ITT: Moves that make more sense in Japanese. I'll start:

>>29386737
>t. weeb

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>>29386737
It all comes together

>The Japanese namefor Night Slash つじぎり(Crossroad Killing) refers to the way in which some samurai would test new swords in feudal Japan, known asTsujigiri. This was by hiding in wait by a road (typically a crossroads, thus its literal translation) and waiting for an unsuspecting commoner (i.e. lower class, and so with far fewer rights than the samurai class) to pass by. He would then strike to kill, and in this way learn how well his new sword could cut.
I suppose this is why Ash's Greninja knows Cut instead of Night Slash in the anime, because it wouldn't be daijobu to have the main protagonist of a children's cartoon constantly yell "CROSSROAD KILLING".

>>29386737
I wonder if Laser Focus will make more sense with its japanese name.

Sucker Punch is actually "Surprise Attack" in Japanese, which explains why so many Pokémon that shouldn't be able to punch can learn it.

quick attack is actually lightning fast ninja maneuver in japanese which explains why it gets priority

>>29388144
>Crossroad Killing
That's metal as fuck.

>>29388198
It's also why it doesn't benefit from the ability Iron Fist like all other moves with Punch do.

>>29388308
So it essentially is a quick attack?

>>29388386
But dirty.

Why are the localizers so shit?

>>29388447
Because there was one guy at the top of the localization team for move names and whatever, and he was a hack who liked to change things around for his personal vision of the franchise or whatever.

It's why "Speed Star" became "Swift," among others.

>>29388447
>Brave Bird is still Brave Bird
>God Bird is translated in Sky Attack

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I am guessing Splash actually being Hop is the most well known example?

>>29388447
>Consecutive Punch becomes Comet Punch
>Comet Punch becomes Meteor Mash

>>29388144
Cut (iaigiri) is still pretty ninja-like.

>>29388144
christ, samurai were assholes.

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>>29388144
>"STAB HIM IN THE FUCKING THROAT, GRENINJA!"

>>29388606
はねる means both hop and splash (and run into, and reject, and leave out, and decapitate) but the only pokemon who knew it at the time was Magikarp, so the only logical choice was Splash.

My favorite thing lost in translation was のろい(Curse), which has the double meaning of 鈍い(slow, dull, stupid) and 呪い (to curse).

>>29389844
TBF, I really don't see how they could have possibly included that double meaning in English.

>>29389993
Maybe something about a "burden", but I don't know exactly what

>>29389993
Maybe "Linger".
Ghosts linger to haunt those they bear grudges on.
Lazy people linger because they can't be assed to move.

>>29390029
>>29390174
One of these would work well. They at least make sense for both versions of the move, unlike Curse

>>29388555
>>29388497
Nob Ogasawara and GF got more power around when RSE was being translated, which is why the translations are more faithful after that point.

That one guy at the localization team was mentioned by Nob, he's responsible for Slowbro being a fucking Hermit Crab and Marill being a polkadot.

>>29390344
I assume he's also to blame for Blastoise being the "Shellfish" Pokemon?

>>29390393
Didn't see a reference to that, but it's possible.

>>29389741
Basically no one in Japan liked samurai until contact with westerners started and they wanted their own warrior stories to compare with European knights.

>>29389741

Any such caste system is open to abuse.

>>29390344

Eh, Slowbro kind of is like a hermit crab.

Clear something up for me. Is Dark Type in Japan the Evil Type?

>>29392574
Yes. Aku = evil or wickedness

>>29388198
I'd argue that one still "technically" makes sense.

the basic premise is the same. the concept of a sucker punch is to get in a "cheap shot", usually by surprise.

Tail Glow in Japan is firefly light in Japan which explains why obvious that choices like Ampharos don't get it.

Manaphy gets it because it's based on sea angels which have bioluminesence like fireflies. Still unsure why Ilumise doesn't get it. Insect dimorphism Is generally a freakshow but female fireflies can light up as well

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>>29392726
Ignore the redundant redundancy in the first sentence. Brain fart

Nakigoe is a generic term for a sound an animal makes. It could be a bird, dog, whatever.

It got translated to growl so that's why it seems so odd when Ponyta or Spearow use it.

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>>29390344
Then again, yadokari itself is a pun itself in Japan, since it should be yadokani. Both words do come into play by having a shellfish of all things getting involved with the line through Slowpoke's hunting, and by switching around Slowbro and Shellder's roles as guest and host.

>>29388144
And people still don't understand why the evil type exists...

