English or literal translation for attack & character na

[Tienshinhan0186]

Hi. I've been a long time reader of Daizenshuu EX and its forum, but have now only registered. I am working on a media project for my college course and our assignment was to chose an animated series or movie, Domestic or foriegn, and create a teaser or trailer for a live action movie of said animated feature. Seeing as I grew up watching Dragonball as a child way back on fansubs, I have chosen it as my project. Now within my teaser trailer, I will be having sound clips of other dubs, followed by the voices of my cast. To aviod looking cheesy, I will only be filming small scenes, such as the saiya-jin's rising from the crater or Nappa using his bakuhatsuha. Now my question to the dragonball fandom is, should I use the english names of some attacks and characters names? For instance, I will no doubt be using Kaio-ken as opposed to Kayo-ken. But I'm leaning towords using Tien-shinhan as opposed to Ten-shinshan. But for the more complicated things such as Piccolo's attack. So any opionons or suggestions will be very welcomed. I apolgize for the length of my post and hope it doesn't detain anyone from reading it. Thank you for your time.

[dasmith]

My question would be who is the audience? You'll have to consider the group of people you're going to be showing this to, and think whether they would think hearing "Makkankosapo" (sp? (Guess I'm a bad fan. I swear I pronounce everything correctly though )) would be weird, and if they would rather hear something like "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON" or whatever they've called it in the dubs.

I would use all original names/etc. if the group of people were an intelligent crowd, but honestly I would think of a different project entirely if they weren't.

[MisterFlashdude]

I've always thought that proper nouns shouldn't be translated. Names of people, attacks or places should remain in their original language. Just my opinion.

[sailorspazz]

I would say names and places should be true to the original, but attack names lose meaning if you don't translate them (I guess name puns are almost inevitably lost in translation, but it's not like viewers enjoy the story less if they don't understand the puns). If an English speaker hears "Taiyouken" they have no idea what that means, but "Solar Flare" gives an idea of what the attack is.

[Iyouboushi]

I've always thought that proper nouns shouldn't be translated. Names of people, attacks or places should remain in their original language. Just my opinion.

I completely agree with this one here for the most part. Things like "Bejita" to "Vejita" is okay in my book, as is taking something like "suupaa" and changing it to "super." No meaning is lost there. For attack names, just leave them as they are.

Not really DB-related, since I can't think of a super good example of a DB attack name, but take an attack from Rurouni Kenshin: Ryuu Kan Sen Tsumuji. Translated, this would become something like "Dragon windup flash hair spin." (at least I'm fairly certain about that one) Not only is the translated attack name longer, it's just.. kind of a "whaa?" when you hear it. Take another: Ryuu Tsui Shou Sen -- Dragon Mallot Rising Flash. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather hear "Ryuu Tsui Shou Sen" as opposed to the translated, especially since the translated doesn't add any additional value (such as making it understood exactly what it does).

If an English speaker hears "Taiyouken" they have no idea what that means, but "Solar Flare" gives an idea of what the attack is.

If I hear "Taiouken" (Taiyouken? However you romanize it), I think "oh a technique name." It's pretty obvious that it's a technique. Translating it to "Solar Flare" may reveal what it does, but if I just WATCH IT I'll know what it does anyway. I don't see the point in translating it just for that purpose.


So I say, to the original poster, stick with the Japanese for attack names and character names.

[Anonymous Friend]

The idea that proper nouns (people, places and things) should stay in the original laguage is a good idea. But I really don't consider attack names to be proper nouns. Though, if the attack name is something that can be easily remembered and not confused with other attack names, then go for it. I would say find out what the translated name for it would be and then carefully think it over. You don't want to overly confuse your audience.

[Tienshinhan0186]

My audienace also grew up watching Dragonball but some of them grew up with the Ocean Dub and some with the Japanese Origainl. So some fans would understand Tien's tri-beam and and some would understand kikoho. So would finding a middle ground such as using the translation of kikoho be wise? Like the translated Spirit Cannon? Thanks everyone for their help. I really do.

[Super Sonic]

I have to say that leaving attack names untranslated doesn't always work, in regards to action shows other than DB. I have a feeling that some YYH fans would've mentioned that Yusuke didn't seem to be using a "Ray Gun" and other bad jokes and puns regarding that.