Let's eradicate Bulma

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

I'll apologize for the click-bait title. My issue isn't with the actual character but with the spelling. It makes me sad and destroyed my life. Ok not really but I do think it's silly and inconsistent, and should be switched to Blooma. Here's why:

First off, within the series itself Blooma is spelled in the Latin alphabet as Bulma. This seems to immediately destroy my premise, but I will keep going. Japan is not famous for it's accuracy when handling foreign words outside it phonology. See: http://www.engrish.com/category/animemanga/. Her name is given as ブルマ from the word Bloomers. The strait romanji is Buruma. All constants are followed by vowels in Japanese ( and that's the only way you can write) so "bloo-" is split into "bu" and "ru", and the impossible "mers" ending is replaced with an approximation. Standard stuff. But when they untranslated back to Latin, something went horribly awry. Switching the "r" to an "l" was obvious and simple, (they're the same thing anyway) but they kept the added "u" in "bu". Furthermore, they actually dropped the "u" in "ru". This makes no sense as "oo" was the longest and most emphasized vowel in the original word. If they wanted to drop a vowel, it should have bee the one they made up!
The result is a spelling that no one understands.

Next, there's the consistency issue. As is oft stated here, Trunks, with the very same reckless romanizing, could be Tulanks. Or Tlankusu. Or Turankus. But the spelling "Trunks" is used for two stated reasons: it preserves the pun, and that since his name in Japanese is exactly the same as their loanword, the English spelling should be the same as our word. Well, "Bulma" goes against them both. The pun is now buried: Not only does Bulma and Bloomers not look similar, the pronunciation of the vowel has shifted. Bulma is pronounced in the Dub and fandom like "Bowl - ma". The sound is completely different from "oo" as in "soon" or "Bloom". As for loan word matching, ブルマ is the same as the loan word, with possible variations. (http://jisho.org/search/bloomers). So, why not make the English spelling the same as the English word, with a slight variation: Blooma or even Bloomer?

Also, consider this: When BoG promotional material was coming out and people started using "Bills", there was a definite pushback from this very site against it. But Bills is just as valid a romanization of ビルス as Beerus, but it was rejected for disrupting the pun and pronunciation. If the Blooma character was just invented last episode, and there wasn't already a massive number of fans that grew up with it, wouldn't this site and others make the same resistance against a spelling like Bulma, for the very same reasons as for Bills?

In conclusion, the only reason to use Bulma over Blooma is that everybody is already used to it. But it's the same situation with things like "ka MAY ha MAY ha wave" and "Say-un" and "Hercule", and we still resist those, in vain or not.

[TheatreStyleKai]

If this was twenty plus years ago and Dragon Ball was only starting to be serialized, I would agree with you; Blooma seems like a better translation than Bulma. But that ship sailed a long, long time ago. Trying to force an unofficial fan name now would be needlessly confusing.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

If this was twenty plus years ago and Dragon Ball was only starting to be serialized, I would agree with you; Blooma seems like a better translation than Bulma. But that ship sailed a long, long time ago. Trying to force an unofficial fan name now would be needlessly confusing.

I acknowedged the difficulty in my post, but we can start with the people on this site/forum who are generally more understanding of these things. And it's not a "fan name" it's her real name.

[VegettoEX]

Not sure if know this, but there actually are a (small) number of people who post here that regularly do use "Bluma" or "Blooma" or some variant.

They're all incredibly aware that what they're doing is moderately insane, for all the reasons you've noted: the "Bulma" spelling has been established in the manga since day-one, it's thirty years later and not much can be done about it considering all the other adaptations out there, etc. I think there's a big difference between push-back on a different spelling of a word versus a pronunciation of a word, since I can type "Saiyan" and "Kaio-ken" and "Kamehameha" and know how to say them, but someone else reading them (not listening to them; e.g., listening to our podcast) can still live in their fairy-tale world where it's Texas in 1996 .

I agree that in a perfect world we'd all be able to look at the manga in a total bubble again and, as objectively as possible (and acknowledging that the word "objective" has zero meaning on the Internet in 2016), re-evaluate the "best" transliterations for each character's name according to the pun source, pronunciation, and target language. We don't live in that perfect world, though.

