Opinions and rules behind name spellings

[LiamKav]

Kami-sama

Should the honorific of "-sama" really be included, though, just because Viz used it? It's not really part of his title. Just "Kami" would be best, methinks.

I would agree, but that's how it is shown in the Dragon Box books. Same for Kaio. He's named Kaio-Sama, and his "job" is "Kaio of the northen galaxy".

[Piccolo Daimao]

Kami-sama

Should the honorific of "-sama" really be included, though, just because Viz used it? It's not really part of his title. Just "Kami" would be best, methinks.

I would agree, but that's how it is shown in the Dragon Box books. Same for Kaio. He's named Kaio-Sama, and his "job" is "Kaio of the northen galaxy".

What about the manga, or the Daizenshuu? Different naming schemes and stuff.

Anyway, it might be misleading to include a honorific as part of someone's name.

[LiamKav]

Oh, I agree, I was just writing out the names exactly as they were written in the Dragon Box books.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Oh, I agree, I was just writing out the names exactly as they were written in the Dragon Box books.

Right, OK.

[VegettoEX]

Just wanted to toss out a few romanizations from LANDMARK and FOREVER that I consider "off" from what I/we would use. Some of them are standards from over the years ("Ginew"), but others seem like they just didn't know what to do with them.

- Begeta
- Bageta (just one instance, I think, so it's probably a typo)
- Begetto (well, if you're using "Begeta"...)
- Namekku (works perfectly fine, just not used to seeing it; for the record, daizenshuu 4 uses "Nameccian")
- Klilyn (another oldie, but figured I'd mention it)
- Kaioh (another way of elongating it, and standard for how I've seen them do it, but they also use "Budoukai")
- Woolong (it's the tea, so sure)
- Ginew (they've used this as far back as I can remember)
- Ghourd (I wonder if they're confusing the name coming from "yōguruto" instead with "gourd", which would make no sense...)
- Recoom (pretty standard here)
- Burta (weird that they're almost pulling in the FUNimation spelling)
- Jees (seems like they just went straight with this one)
- Lunchi (weird that they'd tack on the "i" at the end, but it seems like most everything other than "Jees" gets its extraneous letter at the end)
- Buruma (just one instance, I think, in the love section; otherwise consistently "Bulma")

Might also be worth mention that a section on "Kami-sama" for the cosmos area writes out in English, "What's God of the Earth?" (specifically "God" and specifically capitalized). Later on is "Piccolo the Devil".

Speaking of daizenshuu four, a couple pretty standard ones that I don't really have anything against (and usually use myself) but figured I'd toss out:

- Yamcha (also consistently this instead of "Yamucha" throughout the two books above)
- Pilaf (same)
- Toninjinka (same)
- King Cold
- Saibai Man
- Babidi
- Spaceship Remoto Control (whee!)
- Basho Sen (untranslated, while "Super God Water" and "Super Holy Water" are)
- Kame-sennin/Kamesennin (appears to be untranslated as such in mostly everything)
- Gyuumaoh

[LiamKav]

I wonder if Toei are more strict on English spellings now that more manga is international in nature. When DragonBall first came out, I doubt they gave a second (or even first) thought as to how Kuririn should be spelt using the Roman alphabet. But with One Piece, I get the feeling that there is less variation.

The only comparison I can think of is with video games, and even there there has been some changes of translation over the years. Aeris is now Aerith, for instance. But with someone like Nintendo, the names are much more consistent and generally haven't changed.

Cheers, Mike. I'll add them to my Excel spreadsheet (sexy!) I've been out the loop for a few years and my memory is quite rusty so forgive me, but who published the LANDMARK and FOREVER books?

[VegettoEX]

LANDMARK and FOREVER were released by Shueisha (with "Planning & Organization" by Caramel Mama) in 2003-2004 as guide books for the kanzenban release that was finishing up at that time. So far on the site we have a page for LANDMARK, but not yet for FOREVER.

[LiamKav]

Cool. Are the English spellings consistent in each book, or do they vary? I'm wondering if there was an effort by an editor to be consistent, or if different writers/illustrators were just picking spellings that they'd seen elsewhere.