<p>Sometimes, authors give their take on how their series' title is to be translated, this seems like a case of a "google translation" of the title on part of the author (It's awfully common). "Soredemo" can be translated as "still" or "even so" depending on which is more grammatically correct, "Sekai wa utsukushii" translates to "(the) world is beautiful." Equivalents for some determinatives like "a", "an" or "the" don't exist in Japanese. Actually parsing the title "それでも世界は美しい" through google translate gives "Still the world is beautiful". So my guess is either the author or his editor wanted an official English title... and ended up with that without proper knowledge of English, as I said earlier, it's awfully common, just take a look at the recent anime "Shuumatsu nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii desuka? Sukutte Moratte ii desuka?", the original novel has this Engrish title underneath the title in Japanese "Do you have what THE END? Are you busy? Shall you save XXX?"</p>

<p>EDIT: Realized I didn't give a take on the translation itself, either "Even so, the World is beautiful" and "The World is still beautiful" are proper translations of the title. But the official one is the weirdly worded one because Word of God</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-04T01:33:30.467Z
2017-07-04T01:33:30.467Z
paulnamida
<p>The English title within the for <em>Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii</em> anime is <em>Still world is Beautiful</em>:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/EehhW.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/EehhW.png" alt="The World is Still Beautiful"></a></p>

<p>Crunchyroll calls it "The World is Still Beautiful".  Finally, it's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Still_Beautiful" rel="nofollow noreferrer">English Wikipedia article</a> says the literal English translation is "Even So, The World is Beautiful". (Although the article title itself uses Crunchyroll's name.) Is this a particularly hard phrase to translate? Both Crunchyroll's and Wikipedia's titles sound fine in English.</p>

<p>Did the animation studio know <em>Still world is Beautiful</em> would sound and look wrong to English speakers? I can imagine it being just a poor translation, but it seems more likely someone at the studio thought it would fit the series better. If so, why?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T00:26:23.080Z
Perhaps it's Engrish?  There are a lot of titles which do this with English text, which sounds non-grammatical to us but is *still official*.
Makoto
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T00:37:20.923Z
@Makoto that is certainly possible. But for a long time I thought that about *Fruits Basket*. Eventually I realized the weird looking title was actually correct. A basket with just 7 apples is a "fruit basket". But if it had 3 apples, 2 pears, and a banana, it is more accurately referred to as a "fruits basket". That series had the 12 signs of the zodiac, ie, multiple kinds of "fruit". So I am wondering if I am missing something similar with *soreseka*.
RichF
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T01:31:47.277Z
Maybe it is "still world" is beautiful. Still world, a world that doesn't change. A world that stays the same. But then again  is the world in sorekara a still world?
絢瀬絵里
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T01:55:31.400Z
@AyaseEri Things change.  It is basically a romance story, but it does have occasional dark elements. However, the female protagonist does move to a kingdom where it never rains (unless she makes it do so), thus it is possible **still** refers to the weather. I don't _think_ that is what the title is implying, but it is possible.
RichF
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T04:16:32.330Z
Think of it from a literal perspective... The intent is likely to be "Still, the world is beautiful". Its the same intended meaning as "even so" structurally, but not as grammatically appropriate.
кяαzєя
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T04:23:00.760Z
@RichF You're overthinking "Fruits Basket". Japanese borrows both "fruit" and "fruits" as フルーツ _furūtsu_ (at least partially because Japanese doesn't really have lexical plurals like English does, so there's no reason to distinguish them, but perhaps also because "fruit" would be フルート _furūto_, which is the word for "flute"). So the Japanese title is フルーツバスケット _furūtsu basuketto_, and it gets reborrowed back into English as "Fruits Basket" since "fruits" is a closer match for _furūtsu_ than "fruit" is.
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T04:26:30.533Z
And as @кяαzєя points out, the problem is probably that Japanese speakers, like most speakers of languages that don't have articles, are bad at using a/an/the in English. This brings to mind [a post](https://redd.it/5p97ks) about an interview with Aimee Blackschleger, who is a native speaker of English and often provides vocals for anime soundtracks by Sawano Hiroyuki. The post author reports that "she tries to suggest how to make [Engrish lyrics] sound more correct/natural but usually to no avail". Such is life in Japan.
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T22:43:30.933Z
@senshin Concerning _Fruits Basket_, thank you for the background concerning the Japanese and English words involved. I accept what you say, but I still think the reason no one with a strong background in English tried to change it is that it is grammatically correct as is. On your other comment, thank you for the very interesting link to the reddit post. It is hard for me to understand that part of the culture, though. Why allow continued confusion when a one-time correction could obviate the problem completely? (I realize it is just a cultural difference, not something "right" or "wrong".)
RichF
<the-world-is-still-beautiful>
Why English title of Still world is Beautiful?
# Why English title of Still world is Beautiful?
Posted by: username_0 on 2017-07-02
The English title within the for *Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii* anime is *Still world is Beautiful*:
[![The World is Still Beautiful](https://i.sstatic.net/EehhW.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/EehhW.png)

