Alternate Character Reading: Difference between revisions
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A trope unique to the [[Japanese Language]], due to the unique linguistic history of Japan.
While Japan has an indigenous language, it has no indigenous writing system. So when it voluntarily adopted the
To make things simple for the audience, the result of this is: kanji is taken for the meaning value only, as usual, and two parallel sets of rules were developed for the pronunciation: the ''on'yomi'' that plots to the Chinese pronunciation(s) of ''the kanji'', and the kun'yomi that plots to the indigenous Japanese pronunciation(s) for ''the same idea''. Moreover, Japanese for the most part dropped the tonal aspect from the (in)famously homophonous
What Japanese also learned from the Chinese was to have names that are usually written in kanji and tend to have obvious or straightforward meanings, and the meanings can change depending on which kanji are used to write them.
These two things results in numerous [[Alternate Character Reading|Alternate Character Readings]], and can easily create things that sound like one thing, but can be read as something completely different. Complicating matters beyond ''that'', Japanese also has ''two'' phonetic (syllabic) scripts -- one of which is used mostly for foreign words -- that can be used to spell names in a way that obscures their specific meanings and opens them up to multiple interpretations.
This is why the pronunciation of most Japanese words is not easily gleaned from how they are written. Usually, words are written in ''kanji'' (Chinese characters), which often have multiple pronunciations depending on context. Therefore, phonetic glosses called ''furigana'' are often provided in smaller characters next to the kanji. This invariably happens for names (whose pronunciations are notoriously idiosyncratic--some kanji have special readings ''only'' used in names) and terms with infrequently-used kanji. Publications for younger readers will often gloss common words as well.
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* Identifying the person being referred to with a pronoun such as "I" or "he," much like video games with voice acting and [[Hello, Insert Name Here|custom character names]] may have "you" in the audio and the assigned name of the character in subtitle text.
* Writing ''jikan'' (時間, meaning "a span of time") with the furigana ''toki'' (usually just 時, meaning "a specific moment in time").
* Sometimes the furigana will be an English word in katakana, most likely as [[Rule of Cool]]. (e.g. スマイル ''sumairu'' for 笑顔 ''egao''), both meaning "smile".
The subtle nuances that can be achieved with the use of an alternate reading are almost always [[Lost in Translation]]. On the flip side, alternate readings are frequently used when adapting something from English to Japanese in order to retain English names or puns.
A handful of Chinese characters (notably 行) actually possess multiple readings in
Not to be confused with [[Alternate Character Interpretation]].
----
{{examples}}
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Air Gear (Manga)|Air Gear]]'': two characters are both named {{spoiler|Sora Takeuchi}}, but one is written using the kanji for "sky" while the other is written using the kanji for "space".
* Two major characters of the ''[[Area 88]]'' TV series, Kazama Shin and Shinjo Makoto, have names written identically in kanji. They comment on this when they first meet.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
** One strip has a quick joke about Kagura misreading "Iriomote" as "Nishihyou".
*** The case of Iriomote is a strange example or a ''cross-language'' [[Alternate Character Reading]], as the kanji used to write Iriomote (which would be pronunced as Nishihyou under ''on-yomi'') is the ''kun-yomi'' for ''West Island''... through Okinawan.
** During one scene in the anime the class remarks on the beauty of the "sea of clouds" ("''kumo'umi''") during a plane ride. Yukari tells them that phrase is usually pronounced "''unkai''" and promises to drill them on kanji reading after the trip.
* In ''[[
** Some of Takagi's friends call him "Shuuto", which is yet another way of reading "Akito"
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', arrancar techniques and ''zanpakuto'' are given kanji spellings and [[Gratuitous Spanish]] readings (ditto for Quincy terminology, but in [[Gratuitous German]]). For a couple examples, we have Nnoitra's ''zanpakuto''; kanji for "sacred crying mantis" are pronounced "Santateresa" (Spanish for Saint Teresa, also a term for mantises). Starrk's release is pronounced ''Los Lobos'' ("the wolves") and written with kanji meaning "wolf pack." Japanese names aren't immune, either. Uryuu's name (meaning "rain dragon") is a nonstandard reading; when Ichigo first saw it in writing, he pronounced it "Ametatsu."
