Do you prefer the English movie titles or the Japanese ones?

[jcogginsa]

Do you prefer the English titles of the movies, or the Japanese titles?

For those unfamiliar, these are the titles, deliberately given out of order. Top most are english titles, at the bottom are the japanese titles.

The listed titles are english translations of the Japanese title, taken from Wikipedia(Example:The Legend of Shenlong instead of Shenron no Densetsu ). If there are more accurate translations available point me to them and i'll edit this

Bio Broly
Bojack Unbound
Super Android 13
Curse of the Blood Rubies
The World's Strongest
Dead Zone
Cooler's revenge
Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan
Lord Slug
Fusion Reborn
The Path to Power
Broly Second Coming
Mystical Adventure
Ressurection 'F'
The Tree of Might
The Return of Cooler
Battle of Gods
Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle

The Legend of Shenlong
Extreme Battle! The Three Great Super Saiyans
Super Saiyan Son Goku
Return My Gohan!!
Clash!! The Power of 10 Billion Warriors
God and God
Super Warrior Defeat!! I'll Be The Winner
The Path to Ultimate Power
Burn Up!! A Close Fight - A Violent Fight - A Super Fierce Fight
The Incredible Strongest vs. Strongest
The Decisive Battle for the Entire Earth
Great Mystical Adventure
The Rebirth of Fusion!! Goku and Vegeta
Resurrection of F
The Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Never Rest
The Galaxy's at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy
Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle
The Strongest Guy In The World
Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Can't Do It, Who Will?

[DB1984]

Japanese ones.

[Lord Beerus]

I absolutely prefer the English movie title because most of them are pretty specific in regard to the actual content within the movie and aren't a mouthful to pronounce. The Japanese titles are way too damn vague and most of them don't really make any sense. But on the flipside, a few of the English movie titles can be quite confusing themselves.

Herms sums up the whole scenario brilliantly.

[Ashelia]

I just use numbers because the Japanese ones are too long and vague while the Funi ones at times are also too obvious.

The one that bothers me most is "Burn Up!! A Close Fight - A Violent Fight - A Super Fierce Fight". It always sounded like it was trying too hard to convince me to watch yet was undecided on what the movie was even about so the title just resorted to random shameless hype. I'd honestly love know what titles didn't make the cut if that was the best of the bunch.

[DoomieDoomie911]

I usually just number them (movie one, movie two, etc.), but if I do use a title I usually go with the English ones because most of them just make more sense.

[Pokewhiz7]

I would say that, from a purist perspective, FUNimation should have used the Japanese titles directly translated, but I honestly do prefer the English ones. They actually sound like movie titles to me.

[DoomieDoomie911]

I would say that, from a purist perspective, FUNimation should have used the Japanese titles directly translated, but I honestly do prefer the English ones. They actually sound like movie titles to me.

I generally don't agree with changing anything, but this is one change that I welcome. The Japanese titles just wouldn't have worked with an American audience.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I usually just number them (movie one, movie two, etc.), but if I do use a title I usually go with the English ones because most of them just make more sense.

Pretty much this. I mean, honestly, both naming schemes have their problems, at least if we're talking about the Z movies (the DB ones, outside of 'Curse of the Blood Rubies', are pretty much the same as the Japanese ones anyway, so there's not as big of comparison to be made). The English ones kind of fell into this trap, post the original three movies, where each title was more or less just the name of the movie's villain and some other words to get a full title together. They're not really that appealing as names, but at the very least I guess you can more easily tell which movie is which movie easily enough, and they're a heck of a lot easier to remember. I just wish they had managed to be more creative than they were - as it stands, the only English titles I actually think work well enough as movie titles (ignoring the ones that are just appropriate translations on their own) are Dead Zone, Tree of Might, and Wrath of the Dragon (even if that title really has next to nothing to do with anything other than kinda-maybe-possibly spoiling Goku's new move?).

On the flip side though, the Japanese titles are a little...vague. Pretty much all of them could be used to describe just about any other movie or even an episode. Sure, there's a few like 'Clash!! 10,000,000,000 Powerful Warriors' that maybe, if you thought about it for a while, you'd come to realize would just about have to be the second Cooler movie, since that seems to be harkening to the mass Metal Cooler army. But stuff like 'A Super Decisive Battle for Earth', 'The Incredible Strongest vs Strongest', or 'Super-Warrior Defeat!! I’m the One Who’ll Win'? Those could be anything! It's almost like the movie titles were a complete switch from how the episode titles were designed - the episode titles tended to almost or actually spoil things by including too many key details, but the movie titles are almost completely absent of anything that tells you...well...anything.

