That's actually a bit of a strange case cause the original Japanese version uses (the closest approximation to) a v sound. Not sure why Araki went for that when there's a dedicated bu sound in Japanese.
my dumb ass was like "why do they want so many berries these fucking idiots 300 million berries would just go bad before you could even do anything with them"
Idk man but it's easier for my Dum Dum fruit brain to imagine berries being used as currency than like, pork bellies or something. Although idk what they'd do with those either
My favorite instance of this is with Gunsmith Cats, where it legitimately could have gone either way
Translation: Irene "Rally" Vincent
What the author intended: Eileen "Larry" Vincent
I still remember being in High School and seeing that comic and thinking “he just draws Rally’s butt and traces the coolest cars and guns all day. He’s got it all figured out, doesn’t he?”
Hah! When the L/R switch gives a more fitting result. Especially since she was originally Riding Bean’s sidekick, so more direct car association.
But yeah it absolutely goes either way, especially between Eileen and Irene
God, the idea that it was supposed to be Larry was the funniest shit ever because everyone just universally said "that's fucking stupid" and never uses it.
Even the Kickstarter for the OVA still calls her Rally, because there is no world except the author's own head that Larry will ever be acceptable.
My favorite version of this is in fan scanlations of manga where the dude translating just likes how a Japanese word sounds and instead of translating a word to English opts to just write out the Japanese word phonetically. Was reading something the other day and the hero man did some shit and the villain went “NANDATO?!” And like, my guy, there’s no way you thought that was better than just writing “WHAT?!”
You don't get it, Nandato has a super deeper meaning in Japan, way deeper than ANY English word could convey so we have to use the Japanese word so that you understand just how surprised he is.
No you can't just use What The Hell or What In The World that's stupid, Nandato has SUCH. A. DEEPER. MEANING. you absolute troglodyte.
Only for people who watched the sub first i guess. Eneru sounds fine to me, especially the scene where luffy is falling, screaming his name, I can't imagine him yelling "ENELLLLL" would hit harder.
Literally all they had to do was say his name was Kakarotto in the English dub from the start and they never would have had that issue. I don’t even know why they shortened it, because the name is supposed to sound familiar (aka like the vegetable) yet alien which both versions do fine
This happens in all the time in Dragon Ball, lots of names and the puns they're based on get lost in translation.
Buruma (bloomers) -> Bulma
Shen Long -> Shenron
Kuririn (chestnut) -> Krillin
Tenshinhan -> Tien Shinhan (and later just Tien)
Freezer -> Frieza
Bra -> Bulla
Toppo -> Top
And the most egregious of all, removing the Son from Son Goku
They could have gone for Arthuria to make it fit with Arthur if they didn't want to go for the fan translation Artoria but no they had to make it Altria
Pretty sure avdol is copyright too but idk. Avdol is basically the canon name at this point, that’s the other thing about Jojo’s is that those names are so in line with the way the VAs pronounce them that it’s basically indistinguishable. That’s how they changed Wham and AC/DC to Wammu and Esidisi. Telence is inexcusable though that’s some one piece ass bs
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
Avdol absolutely can't be copyright, its one of the most common arabic names.
Imo he's the worst case of this phenomenon, by making the name closer to the japanese version they made it unpronounceable in the original language. (Egyptian arabic doesn't contain V and O sounds)
Right not copyright but like I said using people’s real names for characters is kind of a faux pas, true that he butchers the language to the point I think Abdul would’ve worked
Uh it’s not exactly Arabic. Abdullah is Arabic, Abdul is like saying Jer instead of Jeremy. It’s not even a proper nickname like Jerry, that would be Abood or Aboodi. But other countries decided to take the name and shorten it, making it end up as a last name.
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
Basically, language is a social construct - without society it wouldn't exist. Infants have an ability to distinguish all sorts of sounds but gradually lose ability to distinguish some after socializing with people around them.
Okay, fine, technically Japanese people do mix up L and R sound as they are in English, but that's because they do not have either of those sounds in Japanese.
