When you talk to random DB fans...

[Kamiccolo9]

I don't see the deal with using dub terms,if you speak English,using the English names make sense,it's using a Japanese version of a word in the middle of a English sentence that is weird....from a point of view, Both are fine to use but think of it from both sides. I think that's why a lot of people get called weaboo, because they speak English but randomly use Japanese wording for Goku's name,and wrongly too like they'll say his name is Son Goku when it isn't. That's like saying Obama Barrack.

Well, my philosophy is if people can't handle a bit of Japanese-sounding nomenclature, they shouldn't be watching anime in the first place. And if you're having a conversation with someone who uses the term weeaboo, you should find better people to talk to.

But, no, calling Son Goku Son Goku is not like calling Barack Obama Obama Barack. Because that's not his name. That's not how he says his name. Son Goku is how Son Goku says his name, so regardless of whether or not you put your surname before your given name, it doesn't make Son Goku any less correct. I mean, for another fictionalized example, take the Bajorans from the Star Trek universe who likewise place their surnames before their given names. Major Kira's full name is Kira Nerys. Ensign Ro's full name is Ro Laren. Those are their names. In fact, Ensign Ro forcefully corrects Captain Picard when he mistakenly refers to her as Ensign Laren. And if you tried to refer to them in conversation with other Trek fans as Nerys Kira and Laren Ro under the rationale that we here in the Western world don't do things like that, you'd probably be met with some incredulous stares. So should it be with Son Goku.

I agree with everything you said, but it does make me wonder....why do we all say "Akira Toriyama" instead of "Toriyama Akira?"

[FoolsGil]

I don't believe in judging people for how they watch a series/how they speak about a series. It's things like that that promotes elitism and fractures fanbases. So no, unless something they said was really wrong (like Turlès being Goku's brother, I did hear that as a kid) I'm not going to really challenge anyone, as long as we can have a healthy discussion.

[Gaffer Tape]

RE: Kamiccolo9

I don't. I call him Toriyama Akira. I call the anime's chief character designer Maeda Minoru. I call the lead actress Nozawa Masako.

Seriously, though, I know why you're asking the question, and it's a good one because I know a lot of people do exactly what you're talking about.

[Kamiccolo9]

RE: Kamiccolo9

I don't. I call him Toriyama Akira. I call the anime's chief character designer Maeda Minoru. I call the lead actress Nozawa Masako.

Seriously, though, I know why you're asking the question, and it's a good one because I know a lot of people do exactly what you're talking about.

Yeah, I was just using "we" in a vague general sense, not calling anyone out in particular. But you clearly knew that, so whatever

It's always made me wonder as well. I'm no expert in the Japanese language, but my familiarity with the culture and history makes me think that it's just something that's a holdover from ye olden days of bad translations. Something that was done incorrectly early on and just stuck.

[Gaffer Tape]

I can definitely see the rationale behind it: if it's something you've never heard of, I suppose it can be confusing. Anglicize the name order, and you immediately know what the surname and given name is. Granted, I feel it's the same kind of rationale that turns rice balls into doughnuts. But it does strike me odd that it's so pervasive that I even see the Japanese do it when they transcribe their names into the alphabet. Hell, I just saw it the other day on the episode of DBZ where they do the Cell Games re-enactment and use real crew members in their credits list.

[Kamiccolo9]

I can definitely see the rationale behind it: if it's something you've never heard of, I suppose it can be confusing. Anglicize the name order, and you immediately know what the surname and given name is. Granted, I feel it's the same kind of rationale that turns rice balls into doughnuts. But it does strike me odd that it's so pervasive that I even see the Japanese do it when they transcribe their names into the alphabet. Hell, I just saw it the other day on the episode of DBZ where they do the Cell Games re-enactment and use real crew members in their credits list.

Yeah, I understand the logic. And maybe I'm just speaking from a "biased" educated perspective Still, one would hope that could have been one of the things that would have been changed when they started correcting "Special Beam Cannon," "Destructo Disk," etc. Although I suppose Akira Toriyama is even more ingrained in the general fanbase than the dub name changes.

How do other western countries portray the Japanese names?

[Gaffer Tape]

Actually, I do find that kind of funny considering that even the most hardcore dub fans know that Son Goku is his full name, and even before Kai randomly used it once. Nobody here ever says Goku Son.

[TheGreatness25]

Personally, I correct them at every turn.

Nah, in all seriousness, I haven't found anybody in the real world to talk Dragon Ball with since the early 2000's. And even then, it was kind of annoying because it was clear that I took it more seriously than they did. Well I never corrected anyone, despite them even being factually wrong sometimes. The internet is really the only place I get to let my inner DB fan out lately.

[dario03]

RE: Kamiccolo9

I don't. I call him Toriyama Akira. I call the anime's chief character designer Maeda Minoru. I call the lead actress Nozawa Masako.

Seriously, though, I know why you're asking the question, and it's a good one because I know a lot of people do exactly what you're talking about.

Yeah, I was just using "we" in a vague general sense, not calling anyone out in particular. But you clearly knew that, so whatever

It's always made me wonder as well. I'm no expert in the Japanese language, but my familiarity with the culture and history makes me think that it's just something that's a holdover from ye olden days of bad translations. Something that was done incorrectly early on and just stuck.

