Shounen Jump (december issue) and the changing of names.

[TroutNinja]

Hey, if you're a subscriber listen up. I noticed in the latest Issue of Shounen Jump (NA edition) that they've suddenly decided to change the spelling of Roranoa Zoro's name, to Zolo. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the way that 4Kidz decided to adapt their names for the dub.. I'm planning on sending them a letter asking if it is, because it kinda bothers me that after publishing his name as Zoro for.. 24 issues and three Graphic Novels, they decide to change it to Zolo.

What do you think.. should they keep the new spelling? (I'm kinda a One Piece fanboy if you haven't noticed already ^^;; )

[Debitt]

This is part of the reason I have SO MUCH against 4kids releasing all these anime. Sure, they're "bringing anime to the US", but they're also encouraging merciless and unfounded changes in Shounen Jump and other manga. I was so happy to find that they didn't change Jonouichi, Anzu, etc's names in Yuugioh I cried.

So no, I think it is stupid and pointless for Shounen Jump to start changing the spelling of Zoro's name. He's ZORO, he's was ZORO in the original, they have been publishing him as ZORO since the debut of Shounen Jump, it'd be senseless to change it now. *foams at the mouth*

If you couldn't tell, I'm about as sensitive about stuff like this.

[Psycho Ann]

Yes, it's absolutely pointless to change his name when hardly anyone uses 'Zolo' (sounds awful--like a clown name or something... ick). In fact, I'm interested to see how they will change his name on his future wanted poster since it's clear that even Eiichiro spells it 'Zoro'. Unless the Shonen Jump people will be smart and change it back.

[kaji]

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that the reason they changed the spelling of this name was because of pronunciation. In the English-Japanese alphabet there is no ‘R’ sound. There is an R, but the pronunciation of this letter changes depending on the vowel that it is paired with. None of the pairings actually make an ‘R’ sound (like in English).

Consider Furi Kuri, pronounced roughly as Fooly Cooly.

Maybe they just got tiered of people pronouncing it incorrectly as ZoRo rather then ‘Zodo.’ As long as you are saying the name correctly, it shouldn’t matter much.

Just a guess. That’s all.

-kaji

[Debitt]

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that the reason they changed the spelling of this name was because of pronunciation. In the English-Japanese alphabet there is no ‘R’ sound. There is an R, but the pronunciation of this letter changes depending on the vowel that it is paired with. None of the pairings actually make an ‘R’ sound (like in English).

I've argued this for some characters they've changed the spelling for (Ramganas to Lamganas in Dragon Knights, for example) in other anime and manga, but the thing about Zoro is, even written out in English, he is Zoro.

[ShiroiHikari]

umm...the Japanese "R" isn't really an L or an R. it's kinda somewhere inbetween.

regardless, it's stupid that they changed it after such a long time. let's just hope Viz doesn't do anymore dumb stuff like this in the future..."Zolo" is harder to say than "Zoro" and it sounds ugly. XP

[kaji]

Right, well it is not really either, but it defiantly is not an R.

I’m actually kind of embarrassed that I used the wrong one in my first post.
The R actually makes more of a D or T sound when followed by an O.
The L-ish sound comes when an R is followed by either an A or I.

Sorry about that.

*Goes to amend first post*

BTW, this is the hardest Japanese letter pairing for me to pronounce.

[Ren_sama]

They changed his name in the manga! Aah! It's a conspiracy!
I understand that they would have to change the name in the anime, seeing that Zoro is copyrighted and all...but in the manga? Curses...

[Psycho Ann]

Actually, you see, Eiichiro intended it to be 'Zoro', nothing else, because the name is taken from a western pirate named Zorro/Zoro if I'm not mistaken. Even though 'r' and 'l' are frequently tossed around, I still believe that at least in the manga they should go with the mangaka's own spelling. Eiichiro spelt Luffy this way (not 'Ruffy') and even so in the original anime they sometime slip and call him 'Ruffy', it's still 'Luffy' regardless in the manga.

[uc pseudonym]

I just find the change rather silly. Consistency does account for something, and to change it solely due to the anime strikes me as pointless (considering that it has no significance whatsoever to the storyline). But personally, I don't really mind.

[But I'm going to keep spelling it Zoro.]