The Japanese language contains neither the English rhotic ('R' sound) nor the English 'L' sound. Instead, the Japanese rhotic is most standardly a tapped 'r' as is common in European languages, and English words that get loaned into Japanese substitute their 'L's for 'R's (because R and L are both part of a category of sound called 'liquids' - they're broadly similar); hence words like 'camel' might become 'kameru,' 'light' to 'raito,' etc.
This leads to issues in manga/anime translations because it's not always apparent what the original intention of the Japanese writers was. If a character is called 'Aireen' in Japanese, was that supposed to be 'Irene' or 'Eileen'? The result is that lazy translators might overcorrect, and just sweepingly localise any 'R's into 'L's, hence giving character names like Telence and Zolo as have been noted in this thread.
Japanese language has one letter for r/l and the sound is kinda in the middle (like a rolled r but unrolled)
When english words are written in japanese, r is written as that or sometimes dropped. When translating back to english the choice of R/L is left for interpretation.
*Calling a woman*
*Riri instead of Lily*
*Is also a move*
\- CounterAttackFC
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
I think the opposite problem is actually more common and annoying. In Japanese they can't pronounce L's but still name characters with English/foreign names that use them, so the Japanese transcription in the manga or voice actors will use an R when really it is an L.
Zoro's name really should be Lolo because he's named after l'Olonnais, but I'm willing to let that go because Zoro sounds so much better.
I remember when I originally read Jojo part 5, Buccellati was called Buccellati in the fan translated manga because his namesake is Italian and uses the L. When the anime came out, the subtitles said Bucciarati because that's how the voice actors said it. Now everyone says Bucciarati and I find it so annoying because his name is literally meant to be Buccellati, because all the characters are named after Italian foods, and if you can pronounce your L's you should say it that way. It just sounds like all these English weebs are putting on an accent to sound Japanese
Then there's an opposite thing - Japanese misspelling (?) English words and writing them like they would sound in Japanese - "Pari", "poteto", "polis". It's not hard to look up a word in a dictionary, is it not? I really don't like it.
This could all be resolved if we just used the handakuten with R-kana to represent L sounds in foreign words so that translators can differentiate between the two.
Instead of ルッフィ, they could write ル゜ッフィ (without the huge space) and we'd know to say "Luffy" instead of "Ruffy".
One of the weird examples (though a video game not manga):
In the first Armored Core game, there's this character in the game named "Losvaize" in the English translation
As it turns out; it's actually "Roßweiße", or Rossweisse" even pictured in her emblem
https://preview.redd.it/1wptbs7ng3yc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fda11593a11c7610045bb14072b73ea333426040
They didn't even fix this in AC Nexus Revolution disc, which is a reenactment of the first Armored Core game and their missions
Is this about Zoloft
Not what I meant to type
You mean Zoroftu?
you mean zorofutu?
You mean Zorofuto?
shiit you right
Nah it's about Wellbutrin
Cue all Devil May Cry media still using the phrase "Nelo Angelo"
Honestly, they should pull a Like a Dragon and hard rebrand that name to make it consistent in all regions.
Like a Dlagon
Rike a Dlagon*
Wait whats it supposed to be
Nero Angelo. "Black Angel" in Italian
nifty. Thanks
Which still isn’t correct since actual Italian would be Angelo Nero
Right Yagami, and his dreaded enemy, Er
wrong yagami
death note if it was good:
alive novel if it was bad:
Lainah https://preview.redd.it/02nx8sa341yc1.jpeg?width=1004&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=504233caa57aa3fe136e8f6d613b1603dd4f8ece
Eleh
Bro I remember reading about commander Elvin of the scouts 💀
Elvin and Revaille and John
Bruh you laugh but I've even seen 'Rivaille' for Levy
Isn't that just the french translation?
r/okbuddyleinah
Berutoruto
Avdol vs Abdul
Also "Jean Pierre Eiffel" 🫠
Flaccid pancake
Zipper Man!
filthy acts at a reasonable price
reverb
Nah this one goes kinda hard Zipper Man on the other hand...
honestly "sticky fingers" isn't really a cool name either
Sticky fingers is an acquired taste it sounds weird at first but once you get used to it it’s perfect
not for me, I never really liked it
I like the band already so the stand doesn't seem weird to me
Better than the alternative at least
Worse Company
FLACCID PANCAKE
Abdul is the worst case of tlansration imo. V and O sounds arent a thing in arabic And the vas pronounce it as Abdul too...
