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Anime mispronunciations

baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
As the Who watched Kids WB Premiere? thread seems to have diversified into moaning about strange pronunciations of Pokemon names in the anime, I thought it deserved a whole topic to itself :p.

Exhibit 1: The Team Aqua/Team Magma episodes:
How do you pronounce hyena? Poochyena is pretty clearly "pooch-hyena", right? So shouldn't that make Mightyena "mighty-ena"? Not if you're the anime voice people.

Unless hyena is pronounced "hy-ehn-ah" in the US (which I really don't think it is), pronouncing Mightyena as "Might-y-ehn-ah" is bizarre. It's "hy-ee-nah", so it should be "Might-y-ee-nah". Unless... someone decided that the repeated "ee" sound (from the y in Mighty + the ee in ena) sounded too weird?

Hmm.
 
Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
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I don't understand that pronunciation either. It's like they're replacing the "e" in hyena with an accented e o.O

I've already mentioned in the other topic my thoughts on Raikou... IMO, if NOA is going to keep the Japanese names when translating they should pronounce the names the exact same way. It'd be like someone purposely pronouncing your name wrong even though they've heard you say it before.

Since I usually have no idea how to say most of the names I tend to mimic the anime, but if even they're saying them wrong I'm kinda outta luck ^^;
I do know how you'd say them in Japanese, though. Go fig :p
 
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Q

QuagsireQing

Poochyena is pronounced the way it is, because it's essentially the same name as its Japanese moniker, Pochiena. Mightyena is pronounced the way it is to keep the two names sounding similar.

My biggest problem with their names is the way they add s's to pluralize them. Everyone knows that the names should be the same plural or singular.
 
baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
Wait... are you saying that Poochyena is pronounced "Pooch-hi-ehn-ah" in the anime? (and in Japanese?). I hadn't heard them mentioned (still waiting for the rest of my DVDs to turn up :x). Well, if that's the case, I suppose I can live with "Might-y-ehn-ah" 8).

I still regard Gyarados' "Gary-dose" as a travesty, though.
 
Doctor Oak

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
The Japanese say "Might ee ena" and "Pooch ee ena" too. There were a number of Mightyena in the Groudon/Kyogre ep.

Plus, "Might ee ena" flows better in my opinion and works.

Some of the mispronounciations by the anime dubbers are definitely down to the fact they know the Pokemon purely from a list they have. But they do kind of make it official how we're supposed to say the names in English.

Personally, i'll just say them whatever way I wish. ^^
 
M

Meangreen

Ugh, what really gets me seething is that we have to listen to American voice actors, I know having otherwise is impractical but it just stresses me out to hear loo-gya instead of the normal NZ pronunciation of loo-geea. I could barely watch those whirlpool islands episodes in MQ.
 
Doctor Oak

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Actually this is something i've considered myself - what would the anime be like if say, the UK had dubbed it.

Personally, I think that with anything other than an American accent it would be horrible. I mean, can you imagine a Cockney Ash? "Wiffout ma Pikachew ah'd be well up the creek without a herd a' cattle"

To me at least, the American accents in the anime is the closest we can get to neutral - because the voices are put on and emphasised in different directions they don't sound pure American but they don't sound like anything else either.

And Australians and New Zealanders just can't pronounce anything right anyway - so it's your own fault. :p
 
M

Meangreen

Doctor Oak said:
And Australians and New Zealanders just can't pronounce anything right anyway - so it's your own fault. :p
Click to expand...

coughcough*Irishaccent*cough.

But yeah Aussies had that coming from a light year away.

The Gee vs Ji thing would probably be on a whole new level in cockney, Imagine it, an episode in rhyming slang. That would be a sight to hear.
 
