Quite reminiscent of how Walt Disney got the name "Mickey" for the iconic mouse from his wife as well... 'Behind every great man there's a great woman' indeed.
1989: I’m watching a child Son Goku go on adventures with his friends 1996: I’m watching a child Son Goku go on adventures with his friends 2024: I’m watching a child Son Goku go on adventures with his friends In all seriousness, looking forward to more Daima/Demon World videos, and amazing video as always! Honestly love when you get to flex the Japanese language (and all its strange intricacies) muscles.
Regarding "Special Beam Cannon" - this dovetails with one of my biggest translation questions that no one seems to be able to answer. The character "ma" means both "demon" and "magic" depending on the context. It shows up for both "Daimao" (Piccolo) and "Madoshi" (Bobbidi). Regarding Piccolo's move, it's not terribly tough to believe that the infamously stringent syndication standards applied in the initial English run of the Saiyan arc put the kibosh on both English meanings of that character. Can't have demons and witchcraft in a show for toddlers, after all. So "special" becomes the G-rated version of "magic." And yet, I've consistently found it tough to wrap my head around if the English translations of moves and other things use "demon" when "magic" might have been intended. "Mafuba," for example, is understood by English-speaking fans as "Demon Sealing Wave." But it works on things other than demons. Should we have been calling it the "Magical Sealing Wave" all this time?
Well... FUNimation's English dub translated the Mafuba as "Evil Containment Wave", didn't they? I suppose that's kind of an accurate translation, seemingly replacing the "demon" with the more generic "evil".
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="384">6:24</a> Odd thing is that Toei made the mistake when Gohan is actually performing the Masenko. The 2005 redub actually corrected the mistake before Toei corrected it in Kai.
There's a bit of a gag in TFS where Piccolo and Nail get into an argument over better names for the Special Beam Cannon, including "Devil Drill Beam" and "Spiral Death Beam", which mostly communicate the name better.
The German dub of OG Dragon Ball initially localized it as „Shockwave of the Old Ancestors“ until the late Red Ribbon Army arc. And at times they tried to keep the same rhythm, which was really awkward.
@@efeefeefe1 Admittedly Spain got it from France, though at least "vital wave" still sorta relates to the ki part and the wave part in the original spelling... the truly weird translation is how in Latin America they called it "glaciar wave" in the first few arcs lol
If you think the English dub did a questionable job when translating the attack names, wait until I tell you about the Spanish dub. The Kamehameha was translated to "Onda Vital (Vital Wave)" and this wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't because they used this exact name for many other attacks. Fucking everything was a "Vital Wave" in our dub, even the kaioken was a vital wave. They finally started using the correct names for Super's dub, but damn it took them long.
Do spanish speaking countries have a problem with localization in general? Not trying to be insulting, I'm actually curious. Pokemon (at least gen one) in spanish is a mess, Final Fantasy 7 is badly translated and now Dragon Ball too?
Who is Ken and why are we KO-ing them??? Also wanted to add, I think “Demon Light Cannon” would have worked just fine lol. And it fits within the same amount of syllables that “Special Beam Cannon” so it kinda works. I do like Makankosapo a lot, and prefer them just use that, but Demon Light Cannon would work just fine.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="328">5:28</a> I bet, that someone who watches this video (as they should), will from now on declare, that they parked their car on level Ninja. Because it's sounds amazing!
You brought up Kienzan having the word "Ki" in it but we skipped over the "KIkoho" which is one of my favorites. Honestly I usually swap between which names for moves depending on who I'm talking to, like some sorta nerd code switching. But I can't deny that words like "Makankossapo" and "Tenshinhan" are just infinitely more fun for me to say. As an aside, I've always liked Vegeta naming his attacks in English. I believe Toriyama said once in an interview that he does it because "It sounds cool" and to this day I don't know if he meant that he himself finds it cool or if VEGETA the character finds it cool. And I hope it's the latter.