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* The ''[[Crest of the Stars]]'' novels and their sequels use this to give the artificial language Baronh. The meaning is given with the ''kanji'' and the Baronh pronunciation is given with the furigana. The English translations just had very large glossaries.
* The main character of ''[[The Day of Revolution]]'' goes from [[Gender Bender|Kei to Megumi]] by reading his name differently. This is one of the clues his old buddies use to figure it out.
* ''[[
** The kanji for moon actually has lots of interesting name readings, such as ''Aporo'' ("Apollo"), ''Arute'' ("Arte"mis), ''Runa'' ("Luna"), and ''Mūn'' (not even creative there, that's just "Moon").
* ''[[
** In ''Moonlight Sonata'', {{spoiler|Seiji Asai [[Harmless Lady Disguise|lived as a female doctor]]}} on the Tsukukage Island for two years and when Conan [[Pull the Thread|pulled the thread]], {{spoiler|[[Unsettling Gender Reveal|locals were surprised about his actual gender.]]}} How could {{spoiler|he}} pull that out? First, [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|the looks]], and second, {{spoiler|he}} didn't even need to change the papers but merely changed how the name 成実 is pronounced-- {{spoiler|he switched from the masculine ''on-yomi'' reading ''Seiji'' to the feminine ''kun-yomi'' reading ''Narumi''.}}
** There was a case when a Sonoko and Ran asked the name of a TV producer in person, the answer was the kana for ''Hozumi''-- that was because his actual surname was 八月一日, which is usually understood as "First of August" and would be hard to understand the reading that led to his naming.<ref>''Hozumi'' is literally "picking ears of grain"-- and the said date, commonly considered as the beginning of the harvesting season, is sometime remembered as the day ''when ears of grain are picked''.</ref>
* Played with in ''[[
* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' the kanji for "kuso" (shit) has "fakkin (fucking)" as its furigana. Also, when Sena sees Taro Raimon's name on the roster for the baseball team (as "Raimon Taro"), he misreads it as "Kaminari Montaro", leading to his being nicknamed "Monta"<ref>to keep from ticking him off, Hiruma covers it up by claiming it comes from Joe Montana</ref>.
** Another example has [[Dumb Muscle|Natsuhiko]] [[The Lancer|Taki]] develop a special move with a kanji name, accompanied by [[Lampshade Hanging|"clearly impossible furugana"]].
* The title kanji for [[Full Moon wo Sagashite]], 満月, are pronounced as their English meaning "furu muun". While referring to Mitsuki's alter-ego, the same kanji are read as her first name and as "mangetsu", the term for a full moon.
* In the ''[[Fist of the North Star|Hokuto no Ken]]'' manga, the kanji 強敵 (normally read as ''kyouteki'' or "fierce adversary") is given the reading ''tomo'' (とも), which the Japanese word for "friend", which serves to indicate that not all of Kenshiro's adversaries aren't bitter enemies, but more like equal rivals.
* In ''[[
* In the original ''[[Grenadier]]'' manga, furigana are used constantly to give foreigh pronunciations to given sets of kanji, despite the fact that this is ([[After the End|supposedly]]) set during the Japanese sengoku period.
* A central plot element in ''[[
* The title of the ''[[Harukanaru Toki no Naka
* ''[[Kenichi:
* ''[[Konjiki no Gash Bell]]'' plays with this from time to time. One episode had part of the title translating roughly to "Searching for the Light", but the kanji given for light was actually the word "shouki" which means "way to victory", with "hikari" (light) given in the furigana.
* ''[[Living Game]]'' has [https://web.archive.org/web/20090415030918/http://www.onemanga.com/Living_Game/3/07/ Hiyama Izumi], a young girl (around high school age) whose given name is written with kanji that can be read as Ikkaku, apparently a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090412051354/http://www.onemanga.com/Living_Game/3/05/ male-sounding name]
* In the ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' manga, the spells are written in kanji, with the Latin pronunciation in furigana. The anime replicates this by usually having the characters say the Japanese reading while the foreign pronunciation is said simultaneously in an echoey and quieter back track.
