Japanese names or American names?

[Shiyonasan]

Some of the recent discussion in the Astro Boy Discussion section of the forums made me think of this question:

Which names do you prefer to call the characters in Astro Boy by, the Japanese names or the American names? For example, do you prefer to call the main character Astro or Atom? Do you prefer to call his little sister Uran or Zoran?

I personally prefer using the Japanese names, since that is what I am more familiar with.

[Toshio]

The japanese names are the real thing, if you keep wasting time with the american names, then you'll be very confused.
Because, the dub is usually NOT a faithful translation of the original series, they censure everything to suit the american standarts.
Uran is pretty unfortunate, since it does existed 'Uchuu Shounen Zoran', lol

[Little Brown Fox]

I would say that I largely prefer the original Japanese names, in most cases. However, I find it easier to call Shunsaku Ban "Mr. Mustachio", as opposed to "Higeoyaji" (I'm not even sure if I'm spelling it right ).

And certain names don't exactly suffer from localization- "Dr. O'Shay" is better than "Packidermis J. Elefun" or whatever; and it is easier to say than "Ochanomizu". (One thing the English dub may have gotten right, in regards to its target demographic.)

However, I think it's about time we started calling "Astro Boy" by his real name. He's not "Captain Atom" anymore (or was he ever???), and "Reddy Kilowatt" has long since faded from cultural signifigance. "Atom" /is/ an English word, after all; it's not as if we couldn't pronounce "Mighty Atom", now is it? The same goes with his siblings: "Chi-tan" is a borrow-word for "Titan", a possible reference to titanium. "Uran" is a cropped version of "Uranium". The name's pronunciation may cause some people discomfort, but as long as it's pronounced the same as in the Japanese dub, then there won't be any need for worry/imature humor. "Cobalt" is pretty self-explanatory.

"Astro Boy" /is/ a popular monicker for Atom in Japan, however. It's more of a title or nickname there, though.

[Prettywitchiusaka]

Actually, based on the subs that I've seen, the english scripts stick pretty close to the Japanese scripts (outside of the truly stupid changes that were made, of course).

Anyway, it really depends on the character for me. If a character's name is significant for their character, than no, it shouldn't be changed. Tenma is a good example of this. His name literally translates into "high pegasus", which works for his character, since he is suppose to be a genius roboticist/mad scientist. Changing that jus kind of seems pointless. On the other hand, if they try to make the name sounds similar to the original, then I'm okay with that. O'Shay is a good example of this for me. Ocahnomizu has a nice ring to it, but it's a bit of a mouthful. O'Shay may be different, but it's not as long to pronounce, nor remember.

And in some cases, I actually prefer the dub names (such as Zoran).

[Little Brown Fox]

Actually, somebody recently told me that they thought "Tenma" was a combination of "tenshi" (angel) and "akuma" (devil/demon?). I can't really confirm or deny this assumption, but to me, it's an interesting idea of his name's possible etymology. And it fits, too; what with his "caring father"/"mad scientist" personae. (Of course, there's more to his character than that; I was merely highlighting some of the more stark contrasts. )

[Toshio]

I preffer "Uran" more than "Zoran" which is often a male name in old anime, plus her original name is much more important than the dub name.
Also, that 2003 dub name which they gave to Uran was made by a BAD dub group who took out the emotion of the original japanese series to turn it into a souless action show.
It should NOT taken seriously... The dub ruined the concept, it doesn't matter if the character is no longer "Captain Atom", anyway "Mighty Atom" would sound better than Astro Boy which got lots of lame puns like "As*tro Boy" and "Gastro Boy".
Dub names are not reliable, because they're always subjected to change and you guys know perfectly well how many times the names changed over the course of the years.
Whatever you think, "Uran" still sounds better than "Kagome", "Miroku" or "Naraku" (names from Inu-Yasha) which got changed due bad puns with swearing words.
Also, I recall of Parappa The Rapper anime which his exclusive little sister who was called "Pinto".
Uran still sounds a lot better than "Pinto" as well, since you know which jokes people in certain countries could do. Specially considering what "Pinto" means in Brazil for example...
Another reason that I deslike "Zoran", it's because it reminds of "Zora" race from The Legend of Zelda and as well the Elephant Robot which appeared in both 1963 and 1983 series of Tetsuwan Atom.
Zoran is also a name which lacks the character identity as well and the fact the original name stands for "Uranium" doesn't mean they're supporting radioactive bombs being threw for no reason, try to have more common sense.

[Prettywitchiusaka]

Actually...I was able to take the English version of the 03 series fairly seriously, especially towards the end, where things got intense. Now yes, I do have a tendency to make fun of it. But to be fair, I poke fun at Code Geass, and that's also one of my favourite anime series.

(I know that's off-topic, I just felt like I had to say it.)

[Toshio]

I'm displeased and revolted with the english dub adaptation... Man, you guys don't even know what I had to heard about the series, because the people keept comparing with Rockman and saying it half assed due how the characters acted and how the story got vague as it progressed.
But, again it's because of that cursed dub (the brazilian translation group got lazy and took the english dub as reference, so they killed the emotion as well)...
Poor Uran, there are several jokes about her dumb adapted name...
Specially if 'Astro' yell 'Zoran' and a boy answer the call as if it was for him.
The dub mainly gave injustice for the series rather than giving something really good... We lost a lot of emotion and coeherence with that dub that it's not even worthy to take it seriously, we should not even take the dub names seriously, since they may change according with the translators.
A lot of people here (in Brazil) got shy away from the 2003 dub, because the lack of emotion, the addition of crappy theme songs and censure.
It would be better if they keept the original story without adapted names and cutted scenes. Honesly, Mighty Atom still sounds better than Astro Boy.

[Tetsuwan Atom]

Well original is original isn't it so Japanese

[AprilSeven]

Actually, somebody recently told me that they thought "Tenma" was a combination of "tenshi" (angel) and "akuma" (devil/demon?).

Tenma is Japanese for "heaven horse" or "Pegasus" . . . in the original manga there's a whole little background section on Tenma - and everything about him relates to "horse" (son of a horseradish farmer, etc.) . . . makes you wonder, seeing as how he LOOKS more like a ROOSTER!!

As for preferences . . . I always think of the main character as Astro Boy - it's just too ingrained in my brain (almost 50 years). And even though I always knew Uran as Astro Girl, I now think of her primarily with her original Japanese name - same with Cobalt (instead of Jetto, which sounds silly and doesn't make sense as the poor guy LACKS jets).

Tenma is Dr. Boynton to me; Ochanomizu is Dr. Elefun. I think Zoran is as bad a name for Uran as Jetto is for Cobalt, but I'm convinced they did that because Uran could be mispronounced as "urine."