So yeah, for my own ease (especially since I can't remember half of the other ones), I tend to use the English movie titles. More often than not though, I'll just say 'the Bojack movie' or 'the second Cooler movie' or the like, or DB movie 1, DBZ movie 7, etc., cuz both naming schemes have problems of their own.

[Pokewhiz7]

I would say that, from a purist perspective, FUNimation should have used the Japanese titles directly translated, but I honestly do prefer the English ones. They actually sound like movie titles to me.

I generally don't agree with changing anything, but this is one change that I welcome. The Japanese titles just wouldn't have worked with an American audience.

Why wouldn't they, exactly? Why would they work any less than they did with Japanese audiences?

[TKA]

Seeing as the English ones are usually 2-3 words, I prefer the English ones.

[FoolsGil]

English. "The Decisive Battle for the Entire Earth" sounds like the name of an episode, not the name of an awesome movie.

[B]

This comes up all the time and just seems like another way to divide fans. i personally don't care, but I guess somebody throwing out "Tree of Might" lets you know which version of the movie their watching(which isn't really important unless we're talking about specific scenes).

[Draconic]

I don't like either. The japanese ones don't reflect the movies so well and the english ones are just bland.

[ABED]

Also, the Japanese ones are often spoilerific. Oh wait, you mean the movie titles. Yeah, I prefer succinct titles. Dead Zone and Tree of Might are more interesting to me than the originals.

[KameRule]

I would say that, from a purist perspective, FUNimation should have used the Japanese titles directly translated, but I honestly do prefer the English ones. They actually sound like movie titles to me.

I generally don't agree with changing anything, but this is one change that I welcome. The Japanese titles just wouldn't have worked with an American audience.

Why wouldn't they, exactly? Why would they work any less than they did with Japanese audiences?

I'm usually against dub edits to make things more "suited to a Western audience", but this is a worthy exception. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me, that a 12 year old DBZ fan in the early-mid 2000s who isn't familiar with other anime would be just as inclined to buy “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight” as they would “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”.

[ABED]

I'm usually against dub edits to make things more "suited to a Western audience", but this is a worthy exception. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me, that a 12 year old DBZ fan in the early-mid 2000s who isn't familiar with other anime would be just as inclined to buy “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight” as they would “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”.

I'm a 30 year old DBZ fan who is familiar with anime and I prefer "Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan to the JPN title which is very generic.

[KameRule]

I'm usually against dub edits to make things more "suited to a Western audience", but this is a worthy exception. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me, that a 12 year old DBZ fan in the early-mid 2000s who isn't familiar with other anime would be just as inclined to buy “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight” as they would “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”.

I'm a 30 year old DBZ fan who is familiar with anime and I prefer "Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan to the JPN title which is very generic.

Exactly. I mean, I have a soft spot for the Japanese names' blatantly silly movie names, but while a lot of the English names just come from the main villains of their movies, the likes of "Curse of the Blood-Rubies" are far better than their original counterparts.

You can actually tell which movies the FUNi names are referring to as well, as they don't all boil down to something like "The Super Tough Guy! Planet Earth is in Trouble!" .

[dario03]

I usually just call DBZ movies 4-13 by their number because the vhs fansubs that me and my friends had were numbered. but sometimes just name the main bad guy, or use the Funi title. The rest I usually use the Funi title.

I'm usually against dub edits to make things more "suited to a Western audience", but this is a worthy exception. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me, that a 12 year old DBZ fan in the early-mid 2000s who isn't familiar with other anime would be just as inclined to buy “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight” as they would “Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan”.

I'm a 30 year old DBZ fan who is familiar with anime and I prefer "Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan to the JPN title which is very generic.

Wait that's the title of movie 8? Heck I'm pretty sure that even my vhs fansub that I got from a flee market way back in the day was titled Movie 8 - Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan. I'm going to have to dig that out and check.

[Quebaz]

I actually prefer the Toei international versions of the movie titles (which are just the japanese titles shortened so to speak) compared to both the Japanese and Funi's.
Heck, Movie 8 is a great example: "Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight" becomes "The Burning Battle" or Big Green's "Burning Battles", it's essentially the same title as the Japanese one, just easier to remember, write and say.

[Thouser]

Obviously I prefer the AB Group and Speedy titles like "Super Battle in the World" and "Super Guy in the Galaxy."

Honestly, though, I don't really care. Being a fan of the Godzilla movies, I'm used to movies having several different titles just in the English speaking world alone, so whether you call DBZ movie 3 "Chikyuu Marugoto Chou Kessen," "Tree of Might," or "Super Battle in the World," it really makes no difference to me. I even go back and forth on which ones I use from time to time, or depending on the context.