A few random questions that have always been in the back of my mind:
Question 1. A substantial portion of the games we discuss here were developed in Japan, but then translated to English…and, so when I see some of the strange character names that have graced these games over the years, I have to wonder whether some things were lost in the translation.
For example, Tiamat’s SF canon suggests that Urien’s name might have been intended to be “Julian” or “Ulian”, but due to katakana interpretations it eventually became “Urien”. Now, I sincerely doubt that Capcom intended a man wearing diaper-like attire to be one letter switch away from being called “urine”. It’s not in his character. He’s too serious for a silly pun like that…so chances are his name really was supposed to interpreted as something else.
Other names I wonder about:
Guile- Umm? According to my one semester of Japanese, the katakana tells me “Gah-ay-ru” or “Gah-ay-lu”. The closest name I know would be “Giles”. The random “u” is a mystery to me. “Guile” is a word, sure…but as a name? Pretty strange to pick such an awkward name for a guy who’s supposed to be “Mr. Typical American Hero Man.” (although Guile used to look like a scumbag in his original SF2 profile) Any thoughts as to what his intended name might have been?
Geese- Now, that’s some crazy ish…but, I dunno, it works. Now. Some 15 years later. The original Fatal Fury was a pretty cheesy game…so I wouldn’t put it past them to put some silly pun in there…(“DUCK King”…“Billy KANE”)…maybe “Geezer” Howard? After all, in Fatal Fury 3, a number of characters talk crap to Geese about his age…
Where ever his name came from, I don’t think SNK took the English word “goose”, made it plural, and slapped it on the boss of their shiny new game. That’s impossible.
Goenitz- shrugs
Rugal- Katakana says “Ru-Gah-Ru”…Since R’s and L’s are interchangable, maybe some variation on the name “Luger”?
**Question 2. ** Why is it that the Sakazakis names are always in Katakana, when other Japanese SNK characters’ names are usually in Kanji? Just look here:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/character/index.php
or here:
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/official/svc/chara/chara_top.html
The Sakazaki family always sticks out. I’d imagine that Ryo is a pretty common Japanese name. Yuri, too. I’d imagine that Kanji exists for their names…so why not use it? I defer to those much more fluent in Japanese…
Any insights to these trivial questions?