What's worse Jaro or Geero?

[TRL]

I always thought Gero and android 19 were supposed to look like Russian dancers/performers.

Gero's hat and clothes seem to suggest it. Am I the only one who picked up on this?

[jda95]

Could the pun source just be from zero? That's the first thing that comes to my head, considering he is the creator of all of the artificial humans.

[TheGreatness25]

Why do a few posts claim that FUNimation pronounced his name like "Ja-row"? It was more like "Je-row". Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the change was done for the fans themselves. Like some people I knew, for example. Back in the day, we all read about DBZ before actually seeing the later arcs. Most people I knew thought his name was pronounced "Je-row", I always thought it was "Gee-row". Sometimes it seems like FUNimation just ran with what people were used to, such as calling the Cyborgs/Artificial Humans/whatever you want, "Androids". In every series summary I ever read as a kid, they were always referred to as Androids. Next thing you know, that's the official FUNimation term for them, despite it being inaccurate.

[VegettoEX]

Why do a few posts claim that FUNimation pronounced his name like "Ja-row"? It was more like "Je-row".

Defining it as a slurred "a" or "e" sound is irrelevant -- it's the strange "j" sound that's the most important.

Sometimes it seems like FUNimation just ran with what people were used to, such as calling the Cyborgs/Artificial Humans/whatever you want, "Androids". In every series summary I ever read as a kid, they were always referred to as Androids. Next thing you know, that's the official FUNimation term for them, despite it being inaccurate.

As seen by their pronunciations and naming inconsistencies with things like Saiyan, King Kai, Kaio-ken, etc... it was likely just a matter of, "we never bothered to listen to it in Japanese, have no idea how syllables are pronounced, and are just making it up as we go along".

Clearly that changed as the years went on, but "season four" was still the dark ages of in-house FUNimation productions.

[Super Sonic]

True. And it's not like one of those necessary things like the changing of FFV's main hero's name. Still I'd rather recommend the dark days of inaccurate dub of seasons 3 and 4 over their accurate dub of the terrible show Master of Martial Hearts.

[Dandroid17]

I just look at it this way...America has their own "slang" if you will, and I just leave them as either or. Some people pronounce the movie Akira like the Japanese do, and some pronounce it the "English" way, "Akee-ra" (which I do). It doesn't bother me as much as most people. Japanese people pronounce words created here slightly different too, it happens with any languages. So to sum it all up...it doesn't bother me when someone pronounces Dr. Gero differently than the Japanese version, or differently than I do. If we could all ask Akira Toriyama it would be a lot easier lol but we can't. And for those who get offended when people don't pronounce them "correctly" (which is subjective if you ask me)...how many of us American fans call Vegeta "Bejīta"? I'd guess not many. Sorry for my rambling, hope it made some sense lol. Just my opinon on the matter.

[VegettoEX]

And for those who get offended when people don't pronounce them "correctly" (which is subjective if you ask me)...how many of us American fans call Vegeta "Bejīta"? I'd guess not many.

That's always an irrelevant comparison people bring up to defend things that are just blatantly wrong in FUNimation's dub -- and while I'm not necessarily accusing you of doing so, that's how it generally goes down.

Things like "Vegeta" and "Trunks" and "Cell" are all either puns on English words, or are just flat-out the English words themselves. Of course none of us are going to run around swapping out the "V" for a "B" in Vegeta's name (unless, you know, Spanish pronunciation and all... there's more to the world than English!). Of course none of us are going to run around adding extra vowels into Trunks' name. At this point, fans have the microbe of intelligence necessary to connect the dots and understand those names.

It's different with your "Akira" example, too. That's just a case of putting emphasis on a certainly syllable ("ah - KIR - a") by the typical American fan versus a flat delivery in Japanese. All of the sounds within those emphases are still the same.

That's not the case with "Gero", though. It's two, simple, short syllables that have perfect pronunciation equivalents in English, and fans were saying his name aloud correctly for... what?... almost a decade before FUNimation came around and decided to say it incorrectly?

They either just got it wrong, or changed it to fit their whims at the time. Whatever the case, it's not how the name was intended. You're certainly free to pronounce it however you want, and (especially since this is all just text and they write it out the same way), no-one here is going to go "OH MY GAAAAAAAAWD!" and rush down to slit your throat if you decide to go with the FUNimation interpretation... but knowledge is power.

