Blinded by Translations! - A Guide to Dragon Ball Attack Names

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  • Опубліковано 27 жов 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 98

  • @ThelronFjord
    @ThelronFjord 7 днів тому +36

    I do find it pretty sweet that the Kamehame-ha, the most iconic technique in the series came from Toriyama's wife.

    • @ASR-Ansori
      @ASR-Ansori 5 годин тому +2

      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.

  • @aldente42092
    @aldente42092 7 днів тому +32

    Yea the names in kai really come and go. After namek they're just back to the dub names for pretty much everything except mr Satan.

  • @LivingRoomSet-799
    @LivingRoomSet-799 7 днів тому +21

    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.

  • @danielquinlan2457
    @danielquinlan2457 6 днів тому +19

    Small note: Taiyoken is used in the dub exactly once; In Dragon Ball Kai when Kuririn uses it to escape from Dodoria

  • @kinggoldark3853
    @kinggoldark3853 7 днів тому +15

    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?

    • @PutoML
      @PutoML 7 днів тому

      It was intended to seal Piccolo-a demon- so that’s likely what it’s named after. It later being used for other beings… eh, whatever.

    • @najadamu2724
      @najadamu2724 7 днів тому +8

      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".

  • @SaiyanHeretic
    @SaiyanHeretic 6 годин тому +4

    Nail: Cannons don't drill
    Piccolo: That's what makes it *special*

  • @therealhardrock
    @therealhardrock 6 годин тому +9

    6:24 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.

  • @misterbadguy7325
    @misterbadguy7325 6 днів тому +11

    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.

  • @SSJBartSimp
    @SSJBartSimp 2 дні тому +17

    Suprised Funimation didn't translate Kamehameha to Heroic Wave of Justice.

    • @otaking3582
      @otaking3582 6 годин тому +2

      Probably has to do with lip flaps, and also figured that by then, Americans had grown accustomed to "Hadouken" in Street Fighter.

    • @efeefeefe1
      @efeefeefe1 5 годин тому +1

      @@otaking3582 @ssjBartSimp funny enough in spain it's "vital wave"

    • @PrimeroJinJusuke
      @PrimeroJinJusuke 5 годин тому

      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.

    • @ASR-Ansori
      @ASR-Ansori 5 годин тому

      @@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

  • @Redeyblagon
    @Redeyblagon 6 годин тому +4

    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.

    • @MariaYuri-qo8jy
      @MariaYuri-qo8jy 5 годин тому

      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?

  • @TehJellyLord
    @TehJellyLord 6 годин тому +6

    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.

  • @FreyOdyssey
    @FreyOdyssey 6 годин тому +13

    Side note: In the german translation Makankosappo got translated to Höllenspirale or Hell Spiral in english.

    • @JLuisJoni
      @JLuisJoni 5 годин тому +2

      I've seen many people suggest that translation as an alternative for Special Beam Cannon. Hell Spiral sounds so sick.

    • @MariaYuri-qo8jy
      @MariaYuri-qo8jy 5 годин тому

      Spezial-Strahl-Kanone!

    • @PrimeroJinJusuke
      @PrimeroJinJusuke 5 годин тому

      There‘s also a multilanguage compilation of Makankosappo in Super Hero. Most dubs kept it untranslated.

  • @Freezer94
    @Freezer94 7 днів тому +5

    This is my favourite series of yours. Can't wait for even more

  • @ThelronFjord
    @ThelronFjord 4 дні тому +8

    11:34 Kay O'Ken is just Kaio's Irish cousin.

  • @Mind91
    @Mind91 6 годин тому +3

    5:28 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!

  • @yotomoe5953
    @yotomoe5953 6 годин тому +2

    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.

  • @nomnom2407
    @nomnom2407 5 годин тому +3

    Surprised you didn't go over "Garlic Gun"

    • @Lahiss
      @Lahiss 5 годин тому

      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.

