Now that “manga” has become part of the English lexicon, Pata at Irresponsible Pictures longs for a stylebook to help those who write about Japanese popular culture:
Writing on Japanese entertainment in English is, to be nice about it, a linguistic minefield. We’re talking about a culture that uses the English language for ornamental purposes, and then trying to communicate its niceties to a culture that uses Japanese and Chinese characters for ornamental purposes. (Not to mention the überfans who will castigate you for the tiniest slip-up of the Japanese language, never mind that they can barely speak English or even Internetese.) This situation, I think, is in much more serious need of stylistic rigor than whether to use Osama or Usama bin-Laden, which I think has been pretty much figured out anyway.
He even proposes some starter entries, such as one sorting out Aa! Megami-sama, Ah! My Goddess and Oh My Goddess! (all are correct), and another giving the correct capitalization and pronunciation of xxxHOLiC (I didn’t realize this, but the x’s are silent).
Now somebody just needs to pay Pata to write the stylebook …