[Fireproof]

Pointless change. I'll go on calling him Zoro. ^^ (Did anyone esle notice that a while back they changed the card game in Yu-Gi-Oh from "Magic and Wizards" to "Duel Monsters?" This might have been in the Japanese version, but it's still a change.)

[MasterDias]

They changed his name in the manga! Aah! It's a conspiracy!
I understand that they would have to change the name in the anime, seeing that Zoro is copyrighted and all...but in the manga? Curses...

It's not a copyright issue. You can trademark names but you can't copyright them in most circumstances(there are exceptions I imagine). That is most likely why Detective Conan became Case Closed and yet, his name was still Conan Edogawa.

That whole issue is why I don't buy the argument that 4kids changed the name to Zolo to avoid copyright issues with Zorro. And there is almost zero chance of confusing the two characters, so that doesn't make any sense.
Altering the name 2 years after it started is stupid. They left the names in Yugioh and Shaman King alone. They didn't change Tao Ren to Tao Len like the anime did.
Although, on the negative side, they did change the names in the Saint Seiya and Ultimate Muscle graphic novels.

Sometimes I wonder about Viz.
If anyone noticed, they have also changed Mr. Satan to Hercule in DBZ.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Yes this is tragic, but do any of you propose to do anything about it?

[TroutNinja]

Well, I sent them an email asking if there was any explaination for it. Don't worry I tried to be civil and stuff. If I recieve any response (I sent it to the editor) I'll post it here, most likely I won't get a response but you never know. ^^;

I think the best thing for now is wait and see if I get a response, and/or see if the January Issue has the same spelling (with no explaination still.) If there is both no explaination and no response then I will probably write them an actual letter addressing the issue. I guess I'm mostly curious why they just changed it out of the blue without even giving an explaination saying 'We changed the spelling for Zoro's name because ____'

If it's copyright problems, then yes, I'll accept it. But if it's to go along with the (horribly edited/dubbed/translated/dumbed down) Anime... I'ma gonna kill something.. well no I'll probably just write a lot of letters.

[Tenshi no Ai]

[quote="TroutNinja"] I'll post it here, most likely I won't get a response but you never know. ^^]

Just to give you a bit of hope, one time I wrote in and they atcually replied to it (I was wondering why DBZ started in the middle). Mailed them back and asked if when DBZ is done it's print if they can start it from the begining for the people who don't want to buy the extra graphic novels.

Yes the name change sounds annoying (can't wait :/) Waht's alos VERY annoying is their subliminal messages of the graphic novels. Seriously please do, shut up. We already know they sell them with their ads and that's enough! My mind is now used to NOT focussing below the bar now.

[Ichigo_89]

This is horrible. Who's with me on starting an anti-4kids club? BANNERS. We need banners, people! Can someone make these? Maybe like, some blood splats on the 4kids logo, or a red X on it or something? That'd rock! *evil grin*

[Debitt]

I saw someone who had a banner that said "4Shame Entertainment"

[Aka-chan]

Good one. ^__^

Roronoa ZoRo is, I think, my all time favorite One Piece character (though I admit Ace and Mihawk are cool too), and I'm quite frustrated over the name change too. I've boycotted the dub completely because such butchering was, sadly, to be expected, but that it should bleed into the manga... *sigh* What happened to Viz taking so much pride in translating correctly and checking back with the original authors to make sure everything was as it was originally meant to be? I really enjoyed Shonen Jump for a while, but I'm back to being pretty much a scanslations-only reader.

Oh, and from past experience, Viz does NOT write back if you write in with complaints/pointing out mistakes, no matter how politely and tactfully it's worded. At least Del Rey encourages feedback.

And, like PsychoAnn said, though it could be romanized Zoro or Zolo and be correct, Oda-sensei specifically romanized it himself as Zoro, just as Takei-sensei romanized the name Tao Ren and not Tao Len. It just seems to vacuous to twist this little details.

[uc pseudonym]

Yes this is tragic, but do any of you propose to do anything about it?

I would argue that there is nothing we can do. Would any of us not buy a graphic novel because of the name change? I doubt it (and I hope none of us are quite that petty). If they get money from us, it is basically irrelevant what we do or do not like.

Waht's alos VERY annoying is their subliminal messages of the graphic novels. Seriously please do, shut up. We already know they sell them with their ads and that's enough! My mind is now used to NOT focussing below the bar now.

I find these vaguely amusing but mostly sad. At this point I'm a master of completely ignoring them.