Necessary Name Changes in Dub?

[Bussani]

I remember someone here saying they should have changed it to "Mr Saturn," which I always thought was a good idea, since it sounds basically the same as the Japanese pronounciation.

Come to think of it, I call these things 'Mr Satan' in a Japaneseish sort of pronunciation when I play Super Smash Bros, just as a joke.

[Herms]

I remember someone here saying they should have changed it to "Mr Saturn," which I always thought was a good idea, since it sounds basically the same as the Japanese pronounciation.

And then he could hang out in a valley with a bunch of other guys who look like him.

[mister yummy]

Necessary name changes? Well, yeah, there were a few. Some names needed to be changed because an english speaker would have a difficult time pronouncing it, or because it's a pun that doesn't translate, or for stupid reasons.

Gyumao comes to mind. It's VERY difficult for an english speaker to pronounce, and it's more of a title than a name anyways. Calling him The Ox King makes sense, and was necessary.

Kuririn to Krillin is another one. Kuririn is difficult to rponounce for an english speaker. Krillin isn't where I'd have gone though. My prefered romanization is "Kurillin". It's easy to pronounce, and it preserves the pun. It even comes out sounding nearly the same as the Funimation equivilent.

Saichoro to Guru - Another difficult to pronounce, difficult to remember name. I think of Guru as being more his title than his name anyways. He's Namek's Guru the same way the good half of the son of Kattats(or whatever) is Earth's Kami. Namek's religion is just set up a bit differently is all.

The Evil Dragons - Pronouncing Chinese words is very difficult for Japanese people, and perhaps moreso for English speakers. Perhaps they should have used something different, but a name change was in order.

Perhaps 1 Star Dragon or Sheng Long(instead of Shenron), 2 Star Dragon, etc.

As for difficult to translate puns...someone brought up Android 8. He's Ha-chan, right? That's the first syllable of the word for 8(his real name), with a diminutive honorific attached, much like one would do with a young girl's name to make a nickname for her. There's no real english equilivent, nor really any other way to make a diminutive form of "eight". So, while it may not sound the best, Eighter was the best Funimation could come up with, and I can't do any better

Name changes I didn't think were necessary:

Tenshinhan to Tien Shinhan. Tenshinhan isn't hard to pronounce, it's just a mouthful. Calling him "ten" for short mnay have been confusing though...

Bra to Bulla, Lunch to Launch, Dr. Frappe to Dr. Flappe, Olive to Olibu, etc. In each of these cases, they overlooked the obvious rominasation for one that makes no sense. In the case of "Bra", why is that any worse than Breifs, or Trunks?

[Herms]

Saichoro to Guru - Another difficult to pronounce, difficult to remember name. I think of Guru as being more his title than his name anyways. He's Namek's Guru the same way the good half of the son of Kattats(or whatever) is Earth's Kami. Namek's religion is just set up a bit differently is all.

I'd have preferred if they simply translated Saichourou (like Viz did, calling him "Great Elder") rather than change it to something pretty random like they did. It's another instance where while I can certainly understand why it would be neccessary to change a character's name, I think the way they handled the change was rather clumsy.

[B]

Because those are for boys. Girls are sacred and special as are their equipment!

And the Dragons did go by 1-Star, 2-Star, etc. in the dub.

[Herms]

And the Dragons did go by 1-Star, 2-Star, etc. in the dub.

Which is what their Chinese names mean anyway, so that part isn't a name change. It was just their SHAZAM-type alternate naming scheme where each one had a name reflecting their element which all spelt "Shenron" when put together which was a name change.

[B]

spelt "Shenron" when put together

... Holy crap.

Syn
Haze
Eis
Nuova
Rage
Oceanu
Naturon

... My mind = blown.

[Tsukento]

"Bulla" instead of "Bra"? (Of course, "Bulla" is a valid romanisation, but still...)

Now that I think of it, yeah, that was definately a necessary change.

Not quite. For the edited dub, sure. However, that name change even stuck in the uncensored dub...which made no sense at all.

And the Dragons did go by 1-Star, 2-Star, etc. in the dub.

Not in the FUNi dub, anyways. As you guys mentioned, they had their own names.

Which is what their Chinese names mean anyway, so that part isn't a name change. It was just their SHAZAM-type alternate naming scheme where each one had a name reflecting their element which all spelt "Shenron" when put together which was a name change.

And even that gets screwed up when they gave Yi Xing Long a new name after he transforms (like they did with Oob when he and Boo merge ); "Omega Shenron."

[Herms]

And the Dragons did go by 1-Star, 2-Star, etc. in the dub.

Not in the FUNi dub, anyways. As you guys mentioned, they had their own names.

I haven't watched any of the actual episodes dubbed, but I remember from the Funi discs that the dub name for each episode where one of the Evil Dragons appeared was named "The 2-Star Dragon", "The 5-Star Dragon", etc.

"Bulla" instead of "Bra"? (Of course, "Bulla" is a valid romanisation, but still...)

Now that I think of it, yeah, that was definately a necessary change.

I find it guite horrendously stupid that they'd feel the need to change a reference to a garmet worn by roughly half the population, as if it were some terrible, terrible secret that kids shouldn't be exposed to.

[Kingdom Heartless]

(like they did with Oob when he and Boo merge )

Ugh, Majuub will always be my least favourite dub name.

