Forum:Elementary school name inconsistency?

I was browsing some Japanese discussion forums and one poster pointed out that early in the series (in volume 2 if I'm not mistaken... can anyone confirm? I'd like to check the Full Color Editions to see if it was changed, but I don't have time right now to flip through the volumes looking for one word), they refer to the elementary school Takashi's mother is expected to be at as Onbetsu Elementary (御別). However, in the more recent chapters, they refer to it 新床第三小学校, which, only adding to the confusion, was initially written in furigana as Shintoko, then in later chapters and the compiled volume 7 changed to Niidoko.

So, we can safely debunk Shintoko as the proper name for the school she's at, since that name was outright changed in later editions, but what about Onbetsu? Could the school possibly have two names (I've never heard of this happening, and you'd probably think one of the characters would mention this if it was intentional) or is it just a mistake?

For my own reference, in my translation, do you think I should change this mention to Niidoko or should I keep it as Onbetsu?Hotdcups 00:03, August 3, 2011 (UTC)

The line occurs at the bottom of page 17 of chapter 6. The official English translation uses Onbetsu, and both the original tankoubon of Volume 2 and the Full Color Edition use the kanji for Onbetsu. I guess Daisuke Sato didn't feel like creating a name for the school at that time so he just named it after the river it is near. When the school came back into the story, he either decided to give it a real name or simply forgot about the old one. I guess we can't really know for sure, though.

I'm a bit of a purist, so I think you should leave it as Onbetsu in your translation since that is what is in the original text. Going beyond my personal preference, there's the possibility of some kind of authorial intent behind the use of two different names. I think my earlier theory is more likely, but it's still a possibility.Turambar  02:59, August 3, 2011 (UTC)