Why did FUNimation spell Freeza with an "i"?

[Puto]

Except Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is still Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Japan. Not Shounen Ninja Kame.

[ShadowBardock89]

Who the heck is Kyabe?

Cabba.

I'm still drawing a blank. i admit aside from the recent movies I haven't watched a lot of DB recently, and minor characters' names I'm wondering about.

Dragon Ball Super. Its been the rage since last year and Kyabe is one of the characters from the previous arc. That's all I'm going to say.

[8000 Saiyan]

It's a mystery that we will never know.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Except Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is still Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Japan. Not Shounen Ninja Kame.

There needs to be an anime/manga called Shounen Ninja Kame. That would be so awesome.

[thomas1up]

I believe Toei is responsible, as on their website for the DB movies they actually strangely use a lot of English dub terms. So I think that these may have been a result of Toei's old translations.

http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=296 in this one we can see Frieza being used.

http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=265 This one uses 'Spirit bomb' and this one uses King Kai! http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=286

Perhaps FUNimation weren't responsible for as many name changes as we thought! (I'm pretty sure Tien is a Toei translation too)

[Sailor Haumea]

I believe Toei is responsible, as on their website for the DB movies they actually strangely use a lot of English dub terms. So I think that these may have been a result of Toei's old translations.

http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=296 in this one we can see Frieza being used.

http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=265 This one uses 'Spirit bomb' and this one uses King Kai! http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/film/detail.php?id=286

Perhaps FUNimation weren't responsible for as many name changes as we thought! (I'm pretty sure Tien is a Toei translation too)

If this is the case, then maybe people are too hard on Funi.

Any idea who translated "Muten Roshi" as "Master Roshi"?

my headcanon is that Roshi's name is literally Roshi

[Nejishiki]

"Roshi" is akin to "Old Master". It's meant to be a part of his stereotypical title as the "Invincible Old Master". That would be strange if it were his birth name. Think of it as an unexplained, but common, martial arts trope. The immediate equivalent that comes to mind would be assuming "Ancient Mystical Dragon" is actually named Dragon.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

"Roshi" is akin to "Old Master". It's meant to be a part of his stereotypical title as the "Invincible Old Master". That would be strange if it were his birth name. Think of it as an unexplained, but common, martial arts trope. The immediate equivalent that comes to mind would be assuming "Ancient Mystical Dragon" is actually named Dragon.

I've seen subs use invulnerable grand master (or something like that) before. Was left kind of confused now I get it. Thanks!

[Sailor Haumea]

That would be strange if it were his birth name.

It would be funny, though.

[Bansho64]

It would be funny, though.

How? It's redundant and makes little sense. It's like Mister Miyagi being called "Mister Mister".

[Esfír Dedragón]

I've mention before on another post about how (American) English doesn't follow its own rules when it comes to diphthongs and triphthongs.

As an English-speaker from that region, it didn't really surprise me to see "Frieza" being pronounced AS IF it was written as "Freeza". I had at least some idea that his name had something to do with coldness. Maybe FUNimation thought the name was too on-the-nose and chose to make it appear something else. Ironic, given that they would later give us "Cooler".

It's a bit... weird to read other Americans complain about pronunciation issues when the "i" is involved. I expect complaints from non-native American English speakers about the spelling/pronunciation.

[TheGreatness25]

I always think about how Mr. Freeze's real name in Batman is "Victor Fries," but it's pronounced as "freeze." I mean, yeah, in Gotham they pronounce it "Fr-Ice," but come on. I never had a problem with "Frieza," though I do remember always being surprised by it even as a doe-eyed innocent fan who knew nothing of the original Japanese version. I used to record Dragon Ball Z off my TV when it just started its Toonami run and I remember typing up the episode titles (to tape onto the back of the VHS box... yeah) and I was like "Frieza? What?"