At Kanzenshuu, we pretty much try to avoid the topic of her name among us four as much as possible, either intentionally or unintentionally. Maybe if we ignore it long enough the problem and inconsistency will just go away?

[TheGreatness25]

Doesn't the "u" sound come before the "l" or "r" sound in the Japanese version? I've never heard them say her name and think that it sounds more like "Blooma" or "Brooma" than "Bulma" or "Burma." I mean it could be that I just never paid that much attention, but it seems like people are trying to make her name closer to the pun that it's based on. In that case, we should just spell Kakarrot as "Carrotto."

I feel like this is one of those ancient fan-sub names that people liked. Such as Bejita.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

. I think there's a big difference between push-back on a different spelling of a word versus a pronunciation of a word, since I can type "Saiyan" and "Kaio-ken" and "Kamehameha" and know how to say them, but someone else reading them (not listening to them; e.g., listening to our podcast) can still live in their fairy-tale world where it's Texas in 1996 .

Which do you classify Bulma as, since both the spelling and pronouniation change? How do I avoid the "bowl-ma" "fairy-tail"?

[TheGreatness25]

I know they used "Bowl-ma" back in the day, but I'm pretty sure they used "Bull-ma" a lot more. I feel like the "Bowl-ma" thing was only Kuririn's Ocean dub pronunciation.

[VegettoEX]

Doesn't the "u" sound come before the "l" or "r" sound in the Japanese version?

There are two "u" sounds if you want to get technical: bu - ru - ma.

And the point here is, in the English word it's being adapted from, there's only one "u" sound, and that's the long "oo" in "bloomers"; that first "u" sound in the Japanese name spelling is due to the Japanese phonetic system.

In that case, we should just spell Kakarrot as "Carrotto."

Plenty of people have done so over the years. There's also the fact that カカロット kakarotto is spelled differently from キャロット kyarotto. Since it's a different beginning syllable/sound, we adapt it in our alphabet differently, as well. Thus, "Kakarrot" instead of "Caccarot". It's one of those names that's a pun, rather than just the literal word itself (or just the beginning of the literal word itself).

I feel like this is one of those ancient fan-sub names that people liked. Such as Bejita.

This seems to border on the thing I was talking about where in a perfect society we'd be able to reevaluate these name spellings without folks coming in and endlessly pointing out how, well, pointless it is. Like, we know it is. We all know. We've pointed it out. We've all said it is! We know! We really do truly know! We swear! Sometimes a conversation can still be had, though.

I don't know if you intended it that way, but that's how I read it.

[TheGreatness25]

No, didn't mean it that way lol I think it's anyone's personal choice, to be honest. I was just curious for myself. I personally use "Bulma" for three reasons that all mix together -- 1) the manga spelling; 2) the FUNimation dub name; and 3) the Steve Simmons translation. Generally, I like going by Steve Simmons's spelling of words. Sometimes I make an exception for Tenkaichi Budokai (Tenkaichi Tournament seems pretty half-assed; either translate it or don't), starting to go with "God" over Kami. I feel like since the names are puns that kind of get twisted around (Vegeta is not "Vegetable," "Raditz" is not "Radish," etc.), Bulma is acceptable. It is quite possible that I'm super biased simply because of the spelling in the manga as well as how I've always known the name to be.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

No, didn't mean it that way lol I think it's anyone's personal choice, to be honest. I was just curious for myself. I personally use "Bulma" for three reasons that all mix together -- 1) the manga spelling; 2) the FUNimation dub name; and 3) the Steve Simmons translation. Generally, I like going by Steve Simmons's spelling of words. Sometimes I make an exception for Tenkaichi Budokai (Tenkaichi Tournament seems pretty half-assed; either translate it or don't), starting to go with "God" over Kami. I feel like since the names are puns that kind of get twisted around (Vegeta is not "Vegetable," "Raditz" is not "Radish," etc.), Bulma is acceptable. It is quite possible that I'm super biased simply because of the spelling in the manga as well as how I've always known the name to be.

In Vegeta's case, ベジータ is only half a loanword, so it makes sense to not spell out Vegetables. ブルマ is just the word, as in Trunks, so switching around to Bulma is just adding pun obscurity to the original.

