How to Pronounce Numbers in Japanese Titles

3 comments

1. For Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, “san” was added to the title indicating the third season. So in whole, the announcement said “Karakai Jouzi no Takagi-san san” for からかい上手の高木さん3.

2. For the limited scope of denoting a video game sequence at least, most of the popular series (think _Dragon Quest_, _Final Fantasy_, _Rockman_, etc.) would use a transliteration of the English number. See, for example:

   – [ラゴンクエストII](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88II_%E6%82%AA%E9%9C%8A%E3%81%AE%E7%A5%9E%E3%80%85): II is pronounced ツー
   – [ファイナルファンタジーIV](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BCIV): IV is pronounced フォー
   – For _Shin Megami Tensei V_, [its Japanese Wikipedia page](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9C%9F%E3%83%BB%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E%E8%BB%A2%E7%94%9FV) does indeed list the pronunciation of “V” as ファイブ. (Do note that this an _approximation_ of the English word “five”, and not pronounced exactly the same way.)

   But as /u/aeplus notes, this convention is not universal across all media, and I actually wouldn’t be surprised to find an exception in video games either.

3. slightly related topic. when it comes to game franchises, usually the very first game is not numbered. so we call it 初代（しょだい） to distinguish it from others like MegaTen 初代.