[ShadowBardock89]

I always think about how Mr. Freeze's real name in Batman is "Victor Fries," but it's pronounced as "freeze." I mean, yeah, in Gotham they pronounce it "Fr-Ice," but come on. I never had a problem with "Frieza," though I do remember always being surprised by it even as a doe-eyed innocent fan who knew nothing of the original Japanese version. I used to record Dragon Ball Z off my TV when it just started its Toonami run and I remember typing up the episode titles (to tape onto the back of the VHS box... yeah) and I was like "Frieza? What?"

Again, that's because Victor Fries is a GERMAN NAME!!! It is pronounced like "freeze" in German!! So, to me, Frieza was not at all that far-fetched as how to write the name.

[Bansho64]

It's a bit... weird to read other Americans complain about pronunciation issues when the "i" is involved. I expect complaints from non-native American English speakers about the spelling/pronunciation.

How so?

[Kamiccolo9]

It's a bit... weird to read other Americans complain about pronunciation issues when the "i" is involved. I expect complaints from non-native American English speakers about the spelling/pronunciation.

How so?

Because there are a ton of commonly used words that have the "ee" (as in Freeze) sound and spell it with "ie." We do it in English all the time. Believe, relieve, achieve, etc.

As for the non-native thing, German would use the long "e" sound for "ie," but Spanish and Japanese, for example, would not; they would enunciate each vowel.

[Dbzfan94]

That would be strange if it were his birth name.

It would be funny, though.

It's no stranger than anyone else in DB. They're all abnormal names lol

[Deathbringer]

Toei's website using Funimation spellings is probably just them looking at the dub and assuming that Funimation localised all the names properly, not vice versa.

[MyVisionity]

I think the "i" in Frieza was simply a way to emphasize the character's extraterrestrial nature.

Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, Cui, Zarbon, Ginyu, et al. have "strange sounding" names that a viewer unfamiliar with the material would likely associate with aliens/sci-fi or fantasy characters. 'Frieza' fits right in with this pattern. FUNimation's version of the series clearly wasn't interested in name puns, and there was nothing about Freeza that was really related to the cold or a freezer, so it's not really too surprising they would make that change. Although certainly 'Freeza' would have worked just as well.

My headcanon is that Roshi's name is literally Roshi.

This has been bugging me for a while now. For the longest time, I always thought of the character as being 'Kame-Sennin' first, and mutenroushi as more of a title ("The Invincible Old Master"). Even though "Turtle Hermit" isn't really a name, per se. However, rewatching the anime I began to notice the character being referred to as 'Muten-Roshi' much more frequently than I had remembered.

This led me to wonder whether or not 'Muten-Roshi' could somehow be his actual name. I'm somewhat familiar with the term -roshi and its usage, but is it possible that 'Muten' could somehow have been intended as the character's actual name? I say this because I thought I remembered reading somewhere that muten didn't exactly mean anything in particular, so I was thinking maybe it was more likely a given name that was intended to sound powerful, instead of just a powerful title. Also, there was that gag early on where Roshi shows his driver's license with 'Muten Roshi' printed on it. Don't know if it was in the manga or not but it got my attention.

[Nejishiki]

This led me to wonder whether or not 'Muten-Roshi' could somehow be his actual name. I'm somewhat familiar with the term -roshi and its usage, but is it possible that 'Muten' could somehow have been intended as the character's actual name? I say this because I thought I remembered reading somewhere that muten didn't exactly mean anything in particular, so I was thinking maybe it was more likely a given name that was intended to sound powerful, instead of just a powerful title. Also, there was that gag early on where Roshi shows his driver's license with 'Muten Roshi' printed on it. Don't know if it was in the manga or not but it got my attention.

"There really isn't any great reason; 'Kame-sennin' just didn’t seem like all that amazing a name for whatever reason, so I thought up a name that sounded suitably renowned and powerful."

Judging the phrasing used, it matches the script in the story. When referring to himself, he always forms the proper noun as one of his duel statuses. He's the "Invincible Old Master". Kuririn plays up "Muten Roshi" himself, as if it's a title. Turtle Hermit shows Chi-Chi the driver's license, but we never see the front of it in the manga.