Super Mario 64 - Bomb-Omb Battle Field

Course 1 - ボム兵の戦場 >　ボムへいのせんじょう >　Bomu hei no senjou　> The Bomb Soldier's Battlefield

This one’s called "Bob-omb Battlefield" in the English version. The Japanese title for the first course in Mario 64 can be broken down into four major parts.

1. ボム > Bomu > Bomb

Here's another katakana word. Instead of the native 爆弾 (ばくだん/Bakudan), the Japanese pronunciation for "Bomb" was used. ボ(Bo)ム(Mu). The choice in naming may be to give those cute but pesky Bomb-ombs more personality.

2. 兵 >　へい > Hei > Soldier

Believed to depict two hands holding up an axe, 兵 is the Chinese character for "soldier". The characters placed before or after can act to describe the soldier's function. In this case ボム is placed beforehand to assign the name of "Bomb Soldier".

3. の > No > Possessive particle

One of the easiest grammar points to learn, の emphasizes that this is the battlefield OF the Bomb Soldiers. Back when their overwhelming numbers brought the NES to a crawl during Mario 3's late "military" stages, the Bomb-Ombs definitely earned the moniker Bomb Soldier.

4. 戦場 >　せんじょう > Senjōu > Battlefield

Here, the characters for war (戦) and location (場) are combined to create "battlefield". Possibly intended to depict a "simple forked weapon being thrust, 戦 is pronounced (せ(se)ん(n)) in this instance.

場 shows the sun (depicted on the right) rising over the ground (depicted on the left). Pronounced じょう (jōu), the tiny よ(Yo)　(ょ) is what’s called a contracted sound. Beginning with じ（ji）、 the tiny ょ is intended to blend in and create something that sounds like a long "Jo." The ō is meant to emphasize a longer pronunciation. The う/u draws it out even further.

This explanation, particularly of the some of the intricacies of hiragana, was a bit mind-blowing. Almost like how everyone’s head exploded when first running around in full 3D in the first massive and chaotic stage of Bomb-Omb Battlefield itself. Here's everything that was just covered: 

ボム兵の戦場 >　ボムへいのせんじょう >　Bomu hei no senjou　> The Bomb Soldier's Battlefield

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