[UnbiasedDBZfan]

And for those who get offended when people don't pronounce them "correctly" (which is subjective if you ask me)...how many of us American fans call Vegeta "Bejīta"? I'd guess not many.

That's always an irrelevant comparison people bring up to defend things that are just blatantly wrong in FUNimation's dub -- and while I'm not necessarily accusing you of doing so, that's how it generally goes down.

Things like "Vegeta" and "Trunks" and "Cell" are all either puns on English words, or are just flat-out the English words themselves. Of course none of us are going to run around swapping out the "V" for a "B" in Vegeta's name (unless, you know, Spanish pronunciation and all... there's more to the world than English!). Of course none of us are going to run around adding extra vowels into Trunks' name. At this point, fans have the microbe of intelligence necessary to connect the dots and understand those names.

It's different with your "Akira" example, too. That's just a case of putting emphasis on a certainly syllable ("ah - KIR - a") by the typical American fan versus a flat delivery in Japanese. All of the sounds within those emphases are still the same.

That's not the case with "Gero", though. It's two, simple, short syllables that have perfect pronunciation equivalents in English, and fans were saying his name aloud correctly for... what?... almost a decade before FUNimation came around and decided to say it incorrectly?

They either just got it wrong, or changed it to fit their whims at the time. Whatever the case, it's not how the name was intended. You're certainly free to pronounce it however you want, and (especially since this is all just text and they write it out the same way), no-one here is going to go "OH MY GAAAAAAAAWD!" and rush down to slit your throat if you decide to go with the FUNimation interpretation... but knowledge is power.

Also Gee ro is just plain wrong. Jah-ro is worse, but would you rather have shit on your coat or shit on you?

[Dandroid17]

Like I said above though, the only way to know for sure the correct pronunciations would be to ask Mr. Toriyama himself. Although I'm sure he approved the Japanese series before it was put on television. I wonder how they pronounce Gero in other versions, such as Chinese? Interesting subject.

[UnbiasedDBZfan]

Like I said above though, the only way to know for sure the correct pronunciations would be to ask Mr. Toriyama himself. Although I'm sure he approved the Japanese series before it was put on television. I wonder how they pronounce Gero in other versions, such as Chinese? Interesting subject.

He might give you some leeway.

[VegettoEX]

Like I said above though, the only way to know for sure the correct pronunciations would be to ask Mr. Toriyama himself.

Not really. Japanese is phonetic in its pronunciation. There's only one way to say ゲロ "in Japanese". There's no getting around it. I suppose you have regional dialects which affect the way that, for example, Goku drawls out his "ai" sounds into "ei" sounds... but that doesn't mean he's saying "juu bai" correctly when he says "juu bei". He's saying the word wrong.

Again, it's short, two syllables, there's only one way to say it, and we have perfectly adequate pronunciations for those syllables corresponding in our own language and vocal capacity. Starting the word with a soft "j" sound is wrong. It just is. That's not how the name is written, and that's not how the name is spoken.

If the name was intended to be spoken with a soft "j" sound, it would have been written as something like ジャロ... but it's not.

I'm sure Toriyama doesn't really care, and we're being entirely pedantic about it, but this is fun stuff to dive into and explain.

[Dandroid17]

I'm watching the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball right now and I think it's funny how Goku has beeen calling Android 8 "8'er". If a deaf person were watching the series with subtitles they'd be seeing the Japanese dialogue (obviously). So odd that there isn't an option for the English dialogue subtitles as well. Sorry, just thinking out loud now lol just thought it was slightly related.

[VegettoEX]

I'm watching the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball right now and I think it's funny how Goku has beeen calling Android 8 "8'er". If a deaf person were watching the series with subtitles they'd be seeing the Japanese dialogue (obviously). So odd that there isn't an option for the English dialogue subtitles as well. Sorry, just thinking out loud now lol just thought it was slightly related.

FUNimation's "Eighter" name is a "translation" of what Goku calls him in Japanese: "Ha-chan".

The "ha" part comes from hachi, which is the number "eight" in Japanese. The "-chan" is a suffix used as an endearing ending for friends, younger siblings, etc. Goku finds him as a friend, but because he's a bumpkin idiot, he can't really say "jinzouningen hachigou", so he creates his own little "pet name" for the guy: "Ha-chan".

