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

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Gundam 00]]'' is also bad, especially in the second season, since a lot of the names are actually [[Gratuitous English]]. So you get slavishly translated names back into English without taking into account what the original English was obviously meant to be. Which leaves you with things like Bling Stabbity instead of Bring Stability and Hilling Car instead of Healing Care. Of course, a proper [[Pragmatic Adaptation]] would probably translate these English terms into a ''third'' language to keep the original feel of "characters named something meaningful in a semi-commonly understood foreign language"...

** The worse part of this whole phenomenon in the Gundam [[Fan Dumb]] who ''insist'' on using the older, outdated translations of certain terms ''just'' to establish themselves as "old school" fans who were around before you kids had your "official versions" or "correct translations".

** Also: Mara/Marller.

*** In this case, it's justified. The name is written as Marā, and the pronunciation for it is indeed closer to Marller than to Mara. The blunder, if anything, is on the official translation's part, because her name is most definitely NOT spelled the same way it's written.

** Besides not being able to decide which romanization system to use in ''[[Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer]]'', they also referred to Ranga as "Lanka", despite the fact that her name can't even be ''written'' that way.

** The translators had to correct the name "Blanche" - they intended to use "Branchir". This was because the translator had completely missed the point that the angel is ALL WHITE.

** The ultimate offender under their label has to be ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]''. The girls' [[Theme Naming]] presented a problem that the translators dealt with by calling, say, Minto/Mew Mint simply "Mint", Retasu/Mew Lettuce "Lettuce", et cetera. The [[Anime Chinese Girl]], Hwang Bu-ling, found herself as both "Pudding Fong" (to match her super callsign, Mew Pudding) and "Fon Purin" (the katakana of her loan-word name; although most of her friends call her that, she refers to herself as Bu-ling, as does everyone capable of pronouncing Chinese names). The [[Stalker With a Crush]], Quiche, whose name is actually ''supposed'' to be written in English, got "Kish" instead for no apparent reason. And don't even get me started on the ''weapons''; they had a different name every time they were used. (For the record, they're [[Gratuitous English|quasi-English]] puns: Strawberbell [or Strawbellbell], Mintonarrow, Lettastanets, Puringrings, Zakuross.)

*** However, the [[Theme Naming]] is not completely preserved in translation - while all of the girls have food names, some are katakana which are romanized to clarify their meaning in the English translation (as mentioned above, such as Mint and Lettuce) while others keep their original Japanese names (Ichigo and Zakuro, "Strawberry" and "Pomegranate" respectively) even though they are also named after food.

* 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.

* From ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', some names that appear in different forms depending on the translator are Gracia/Glacier, Lan Fan/Ran Fan/Ranfun, Riza/Liza, Halcrow/Hakuro, Olivia/Olivier and Lyra/Lyla/Ryla.

*** 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".

** Likewise there's been debates whether Heiderich from [[The Movie]] is "Alfons" or "Alphonse". Some sources have him as "Alphonse" but others as "Alfons". Most fans use "Alfons" to differentiate him from Edward's brother.

* Virtually all of the character and place names from the ''[[Bastard]]!'' anime are taken from the names of 80's Heavy Metal bands. In the dubbed version, most of these are warped into unrecognizable variants. This was mostly to avoid getting sued by the bands for trademark infringement when the anime was released in the U.S. We know how touchy some metal bands can be when it comes to their legal rights (I'm looking at you, <s>Metallica</s> Meta-rikana).

* ''[[D Gray Man (Manga)|D Gray Man]]'' has a character who the Japanese have already romanized as "Arystar Krory", but to English speakers, the name is obviously a reference to Aleister Crowley. Still, Krory is officially Arystar Krory. The author specifically wanted a name that sounded like the infamous Crowley but wasn't.

** Not to mention the million different spellings of Lenalee Lee: Rinali, Linali, Linalee... Plus, her surname can be romanized as either Lee or Li. And then there's Rabi vs. Lavi and Tyki Mikk vs. Ticky Mick and... basically 90% of the characters in the series are subject to this.

** And Frieza/Freeza/Freezer/Furiza (fourth pronunciation used by King Kai when he discovers that Freeza is on Namek). "Freeza" makes most sense - it's a pun on "freezer" but with a short vowel sound at the end instead of a long one.

