Spell My Name with an "S"/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions

 

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* ''[[Area 88]]'' is consistently set in a fictional North African/Middle Eastern nation that is called either Asran or Aslan. Purists insist on the Aslan spelling due to the Japanese confusion between "R" and "L". Apart from the fact that the name Aslan is forever associated in pop culture with [[The Chronicles of Narnia|a certain Lion from a certain series of books]], Aslan is Turkic in origin (it actually means "Lion" so C.S. Lewis evidently used the name intentionally); the Turkic regions start with the distal regions of Eastern Europe and extend into the historically Mongolian regions of Central Asia and Siberia. Too far removed from the North African location of Area 88's Asran. Asran, on the other hand does sound faintly Middle Eastern and was actually the original spelling of choice.

* ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' has its share of these, as does its [[Ginga Densetsu Weed|sequel]].

** There's also Casca/Caska/Kyasuka/Kjaskar, Schierke/Silke, Rickert/Ricket, Shisu/Sys, and quite a few others.

** The most infuriating example is Julius. An authentic latin name. The name of the man who began the end of the Republic, heck it's even the name of a month in the western calendar. But all translations insist on calling him Jurius for some inexplicable reason.

** Although early chapters of the manga (and some episodes of the anime as well, if I'm not mistaken) romanized Guu's name as "Goo".

** The problem is that Hare is an actual Japanese word, 晴れ or はれ and should be read as such in the title, but since it is written in katakana as ハレ some translators assumed it must be a non-Japanese word.

* The name of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'''s signature weapon is レイジングハート, which can be transliterated as either ''reijing haato'', "Raging Heart", or as ''reizing haato'', "Raising Heart". The [[Word of God]] is that the latter is correct. The main issue here is that spoken Japanese makes no distinction between the "ji" and "zi" syllables, as the latter doesn't exist. Thus both "Raging" and "Raising" are pronounced as "Raging".

** For added confusion, the English dub switches from "Raging" to "Raising" at the beginning of the second season-- and the subtitles for the first season switch back and forth!

** The names of ''characters'' are even less clear. Their spellings aren't even consistent in the various different official sources, even though the dialogue makes the automobile [[Theme Naming]] obvious. On the other hand, this hasn't stopped fansubbers from using ''Yuuno'' instead of the more likely ''Euno''... The official site tries to clear up a lot of confusion (stating that Yuuno is indeed spelled Yuuno, for example), however, fans are still hesitant to use the official spelling for some of the other names, the most popular example being Zafila, whom many still prefer to call Zafira. Understandable as, given the aforementioned [[Theme Naming]], "Zafira" makes much more sense.

*** The official spelling of the Azure Wolf's name seems to change with every release. While earlier side-materials used 'Zafila', the later video game adaptation went with 'Zafira'.

* ''[[Karin]]'' and her two siblings use the last name "Maaka", yet their parents, Henry and Carrera, have elected to use the surname "Marker". This is entirely intentional, though. The series explains from the very beginning that the family moved from Europe to Japan. The kids, having been raised in Japanese society, adopted the Japanese spelling, while the old-timey parents retained the original European spelling.

* Likewise, in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' the points where Miki's name seems to change to and from "Mickey" are intentional; "Mickey" is a romanization of the nickname "Mikki" and is pronounced differently from "Miki", even if the difference is hard for English speakers to hear.

** The [[FUNimation]] dub uses place names like Lior and Ishbal, while the creator, Hiromu Arakawa, uses Reole and Ishval. The English manga can't seem to make up its mind which versions to use; for instance, fluctuating between "Ishbal" and "Ishvarla", "Xerxes" and "Cserksess", etc.

*** The Funimation sub of ''Brotherhood'' uses Ishbal for the first five episodes, then switches to Ishval in the sixth (likely due to a map in the fifth episode that clearly says "Ishval").

*** The actual dub of ''Brotherhood'' likewise officially switches it to "Ishval".

*** Add another one to the list: Liesenburgh. Found in a [[Scanlation]] of chapter 8.

*** The Spanish official translation of the manga has it Riesenburg (German for Castle of Giants or Giantville).

*** My DVD box set (see below) has it as "Ciska".

** The strangest is Lan Fan's grandfather, who the fans refer to as Fu; the official perfect guide for the manga refers to him as "Who". Apparently, Arakawa likes baseball.

** The official ''Viz'' translation of the manga called Mustang's bodyguard Riza, and Elizabeth by {{spoiler|Madame Christmas}}.

*** The OFFICIAL translation also has Winry calling her "Ms. Lisa". Oy.

** And there's Zolf/Solf J. Kimbley/Kimblee/Kimbly/Kimberly. Confirmed, as of that one ''Brotherhood'' [[Eyecatch]], to be Solf J. Kimblee.

** Is it Dr. Knox, or Dr. Knocs, Dr. Knoks, or Dr. Knocks?

** Similar to the Isis/Ishizu example above, Seto (the priest from Atem's time, not Seto Kaiba)'s name is a literal romanisation of the Egyptian god Set. They kept it as "Seto" in the English dub presumably to fit the mouth movements.

