names JP vs. name Eng. for Jeffbert's book

[jeffbert]

Here is the question:

There are the Japanese names, アトム, チータン, ハム・エッグ
with the Romaji : atomu, Chītan, hamu eggu

and the 'translations'
atom, chitan, ham and eggs

Though we commonly use Atom, Chitan, & Hamegg.

But these are inconsistent!


Should the book use consistency, or tradition?

Yes, I am STILL working on my book.

Oh, I do expect to use Japanese in the character profiles, and Romaji as well.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I guess it might depend on the context. IE: If you are referring to the names as they appeared in the Manga, I'd go with the english translation of the Japanese names (Romanji), except for those that are too 'weird' to be recognized by most English speaking readers.
When referring to the Anime, it would depend on if you were referencing an English dub (which would probably use the names used in that dub), or a sub'ed version (which would use the Romanji names, usually).

[jeffbert]

I am just trying to find a general rule. I should have included an English dubbed choice, but, oh well.

[DrFrag]

I voted 2 but I meant to vote for 3. I don't seem to be able to change it, sorry.

Atomu isn't a proper translation, it's just the pronounciation. The correct translation is Atom, because アトム is already translated from the English word "atom". Translating アトム back to English properly requires fixing the M that got mangled into ム.

If I write DrFrag in katakana it looks like ドクター フラグ, which transliterates back to English as DrFlag since ラ is something between R and L. But a proper translation needs to correct for that in the full context of the name.

But sometimes you just go with the Japanese version. Like if there's a character named Sakura, you wouldn't translate it to Cherry Blossom. It's okay to be inconsistent because language itself is inconsistent. If there was a firm rule for everything then machine translations would come out great. Maybe you'll end up using Kin Sankaku and some reader will say "Well ACKSUALLY that name should be translated as Gold Triangle." If you go with Gold Triangle you'll probably have someone say "Well ACKSUALLY Gold Triangle is just the MEANING of the name Kin Sankaku." That's fine, people can have different opinions on how names should be translated, especially in edge cases. I personally prefer Astroboy to Mighty Atom, because I consider Astroboy his English name and Mighty Atom to be a bit too literal. If Fred Ladd/NBC had decided on Mighty Atom or another name then I'd probably prefer that.

[jeffbert]

Thanks!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I guess in most cases a name should be transliterated, not translated. However, some Japanese names might not be pronounceable by English speakers, or even writable in English without resorting to the use of special accent characters that Europeans are familiar with, but not Americans, so some change might be required. And of course, some characters are simply better known to the English speaking world by the names that Ladd and others gave them when the dubs were made.
That's why I've used both Atom and Astro in my fan fiction stories, it depended on if I based the story on one of the Anime's or the Manga. The same for Dr. Oshay vs Ochanomizo vs Elephant, and Boyton vs Tenma.

[jeffbert]

O.k., so if written in KATAKANA, such a name is typically borrowed from foreign (to the Japanese) cultures. But, if in Kanji or Hiragana, perhaps best to use translations? Perhaps some exceptions?

[DrFrag]

I think it's gonna be exceptions all the way down. I had a dig through some of the main character translations.

Ochanomizu (お茶の水) translates to Tea's Water, but he's never called Dr Tea Water in English. It'd be a bit silly, and that's fine sometimes in Tezuka's work, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. He could have been called Dr Ochanomizu, but it doesn't really roll off the tongue in English. It would also get pronounced wrong, because "och" in English is pronounced "ock" instead of "otch" (epoch, mocha, stochastic, etc). Dr Elefun seems wildly different but I think it captures the lighthearted spirit of the original. It sounds like elephant and he has a big nose, but the joke isn't labored beyond that. Dr O'Shay seems reasonable to me too despite sounding kind of Irish. It sounds like it could be a real name, and it's close to Ochanomizu without being confusingly long. There's actually an old train station in Japan called Ochanomizu Station, so maybe the name doesn't sound as unusual to them as Tea Water Station would sound to us.

Tenma (天馬) translates to Pegasus. I have no idea why he was never called Dr Pegasus in English, that would have been kind of cool. Yu-Gi-Oh has a character called Pegasus, but it's written in Katakana (ペガサス) - maybe because his full name is Pegasus J Crawford and he's meant to be American. He ends up with a couple of adopted sons who have the surname Tenma written in Kanji. But I digress. I'm not sure why Astroboy translators used Boynton and Balfus except as part of stripping out all Japanese references.

Higeoyaji (ヒゲオヤジ) real name Shunsaku Ban (伴俊作) is all over the place. Higeoyaji seems to translate to Bearded Man (hige=beard/whisker, oyaji=father/old man/boss) but I don't understand why it's in Katakana or why oyaji is used - I can't find any English words that translate back into oyaji. Maybe it's niche like our word "pops" meaning father. Anyway, Mr Mustachio seems a decent translation. Shunsaku Ban is made up of 伴 companion, 俊 excellence, 作 work, which fits his personality but doesn't seem to have a good English name equivalent unless we give him a silly MST3K name like Hardwork McGoodfriend. So he's ended up being called Daddy Walrus (not bad) real name Albert Duncan (why?). Or Mr Pompous, or Max McNugget, or Wally Kisaragi, none of which make sense to me. Even the professional translators can't settle on a name.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

As DrFrag said, Tenma translates to Pegasus, but Tezuka didn't stop there. His first name, Uma, translates to horse and he also used a form that translates to horseradish. I made a joke of that in one of my fan fiction stories. I'm sure Ladd called him 'Boyton' as a play on words for Astroboy, and he pulled the same idea by calling Tobio, Astor, giving us Astor Boyton, which sounds like Astroboy.
Shunsaka Ban, aka Higeoyaji, is very often called Mustachio, which is close to a direct translation. Ladd called him Mr. Pompous in the dub, which is a very fitting name that suits his character.
As for Professor Ochanomizu, I've heard the honorifics Sensei and Hakase used for him, the former usually translates to either Dr (MD) or Teacher, while the latter is Professor (PHD). Hakase is more commonly used for him, hence Professor, and Sensei is more commonly used for Tenma.

BTW, the Japanese space agency has launched several research satellites, one of which was called Tenma and Astro B. (One of the names used during development and testing, the other used after it was launched. An earlier satellite in the series was called Astro A).

[DrFrag]

That's cool! I knew there were a bunch of horse puns related to Tenma but I couldn't remember the details. There's a panel in Fortress of the Centaurs (Dark Horse #14 p186) where Astro discovers Nuu comes from the Pegasus constellation, and mentions that Tenma is a "horse heaven". I feel like there was some other manga story where Tenma's name gets mentioned, I think he actually shows up as some secret leader of a gang or tribe? I'm fine with Tenma as a name, but if we're losing horse puns in the translation maybe they should have gone with Pegasus.