About Juunanagou, and his Deaths...

[Rocketman]

Yes... I was just explaining it. I'm not trying to be a jerk, or anything...

I was poking fun at how most people who use Japanese romanizations tend to be elitist pricks. Wasn't anything against you (unless you are an elitist prick ).

[DNA]

I, on the other hand, am a natural born jerk :|

[Xyex]

Yes... I was just explaining it. I'm not trying to be a jerk, or anything...

There isn't anything wrong with me preferring his Japanese spelling. And to me, Juunanagou is more than just a number, he's my favourite character!

But please, people just forget about how I spell his name, and try more to answer the question, since I really don't want this to turn into some kind of flame war, and be locked.

But... it's not a name. It's a number. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it always written as the number? So for this instance I'm with Captain Awesome, there's no difference between it and Seru or Torunksu. And I'm pretty sure 95% of the people on this board do know who/what Juunanagou is, we just avoid using it for the same reasons we avoid Seru.

Of course, that's not to say that many of us don't have our own little... quirks with things. Some of which are destroyed by the site's word filter but meh. Whatever. As said, it don't really matter.

As for the Lunch and 17 thing, I doubt it. He probably just forgot about her completely. He tends to do that... rather often.

[TripleRach]

But... it's not a name. It's a number. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it always written as the number? So for this instance I'm with Captain Awesome, there's no difference between it and Seru or Torunksu. And I'm pretty sure 95% of the people on this board do know who/what Juunanagou is, we just avoid using it for the same reasons we avoid Seru.

True, it is written in Japanese as just １７号, not 十七号 (with the kanji for juunana) or in kana. But on the other hand, obviously the Japanese cast pronounce that "juunanagou." You and I might read the digits "17" as "seventeen," while someone else here whose natural language isn't English might read it as something else entirely. Meanwhile, for someone who only watches the anime in Japanese that isn't a native Japanese speaker, they hear "Juunanagou," and it feels like a name for this character (which, technically it is anyway, because of the gou part and the usage), so it's easy to want to refer to them that way, too. "17" or "No. 17" or "#17" are (semi-)translations of the original name, so it's not quite the same thing as "Torankusu" or "Seru," IMO. It seems a bit more like choosing between "Kami(-sama)" and "God," or "Shunkan Idou" and "Instant(aneous) Movement."

(While I don't write his name that way myself, I do like to spell out "Hatchan"~)

[Captain Awesome]

(While I don't write his name that way myself, I do like to spell out "Hatchan"~)

I'm guilty of that, but mostly because it's subbed like that, also...I don't know the dub equivalent (I hate the DB dub) do they just refer to him as "Android 8" or #8?.

If I wasn't so lazy I'd break out my box set and have a look.

[Conan the SSJ]

I'm guilty of that, but mostly because it's subbed like that, also...I don't know the dub equivalent (I hate the DB dub) do they just refer to him as "Android 8" or #8?.

If I wasn't so lazy I'd break out my box set and have a look.

The dub, in a fairly accurate form, has Goku refer to him as "Eighter".

[Drunken Master]

Hey don't worry about me, I got wished back and living it good.

Haha, that gave me a good laugh.

[Dragon Ball Daisuki]

It never fails to amuse me how those on vigil against the "elitist jerks" are themselves elitist jerks. Thinking you're above someone else because you don't use their "elaborate" terms is just as arrogant.

persnickety
-adjective Informal
1. overparticular; fussy.
2. snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.
3. requiring painstaking care.

You're being persnickety. Let us all adapt whatever terms we feel most comfortable with, instead of ostracizing everything that falls out of your personal norm. Seriously, stop it.

[DNA]

I said I was a natural born jerk a few posts ago o_O
But ok, I'll take that persnickety stuff as well :3

[ReiMehari]

personally...I just like the word persnickety....it's like candy for jerks!

[Teclo]

I believe that referring to characters like 17 and 18 by their Japanese names is perfectly fine since that is what they were meant to be called - they weren't even meant to be called "androids" but rather "artificial humans". It's quite different from saying Bejita or Torunkusu (or whatever it is) because they were meant to be called Vegeta and Trunks even in the Japanese dub but because, as we all know, Japanese people can't write, never mind pronounce many English words, they have to warp the words to fit into their pronunciation system.

To to elaborate for those that don't know, almost all Japanese letters are combinations of a consonant then a vowel, so "ka", "tu" and "go" for examples. As such certain words just can't be written in kana. Trunks has to be written as To-ru-n-ku-su or something similar. There's also no "v" in Japanese so Vegeta has to be Be-ji-ta - a "j" rather than a "g" because the "g" would be a hard g, as is found in words like "gate" and "go". It's also why Videl was called Bideru which totally ruined her name pun (being an anagram of "Devil" which went rather well with Mr Satan).

So the androids were actually given intentionally Japanese names, unlike almost all other characters who were given English names. It's not like 17 was called Anduroido Sebentiin or anything.

(On the topic of dodgy Engrish and Romaji, is the robot in DBGT officially called Gill? They give him that name because he keeps saying something like "giru giru!" which I actually took as a Japanese pronunciation of "gear" which would make more sense as the Japanese often use the word "gear" to refer to robots.)