It is very direct, just like other Vegeta's attacks. Garlic written in katagana, and 砲 for gun. Since Galick Gun rhymes, it was pretty simpel translation to do.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1067">17:47</a> Makankosapo could easily be translated as "Deadly Demonic Beam Cannon" or simply "Demonic Beam Cannon"
funny thing about the kamehameha is that in the spanish translations there are a couple ways it was translated onda vital (vital wave) in the old spain spanish dub onda glaciar ( glacier wave [maybe because its first appearance was to put out a fire]) on a super obscure mexican dub for the future dubs its was kamehameha all the way but youll see spanish gen x and millenials (especialy when they arent big anime fans) saying onda vital
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="360">6:00</a> FUNimation's in-house dub actually kept up the "ka-meh-ha-meh-ha (wave)" thing throughout all their pre-Kai adaptations of the movies and TV series. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1233">20:33</a> The edited broadcast version of Kai used English attack names throughout, while the uncut dub switched to using English names around the time of the Android/Cell Saga, and have stuck with them since.
Around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1022">17:02</a> As a Latin American native, growing up with the Latin American dub, i don't get why it's so difficult for people of the USA to pronounce Makankosappo, it's pretty simple, it's not complicated, i just don't get it, but then again, i grew up hearing just that, the moment i heard Special Beam Canon, i just broke down laughing because that certainly isn't a canon, it's hilarious, how bad this is translated, in my opinion, can i be wrong? Sure, i have been before, but this is my stand
English pronunciation is weird for any foreign word since vocals just change randomly depending on context, anyway, in Chile back in school days we still called Piccolo's technique the "Vaca con Sapo" since it was hard to understand what he was saying and it sounded funny.
I love when these naming/translation vids drop, always learn something new. Ngl, up until this video I thought Makankosappo roughly translated to "Spiral Death Beam" just made sense to me. I had no clue it was such a mouthful in english!
And another strange choice for the Makankosappo pile, when the Ocean-Westwood dub started up again outside the US for the very early Cell arc and onward, they went with "Special Beam of Terror", despite this being the same actors who had previously been using "Special Beam Cannon" a few years earlier. I first heard Cell and the Cell Jrs using it and being 8 with no internet at the time to figure out what was going on, assumed Cell just had his own unique variant of the move, until Piccolo started using that name himself too. But speaking of that technique, I never really had trouble saying "Makankosappo" even as a kid. Reading it on the internet, it looked long, but when I actually got to hear it spoken when I first played the PAL Budokai 1 with its Japanese voice track, I picked it up instantly. Just "oh so that's how it's said". But speaking of Budokai 1, I didn't know the US versions of the first 2 Budokai games used "King Kai Fist" too, I thought that was exclusive to the PAL English localisation which used the Japanese voice track but had a strange subtitle track that was sorta kinda accurate a lot of the time but just worded very weirdly with the odd out of nowhere addition like Vegeta's habit for calling singular people plural "aunt sallies". EDIT: Oh, and how could I forget? "Kienzan" gets used in the Ocean-Westwood dub when Cell uses Freeza's version, he refused to it as "Kienzan Disc". But it's only used by Cell when referring to Freeza's, they keep Funimation's "Destructo Disc" for every other instance.
The LATAM Spanish dub sometimes would have characters saying "Kaioken" instead of "Taiyoken". Also, early on the Kamehameha went from a sludge of names: Glacial Wave, Kame-hame-hame and Kamehame Wave, until they settled with Kamehameha. Brenda Nava did an outstanding job as a translator for the series once she took over the duty, even keeping the whole motif of Vegeta and the Freeza force attacks being said in a different language: while the Dragon Team's attack were all left in Japanese, the others were translated to Spanish. A few blunders aside -- Jeice's Crusher Ball being called "Deadly Fire" and Vegeta's Big Bang Attack being translated as "Great Explosion" being the most noticeable -- I'd say she did a really good job at translating the original series.
The makankosappo is the ''Höllenspirale'' or sometimes ''Teufelspirale'' in german. You could translate them as hell drill and devil's drill. So maybe demon lightning drill could be the english name?
Is there a reason why some attacks get translated, while others stay in japanese? It’s not just in DB but in anime in general. And it’s not only in English dubs but also in other language dubs. How do they decide when to translate a name and when not to?
Not going to mention the Garlic/Galick Gun for Vegeta? Also, it took me out of it so much when Super’s manga used “Light of Death” because I was not expecting it in the slightest.
Daww was hoping to see tri beam covered, was expecting to see you handle with the triangle memes the abridge made considering the move isnt attached to a shape(?)
The special beam cannon has always driven me kinda crazy. It’s also one of those English localization “choices” thats so universally stuck in everyone’s head that we’re pretty much stuck with it in all the anime, movies and games alike. To be fair, it would be rather jarring if they started calling it anything else at this point. I’d probably wince and ask out loud, “no, what happened to the stupid thing you’re supposed to be calling it?”