Instead they think it is dark because of the absence of light... Seriously the evil type is cool as fuck!

>>29392726
Manaphy is also the only pokemon in-game to have a distinct egg design. The egg represents a sea firefly, hence why it can learn Tail Glow at level 1.

Why is Japanese so god-tier for puns and word-play?

>>29388555
God Bird is as manly as it gets, in Gen 2 you freaking throw a glowing fearow in the general direction of your enemy!

>>29392824
seriously, these guy are on an entirely different level

>>29392824
Fury attack in Japanese is "midare tsugi" which I guess means "reckless stabbing" (which is why the animation is little thorns). Not sure if it's intentional, but "tsugi" can also mean next/continuing/succession.

>>29392612
Thanks.

>>29392767
I prefer the Western "'Dark' is not Evil" thing. Gives 'Mons much more room for personality than something that will cut your throat at night.

Interesting thread. Thanks anons.

Mediate in Japanese is "Yoga Pose," and Calm Mind is "Meditation."

They could have come up with something better than meditate... like hold pose or hold stance or something.

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>Extremespeed was originally called Godspeed

Does Japan share the meanings of Godspeed? The wishing someone well part specifically. I think if that name had been kept we would have had a pretty glorious English pun on our hands

Quiver Dance is named "Butterfly dance".

And I don't know why Liligant can learn it.

>>29393709
>Godspeed
Explains why Arceus learns it

>>29393769
>>29393709
The word itself just means "great speed," but the symbols used are god/divine and and speed. I bet giving it to arceus was wordplay like making m-ampharos dragon type

>>29392574
>>29392612
>>29393012
"Aku" originally did not have a negative connotation like "evil" does until Western culture began to have an influence.
It was more like ferocious, fierce, wicked, powerful, daring.
Fujiwara no Yorinaga was nicknamed "Akusafu" because of his relentless nature.
Those who did not abide by the emperor's commands were branded "Aku" as well, so it has the connotation of rebellious. An outcast or a misfit, sometimes even a scapegoat for calamities (Darkrai and Absol are Dark types that are not evil, but just misunderstood by humanity).
Rather than Good vs Evil, it's more Law vs Chaos.
Martial artists (fighting types) on the other hand, train themselves in self control. They find inner peace and do not give in to the dark, wicked emotions like revenge and anger.
This is why Fighting type beats Dark type, because law beats chaos.

>>29388447
Most of the localisations in this thread are completely understandable. A move name based on a Japanese idiom or pun can't just be translated directly over.

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>>29392824
"Arumi kan" no ue ni "aru mikan".
The orange on top of the aluminum can.

>>29393824
I'm pretty sure Fighting beats Dark because muh honorboro martial artist always triumphs over the weaklings who have to stoop to using cheap tricks. The moment you see Jagi bring out a shotgun is the moment you know he's completely lost his nerve. It's a genre thing.

>>29393898
>I'm pretty sure Fighting beats Dark because muh honorboro martial artist always triumphs over the weaklings who have to stoop to using cheap tricks
That's pretty much what he said.

In Japanese, Dragon Ascent is 画竜点睛, a Chinese idiom that literally means "dot the eyes of the dragon painting", figuratively meaning "to put on the finishing touches".
In the story where the idiom comes from, there was a painter who painted animals so lifelike, yet he never seemed to paint in the final dot of the eyes.
When asked why, he said that his paintings were so lifelike, that completing that final detail would cause his paintings to literally come to life. Nobody believed him until he dotted the eyes of a dragon, and lo and behold, the dragon came to life and flew out of the painting.

That's why Dragon Ascent is a flying type move.

Quiver Dance is called Butterfly Dance in Japanese. I just prefer the latter more. Paints a much better image in mind compared to Quiver Dance.

ITT: Weebs but they're all right

>>29386737
All of the Pulse moves. They're all "Aura" in Japanese. For example, Water Pulse is Water Aura, Dragon Pulse is Dragon Aura, etc. And then you have Aura Sphere too.

It's not a necessarily bad change, it's just that the localization team never considered that they might make an ability that powered up moves with Aura in the name. So now we have Mega Launcher that powers up "aura and pulse" type moves when it should really be just aura.

>>29394205
They use the term "hadou". It is more like wave, surge, undulation than aura.

>>29394205
Not necessarily.
「波導」, which can be read as Hadou, means Aura, but 「波動」, which is more commonly read as Hadou, means Wave or Surge. So while you're right about it potentially meaning Aura, the translation itself is not wrong.

