Akumajo or Akumajou?

[Dev1anc3]

Well, I've been submiting alot of over seas Castlevania titles to the RFGen data base, and it occured to me, that all across the internet, people use either "Akumajo" or "Akumajou" to translate Castlevania from Japanese to English, and me being the Castlevania Collector/Correct Speller I am was wondering...   which one is it?

On Google I bring up 61,500 results for "Akumajo", and 61,900 "Akumajou", so they are both used pretty evenly it seems. If I had my pick, I'd say "Akumajou", simply because it looks better, but either way I think after this is resolved (if it is resolved), all of the listings in the database should be changed to the winner, and I'll from here on out use the "proper" spelling.

[Tynstar]

I have no clue. Like you said just have all the ones in the database the same.

[Dev1anc3]

I did a serch on the Wikipedia, and brought up results from both spellings, but brought up alot more results for "Akumajou" than "Akumajo". To make things even more confusing, I also noticed that on MAME they have the Japanese version of Haunted Castle (Arcade Castlevania) listed as "Akuma-jou Dracula"...   joy.

[AndyC]

Japanese titles are great aren't they.

Every time a Japanese title is submitted I always check around to make sure it is the correct Japanese name and not mispelt or some mish-mash translation. The results you get are always amazingly varied. Words in different orders, spelling variations and sometimes the inability to find the title at all.

For what its worth I'll try and keep everything as linear as possible for the database entries.

[JWKobayashi]

I don't think either are necessarily incorrect.  It just depends on the translator.  Do we have any Japanese speakers / readers / writers here?

[eternalblue81]

I'm pretty sure it would be Akumajou. Generally I've found that Japanese words with "ou" many times in English translations have the "u" removed, probably so English speakers unfamiliar with Japanese will be more likely to pronouce it "oh" than like "ou" in "out" or "through". The "u" is pretty important though, and affects translation in Japanese. It elongates the "o" sound, which essentially could make it a different word in Japanese. If it were only Akumajo, I don't think the ou variation would show up anywhere at all.

[Dev1anc3]

I'm pretty sure it would be Akumajou. Generally I've found that Japanese words with "ou" many times in English translations have the "u" removed, probably so English speakers unfamiliar with Japanese will be more likely to pronouce it "oh" than like "ou" in "out" or "through". The "u" is pretty important though, and affects translation in Japanese. It elongates the "o" sound, which essentially could make it a different word in Japanese. If it were only Akumajo, I don't think the ou variation would show up anywhere at all.

That's a very good explanation. That would indeed make sense.

[Ando]

I don't think either are necessarily incorrect.  It just depends on the translator.  Do we have any Japanese speakers / readers / writers here?

*raises hand*

So, yeah, it's Akumajou (or, if you romanize differently, Akumajoo, which could be where those other romanizations come from). At least, that's what every Japanese site I checked is telling me.

[Fuyukaze]

I'm not exactly sure where either matter as both could be considered properly translated.  I'd say once it's agreed on the least should be a variation title though.

[OatBob]

DDR Ultramix 3 has a song called Akumajo Dracula Medley performed by Kukeihakurabu.  I guess you could consider that a translation from Konami.  My vote hardly counts because I hardly know anything about the Japanese language, both turn out a hard 'o' and I agree with the others that the 'ou' draws out the sound longer and seems correct.

[Lenneth]

I vote for choosing one and then linking one to the other. That way its all in one place and more accurately reflects the total number of gamers with that game. ^_^