** The title which Negi is after is usually written with the kanji "great magic-user", but given the gloss "Magister Magi". The pronoun variant of the trope has also happened in the manga.
* ''[[Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro]]'' does this an awful lot; for one, we've got episode names. They're all one kanji long, but have interesting readings--for example, the kanji for "hair" is read as "a long friend." There are also a few character names; for example, "X" being read as "Sai."
* ''[[Minami-ke]]'' uses Kana's misreading of the kanji for "underworld" as a harmless place name for a quick gag.
* [[Nasuverse|Kinoko Nasu]] loves this. Almost every single term in his stories is written with kanji and furigana to give a double meaning to every single thing. This even applies to the ending songs for the anime adaptation of ''[[Kara no Kyoukai
* [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] has the, uh, structure that gives Angels unlimited power, which due to the kanji used can be translated either as "S2 Engine" or "S2 Organ." The ambiguity helps to ramp up the Angels' [[Eldritch Abomination|weirdness levels.]]
* ''[[
* In ''[[Manga/Prince Of Tennis|Prince Of Tennis]]'', Kintarou calls Echizen "Koshimae" as that is the alternative reading for Echizen
* The ''[[
** This is played in the [[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon|live-action series]] as well. In an early episode, Usagi finds a card dropped by Mamoru Chiba and reads his name as "Ei Chijo" (she was reading the alternate pronounciation of each kanji). As we know, she only got the "Chi" right.
** A common trait across adaptations is that Usagi is awful when it comes to kanji, whether reading or writing it. Here's an example from [http://wikimoon.org/images/ep127.jpg the last episode of the third season,] written by her ''future self aka Neo Queen Serenity.'' Since the puns were obviously hard to translate, dubs tend to say that the letter has grammar/writing mistakes and/or bad handwriting.
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
** In "The Cat That Was Told a Million Times", one of the people he sympathizes with after his own name is made fun of is named Mitarai, which is written 御手洗, or the same as "toilet".
* ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'' uses this a lot, most notably accompanying the recurring quote "Written as Mermaid (Ningyo)... Read as Chivalry (Ninkyo)!"
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* The ''[[Spiral]]'' manga plays with this and [[Gratuitous English]], but only with characters who actually grew up in England, so it makes sense for them to speak English to each other. Eyes once calls Kanone "brother", using the Japanese kanji with furigana of the English pronunciation; and in the sequel ''Spiral Alive'', Kanone says "Are you ready?" in English print with furigana giving the pronunciation, but not translating the meaning.
* In ''[[Spirited Away]]'', Yubaba changes Chihiro's name to "Sen" by taking its first kanji character which means "thousand" and changing it from the archaic pronunciation "chi" to the canonical pronunciation "sen" (which is of Chinese origin), thus emphasizing its numerical meaning.
* Early in ''[[
* Played in the opposite way by [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s [[Reused Character Design]]. When his famous characters appeared in different works, he would often use names that were phoenetically identical to their previous incarnations, but using completely different kanji.
* ''[[
** How about "ippotsuko" in kanji and "Accelerator" in katakana?
* All of the Ushiromiya family's given names in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
* [[Urusei Yatsura]]: The monk 錯乱坊 insists his name be pronounced "Cherry", rather than "Sakuranbou" (the kanji literally read as "deranged monk", but is a homonym for cherry blossoms).
* ''[[
* In ''[[Yo
* In ''[[Working!!]]'', Souta's last name is pronounced Takanashi (which can mean "no hawks"), but is written with the kanji for "little birds playing" (小鳥遊).
** The same play on words occurs with Yomi Takanashi's family name in ''[[
* This seems to be becoming a [[Running Gag]] in [[Gate 7]] where Takamoto is concerned. Many names of places, organizations, are pronounced like already-familiar Japanese terms, but are spelled with completely different kanji (this is done by using alternate readings of said kanji). The comedy is that Takamoto keeps assuming that everyone is using the usual kanji for the pronunciation (even when it might imply something crude or dirty)--[[Hilarity Ensues]].
