Japanese Terms in Other Adaptations

[linkdude20002001]

For FUNimation's dub, you can add Shenron to the list. It's the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese words meaning Dragon God. Oddly, Harmony Gold called him that...

[Haji]

Yeah even though they say it wrong as Shenran. Also what do you guys think about the weird Romaji for some characters? Like GOKOU or BOO if that was right then they would say they're names like ゴコウ「ＧＯＫＯＵ」　ボオ「ＢＯＯ」
The names Goku and Buu in katakana are ゴクウ「ＧＯＫＵＵ］　ブウ「ＢＵＵ」 oh and the worst one, not DragonBall related though. The name クラピカ「ＫＵＲＡＰＩＫＡ」this character, Kurapika is from a manga called Hunter Hunter. There is a game on the GBA, that was only in Japan,(as usual) They put Kurapika's name in romaji as Curapikt, I think this is the worst Japanese to Romaji i have ever seen.

[MCDaveG]

Madoshi is left in the Dragon Box subtitles. Noticed it when Goten and Trunks were discussing it.
They're fighting this madoshi Babidi.
Hey, what is madoshi? You don't know?

[dbgtFO]

Another one from the danish manga version:

Uranai Baba
Seeing as in the viz version she's called The All-seeing Crone IIRC and Daizenshuu 7's bio for her says "Uranai Baba" is just a nickname, I'm pretty sure it could have been translated like Kame-sennin and Tsuru-sennin were.

[Haji]

They need to sub a anime that over time, slowly replaces english words like madoshi, now i know what that word means instantly, see what i am getting at? i have thought about this for some time, a anime that helps you learn Japanese over time. But only for useful words and phrases.

[VegettoEX]

Dai Kaioshin was also oddly enough called Dai Kaio in the FUNimation dub.

Whaaaaaaaaa...?! Seriously? Wait, so what is the actual "Dai-Kaio" (the old dude with the glasses and the rock music) called?

RE: Kame House, Kamehameha, etc.

I thought about including these, but "KAME HOUSE" is written with our alphabet, so it's off in its own realm. "Kamehameha" is a mix of inspiration from "Kame" ("turtle") and gibberish with no real meaning (only one forced by fans), so it's basically an invented proper noun -- which goes off into a separate conversation about whether you keep proper nouns (actual character names [not titles] and attacks in their native language versus translating them), so I'll dock that one aside for now, too.

It may be worth noting that in the dub "Kai" isn't a Japanese word left untranslated. Instead, it's the name of the species. IIRC, Dende outright says "He's a Kai, one of the illustrious overseers of the universe!", which makes no sense if it's meant to be a weeabooism.

Someone deciding a word is their own proper noun doesn't make it any less a Japanese word. At the end of the day, it's still a title/classification. If you want to take it further to expanded information, we know they come from the Shin-jin, so "Kai" isn't a race at all.

Some of these also becomes a game of 'how far do you go?' If Sabaiman becomes Cultivationman, should Saiya-jin become Tablevegians? Saiyan is sort of half-translated like Tenka-ichi Tournament I suppose, though the difference is it reverses Yasai into Saiya to make up its own word.

I'm totally on-board with you here, which is why I was hesitant to include the Saibaimen in the list. It comes back to my favorite example of Adamant's, which is how/if you adapt the name "Batman" into different languages.

For me, since things like Saiya-jin are pun-based as opposed to literal-based, I would leave them as-is (with the exception of localizing it into "Saiyan").

So saibaiman is a tough one, since it's two halves of literal words in two different languages. What do you do with that?! I can really go either way, and I kinda like both ways.

For FUNimation's dub, you can add Shenron to the list. It's the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese words meaning Dragon God. Oddly, Harmony Gold called him that...

That's a tough one, too, since it's actually a Chinese word (well, phrase) and not a Japanese one. The style guide we've gone with for years is that Chinese words get left in Chinese (so we do things like "Shenlong" and "Yi Xing Long"; pretty sure Steve does the same with the FUNimation subtitles). But yeah, it's a phrase that has a perfectly-adequate translation.

[JonSnowFan17]

[quote][/quote]Whaaaaaaaaa...?! Seriously? Wait, so what is the actual "Dai-Kaio" (the old dude with the glasses and the rock music) called?

I believe he is called Grand Kai .

[TripleRach]

I wrote words about translation practice stuff just the other day (and will probably write more someday), but I think it's only vaguely relevant to this thread.

Kamehameha is an English word. The USS Kamehameha was launched twenty years before DB.

In the case of Dragon Ball, it's a Japanese word that would translate into English as "Kamehame Wave." The manga treats it like a Japanese word by always spelling it in hiragana (which is used for native words), plus the ha kanji meaning "wave."

It's a reference to the Hawaiian king and the Japanese word for "turtle," but it doesn't directly refer to either of them.

Another one from the danish manga version:

Uranai Baba
Seeing as in the viz version she's called The All-seeing Crone IIRC and Daizenshuu 7's bio for her says "Uranai Baba" is just a nickname, I'm pretty sure it could have been translated like Kame-sennin and Tsuru-sennin were.

On that note, FUNimation uses "Fortuneteller Baba," which is another example of a half translation like "King Kai." It makes it sound like "Baba" is her name when it's actually just a word referring to old ladies. I think FUNimation's subs also used something along the lines of "Fortuneteller Baba."

[SHINOBI-03]

Since this topic includes any language, I'll contribute.