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1140">19:00</a> no, the Kamehameha can’t be a Special Beam Cannon, the Kamehameha doesn’t drill things. ‘Neither do cannons’ That’s what makes it Special!
I feel like the confusion with Makankosappo could easily be circumvented by just, saying it more slowly? Or at making an effort to enunciate each syllable? Like, idk, it sounds cool to me! "MA KAN KO SAP PO!"
If it were charged with a chant like Kamehameha, it would probably have stayed as Makankosappo in English dubs. But since it is just shouted quickly upon launch, the dub opted for something simpler for their actors to pronounce.
If you think constant translations in the English dub is that bad, you haven't seen the many names the Spanish dub gave to the Taioken My favorite being YA YA YA YA
It makes sense that the Kamehameha's name is mostly a joke - Toriyama was first and foremost a comedy writer, coming off of his first major success with Dr. Slump, so the idea that a man living on a tropical island uses a technique whose name is that of a dynasty of Hawaiian kings fits perfectly with Toriyama's writing style. Dragon Ball was mostly a martial arts comedy like those produced in Hong Kong, after all.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1113">18:33</a> Well it could be counted as a special attack in the same way that Ryu's Hadoken is a special attack so I guess it could fit.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="739">12:19</a> I remember this, it's what the Genkidama was wrongly translated to, somehow, instead of going with the usual "Spirit Bomb" translation. This happened only twice and never again. My assumption is this: "The Power of the Triple Strike" is probably a misinterpretation of what Genkidama means, as they weren't provided the Kanji needed to understand what Genkidama is. "打ま" is Dama and that Kanji by itself is "Hit" for example, which they could have translated to strike. No idea how they extrapolate "Triple" from "Genki" though, maybe that's the "power" part of the "Power of the Triple Strike" sentence, I'm just making assumptions of course.
I'm actually quite fond of referring to the Makankosappo as "Spiral Death Cannon." Still doesn't fit the demon part of the name in there but at this point i dunno how to do that without making the name sound overly long.
I'd have translated the Makankosappo as 'Demon Drill'. You're never gonna get all the meaning in there and have it sound good, so I think this is about the best I could come up with. Likewise, the colorfully translated Hellzone Grenade is a giant conglomeration of ideas with 'Demon Sky Surrounding Bullet'. How about Demon Raid?
Yay! And after Dragon Ball GT dissection will have another break before we start with Dragon Ball super dissection because there is no way you're going to do dima so soon at least wait until the dub comes out? Not that I'm not disliking your little mini reviews, I love them! I wonder what will be the next translation interlude will it be races will it be games? Or maybe since we have so many alternate timelines bringing Up from sparking, To replace the missing movies these the extra series of dragon ball Because some of these movies are now in sync with the timeline maybe talking about somewhat if timelines and what you might like about them? Or since we are doing a new version of Ranma 1/2 Maybe it's time to dissect the old version or maybe a little bit of a demon that came before/after? Time is so wibbly wobbly tiny wimmy just like the demon world
@MistareFusion I think the point being you also kinda skipped over that some of the pronunciations were changed in the other version of the dub they did before Kai.
Hi, I saw that GT is almost ending. Do you know what you are going to do after GT? Super? DB games? Something else? Politics? (just kidding please keep politics out lol)
Wasn't the "Triple Strike" something he used to refer to the Spirit Bomb in the dub at one point? Early Dragon Ball dubs were really weird, and a number of odd translation decisions got grandfather claused in. Fortunately, that wasn't one of them and even the pronunciation of Kaioken was fixed later. On a different note, I'm surprised you didn't touch on Vegeta's Galick Gun. Isn't it called Gyarikku Hō or something like that in Japanese? Why does that one break his naming trend?
Triple Strike is definitely used at a point in the story where Goku is trying to create a Genki Dama, but given that the term Spirit Bomb is used both before and after this (I'm pretty sure even within the same episode), I can't be sure whether the use of Triple Strike is an inconsistency or an attempt by the dub writers to add in a brand-new attack. Honestly, Triple Strike sounds to me more like a mistranslation of Kaio-ken x3, but since it's not used near where that attack is used, it's just really weird.
@@MistareFusion Perhaps goku was readying himself to perform the powerful triple strike technique and suddenly realized it wouldn't work and so he switched over to the Genki Dama. And he just never got around to using it. Shame. Kaio probably taught him that move and everything.