* In Episode 15 of [[The Idolmaster (
* Something of an important plot point in [[Maze Megaburst Space]] regarding how the title character got [[Gender Bender|his/her]] name. {{spoiler|Mei's brother Akira has a name that with an [[Alternate Character Reading]] can also be read as 'mei' Thus the two get the nickname Meis which after their [[Fusion Dance]] morphs into Maze.}}
== Literature ==
* Furigana are used in the Japanese translation of ''[[Harry Potter (
* Kamikishiro from "Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh" likes to do this with people's names and calls Touka "Fuji."
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Dai Majin Kanon]]'' used this as part of its [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]] so that, while every episode title had a different meaning, all were read as "Kanon."
* In ''[[
== Real Life ==
* Numbers up to 10 in Japanese all have at least two readings: The native Japanese words (''hitotsu'', ''futatsu'', ''mittsu'', ...) and the more well-known Sino-Japanese words (''ichi'', ''ni'', ''san'', ...). These, sometimes combined with the English words for numbers, are often warped and used as mnemonics to remember long numbers, such as phone numbers or entrance exam
** Many gaijin interested in Japanese media use 39 or 3Q to mean "thank you", as "san ku" or "san kyu".
*** This was used as a pun for the name of a [[Vocaloid]] concert. "39's (mi-ku's) Giving Day (like ''Thanks''giving)"
** The numbers 4 and 9 are often pronounced "yon" and "kyu" instead of "shi" and "ku" in Japan since the latter examples sound identical to the [[Four Is Death|characters for death]] and suffering respectively, similar to how the number 13 is considered [[Thirteen Is Unlucky|unlucky]] in Western culture.
* Courtesy of a major Japanese life insurer, the top boy's name in 2010, as written, was 大翔. However, they also noted different parents gave the same name different pronunciations, including Hiroto, Haruto, Yamato, Tiga (Tiger)<ref>This is a [[World Cup 2010]] reference.</ref>, Sora<ref>"Sky." The kanji means "great flight"--note the creativity Japanese apply in this.</ref>, Taito, Daito, and Masato. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121227120003/http://www.meijiyasuda.co.jp/profile/etc/ranking/
** Also because of this trope, the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110220183237/http://www.meijiyasuda.co.jp/profile/etc/ranking/ entire survey results] has to be broken into "top names as written" and "top names as pronounced," and further broken down into "top names as written--how are they pronounced" and "top names as pronounced--how are they written"...
* As noted above, there are a few characters that have multiple readings in Chinese itself. One example is 行, which has at least three different Mandarin pronunciations depending on its meaning, at least four in Cantonese.
== Video Games ==
* Cases 2-1 and 3-5 in the ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' games used this as a plot device, the former because the criminal used the wrong kanji combination for the defendant's surname (defendant has a non-standard combo, criminal incorrectly assumed the standard one) and the latter because an eight-year old misinterpreted Kanji written instructions. These were changed to spelling problems in the English version.
* Keine Kamishirasawa of the ''[[
** A common joke for [[Anime Chinese Girl|Hong Meiling]] is to read her name in Japanese as Kurenai Misuzu. That's when she's lucky. Usually, she's just [[Fan Nickname|China]].
** Reisen Udongein Inaba has spell cards which enforce this. Her spell cards have both a Kanji spelling, and a Katakana pronunciation given after the Kanji. These result in entirely different phrases. For example, her first spell can be read as either "Mind Shaker" or "Lunatic Red Eyes". Strangely, when you go to Hard and Lunatic mode, only the former changes its name. So in Lunatic mode, the same spell is called "Mind Blowing" or "Lunatic Red Eyes".
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* This the reason protagonist Syouko of [[Aoi Shiro]] calls Kaya "Natsu" (or "Natchan"). The first character for Kaya's name is the ''kanji'' for 'summer,' which when used on its own is pronounced Natsu. It's mentioned in passing that Syouko's grandmother did something similar with the ''kanji'' for spring in her name.
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in [[Syukusho Gakuen]]. {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]] is named Miku, which is an alternate reading for ''mirai'' (future). She's a [[Time Travel|time traveller.]]}}
* In ''[[
* The Japanese title of the game ''[[
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