  • @keykanon
    @keykanon 6 годин тому +5

    PIN Number isn't redundant? The N stands for Ninja, it's Personal Information Ninja Number.

  • @Orianna_Bumssen321
    @Orianna_Bumssen321 5 годин тому +2

    17:47 Makankosapo could easily be translated as "Deadly Demonic Beam Cannon" or simply "Demonic Beam Cannon"

  • @tomasavendanozacarias5205
    @tomasavendanozacarias5205 6 годин тому +1

    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

  • @SpedeVesku
    @SpedeVesku 6 годин тому

    You never pulling punches when talking about Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball gives me life.

  • @dankwaifu2093
    @dankwaifu2093 6 годин тому

    6:00 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.
    20:33 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.

  • @ultimateshadeofwar
    @ultimateshadeofwar 6 годин тому +3

    Around 17:02 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

    • @Crismoonster
      @Crismoonster 6 годин тому

      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.

  • @DonWeaselYeehawEdition
    @DonWeaselYeehawEdition 6 днів тому +1

    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!

  • @UltraKintaro
    @UltraKintaro 5 годин тому

    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.

  • @ShiningSoldier
    @ShiningSoldier 6 годин тому +2

    Im just here to say that the German name for the Mankakosapoo is „Höllenspirale“ wich means hell spiral

  • @CidAghast
    @CidAghast 6 годин тому +1

    I love how many of the games just go with King Kai Fist

  • @struggler6864
    @struggler6864 5 годин тому

    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.

  • @MariaYuri-qo8jy
    @MariaYuri-qo8jy 5 годин тому +1

    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?

  • @bgvo4373
    @bgvo4373 5 годин тому

    “Everyone’s doing the Kamehameha.” Everyone but Vegeta, unless Super showed him doing it.

  • @ssjmewtwo5448
    @ssjmewtwo5448 6 годин тому +4

    Kaio- what?

  • @darkfield1952
    @darkfield1952 6 годин тому +3

    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?

  • @PegasusPablo
    @PegasusPablo 6 годин тому +1

    I love this series! (Your videos on names, I mean)

  • @AislingNightmare
    @AislingNightmare 5 годин тому

    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.

  • @PrimeroJinJusuke
    @PrimeroJinJusuke 5 годин тому

    There‘s a multilanguage compilation of the Makankosappo from Super Hero. Most dubs kept it untranslated.

  • @MidoriNatsume
    @MidoriNatsume 5 годин тому

    In Italy, we got "Onda Energetica" for the Kamehameha.
    Literally just "Energy Wave".
    Consider yourself lucky.

  • @charliestoops8815
    @charliestoops8815 6 годин тому

    This is such a cool series

  • @aokyoutsuki7744
    @aokyoutsuki7744 5 годин тому

    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(?)

  • @bellowingsilence
    @bellowingsilence 5 годин тому

    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?”

  • @tylercoon1791
    @tylercoon1791 6 годин тому +1

    19:00 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!

  • @QueenOfSodor
    @QueenOfSodor 6 годин тому +5

    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!"

    • @thehussiteking
      @thehussiteking 6 годин тому +2

      That's how I learned how to say it

    • @Lahiss
      @Lahiss 5 годин тому +1

      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.

  • @silveryuno
    @silveryuno 6 годин тому

    "Barduck" is still funny quack quack hahahaxD

  • @matthiasperichejara4470
    @matthiasperichejara4470 6 годин тому +1

    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

  • @AlexTenThousand
    @AlexTenThousand 5 годин тому

    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.

  • @BradLad56
    @BradLad56 5 годин тому

    18:33 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.

  • @santiagosalas7088
    @santiagosalas7088 6 годин тому +1

    Remembering how the latin american dub calld piccolo daimao, piccolo daimaku

  • @the9thinning1
    @the9thinning1 6 годин тому

    great vid as always

  • @gpz119sv8
    @gpz119sv8 5 годин тому

    12:19 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.

