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Learning Japanese with Berserk: Idea
🕑 Added 2022-08-10 00:47:58 +0000 UTCI've posted about the name "Idea of Evil" before, going over how it is formed and what it means. But the word イデア (IDEA) shows up in two other places in Berserk, and it's applied as furigana to a different word than in 魔の源形 (Idea of Evil).
The first instance where it shows up, it's only in Katakana. That's in episodes 163, 164 and 165 (located at the end of volume 20), which are all titled イデアの影, meaning "Shadow of Idea", or perhaps "Reflection of Idea" in this case. It refers to the fact the ongoing events are mirroring what happened during the Eclipse, as the Skull Knight had warned Guts they would.
The second time is in volume 24, as Schierke mentions the "World of Idea" (本質の世界), from which all existence originates and that overlaps with the corporeal and ethereal worlds. In that line, イデア is applied as furigana to the word 本質 (normally pronounced ほんしつ). 本質 translates to "essence" or "true nature" in English. It's basically the fundamental attribute(s) that make something what it is.
This of course fits with the original concept the word イデア (pronounced "EE-DEH-AH" for English speakers) refers to. Here's a refresher lifted straight from the Idea of Evil article:
It's a Greek word, used in reference to Plato's theory of Ideas (nowadays often referred to as the "theory of forms"). To summarize it, Greek philosopher Plato asserts that the physical world in which humans reside is imperfectly derived from an imperceptible higher world filled with ideal forms of everything that exists. From those perfect archetypes come every imperfect copy that exists around us, which is why no two trees are alike: because they can't perfectly replicate the "true" tree. Same goes for everything else: stones, fish, houses, mountains...
Plato alternatively uses two words in his treatise: ἰδέα (idea) and εἶδος (eidos). Both refer to the aspect or appearance of a thing, but with nuances that aren't useful for us to go over in this case. What's important is that the meaning they are meant to convey is more that of a "concept" (or "essence" 😉) than an "idea" as you'd understand it in modern English. This is why it's important to distinguish between the Greek word Miura is referring to and the English word 'idea', which in Japanese would be written アイディア (AIDIA).
Not to mention, of course, that to just talk about an idea in the common sense of the word, you'd use a common Japanese word, like 考え (KANGAE).
