Odd transliteration

[Hruotland]

For the German edition of Hyouka 1, i added the artist with the name as it is spelled on the cover, Taskohna. For the Japanese version, only the text author is mentioned. The Japanese version of the artist’s name is タスクオーナ.

Now the problem is that “Taskohna” is an odd transliteration of the Japanese version. It is missing two “u”s. Usually you would write Tasukuōna or something similar. (The long ō is a bit tricky. “o”? “ō”? “ô”? “oh”? &c.)

I couldn't really find another transliterated version of that artist’s name, but i don’t feel comfortable adding the odd, kind-of German version to the Japanese edition.

So? How should this be handled?

[Hruotland]

I did a bit more research, and i guess the problem moved a bit sideways, so to say.

Look like the artist signs eir own name as
Task
Ohna
(in two lines, in Latin script/Rōmaji/ローマ字)
So, “Task Ohna” or “Taskohna”?

[Hruotland]

I went with “Task Ohna”.
See also Hyouka Vol. 1

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Hruotland wrote: "Now the problem is that “Taskohna” is an odd transliteration of the Japanese version."

But it's what is on the cover.

[Hruotland]

I should have said
“Task Ohna” + “Taskohna” for the German and “Task Ohna” + “タスクオーナ” for the Japanese.
The “…ko…” in the version on the German cover doesn’t make much sense. Without the word break “…k O…”, a “ko” would be “コ” in Japanese, not the “クオ” of the Japanese cover.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I am not doubting what you say about the oddness of the transliteration. Nonetheless, we would generally go with what is in the book covers.

[Richard]

I think those of us unfamiliar with the publishing world don't realise the importance of the exact wording of covers. I included the character name above the title on my cover and got confused responses from the experts. People may try not to judge a book by its cover, but they certainly want to be able to identify it.

[Hruotland]

I did add the different versions as they appear on the covers to the Japanese and German editions.

The question is which version is the “standard or most common Roman (that is, English-language) version”?
For various reasons (author signature (post #2), my point from #5, plus the fact that the two-word version seems a bit more common in web search results) i think that the two word version should be seen as the standard, even when a German editor decided to join the two words into one.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Hruotland wrote: "I did add the different versions as they appear on the covers to the Japanese and German editions."

Can you please link to some examples? Because none of the covers I looked at (and I looked at quite a few) had that spelling.

[Hruotland]

I asked the German publisher about this and this is the reply:

Wie Sie anhand des Bonusmaterials erkennen können, schreibt sich der Zeichner selber Task Ohna. Das dieses nun zu TASKOHNA auf dem Cover und im Impressum zusammengezogen wird, ist die Entscheidung des japanischen Lizenzgebers und nicht unsere.

My translation: “As you can see from the bonus material, the artist writes his own name as Task Ohna. That this is pulled together to TASKOHNA for the cover and the imprint was a decision of the Japanese licenser and not ours.”