  • @butchebk01
    @butchebk01 6 годин тому +2

    are you going to expand dbz dissection into super

  • @MariaYuri-qo8jy
    @MariaYuri-qo8jy 6 годин тому +1

    isn't kamehameha wave the same kind of translation that senzu bean is?

  • @karrotakun3581
    @karrotakun3581 5 годин тому

    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.

  • @sumeracarnatia6997
    @sumeracarnatia6997 6 годин тому

    Was kinda hoping the Kikoho would be brought up.

  • @Akaketsugami
    @Akaketsugami 5 годин тому

    I always assumed the Kamehameha was named after the Hawaiian toyal

  • @CidemNK
    @CidemNK 5 годин тому

    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?

  • @GoldPrince2468
    @GoldPrince2468 5 годин тому

    Demon Light Cannon!

  • @PegasusPablo
    @PegasusPablo 6 годин тому +1

    6:25 but that's the Masenkou... (That's on them, not you)

  • @silveryuno
    @silveryuno 5 годин тому

    20:15 Dragon Ball Z Kai Kai: The Final Chapters hahahaxD

  • @Bobby_Smiles
    @Bobby_Smiles 6 годин тому

    Makankosapo should have been called "Demonic Drill".

  • @TurtleRReaper
    @TurtleRReaper 6 годин тому

    In the german Dub, Makankosappo is basically called "Hell spiral". But they also pronounce the Kaio-Ken as "Kaio-kn"

    • @darkfield1952
      @darkfield1952 6 годин тому

      It’s only pronounced as 'Kaio-kn' in dialogues. When they shout it, it's "Kaio-ken".

  • @Adam-dw4fq
    @Adam-dw4fq 5 годин тому

    Very educational

  • @seanfulldark
    @seanfulldark 6 годин тому

    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

  • @silveryuno
    @silveryuno 5 годин тому

    Destructo Disco!

  • @SakuraHarumin
    @SakuraHarumin 5 годин тому +1

    5:50 "no one tries to translate this one"
    Tell that to spain...

  • @donaldcass9678
    @donaldcass9678 6 годин тому

    Ironic that Vegeta didnt name the attacks after himself to show his ego

  • @klikssiikubra314
    @klikssiikubra314 5 годин тому

    A lot of the 'Funimation' dub scenes I believe are actually the Ocean dub

    • @MistareFusion
      @MistareFusion  5 годин тому +1

      As I say in the video, that is the FUNimation dub, back when FUNimation was using the Ocean voice cast.

    • @tarponpet
      @tarponpet 5 годин тому

      ​​@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.

    • @klikssiikubra314
      @klikssiikubra314 5 годин тому

      @@MistareFusion Shows me for not listening better.

  • @trueblade3636
    @trueblade3636 6 годин тому

    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)

  • @TheAzulmagia
    @TheAzulmagia 6 годин тому

    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?

    • @MistareFusion
      @MistareFusion  6 годин тому +1

      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.

    • @yotomoe5953
      @yotomoe5953 6 годин тому

      @@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.

    • @TheAzulmagia
      @TheAzulmagia 6 годин тому

      @@MistareFusion The best I can guess is that they were going for a bowling pun since it's a ball shaped attack.

  • @donaldcass9678
    @donaldcass9678 6 годин тому

    What about Sprint Bomb to Geki Dami ?

  • @silveryuno
    @silveryuno 5 годин тому

    "Demon Kill Cannon"?

  • @SakuraHarumin
    @SakuraHarumin 5 годин тому

    So funny findinf this video right after someone called me a weeb because i said Tenshinhan instead of Tien on Twitter

  • @Chaosm03
    @Chaosm03 6 годин тому

    MankoSnuffleupagus!

  • @Soynereh
    @Soynereh 5 годин тому

    Shin Rougafufuken.

  • @TheGamer19856
    @TheGamer19856 6 годин тому +2

    I'd have translated Makankosappo as Demon Light Cannon if we were trying to keep the syllables for mouth flaps.