6

If Togashi originally conceived the names in Japanese, for example Furikusu, how was it decided that this would translate into the decidedly weird Freecss, with 2 's'?

How did Zorudikku become the decidedly English-sounding Zoldyck?

How is the official spelling of names like Zushi decided from Zooci, or Killua over Kirua? Or when Chrollo is used over Kuroro?

Is it all simply a translator's discretion, or is there input from someone else about what they might have been intended to be?

Improve this question
3

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Because this is how it translates to phonetical English. Furikusu basically sounds as "Freakks" (Sounds like Freak but with a bit more emphasis on k sound). Kirua would be pronounced as Killua. Kuroro is Chrollo.

This is because of the lack of vowels and consonants in the Japanese language. To compensate for it, they add a vowel of their own after a consonant. For example -

  1. The English word "Freak" would be pronounced as "Furiku".
  2. "Accent" would be pronounced as "Akkosento".
  3. "Hunter" would be pronounced as "Huntoru"

Trust me, they are all right. To understand this yourself, you can go here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTYB3-pQk8o

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    As you said, フリークス can be read as either 'Freecss' or 'Freaks'. How, then, did they choose one over the other?
    – W. Are
    Oct 6, 2019 at 22:09
  • 1
    @W.Are I'm pretty sure they didn't want to add the negative implication that Ging and Gon are freaks.
    – RichF
    Oct 25, 2019 at 1:01
  • 1
    @RichF Good point XD But there's got to be different variations to spelling and such to a name that sounds like 'Freecss' and what I'm interested in knowing, and what the OP wants to know, is that above all these variations, how did they choose the appropriate English translation? Why not 'Freecs' or 'Freekss' or 'Freeks' or 'Frikss' or 'Frikks'? (Just examples) I might be wrong but I don't think this answer addresses this.
    – W. Are
    Oct 25, 2019 at 9:05
  • W.Are correctly interpreted the question and it remains unanswered.
    – 650aa6a2
    Oct 30, 2019 at 19:47
  • The Japanese pronunciation/transliteration is unfortunately wrong: freak -> furiiku (long i), accent -> akusento (no double consonant), hunter -> hantaa (different from the spelling at all).
    – Aki Tanaka ♦
    Oct 19, 2020 at 14:28
1

Because the creator provided proper romanizations of the names. Every name as it is written in the subtitles appears that way on official material

Improve this answer
1
  • That would do it. So Togashi himself wrote those translations, and I'd just have to find wherever he first wrote them to prove it. And the cases where there are different spellings used like Zooci vs Zushi and Killua vs Kirua must simply be a matter of the given translator not having seen those official romanizations?
    – 650aa6a2
    Dec 4, 2021 at 18:06

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .