Anime list

[Nya-chan Production]

I don't want to be negative or something, but...

Wouldn't it be good to unify the system under which are the anime listed in the catalogue.

The system as it is now is pretty much out of the hand. Some people enter it under English names, some under Japanese, some put "The" in front of the names, some not (Girl who Leapt In time, The (Movie) - took me 3 minutes to find it, after fail with Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and The Girl...).

So, would it be possible to get some system in it, pressumably based on some big anime database out there (AniDB, ANN or MAL come to mind).

And when it comes to that, would it be possible to input "alternative names"? So the database has, say, two (or more?) entries (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, f.e.), both of which go to the same term?

[Kitsuner]

And when it comes to that, would it be possible to input "alternative names"? So the database has, say, two (or more?) entries (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, f.e.), both of which go to the same term?

Don't they already do that?

[Kionon]

And when it comes to that, would it be possible to input "alternative names"? So the database has, say, two (or more?) entries (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, f.e.), both of which go to the same term?

Don't they already do that?

Yes. Linked titles, iirc.

[godix]

IIRC only older titles are linked like that. Years ago when the database was cleaned up duplicate entries were linked. Since then we had to ask for new anime to be entered and I'd bet that only the proper titles were added without multiple linked titles.

[Qyot27]

IIRC only older titles are linked like that. Years ago when the database was cleaned up duplicate entries were linked. Since then we had to ask for new anime to be entered and I'd bet that only the proper titles were added without multiple linked titles.

Not entirely. Toradora! isn't under its proper title. And that's only one example. The rule of thumb that was in place for as long as I can remember was that the Japanese title was used, but only in instances where there was no official English title (which is why the Toradora! issue is all the more frustrating - not only is 'Tiger X Dragon' not its proper title in Japanese, that's not even its proper English title, because it's not even licensed yet; if that arose because of that licensing hoax trolling from back last October, it really needs to be fixed - well, it needs to be fixed anyway, but whatever).

I agree that some system needs to be in place to easily facilitate alternative titles, but the question of how to do it is the bigger problem. One way would be to ask for both the original Japanese title, and then the standard English title (with a big fat warning specifically saying that 'English title' is for the official English licensed title, not a half-assed translation*). Or making it to where the English title option is greyed out until a license deal has been confirmed, and then it's entered as well. A standard style guide for grammar - to avoid the [movie title], The (the movie) stuff - might also be in order. It probably would do well to have two or three people (that are separately assigned to the catalogue maintenance, and do nothing else) that are really strict on the issue be in charge of inputting new titles and checking suggestions to the catalogue so that these issues don't arise, or at least that their frequency is cut down a lot. That's generally how MAL does it, I think, although there's some fidgeting.

*The same could generally be true about entering the Japanese title, making sure that the title isn't a botched transliteration if there's any clearly-foreign words written in katakana.

[dazza1008]

Isn't this the same issue with duplicate songs/artists in the catalogue?

[Nya-chan Production]

Pretty much so

[BurningLeaves]

Toradora! isn't under its proper title. And that's only one example. The rule of thumb that was in place for as long as I can remember was that the Japanese title was used, but only in instances where there was no official English title (which is why the Toradora! issue is all the more frustrating - not only is 'Tiger X Dragon' not its proper title in Japanese, that's not even its proper English title, because it's not even licensed yet; if that arose because of that licensing hoax trolling from back last October, it really needs to be fixed - well, it needs to be fixed anyway, but whatever).

Every time Toradora gets brought up we talk about this problem. I know the mods are busy and everything but seeing that this is becoming quite the popular anime I think it needs to be fixed sooner rather than later, but so far IIRC all the topics that have been brought up about it haven't been addressed. Toradora is the name everyone who knows that anime knows it as. I never even heard it referred to as this TigerXDragon thing until I saw a video being posted with it after I failed to find any toradora vids on the supersearch if the org wants to call it this tiger dragon thing fine, but at least make it Toradora! (TigerXDragon) like they have done with other titles.