** The Italian translation of the manga fucks up a lot, giving pearls like "Happy"<ref>Harpie</ref>, "Dynausor"<ref>Dinosaur</ref>, "Weburn"<ref>Wyvern</ref> and "Kierce Haward"<ref>Keith Howard</ref>

* On the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' side of things, there are at least two people in the world who think that Yubel's name is actually supposed to be Juwel, as in the German word for jewel. (Remember that in German, J's sound like Y's and W's sound like V's.) Considering that ''all'' of her alternate forms also have German names, this might not be too far off base.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' Gets even worse in terms of this, as when it comes to the [[Half-Identical Twins]], the fandom, the anime, and the dub all have differing opinions. Consistently inconsistent, and English spellings in the Japanese anime spell the names as Lua and Luka, while they're pronounced as Rua and Ruka. The dub doesn't help matters, switching the names to Leo and Luna. Trouble is, another character shows up later who ''is'' named Leo in the original anime. While most fans agree on Rua and Ruka, the inconsistency is splattered all over the place.

* Even ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' has this, mostly because there's very little official sources to use for spelling the names. "Speedy Cerviche" is officially the title character's name. It's based on "ceviche", which is a kind of seafood salad. For years, many fans adopted the name "Service", using Italian phonetics, because it made the tidy pun of "Speedy Service". It's strange that this should happen in the ''English dub'' of a franchise, but there you go.

* ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' has this happen at least once in ''the official translation'' of the manga: Satella's name is sometimes given as "Stella". Then there's others like Aion/Ion, Chrono/Chrno, Azumaria/Azmaria...

** The dub has also decided that the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Europe counterpart continent]], referred to as Halkeginia by fans, is really Harkeginia.

* In ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', the official translation refers to the [[Humongous Mecha]] as "Gunmen", confusing fans that had long since been calling them "Ganmen". Then there's the pronunciation of "Simon" (which is Romanized that way despite not being pronounced like the name Simon). The original uses "she-moan", while the dub uses "see-moan"; these both [[Narm|lead to humor]] as they both sound dirty ''and'' like the girl's name "Simone"). There's also Rossiu/Rosshiu.

* [[Inspector Javert|Lunge/Runge]] from ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]''. The manga, the official website and the fansubbing groups says it's 'Lunge', his name plate in the anime says it's 'Runge'.

** [[Complete Monster|Johan Liebert]] has this case when his first and last name are called Johann and Liebheart.

* Done with the official translations of ''[[D.N.Angel]]''. What's the name of Daisuke's pet? The anime dub went with "With", but the manga translation decided on "Wiz".

** It makes sense if 'Wiz' is short for 'wizard'. But it comes off as narm.

** Giuseppe was a style choice, going for the "regular" Italian form. Later chapters show that his full name is actually Josefo (showing the brothers' northern origins), but this might not have been decided when the manga was translated. Hirscher/Hillshire ''is'' this (both read the same in katakana). Since he doesn't try to conceal his nationality (and it's a alias anyway), most people go for Hirscher (which is used in the German translation).

* The official translation of the ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' OAVs renders the names usually romanized "Reni" and "Ratchet" as "Leni" and "Lachette." To this day, many fans are angry about this (despite the fact that "Leni" is an actual German name whereas "Reni" is not).

** Even better is the fact that Lawrence´s name has been spelled out in the anime as "Craft", on an envelope adressed at him in season 1. Where ever the licensers of both the anime and the light novels got their information from, asking the author first would have probably been a great idea.

* Layla/Reira Serizawa from ''[[Nana]]''.

** Which ought to be a no-brainer since she specifically says she's named after the Eric Clapton song (but on the other hand it's romanized Reira all over official Japanese materials).

* ''[[Rave Master]]'' get's this full blast. It's not even an issue of fans disagreeing with the translation. ''one of the names isn't consistent''. One of the generals (Who might be named Jade) is called four diferent names throughout the official translation. Two of which occur in the same chapter, and one of ''those'' is actually the name of a diferent charcter. On a more standard note, Everyone agrees that Iulius's name is actually Julius. And, back to the less average, one of the major support characters, Sieg Hart, is called Seig about ten times when mentioned in a later manga done by the same artist.

* Dullahan Celty/Certy/Selty/Serty Sturluson/Sturlson of ''[[Durarara!!]]'' is a fine example of this trope.

* In ''[[Letter Bee]]'' we have Zaji/Zazie, Vashuka/Wasiolka, Gus/Gasu/Gazu, Connor Kluff/Connor Culh, Roda/Lode, Gauche/Goos, and Aria Link/Aria Rink. Oh, and the freak show in Chapter 2 has had its name romanized as Lovesome Downs, Love Someone Down, and the incredibly silly Rabusamu Wandaun

* ''[[Toward the Terra]]'' mostly isn't too bad about this, but the official English subtitles do have a few odd quirks thanks to having all names taken directly from the translation of the manga, which was done well before the anime was made and without any kind of pronunciation guide. Most notably, Jonah Matsuka's name is officially translated as "Makka," an error stemming from confusion about the use of the small "tsu" character.

** The mass production MS based on the AGE-1 are often translated as "Adeles", though Adder makes a bit more sense considering that a) it's the name of a deadly snake, which many weapons in [[Real Life]] are named for (eg. the Colt Python and Sidewinder Missile) and b) they retain the Gundam they're based on's ability to equip various add-on parts.

* In ''[[Detective Conan]]/[[Market-Based Title|Case Closed]]'', Ran's English name is spelt as "Rachel" in the manga, but "Rachael" in the anime.