We don't have much in the way of honorifics in English, so FUNimation chose to "translate" the intent of the name by having English!Goku come up with a pet name in English that preserves the intent and meaning of what Japanese!Goku originally did. It's purely a translation choice (as opposed to simply leaving it as "Ha-chan"), and I'm pretty sure Viz handled it somewhat differently in their English translation of the manga (was the full name something like "Mechanical Man #8"...? I remember making "Mecha-Man" jokes on the podcast's manga review so many years ago, I think...).

[Dandroid17]

Ahh ok, I was wondering if Ha-chan meant Eighter, wasn't sure. Was the Ocean dub the same with subtitles on their version? I can't recall.

[samuraix123]

I love the name "Eighter" This question is directed at VegettoEX, How do you pronounce Pikkon? because I call him like the Funimation dub. ''Pie con'' That's the best way I can use that as an example. you know what I'm saying anyway
But I always use the Funimation names.

[VegettoEX]

Ahh ok, I was wondering if Ha-chan meant Eighter, wasn't sure. Was the Ocean dub the same with subtitles on their version? I can't recall.

I don't know what you mean by "the Ocean dub" and a release with subtitles -- the "alternate" English dub produced with the voice cast from Ocean Studios starting in about 2000 never had a home release.

I have limited familiarity with the extra English dubs throughout the world, so I don't know what they did when they ("they" being the UK licensors, and I think using Blue Water for the DB TV dub) did with that character's name in their dialogue.

This question is directed at VegettoEX, How do you pronounce Paikuhan? because I call him like the Funimation dub. ''Pie con'' That's the best way I use that as an example. you know what I'm saying anyway

Again, Japanese is entirely phonetic -- there's really only one way to pronounce things. The syllables are what they are, and there isn't much in the way of emphasizing one syllable over or louder than another.

The "pai" (パイ) sounds similar to our word "pie" (the dessert that you eat, like a pumpkin pie), the "kuu" (クー) sounds like the end of "Gokuu" (it's an elongated "uu" sound in both cases) or a "coo-coo" sound a baby makes, and the "han" (ハン) sounds like the end of "Gohan" or like the "an" sound in "wand" (like a magician would wave around).

[Haji]

I used to say the name Akira wrong, like uh-kir-uh, that was funny. So how about other words like ramen,(some people around here say it like raymuhn.) karate,samurai,anime, and manga. that is just off the top of my head.

The word karate, I mainly hear it as kuh-rah-di around here, but when I hear people call it karahté. (karahtay) I find that the most funny! (what is it french now?)

Samurai, I think most of you should know this one, samurai is now sam-er-eye. same with anime, said as anna-may

How about the word manga, anyone hear it said as main-guh?

I used to say all those words wrong, but i'm wondering if any of you hear these words or others said wrong.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Could the pun source just be from zero? That's the first thing that comes to my head, considering he is the creator of all of the artificial humans.

I'd find that a strange pun. They don't even sound similar and I don't really see any connection between "zero" and him being the creator of all the Androids. Besides, Dr. Gero as an Android is "#20".

We don't have much in the way of honorifics in English, so FUNimation chose to "translate" the intent of the name by having English!Goku come up with a pet name in English that preserves the intent and meaning of what Japanese!Goku originally did. It's purely a translation choice (as opposed to simply leaving it as "Ha-chan"), and I'm pretty sure Viz handled it somewhat differently in their English translation of the manga (was the full name something like "Mechanical Man #8"...? I remember making "Mecha-Man" jokes on the podcast's manga review so many years ago, I think...).

I believe that, in Viz, #8's given name was "Mechanical Man #8" , but Gokuu's pet name for him was "8-Man". So I guess it still preserves the original intent.

[Bussani]

The word karate, i mainly hear it as kuh-rah-di around here, but when i hear people call it karahté. (karahtay) I find that the most funny! (what is it french now?)

Well, look at how anime is pronounced, or the name Akane. Or listen to how Google Translate likes to say it.

This page has a few as well.

[Piccolo Daimao]

The word karate, i mainly hear it as kuh-rah-di around here, but when i hear people call it karahté. (karahtay) I find that the most funny! (what is it french now?)

Well, look at how anime is pronounced, or the name Akane. Or listen to how Google Translate likes to say it.

This page has a few as well.

Ah, so Ross was saying it right in Friends!