, are in religion. In Japan's history there hasn't been anything like Christianity, no philosophy or religion which has Hell and Heaven or God and Satan, good and evil. In Christianity, things are rather black and white. You can't argue that: angels are good and demons are bad, you believe in one God or not. In Japan there is for example Buddhism which doesn't assume that we - or anything else - are good or bad by nature. We are what we do, and the youkai are as capable as humans to do what they wish, whatever that is. The basic Japanese religion has several deities (or Buddha) which represent different aspects of human nature (or several of them), and one can choose whoever s/he sees fit to serve.

What am I talking about? The point was translations, not mythologies. Oh well.Both Japanese and western (which in this case means Christianity) have three worlds. In west they are Heaven, Hell and the human world. In Japan they are Makai, Ningenkai and Reikai (that is, in anime!Japan at least. I haven't got a chance to stud the real world Japan that much).

Heaven is good by its nature. After all, the absolute good, God, lives there.

Hell is bad because Satan, the absolute evil, lives there.

Human world is Earth where our material bodies live.

Makai is a place where the youkai live. Not good or bad, just different.

Ningenkai is simply human world.

Reikai is a place where all spirits/souls will go after death.

See the difference? In Japan there is no place for absolute good or absolute evil. Or, at least, in anime there isn't.

...What in the name of someone happened there? From translations to religion in sixty seconds. I'd be impressed if I wasn't so worried of my sanity. The point was, because of the cultural (religion based) differences, it's impossible to translate youkai to English - or Finnish - without losing the finer nuances. A youkai is not a demon.

It still makes sense, at least to me.