Movie titles: the bad, the bad, and the also pretty bad

[Ajay]

For the sake of simplicity, I'm pretty content with just saying "Movie X".

I tend to use the FUNi title for the sake of simplicity if I can't recall what number the move is though. Making any attempt to learn the Japanese titles, despite watching it in Japanese, is far too tedious.

[DonZ]

The Japanese movies titles are bad cause it doesn't suit being a "movie title" a movie title should be something simple, yet describe the movie's context in a way -a simple way of course- cause in the end, it's a title. not a badly written synopsis.

i just can't imagine myself calling a movie with a title like “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight”
i would probably laugh at myself while doing it.

[MagicBox]

I'm kinda surprised by how many people hate these titles. I mean, yeah, some of them are a little silly, but I had no idea they were this... despised? Is that too strong a word?

I like them. They have a sort of corny-coolness to them that make the movies sound grand in an unexpected, un-grand way. "The Strongest Guy In The World." "The Super Decisive Battle For The Entire Earth." Those just sound cool to me. They're not very specific, they're not very creative, and some of them are long. Regardless, I enjoy the old-school charm that comes with something simple like "The Super Exciting Battle Of Good VS Evil." And since the soundtrack CDs use the movie titles for track names, I've managed to memorize (my translations of) all the titles just from listening to my iPod.

I agree that they're not perfect. As Herms said, I have no idea whether the "Super Awesome Guy" in movie 09's title is referring to Gohan or Bojack or Oolong or whoever. "Super Saiyan Son Goku" is a pretty cool title by itself, but it horribly dates movie 04 by drawing attention to the whole "Oh, this is the one where they didn't know what Super Saiyans were yet" thing even more than it otherwise would. But on the whole, I still like them.

Online and in-person, though, I just say "movie 07," "movie 12," etc. Not because I dislike the titles, but because that's honest-to-God the quickest thing to type/say.

[RandomGuy96]

I had always wondered if these overly-excited and long titles made any more sense in Japan.

Anyway, very enjoyable post/article/review thing. Are you planning on doing anything else like this?

[Herms]

I've also seen this part translated (both by fans and on Mr. Simmons' translation on FUNi's DVDs) as "A Pair In Peril!" Is that an equally valid translation, or is the "Dangerous Duo" version more correct? I always thought "A Pair In Peril" made more sense because Goten and Trunks spend a considerable amount of time either running from Broli or getting whooped by him.

Hmmm, interesting, I hadn't thought of it in that light. In Japanese it's kiken-na futari; "dangerous"/"perilous"/etc would be a typical translation for kiken-na, and futari is just "pair"/"duo", simple enough. Looking around a bit, I can't find any examples of kiken-na being used to mean something that's in danger rather than something dangerous, but I don't know, Mr. Simmons is obviously no slouch, and the title does seem to make a lot more sense translated like that.

This is something I've been trying to figure out for a while, so I just have to ask: are you sure? Unlike the first DBZ movie, the title The Legend of Shenlong actually appears in the film itself on home video. Obviously it's not impossible for them to have gone back in and changed the film, but since they didn't for DBZ movie 1, it seems oddly inconsistent. Also, if they did, the way they did it also seems odd and unnecessarily complicated. There's that exclusive, solid red background that has the Dragon Ball logo right before it goes into the standard opening animation, which places the movie's title where the Dragon Ball logo usually is. Presumably the theatrical cut would have just been a straight port animation-wise of the opening? Seems extraordinarily complicated when they could have just slapped the new title on a solid background. Finally, that exclusive, red background is where the Eiren logo is located, so if it was added exclusively for the home release, where was the Eiren logo when it was shown theatrically? So that's why this assertion has always confused me.

That's an interesting point. Here's what the Kanzenshuu movie guide says on the subject:

When the movie premiered in December 1986, it was at that point officially titled “Dragon Ball”, and all official promotional items and materials prior to the movie’s premiere utilized this title as well. The sub-title “The Legend of Shenlong” was not included as part of the movie’s official title until it was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1987, even though it did appear in the movie’s opening animation.

