While Fushigiboshi no * Futago Hime has concepts with names that are not often in Japanese, the show itself was written in Japanese and made for a Japanese audience. Although some of the names are self-explanatory to romanize, for others, there have been mix-ups in certain translations. This is mostly because sometimes the Japanese characters used can be transliterated a multiple amount of ways, and some of the phonetic spelling can be pronounced different ways in English. Katakana does not automatically give us a direct romanization some of the time, leaving us to either leave it the way it was pronounced, or to find a similar sound device.
The purpose of this page is to clear up some unclear names according to official merchandise. Although some translations are acceptable, others are a bit butchered and awkward. This site mainly uses the English names given by the Character Detail Book, with some exceptions to names such as "Altessa" and whatever we feel is preferably more accurate.
In the original version, the Japanese words "fushigiboshi" is used instead of putting English phonemes into Japanese. "Fushigi" literally means "wonder", but "mysterious" is often used as the preferred substitute mainly because "wonder" has a wide niche of meanings. Many people in the fan community often use "Mysterious Planet" because of its direct meaning.
As for "boshi", it can translate into both "star" and "planet." The characters do not live in a star, but a planet. While the Wonder Planet itself is a celestial body, it cannot necessarily be classified as a planet due to the uncertainty of whether it rotates around a sun, moon, or a star.
NAS translated "fushigiboshi" as "Wonder Planet" on the English version of their website, and since the company is officially affiliated with the show production, this translation is official. Additionally, when Fushigiboshi no * Futago Hime was translated for other countries "wonder" was used. When Chuang Yi, a Singaporean manga distributor, translated the manga into English, "Wonder Planet" was used.
kingdoms
In the show, all of these kingdom names are in Japanese (i.e. "ohisama no kuni" is the "Sunny Kingdom"), thus certain translations may vary. However, on the box for the Fine and Rein Prominence dolls, there are the English versions of the kingdoms inscribed all over it. These names are the Sunny Kingdom, the Jewelry Kingdom, the Meramera Kingdom, the Moon Kingdom, the Drop Kingdom, the Windmill Kingdom, and the Tanetane Kingdom. Also, in some parts of the show, there are banners hanging around the kingdom with the kingdom name written in English.
Throughout this site, you may notice that although we've used these official names, we put translations in parenthesis to help the reader understand the significance of the name. For example, despite "meramera" being official, it can be translated further into "flame." Additionally, "tanetane" can be translated further into "seed."
The Drop Kingdom's original name was "shizuku no kuni", and "shizuku" means a "water drop." It would make sense to just simply calling it "drop", but having "water drop" appears to emphasize the water theme of the kingdom even more.
fine
On official merchandise, Fine's name can easily be seen as "Fine" in English. In Japanese, Fine uses the katakana characters that literally is written ファイン — which is "Fain." While this is arguably acceptable, it may cause some confusion to those who are unfamiliar with the show. Because these characters do not have Japanese names, this may be confusing to people who may mispronounce "Fain" as "feign."
rein
Rein's name is pronounced as the English word "rain" and in the first eyecatch of the show, her name is spelled as "Rain." Later, the romanization of her name was changed into the literal Japanese transliteration, "Rein." This is because the producer of the series, Satou Junichi, did not want Rein to be associated with the physical weather "rain", and thus had her name rewritten as "Rein." From then on, "Rein" appeared on official merchandise.
altessa
Altessa's name is romanized "Altezza" in the Character Detail Book. While this name is official, we prefer to use "Altessa" because the soft "z" sound is not clearly evident in "Altezza" at continuous glancing.
milro(andnalro)
Milro has the most confusing name as of yet. Her name is literally pronounced "Miruro" in Japanese, but in the series, she actually gets some sort of romanization. In episode 19 of the first series, her name on Poomo's letter was written as "Milro" in English. When the Character Detail Book came out, her name was written as "Mirlo." When the Character Detail Book 2 was released, her name was back to "Milro" again. I'm assuming that the Character Detail Book version was a typo of Milro's name, and her name was actually intended to be "Milro" after all.
Since Nalro is Milro's infant brother and has a rule in his name similar to hers, I am assuming his name is "Nalro" aside from "Narlo" given in Character Detail Book (the first one).
moonmaria
The Character Detail Book's version of Moon Maria's name is written "Moon Malia", which appears to be a misspelling. Although "Malia" is the Hawaiian version of "Maria", the latter is preferable because it emphasizes Moon Maria's connection to the moon. Her name is mainly derived from lunar maria, which are dark, basaltic plates on the Earth's Moon created from volcanic eruptions.
kyukyu(cyucyu)
Kyukyu's name is spelled "Cyucyu" on official merchandise. While this is so, "Cyucyu" does not appear to be a precise translation. Usually whenever there is a "y" after a "c", the "c" is soft and has an "s" pronunciation (i.e. "cynical", "infancy"). I have never seen an exception to any word that would deem this otherwise. People who are not familiar with Kyukyu might mispronounce her name regarding this rule in English.
This site prefers to use "Kyukyu", because of how easy the accuracy of the name can be pronounced at first glance compared to "Cyucyu."
thomas
"Thomas", in this case, is pronounced as "Toma." Although most people leave his name romanized as "Toma", "Thomas" appears to be a much more accurate alternative since "Thomas" is pronounced as "Toma" in French pronounciation. Whether or not Thomas' name is supposed to be French is not noted, there is a possibility that producers may actually intend his name to be "Thomas", since there are other elements in the show (i.e. Soleil Bell) that are taken from different languages.
This may be subject to change once we get our hands on Character Book 3, which is currently not in our possession.
