Referring to character: "Son" vs "Goku" vs "Son Goku"

[LeprikanGT]

I doubt this would involve any Sub fans but.... Does it annoy anyone else when Goku is referred to as Son Goku, or JUST 'Son'? I know it's a Japanese thing but it annoys me to no end.

I think half of it is because I don't know why it's ONLY Goku. Like you never hear Son Kakarot or Son Vegeta. I'm sure there is somewhere that explains it but I can't stand that word enough to read though a whole bunch of text for it.

[the_abberration]

I never saw a problem with it. If your name were Brad Johnson, it would be the same as someone calling you that or Johnson. After all, Son is his family name (and it is a sign of respect I believe). At least they pronounce it as the Japanese would last name, first name. I think it would annoy me more if they Americanized it, and called him Goku Son. Kinda sounds like a special move that way.

[Makaioshin]

Son Goku is the Japanese reading of the name of the monkey king(who Goku is loosely based off of) in Journey to the West(which Dragon Ball is loosely based). It is not only Goku. Gohan, Goten, and Goku Jr. all have this is their names as it is their surname.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I'm not irritated when they call him Son Goku since that is his name, I am when they say Bulma Brief(s) though.

[Puto]

I doubt this would involve any Sub fans but....Does it annoy anyone else when Goku is refered to as Son Goku, or JUST 'Son'? I know it'ss a Japanese thing but it annoys me to know end.

I think half of it is because I don't know why its ONLY Goku. Like you never hear Son Kakarot or Son Vegeta. I'm sure there is somewhere that explains it but I can't stand that word enough to read though a whole bunch of text for it.

Hmm, lemme give this a go.

I doubt this would involve any Sub fans but....Does it annoy anyone else when Luffy is refered to as Monkey D. Luffy, or just Monkey? I know it'ss a Japanese thing but it annoys me to know end.
I think half of it is because I don't know why its ONLY Luffy. Like you never hear Monkey D. Nami or Monkey D. Usopp. I'm sure there is somewhere that explains it but I can't stand that word enough to read through a whole bunch of text for it.

Okay, sorry, I'm not saying this to offend but... it's the guy's name. It's not a "Japanese thing" or whatever, it's just the man's name. His NAME is "Son Gokû". Just like VegettoEX's name is "Mike LaBrie."

[linkdude20002001]

Exactly. His name is Son Gokuh. The Sons are the only ones with a surname. And for whatever reason, Chichi didn't take on the name. Neither did Videl. But it might be because of the tradition to give part of your name to your son (children?). I remember something reading about that. that also explains why we have GOhan, GOkuh, and GOten.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I don't mind it at all, I do it myself. It's his name so that's what I call him.

[Savage68]

I don't mind when he's referred to as 'Son' or 'Son Goku' in the series at all.

It's the fans opting to refer to him as 'Son' that I find painfully annoying.

[Gaffer Tape]

I don't even see how that could be considered annoying, given that several characters in the series do refer to him as "Son," so it's not as if fans of the Japanese version are going out of their way to somehow separate themselves from dub fans.

[Perfect]

Son Vegeta? What...

[Zephyr]

I don't get annoyed by it for the same reason that I don't get annoyed when Sonic the Hedgehog is referred to as Sonic the Hedgehog.

[TheGreatness25]

It doesn't really bother me because he isn't really called "Son Goku" by his friends a lot. Only Piccolo really calls him "Son" and Bulma calls him "Son-kun," which wouldn't really translate properly no matter how you tried to twist it. The only other time that I can think of where he is referred to as "Son Goku" is when he introduces himself formally or he is being introduced in a Budokai... and I guess some villains call him "Son Goku," but mostly his friends call him "Goku," which is when the majority of his name is said.

[Ashy-kun]

I think Tenshinhan also calls him "Son" too. And I really don't see any problem with it. First off, calling someone by their first name in Japan usually means they're quite close. Considering Piccolo for the longest time was trying to kill Gokuu, why would he call him "Gokuu" as though they were buddy-buddies?

I mean, let's see... Hmm... In Yuugi Ou, in the Japanese, Anzu calls only Yuugi by his first name, because they're that close, like childhood friends and possibly more, sort of "close". Everyone else, even Jounouchi and Honda, is called by their last name, when she refers to them. She'll add on a "-kun", but it's definitely their last name. She doesn't go about calling Jounouchi "Katsuya", she calls him by his last name, she calls him "Jounouchi-kun". She doesn't call Honda "Hiroto", she calls him "Honda-kun". She doesn't call Kaiba "Seto", she calls him "Kaiba-kun".

Pretty much the only times people are referred to their first names in these sorts of scenarios are when:

1) Their name is not a Japanese name or based in the Japanese order, i.e. Surname, name. e.g. "Pegasus J. Crawford". Everyone calls him "Pegasus", because he's a Western. Likewise, Rebecca Hopkins is called "Rebecca" (or Becky by a few, because it's cute). Also, Malik Ishtar, and the other Egyptians, they're called their first name, too, because they're not Japanese.

2) When they're very close. This often goes hand in hand with omitting honorifics. e.g. Anzu and Yuugi call each other "Yuugi" and "Anzu", because they're very close to each other, being childhood friends and such. They don't call each other "Mutou" and "Mazaki". And yet they BOTH call their other friends "[last name]-kun". Because that's how things are generally done.

3) If you're on equal footing. Hence, Kaiba calls his rival "Yuugi". He considers Yuugi important enough to be called his first name, and without an honorific. Conversely, Kaiba calls Jounouchi simply "Jounouchi", if he even dains to use his name at all, because he sees Jounouchi beneath any honorifics. This is probably why Piccolo starts calling Gokuu just "Gokuu", as he sees them as being both equal and also no longer being on killing-each-other terms.