So...apparently "The Legend of Shenlong" did appear in the movie's opening animation right from the start (!), but movie posters and ads and whatnot simply didn't refer to the movie as anything other than "Dragon Ball" until the home release. There's a few pictures of movie posters and ads for the movie up on the page, and while they're a bit small and blurry, it does look like the movie is indeed only titled "Dragon Ball". Weird. The Japanese Wikipedia page for the movie likewise says the whole "just titled DB at first, then called "Legend of Shenlong" for the home release" thing, but it doesn't clarify whether or not the words "Legend of Shenlong" were always seen in the opening, and it doesn't give a source for the statement anyway. I do wonder if Hujio (or whoever) was wrong in assuming that "Legend of Shenlong" was always there in the opening animation? It would probably overall make the most sense to think they added it for the home release, convoluted as it would have been for them to throw it in there after the fact, since everything seems to agree that the movie wasn't actually called "DB: The Legend of Shenlong" when it first came out. But the world doesn't always make sense.

I'm kinda surprised by how many people hate these titles. I mean, yeah, some of them are a little silly, but I had no idea they were this... despised? Is that too strong a word?

For me at least, it's definitely too strong a word. OK, so I did say that titles were bad and that I hated them, but I feel like they're bad in a fun way, if that makes sense. Like a MST3K movie sort of bad.

Anyway, very enjoyable post/article/review thing. Are you planning on doing anything else like this?

I guess it's not really too similar, but I do have an idea about doing some sort of recurring feature where I look at an individual character name (or the name of a place/technique/etc), and explain the name pun, any translation issues, look at how different English (or other language) adaptations have handled the name, alternate spellings and whatnot, then give my opinion on the relative merits and demerits of the different translations/spellings/adaptations of the name, etc. It'd be similar to stuff I've done before, but all in one place. Basically like taking my old name pun guide and combining it with this thread's approach, I guess.

I definitely don't want to go through and review every single Japanese and Funi episode title, Lord knows.

[Thouser]

I love the overblown Japanese titles. When I first watched the Japanese version of DB, and saw the long, overly-excited episode and movie titles, I thought it was distinctive and interesting in a fun, cheesy (but also kinda cool) way.

My favorites of the Japanese titles are "Sleeping Princess in Devil Castle", "Return My Gohan!!", "The World's Strongest Guy", and "Super Decisive Battle for the Whole Earth".

In a different way, I'm kind of amused by some of the Big Green and Speedy dubs' titles, like "Super Battle in the World" (movie 3), "Super Guy in the Galaxy" (movie 9), and "Super Saiya, Songoku" [sic] (Speedy movie 4).

The Speedy title for movie 5, "The Strongest Rivals", was okay.

[Puto]

The Big Green and Speedy dub titles sound like they tried to translate the Japanese titles loosely without actually understanding them decently.

[Cold Skin]

Nice thread, it really sums up what the titles are all about.

- The Japanese ones are often long and more original than the western ones, more appealing, striking. But at the same time, a certain number of them are just generic like many of you guys think, and could pretty much apply to all movies. Kind of kills the most basic idea of what a title is supposed to do: help you identify the episode or movie. It might be safe to assume that they decided the title before they thought about the actual plot at times.

- The US titles are often on spot and will undoubtedly tell you what the movie is. But at the same, they are sometimes terribly bland and unoriginal, sometimes pretty much citing the bad guy with perhaps a noun or adjective to go with it. And man, they can be huge spoilers! I mean "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan" (France did pretty much the same thing with their title): way to ruin the whole 20 minutes of pre-battle investigation! Just say "The Legendary Super Saiyan", don't say it's Broly right away, so that it leaves a bit of mystery at the beginning: is the legend true or just a trap, is it Paragus, is it his son?

I think it would be interesting if this thread also served for people to come up with a few of their own titles, and see what they think would be a good title for some of the movies.

[Fionordequester]

I'm kinda surprised by how many people hate these titles. I mean, yeah, some of them are a little silly, but I had no idea they were this... despised? Is that too strong a word?

Oh, trust me, I know the feeling. I felt the exact same way when I saw how hated Team Faulconer was, as well as lines like "mondo cool". Yeah, some of that stuff was a little silly, but to be so despised...

[Fizzer]

I always go by the English titles because I have no bloody way of remembering which Japanese title goes with which film.

On the meta Cooler thing: in the Metroid games, Ridley made of metal is called Meta-Ridley, rather than Metal Ridley. I'm not sure if this was a translation thing or actually in the Japanese, but it's basically the same thing. I wonder if there's a widespread misunderstanding that "meta" is just a badass version of "metal".

[Thouser]

I always go by the English titles because I have no bloody way of remembering which Japanese title goes with which film.

