Pokemon Rants: Lost in Translation

Translation is an odd thing. There's a lot of cultural references and puns in a certain language that will be lost once it is translated into another language, and while translators do their best to replace puns when translating a Japanese-originated work into English, sometimes what seemed to be innocent puns end up being a large oversight when said pun is referenced some fifteen years down the line in the franchise's life. Or when a certain aspect of the franchise simply doesn't really make sense unless you understand some parts of the original Japanese culture.

I could go on for days just explaining some of the more odd pokemon and how they actually have rather obscure origins heralding to Japanese culture. Like, say, Meowth, his original sprite pose and the coin on his head and its signature move of Pay Day is a reference to the Maneki Neko, the lucky beckoning cat that many Japanese people put in shops to welcome in fortune and money. Or how Dunsparce is based on the Tsuchinoko, a cryptid that is basically Japan's equivalent of the Chupacabra. Froslass is based on the Yuki-onna, a snow demon from Japanese mythology. Mawile, Electabuzz, Shiftry, Lombre and many more are all based on yokai from Japanese culture. I could go on and on about pokemon that make sense only if you understand some Japanese or Chinese culture, but I'm not going to. I'm going to talk a bit about the things that are lost in translation.

See, when they translate pokemon from Japanese to English, everything gets translated. The names of towns, the names of pokemon, the names of attacks, all those dialogue... a shit ton of things get translated and sometimes oversight during translation makes some things kind of wonky in English.

Not to mention that the Japanese language sometimes gives names to things in English. So for example, the move that is known as Gravity in English is 'Juryoku' in the original Japanese, which is the Japanese word for 'gravity'. But on the other hand, Energy Ball is 'Enaji Boru' in the original Japanese translation, which is just the English words 'Energy' and 'Ball' read in Japanese. It's a part of the Japanese language that can never really be translated elegantly into English, and while everything is still the same, some of the more exotic sounding attacks in the original Japanese ends up just being simply another in a long list of attacks.

This is not going to be an exhaustive list of every single thing that is lost in translation from Japanese to English, nor is it a critique on poor translation because god knows there's a shit-ton of dialogue in a game.

Also, there are some puns that I'm sure the English translators intentionally left out. Such as Nugget. The name for Nugget in Japanese is 'Kintama', which, depending on how you read it, can either mean 'golden ball' or 'balls'. As in testicles. Which is why sometimes characters try to make a joke when you get a Nugget or whatever and tell you not to snicker, it's because of this pun. Or, in Generation II, how the gym leader Clair gives you the TM for Dragon Breath and tells you that her breath isn't bad? That's because Clair, in Japanese, is named Ibuki. And Dragon Breath is 'Ryu no Ibuki' in Japanese, because ibuki can mean 'breath' in Japanese. The original dialogue was about her saying something along the lines of 'no, I didn't give you this TM because of my name'. There is a lot of these lost-in-translation moments in the anime as well.

But that's just a couple of examples of dialogues being changed into a different joke, and the essence of the puns aren't necessary for anyone experiencing the game. There are several translations such as pokemon names that kind of make people go 'whoops' when future games add on that pokemon and they realize they made a goof while translating names. For example, Togetic was Togechikku in the original Japanese. And while Togetic was a valid translation and romanization for Togechikku, a more appropriate one would be Togechick, which admittedly does sound stupid... but that kind of makes Togetic's sudden transformation from the weird pixie-thing into a bird-plane odd if you didn't realize Togetic is supposed to be a slightly-grown chick.

Or Ampharos. Ampharos the odd bipedal sheep-giraffe thing has been around since Generation II, and in Generation VI Ampharos gains a mega evolution... that makes it a part-dragon type. A significant portion of the English-speaking fandom is utterly baffled? Why? Well, apparently it's a pun that took nearly 15 years to come into fruition. You see, while Ampharos' English name is a combination of 'ampere' and 'pharos', the Greek word for lighthouse... the Japanese name for Ampharos is Denryu. Which, depending on the kanji used to write the name, can either be 電流 Denryu, electric current, or 電竜, Den Ryu, meaning electric dragon. And if you think this is a dumb pun... homophone puns is something the Japanese really, really likes.

