Sheena Ringo Receives Prestigious MEXT Fine Arts Award

[Jesse]

It's not too suprising NEW LOOK was chosen over ROCK STEADY. NEW LOOK was pretty much the "a-side" for that single, since it's the first track and the one she performed on TV. My personal favourite video of those three is actually WHAT A FEELING.

My favourite video out of the nominations would be Mellow, or perhaps call me by Chara, which I thought was nice.

[kuro_neko]

Originally Posted by ShinjiPG

That is correct Jonny.
Only I don't think things like Shéna or Sheena make any sense, because, first of all, there is no difference between "e" or "é" or "ë" in japanese, but there is a big difference between the pronounciation of "Shena" or "Shiina" in japanese. Also "Shee" being read as "Shii" only works in english. In japanese it would be read as "Shé", as well as in portuguese (for example). The japanese pronounciation of 椎名 implies it's supposed to be read as "Shiina", and that romanization works in most languages. Be it for a english speaker or a portuguese speaker, he will always read it as a japanese person would, so I think it's the most correct way of writing it with roman letters, despite how chich Ringo would want her family name to sound.

I'm not saying this works for every romanization of japanese words, because if her name didn't have the double-I, english speakers would read/say "Shina" as "China" (the country) or "Shine" (the english word). So it wouldn't work.

not to be a complete asshole, but it has become popular to write shinjuku as sinjuku and shibuya as sibuya, as well as replaced tsu with tu and chi with ti. romanization is based entirely on what system is most popular and it is ever changing based on personal preference and aesthetics. I think ringo changes the way her name is spelled on whim, no particular reason, why some people spell stephanie and stefanie and and stefani and all sorts of small variations. in english people are going to read she and shi the same for the most part and well, not to be an ass again, but I don't think when Japanese are romanizing words they think about other languages using the same/similar alphabets outside english, it just isn't important really. unless someone is writing her name siena ringo (which could still realistically pass as "shiina" for most japanese speakers based on what I said earlier", which is another ENTIRELY different name in english, its all small apples to me mostly (no pun intended)

[ShinjiPG]

Originally Posted by kuro_neko

but I don't think when Japanese are romanizing words they think about other languages using the same/similar alphabets outside english, it just isn't important really.

They don't.
But most of the romanization processess were "invented" by western people, If I'm not mistaken. For japanese people it's 椎名 and just 椎名. Any romanization they make is probably going to be based on what looks cooler. However, with western keyboards, the only way to get to 椎名 is if you write　しいな (shi-i-na), so I guess there must be a reason.

Well, whatever.
I just think it wouldn't be a bad idea to have one "official" western romanization for fans to use. If not, there's bound to be a lot of confusion: there's already a "SHEENA and the ROCKETS" band. How far-fetched would it be for non-fans to assume it was Ringo with another band?

Originally Posted by Jesse

It's not too suprising NEW LOOK was chosen over ROCK STEADY. NEW LOOK was pretty much the "a-side" for that single, since it's the first track and the one she performed on TV.

The 60s70s80s single is a triple-A-side, all 3 songs got PVs and were performed live the same number of times (more or less). There was really no "main" one, I believe, although "Rock Steady" was used/seen a lot as well as promo pictures from that PV were more predominant (at least) over the net.
Anyway, "New Look" PV is awesome.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by ShinjiPG

The 60s70s80s single is a triple-A-side, all 3 songs got PVs and were performed live the same number of times (more or less). There was really no "main" one, I believe, although "Rock Steady" was used/seen a lot as well as promo pictures from that PV were more predominant (at least) over the net.
Anyway, "New Look" PV is awesome.

I know it was a triple a-side, but to me it seemed that NEW LOOK was the main promotional song for the single. I didn't realise that either of the other 2 songs got performed on TV, I'll have to have a look!!
She performed NEW LOOK on all the end of year TV specials though yeah?

[merman]

But that "Sinjuku" is like that because the "shin" character can be either transcribed as "shin" or "sin" depending on the romanization system, then it's however strictly speaking incorrect to write "Sinjuku" because it should be either "Sinzyuku" in the kunrei-shiki romanization and "Shinjuku" in the Hepburn romanization. And of course it's incorrect to combine two different romaji systems within one word. That I've been taught and I'm just reproducing.
So perhaps the bottom line is, Japanese don't give a damn about romanizing correctly?

[ShinjiPG]

Originally Posted by merman

So perhaps the bottom line is, Japanese don't give a damn about romanizing correctly?

But we do.

[merman]

Then just call her Shiina. All that Sheena, Shéna and Rinngo and Ringö is just cosmetic crap to make it look cool, linguistically they're absolutely incorrect.

[ShinjiPG]

Originally Posted by merman

Then just call her Shiina. All that Sheena, Shéna and Rinngo and Ringö is just cosmetic crap to make it look cool, linguistically they're absolutely incorrect.

It wasn't me who wrote "Sheena" in the topic title, you know?

[merman]

You know, I haven't noticed the EE in the topic title until now

[a_grumble_cake]

here is a video of her receiving the MEXT Fine Arts award... she appears around 04:30 but I suggest watching the whole thing in order to amplify the hilarity and/or awe at her unexpected appearance. She always knew how to stand out