Just a note about the board...

There is a problem with that. For instance, you have a panel, in which Son Goku says something, and Bulma replies. Then Goku's balloon is on the right, and Bulma's on the left. You'd have to mirror it to get it right. Maybe they only mirror pictures that are necessary and don't mirror those that don't present such problems.
Perhaps we should both scan the same page and compare.
 
I don't have a scanner... :(

But we can still compare... what Mangas do you have? How about the very first page of the first Manga? (IIRC, it pictures Sangoku diving from the top of a waterfall, ans later catching a big fish)...
 
That may not be the best page. I'll look for a page that has a conversation requiring mirroring to be correct in left-to-right reading. I'll try to take one from the first or one of the first tales. But first I'll have to go home, and see if I can get at the pc there. That will be between 17:00-17:30 at the earliest, perhaps not even today. :( Right now it's 16:03 here.
 
Same in Paris, we're in the same time zone...
I might check this evening myself, once I get back from work...
 
As promised, DragonBall scans!! :D
First, we have the first page when you open the book the wrong (left-to-right) way here.

And here is a page, in the described right-to-left order. It's from tale two, when Kame-sen'nin gives Goku Kinto'un, the magical cloud (US DBZ viewers may know Kame-sen'nin as Master Roshi, and Kinto'un as Nimbus). Don't forget to start reading in the top-right corner!
 
Ahhh... :D

I wish you could see the French version I have here, Unforgiven... and indeed you were right, they simply mirrored the pages... didn't bother in re-arranging everything...

Mmmhhh... so everything I read before is actually... backwards? LOL that changes a lot of things, and I'll have to keep that in mind when I decide to re-read the whole series again... :)
 
Originally posted by mpanty
I don't have a scanner... :(

But we can still compare... what Mangas do you have? How about the very first page of the first Manga? (IIRC, it pictures Sangoku diving from the top of a waterfall, ans later catching a big fish)...
Click to expand...
You're wrong, that's page 11. The first page is Goku chopping wood.
And you keep saying Sangoku? Is that what the French version calls him? He's called Son Goku in mine (and in the Japanese too), or just Goku sometimes. Goku-san would mean Mr. Goku, but I don't know about Sangoku. I'm guessing Son is his family name, as his grandfather was Son Gohan, and his children Son Gohan and Son Goten, and Japanese put family names first. I guess that would make him Mr. Son, or Son-san. :D
"Watashi wa Son Goku desu", correctly translated to English would be "I am Goku Son", if you also adapt to Western name order.
Short guide to Japanese:
Watashi: I, me, myself
wa: particle indicating the word before it is subject.
desu: am, are, is (pronounced as des oddly enough)
 
Ehm no, in the French version it's Sangoku throughout the whole Manga series...
I don't know why...

But it doesn't matter anyway... his real name is Carot (or Kakaluto in the DBZ version)... :D
 
I don't wish to disappoint you, but his real name in the Japanese version is Kakaroto. (Pronounced roughly as Kakarot, which is also his FUNi name).
 
It won't let me edit my previous post! :confused:
Anyway, I just thought Kakaluto may also be right, as there are different ways to transcribe Katakana to Romaji, and the Japanese pronounce the r as l anyway.
But definitely not Carot, the Katakana clearly begins with two times a Ka sounding symbol.
Just like Kuririn is definitely not Krillin (FUNi), because there are two 'ri' symbols in his name, which the Japanese pronounce as li. Man, why can't we just all speak English, or at least use a Roman alfabet!

Edit: Hey, this one I can edit!
 
Yeah... well it doesn't surprise me the names vary from the Japanese to the French version...
Hell, they vary from the French Manga to the French DBZ version themselves!

For example:

Manga version - DBZ version

Piccolo (the Namek, and Earth's God) - Petit Coeur (little heart)
Sangoku, Sangohan, Sangoten - Goku, Gohan, Goten
Satan (Videl's dad) - Hercule
...
 
Originally posted by mpanty
Yeah... well it doesn't surprise me the names vary from the Japanese to the French version...
Hell, they vary from the French Manga to the French DBZ version themselves!

