Sometimes you don’t even need to learn Japanese. Dragonball characters are like 75% English transliterations.
I was living in Japan when Naruto first released. I recognized his name because it’s the little pink and white swirly fishcake slice they put on ramen.
His full name is Uzumaki Naruto, which translates to “Whirlpool Fishcake.” So of course, his greatest tool/weapon is a swirling ball of concentrated energy in his hands. And he’s obsessed with ramen.
Negima! also released while I was living in Japan, and the main character’s name, “Negi,” basically means “Green Onion” in Japanese. He’s from Wales, where the national symbol is a Welsh onion (same thing).
Negi is a 10-yr old genius mage who takes on a teaching job at a private academy. His students, who are all older than him, sometimes call him “Negi-bozu,” which is an honorific that’s basically like calling a child “kiddo” or “sport.” But “Negibozu” is also a slang term meaning “onion head,” which is a way to refer to someone as being young and inexperienced.
And it’s not just the Japanese language. The Japanese love English and try to squeeze it into their pop culture everywhere they can, whether it makes sense or not.
I became obsessed with the Berserk manga while I was there. The main character is named “Guts” (Gattsu), which is just an English word.
It not only describes how he was found (a baby nestled in the eviscerated guts of his dead mother who was hanged while pregnant with him), but also his determination and extreme willpower. Dude never gives up, no matter how much the situation is stacked against him. He’s got real guts.
Similarly, One Piece stars “Monkey D. Luffy,” who is basically a human monkey. He’s dumb, a wild child, constantly getting into trouble and scrapping with people. Plus he loves to climb stuff. With his rubber powers, he can stretch and climb pretty much anything.
His powers in Japanese are the “gomu-gomu” ability, which just means “rubber-rubber.” All the devil fruit power names in One Piece are just describing the ability in Japanese.
His crew member, “Usopp,” is a habitual liar. He has a long nose like Pinocchio, and “Uso” means “to lie” in Japanese.
Another crew member, “Zoro,” is an expert swordsman, just like the classic Disney hero Zorro.
There are puns everywhere in Japanese anime, but those are the first few that came to mind from my experience there.
the classic Disney hero Zorro
“Disney hero”?? Zorro dates to 1919, although Disney did make a
movieTV show about 40 years later…I didn’t even know Disney had a Zorro movie. Reminds me of this other Disney Character Hercules.
The classic Disney Hero Hercules. I heard the greek made up some huge story about him and his whole family later.
My apologies, I grew up with the 1957 Zorro TV show, which was a Disney product. I didn’t know he existed before that; I thought Disney created him.
EDIT: Fun fact: when One Piece first came to America, Zoro was original renamed “Zolo.” Because the American translators were afraid of starting beef with Disney over the Zoro/Zorro name.
Also, the Japanese language doesn’t have any “L” characters in it; any words with an “L” get turned into a Japanese “R,” sound, which is basically pronounced like a blend between an “L” and a “D.”
So any Japanese words with an “R” in them could easily be translated as “L.” Zolo and Zoro are pronounced the same to a Japanese person.
Frieren is the same kind of stuff. All the names are misused German words that describe the defining trait of the character in question.
It’s like OP took the Japanese word for the trait, tossed it through Google Translate and used whatever came out as the name for the character.
Can’t forget Dragon ball and having characters named Bibidi, Babidi, and Buu.
I love that Dragon Ball is seen as the quintessential Japanese anime show to Americans, but its plot, setting, and themes are heavily influenced on Chinese culture.
Heck, the series started with Goku as a small, monkey-like boy with a tail, an infinitely-extending pole for a weapon, and he flew across the skies on a small cloud. That’s literally just The Monkey King from Chinese mythology.
you don’t even have to look that far, the Monkey King’s name is Sun Wukong in chinese, but Son Goku in japanese
The main character is named “Guts” (Gattsu), which is just an English word.
Goetz von Berlichingen might have been an inspiration here
Would never have known!
Have you seen berserk in anime form? Any good?
I’ve seen the various anime shows. They’re decent, but since the original manga is still not complete, none of them have a real end. They just kind of stop.
The original 1997 anime told the whole story up to The Eclipse event. The first episode was actually right after The Eclipse, then the rest of the series is a flashback to Guts’ whole life leading up to The Eclipse.
In 2012-13, a 3-movie series released called The Golden Age Arc, which basically summed up the story leading up to The Eclipse. I’d recommend watching this instead of the 1997 show. It’s 3 movies instead of 25 episodes, so it’s a bit more focused and doesn’t drag between events.