*** The EGM article mentioned above used plain ol' "Freezer".

** The names of Burdock's allies in the "Bardock - The Father of Goku" special are puns similar to those used by the Ginyū Force - Toma ("tomato" with the last kana removed), Pumbkin (panbukin, a play on pumpkin (panpukin) with the pu replaced by a bu), Sleypar (seripa, a play on "parsley" - paseri - with the first kana moved to the end) and Totapo (totepo, a play on "potato" - poteto - with the kana reversed). FUNimation changed them entirely to Tora, Shugesh, Fasha and Borgos respectively.

** Gokū's Saiyan name is another example. The name comes from a pun on "carrot" (karotto), with the first kana repeated (turning it into "Kakarotto"). The ideal way of keeping the pun would be to romanise it as Cacarrot.

** 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.

** In all fairness, the Japanese version of the show showed their names written down on their entry form as "Lua" and "Luca".

* And then we get to ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]'', with its introduction of Excess... err, ''Exceed''... no, wait, '''''[[Word of God|Xyz]]''''' Monsters.

*** You want wrong spelling? The Nyoro~N fansubs of TTGL spelled his name as "Chirumuf." Way to miss the point, guys.

** Then there's Yoko's village's name. Based on an in-universe alphabet and a bit of television footage of her winning a beauty contest of some sort, some concluded it was Rittonar; the official translation has gone with Littner.

*** Although it seems like having the word Lord in your name and not as a title [[Rule of Cool|is pretty cool.]]

* In ''[[Crest of the Stars]]'' and its sequels, the Abh have their own language, Baronh. Despite its Japanese roots, it has an alphabet, many sounds not in Japanese, and pronunciation rules almost as bizarre as English. In the English version, most Baronh words are transliterated from Japanese, ignoring the official romanization and pronunciation guides. For example, the name of the female protagonist "Ablïarsec Lamhirh" becomes "Aburiaru Rafiiru" in Japanese and "Abriel Lafiel" in English. The proper pronunciation is closer to "Ablyars Lafirh".

* The third Astrea school in ''[[Strawberry Panic (Light Novel)|Strawberry Panic]]'' was, in fan translations, translated as LeRim, LeLim, and the official Lulim.

* In the Yen Press release of ''[[Black Butler (Manga)|Black Butler]]'' two servants of the household were given names that didn't match up with the vast majority of scanlations and subbed episodes. The maid, usually called Maylene, was dubbed May-Rin, and the cook, usually called Bard or some variation thereof, was christened Baldo.

** One fan translation uses Baron Gelwin in one chapter and Baron Kelvin in another.

** Let's not forget Grell. Fansubbers for the anime could never decide if it was to be spelled Greil or Grell, not to mention his last name (Sutcliffe/Sultcliffe/Sultcliff/Sutcliff).

** Ash's rival from the Indigo League Tournament, Richie or Ritchie?

* There are a few cases of this in ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' - most notably Armbrust, who is "Armblast" both in the dub and accompanying subtitles on the English DVDs, but spelt correcting in the subtitles accompanying the Japanese audio on the same discs (they caught the error before release, but not after it had already been enshrined in the dub). The English DVDs are mostly correct apart from that due to [[Word of God]] material that accompanied the Japanese DVDs, but the fansubs were full of errors and inconsistencies. The fansubs for sequel ''[[Kiddy Girl-and]]'' are similar despite English spellings for most characters being available via the official website - e.g. Himatsubushi insists on subtitling Sommer as "Zoma".

* ''[[Xamd Lost Memories]]'' (亡念のザムド) seems to have various different spellings for "ザムド" which is romanicized as "Zamudo", but ends up translated as "Xam'd" in English and "Xamdou" or "Zamned" in Japanese.

* Since ''[[Pilot Candidate]]'' is a series with lots of [[Aerith and Bob]] going on, this was bound to happen. The most common example: Kizna or Kizuna?

* ''[[Gundam AGE]]'', like many a Gundam show before it has a bad case of this due to the franchise's love of bizarre, usually made up names. For instance, is the first main character's name Flit, or is he named after a brand of corn chip?

** 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.

 

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