I've always wondered about the name thing, since like you guys said you don't really see Goku Son but you always see Akira Toriyama.
In my limited experience it seems like people usually go with the custom of the language. Every Japanese person I've met introduced themselves in English by saying given name then surname. And I've always heard you would introduce yourself by surname then given name if speaking Japanese. Basically because you wouldn't want others to guess if you were saying your name in that languages order or in yours (assuming they even know the order of yours). And its not like that changes which is which, if you ask somebody which name is the family name they would answer the same no matter the language.

[Kamiccolo9]

I just realized that the Tekken games do this too. It's always "Heihachi Mishima," or "Kazuya Mishima," never the other way around. Are they done surname/given name in the Japanese versions of the Tekken games?

[dbgtFO]

I just realized that the Tekken games do this too. It's always "Heihachi Mishima," or "Kazuya Mishima," never the other way around. Are they done surname/given name in the Japanese versions of the Tekken games?

I believe I read somewhere, that japanese names always are written in the western order in every other region than the asian one, whereas chinese and korean names are still written with surnames first. I don't know the reason why.
As you've already mentioned the two original Mishimas here's how some of the chinese names are written:

Wang Jinrei
Ling Xiaoyou
Lee Chaolan
Lei Wulong
Feng Wei

Surnames are first in all cases.

[DoomieDoomie911]

I would only correct people if they said something totally incorrect. I wouldn't correct dub terms because that's how most fans know the series in the United States. That's the version of the show that they're used to.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Do you hold back some of your knowledge? Like for example, let's say that they make a few mistakes when referencing something, forget an event, or mispronounce kaioken. Do you go out of your way to correct them, or do you let is slide? I personally don't bother trying to correct or inform randoms because they're probably going to forget or get annoyed. If it's a close friend/cousin, especially if they're DB fans, I WILL correct them lol.

I always hold back to only use 0.00001% of my knowledge, because using any more would require my ultimate transformation and I stay in my base form to conserve power.

[Dbzfan94]

Tbh, if someone corrected me in the middle of a DB conversation because I say "Say-in" instead of "Sigh-in", T-ien vs Tenshinhan, "Kay-o-ken" vs "Kai-o-ken" etc, i'd probably just end the conversation. It's insanely rude and just leaks of elitism and pompousness. I would never cut someone off just to correct them. Usually I know the original names, I just use the dub out of preference. Except for Kaioken which I switch back and forth for by accident lol. But if the other person (or me) legitimately gets a name of fact wrong, like Bills for example, then yes a correction is acceptable. Otherwise just keep it to yourself

[RandomGuy96]

In real life, correcting someone constantly is a good way to get them to stop talking to you. Regardless of how "right" you are, especially when you're correcting them on something as small and inconsequential as the "proper" pronunciation and spelling of names in a children's cartoon. Which is why I typically don't do it outside of the Internet... and my political science course.

[Dbzfan94]

In real life, correcting someone constantly is a good way to get them to stop talking to you. Regardless of how "right" you are, especially when you're correcting them on something as small and inconsequential as the "proper" pronunciation and spelling of names in a children's cartoon. Which is why I typically don't do it outside of the Internet... and my political science course.

My thoughts exactly. The fact that people get bent out of shape at Tien or the FUNi way to say Kaioken or Saiyan (or vice versa) shows that people on both sides of the fan base need to grow up

[Shinsa]

Nope because i prefer the dub over the original japanese dub.

When talking to a hardcore japan dub only fan i can understand what they are talking about so i kinda cater how i pronounce names or correct translations over the bad dub translations to them. However there are times when i myself do get corrected as I've seen the dub much more then the sub.

When i talk to a dub or "casual" fan i can easily converse with them however i wont dumb down how to say Kaio ken or other things. i wont correct them nor will i point it out, if they say it one way but know what it is then I'm fine with that.

I will however correct people that have some wrong story elements or theories depending on the conversation. But i do it in a nice causual way that most people say "oh damn, i did not know that....Cool!/thanks!"

I dont like to judge people because DB is such a world wide popular anime. I'm just glad i have people i can have a meaningful disscussion with!

[Bansho64]

I stopped talking to random fans after 1 experience I had in school. There was a guy saying that he knew everything about DBZ. Me being curious asked him some easy questions like "Who was the first to turn SS2" and "Who defeated Cell". He said Trunks to the first and Cell to the last. He also said that a new movie was coming out after Resurrection F called "Dragon Ball Z Super". So yeah.......won't make that mistake again

[emperior]

Tbh, if someone corrected me in the middle of a DB conversation because I say "Say-in" instead of "Sigh-in", T-ien vs Tenshinhan, "Kay-o-ken" vs "Kai-o-ken" etc, i'd probably just end the conversation. It's insanely rude and just leaks of elitism and pompousness. I would never cut someone off just to correct them. Usually I know the original names, I just use the dub out of preference. Except for Kaioken which I switch back and forth for by accident lol. But if the other person (or me) legitimately gets a name of fact wrong, like Bills for example, then yes a correction is acceptable. Otherwise just keep it to yourself

Here in Italy we got Bills instead of Beerus. So I'm just used to call him Bills when talking about Dragon Ball. We also had many characters names corrected like Krillin being "Crili", Tenshinan being "Tensing", Chaoutzu being "Rif" and Piccolo is "Junior" and also other few names got corrected. Kamehameha is "Onda Energetica" but everyone knows it's called Kamehameha because of videogames and the two new movies corrected it.

[Khin]

Some people here in my place are calling Beerus as ''Bills'',it cringe me to hell.