On the meta Cooler thing: in the Metroid games, Ridley made of metal is called Meta-Ridley, rather than Metal Ridley. I'm not sure if this was a translation thing or actually in the Japanese, but it's basically the same thing. I wonder if there's a widespread misunderstanding that "meta" is just a badass version of "metal".

He is called Meta Ridley (メタリドリー) in the Japanese version, but Meta Ridley appeared in Metroid Prime, a game developed in the west. The Japanese version was translated from the English, and was released a year after the US version.

If the game was Japanese originally, it wouldn't be a translation thing as far as ambiguity is concerned. Meta (メタ) and metal (メタル) are definitely different in Japanese. Of course this would also apply to Metal Coola. The only thing I could think of is that it was a (very strange) deliberate change. Either that, or somebody misread it. Every single time.

[UltimateHammerBro]

I think it would be interesting if this thread also served for people to come up with a few of their own titles, and see what they think would be a good title for some of the movies.

I once wrote a whole set of new episode and movie titles, based on a few versions (namely the Japanese, Spanish, Funi and Ocean titles), making them always (if I remember well) one sentence long. I'd have to search for the file though.
The one thing I remember, for example, is that I named the GT episodes in which the Shadow Dragons appear after their numbers, so they were The Four-Star Dragon, The Five-Star Dragon, and so on; and I tried to keep the spoilers at minimum: the episodes in which Goku first transformed into a Super Saiyan and a Super Saiyan 4 were named A legendary warrior and Goku ascends.

- The US titles are often on spot and will undoubtedly tell you what the movie is. But at the same, they are sometimes terribly bland and unoriginal, sometimes pretty much citing the bad guy with perhaps a noun or adjective to go with it. And man, they can be huge spoilers! I mean "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan" (France did pretty much the same thing with their title): way to ruin the whole 20 minutes of pre-battle investigation! Just say "The Legendary Super Saiyan", don't say it's Broly right away, so that it leaves a bit of mystery at the beginning: is the legend true or just a trap, is it Paragus, is it his son?

I kind of like it when the titles are a mix between both Japanese and American. They don't tell you what the movie is about, but you associate them with the movie. For instance, the Spanish title for "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan" was (loosely) "The duel begins". It's abstract, but it was different enough from the other titles, and I hear it and automatically say "the first Broly movie".

[linkdude20002001]

The Big Green and Speedy dub titles sound like they tried to translate the Japanese titles loosely without actually understanding them decently.

I believe they actually came from Toei themselves, sadly enough. Much like the incomprehensible mess that was Toei's official English script that they gave to Funimation.
Toei's English page has their names for the movies listed, so I'll compare them here with the ones used by Speedy and AB Groupe (listed in that order).

1. The Legend of Shenron (so this is where FUNi got "Shenron"...) --> Same --> ??
2. Sleeping Beauty in Devil Castle --> ?? --> ??
3. Mystical Adventure (FUNi's exact title) --> ?? --> ??
4. The Way to the Strongest --> ?? --> ??

1. N/A (but among the other foreign language names is Garlic Junior Inmortal) --> N/A* --> In Pursuit of Garlic
2. The Strongest Guy in the World --> Same --> Same
3. Super Battle in the World --> Same** --> Same as Toei
4. Super Saiya, Son Goku --> Super Saiya, Songoku*** --> Super Saiyan, Goku
5. The Strongest Rivals --> Same**** --> Super Rivals
6. Fight! 10 Billion Illion(typo?) Power Warriors --> Fight! 10 Billion Power Warriors***** --> Same as Speedy
7. Super Battle of Three Super Saiyas --> Same --> Super Battle of the Three Super Saiyans
8. The Burning Battles --> The Burning Battle --> Same as Toei
9. Super Guy in the Galaxy --> Same --> ??
10. Dangerous Rivals --> Same --> ??
11. Attack! Super Warriors --> ?? --> ??
12. Rivival Fusion --> Rival Fusion (maybe they misunderstood the typo) --> ??
13. Explosion of Dragon Punch --> Same --> ??

Some of the Sppedy movies were also released with different titles. I don't understand why...
*The Vengeance of the Demon King
**The Quest for Earth
***Super Saiya People, Goku
****The Strongest vs. the Strongest
*****A 100 Billion Energetic Warrior

[Cold Skin]

Just in case you want to see that the titles in your country were maybe not so bad, here is a reminder our French titles back then (albeit corrected to fit the current vocabulary, such as "Super Warrior" corrected to "Super Saiyan").