Also, ever wonder why Mr. Mime... isn't an entirely-male species? There are female Mr. Mimes out there. It's a bit of a bad translation, since back in Generation I pokemon genders wasn't a thing in the games other than the Nidorans, so the English translators just picked the name 'Mr. Mime' and popped it onto this pokemon... whose Japanese name was the perfectly gender-neutral Bariado, a bastardization of the English word Barrier. So when Generation II introduced gender, whoops, it seems that Mrs. Mimes do exist, and Nintendo really doesn't want to change anything they've already established unless they absolutely have to.

A good portion of the bad translations come from the original Generation I games, where thanks to them just, y'know, starting out, they don't have as large a budget as they do have. And there are things to take into consideration such as the letter limitations that the Game Boy has. For example, people cried foul when the classic Generation I item 'Itemfinder' suddenly changed names abruptly in Generation IV into the 'Dowsing Machine'... when, in reality, it has been constantly named Dowsing Machine (Daujingu Mashin) in the original Japanese versions ever since day one. The games themselves never put letters on the Poke Balls other than the Master Ball, but some manga and TCG cards put the letters S and H on Great Balls and Ultra Balls, referencing their original Japanese names: Supa Ball (Super Ball) and Haipa Ball (Hyper Ball) respectively.

Generation I even has some mismatching of translations. The badges weren't named Boulder Badge, Cascade Badge and such in the original Japanese translation, simply being called based on their official artwork's colour. So Sabrina's badge was called the 'Gold Badge' (Gorudo Bajji), and Koga's badge was called the 'Pink Badge' (Pinku Bajji). The English translations did well in giving the badges far more colourful and awesome-sounding names, but there ended up being a mix-up somewhere along the line, giving the psychic-type Sabrina the 'Marsh Badge' and the poison-type Koga the 'Soul Badge'. Whoops!

A well-known oddity in Generation I is during an in-game trade where you can trade a Raichu for an Electrode, upon which the NPC trainer will claim that the Raichu has evolved, causing so many people to think that there's a hidden or canceled Raichu evolution somewhere. And while Nintendo isn't afraid of building up on things introduced way back from Generation I (the Generation V pokemon Munna has been referenced all the way back from Generation I), this is just a translation error where, in the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue, the in-game trade was for the player to give him a Kadabra, which would evolve by trade. The localization team used the alternate trade from the Green version of the games, which changed the trade, but used the dialogue from Red/Blue.

A bit of an obscure one, this time. Back in Generation I, practically the only pokemon that could learn 'Double Kick' was the Nidoran families, plus Hitmonlee (who can learn every single 'kick' move) and Jolteon. Why the Nidoran family? They were these weird poison rabbit-porcupine-rhinoceros hybrids, you wouldn't think that they would rely much on kicking. Well, it turns out, the Japanese words for Double Kick is 'Nidogeri' and it's just a pun because it sounds a lot like the Nidoran families' name.

Ever wonder why, despite the advancement from the Game Boy's iffy graphics to the spectacular 3D graphics of the Nintendo 3DS, some moves still look... odd? Swift is still represented by golden stars that shoot out at the enemy. Lovely Kiss and Sweet Kiss are still represented by a little cartoon devil or angel coming out of nowhere. Well, that's because in the original Japanese translation, Swift is originally named Supido Suta, literally 'Speed Star' in English. Damned if I understand what it means for Normal-typed to use a 'Speed Star' attack, but that does explain why Swift has been extremely constantly been rendered as the pokemon spitting glowing stars at the enemy be it in the cartoon, manga or games. Likewise, Lovely Kiss, which is the rare Jynx's signature move in Generation I and thus a move that you're extremely likely to not know existed while playing through the Generation I games, was originally called Akuma no Kissu, which translates to the Devil's Kiss. And since Nintendo did their best to not refer to any kind of religious references in the Pokemon games (another example would be, Sky Attack which was Goddo Bado, or God Bird, in the original Japanese), it's translated into Lovely Kiss. Innocent enough, right? But come Generation II, and the move Sweet Kiss is introduced, which is basically Lovely Kiss, but with confusion instead of sleep. It's basically identical, and indeed in the original Japanese, it's called Tenshi no Kissu, translating into, you guessed it -- the Angel's Kiss. It's a bit of a relationship between two moves that is lost because of an unexpected connection.


Haze and Mist are another pair of attacks whose relationships are gone thanks to translation. Haze and Mist always has similar animation, and that's because Haze is Kuroi Kiri, meaning Black Mist, in Japan, wheras Mist is Shiroi Kiri, White Mist. Though unlike most other examples, the relationship between Haze and Mist isn't particularly evident since Haze eliminates stat changes whereas Mist protects the team from status moves.

