Talk:Hell Demon King/@comment-124.83.22.18-20151022102908/@comment-124.83.22.18-20151024020327

Like I said, we've done nothing BUT based our translations on symbology. I mean, if we don't, we end up with Dodomeki, Kukimeki, or Kukionihime. If I were to translate those alternately, they'd be Hundred Eyes Demons, 9 Divine Eyes Demon, and 9 Divinities Demon Princess respectively. Something like that. The kana is simply there to confirm pronunciation (that is, how you'd read it in romaji if you don't know the methods of pronunciation simply from looking at the kanji).

>I think the difference between the "Hell" kanji and the rest is that the kanji for that actually MEANS something.

Yes. Because of the meaning. Jigoku, earth prison, was how they referred to their place of punishment in the afterlife. It became 'hell' not because of what that means, in relation, to the English language. It's the context.

Likewise, even if the pronunciation differs, there are multiple ways to refer to the same thing while writing it with different kanji. This is because of the symbology. I think the problem here is that you're creating a mental division between a one-to-one word translation, but putting kanji together to form words is all about the symbols and what meaning they have when put together.