Explanation of Freeza's name in "DB FOREVER" (and Bra)

[Spiral_Mage_88]

Hello, Kanzenshuu's community!
I'm a professional translator/editor from Italy, and I'd like to make you a request about the explanation of Freeza's name in "DB FOREVER" guide. And, I'd like to ask you a thing about Bra's.

I'm working on an article releated to the Dragon Ball's characters names, because although our last editions are very very accurate about the dialogues, unfortunately still have several problems with some names. Like Freeza, that is still Freezer.

But, as we know, his name is a pun of the word "freezer".

I've just wrote all the explanation about why is Freeza and not Freezer, but before I could finish it, I need as reference the Toriyama's original explanation in japanese, present in the DB Forever guide, the only one that I don't have, in japanese.

I have the italian one, but that part seems to me quite strange. Indeed, it says: "Naturally, it indicates the namesake electrical appliance."

But, as I said, it is strange, because many of Dragon Ball's characters names are pun-based; and your translation of this part is in contrast with the above one: "I took his name from ‘freezer’", that is very different.

I have faith in you, your translations are excellent, but the Publisher I will send my article don't know your (amazing) work... So, I'd ask you to write me the original text or attach here a photo of that part: Is it possible?


Regard to Bra, are we sure that is not Bura?, as we can see in Dragon Ball Super?

The thought crossed my mind because Trunks and Brief are spelled like the same English words, the trunks and the brief/briefs, but Bulma's name have almost the same pronunciation of the word "bloomers" but it is written differently: is Bulma, not "Blooma", for example. So, in your opinion, could the name of her daughter be Bura instead of Bra? In other words, could be that the "bu" of Bura is like the "bu" of her mother's name?

Awating a reply, thank you for your attention.

[VegettoEX]

(Moving this out of the "In-Universe" section!)

Here is Freeza's name entry from FOREVER:



This is the one Herms here at Kanzenshuu translated as:

I took his name from ‘freezer’, since that went along with vegetables (Saiyans) and milk (Ginyu). Actually, it would have been more correct to use refrigerator, but that wouldn’t have gotten the joke across so I used freezer.

You can see in the original how Toriyama uses フリーザー (furīzā) and immediately follows it with 冷凍庫 (reitōko), and then explains again in the next sentence about not using 冷凍庫 as-is.

Note that in the Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume (which I don't have in front of me at the moment), he also says (once again as translated here on the site):

[quote="Akira Toriyama via Herms""]It’s a real pain to decide on the names for lots of characters. If you unify the names into a series, it makes it easy to think them up. For instance, there’s Freeza, who directed the Saiyans and the other evil aliens. Strictly speaking, a ‘freezer’ is a reitouko, but I named him with the image of a refrigerator [reizouko] in mind. So, the names would be unified as food items that one puts inside [a refrigerator]. The Saiyans are vegetables, the Ginyu Special-Squad are dairy products, that kind of thing.[/quote]
As I'm sure you've realized/figured/understood, the character's name is フリーザ (furīza) and not フリーザー (furīzā), which is what makes it a pun / play on the word rather than the word itself as-is with no adjustments. The example traditionally given alongside this explanation is the Pokemon character known as "Articuno" in the English localization is actually called フリーザー (furīzā) in Japanese ("Freezer").

As for Bra's name, there's a larger conversation about how "Bulma" may not necessarily be the best representation of that name in our alphabet, but because Toriyama used it from literally the first chapter of the manga, there's no good way about going back and convincing people to use anything else. That being said, there are examples of him recently using other spellings of the name...

... which I also don't have in front of me at the moment, so maybe someone else can chime in if I can't find them and edit them in first!

Anyway, here at Kanzenshuu we spell it "Bra" because, like "Trunks" and "Brief", it's just the word as-is in katakana.

[Gaffer Tape]

If I wasn't in the middle of a road trip right now I totally would pull up that image!

[Spiral_Mage_88]

VegettoEX, thank you so much!

About Bulma's new spelling that you saw, I hope you will find it soon, because I'm really curious to see it! I suppose is something like the "Beers" in one of the recent images of Dragon Ball Super Broly (I've always seen it as Beerus).

[VegettoEX]

"Beers" as a spelling in Japanese merchandise first popped up in the theatrical attendee booklet for Battle of Gods:



After that point, the "English version" of the name started circulating via things like Battle of Z and then the actual international release of Battle of Gods itself; from here on out, Shueisha/Toei pretty much adopted "Beerus" as their own official spelling. For example, see the very next movie's (Resurrection 'F') booket!



Every so often, a "Beers" seems to slip in depending on who's writing/producing what kind of print material. This stuff for the new movie seems to be one such example.

As for an alternate Bulma spelling, here's one that TheDevilsCorpse pointed out to me. I believe there are a couple others. I can picture someone putting together a collection recently, but I can't for the life of me remember where...

[MyVisionity]

Nice to see Toriyama's usage of "Bloomers", but where exactly does that image originate? And apparently there are more recent examples?

[Spiral_Mage_88]

Thank You again, VegettoEX! ^__^

[Spiral_Mage_88]

I found some other images, in which the Bulma/Blooma/Bloomer's name appear differently, respectively Bluma and Buruma.