4) If you're very little. When you're kids, you tend to just call each other by your first names, because you're getting close to friends. This also leads into the closeness idea, like childhood friends growing up to continue using simply first names.

But most of all, it also all depends on the personality of the person. Blooma was a young high-school girl when she met Gokuu, and so it was in her nature to call him "Son-kun", and it just stuck for her. Tenshinhan is a very serious person, and doesn't go for the closeness, and so he keeps to just last name terms with people, calling him "Son". Piccolo used to find Gokuu contemptible and would just call him "Son", as though disgusted to say the name.

Finally, I'm gonna pull the UK grammar school upbringing into this. I'm used to calling loads of the people I know by their last names, because that's how it's done in places like that. You just say something like "Oh, Smithy, pass me that eraser, will ya?"

[VegettoEX]

Re-naming thread and moving to appropriate section, since neither prior version/placement really made any sense at all.

Everyone's pretty much answered it so far... but... and I hate to toss this out there, but the question just reeks of "this is unfamiliar to me, therefore I dislike it". There's no logical reason to actually dislike it, based on the evidence presented forth:

(1) That's actually his full name.
(2) People are referred to by name.
(3) Sometimes people are called their given name, sometimes people are called their family name, sometimes people are called their full name (and hey, that's what actually happens in this case).

It's totally cool if you dislike it, but if you can't admit that there's no logical basis in the dislike, then I'd say that's when it crosses over into moderately obnoxious territory.

I don't get annoyed by it for the same reason that I don't get annoyed when Sonic the Hedgehog is referred to as Sonic the Hedgehog.

And the award goes to...!

[DemonRin]

One thing I think that's caused quite a bit of confusion for the thread starter is that, I don't think he understood how Son's name works when he made the thread. (And I'm not calling him "Son" to be cute, look through my posts, I do that naturally)

It's this line in particular

I think half of it is because I don't know why it's ONLY Goku. Like you never hear Son Kakarot or Son Vegeta. I'm sure there is somewhere that explains it but I can't stand that word enough to read though a whole bunch of text for it.

It's ONLY Son because, as has been pointed out, his NAME is "Son Goku".

I think you've gotten "Son" confused with "San", or just the notion of an Honorific in General, which usually goes at the END of the name.

In Japanese, names go "Surname - Given Name".
So, if your name was "John Smith", they'd call you "Smith John".

Goku, Gohan, and Goten all have "Son" in front of their names because its their surname. It's their "Last" name so to speak. If their names were translated out to Western name order, it'd be "Goku Son" "Gohan Son" and "Goten Son".
I have no idea why the Son family are the only characters who are given surnames, but there you go.

The reason some characters call him "Son" is, well, Ever see Yu Yu Hakusho? the whole time, Kurama and Botan pretty much calls Yusuke "Yusuke", but Kuwabara calls him by his Surname, "Urameshi" (or as the dub puts it, "Yurameshi".) It all has to do with the character's relationship with Yusuke

Same difference here. Bulma calls him "Son-kun" out of a sort of respect she has for him. Piccolo is interesting in that he starts out calling him "Son GOku" all the time. He goes out of his way to refer to him by his full name every single time, until they become more friendly, but he still uses a bit of respect by sticking with his surname "Son".

[VegettoEX]

Good pick-up, DemonRin. I'd be interested to hear if confusion over a name versus an honorific contributed to the... err... I dunno... "dislike"...?

It gets worse when you consider other countries that adapted the name as "Sangoku" .

[xzero]

Good pick-up, DemonRin. I'd be interested to hear if confusion over a name versus an honorific contributed to the... err... I dunno... "dislike"...?

It gets worse when you consider other countries that adapted the name as "Sangoku" .

The first time I really noticed the Son thing was around 2002 when I was watching one of the Freeza DVDs with dub audio and Japanese subtitles on for purposes of comparison. I initially thought Piccolo referring to Goku as Son Goku was an honorific. This was also true because I remembered the Mr. Popo "Kami-san" thing in the early dub of the Saiyan Saga. Piccolo called him Son a few times thereafter, so it slowly dawned on me that this was actually part of his name.

Even as a long-time dub fan, I don't see why there's an issue with calling Goku by his full name. In particular, it seemed pretty cool to me that Sean Schemmel did a take of the "I am Son Goku, and I am a super Saiyan!" line including "Son" in it, and even cooler that Sabat decided to use that take. I think some of the games might have used the term before, but that was the first time the series ever used it, and it worked.

[Savage68]

I don't even see how that could be considered annoying, given that several characters in the series do refer to him as "Son," so it's not as if fans of the Japanese version are going out of their way to somehow separate themselves from dub fans.

O...kay. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind, really.

[Michsi]

Piccolo is actually a peculiar case here. I've heard him call Goku "Son Goku", "Son" AND "Goku". From what I can tell, anime characters rarely ever change the way they adress a certain person and if they do there is usually some emotional significance involved. It seemed Piccolo couldn't make up his mind

But it's not unusual for Piccolo to use Goku's given name . I often see shonen characters adress their rivals/enemies in such a way.

Interesting fact, in the german Version "Son" and "Goku" weren't seperate words. He was actually named Songoku. And his kids Songohan and Songoten.
At least, that's how I remember it.

[kaialone]

I dont really mind.Wether its "Goku" "Son" or "Son Goku" its all correct.I for example tend to call him "Son Goku" and soetimes only "Goku"