>>29392824

because their language has a ton of homophones. same with chinese, russian and some other languages.

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>syllabaries
Well at least it isn't as awful to look like as the vietnamese latin alphabet.

>>29388144
>jap's children don't get to hear CROSSROAD KILLING
>meanwhile, Germany gets a sweet blast of Aero-Ass
why is Germany so based

>>29394348
That first option doesn't looks very common, jisho doesn't have it for my surprise, althought GT have it. I didn't know it, so I assume it is the best choice for Aura Sphere. But I disagree in using it for others like Water Pulse, Water Wave or Water Surge makes more sense than Water Aura. Same for Dark Pulse.

Double Slap is called おうふくビンタ (Ōfuku Binta) is Japanese, which, unlike it's English translation, doesn't suggest how many times it will it. Seriously, who thought naming a move that could hit 5 times "Double Slap" was a good idea?

>>29394412
It is because every hit is two slaps, still a bad name tho

>>29394433
Only since Generation IV. In Gen 1, it looked like it hit 4 times, and looked like it hit once in Gen 2 and 3. There really is no excuse for this.

>>29394381
Yeah, Water Wave or Surge sounds pretty good too, but I also prefer Dragon Pulse over Dragon Wave or Dragon Surge.

>>29392678
>"cheap shot"
that might have been a better name for it

>>29390344
>Marill being a polkadot
I guess it's because 'mizutama' could be read as either 'water drop' or 'polka dot', and for some reason the localizer saw the water type roundmon as a 'polka dot' instead.

>>29388144
i wonder why GF bothered to even make Greninja Dark type in the first place

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>>29394378
>fluffy vulnona

>>29393742
The reason lilligant, of all plants, learns Quiver dance is because of the flower it's based on.

The Japanese name of Lilligant is ドレディア, or Doredia/Dredia. Based on Dressing/Dress and the flower of the Genus Dianthus.

The Dianthus genus, creates an extremely strong perfume when it blooms, and it's one of the strongest fragances to travel in thin air.

The point is, whenever wind blows towards these flowers, it carries the fragance and attracts a lot of diverse insects to them, mostly butterflies; with the blow of the wind and the butterflies and moths trying to get to the flowers, it looks as if they were dancing with the insects in the wind in some places (especially japan)

>>29394639
>>29390344
Polka Dot only refers to Azurill, and does a better job denoting Azurill's typing than Water Ball. The pun is lost in translation, but at least it's salvaged with the line actually having polka dots.

>>29394935
wtf that's even better than I thought it was.

>>29394609
If "sucker punch" implies punching and therefore confuses stupid people, "cheap shot" would imply a firearm or other projectile weapon and also confuse stupid people.

>>29388198
Sucker Punches aren't necessarily punches in English either you weeb.

The Japanese name of Outrage, げきりん (逆鱗) Gekirin, can be translated to mean imperial wrath or the wrath of one's superior, and appears in the idiom 逆鱗に触れる gekirin ni fureru, which means to infuriate one's superior. The move's Dragon type is derived from the etymology of 逆鱗 gekirin (lit. reverse scale), as it usually refers to a dragon scale growing in the opposite direction, which will infuriate the dragon if touched.

>/vp/ will never be full of threads like this full of discussion and knowledge and will forever be nothing but senseless shitposting, waifu/furfagging, and constant bitching

what could've been

>>29389827
>"GRAB HER BY THE PUSSY, GUMSHOOS!"

>>29388144
>Pshhhhh nuffin personnel

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I'm partial to thunderbolt's original name. 100,000 volts sounds so much more intense.

>>29392612
In spanish dark ia called sinister which makes a little more sense on the dirty moves and types without implying evilness.

>>29394348
Pokemon moves are strictly in kana, so whichever "hadou" they intended for it to be is up for debate. 波動 definitely fits more, though. But then what the fuck is Hadouran in Kanji? It's gotta be the same Hadou if Mega Launcher powers it up, right? But then why is it specifically Aura Sphere and not Pulse Sphere?

The translation on these is definitely fucky.

>>29394013
>>29395123
I fucking love shit like this

>>29395552
Because Pulse Sphere sounds dumb? You can tell that even the Japanese names of these intended Aura to only be used in Aura Sphere. I mean, what sort of name would be Water Aura?
The translation of the Pulse moves is accurate enough. It never would've even been questioned if Mega Launcher didn't exist, since that ability boosts power of all Hadou moves, regardless of their meaning.

