Red/Ash and Blue/Gary

[Te-em]

Can't we just cut with the confusion and use the nationally accepted names? I mean, different people using different names just makes things horribly confusing, and since a majority, if not all of us live outside of Japan, doesn't it make sense to use their names here?

I always use the original names. If someone decides something I'll stick to that and don't care if someone else is not happy about it and then changes it. Who does Pocket Monsters belong to? I listen to them, not some other "we think we do things so much better"-company. But I don't blame people who use the "wrong" names. I mean, maybe they got to know those names first and got used to them and they can't help it. But I agree that it's confusing.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I always use the original names. If someone decides something I'll stick to that and don't care if someone else is not happy about it and then changes it. Who does Pocket Monsters belong to? I listen to them, not some other "we think we do things so much better"-company. But I don't blame people who use the "wrong" names. I mean, maybe they got to know those names first and got used to them and they can't help it. But I agree that it's confusing.

What about in cases like Meowth where the Japanese company uses the English name on official products? Who "knows better" then?

 

[The Outrage]

I always use the original names. If someone decides something I'll stick to that and don't care if someone else is not happy about it and then changes it. Who does Pocket Monsters belong to? I listen to them, not some other "we think we do things so much better"-company. But I don't blame people who use the "wrong" names. I mean, maybe they got to know those names first and got used to them and they can't help it. But I agree that it's confusing.

So you call Umbreon Blacky?

I don't see why you woul call those names "wrong" anyway. I'd rather have them over Thunders and Showers.

And I just thought people used Japanese names because they play their imported Japanese games and watch the Anime in Japanese.

 

[TTEchidna]

Calling Green Blue and Blue Green in the English translations of Special was likely the worst move ever, simply because it intensifies the language barrier. Sure, we didn't get Green, but everyone knew about it. Plus, it'd put Red and Blue together when their game counterparts, Red and Leaf, were the player characters while Green's game counterpart was the rival in Gen III.

And let's not forget... For a while, each of them had the version mascot of their respective Japanese game... while in English they ended up with the mascot weakened by their version mascot. Isn't it great!

Anyway, back to the original question, no Ash is not Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Isamu, or any other character. Not even in Yellow. That's still Red. Gary is not Blue, Green, Green, Blue, Green, Kai, or any others. And Leaf from the games is not any of the anime characters we know of... her counterpart however is Blue. And that means Special Blue. Who used to wear black but now wears blue because Leaf does. Thank you Gen III redesign.

 

[Te-em]

What about in cases like Meowth where the Japanese company uses the English name on official products? Who "knows better" then?

I guess they do it because they want non-Japanese people to buy them. And why is everyone complaining on me because I use the original names? They were first you know.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

But the products were only released in Japan. I'm thinking specifically of two CDs.

Well, it's not so much that you use them, but you tried to lecture the rest of us about why we should too. That whole thing about "oh, the translation companies think they know so much better"...yeah, that's condescending. And some of the names *are* better translated. Like the aforementioned Blacky/Umbreon.

 

[Green Cherrim]

Like the aforementioned Blacky/Umbreon.

Well, just playing devils' advocate for a sec, in Japan, since they don't speak English, Blacky is SORT of creative. There. Here, however, you are right, it sounds really stupid.

The only original name I use is Blue for Special girl main character. I use the English names for everything else, except on when discussing the Anime, in which case I use French

 

[The Outrage]

But the products were only released in Japan. I'm thinking specifically of two CDs.

Well, it's not so much that you use them, but you tried to lecture the rest of us about why we should too.

That's why. I mean I don't really give a damn if you use the Japanese names. If you watch the Japanese Anime and play the Japanese games, no point in trying to force you to use English names when the Japanese ones come much more naturally to you. Half the time I'm doing an RMT in the early English DP days I've interchanged the Japanese and English names of Pokemon, mostly because I got used to the Japanese names, which was terrible for those who didn't know what the hell I'm talking about.

And the reason I myself am complaing is because of this:

But I don't blame people who use the "wrong" names.

Its as if you view yourself a "better" fan of the franchise for using Japanese names, whether it be a conscious thought, or soething incling at the back of your head.

I mean sure you said you don't blame them, but yet you also reffer to them as "wrong names" as if you find something wrong with people using names translated to make more relevence to their society. I find that almost as insulting as someone calling you a japanophile.

I use Green for the guy and Blue for the girl because the only exposure I've had to the Special Manga was from the synopsis on SPPf and a coule articles of those characters on bulbapedia.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

*mod post*

Okay, guys, that's enough. Since people are making such a big deal about it, specify gender when you say Blue or Green for this thread and get back on topic.

 

[Te-em]

Ok, I understand what you mean, but that's the way I have been treated whenever I use the Japanese names. People say they are the "wrong" names and that I must use the English ones. Of course people should be able to use the names they want. And some translations are understandable. Nyaasu translated into Meowth is understandable (to make it easier for people who doesn't speak jp). But not when they translated Hellgar into Houndoom, because they just did that because they're Christian. I get a feeling that NoA (or whoever translated PM in USA) doesn't respect the creators of Pocket Monsters and just want to make money and people seem to trust them more and think they made Pokemon better. Like Satoshi Tajiri and his friends couldn't make it good enough on their own. Like they need someone from USA to do something. Of course they need that if they want to release Pokemon in USA, but in US they have a way of "americanize" everything. PM would still have been good with the Japanese culture and Japanese names. The only thing I can understand if they translate is the Pokemon's names that are Japanese, not the others and not the people in the anime. And I can't understand how some have problems with names like Blacky. I never hear anyone complain on Seel for instance. I mean, it's the same as seal! If you misspell Blacky, then it's should be no different. And what about Golem. How OU isn't that name?! I don't know who started complaining about the JP names (those about Red and Green), but stop complaining and I won't say anything bad about the US names. I don't want a war. The US names exist and there is nothing to do. Since they do, people have right to use them and to like them, but please don't blame all this confusion of names on those who use the JP ones.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I notice you're only talking about the US companies, as though we're the only country to do this. How about German? Or French? Or Spanish?

And again, it's not that you're using the Japanese names. As I said, a lot of people do. But most of them don't act all holier-than-thou and superior because of it.

 

[Transfinite]

Guys, can we get back on topic?

 

[Gohansan]

Reviving the topic a bit, you all seem to refer to red & co. as different chars in separate sagas, not the same person. Why?
Also Ash and red couldn't be any more different, much in the same way as May and Sapphire are.