Brief vs. Briefs

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pappy
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Brief vs. Briefs

Post by pappy » Thu Apr 30, 2015 4:58 am

I was wondering why Kanzenshuu decided to go with "Dr. Brief" as opposed to "Dr. Briefs?" I figure it has something to do with how it's presented in Japanese, but I would think Briefs would be a more obvious translation due to the word, when referring to underwear, only exists as a plural. Also seems like it would retain the pun better as well. (Not that it isn't apparent anyway) Just a simple query.
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TheDevilsCorpse
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Re: Brief vs. Briefs

Post by TheDevilsCorpse » Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:57 am

I'm going to assume it's because it's not really plural in Japan.

Dr. Brief
Bulma’s family has an underwear theme to their names, and so her father is named for the briefs, tight-fitting male underwear.
Toriyama Explanation: “Because it’s underwear-related”
Source Spelling: ブリーフ/Buriifu
Name Spelling: same
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Re: Brief vs. Briefs

Post by pappy » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:51 am

That's fair enough. I think it's an infinitesimal shame Toriyama didn't go with a plural there so it could fit in better with the outright obvious Trunks, Tights, and Bra. (Conveniently leaves out Bulma in this discussion) How dare he not know English well-good!
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Hujio
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Re: Brief vs. Briefs

Post by Hujio » Thu Apr 30, 2015 10:06 am

Here's my response to roughly the same question posed years ago:
Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:But his name would be most likely Dr. Briefs, because that's the Japanese translation.
That isn't necessarily the Japanese translation, but I suppose you could take it to be if you wanted to. For example, if you go to Jim Breen's Japanese Dictionary and type in "ブリーフ", it simply translates it as "Brief", but if you use Google's Translator, you'll get "Briefs" and "Brief". My whole qualm with using "Briefs" is that his name isn't pronounced that way, so I don't think it makes sense to call him "Dr. Briefs". If you sit down and watch an episode in Japanese, they don't call him "Briefs", they call him "Brief". If you tack an "s" on his name, you're changing his name. If Toriyama wanted to call him "Briefs", I think he would have tacked on the "s" himself.

I understand that people mean well by saying it is the pun, but I think that logic is a little misguided. Here are some examples that follow that same logic. Cell should be called "Cells" instead because he's made of multiple cells, not just one. Bulma/Blooma/Bloomer should be called "Bloomers", since you don't say "I'm wearing bloomer", you say "I'm wearing bloomers". Do you see what I'm saying?

And I don't think the whole, "Japanese doesn't pluralize"-thing, really applies here. I mean, in one case the name "Trunks" is clearly pluralized in Japanese, but in the other "Brief" isn't. And since they're both written in katakana, I think it makes their pluralization blatantly obvious.

So I stand by my statement that his name is "Dr. Brief".
I hope that clears things up a bit for you. :D
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Re: Brief vs. Briefs

Post by pappy » Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:15 pm

Appreciate it! I can see why yall went with "Brief" now and it seems like it has more to do with how they're pronouncing it in show and writing on merch, as opposed to how "briefs" is more commonly written as a singular in Japanese. Perhaps this is even why the dub went with "Brief" and Viz went with "Briefs." Interesting stuff.
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