Why is Hinokami in Hinokami Kagura written ヒノカミ instead of 火の神？They refer to the same concept as far as I have understood.
I contend that the version with the kanjis conveys the meaning immediately to me.
Disclaimer: I am relatively new to Japanese and the little I know is mostly the first unit (1/6) of Duolingo and a little more than the N5 set from the JLPT Levels (revised) sets from the Kanji Study app.
9 comments
If this is Demon Slayer, my guess is to let the people watching/reading know what the episode is called, without giving away the meaning, keeping it ambiguous. I for one thought it was a great use of the Japanese script.
If this is Demon Slayer, it’s because kids can’t read all the kanji yet, and so katakana is easier to read.
To add on, it’s also kinda like cursive or bolding sometimes. It adds emphasis and makes the word stand out.
I’ve heard that it can add emphasis – like italics!
If it’s written as kanji, Hinokami Kagura is 「火の神神楽」. There are two 神 and it becomes difficult to read. So the author changes them into katakana.
In addition to what others have said, in anime and manga, names of character’s attacks and abilities are often written in katakana, or even straight up in English capital letters. It’s just a stylistic thing. Think of it as less like part of the sentence and more just as a name, with its own rules.
Not familiar with this series but some stuff like flora and fauna is often written in katakana even if there is kanji for it.
The other answers are correct, but there’s also a plot reason the author wanted the meaning to be ambiguous.
cuz it looks cool and is a stylistic choice