Linkachu

Linkachu

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Now that Gary mentioned it, I've love to see someone dub over Pokemon with an accent like that. It'd be even better if Pikachu itself had an accdent :D

There's one thing I don't get about Poochyena. If they were trying to go for the same name so badly, why did they redub its voice? Poochyena in the original Japanese version sounds quite a bit different than ours (more high pitched). I think they did the same to Absol, tho. It's dub voice is very deep and I seem to remember it sounding higher in the original. Might be wrong on that one...
 
Linkachu

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
I say "Gara-dose" ("gara" as in "bear-a"). Always made the most sense to me. If I heard you saying it differently I'd probably correct you ;)

How do most people say Pidgeot? The anime has called it both "Pid-jit" and "Pid-gee-ot". I tend to say it the second way - the first sounds too stupid.
 
baratron

baratron

Moderator of Elder Scrolls
Staff member
Moderator
Pidgit? Is that like Idjit? (idiot in some dialects of British English)

My pronunciation of Gyarados comes from the fact I did ancient Greek at school and am something of a word geek (I used to want to be a lexicographer - someone who writes dictionaries). English words that have "gy" in tend to come from Greek - like gynecologist, androgynous and gyroscope. "Gy" in gynecologist is "guy", in androgynous it's pronounced like the first part of "gin" (the drink), and in gyroscope as "jy", like in the word "jive". In Greek itself, the word "gyne" (meaning woman) is pronounced like the French name Gui (like "gee" with a hard g at the beginning) + ne - as gui-neh. So any of those pronunciations would make sense. As would "Gaia-ra-dos", like Gaia, the Mother Earth (as in the Gaia Hypothesis). I can even cope with people eliding the "gy" and "ar" syllables together to get "Jara" (jar + a). What I don't get is "Gara" like the name Gary. I just don't see how you can get "Gya" to be "Gah".

Anyway, now that I have bored you all senseless by being overly geeky... :roll: - so far, the one pronunciation from the anime that I actually prefer is Rattata. I'd been pronouncing that as "Rat-art-a" with a long "a" on the second syllable, but they pronounce it "rat-at-a" with a short a, and the whole name said very quickly. The anime pronunciation is cooler - rat-at-a makes it sound like rapid gunfire or something, which fits the idea of a very speedy little rat attacking.
 
Prof. Cinders

Prof. Cinders

Mathemagician
Staff member
Administrator
Mighty-eh-nah is good for me, as is Rai-kow, Gara-dose, Pidg-ee-ot and rat-at-ah. Meh, I pronounce things as I see them, which has led to some surprises while watching the anime.
 
Q

QuagsireQing

Like, seriously, how can you pronounce "SuiCUNE" soo-(no I sound)-SEEN? :shock: ... :? ... :shock: ... :?

By the way, I bought and watched Destiny Deoxys, and must say it is infinitely better than Jirachi Wish Maker.

Brock: "Woah! Gotta catch 'em all!" (Best line in the movie. Watch it and you'll find out why!)
 
M

Meangreen

Well since everyone is listing their pronunciations heres mine.

I like to say Rye-koo, pid-jit, gara-doss and I originally said soo-kine which I think is the better cause I dont like calling things "coons" :p
 
B

Baby Lugia

This is well known, but if you didn't know, the American English actors for both May and Ash is the same person, Jessica Taylor or something.

As for pronunciations, which my original topic did seem to deviate into :-P...

I think the strangest one yet was Ray-KWAY-zuh, but I won't mention that again...Well, other ones I found distraughting were Larvitar's own saying of his name, lar-VAY-tar, and Pokémans. Whatever that is...(okay it's not on TV but...it's so darn annoying).

And speaking of pronunciation by their own voices, why don't the games come out with decent cries some day?!
 
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Q

QuagsireQing

Veronica Taylor voices Ash, May and Delia Ketchum.

Some of her other credits...

Hotel Owner - Riddle Me This
Emily - Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon
Old Woman - Celebi: Voice of the Forest
Isabel - A Three Team Scheme!
Stephanie - Having a Wailord of a Time!
 
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