So, while watching my Kyo Kara Maoh! DVD 1 from Amazon.com, I was horrified to see Conrad introduce himself as “Conrart”.
Conrart?!?!?
There is a line a little later where he tells Yuuri that people familiar with English have an easier time saying “Conrad”, and that Yuuri should feel free to call him that. I was aware of this line, and I started to wonder if that line’s existence was the only reason for the bizarro Geneon spelling. (The fansubbers didn’t do anything with that.)
However, I’m checking out NHK’s Kyou Kara Maou character page, and it lists Conrad’s name as:
コンラッド（ウェラ卿コンラート）
Konraddo (Wera-kyou Konraato)
So that would be two different spellings of his given name. The first is obviously Conrad, and the second?
Err…Conrart it is, then…
Seriously, they do use a long /a/ sound to get the English /r/. (Japanese /r/s are pronounced at the front of the mouth, just like our /l/.)
So, apparently Geneon wasn’t just making shit up.