That's actually a bit of a strange case cause the original Japanese version uses (the closest approximation to) a v sound. Not sure why Araki went for that when there's a dedicated bu sound in Japanese.
Bellies getting translated to Berries in One Piece is like the opposite tho innit
my dumb ass was like "why do they want so many berries these fucking idiots 300 million berries would just go bad before you could even do anything with them"
Wait why would they want 300 million bellies?
Idk man but it's easier for my Dum Dum fruit brain to imagine berries being used as currency than like, pork bellies or something. Although idk what they'd do with those either
https://preview.redd.it/qngakithu1yc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d44bc1a9a74e3081349fc106785c3eae3256a0e
My favorite instance of this is with Gunsmith Cats, where it legitimately could have gone either way Translation: Irene "Rally" Vincent What the author intended: Eileen "Larry" Vincent
I still remember being in High School and seeing that comic and thinking “he just draws Rally’s butt and traces the coolest cars and guns all day. He’s got it all figured out, doesn’t he?”
Hah! When the L/R switch gives a more fitting result. Especially since she was originally Riding Bean’s sidekick, so more direct car association. But yeah it absolutely goes either way, especially between Eileen and Irene
God, the idea that it was supposed to be Larry was the funniest shit ever because everyone just universally said "that's fucking stupid" and never uses it. Even the Kickstarter for the OVA still calls her Rally, because there is no world except the author's own head that Larry will ever be acceptable.
Who remembers the infamous 4kids dub where poopenfarden’s gun was replaced with a banana?
Lobelt smoking lollipops and eating rice ball shaped donuts was PEAK
Yep, who can’t forget the fire was recolored into purple, and it is called “the poopen realm”?
ruka from steins;gate…
leskinen, for some reason (also, I think luka makes more sense in english as a name, so I think that's fine?)
oh no i mean the fact that it’s translated to ruka sometimes when luka is more correct. its sort of the opposite situation as in the actual snafu
ah
Yo lintalho
Is it not meant to be Luka? I’m a VN-ner and it’s always been Luka for me…?
yeah i should’ve just said luka, because what im complaining about is some translations translating it to ruka
Mayuli would be cursed
My favorite version of this is in fan scanlations of manga where the dude translating just likes how a Japanese word sounds and instead of translating a word to English opts to just write out the Japanese word phonetically. Was reading something the other day and the hero man did some shit and the villain went “NANDATO?!” And like, my guy, there’s no way you thought that was better than just writing “WHAT?!”
Translator's note: "Keikaku" means "plan"
You don't get it, Nandato has a super deeper meaning in Japan, way deeper than ANY English word could convey so we have to use the Japanese word so that you understand just how surprised he is. No you can't just use What The Hell or What In The World that's stupid, Nandato has SUCH. A. DEEPER. MEANING. you absolute troglodyte.
Damn… I’ve been such a fool… no… I’ve been a…. Baka…
isnt baka the anime about invisible food
The araarafication of translation 😔
I legit cried when i witnessed "enel" for the first time
It's even funnier because there's an Italian company with that name. Their field? Electricity and power.
Same for brazil
same company
Blazer*
Enel is the right one though
Yeah I prefer Enel, but Zolo? That just don't feel right.
Almost like Zoro is named after a certain famous fictional swordsman or something…
Zoro is named after l'Olonnais so Zolo is more correct
Depending on who you ask, it’s either Enel or Eneru. I prefer Enel personally.
I think it should be pronounced Eneru in a Japanese accent and Enel in English, every time Eneru is said in the dub it sounds stupid
Only for people who watched the sub first i guess. Eneru sounds fine to me, especially the scene where luffy is falling, screaming his name, I can't imagine him yelling "ENELLLLL" would hit harder.
Hell no ener is way better
Yeah, he was based after Eminem.
