Gatchaman will be aired on Taiwanese televsion, starting in October. Kena was kind enough to send me this link, which I translated through Babelfish. Gatchaman to air on Taiwan TV The translation is hysterical! I'm really enjoying trying to figure out what the original words were...

Originally posted by Transmute Jun The translation is hysterical! I'm really enjoying trying to figure out what the original words were...

This one is hard for my mind to figure it out this late! (it's almost 11pm here and I have just finished unpacking all that was needed for a family of four for a short holiday!) There's no clue that it refers to Gatchaman! Hope that people are guided better when reading it in the original language!

Hi all!

There's no clue that it refers to Gatchaman! Hope that people are guided better when reading it in the original language!

Fortunately, yes, it does make more sense in Chinese. I don't know Chinese, I've dealt with enough of the Taiwanese merchandise to recognize some of the elements that come across as confusing nonsense in the translation. "Science Small Flying Variant" refers to the name of the series, the "phoenix number" is the God Phoenix, the "devil party" is Gallactor, and "iron male, the Ming Dynasty, the treasure treasure, Ding, Aaron and Nagong doctor" refer to Ken, Joe, Jun, Jinpei, Ryu, and Dr. Nambu. Mentally substitute those elements in the message, and it'l lmake a lot more sense. James

Originally posted by tatsunokofan "Science Small Flying Variant" refers to the name of the series, the "phoenix number" is the God Phoenix, the "devil party" is Gallactor, and "iron male, the Ming Dynasty, the treasure treasure, Ding, Aaron and Nagong doctor" refer to Ken, Joe, Jun, Jinpei, Ryu, and Dr. Nambu. Mentally substitute those elements in the message, and it'l lmake a lot more sense.

I had surmised all of this myself, and that's what had me ! I can just see Ken as the Iron Male and Joe as the Ming Dynasty! And Jun is a 'Treasure Treasure? And how did Ryu come out of all of it with a 'normal' name?

Hi all!

I had surmised all of this myself, and that's what had me ! I can just see Ken as the Iron Male and Joe as the Ming Dynasty! And Jun is a 'Treasure Treasure?

Well, those "names" are just translations of the characters that are used to make up their names, and are no more proper than referring to Ken, Jinpei, Ryu, and Nambu as "Health, Exceedingly level, Dragon, and Southern Part." You may think these are funny, and I'm sure people in Taiwan would think the meanings behind our names are just as funny.

And how did Ryu come out of all of it with a 'normal' name?

He didn't really, no more than Felix Ip's first name is likely to really be "Felix." It's more a matter of Ryu's Chinese name being their equivalent of "Aaron." I've seen this done a lot with names from Taiwan, but I don't know why they do it. I also don't know what the Chinese pronunciation of Ryu's name would be, but the Japanese use of the characters that make up his Chinese name would be, roughly, "flattered dragon." Since Chinese and Japanese often use the same meanings for their shared character set (But, not always!), it is likely that his Chinese name means something similar. James

Thanks for posting this, TJ -those names gave me a good chuckle. Thank you, James, too for clarifying some of the issues of translating Japanese to Chinese to English -clearly not always a simple matter, especially where names are concerned.

This made more sense than some instruction books that are translated and retranslated four or five times before finally making it into the target languages.

Originally posted by tatsunokofan Well, those "names" are just translations of the characters that are used to make up their names, and are no more proper than referring to Ken, Jinpei, Ryu, and Nambu as "Health, Exceedingly level, Dragon, and Southern Part." You may think these are funny, and I'm sure people in Taiwan would think the meanings behind our names are just as funny.

Thanks for the whole clarification, James! Sometimes we take it for granted that our names are the normal ones and forget that other people of different nationalities may see these strange as we do with theirs! If I'm not mistaken Japanese names, especially surnames which were introduced at a late stage, as most Japanese people did not have a family name except for the nobles, samurai, and people of a higher class than peasants, are made up of geographic features and adjectives, such as "river", "god" etc. That's why when they are translated the words replacing them are literally read as such.

By the way, now that I'm thinking of it, when I remember the first time I heard the name "Berg Katse" pronounced I still ! The fact is that "Katse" in my language (and even in the Italian language) is pronounced as the same word referring to a man's attribute if I'm explaining myself well without being offensive! I still tend to drag myself backwards a bit when coming to pronounce it but now it's not as difficult as before ... I think the embarrassment weared off through the habit of encountering it so many times since then!

Originally posted by gatchamarie By the way, now that I'm thinking of it, when I remember the first time I heard the name "Berg Katse" pronounced I still ! The fact is that "Katse" in my language (and even in the Italian language) is pronounced as the same word referring to a man's attribute if I'm explaining myself well without being offensive!

Marie, I can see why that would give you a bit of a problem! Oh my! Perhaps you could just refer to him as 'the purple one'. Of course, that has smut implications too...

Originally posted by Transmute Jun Marie, I can see why that would give you a bit of a problem! Oh my! Perhaps you could just refer to him as 'the purple one'. Of course, that has smut implications too...

Really, I've learnt to live with it ... that is pronouncing the name without even thinking that it somehow refers to smut! The most intricate and ironic thing in this case, when associating the name "Katse" (pronounced in my language) to the actual character, is that this character was neither a definite he nor a definite she!

Originally posted by tatsunokofan I also don't know what the Chinese pronunciation of Ryu's name would be, but the Japanese use of the characters that make up his Chinese name would be, roughly, "flattered dragon." Since Chinese and Japanese often use the same meanings for their shared character set (But, not always!), it is likely that his Chinese name means something similar. James

But if you flatter a dragon, will he climb a tree?

Originally posted by Barrdwing But if you flatter a dragon, will he climb a tree?

Not if it thinks it's a Sheldon-chasing chicken.

Originally posted by Transmute Jun Not if it thinks it's a Sheldon-chasing chicken.

We howled over that one! And with those silly young roosters galloping all over our lawn, I can just imagine Sheldon perched in the branches of the big pine, yelling for help. We'd be like the Sheldon's World version of that house on the block with giant dogs roaming loose in the front yard.