Why did FUNimation spell Freeza with an "i"?

[Sailor Haumea]

I take it I'm unusual for using the dub names?

[Cipher]

I take it I'm unusual for using the dub names?

No? Like, not at all? Maybe on this particular forum, but even then, I don't know?

The number of instances where the dub names are really super-duper different from what a more obvious English spelling would be, or from what FUNimation's subtitle tracks go for, is honestly pretty small anyway. No one's going to be confused by an instance of "Boo" or "Buu," "Frieza" or "Freeza."

You have "major" deviations like Karin to Korin, Tenshinhan to Tien Shinhan, Mr. Satan to Hercule (or Hercule Satan, outside of TV edits), and pretty much any character with a title for a name being played with a la "Master Roshi" and "King Kai," but outside of those instances it's pretty much just about how much they make obvious or obscure the pun, and how grounded a particular spelling is in the original Japanese.

[Herms]

Weirdly, though, if there were actually a case for doing something funky with the repeated vowels in the middle of either character's name, it'd be Coola's, as his Japanese name uses a second "u" character rather than the prolonged sound mark more typical with katakana. "Coula/Cuula/Couhla," etc. actually could have been justifiable translations that slightly further obscured a very obvious pun.

That's because (as revealed in Daizenshuu 6) they wanted to avoid making his name too direct of a pun on "cooler" and so made it a double-pun on the Shizuoka expression メシでも食うら/meshi demo kuura, said before meals and essentially being a folksy way of saying "let's eat!". 食うら-->クウラ-->Kuura. So yeah, take that as you will.

[Sailor Haumea]

I take it I'm unusual for using the dub names?

No? Like, not at all? Maybe on this particular forum, but even then, I don't know?

The number of instances where the dub names are really super-duper different from what a more obvious English spelling would be, or even from what FUNimation's subtitle tracks go for, is honestly pretty small anyway. No one's going to be confused by an instance of "Boo" or "Buu," "Frieza" or "Freeza."

What about Bardock's team members' names?

[Cipher]

Weirdly, though, if there were actually a case for doing something funky with the repeated vowels in the middle of either character's name, it'd be Coola's, as his Japanese name uses a second "u" character rather than the prolonged sound mark more typical with katakana. "Coula/Cuula/Couhla," etc. actually could have been justifiable translations that slightly further obscured a very obvious pun.

That's because (as revealed in Daizenshuu 6) they wanted to avoid making his name too direct of a pun on "cooler" and so made it a double-pun on the Shizuoka expression メシでも食うら/meshi demo kuura, said before meals and essentially being a folksy way of saying "let's eat!". 食うら-->クウラ-->Kuura. So yeah, take that as you will.

I figured it was to avoid being too direct (oddly, though, given that Freeza's spelling super on-the-nose outside of its last character), but wasn't aware of the secondary pun. Thanks!

That would make any English version attempting to be slavishly accurate even more difficult, I suppose. Either way, "Cooler" has even less of a basis given that Daizenshuu explanation, now both in terms of the characters used and in the stated intent.

What about Bardock's team members' names?

I'd completely forgotten that FUNimation gave them all different names.

I honestly don't see them brought up often enough to have any idea which way this forum leans one way or the other (though I'm sure the English-language internet at large leans toward FUNimation's names). My guess is that regardless of the version used, the initial reaction is always going to be, "Who? Oh, is that one of Bardock's crewmembers? Is that the short one or the bald one? Or is that the girl?"

Though they are a weird case where the Japanese names are all vegetable puns to fit alongside Saiyan naming conventions, while the FUNimation names are apparently based on ... nothing?

[Bansho64]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Japanese names. It really has nothing to do with being casual or hardcore. Fans of the original version are going to use the original terminology. It's simple as that. There's no, "hardly anyone's gonna know what you're talking about".

And, to be honest, a lot of the Funimation name changes seen butchered.

[Metalwario64]

It's also baffling for people to use the Japanese names for everything but Buu. Seriously, everything else you use the original Japanese names for, but you're making an exception for this character and calling him "Boo"? Make up your mind!.

If I recall correctly, there may be an actual reason for that due to how the name is spelled in Japanese. I could be wrong though.

[Herms]

It's also baffling for people to use the Japanese names for everything but Buu. Seriously, everything else you use the original Japanese names for, but you're making an exception for this character and calling him "Boo"? Make up your mind!.

