"Brigade"? Seriously?

I might be a tad bit late to the game, but what is your opinion on translating "SOS dan" to "SOS Brigade"?

Personally I think it has a military ring to it that the original name definitely doesn't imply. Haruhi and her group are certainly not a subunit of a larger, hierarchical structure like an army or a fire department. Actually they don't fit in particularly well in their high school.

I believe that even an uninspired translation such as "SOS group" would have been better.

>a tad late
You could say that.

>>2
Well, I haven't found any related discussions on the interwebs, so it looks like everyone took the translation for granted.

Dude, don't take Brigade so literally. Lighten up.

Troupe, company, brigade, group, outing, organization, collective, who gives a fuck　how you translate it.

If you actually understand Japanese, you'll understand that the only appropriate translation is 団 and leave it at that.

>>5
I happen to understand Japanese and you're being ridiculous. Are you basically saying that we should accept sloppy translation jobs just because translations are lossy anyway?

>>4
I'm quite aware that brigade is used in other meanings, such as mocking an overly zealous movement ("anti-smoking brigade" springs to mind). But Haruhi herself gave the name SOS団 to her group and she is hardly a person who would engage in self-mockery.

Haruhi was more or less calling it a brigade due to what kind of activities they would be doing. But of course you have to blame the Translations, nothing else you can do.

>>8
>Haruhi was more or less calling it a brigade due to what kind of activities they would be doing.

Not really. Let me quote the relevant dialogue:

キョン :
皆の衆お知らせしよう。新しく発足するクラブの名は今、ここに決定した！

ハルヒ :
ＳＯＳ団！

キョン :
世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団。略してＳＯＳ団である 。そこ、笑っていいぞ。

キョン :
本来なら、世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの同好会、とでもすべきなんだろうが、何しろまだ同好会の体すら立っていない上に、何をする集団なのかも分からないのである。

ハルヒ :
だったら、団でいいじゃない。


Kyon:
May I have your attention please. The name of the heretofore nameless start-up club has just been decided. And its name is ...

Haruhi:
The SOS Brigade!

Kyon:
The Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade. The SOS Brigade for short. Yeah, it's ok to laugh now.

Kyon:
Actually, the name should be something like "Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Organization." But we don't have the right to form an organization yet, and we still don't know what the point of this club is.

Haruhi:
Brigade'll have to do then, won't it.


tl;dr: Because the school hasn't officially recognized it as a school club, we'll call it a ... brigade. Yeah sure.