Crunchyroll calls it "The World is Still Beautiful". Finally, it's [English Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Still_Beautiful) says the literal English translation is "Even So, The World is Beautiful". (Although the article title itself uses Crunchyroll's name.) Is this a particularly hard phrase to translate? Both Crunchyroll's and Wikipedia's titles sound fine in English.

Did the animation studio know *Still world is Beautiful* would sound and look wrong to English speakers? I can imagine it being just a poor translation, but it seems more likely someone at the studio thought it would fit the series better. If so, why?
**Tags:** the-world-is-still-beautiful
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Perhaps it's Engrish?  There are a lot of titles which do this with English text, which sounds non-grammatical to us but is *still official*.  
> **username_0**: @Makoto that is certainly possible. But for a long time I thought that about *Fruits Basket*. Eventually I realized the weird looking title was actually correct. A basket with just 7 apples is a "fruit basket". But if it had 3 apples, 2 pears, and a banana, it is more accurately referred to as a "fruits basket". That series had the 12 signs of the zodiac, ie, multiple kinds of "fruit". So I am wondering if I am missing something similar with *soreseka*.  
> **username_2**: Maybe it is "still world" is beautiful. Still world, a world that doesn't change. A world that stays the same. But then again  is the world in sorekara a still world?  
> **username_0**: @AyaseEri Things change.  It is basically a romance story, but it does have occasional dark elements. However, the female protagonist does move to a kingdom where it never rains (unless she makes it do so), thus it is possible **still** refers to the weather. I don't _think_ that is what the title is implying, but it is possible.  
> **username_3**: Think of it from a literal perspective... The intent is likely to be "Still, the world is beautiful". Its the same intended meaning as "even so" structurally, but not as grammatically appropriate.  
> **username_4**: @RichF You're overthinking "Fruits Basket". Japanese borrows both "fruit" and "fruits" as フルーツ _furūtsu_ (at least partially because Japanese doesn't really have lexical plurals like English does, so there's no reason to distinguish them, but perhaps also because "fruit" would be フルート _furūto_, which is the word for "flute"). So the Japanese title is フルーツバスケット _furūtsu basuketto_, and it gets reborrowed back into English as "Fruits Basket" since "fruits" is a closer match for _furūtsu_ than "fruit" is.  
> **username_4**: And as @кяαzєя points out, the problem is probably that Japanese speakers, like most speakers of languages that don't have articles, are bad at using a/an/the in English. This brings to mind [a post](https://redd.it/5p97ks) about an interview with Aimee Blackschleger, who is a native speaker of English and often provides vocals for anime soundtracks by Sawano Hiroyuki. The post author reports that "she tries to suggest how to make [Engrish lyrics] sound more correct/natural but usually to no avail". Such is life in Japan.  
> **username_0**: @senshin Concerning _Fruits Basket_, thank you for the background concerning the Japanese and English words involved. I accept what you say, but I still think the reason no one with a strong background in English tried to change it is that it is grammatically correct as is. On your other comment, thank you for the very interesting link to the reddit post. It is hard for me to understand that part of the culture, though. Why allow continued confusion when a one-time correction could obviate the problem completely? (I realize it is just a cultural difference, not something "right" or "wrong".)  
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_5 on 2017-07-04. Score: 2
Sometimes, authors give their take on how their series' title is to be translated, this seems like a case of a "google translation" of the title on part of the author (It's awfully common). "Soredemo" can be translated as "still" or "even so" depending on which is more grammatically correct, "Sekai wa utsukushii" translates to "(the) world is beautiful." Equivalents for some determinatives like "a", "an" or "the" don't exist in Japanese. Actually parsing the title "それでも世界は美しい" through google translate gives "Still the world is beautiful". So my guess is either the author or his editor wanted an official English title... and ended up with that without proper knowledge of English, as I said earlier, it's awfully common, just take a look at the recent anime "Shuumatsu nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii desuka? Sukutte Moratte ii desuka?", the original novel has this Engrish title underneath the title in Japanese "Do you have what THE END? Are you busy? Shall you save XXX?"

EDIT: Realized I didn't give a take on the translation itself, either "Even so, the World is beautiful" and "The World is still beautiful" are proper translations of the title. But the official one is the weirdly worded one because Word of God
---