If I recall correctly, there may be an actual reason for that due to how the name is spelled in Japanese. I could be wrong though.

Well, it's ブウ/Buu, from "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", which in Japanese is officially spelled ビビディ・バビディ・ブー/Bibidi-Babidi-Buu. So the name source is technically ブー/Buu (Bu+vowel elongation mark), while the character's name is ブウ/Buu (Bu+additional "u"). In other words, the character name isn't spelled exactly the same as the pun source. Although for Bibidi and Babidi, the kana spellings do exactly match their source, which kind of suggests Toriyama might not have intentionally spelt Buu's name differently, and mistakenly believed ブウ was how it was spelled in the Disney song too. At any rate, "Boo" is equally as valid a Romanization of ブウ as it is for ブー, and Japanese merchandise pretty consistently uses "Majin-Boo" as the alphabet spelling for the character's name.

[Sailor Haumea]

So Babidi is more accurate than Bobbidi, in this case?

[Dbzfan94]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Japanese names. It really has nothing to do with being casual or hardcore. Fans of the original version are going to use the original terminology. It's simple as that. There's no, "hardly anyone's gonna know what you're talking about".

And, to be honest, a lot of the Funimation name changes seen butchered.

Besides Bardock's crew there's nothing really butchered about them.

[Cipher]

I am guilty of using "Babidi" and "Bibidi," when for consistency with my approach to the rest of the character's names, I should be using "Bobbidi" and "Bibbidi." I think that's another holdover from Simmons' subtitles. And, of course, it doesn't really matter for the sake of conversation.

Kanzenshuu switched its style from the former to the latter at some point though, right? I can see why.

So Babidi is more accurate than Bobbidi, in this case?

"Babidi" is a straight romanization of the Japanese characters. "Bobbidi" is more consistent with "Trunks," "Cell," etc., where the source word or phrase is used because the Japanese characters don't indicate anything was intended to be changed.

[Bansho64]

Besides Bardock's crew there's nothing really butchered about them.

There's Hercule, Tien, Master Roshi, General Tao, Kyabe, etc. The list goes on. Some of them completely miss the pun intended.

[NitroEX]

It's not at all the short "i" sound that the dub goes with. It's very much a long "ee".

So, just to clarify, the Ocean pronunciation of Videl (Vee-dell) is the correct one?
(excuse the poor video, only clip I could find online)

[Dbzfan94]

Besides Bardock's crew there's nothing really butchered about them.

There's Hercule, Tien, Master Roshi, General Tao, Kyabe, etc. The list goes on. Some of them completely miss the pun intended.

Hercule is just for censorship
Tien Shinhan isnt that butchered.
Master Roshi is fine but redundant
General Tao was a mistake, he's Mecenary Tao in the DB dub
Kyabe is dumb I'll givr you that.

[Bansho64]

Hercule is just for censorship
Tien Shinhan isnt that butchered.
Master Roshi is fine but redundant
General Tao was a mistake, he's Mecenary Tao in the DB dub
Kyabe is dumb I'll givr you that.

For me, it still doesn't justify why they were changed.

[LuckyCat]

It's not at all the short "i" sound that the dub goes with. It's very much a long "ee".

So, just to clarify, the Ocean pronunciation of Videl (Vee-dell) is the correct one?
(excuse the poor video, only clip I could find online)

You can judge for yourself, but I think Ocean's sounds a little more correct. It's definitely a longer "i" sound.

[Kamiccolo9]

Funnily enough, I received this from dictionary.com today.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/intersti ... y%2Ffrieze

Kinda-sorta related to this thread. Thought I'd share

[Super Sonic]

Who the heck is Kyabe?

As for the names of Bardock's crew, aside from Toma/Tora (it's been years since I've watched it so don't remember the name) none of them are referred to by name in the special. I think they're only referred to by name in the credits like a crap load of Star Wars characters. That's why I used the dub names as that's what I heard.

[Sailor Haumea]

Who the heck is Kyabe?

Cabba.

[Super Sonic]

Who the heck is Kyabe?

Cabba.

I'm still drawing a blank. i admit aside from the recent movies I haven't watched a lot of DB recently, and minor characters' names I'm wondering about.

On-topic, I'm guessing they thought it would look cool and it's not like what happened with Sailor Mars which was just anglicizing the spelling. These things can happen at times. You go to Japan, there might be some characters' names changed in "Komoriman" and "Shonen Ninja Kame".