Talk:Mugen/@comment-76.115.252.161-20160607031506

There are so many inaccuracies in this article. I’ve noticed that Samurai Champloo fans tend to extrapolate from scant evidence and draw strange conclusions, and everyone is absolutely positive that they’re assumptions are facts. Actual research frequently calls these assumptions into question. I’m going to post a few comments on different aspects of this, because it just bugs me. Here’s #1...

Mugen's Name

The official Japanese spelling in kanji ( 無幻 ) means "no illusions" or "not an illusion". The writers have said that their interpretation is "no bullshit". You can find the correct spelling in the early concept art.

Mugen's name is a homophone  for the Japanese word meaning "limitless" or "infinite" ( 無限 ). Mugen chooses to use the infinity symbol to write his name. He invented this himself. Keep in mind, even though he learned to read and write, he only learned basic hiragana.

"Mugen", meaning "no illusions", is an uncommon word, and I have never seen it used as a name outside of manga and anime. The kanji for "gen", when used as a standalone word, is more typically pronounced "maboroshi", meaning "illusion".

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.89;margin-top:11pt;margin-bottom:11pt;"><span style="font-size:13.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">As a general rule, whenever you translate Japanese, the interpretation must be based on the kanji used to spell the word, rather than how the word is pronounced, since many words share the same pronunciation but mean totally different things. Or the meaning might be similar but nuanced in such a way that you would use one spelling or reading in one situation, and a different spelling or reading in another, based on context. Unless you have a really good handle on kanji, you probably wouldn't recognize this scenario by looking at the hiragana, katakana, or romaji alone.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.89;margin-top:11pt;margin-bottom:11pt;"><span style="font-size:13.333333333333332px;font-family:Arial;color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">There are actually multiple kanji spellings for the word "mugen", even beyond the two above, all with slightly different meanings. None of them mean "eternity".

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.89;margin-top:4pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"> 永 is frequently used for "eternity", often combined with other characters to convey those nuances I was talking about. A stylized version of 永 is shown on the back of the haori of the Nagatomi Gang in episodes 3 and 4.