• Majin. the Arabic dub haven't reached the Majin Boo arc.
• Kami. Well, it's obviously impossible to think the'll call him "God"... but they didn't name him "Kami", they named him "Carmen". Might possibly a mis-translation like other names like "Gogo" instead of Goku, "Piccola" instead of Piccolo, and "Yamaka", instead of Yamcha.
• Roshi. He went with two names. The first is his normal name "Master Torto". Torto obviously a play on the English word Tortoise, but it's incorrect since tortoises and turtles aren't exactly the same. His other name is his full title "Torto, Master of the Seven Seas".
• Kaio. He was named "Neptune". Herms gave an explanation for this name change.

  Neptune is sometimes called Kaiou in Japanese (海王, Sea-King, while the planet Neptune is 海王星/Kaiousei, Sea-King-Planet), a homonym for DB's Kaiou (界王, World-King).

  So, it might another mis-translation of the name. Moving along, the Kaioken attack received not just one, but two names. Normal-up to X2, it's "Pyro Attack". X3 and up, it's "Great Neptune Attack".
• Saibaiman. More mis-translations! They were called "Saibee".
• Senzu. They were just nutritious beans and no special name was given.
• Uranai Baba. Unnamed, but they kept calling her "the messenger" or "the mail lady".
• Tenkaichi Budokai. It was simply a "World Martial Arts Tournament". "International" or "Global" works as well.
• Oozaru. Gorilla. Just like that.
• Saiya-jin. They called them "Saiyans". The correct pronunciation, but they used "Saiyans" (with the S at the end) for singular.

[Puto]

Mexican dub used "Namekkusei."

[MCDaveG]

From Czech GT subs. Everything is quite right, only that they translated Dragon Balls as Dragon Orbs (as I said, in actual translation to czech, it will mean Dragon's testicles in this context). But weirdly, all that is ball is renamed orb.
Baby's line to Goku looked like: As I will strike you with this energy orb, you will definitely die!

And I noticed that lot of things is from US dub, altough the version that is airing is Japanese TV one, with sponsor cards included.
Few examples I remember is Tsufuru-jin = Tuffle, Uub with Buu absorbed = Majuub.
Saiyans are simply Saiyans Names in general are correct, Son Goten/Gohan, Trunks, Rildo, Dr. Myu, Super Saiyan.......

[VegettoEX]

Again, I think some of you are totally missing the point of what I'm asking for. I'm not asking how things are translated (and if they're accurate or not)... I'm asking if names/phrases/terms are left as-is in Japanese in your localized versions.

Something like Puto's example of "Namekkusei" in the Mexican dub is relevant, because the "sei" part ("planet" or "star") is just the Japanese word as-is without being translated or adapted into Spanish.

[Puto]

French dub and derivates used "Genki Ball" for the final Genkidama against Boo.
Spanish (Spain) manga uses "Shunkanido."

[SHINOBI-03]

Again, I think some of you are totally missing the point of what I'm asking for. I'm not asking how things are translated (and if they're accurate or not)... I'm asking if names/phrases/terms are left as-is in Japanese in your localized versions.

Something like Puto's example of "Namekkusei" in the Mexican dub is relevant, because the "sei" part ("planet" or "star") is just the Japanese word as-is without being translated or adapted into Spanish.

Oh...!

Well, they kept Namek as it is in Arabic, although it's pronounced "Nameek" instead of the normal way.

[Rocketman]

Someone deciding a word is their own proper noun doesn't make it any less a Japanese word. At the end of the day, it's still a title/classification. If you want to take it further to expanded information, we know they come from the Shin-jin, so "Kai" isn't a race at all.

It is in the dub. The word is no longer the Japanese word "Kai", but an English word based on that sound with an entirely different meaning.

For example, both English and German have a word "gift", but they're not the same word. "Gift" in German means "poison".

Which, again, is a different breed than "All according to consilium". (Translator's note: consilium means plan.)

[AgitoZ]

No one has brought up honorifics in the Mexican dub yet? I believe they used that for Kami leaving in the -sama(it's in the ending theme at least) and I know they called Kaiou-sama as is.

I'm sure there's more but people have already mentioned the ones that came up in my head. I should probably do some research...

[SHINOBI-03]

No one has brought up honorifics in the Mexican dub yet? I believe they used that for Kami leaving in the -sama(it's in the ending theme at least) and I know they called Kaiou-sama as is.

I'm sure there's more but people have already mentioned the ones that came up in my head. I should probably do some research...

Speaking of honorifics, there was that moment in the first FUNimation dub when Kami dies, Popo calls him Kami-san for no apparent reason!

[Ashura]

Speaking of honorifics, there was that moment in the first FUNimation dub when Kami dies, Popo calls him Kami-san for no apparent reason!

Isn't there an instance where they say Saiya-jin in the Funi dub as well? Maybe when Goku goes level 3? I've never actually seen this, so I don't know for sure.

[kei17]

Speaking of honorifics, there was that moment in the first FUNimation dub when Kami dies, Popo calls him Kami-san for no apparent reason!

I remember hearing that. It was so funny because kamisan refers to wife. Imagine Popo screaming "Wife!!!!" in the scene.

[Gonstead]

Speaking of honorifics, there was that moment in the first FUNimation dub when Kami dies, Popo calls him Kami-san for no apparent reason!

Isn't there an instance where they say Saiya-jin in the Funi dub as well? Maybe when Goku goes level 3? I've never actually seen this, so I don't know for sure.

Goku: But first, let me tell you something about Super Saiyans.
Buu: Super... Saiya-jin? (Correct pronunciation)

It was done as more of an in-joke to the fans.

From what I remember, the Ocean Dub went along the lines of...

Buu: Super... Saya-jin-jin?