The title of a manga I'm slowly working through is 惑星のさみだれ, but there is furigana above the two kanji that says ほし (star) instead. Why did it use both kanji, which seems to be normally read as わくせい (planet) when it could have used just 星 on it's own?
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2See also question on a similar theme: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/198/why-do-some-written-song-lyric-lines-use-different-words-when-sung – Amanda S Jun 30 '11 at 03:40
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@Amanda S: Whoops, I even saw that question and didn't realise it was related. Thanks. – AlbeyAmakiir Jun 30 '11 at 03:51
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No problem! A lot of the time one doesn't know until one's question is answered, after all. – Amanda S Jun 30 '11 at 03:58
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Japanese often refer to planets as ほし as well when they're being informal, the manga is just specifying that it's a planet and not actually a star.
I guess you could say it's a stylistic choice.
Kafka Fuura
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4Ah, so, the furigana only overrides the pronunciation, and not the meaning. Thanks. – AlbeyAmakiir Jun 30 '11 at 03:53
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ほし means any heavenly body except the sun and the moon. And while ほし is most often heard used with stars, it is also used for "planet". This could just be related to lyrics in that both kanji mean planet, but decided to go with these kanji and this pronunciation for a poetic effect.
macraf
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Mark Hosang
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