Topic: The meaning of "Shanoa", cracked.

[theplottwist]

Big post, spoiler tags. That's the rules.

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I'm not sure if anyone has voiced this. I did a search for it and it seems nobody did, so I'm assuming I am the first to point this out. So, I come today to tell you what I suspect "Shanoa" means.

By this point I presume the story of it being a codename is already known, but if it isn't: IGA revealed that "Shanoa" is a codename. He also said that he never had a real name in mind but he thought a codename gave her an "aire of mystery". Remember this.

Many years back, before OoE released, Shanoa's japanese name ("シャノア") was leaked over GameFAQS, and many fans assumed it was meant to be "Chanoix" or should be "properly romanized" as such, probably because Chanoix is a real French name. The name ended up localized as "Shanoa".

Many theories were made about the name's meaning but none really went anywhere. Neither "Shanoa" nor "Chanoix" mean anything to this game. Especially next to Albus, whose name DOES sound like a codename to go with his color scheme, and means "White". And, where is the "aire of mystery" IGA spoke about? Both names just read like proper names that you'd accept without question.

So, here's the thing: I don't think it was meant to be "Chanoix", nor "Shanoa". The assumption that it was French was correct. However, I suspect her (code)name was meant to be, in fact, Chat Noir.

Yes. Black Cat. In French.

This appears to be one more of the dozens of Castlevania localization mishaps keeping us from truly enjoying these games and fully absorbing the context.

Once you imagine that her name is Chat Noir or a close approximation of that, many things start to feel much more contextually appropriate than before:

-The game's emphasis on the cat-collecting mechanic. She can talk to the rescued cats and befriend them. You can touch the screen itself to summon a cat toy to play with them.
-One of the speaking enemies taunts her with "Come here, cute little kitty!"
-"Albus" is the foe of "Noir". White vs Black. An actual contrasting meaning to both characters' names appears and further reinforces that they have a sibling relationship.
-The entire game's theme is a "cat and mouse" chase.
-Her visual theme itself. A LOT of black hair.
-Actually reads like an obvious code name. Just by reading you know it's not a "person" name.
-Speak of which, what animal has been portrayed consistently as having an "aire of mystery"? A black cat. Also her cold, distant personality, akin to how cats are popularly perceived.
-To get to the "owner of the house", the black cat has to pass through his "guard dog" Cerberus.

And I'd wager more.

An interesting bit is how in English, when Albus dies, he yells this:
https://vocaroo.com/1hL5n0nFO7lL

But in Japanese he yells this:
https://vocaroo.com/1mrO0fnIZC3Z

A very close pronunciation of Chat Noir.

But, the most damning evidence of all is that Shanoa's Japanese name, "シャノア", although not as popular, is a known katakanized version of Chat Noir. You can Google it yourself to find examples, but here are a few:


A restaurant.


A bunch of books with the same name.


A Final Fantasy 14 character. His name in English is apparently "Black Coeurl" and he is a kind of familiar of a character named Quickthinx. His name in Japanese is "シャノア ChatNoir". You can find a text dump containing both names here: https://ff14.huijiwiki.com/wiki/Data:Quest/67871.json

Just... Beware looking that up too deeply, because there's an old Japanese adult book (the books I posted just above) with this exact name in Japan, "chat noir", with the same katakana and all.

To conclude, the only way to prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt would be asking IGA directly. But I believe I made a consistent case nonetheless that Shanoa is a mistranslation and she is supposed to be, in fact, a cat girl.

That's all. See you!

EDIT: No longer a guess, it's been confirmed. Dongled interviewed Shutaro Iida two years after this post and learned "Shanoa" was indeed meant to be Chat Noir.

[X]

Interesting find.

Although why not Romanian instead of French, considering that's where they were raised?

[whipsmemory]

Amazing! I think you actually cracked it, congrats! Now i want to own a black cat, and to call it Shanoa

[MasterAlucard]

This is very interesting, and it's probably what Iga was going for. Too many coincidences for it not to be true.

We can also conclude that Shanoa is a closeted furry now

[X]

We can also conclude that Shanoa is a closeted furry now

Considering that she can turn into one once she has the glyph, then yeah, I'd say it's a solid bet 

[Ralph]

Fun Fact: The cat in FFXIV is actually called "Shanoa" in the English localization.

[The Puritan]

I must admit I was in the Chanoix camp myself. But this makes way more sense. I kind of want to see an aged Shanoa going by the sobriquet of 'Black Cat' during the 1897 adventure.

[LuxKiller65]

I wonder if PoR's female sorceress/witch character is a similar joke, as it's Charlotte, Chat-lot, Sha-lotto/Sha-rotto (シャーロット). Maybe they had this idea for a while and only managed to flesh it out in OoE.

[Scarlet starlet]

Nice catch. Chat noir is actually a very fitting name for shanoa

[Shiroi Koumori]

Good job Plot! *applause*
I just thought it's just a name.

[zangetsu468]

My first language was French (initially I never spoke English as a child), I barely dented reading your post and as soon as I read the name Chanoix, I immediately came to the conclusion of ?‍⬛ .. For those who don’t speak French, the pronunciation of the name Chanoix is almost identical to “Chat Noir”, it makes perfect sense.

I would go one step further to Plotwist and say that Chanoix(Chat Noir) meaning black cat is indeed code itself for Shanoa’s identity, essentially her being a witch (just look at the PAL game/ box art with ‘Das boots’!!). Some of the witches in CV even turn into black cats when they’re killed.

We also should never forget one of Shanoa’s most appropriately titled side-quests, “Tom & Jewelry”.

[Reinhart77]

might be worth replaying with this in mind.  hope we get a DS collection this Halloween!

i did some google translating of the Japanese descriptions of the cats in Grimoire of Souls for the Castlevania Wiki, and found it funny how Maria and Shanoa have different names for some of the same cats.  Maria just makes up names for all her animals, but I suspect Shanoa knows the cats’ “true names” ha.

[Jeepy]

Plot is at it again. Good job!