For example:

Manga version - DBZ version

Piccolo (the Namek, and Earth's God) - Petit Coeur (little heart)
Sangoku, Sangohan, Sangoten - Goku, Gohan, Goten
Satan (Videl's dad) - Hercule
...
Click to expand...
The names in the FUNi English version are also different from the English (Japanese Romaji) manga or the Japanese DBZ. The reason of course is lipsynch.
Manga version - FUNi DBZ version
Piccolo (sometimes Piccoro, but for Japanese, that's the same) - Piccolo (what kind of name is 'Little heart'?!?)
Son Goku, Son Gohan, Son Goten - Goku, Gohan, Goten
Kuririn - Krillin
Kame-sen'nin - Master Roshi (based on his Japanese title Muten Roshi, 'the invincible master')
Kami-sama - Kami (basically the same, Kami-sama just means God Kami, and Toriyama also uses sama to indicate beings from another world, instead of just god)
Kaio-sama - King Kai
Satan - Hercule during Cell saga, Mr. Satan during Saiyaman and onwards.

The one thing to remember is that no DBZ name has any one 'correct' spelling in Romaji, their are at least six ways to transcribi Kana to Romaji. So Bulma or Buruma is the same, and both right.
What's also nice is that Son Goku is treated as a Japanese name, which means it has a Kanji symbol, and it's pronunciation is written in Harigana, while he treats all other names as foreign, and subsequently writes them in Katakana.
A language with three alfabets, always nice...
 
I'm glad you understand all the differences and subtleties in the Japanese language, Unforgiven...

With Harigana, Katakana and Romaji you've gotten me all confused... :D
 
Well, I try anyway. A brief explanation:
Japanese has three main alphabets:

Kanji:
A set of characters imported from the Chinese a long time ago, each conveying an idea, usually having two meanings. They can mean nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. There are more than 7000 Kanji characters. To read the average newspaper you must know about 2000 Kanji.

Harigana:
A phonetic alphabet, with each symbol representing a syllable. These are used to represent particles in sentences, verb inflections and words that have no Kanji symbol. It is also used to indicate pronunciation of Kanji symbols.

Katakana:
Another phonetic alphabet, with each symbol representing a syllable. The syllables represented are the same as in Katakana, meaning that every Harigana symbol has a Katakana equivalent. It's used primarily for foreign names and places and words of foreign origin.

Harigana and Katakana are collectively called Kana. A Japanese sentence can consist of a combination of all three. If you wanted to say Mr. Miller, ie 'Miller-san' (which the Japanese would write as if it's Miraa-san, remember they pronounce r as l), you would write Miraa in Katakana, since it's a foreign name, and san in Harigana.

Romaji is simply the roman alphabet. Romaji is the official name for roman spellings of words written in Kana.
In the above example, Miller is the official English spelling, but the Romaji transcription of how Japanese write that name in Katakana is Miraa.

C'est tres simple! Non? :D
 
What's also stupid about Japanese is this:
When I see a word I don't know in English, or any western language, I can with reasonable accuracy pronounce it, so I can verbally ask someone what it means.
But when you see a Kanji in Japanese you don't know, unless there's a Harigana version written above it, there is no way for you to know how it's pronounced, even if you are Japanese. You'd have to show it to someone to find out what it means.
 
It's not stupid... it might be annoying, but each culture has its own customs, including different alphabets... :)

I've heard that to learn how to speak Arabic decently, you need at least 7 years of practice! :eek:
I'm sure it's a similar figure for Oriental languages...
 
Originally posted by mpanty
It's not stupid... it might be annoying, but each culture has its own customs, including different alphabets...
Click to expand...
I wasn't really criticising, it's just odd from my pov. But, as you said, to each his own.

I've heard that to learn how to speak Arabic decently, you need at least 7 years of practice!
I'm sure it's a similar figure for Oriental languages...
Click to expand...
I'll bet, especially with all those Kanji!
I had French in school for four years, and I don't speak that decently either. :(
Languages aren't really my thing, unless they're programming languages. :D
 
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