[SaiyamanMS]

(On the topic of dodgy Engrish and Romaji, is the robot in DBGT officially called Gill? They give him that name because he keeps saying something like "giru giru!" which I actually took as a Japanese pronunciation of "gear" which would make more sense as the Japanese often use the word "gear" to refer to robots.)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the official romanisation of Giru's name is "Gill", I remember seeing "Gill Wins!" written on a screen in one of the early episodes after he beats Pan in a video game.

[Rocketman]

I believe that referring to characters like 17 and 18 by their Japanese names is perfectly fine since that is what they were meant to be called

Wait...wait...I...hm...yes! Yes, after intensive thought, I HAVE DISCOVERED THE WAY!

"(Number) Seventeen".

[Teclo]

I believe that referring to characters like 17 and 18 by their Japanese names is perfectly fine since that is what they were meant to be called

Wait...wait...I...hm...yes! Yes, after intensive thought, I HAVE DISCOVERED THE WAY!

"(Number) Seventeen".

I can't tell if you're just joking around or flat out mocking what I said.

In case it was the latter, I simply meant that many of the "elitist" ways of pronouncing the characters' names are inherently wrong because, for instance, Vegeta was never meant to be called Bejita. It's just that because of the nature of the Japanese language you can't write Vegeta and the vast majority of Japanese people couldn't say it. If you call him Bejita you're just impersonating a person who's incapable of pronouncing it properly. If, on the other hand, you call the "Androids" by their Japanese names you are actually calling them what they were intended to be called so you're not effectively shooting yourself in the foot by trying to be smart.

If it wasn't the latter then god damn the internet for making it hard to tell the tone of peoples' words.

[Xyex]

If, on the other hand, you call the "Androids" by their Japanese names you are actually calling them what they were intended to be called so you're not effectively shooting yourself in the foot by trying to be smart.

Except for the fact they were intended to be called a number. They don't have a name, they have number. So using the Japanese word for the number is the same as using the Japanese pronounciation of the other names.

[Teclo]

If, on the other hand, you call the "Androids" by their Japanese names you are actually calling them what they were intended to be called so you're not effectively shooting yourself in the foot by trying to be smart.

Except for the fact they were intended to be called a number. They don't have a name, they have number. So using the Japanese word for the number is the same as using the Japanese pronounciation of the other names.

Not entirely true since most Japanese people know Western numbers very well. As a related example, in Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Vegeta actually counts his press-ups with Western numbers. As such they could easily have named then using "our" numbers just as they used English words for the name puns such a Trunks, Vegeta and Bra.

Really, all I'm saying is that they're some of the only characters in the whole of Dragonball who were given Japanese names. Since most of the other names were badly pronounced English, it's perfectly natural and indeed correct for us to say them in proper English rather than to do an impression of a Japanese person who can't speak English. I'm not going to say that in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex they go to the city of Rondon because that was just them trying to say London! And I'm also not going to refer to Ken from Street Fighter as "Fist" or Ryu as "Dragon" which would be unnecessarily translating names into English.

I just think the thing with the so-called Androids is a lot more ambiguous than with other name translation issues. The fact that they're not actually even robots and are in fact "artificial humans" makes a mockery of the translation of their names. All I really wanted to convey was that this person using the Japanese numbers to refer to them is OK if perhaps a little confusing to some people at first, yet he was attacked for doing so - when someone says Bejita or something, no one minds despite it being quite laughably ridiculous to see an English speaking person actually intentionally dumbing down their own English ability.

[Rocketman]

when someone says Bejita or something, no one minds despite it being quite laughably ridiculous to see an English speaking person actually intentionally dumbing down their own English ability.

I do. I just usually don't get there before the "can't we all just get along" poster chimes in.

[Shadow_Rose]

It never fails to amuse me how those on vigil against the "elitist jerks" are themselves elitist jerks. Thinking you're above someone else because you don't use their "elaborate" terms is just as arrogant.

persnickety
-adjective Informal
1. overparticular; fussy.
2. snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.
3. requiring painstaking care.

You're being persnickety. Let us all adapt whatever terms we feel most comfortable with, instead of ostracizing everything that falls out of your personal norm. Seriously, stop it.

*bows* *bows again* *bows a third time* THANK YOU! I also agree with Teclo; why is everyone attacking someone preference of writing style?

[Rocketman]

*bows* *bows again* *bows a third time* THANK YOU! I also agree with Teclo; why is everyone attacking someone preference of writing style?

Good idea. From now on, I'm gonna type each character's name in the Greek alphabet.

[Dragon Ball Daisuki]

And I won't judge you, Rocketman. But I might have trouble understanding you. And this, I feel, is at the heart of the issue. To what extent should we be tolerant, and to what extent should we be functional? A happy medium is in order here.

I'm not suggesting anything so specific, but Unpopular Spellers: take the average joe into consideration when talking about your favorite shounen; a compromise every now and then wouldn't be the end of the world. And Standard Spellers: bear in mind that Dragon Ball is many things to many people, and not just your own personal property. There is no right and wrong here.

We could all afford to be a little less persnickety. (;