BeggingTurtle wrote:
I cannot believe that this has eluded forums for a while. It's something about it that makes them so endearing...
I also refuse to call most Pokemon by their English names now. Most of them were modified to "appeal to American audiences". It's rather disgusting when you see some of the before/afters, and find out it was no different in the first place or the meaning was changed.
Scizor => Hassam (convoluted variation of "to cut" 剪む )
Blastoise => Kamex (Kame means "turtle" and the "x" represents "max", to demonstrate superiority) But wait, "oise" references to "tortoise"! Nintendo America has lied to us!
Of course, some names haven't changed at all:
Pikachu, Gyarados, Rotom, Darkrai, Flygon, Lucario, etc.
The name changes make sense though, if you think about it.
The Scizor/Hassam one, for instance. In Japanese you say it connects to the idea of "to cut", yeah? But when brought over to English, it no longer has a connection to anything. "Hassam" doesnt sound like anything to default English speakers. Whereas the name "Scizor" brings up the thoughts of the words "scissors" and "razor", both of which have to do with cutting. It also just sounds good in the context of this particular language. And on top of that, it's going to be easier to remember. In other words, the name "Hassam" is meant to have a particular meaning, but if unchanged and brought here, it no longer has any meaning whatsoever by the defaults of this language. And Blastoise, as you said, "oise" refers to "tortoise", or "turtle" to most, and Blast is shown, indeed, as a form of superiority; that particular Pokemon doesnt just spray water at you, it BLASTS it at you. And using "Blast" + "turtle" instead of "tortoise" just sounds derpy, as it comes out "Blastle" or something similar. Blastoise has an easy ring to it and is also easy to remember.
This is the kind of logic and reasoning used in making such changes. When you go from one language to another, in order for things to make sense and sound natural, sometimes this is needed. And when dealing with a product like this.... meant to be very, very accessible.... those are necessary traits.
The effects of NOT doing this can be seen in alot of older games on the NES for example. When you look in the manuals for some of those old games, they'll have pages that show and name all of the enemies in the game, and much of the time back then, these names were not altered. And to most people here, they looked and sounded like names that were made by randomly smashing syllables together in no particular order for no particular reason.
Now as for why some names in Pokemon here DONT get changed, heck if I know. I'd have to know more about them to figure that one out.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.
On the subject of Pokemon overall, It's been a LONG time for me....
....but after the "accidental" purchase of a DS recently (like, just over a week ago), and an equally unexpected purchase of Pokemon Y (because it was there and it was shiny), it looks like it's time to jump back in.
And I have to say, it's pretty appealing. PARTICULARLY with a variety of online play options. The ability to compete with others is a huge part of what Pokemon is, to me.
I havent started on it just yet, as I still have other games that are being a bit distracting right now, but I'll probably do so in the next day or two. And I aint gonna recognize most of the Pokemon in there, I bet.
19 Jul 2014, 9:06 pm