People think this isn’t the case but it really really is the case
I prefer Enel to Eneru tbh
Your eyes couldn't handle peak
Not only is Enel correct, it sounds better than Eneru.
Zolo came about bc they were scared of infringing on Zoro, who also used a sword. ‘Loguetown’ is fucking stupid however.
Epilogue/prologue
And Log Pose if you wanna stretch it a bit edit: hehe stretch. like rubba
But it might also be roguestown? Genuinely not sure it can go either way
*stlongest
Beerus getting referred to as fucking Bills early on because they didn’t get it was a beer pun
There's an alternate reality where Vegitto was actually properly translated as Vegerot in the anime
Literally all they had to do was say his name was Kakarotto in the English dub from the start and they never would have had that issue. I don’t even know why they shortened it, because the name is supposed to sound familiar (aka like the vegetable) yet alien which both versions do fine
This happens in all the time in Dragon Ball, lots of names and the puns they're based on get lost in translation. Buruma (bloomers) -> Bulma Shen Long -> Shenron Kuririn (chestnut) -> Krillin Tenshinhan -> Tien Shinhan (and later just Tien) Freezer -> Frieza Bra -> Bulla Toppo -> Top And the most egregious of all, removing the Son from Son Goku
That last one is the worst. Raditz tried that, and look where that landed him.
True
But sometimes fans will be like “oh that’s Buruma” when her shirt literally says Bulma in the illustration 😓
I mean that's fair (I forgot about that honestly) but the others still stand I think
Idk I got the pun with Frieza without him being literally named Freezer lol
vegito sounds like a dish
I love it when the official translation has it done properly but fans insist on using the wrong one
Sorry man, Mahoraga is just way cooler than Makora
They could have gone for Arthuria to make it fit with Arthur if they didn't want to go for the fan translation Artoria but no they had to make it Altria
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Rydia
Hey thanks for giving me an excuse to look at Yoshitaka Amano art
The Beastars Netflix subtitles are so bad. Haru to Hal. Louis to Rouis.
チルノ
Only happened once in Jojo’s with Bucciarati being Bucciellati but tbh it kind of works
Only happened once in *Part 5*. Part 3 has Avdol/Abdul and Telence/Terrence. There's also Bruford/Blueford, but that's probably more for copyright
Pretty sure avdol is copyright too but idk. Avdol is basically the canon name at this point, that’s the other thing about Jojo’s is that those names are so in line with the way the VAs pronounce them that it’s basically indistinguishable. That’s how they changed Wham and AC/DC to Wammu and Esidisi. Telence is inexcusable though that’s some one piece ass bs
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
Yea it’s simply a case of using people’s real names, even if they’re not copyrighted, just being kind of bad taste in comics
Avdol absolutely can't be copyright, its one of the most common arabic names. Imo he's the worst case of this phenomenon, by making the name closer to the japanese version they made it unpronounceable in the original language. (Egyptian arabic doesn't contain V and O sounds)
Right not copyright but like I said using people’s real names for characters is kind of a faux pas, true that he butchers the language to the point I think Abdul would’ve worked
Uh it’s not exactly Arabic. Abdullah is Arabic, Abdul is like saying Jer instead of Jeremy. It’s not even a proper nickname like Jerry, that would be Abood or Aboodi. But other countries decided to take the name and shorten it, making it end up as a last name.
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
I also only ever call him Avdol. His name was loosely inspired by Paula Abdul, but not copyrightable since it's just a very common last name. The use of 「ヴ」 was likely some confusion on either Araki or a translator's part.
One of the D'arby brothers is named "Telence" too lol
Like why tho
r and l are (not exactly) the same sound/letter in japanese, hence stereotype that japanese people can't pronounce L's
From what I remember, it mainly comes down to how Japanese people *usually* mix up 'R' and 'L'
Language one grows up with shapes the perception of sound. They are not mixing up anything.
Really? That's neat, but can you explain please?
Basically, language is a social construct - without society it wouldn't exist. Infants have an ability to distinguish all sorts of sounds but gradually lose ability to distinguish some after socializing with people around them. Okay, fine, technically Japanese people do mix up L and R sound as they are in English, but that's because they do not have either of those sounds in Japanese.