DRAGON BALL
01. The legend of Shenron
02. Castle of the Demon
03. The Mystical Adventure
04. The Red Ribon Army

DRAGON BALL Z
01. Chasing Garlic Junior
02. Robot of the Ice
03. The Fratricidal Fight
04. The Threat from Namek
05. Cooler's Revenge
06. A Hundred Thousand Metal Warriors
07. Offensive of the Cyborgs
08. Broly the Super Saiyan
09. The Space Mercenaries
10. Broly's return (later updated as "Dangerous Rivals")
11. Bio-Broly (later updated as "Super-Warrior Attack", written in French "Attaque Super Warrior", which is as if there was a technic or a type of attack named "a Super Warrior Attack" or something).
12. Fusions
13. The Dragon Attack (name for the Ryuken / Dragon Fist).

SPECIAL 01. Son Goku's father (later updated as "Bardack versus Freezer").
SPECIAL 02. Trunks' story.

[Quebaz]

Here are the Portuguese ones (which some were updated with the DVD release for some reason).

DRAGON BALL
01. The Legend of Shenron
02. The Fantastic Castle
03. An Unforgettable Adventure
04. The Law Of The Strongest

DRAGON BALL Z
01. Dragon Ball Z
02. The Super Hero
03. The Great Battle
04. Son Goku, The Super Warrior-->Super Saiya, Son Goku
05. The Greatest Rivals
06. The Power Of 10 Million Warriors-->The Mysterious Power
07. The Super Battle of The Three Warriors-->The Fearless Son Goku
08. A Burning Battle-->The Supreme Force
09. The Super Man Of The Galaxy-->Encounter of Champions
10. Dangerous Rivals
11. The Attack Of The Super Warrior
12. The Fusion
13. The Attack Of The Dragon

SPECIAL 01. Son Goku's Father-->The Discovery Of A Hero
SPECIAL 02. The Last Challenge
GT SPECIAL. 100 Years Later

[UltimateHammerBro]

My turn then. Spanish titles!

DRAGON BALL
1: The legend of the dragon Shenron
2: The sleeping beauty in evil's castle
3: Great mystical adventure
4: The path to the strongest

DRAGON BALL Z
1: Garlic Junior Inmortal
2: The world's strongest
3: The super battle
4: The super warrior Son Goku
5: The best rivals
6: Warriors of unlimited strength
7: The 3 great Super Saiyans
8: The duel begins
9: The silver warriors
10: The return of Broly
11: The ultimate combat
12: Fusion!
13: Attack of the dragon
14: The Battle of the Gods

SPECIALS
1: The last combat
2: A different future: Gohan and Trunks
3: Dragon Ball GT: 100 years later

Keep in mind that some of them sound waaaay better than their English translation.

[InfernalVegito]

Well this is fun so I'll provide the German ones.

DRAGON BALL
1. The Legend of Shenlong
2. The Castle of the Demons
3. Son Goku's First Tournament
4. The Path to Power (never dubbed)

DRAGON BAL Z
1. The Death Zone of Garlic Jr.
2. The Strongest on Earth
3. The Decisive Battle
4. Super-Saiyajin Son Goku
5. Revenge for Freezer
6. Cooler's Return
7. Attack of the Cyborgs
8. The Legendary Super-Saiyajin
9. Super-Saiyajin Son Gohan
10. Broly's Return
11. Attack of the Bio-Fighters
12. Fusion (released theatrically along with movie 13 titled Dragon Ball Z - The Movie)
13. Dragonfist (released theatrically along with movie 12 titled Dragon Ball Z - The Movie)

SPECIALS
1. The History of Trunks
2. Son Goku's Father (The Bardock Special)
3. The Movie: Son Goku Jr.

[Adamant]

Danish (animanga titles):

1) Garlic Junior's Death Zone
2) The Strongest on Earth
3) The Decisive Battle
4) Son-Goku, Super-Saiyajin
5) Vengeance for Freezer
6) Son-Goku Versus Metal Cooler
7) The Three Great Super-Saiyajins
8) The Legendary Super-Saiyajin
9) Son-Gohan, Super-Saiyajin
10) Broly Returns
11) The Biowarriors Attack
12) The Rebirth of the Fusion
13) The Dragon Fist Explodes

Specials:
1) The Bardock Saga
2) The History of Trunks