Granolah's name

[Zygote1999]

Why does Kanzenshuu spell his name as “Granolla“? Just curious.

[mute_proxy]

Yeah, and why do people add the H at the end, it's just plain Granola.

[VegettoEX]

It's often the case that we at Kanzenshuu, when reporting news and providing other coverage of the franchise, have to come up with a Latin/Roman alphabet spelling ("in English") before any "official" "English" spelling exists.

This character was one of those cases back in December 2020.

As we explained at the time:

The character's name of グラノラ (Guranora) is likely adapted from the katakana spelling of グラノーラ (Guranōra) from the English word "granola" by shortening the elongated ノー to ノ from the "nola" portion. This shortened spelling is also sometimes used in brand names and other food items in Japan.

So for an expanded, alternate explanation:

The character's name in Japanese is not exactly the same as the standard spelling for the food product. As such, we wanted to make it clear in our spelling of the character's name that this wasn't the case, and the way to do that is to... well, not spell it exactly the same way.

Since the alteration was to the "nol" part (and specifically not the trailing vowel sound -- more on that in a sec), we decided that doubling the "ll" in the middle of the word was an appropriate way to signify this spelling change, without overall affect the pronunciation of the word.

We never considered adding an "h" at the end of it ourselves, because that -- at least to us (or, well, me!) -- would signify that there's an elongated vowel sound at the end, which there very explicitly is not.

And so we (and by "we" I mean it was Ian/Cipher that suggested it, as he was the one that did the translations for that post, but we all had a discussion about it) ran with "Granolla" for our spelling.

Much like how Viz was never beholden to FUNimation's name spellings, we likewise aren't beholden to Viz's spellings. We'll use them if they happen to line up with our own thoughts and it makes sense to do so, but this wasn't one of those cases.

"Granolah" isn't a "bad" choice, but it's not one we would have made (and, in fact, did not make).

(It's also worth noting that we have no idea if "Granolah" was a spelling mandated by Shueisha, or if the Viz team, Caleb included, had free reign to come up with something on their own.)

(See also: "Beerus")

[Zygote1999]

It's often the case that we at Kanzenshuu, when reporting news and providing other coverage of the franchise, have to come up with a Latin/Roman alphabet spelling ("in English") before any "official" "English" spelling exists.

This character was one of those cases back in December 2020.

As we explained at the time:

The character's name of グラノラ (Guranora) is likely adapted from the katakana spelling of グラノーラ (Guranōra) from the English word "granola" by shortening the elongated ノー to ノ from the "nola" portion. This shortened spelling is also sometimes used in brand names and other food items in Japan.

So for an expanded, alternate explanation:

The character's name in Japanese is not exactly the same as the standard spelling for the food product. As such, we wanted to make it clear in our spelling of the character's name that this wasn't the case, and the way to do that is to... well, not spell it exactly the same way.

Since the alteration was to the "nol" part (and specifically not the trailing vowel sound -- more on that in a sec), we decided that doubling the "ll" in the middle of the word was an appropriate way to signify this spelling change, without overall affect the pronunciation of the word.

We never considered adding an "h" at the end of it ourselves, because that -- at least to us (or, well, me!) -- would signify that there's an elongated vowel sound at the end, which there very explicitly is not.

And so we (and by "we" I mean it was Ian/Cipher that suggested it, as he was the one that did the translations for that post, but we all had a discussion about it) ran with "Granolla" for our spelling.

Much like how Viz was never beholden to FUNimation's name spellings, we likewise aren't beholden to Viz's spellings. We'll use them if they happen to line up with our own thoughts and it makes sense to do so, but this wasn't one of those cases.

"Granolah" isn't a "bad" choice, but it's not one we would have made (and, in fact, did not make).

(It's also worth noting that we have no idea if "Granolah" was a spelling mandated by Shueisha, or if the Viz team, Caleb included, had free reign to come up with something on their own.)

(See also: "Beerus")

Thank you for the in-depth answer, much appreciated

[Gilby1385]

Huh. That reminds me of how GreatSaiyaman777 spelt Broly's name as "Brolly", as seen on some of his movie/special comparisons on the now-defunct "DBZ Uncensored 2".

[MyVisionity]

Huh. That reminds me of how GreatSaiyaman777 spelt Broly's name as "Brolly", as seen on some of his movie/special comparisons on the now-defunct "DBZ Uncensored 2".