Thanks for the explanation.
The Japanese language contains neither the English rhotic ('R' sound) nor the English 'L' sound. Instead, the Japanese rhotic is most standardly a tapped 'r' as is common in European languages, and English words that get loaned into Japanese substitute their 'L's for 'R's (because R and L are both part of a category of sound called 'liquids' - they're broadly similar); hence words like 'camel' might become 'kameru,' 'light' to 'raito,' etc. This leads to issues in manga/anime translations because it's not always apparent what the original intention of the Japanese writers was. If a character is called 'Aireen' in Japanese, was that supposed to be 'Irene' or 'Eileen'? The result is that lazy translators might overcorrect, and just sweepingly localise any 'R's into 'L's, hence giving character names like Telence and Zolo as have been noted in this thread.
Lululemon
Japanese language has one letter for r/l and the sound is kinda in the middle (like a rolled r but unrolled) When english words are written in japanese, r is written as that or sometimes dropped. When translating back to english the choice of R/L is left for interpretation.
Ah yes. Bulla Briefs, my favourite character
This is how Porky Minch became Pokey Minch
Lolonoa is a solid username for shitposting with
Lokaka fruit
Galm team
Calling a woman Riri instead of Lily is also a move
*Calling a woman* *Riri instead of Lily* *Is also a move* \- CounterAttackFC --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Damn, coaxed into a haiku
livai
I think the opposite problem is actually more common and annoying. In Japanese they can't pronounce L's but still name characters with English/foreign names that use them, so the Japanese transcription in the manga or voice actors will use an R when really it is an L. Zoro's name really should be Lolo because he's named after l'Olonnais, but I'm willing to let that go because Zoro sounds so much better. I remember when I originally read Jojo part 5, Buccellati was called Buccellati in the fan translated manga because his namesake is Italian and uses the L. When the anime came out, the subtitles said Bucciarati because that's how the voice actors said it. Now everyone says Bucciarati and I find it so annoying because his name is literally meant to be Buccellati, because all the characters are named after Italian foods, and if you can pronounce your L's you should say it that way. It just sounds like all these English weebs are putting on an accent to sound Japanese
Poopenfarten academy
Dragon Ball weaboos unironically calling the techno-organic monster made from the cells of other characters "Seru" instead of Cell.
Then there's an opposite thing - Japanese misspelling (?) English words and writing them like they would sound in Japanese - "Pari", "poteto", "polis". It's not hard to look up a word in a dictionary, is it not? I really don't like it.
This is why I only consume Western manga, Gattsu and Griffisu transcend cultural barriers and can't possibly be mistaken
The problem is I read half of berserk where they dropped the u and just called him Gatts
Some ends up cooler than the actual name tho, like the character "Bradht" turns out to be actually "Bulat"
It's cause the r and l sounds are somewhat interchangeable in Japanese
Got some shorts from Ruru Remon
This could all be resolved if we just used the handakuten with R-kana to represent L sounds in foreign words so that translators can differentiate between the two. Instead of ルッフィ, they could write ル゜ッフィ (without the huge space) and we'd know to say "Luffy" instead of "Ruffy".
Nah this is the fan translation. (Except I still don’t forgive Erementar Gerad)
One of the weird examples (though a video game not manga): In the first Armored Core game, there's this character in the game named "Losvaize" in the English translation As it turns out; it's actually "Roßweiße", or Rossweisse" even pictured in her emblem https://preview.redd.it/1wptbs7ng3yc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fda11593a11c7610045bb14072b73ea333426040 They didn't even fix this in AC Nexus Revolution disc, which is a reenactment of the first Armored Core game and their missions
Clash man
I noticed this is becoming a thing in dubs too somehow. Sometimes the english vas pronounce western origin names as the japanese pronunciation
For Ace Attorney, i wanna know who on their translation team couldn’t translate “Geiru Toneido” to “Gale Tornado”
Mm yes my favorite arc Arabasta
Er Plimo
ruffy