If someone will find other images, please let us know ^__^

[dbgtFO]

http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon ... gins_4.jpg
DB Origins used Bluma.

[Gaffer Tape]

http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon ... gins_4.jpg
DB Origins used Bluma.

That is awesome. How has this game been out for 10 years, and I've never known this? Given how reactionary to it people are in my comments section, you'd think this would have driven people crazy, but this is literally the first I've ever heard of it. Was it changed in any localization? Or did no one ever play this game to get "offended" by it in the first place...?

[KBABZ]

I see it with romanizations of Goku too. My D.O.D. figure has a base where it's spelt Gokou. Is there a version of this from an official source like Toei?

[linkdude20002001]

I see it with romanizations of Goku too. My D.O.D. figure has a base where it's spelt Gokou. Is there a version of this from an official source like Toei?

I don't think Toei's ever spelt it like that. I know they've used "Goku", and they Toriyama has used "Gokuh"...but I seem to recall both of them being inconsistent. I don't have all this archived, tho, sadly. Once the Kanzenshuu Wiki is alive, it'll probably have all this cool information. But for the mean time, hopefully some-one else can chime in. ...You'd think the author would have decided on a singel spelling for the names of the two main characters.

[KBABZ]

I see it with romanizations of Goku too. My D.O.D. figure has a base where it's spelt Gokou. Is there a version of this from an official source like Toei?

I don't think Toei's ever spelt it like that. I know they've used "Goku", and they Toriyama has used "Gokuh"...but I seem to recall both of them being inconsistent. I don't have all this archived, tho, sadly. Once the Kanzenshuu Wiki is alive, it'll probably have all this cool information. But for the mean time, hopefully some-one else can chime in. ...You'd think the author would have decided on a singel spelling for the names of the two main characters.

Oh yeah, I hopped back into FighterZ for a bit today after finishing off Spider-Man, and I noticed that Piccolo's casual outfit hat has "Gokuu" on the back. Is that accurate to the anime?

[Attitudefan]

I see it with romanizations of Goku too. My D.O.D. figure has a base where it's spelt Gokou. Is there a version of this from an official source like Toei?

I don't think Toei's ever spelt it like that. I know they've used "Goku", and they Toriyama has used "Gokuh"...but I seem to recall both of them being inconsistent. I don't have all this archived, tho, sadly. Once the Kanzenshuu Wiki is alive, it'll probably have all this cool information. But for the mean time, hopefully some-one else can chime in. ...You'd think the author would have decided on a singel spelling for the names of the two main characters.

Oh yeah, I hopped back into FighterZ for a bit today after finishing off Spider-Man, and I noticed that Piccolo's casual outfit hat has "Gokuu" on the back. Is that accurate to the anime?

Gokuu is the literal romanization of his name if I am not mistaken. Gokou is just incorrect.

[linkdude20002001]

Oh yeah, I hopped back into FighterZ for a bit today after finishing off Spider-Man, and I noticed that Piccolo's casual outfit hat has "Gokuu" on the back. Is that accurate to the anime?

I do seem to recall a Gokuu spelling being used by Toei at some point in the animé.

Gokuu is the literal romanization of his name if I am not mistaken. Gokou is just incorrect.

Gokou is incorrect as a Latinization, yes, but that wasn't Bandai's goal obviously. Just like how Bulma and Trunks aren't Latinizations: they're Englishizations. The OU in Gokou is like the OU in many English words (you, through, route, caribou, and I think in Canada East they still pronounce about that way). Gokou is still a stupid spelling, I agree, but so is Bulma. Trunks makes sense thankfully.

[linkdude20002001]

Oh yeah, I hopped back into FighterZ for a bit today after finishing off Spider-Man, and I noticed that Piccolo's casual outfit hat has "Gokuu" on the back. Is that accurate to the anime?

I do seem to recall a Gokuu spelling being used by Toei at some point in the animé.

Gokuu is the literal romanization of his name if I am not mistaken. Gokou is just incorrect.

Gokou is incorrect as a Latinization, yes, but that wasn't Bandai's goal obviously. Just like how Bulma and Trunks aren't Latinizations: they're Englishizations. The OU in Gokou is like the OU in many English words (you, through, route, caribou, and I think in Canada East they still pronounce about that way). Gokou is still a stupid spelling, I agree, but so is Bulma. Trunks makes sense thankfully.

[Cure Dragon 255]

What? You are saying Trunks IS WRONG like Bulma? Its MEANT to be an English word. Not Torankusu or whatever.

[linkdude20002001]

What? You are saying Trunks IS WRONG like Bulma? Its MEANT to be an English word. Not Torankusu or whatever.

“Englishization” doesn’t mean “wrong”... It’s just a bit different from Latinization. Latinizing トランクス would give you Torankusu, and Englishizing it would give you Trunks or Tolunksoo or whatever silly spelling one mite come up with. And I said Gokou and Bulma are weird (ignoring the origin words), but that “Trunks makes sense thankfully”. Of course “right” would be however Toriyama spells it. Kinda. Hence the heavy use of Bulma. It’s also about what people are used too, tho. Like, had Kulilin debutd with that “Kulilin” hat, Kuririn and Krillin mite not even have been used by Viz, FUNi, Clyde, and Steve.