name translation worse than Aeris

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

I was on the AC site (the official one that's in Japanese) and noticed the katakana for Zack is "Za kku su." Did they add the su for just the movie, or is it in FFVII (J)? They didn't make it an s like in Aeris or a th like in Sephiroth; they just dropped it. Just thought I might wanna shock you all. Any comments?

[TheAbominatrix]

You'll find that a lot of Japanese words or names have the 'su' at the end. It's not a bad translation to make the name make since. They were obviously intending to use the English name Zack in the first place.

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

I didn't notice other names with 'su' at the end where they dropped it. So I guess you mean other than FFVII?

[TheAbominatrix]

I mean in general.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

He's always been Zax--or Zacks, I guess, if you like--in the Japanese version. No big deal.

[battousai9439]

The original was zakkusu, if I remember correctly. Some of us have played the Japanese version...

[BG-57]

The U after the S would almost be silent when pronounced anyway.

The word 'suki' (to like) sounds like 'ski' to me when said out loud. :greenie:

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Yeah, that's usually how it works. I wouldn't call it a bad translation of they called him Zacks or Zax.

I don't think suki is the best example. It's more whispered than silent. Depending on what's next, or if there's nothing next, you'll hear it more than other times. 'Desu' definitely sounds like "des" a lot.

[§håd0w]

The U after the S would almost be silent when pronounced anyway.

The word 'suki' (to like) sounds like 'ski' to me when said out loud. :greenie:

Take the name Harada Sanosuke (Leader of the 10th squad of the Shinsengumi) for example. It's not pronounced phonetically, otherwise it would San-oh-sue-kay. Instead it is pronounced Sa-no-skay. The Japanese language has a lot of hard pronunciations.

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Wow, either you are really really smart when it comes to Japanese people, or that guy is just someone you know from wondering if Sanosuke Segara was named after a real person.

Yeah, I'm not angry at the u part. They have to be a little off. There is absolutely no way they can say exactly. . . Cloud, either, unless they named him 'kumo,' but they didn't do that. (Interestingly, they did the exact opposite thing with Sky, I mean Sora. We both have a Japanese word as a main character, instead of an English word in both versions.) Also, it's not just the u in su's are whispered in general; it's just that a su is the closest thing to a th or an s or ss. Hence, I'm okay with the way they translated Sefiros (actually that looks kinda cool :) ), b/c if you go backwards, you get the same thing. Being aware of Sephiroth, it does kinda make sense that Aerith is a valid translation. But if you go backwards with Zack, you don't get Zakkusu. You get Zakku. Oh well. At least it's not as bad as translating Mash to Sabin. That was one of the worst. It's not like they couldn't fit it.

[§håd0w]

Sagara Sanosuke was infact modeled after Harada Sanosuke. Saitou Hajime was also the actual leader of the 3rd squad, and Okita was the the leader of the 1st. Many of the characters in Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X were modeled after someone in Japanese history.

I was born in Kyoto, and my father lived there until he met my mother. My father is half Japanese, half American. My mother is American. I learned much while I was in Japan; and I still do learn more everytime I go there. That's mainly how I know most of this, that and I did a research project on the Shinsengumi for World History. :p


As for the other translations, like Sabin's name, those were done a little poorly. But then again, we lose many things in the translation in of media, such as dialogue or plot context. Generally minor things, but sometimes it can be enough to change everything.

[Del Murder]

Does anyone remember those toys called Zacks? They were triangles the hooked together and you could make a ball with them, or an alien...

[§håd0w]

Do you mean these?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/masamune1287/Photo002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/masamune1287/Photo001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/masamune1287/Photo3001.jpg

[DJZen]

I can think of far worse translations in FFVII than "Zack".....

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Knowlespole, baby.

[TheAbominatrix]

I still have yet to see how Zack is a bad translation of a name that was meant to be an American one anyway. Zack was where they got the name from.

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Knowlespole? Was that a bad translation? What was it in Japanese for those who have played the Japanese version?

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

"Knowlespole" was a thouroughly embarrassing mistranslation of a phrase that was already in blatant English--noosu pooru, or "North Pole."

[velvet.fireball]

the name zack did kinda annoy me. it made me think of some surfer guy, maybe tidus ought to have been called zack