Light Novel with Latina Heroine Speaks Portuguese

Recently, we published an article about the light novel Kasshoku Musume no Latina-san ni Ore no Karada ga Nerawarete Iru, which sparked a lot of discussion among anime fans due to the inclusion of a “Latina” heroine.

One of the major debates online was whether “Latina” referred to her being Latina or if it was her actual name. The light novel’s illustrator confirmed that the heroine’s name is indeed Latina and that she comes from South America!

However, until now, we hadn’t heard directly from the author, Kiraku Kishima. Now, he has finally cleared things up, revealing the source of all the confusion.

Heroína Latina de Light Novel fala Português

The author responded on Twitter about the heroine’s origins. According to him, she “is an indigenous woman from the Amazon, and Portuguese is her second language” (with Japanese being the first, of course).

So, could she actually be from Brazil? I’m still holding off until the light novel is released and we see “Brazil” written on some page of the volume.

As for her name, here’s the reason for all the confusion! The “Latina” in the light novel’s title indeed refers to her name, not her ethnicity. The author explained:

“I chose the name ‘Latina’ after asking an AI: ‘Tell me a typical name for a woman from South America,’ and selected from the options it gave me. I never imagined it was a word that represented Latina women in general…”

The author asked the AI for “names of women from South America,” and the AI, perhaps thinking of a designation, suggested “Latina,” which the author assumed was a name, explaining the whole misunderstanding.

When I first read the title in Japanese, I interpreted “Latina” as referring to women from South America, not as a name. However, after reading the story’s synopsis, I got confused because it seemed “Latina” was indeed her name.

This is also common in anime and manga, where “San” is used for words describing people, like “Heroi-san,” “Kouhai-san,” “Gaijin-san,” etc.

Well, we are eagerly awaiting the release of the light novel!

via: Você Sabia Anime