>>29392612
>>29395552
In French it's translated as "Ténèbres", which is literally "Darkness", but can be used as adjective for something evil, broody, mysterious, etc.

>>29395048
ha..oh..ha ha....hahaha..i get it. you're pretty smart.

>>29395616
In german it`s called Unlicht-Typ as in NotLight-Typ. Some translations are translated from the japanese meaning, some just use the english translation. Its pretty weird.

>>29395597
Pulse Sphere sounds dumb but so does Water Pulse. Origin Pulse especially sounds retarded.

Wave Bomb sounds fine as would literally all of the others except Water Wave for obvious reasons.

>>29395616
Tenebroso yeah that seems a good translation for spanish too,. Romance languages am I rite?,. The seem more flexible on translation but in spanish has some lame translations like "malicioso" ot thr stupid "falso tortazo" sigh I could make a whole thread on the topic,. Maybe because the translations is done in spain it sounds so senseless and stupid to me.

>>29395679
And i seems like they made that word up, because I have never found another usage of the word "unlicht" outside of pokemon.

It just sounds awful

>>29395679
I cannot believe that someone on german transaltion team thought it's okay to translate some move names word-for-word. It only multiplies errors made by the original translation. I mean, Aero-ass - seriously?

>>29392764
>>29392143
Nob wanted to call it a Squatter pokemon, since yadokari, while referring to hermit crabs, also literally means inn tenant.

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>Brave Bird [Japanese: ブレイブバード lit. Bureibu Bado (Brave Bird)]

Brave Bird is literally Brave Bird in Japanese. Brave Bird is literally Brave Bird in English, too. Brave Bird is Brave Bird. It could have been Courageous Chicken, Valorous Vulture, Daring Duck, or Fearless Finch; but no, it's still Brave Bird. Localization could have made the English name as Kamikaze since it's much more familiar to American audiences, but no, it still manages to stay as Brave Bird. Brave Bird will always be Brave Bird.

BRAVE BIRD
R
A
V
E

B
I
R
D

>>29396280
But it's Sturzflug (nosedive) in German.
Bird's aren't brave over here.

;_;

>>29396305
Well, the days of Germany dominating the skies have certainly taken a nosedive.

>>29396280
You need to get tested

>>29396305
But asses are aero over there

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>>29396334
Aero-Arsch

>>29394091
>>29393742
I still keep thinking it's called butterfly dance because I got so used to calling it that during the BW prerelease period
even though it's been years

>>29395342
>come to /vp/ to shitpost
>leave with a history lesson
damn we couldve had it all

>>29389993
Something like "Pact".
>normal pact; i will exchange speed for attack and defense!
>ghostly pact: i will sign a covenant with satan to curse my enemies!!!!!!

The reason both huge power and pure power exist but pure power is exclusive to meditite and medicham is because while huge power is muscleman in Japanese, pure power is yoga power, which would not make sense on any of the huge power pokemon like mawile and diggersby.

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>>29394378
>jap's children don't get to hear CROSSROAD KILLING
>meanwhile, Germany gets a sweet blast of ALLAHU ACKBAR
why is Germany so based

>>29386737
Return
It's return favour in Japanese, makes sense for a move that grows in strength with friendship/happiness.

(could never figure out why neither withdraw or return sent your Pokemon back to its ball as a kid)

>>29388447
Gen 1 and 2 were restricted by character count.
In Europe and America some literal translatios wouldn't make sense without knowing the cultural references, or would be considered offensive / not child friendly.
Ninjas were not child friendly in Europe in the 90s, most common example is teenage mutant hero turtles in the UK, or any god references in any medium in America.

>>29393824
Nice weeb posting.
Terribly wrong, but what to expect from a weaboo.

Aku is just as "evil" as Evil is in America.
It always was from the beginning of the word.
You literally use as your example a guy who was a giant selfish asshole, so people called him that.
Just like how Americans call the same thing evil.
Stop being a weaboo and actually learn the culture.

Only tangentially related to this thread and possibly more of a trivia of sort, Drain Punch might possibly be a reference to the martial arts technique known as 吸星大法 (Star Absorption Skill), which was from a prominent wuxia novel called Smiling, Proud Wanderer.

>>29396280
Except in Germany, there it is Sturzflug.

>>29396050
Nothing wrong with Aero Ass, it literally means Aerial Ace. Unless you are refering to the english mistranslation.

>it is my first time looking at bulbapedo

daily reminder that despite some hiccups like Swift, most of the move names actually are fine translations