I noticed in several fanfics of Escaflowne or others that have something to do with Japan has a few mistakes that bothered me. I do not blame the authors at all since they were just not informed or didn't look it up.

I decided to write this up to help with any future series, or to just inform people.

Here are some common, or not so common, mistakes I have seen.

Names

1) Japanese people in Japan do NOT have middle names like that of western countries. So when it says "Hitomi Kanzaki" or "Kanzaki Hitomi" those are her only names, no middle names.

2) This one I'm not that concerned about, just thought I'd let you guys know. You normally say your surname before your name, so it would be "Kanzaki Hitomi". But saying Hitomi Kanzaki can be considered a "translation" so I find it acceptable to see it written as such since most of these fanfics are in English. So that means instead of saying John Smith, it'd be Smith John, when introducing yourself to someone that is Japanese or if they introduced themselves to you, unless they are aware of western traditions of their name before their family name, but let's not get too far into that or it'd just be too confusing. Too late, I've already confused myself!

3) Japanese people in America may adopt an American name just so they either fit in more, or so it's easier for an American to say their name, etc. In that case that American name might become a middle name. For example: Ooyama Amane goes by the American name "Jessica" and so her full name is Amane Jessica Ooyama. The double "o" concept may be confusing so some Japanese people write their names "Ohyama" an "h" instead of another "o".

Money

In Japan they use yen, not dollars, as currency. My general rule of thumb in converting dollars to yen is to move the decimal point two over to the right. For example $10.00 is roughly 1,000 yen. $5.49 = 549 yen. This isn't precise, but it works for me.

Written Language

In Japan they use a mixture of their own Japanese characters and Chinese characters. There is Hiragana, which were Japanese characters that women used without Chinese characters so long ago. There was a novel written by a woman some centuries ago that was all hiragana. This set is mixed with Chinese characters. Then there is Katakana that is only used for foreign words or names like "America", "Rachel", "pizza" etc. Then there is Kanji, the Japanese name for Chinese characters. There's also Romaji, which they use the Roman alphabet to spell things. Example: "America" in romaji would be "Amerika", "Ice cream" would be "Aisu kuriimu", "Jason" would be "Jeison" etc. The Japanese language is phonetic. So if Hitomi were to have a spelling test it wouldn't have those annoying silent letters that English has like the silent "b" in "comb" or the "gh" in "light. This is in regards to some fics where they had some character read off letters on a plaque or something. That would only be possible if it's not Chinese, Korean, or Japanese that I know of.

Misc.

Senpai (pronounced more like "sempai" with an "m") means "upper classman". I'm not sure if anyone knew how annoyed I was with a few of the translations of the subbed version of Escaflowne. The subtitles kept saying "Captain Amano" when senpai means "upper classman". I suppose it's sorta close to what it means, but it's not the same. You use the word senpai for elder students in your school. In the Japanese school system it is six years of elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in high school. You get free education up through middle school, but you have to pay for high school. You do and entrance exam for several schools to get in. There are different levels and you'll get into the one that suits your level of education. It's like taking the SATs, except for high school. Because of this system many students study very hard so they can get into the best high school they can. It's not unusual for students to go to shrines and buy a charm for luck in their studies.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Sorry if this doesn't directly go with Escaflowne, but I found several of these types of mistakes in Escaflowne fanfics which is why I put this up to hopefully change some mistakes.

If you have any questions that you think I should add, I'd be more than happy to, if I even know.