Katakana VS. Hiragana or Kanji

[DewarHolmes]

Hi,

It recently came to my attention that, when referred to in Japanese, "Final Fantasy" is written in Katakana instead of Hiragana or Kanji. I understand that Katakana is used for loan words, emphasis, onomatopoeia, etc. but why would it be used for something like 'Final' + 'Fantasy' when the Japanese have Kanji for those words. Is it the concepts/ideas that are attached to the words that are foreign?
On the same note, I was looking through the Japanese version of the book 'Alice in Wonderland' and I noticed 'Usagi' is written in Katakana rather than Hiragana. I could only speculate that that has to do with the character rather than the animal, rabbit.
Thanks for any explanations.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by DewarHolmes

Hi,

It recently came to my attention that, when referred to in Japanese, "Final Fantasy" is written in Katakana instead of Hiragana or Kanji. I understand that Katakana is used for loan words, emphasis, onomatopoeia, etc. but why would it be used for something like 'Final' + 'Fantasy' when the Japanese have Kanji for those words. Is it the concepts/ideas that are attached to the words that are foreign?
On the same note, I was looking through the Japanese version of the book 'Alice in Wonderland' and I noticed 'Usagi' is written in Katakana rather than Hiragana. I could only speculate that that has to do with the character rather than the animal, rabbit.
Thanks for any explanations.

The game's title is literally written using the katakanized English "Final Fantasy."

It's exactly like how in English we call the food "sushi" when we already have perfectly good words to describe it in English ("stuff wrapped in vinegar, seaweed, and rice")

Same goes for "sashimi" instead of "raw fish."

Also, in Modern Japanese, most animal species are written in katakana rather than kanji. I honestly have no idea why, but that's the general practice. About the only exceptions are 犬、羊、牛、馬、猫、and 鳥 and those variations. For example, I think you'll see カエル more than 蛙 (frog).

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Also, in Modern Japanese, most animal species are written in katakana rather than kanji. I honestly have no idea why, but that's the general practice. About the only exceptions are 犬、羊、牛、馬、猫、and 鳥 and those variations. For example, I think you'll see カエル more than 蛙 (frog).

I think it must stem out of the science community. Animal names, the more you get into it, use increasingly confusing or little known kanji, so having it in Katakana just makes things easier. There's also a huge amount that don't have a native Japanese name, so it's either a katakana version of the english, or if very obscure, the latin name. Ditto plant names. Sometimes the kanji even seem to represent mutated reflections of the english meaning. Like the the name for the european starling is 星椋鳥. Imagine that popping up in a story. If you'd not seen it before you might be under the impression that these 'grey star birds' are some fantastic creation of the author. Sticking it in katakana ala scientific writings, kind of indicates you're talking about a real animal or plant as opposed to something more vague and poetic. That's my take on it anyway.

In the case of Alice though, it might be in katakana as 'the white rabbit' is the characters ~name~, not just a description of him. Thus he'd be ウサギ to distinguish him from any other うさぎ。

[DewarHolmes]

Awesome answers. Thanks a lot!

[sakaeyellow]

I think maybe it's because usagi and neko are not kyoiku kanji.

And in Japan, you will see something like 皮ふ（皮膚）and けん銃（拳銃）.