[jjgp1112]

I thin k the biggest problem with the Bulma thing as opposed to all of the other crazy romanizations we've seen in-series is that "BULMA" is there in literally her very first appearance. It's easy for initiated fans to dismiss say, "KULILIN" on Krillin/Kuririn's hat in the Namek saga, but in your first introduction to the character, Bulma being named "Bluma/Bloomer" but having "BULMA" in big letters on her shirt is just confusing for non-Japanese audiences. That's probably the only reason that spelling and phrasing became so widespread.

[DemonRin]

Yeah, I understand the sentiment, and to an extent I think you're right. It's obvious that family's names are just straight up using the words, IE "Brief", "Trunks", "Bra" etc, so I totally get it and preference dictates you can obviously call her whatever you want, nobody should begrudge you that, the idea of changing the fanbase's entire perception of her name at this point is pretty much impossible.

The biggest point is probably, as has kinda been pointed out, this isn't a situation like Freeza or Mr. Satan where a 2nd or 3rd party source like Toei or FUNimation went with a funky spelling somewhere, Toriyama himself spelled it "Bulma" in the first chapter, and unlike some other names (Kulilin anyone?) has been pretty consistent about it IIRC. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Toriyama has never spelled Bulma's name differently has he? If he ever has, it's probably rare since I only remember seeing "Bulma" from him.

Literally everybody went with it. Even Viz, who typically doesn't march to the beat of FUNi's drum and will translate differently from them such as using "Kuririn" and making an attempt to adapt Vegetto's name to "Vegerot", use Bulma.

[floofychan333]

Master Roshi calls her "Boolma" which is technically more accurate than Bulma. Buruma is pronounced "Boo-roo-ma" so "Boolma" is somewhat more accurate.

[VegettoEX]

Master Roshi calls her "Boolma" which is technically more accurate than Bulma. Buruma is pronounced "Boo-roo-ma" so "Boolma" is somewhat more accurate.

Waaaaaaay more context is needed here. Are you talking about a dub? One actor's pronunciation? It must be a pronunciation, since none of those other spellings are used.

[coola]

While i also started using Blooma recently...i remember her first outfit she wore, and it said BULMA there..Kuririn also wore cap that said Kulilin/Kuririn, so I'm now not sure about correct pronounciation...

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

Off topic side note, I noticed she has blue hair in the first one and purple hair in the second. It seems Trunk's hair troubles run in the family.

[PsionicWarrior]

Off topic side note, I noticed she has blue hair in the first one and purple hair in the second. It seems Trunk's hair troubles run in the family.

Now we need Kaio for a pun.

[Gaffer Tape]

Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Toriyama has never spelled Bulma's name differently has he? If he ever has, it's probably rare since I only remember seeing "Bulma" from him.

It is rare, but he has used another spelling in at least one other image. In a Happy New Year image he drew for 2015, he has her wearing a jacket that says Bloomers.

[TheGreatness25]

Off topic side note, I noticed she has blue hair in the first one and purple hair in the second. It seems Trunk's hair troubles run in the family.

Yeah, when Bulma first shows up, she has the blue/green/teal/whatever hair.





This color (well, a much more dull version) appears in the VizBigs and I'm assuming the Kanzeban. It is that color through the first two chapters and then this happens:





Basically however Bulma first appeared in the manga is where her character was taken from the name spelling to the hair color (in the anime). By the way, never noticed this, but Goku's gi turns orange in chapter 3 too apparently. I know it was red in the VizBigs, but so was Super Saiyan's eyes and whatnot because of the limited color pallet (from what I gathered). I know the colored manga was done just recently and doesn't necessarily depict the original vision, but it's pretty interesting still. Bulma definitely starts off with the blue hair and at some point it changes to purple, then back and forth.

[floofychan333]

Master Roshi calls her "Boolma" which is technically more accurate than Bulma. Buruma is pronounced "Boo-roo-ma" so "Boolma" is somewhat more accurate.

Waaaaaaay more context is needed here. Are you talking about a dub? One actor's pronunciation? It must be a pronunciation, since none of those other spellings are used.

It's Mike McFarland's pronunciation in the FUNi dub.