With any luck, the word filter will not let me post it.

EDIT: Guess it does.

[B]

And the Dragons did go by 1-Star, 2-Star, etc. in the dub.

Not in the FUNi dub, anyways. As you guys mentioned, they had their own names.

I distinctly remember hearing them in the dub. They were used as "titles" as opposed to names. (Yo! I'm Naturon Shenron! The 7-Star Dragon!)

[The Time Traveller]

I remember someone here saying they should have changed it to "Mr Saturn," which I always thought was a good idea, since it sounds basically the same as the Japanese pronounciation.

I think I said it in the Chat, I thought it would be a sensible name change since that's how the Japanese pronounce Mr. Satan's name, but then again, when has the dub ever copied the Japanese pronunciation?

[Super Ghost Kamikaze]

I find it guite horrendously stupid that they'd feel the need to change a reference to a garmet worn by roughly half the population, as if it were some terrible, terrible secret that kids shouldn't be exposed to.

To be fair to Funimation, they haven't really referenced the "Bloomers" pun for Bulma, and her name doesn't reflect it. If the pun is sort of lost when it comes to her mother, the reason to say "Bra" is a bit lost on someone just watching the dub, isn't it?

Oh, and could you clear something up for me? With the english word puns, are these words your average 10 year-old Japanese kid understands? I mean, do they sound like words, or names to a Japanese kid? I understand Goku makes the "Bloomers" connection pretty quickly and finds it funny, but do kids see Bra's name and know it as a garment too?

[VegettoEX]

It's been said, but I think it's worth reiterating that Gyû-Maô -> "Ox King" isn't so much a name change as it is more-or-less properly translating the name from an actual Japanese word (or series of words) into English. That's not really a "change", and I don't see how anyone could see it as an issue (minus the dropped "demon" portion).

Herms brought up the Saichôrô example, which is a great one where they didn't simply translate the word(s). "Guru" holds an entirely different meaning than what he is. Sure, he knows a lot of stuff and while he does speak with "heavenly" (I hesitate to say "religious") characters like Kaio and Kami and can sorta be seen as the "Kami" of their planet, I don't know that I'd put him quite up on that level.

One name change that's always bugged me is Paikuhan --> "Pikkon". I don't see what in the name is difficult to pronounce and why it would need to be changed. Somehow I like it more than the old "Pikehan" fansub spelling, though . This is one that's bugged me more than the others because of how long I had known the character before FUNimation would ever get their hands on him, and by then I had long stopped letting what they did to the show affect my enjoyment. So why does it bother me? I didn't even know about the name change and got confused when people would use it . Same goes for all of Bardock's crew, but specifically Selypa --> "Fasha". Far too many online- and real-life conversations were brought to a halt before the person I was talking to and myself realized we were, in fact, discussing the same character.

I thought I had more to add, but it looks like it's already been covered...

[Herms]

Oh, and could you clear something up for me? With the english word puns, are these words your average 10 year-old Japanese kid understands? I mean, do they sound like words, or names to a Japanese kid? I understand Goku makes the "Bloomers" connection pretty quickly and finds it funny, but do kids see Bra's name and know it as a garment too?

With Bulma(ブルマ/buruma), her name is flat-out one of the ways of writing “bloomers” in Japanese, though ブルマー/burumaa seems to be the standard way. With Bra, ブラジャー/burajyaa/brassiere is what the garment is usually called in Japanese, so I’m not sure how easily a Japanese kid would see the Bra/brassiere connection.

[SHINOBI-03]

Be greatful that her name is not "Bla"

What I hate about the H-Word is that FUNimation didn't bother to came up with it on their own...
"Hey, we can't use Mr. Satan on TV because we are scared of the angry parents and what they will do if we made a hero character named after the Devil...!!"
"Oh oh, the French dub named him Haircule*!! Why don't we use it for or our dub?!"
"OK!!"

*Rewrote three times to get over the stupid filter

[Castor Troy]

While King Kai is a good translation of Kaio-Sama, I would have preferred "Lord Kai" but Saban didn't want any religious references.

[Metalwario64]

While King Kai is a good translation of Kaio-Sama, I would have preferred "Lord Kai" but Saban didn't want any religious references.

I feel they should have went with Master Kai. I mean, isn't he like a master of Martial Arts? He isn't really a king...

[Bussani]

While King Kai is a good translation of Kaio-Sama, I would have preferred "Lord Kai" but Saban didn't want any religious references.

I feel they should have went with Master Kai. I mean, isn't he like a master of Martial Arts? He isn't really a king...

Actually, the O in Kaio can be interpreted as 'king', so it is sort of accurate. Just not necessarily the right term in this circumstance from an English speaking perspective. Lord of Worlds makes more sense, which they use in the Viz manga.

[Metalwario64]

While King Kai is a good translation of Kaio-Sama, I would have preferred "Lord Kai" but Saban didn't want any religious references.

I feel they should have went with Master Kai. I mean, isn't he like a master of Martial Arts? He isn't really a king...

Actually, the O in Kaio can be interpreted as 'king', so it is sort of accurate. Just not necessarily the right term in this circumstance from an English speaking perspective. Lord of Worlds makes more sense, which they use in the Viz manga.

Ah, I see. I assumed they took "sama" and translated that as "king".