"Brolly" was a common fan spelling back in the day, and I still prefer it over "Broly". I tend to use "Brolli" though.

[Desassina]

Is there the possibility of it being Granol by making it a pun of granola and granel? Perhaps more on the adaptation side of things than direct translation.

[Gilby1385]

Huh. That reminds me of how GreatSaiyaman777 spelt Broly's name as "Brolly", as seen on some of his movie/special comparisons on the now-defunct "DBZ Uncensored 2".

"Brolly" was a common fan spelling back in the day, and I still prefer it over "Broly". I tend to use "Brolli" though.

I see. It did say on that page that "Brolly" was used by fansubbers and that was where he got the spelling from.

[Gilby1385]

Is there the possibility of it being Granol by making it a pun of granola and granel? Perhaps more on the adaptation side of things than direct translation.

Yeah, that could sound ideal.

[Zillamon51]

Coming up with your own translation before an official English version is known is fine. (Though I would personally go for strict transliteration myself.)

I do not get continuing to use your own version of a name, after an official English one is established. This is not a fanfic site; you're reporting objective news about someone else's intellectual property.

[VegettoEX]

Coming up with your own translation before an official English version is known is fine. (Though I would personally go for strict transliteration myself.)

I do not get continuing to use your own version of a name, after an official English one is established. This is not a fanfic site; you're reporting objective news about someone else's intellectual property.

I don't not understand this position (truly), but that said:

Thought experiment/exercise: what is the official English name/spelling of the Potara fusion between Goku and Vegeta?

Fact is, he's been named "Vegetto" and "Vegito" and "Vegerot" across the "official" "English" releases.

That's a bit of a weird example, because we happen to use "Vegetto" and that's an "official" spelling so no-one would really question that one even if it's not one you personally use.

There's absolutely a bit of "we think we know better" going on with some of these name spellings; let that be absolutely transparent and clear. Things like "Kefla"? That's bonkers. C'mon. You combine them and get "Kafla".

But we're also not entirely consistent with ourselves (see: "Jiren"), and probably never will be, because our feelings change over time and our site style guide adjusts accordingly (see: the shift to Bibbidi / Bobbidi / Boo).

Particularly with the shift mid-Super when it's clear that Shueisha started mandating non-Japanese international name spellings (see: FUNimation's change to "Belmod" after already having announced the character what we'd call "correctly" as "Vermoud"), we just don't have full faith in their decisions to get their own ideas across in the different language.

To your point about what to do when first covering a name before christening in with our site style guide name (or alongside it), we absolutely do provide a full breakdown of the original kana, the direct transliteration, and our own site style guide name spelling in the respective news posts. We've done this with Beerus (and especially its follow-up article), Caulifla, Granolla, etc. etc. etc.

I hope that shines a little more light on the processes behind the scenes. You're free and welcome to disagree with them, but them's the breaks.

(Still waiting on those royalty checks for "Beerus" and "Omni-King"...!)

EDIT - I was reminded of the whole "Kyabe" thing, which everyone seems to have collectively forgotten about once "Cabba" (rightfully!) won.

[Cipher]

Coming up with your own translation before an official English version is known is fine. (Though I would personally go for strict transliteration myself.)

I do not get continuing to use your own version of a name, after an official English one is established. This is not a fanfic site; you're reporting objective news about someone else's intellectual property.

For what it’s worth, I take the path of least resistance myself, and did switch to using Viz’s “Granolah” after offering “Granolla” when the character was first revealed. VegettoEX liked the justification I gave for the first spelling well enough to keep using it, as is his prerogative.

In general my own stance is to go with names used in official English versions where I feel they’re justifiably grounded in the original, but there are still some where I break. For example, Viz’s “Heeters” runs just a bit too far afield of the original Japanese (“Heata,” or “Heeta”) and its phonetic parity with “Freeza” for me. The “er” isn’t indicated, so I choose to stick with a closer version there for my own discussion.

There are a host of English names that stray even further than that, so—while I don’t personally feel the subject of this thread needs to be one of them—there’s certainly all the reason for the site to have its own style guide as an educational fan resource.