A well-known example would be the move Splash, which can only be learnt by Magikarp in Generation I, and is famous for... doing absolutely nothing. Now translating it as 'Splash' for a fish's move sounds like an improvement and probably would work well... except that come future generations and other non-fish pokemon like Hoppip and Spoink can learn Splash, and it becomes confusing until you realize that Splash's original Japanese name was Haneru, which more accurately translates to Hop or Jump.

Aerial Ace, introduced in Generation III, is odd because a lot of random non-Flying-types can learn it, but the original name for Aerial Ace is Tsubame Gaeshi, roughly translating into 'Swallow Return Strike', which is a swordfighting technique. The Flying-type is only added into it as an additional pun. Acid Armor is another one that Generation I got wrong. Again, it's a seldom-seen move, only learnable by Vaporeon and the Grimer line, and the Generation I animation didn't really made it clear what's happening... but if you watch the anime or read the manga, or looked at the prettier animations of future games, Acid Armor's animation has the user literally transform into water. That doesn't sound very armor-y, or acid-y. That's because Acid Armor's original Japanese name, Tokeru, meant Liquefy.

Ever wonder why the Generation VI ability Mega Launcher affects pulse moves (Water Pulse, Heal Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse).... and Aura Sphere, randomly? Because in Japan, Mega Launcher affects all moves with the word 'hado', and that could be translated as 'pulse' or 'aura'. And indeed Aura Sphere's Japanese name is Hadodan, which makes the Hadoken reference even more evident. But since the placement of Hado isn't as evident as the others (Water Pulse is Mizu no Hado, Dark Pulse is Akuma no Hado, etc) it just got lost in translation, since it's a combination of multiple moves that have been introduced differently over multiple games with no indication that some random ability is going to treat them as a set.

Double Team... why do pokemon using Double Team create these afterimages? Especially in the comics and cartoons, where they outright pull off a Naruto and create all these shadow clones? Well that's not too far off, because Double Team's Japanese name is literally Kage Bunshin, or Shadow Clone, which is apparently the ninja skill in Japanese pop culture even before Naruto popularized it for the rest of us non-Japanese.


Ever wonder why Spore and Stun Spore has such similar names, but has such different effects? Spore is a sure-hit attack that puts the enemy to sleep, whereas Stun Spore is basically identical to Poison Powder and Sleep Powder, except with paralysis? Well that's because Spore's Japanese name is Kinoko no Hoshi, meaning Mushroom Spores, which also explains throughout Pokemon's history why only pokemon with mushrooms can learn it. Stun Spore is Shibire Gona, meaning Numbing Powder, to go with the same naming themes of Doku no Kona (Poison Powder) and Nemuri Gona (Sleep Powder)... but I bet Paralyze Powder doesn't fit in the Game Boy's attack slots, nor does it sound particularly catchy in English. And the alternative would be PARLYZ Powder which is equally stupid. But it did make me kind of confuse Stun Spore and Spore for years, so...

Why does Double Slap hit you two to five times? Don't they realize that 'double' means twice? Well that's because Double Slap isn't even named Double Slap in the original Japanese. It's called Ofuku Binta, which apparently translates more closely to Round Trip Slap or more accurately translated to Series of Slaps.

A particularly funny example comes with the name Comet Punch. Comet Punch is a move originating from Generation I, translated from Renzoku Panchi, which means roughly consecutive or repeated punches. Comet Punch sounds a lot catchier, right? I mean, they did change a lot of names to sound better in English. Blind-idiot translations wouldn't sound good in English. Toxic would've been "Poison-Poison", Screech would be "Unpleasant Note", Body Slam would be "Lean On", Skull Bash would be "Rocket Headbutt"... no wait, that last one is awesome.

Anyway, Comet Punch seems like an awesome translation of "Renzoku Panchi" that still keeps the essence of the attack... until Generation III rolls along and introduces a move that is literally Kometto Panchi in Japan. Welp. This Kometto Panchi eventually got translated into what we know as Meteor Mash instead of renaming the original Comet Punch, but it's certainly a rather interesting event where the translation they chose ended up being used for another attack's name.

I could go on and on and I'm sure there's loads more things that are lost in translation, but I guess this will do for now. It's been fun, and I haven't done these non-review articles for a while. It's interesting to see that despite Nintendo's relatively high quality of translations from Japanese to English, lots of things lose their contextual meaning when future games bring up the puns and original cultural references from the original Japanese names.