Re: Translation Preferences

On 19 Nov 2003 07:36:25 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Watson)
posted the following:

>Hand-of-Omega ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes:
>> If you were translating anime for Western distribution, would you:
>> 
>> 1) Change the characters' names or leave them as is?
>
>Silly question.  Leave 'em!

Would you even make exceptions for things like Pokemon?  Personally I
think the name changes in Pokemon were a very good idea -- many of the
Japanese names are puns or pseudo-puns or have names based on real
words.  I think that something like "Goldeen" works better for an
English-speaking audience than "tosakinto", which just sounds like a
random jumble of syllables.

Now, changing Japanese names to English ones (i.e. taking "kasumi" and
changing it to "misty") I think is dumb, although the one thing that
can be said in its favor is that you don't have to hear the dub VAs
butcher the pronunciation of the Japanese name.

-Chris