Re: Imperative in Japanese Story Titles

On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:33:55 +0900, Paul D wrote:

I recently read the short story 走れメロス, which I assume just means "Run,
Melos!" unless I'm missing some nuance with the conjugation. It was the
first time I'd noticed a Japanese title written with the imperative
(addressing the protagonist), but then I came across a reference to the
similarly titled 走れウサギ in vol. 6 of the manga イリヤッド. Is this common
enough in Japanese?

As a humorous aside, the book 走れウサギ was part of a collection of rabbit
paraphernalia (books and otherwise) being sold to an antique shop by a
rabbit lover. Ironically, the story itself (by John Updike) is not
about rabbits at all — making its inclusion a little joke on the part
of the author, who perhaps couldn't come up with enough books with うさぎ
in the title. :)

How about titles that have the imperative ねらえ? We've got エースをねらえ！- a live
action movie and anime and manga series about tennis. Also, トップをねらえ！ from
the Gunbuster series.

Phil Yff
.