The 2016 anime picks up after The Eclipse, but didn’t have a complete story to tell, so it basically just goes over some of the bigger events and battles in more recent manga volumes before just stopping. They also tried to CG animate this series too, so the style is a little weird to me.
In 2022, the Golden Age Arc films were extended into 13 TV episodes with some new scenes added. They dubbed this version the Memorial Edition, in honor of Kentaro Miura, the original creator of Berserk who suddenly passed away in 2021.
His manga team is still continuing his work, trying to finally wrap up the manga. According to Miura’s best friend, Berserk was almost finished, and he got enough clues from Miura on the direction of the story that he’s confident he can finish the story the way Miura wanted.
So maybe one day we’ll get an anime that tells the complete story from start to finish.
Thanks!
Meanwhile, American names in a Japanese game:
Bobson Dugnutt is an American hero damnit
I’ll pit my Mario McRlwain against your Bobson Dugnutt any day.
Honestly though Im impressed how well they managed to make those names sound Americanand nonsensical at the same time
This analysis of these names was very informative:
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/t1xx6g/why_bobson_and_why_dugnutt_a_deep_dive_into_why/
DBZ pun names even cross over into English sometimes. Vegeta and Bulmas kids are Trunks and Bra. King Cold’s kids are Freiza (Freezer) and Cooler. Saiyanss are from planet Vegeta (short for Vegetables) and all of their names are modified vegetables like Kakarot (carrot), Raditz (Radish), Nappa (Napa Cabbage), Broli (Broccoli). Mr. Satan’s daughter is Videl (anagram for Devil). Bibidi, Babidi, and Buu (Bibbidi-babbidi-boo from Disney Cinderella movie). Bubbles is named after Michael Jackson’s chimp. Whis and Beerus are Whiskey and Beers, and Champa is Champagne. King Piccolo’s minions are Piano, Tambourine, Cymbal, and Drum, all instruments. There’s a ton.
Also, “bloomers” (Bulma) are a type of female underwear.
Some say Japanese is…mildly difficult. Like three chili pepper level.
Speaking Japanese is mildly difficult.
Reading Kanji makes even native adults cry.
You’re not wrong. I’ve been watching clips of this series and have been un-learning Japanese faster than I can pick it up.
Required reading material includes the English localization of Ace Attorney in order to acclimate yourself.
I actually thought the fan translations of AAI2 were more well thought out than the official localization which makes some of them so cheesy haha.
Mandatory mention of Amagi Brilliant Park where many character names are based on American rappers.
Is that a JoJo reference?
As a Japanese person, I’ve always hated this trope. It just feels so lazy.
Light Yagami
It’s not just a japan thing.
Comics do it a lot. Especially DC.
Edward Nygma, Harley Quinn, Victor Fries, Roy G. Bivolo, Julian Gregory Day, Scott Free, …But Marvel has a whole bunch too:
Mar-Vell, Telford Porter, Cassandra Nova, Klara Prast, Jack Russell…Ah, you’re right. I didn’t grow up reading DC or Marvel, so I was under the impression that Western comics didn’t do that as much. Another one I don’t like is characters having names for each one of their attacks and screaming it out loud. As much as I love shonen mangas, it always felt super weird. I’d be very interested in knowing when/why these tropes became popular.
It gets fun though, because now you have context and can understand so many jokes that translators just put something else or don’t realize it’s a pun and translate literally.
Worst? Nah. Best. One of my favorite anime of all time is Yakitate!! Japan. So many puns and wordplays.
Waluigi raises an eyebrow.
“Hi! I’m bunny of the moon!”
Yummy bunny
Yet another reason to be happy about not being a fucking weeb: If I ever learn Japanese I won’t know any anime names to realise this.
I kinda see your point, but at the same time im also a little envious of people like this. It has to feel good to like something so much that they behave how they do. I can’t think of anything that I enjoy as much as some of these fans. It seems weird to me, but good for them.
So, what’s the pun behind “Light Yagami”?
Just looked it up, and I’m seeing that his name is a sort of contradiction. His first name is “Light”, and the characters in his last name mean “night god”.
It sounds like sort of a “light vs dark” / “good vs evil” wordplay, although I don’t know if that counts as a pun.
And they spell “Light” with the Kanji for moon. (夜神 月) So just the reading of the Kanji is “Moon Nightgod”.
Extra Funfact: His pen name " Kira" means “glitter/sparkle”. As in stars are “kirakira”.
