Oops, artificial intelligence named the girl “Latina” in Yoshiro Kijima’s new novel – Interest

One difficulty in creating a story is naming characters, especially names from fantasy and science fiction or from cultures with which the author is unfamiliar. This is what light novel authors are like Kijima Kiraku (Novice Adventurer Dashan, Return to the battlefield: The old hero returns to the battlefield!) and the heroine of his new novel “Latin” Kasshoku Musume no Latina-san ni Ore no Karada ga Nerawarteiru. Thankfully, the author clarified his naming choice.

X (formerly twitter) Account Manga Mogura RE gives a brief synopsis of Kijima’s new novel Kasshoku Musume no Latina-san ni Ore no Karada ga Nerawarteiru August 15th:

However, on August 17, Kijima took X/twitter Reply and clear up some confusion. The author points out that the heroine is actually named Latina, and is a Latina girl. The author further explained that he chose the name “Latina” after asking the artificial intelligence “please tell me the most typical South American female name.” But Kijima didn’t know that “Latinx” is a term used to describe women of Latin American descent.

Kijima also expressed why he was open about his mistakes in another reply on August 18:

Unfortunately, since Kijima only released a machine-translated version of his remarks, it’s difficult to parse exactly what he meant. But surprisingly, “Latin” is also the name of an Italian city and province. So there’s precedent for the term, not specifically referring to women of Latin American descent, although it’s still weird to have a character named “Latinx.”

While Kijima’s naming may not have been malicious, it’s a good reminder that authors and editors should do some research on names before deciding on one.

Source: Kijima KirakuX/twitter Account (Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5) via X/ of Manga Mogura REtwitter account, Shueishawebsite