Interstella 5555

[Deledrius]

Still looks like a quirk of an improper translation. ie "four five" rather than "four fives".

Basically. It's incorrect (to the point of total ambiguity) as-is. I assume, as mentioned above, it's a quirk related to the lack of (this kind of) pluralization in Japanese. It's the kind of thing a competent translator fixes when translating; what works in one language doesn't work in another.

[Madner Kami]

As far as I am aware, it's a quirk in how japanese people read latin/english numbers and kinda comes from a railway (and kinda military by extension) way of reading things.
Naturally they've got different signs for numerals than we do and so 5555 or 999 to them isn't the same as 伍阡伍佰伍拾伍 / ごせんごひゃくごじゅうご (read: Go Sen Go Hyaku Go Jū Go, literally: 5 thousand(s) 5 houndred(s) 5 ten(s) 5) or 玖佰玖拾玖 / きゅうひゃくきゅうじゅうきゅう (read: Kyū Hyaku Kyū Jū Kyū, literally 9 houndred(s) 9 ten(s) 9). Instead they aren't understood as numbers, but "signs" for a lack of better words and thus aren't "percieved" as a single number and thus would be read individually: Five Five Five Five or Nine Nine Nine and this then gets "shortened" to Four Fives and Three Nines. They even use english phonetics to speak those signs: フォーファイブ read as "Fo Fōfaibu" スリーナイン read as "Sri nain".

If we'd do that in the opposite direction (just creating a mental analogue here, so bear with me), imagine you see this sign ご. Doesn't look much like a number to you, but you learned that it's pronounced "Go". Then you see ごごごご. You understand it as Go Go Go Go. This is kinda cumbersome to speak out loud, so it's shortened to Four Go(s). That's really all there is to it.

[clearspira]

Given how the 1990s was the era of anime dubs changing rice balls to jelly donuts it just seems weird to me that such a confusing title wasn't altered tbh.

[Madner Kami]

I'm not sure what's confusing about it. The title is "Galaxy Express 999". The literal galaxy express, the space train in the movie, bears the number 999. It's perfectly logical to keep that title, because it refers to the same thing in both language-versions and the way you pronounce it doesn't really alter the meaning.
As for the title of "Interstella 5555", I don't think it's actually used anywhere within the movie and is a pure allusion to one of Leji Matsumoto's most famous works and thus doesn't really have an inherent meaning beyond the allusion and it stands to reason that in 2003 people working on that movie would generally be aware of this title being an allusion, rather than a snappy condensation of the movie's plots or themes. In fact, adding the subtitle is doing exactly what you are wondering about, because interpreting the four fives as "The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem" is the really confusing bit.

[RobbyB1982]

Even the dub of Galaxy express calls it "three nine". It's not an inflection or a language thing... it's how its intended to be read, even if it goes against normal English reading patterns.

The same way you see a title like Hunter X Hunter... the X is silent. You don't say X or Cross or anything... just "Hunter Hunter". Just reading the name doesn't really give you that information, and its not universal to all titles that share a similar format, but it's how its intended all the same and you have to take the author's word on it at some point.

[AllanO]

The same way you see a title like Hunter X Hunter... the X is silent. You don't say X or Cross or anything... just "Hunter Hunter". Just reading the name doesn't really give you that information, and its not universal to all titles that share a similar format, but it's how its intended all the same and you have to take the author's word on it at some point.

So it's like Monty Python's Raymond Luxury-Yacht (pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove")?

[Riedquat]

As far as I am aware, it's a quirk in how japanese people read latin/english numbers and kinda comes from a railway (and kinda military by extension) way of reading things.
Naturally they've got different signs for numerals than we do and so 5555 or 999 to them isn't the same as 伍阡伍佰伍拾伍 / ごせんごひゃくごじゅうご (read: Go Sen Go Hyaku Go Jū Go, literally: 5 thousand(s) 5 houndred(s) 5 ten(s) 5) or 玖佰玖拾玖 / きゅうひゃくきゅうじゅうきゅう (read: Kyū Hyaku Kyū Jū Kyū, literally 9 houndred(s) 9 ten(s) 9). Instead they aren't understood as numbers, but "signs" for a lack of better words and thus aren't "percieved" as a single number and thus would be read individually: Five Five Five Five or Nine Nine Nine and this then gets "shortened" to Four Fives and Three Nines. They even use english phonetics to speak those signs: フォーファイブ read as "Fo Fōfaibu" スリーナイン read as "Sri nain".

If we'd do that in the opposite direction (just creating a mental analogue here, so bear with me), imagine you see this sign ご. Doesn't look much like a number to you, but you learned that it's pronounced "Go". Then you see ごごごご. You understand it as Go Go Go Go. This is kinda cumbersome to speak out loud, so it's shortened to Four Go(s). That's really all there is to it.

The plural - "four fives" or "three nines" is common enough in English, the problem is that without the plural it's quite literally saying something different - "four five" is 45, pronouncing 5555 as "four five" (instead of "four fives") is as about as accurate as reading 1234 as "four five." Maybe it works in Japanese but that just shows the perils of transliterating.

[Madner Kami]

Japanese has no singular or plural in the way the english language does. To imply a plural, you simply add a number in front of it. ファイブ is "Five" (phonetically) and フォー is "Four" (phonetically). Put both together and you get フォーファイブ "Four Five(s)" with the plural-s being implied by context. Same with and スリーナイン. スリー means "Three" (phonetically) and ナイン means "Nine" (phonetically). Three Nine(s).

[RobbyB1982]

I don't know how to feel about the fact that the in depth hour and a half meticulously researched review on Planet of the Apes has almost no conversation, while this extended music video has four pages discussing how to pronounce the title.

[Deledrius]

The plural - "four fives" or "three nines" is common enough in English, the problem is that without the plural it's quite literally saying something different - "four five" is 45, pronouncing 5555 as "four five" (instead of "four fives") is as about as accurate as reading 1234 as "four five." Maybe it works in Japanese but that just shows the perils of transliterating.

Exactly. You can't just blindly transliterate without translating.

Japanese has no singular or plural in the way the english language does. To imply a plural, you simply add a number in front of it. ファイブ is "Five" (phonetically) and フォー is "Four" (phonetically). Put both together and you get フォーファイブ "Four Five(s)" with the plural-s being implied by context. Same with and スリーナイン. スリー means "Three" (phonetically) and ナイン means "Nine" (phonetically). Three Nine(s).

Precisely. Japanese has implicit plurals, English does not (in this context). In fact, in English, it explicitly means something else.

I don't know how to feel about the fact that the in depth hour and a half meticulously researched review on Planet of the Apes has almost no conversation, while this extended music video has four pages discussing how to pronounce the title.

It's not a really good metric, unfortunately, either way.