Moments FUNimation's English Dub Did Better?

[Gaffer Tape]

I'm afraid I have no idea. What is that guy's name?

[BluezaBladeNZ]

That would be Raiden from Metal Gear Solid: Rising. lol I just looked at the URL link.

[dbgtFO]

Lol as Gaffer Tape already pointed out, if you are capable of saying "Science", then you are also capable of saying "Sigh-an."
It's not debatable, if it's odd or something, since you already have a word in the english vocabulary very similar to that, which most people are able to utter without problems what so ever.

Sure it has been in your fandom for so long, that you're used to it and I can understand that, but don't come here and say, that it sounds unnatural/unfitting and bla bla bla, when you already have a very similar sounding word, which causes no problems at all.

[Ahiru77]

They should have implanted the word into my 9-year-old-brain back then for Sigh-an not to sound weird.

In my opinion...

[dbgtFO]

They should have implanted the word into my 9-year-old-brain back then for Sigh-an not to sound weird.

In my opinion...

Sorry for raging, I just don't understand it at times...

[Vegeta's Wire]

What's this guy's name?



What's this guy's name?



I'm just...Saiyan.

I saw what you did there...!

[Bussani]

Lol as Gaffer Tape already pointed out, if you are capable of saying "Science", then you are also capable of saying "Sigh-an."
It's not debatable, if it's odd or something, since you already have a word in the english vocabulary very similar to that, which most people are able to utter without problems what so ever.

Sure it has been in your fandom for so long, that you're used to it and I can understand that, but don't come here and say, that it sounds unnatural/unfitting and bla bla bla, when you already have a very similar sounding word, which causes no problems at all.

If you look closely at what's been said, it was never a matter of being incapable of pronouncing it, finding the Japanese pronunciation itself weird, or stubbornly sticking to what you're used to. I'm just saying, if you're going to disagree with someone, disagree with what they said, rather than just deciding for yourself what they were saying.

Personally, I think if they're sigh-ah-jin from the planet sigh-ah, the English equivalent would indeed be sigh-an*. But to say that how it sounds in English doesn't matter at all isn't entirely true, either. It's not a perfect comparison, but we don't call the people from Namek Namekans, because names like that sound odd in English. How it sounds in English seems like a natural thing to think about when coming up with an English equivalent. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do with saiya- to adequately compensate for what Rocketman was talking about, and not everyone agrees that the lack of a hard sound for a Japanese-inspired-English-name is an important detail in the first place.

*Although I do wonder how right this way of thinking is. It's falling out of use, but the people of Laos were sometimes called Laotian, with the lao being pronounced differently**. You get this with English words like ocean and oceanic, too; sometimes the overall pronunciation is different than the individual parts that make up the word.

**Although this is probably caused by it coming about from a mix of Lao, French and English. But Saiyan is an English name based on a Japanese name, so maybe it's a fair comparison.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I saw what you did there...!

Hey, I did it before him. So, nyeh.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

What's this guy's name?

Ummm... Angelfire?

[Gaffer Tape]

*snip*

See, now? That's what I'm talking about! That's a legitimate and logical point of discussion. If I wasn't so tired right now, I might try tackling it now. As for right now, I'll just commend you since I see no one has yet addressed your post.

[Rocketman]

What's this guy's name?

Raiden.

[TonyTheTiger]

What's this guy's name?

Ummm... Angelfire?

It's not working?



How about that?

If one of the images wasn't working that ruined the point I was trying to make.

[Bussani]

Direct linking is naughty. Although if people really want to see your images, they can just copy/paste its address into their browser and do a hard refresh.

[TonyTheTiger]

Well then...there ya go.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Yeah, I was able to see it by copying the link (not that I had to, because I knew who the other Raiden would be), but I just wanted to tease you for hotlinking.

By the way, was your point that the MK character's name is pronounced "Ray-den," while the MGS character is pronounced the Japanese way? (Like "Seiyen" vs. "Saiyan.")

[caejones]

MK also has this nasty habbit of pronouncing seemingly chinese-based names with "ang" in them as "ayng" (where the more Chinese pronunciation would be "ahng", despite that the games try to pronounce -ung correctly...

[The Time Traveller]

Seiyan doesn't sound right to me at all anymore ever since I started watching it in Japanese and using Saiyan.

Funimation could have gotten away with Saiyan on the DVD/BD dub, among other things, after all they don't use Zolo on their One Piece DVD dub...

[TonyTheTiger]

Yeah, I was able to see it by copying the link (not that I had to, because I knew who the other Raiden would be), but I just wanted to tease you for hotlinking.

By the way, was your point that the MK character's name is pronounced "Ray-den," while the MGS character is pronounced the Japanese way? (Like "Seiyen" vs. "Saiyan.")

Yeah, but a bit more than that. Basically both sound "right" for the respective character. I'd feel really weird calling MK Raiden "Rye-den" just as I'd feel weird calling MGS Raiden "Ray-den." We adopt what we're used to. There's really no justification beyond that and any attempted justification tends to sound...well...foolish. Like it becomes very transparent that the real justification is what I said above while the explained justification sounds like some ad hoc retcon.

Funimation could have gotten away with Saiyan on the DVD/BD dub, among other things, after all they don't use Zolo on their One Piece DVD dub...

At this point, after 15 years it's really a lot of water under the bridge. There's no real "winners" in this scenario. Just a lot of and with maybe a handful of but from people who wouldn't be watching the dub anyway regardless of how good or bad it is.

It's not too different from Aeris/Aerith. Yes, technically "Aeris" was a slight translation error, keeping the Japanese pronunciation of エアリス intact as opposed to the intended English pronunciation with the hard "th." But I can greatly sympathize with the people who at this point are thinking...why screw with it after 10 years of popular acceptance? Same thing if they all of a sudden started calling Trevor Belmont Ralph Belmondo in Castlevania. Or Mega Man Rockman. Or Magus from Chrono Trigger "Demon King" or an equivalent. Or Princess Nadia Marldia (long story with this one). Or Goomba Kuribo. Or the Street Fighter II bosses. We already saw this a bit with Dr. Robotnik/Eggman. It's gotten to the point where the comics have tried to cover their ass by saying Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

At some point you just have to throw your arms up and say "Yeah, it is what it is."

[Rocketman]

It's not like this is only a Japanese-to-English thing, either. The city of New Or-leans was named for the French city of Or-li-an.

Also, "bait".

[Puto]

It's gotten to the point where the comics have tried to cover their ass by saying Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

The games did that too. The two Sonic Adventures, specifically. SA's English audio track had him state that he was "Dr. Robotnik" while everybody else called him Eggman (though the Japanese audio had no such thing), and SA2 officially made his family name "Robotnik" for the entire globe, by making his grandfather "Gerald Robotnik" (including in the Japanese audio, which pronounces it as "Jerarudo Robotonikku").