[TheGreatness25]

I sincerely appreciate, respect, and agree with VegettoEX's stance on names. And it's hard for me to reconcile too sometimes and I did consider defaulting to "Broly" and "Kakarot" because spelling those names differently from their "official" versions (we have a movie and video game with those spellings) makes me feel elitist and snobbish.

But then I remember what else I take on by doing that. "Special Beam Cannon," "Destructo Disc," "Master Roshi," "Vegito," and "Frieza." Now, sure, we could just say that I could go on over to Viz's spellings, but then I'm subject to "Vegerot," which isn't his freaking name no matter how much people think it "makes sense." There's also the issue of anime-only characters. Then there's Steve Simmons's naming strategy versus Funimation's/whatever they'll be called. Let's not forget that going forward, the Japanese subtitles will sport the Funimation/whatever names anyway.

So, basically, you're still playing a game of picking and choosing. Why do that? Why not look at the characters' real names? Because it's not "Vegetto," "Vegito," or "Vegerot," it's "ベジット." And you can come to your own conclusion as long as it makes sense, which I feel that this site does every single time. They look at a name, break it down, and adapt it as best as possible to give it an English version that makes us look at it as close to as how a Japanese-speaking person looks at the Japanese name. And I'm sorry, but there's no evidence that anyone at Funimation (except Steve Simmons's translations, honestly) nor Viz (though they're so much better than Funimation) has ever put that much thought or care into it.

So, yeah, it's hard to reconcile the fact that there are multiple "official" English versions, so why use something different? But at the same time, I always looked at Kanzenshuu as being based on the Japanese version. So, it's almost like as if no "official" English translation existed. As a natural byproduct of Dragon Ball's expansion into English-speaking markets and the influx of English-speaking fans, I feel like there has to be some focus on that version, but generally, it's like discussing an untranslated series. And from that outlook, I'm perfectly fine with making up my own versions of the names and not just going by Funimation's or Viz's.

Anyway, I wish that I spoke/read Japanese fluently because then, there would be no such thing as Funimation or Viz for me, but since I don't (and I want to discuss the series with English-speaking people), this is kind of the next best thing. So, that's why I understand and support the spellings that this site uses.

[Adamant]

Just gonna mention that a bit over 20 years ago, the "I'm going to spell this character's name the OFFICIAL way" crowd were doubling down on spelling the protagonist's name "Gokou".

[TheGreatness25]

Just gonna mention that a bit over 20 years ago, the "I'm going to spell this character's name the OFFICIAL way" crowd were doubling down on spelling the protagonist's name "Gokou".

The "official way" crowd? Because of Final Bout or whatever game used it or because of a toy?

[Adamant]

Just gonna mention that a bit over 20 years ago, the "I'm going to spell this character's name the OFFICIAL way" crowd were doubling down on spelling the protagonist's name "Gokou".

The "official way" crowd? Because of Final Bout or whatever game used it or because of a toy?

The Gokou spelling was used extremely consistently on pretty much everything that wasn't associated with some specific dub and thus just used whatever that dub used.

[TheGreatness25]

Just gonna mention that a bit over 20 years ago, the "I'm going to spell this character's name the OFFICIAL way" crowd were doubling down on spelling the protagonist's name "Gokou".

The "official way" crowd? Because of Final Bout or whatever game used it or because of a toy?

The Gokou spelling was used extremely consistently on pretty much everything that wasn't associated with some specific dub and thus just used whatever that dub used.

Honestly? It kind of makes sense. Where the English dub has always mispronounced his name ("Gōku" rather than "Gokū"), "Gokou" at least kind of preserved the pronunciation. Unless, of course, you're like the group of smart-ass kids like I was who mocked it as "Go-kow".

[MyVisionity]

The idea that Funi mispronounces Goku's name has always been overstated. It's not really all that far off.

[TheGreatness25]

The idea that Funi mispronounces Goku's name has always been overstated. It's not really all that far off.

They emphasize the wrong vowel...

[MyVisionity]

The idea that Funi mispronounces Goku's name has always been overstated. It's not really all that far off.

They emphasize the wrong vowel...

They emphasize the right vowels. Maybe their "Go-" is a little bit too much sometimes, but chalk that up to the difference between the Japanese approach to pronouncing words and the English speaking approach. I don't think it's particularly noteworthy, given that it's an English speaking dub. It's a bit of an exaggeration.