Ninja Gaiden vs. Ninja The Gaiden

[noiseredux]

Why do we call the games Ninja Gaiden? Take a look at the original trilogy:







They all very clearly have a "the" in the title. But I never hear anyone refer to the games as Ninja The Gaiden. Why is that? That's obviously the title on the boxes...

I'm gonna start saying "Ninja The Gaiden," anyway. But I'm just curious?

[hashiriya1]

Dude, that is the "gaiden" kanji. 外伝. Ninja The Gaiden doesn't even make sense!

[YoshiEgg25]

Dude, that is the "gaiden" kanji. 外伝

That's exactly what I was going to say.

[noiseredux]

Dude, that is the "gaiden" kanji. 外伝. Ninja The Gaiden doesn't even make sense!

Is it really? I had no idea.

How would it not make sense though? "Ninja: The Side-Story"

Shrug. Learn something new every day.

[Gamerforlife]

That was the funny topic of the day

[thekorean12]

Haha, it's an understandable mistake. Those are strange looking kanji.

[noiseredux]

Pfft whatever. Don't even try to tell me that it doesn't LOOK like the word "THE". C'mon. I probably asked a question that other people wondered but never asked. Oh well.

[jfe2]

Thanks, I'll never unsee that now. Gah!

[hashiriya1]

I guess that would make sense if there was a colon. In the case of this game, the 'gaiden' means more of 'anecdote' or 'old story' than 'side-story'.

The Japanese version's title directly translates to Ninja Dragon Sword Legend. Now that's cooler!


Anyhoo, I guess I could see that. I can't unsee it now either, hehe.
Just look at later releases for verification!

[noiseredux]

"there's no such thing as a stupid question..."