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Swan Song
Newbie
I am a Swan.
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11-03-2010 04:16
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green
Gatchamaniac
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The GodPhoenix is just a name. You can hear them say it as is without a translation needed. No doubt the original person that came up with the name knew what it meant, but it was probably lost on many of the Japanese audience at the time.
The difference between using the words 'spirit' and 'god' is the same as deity and god (small g). I think you are correct in your thought that the screenwriters felt that 'spirit' was more palatable. In the Western world, usually it is considered that there is only one God, and the use of the word to describe any other deity could be offensive to a large number of people.
As for your question about the connotation of the word 'God' in Japanese, that's a harder one to answer. In another thread I mentioned the Japanese belief system. 90% of the general population will say they're Christian. 90% will say they're Buddhists. 90% will say they're Shinotists...
It's not that they have less faith than Christians, it's just that they look at faith differently. They can, and do, believe in God. But they also believe in Buddha's teachings as well as observing the native religion of Shinotism (which has so many gods I've lost count - I think it's about 108 ). Somehow, they just manage to make it all fit.
Not an answer, really, is it?
If it helps, the Japanese word for 'god' is kami. You say 'kami-sama' for God - as well for all the others, just with their individual names in front....
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Exaggeration misleads the credulous and offends the perceptive. ~Eliza Cook
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by green on 11-03-2010 at 04:46.
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11-03-2010 04:45
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Swan Song
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I am a Swan.
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Hi Green,
That actually explains a lot, thank you so much for responding and spelling it all out. Shintoism with their kami especially sounds very interesting. After looking it up on Japan-guide.com, I found the following statement: "'Kami are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die." I get the sense that you are right, that "gods" with the small "g" may be a closer translation than "spirits".
I also found this site that talks more about the Shinto deities, as well as the myth of the Japanese phoenix.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/shinto-deities.html
Hope I'm not getting overanalytical about this--I just find it interesting to discover where storycrafters are coming from conceptually.
PS I apologize for the double post--still getting used to how threads work...
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Swan Song
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Swan Song on 11-03-2010 at 20:31.
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11-03-2010 20:30
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Transmute Jun
Queen of the Bird Missiles
I am a Swan.
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12-03-2010 14:51
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gatchamarie
Gatchamaniac
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| quote: | Originally posted by Swan Song
Looking at the Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian versions of BotP, am I correct in assuming that they took Sandy Frank's BotP and translated the English version into their respective languages and cultures? |
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I can only answer with regard to the Italian version here, which I've been able to watch during my childhood. During the 1980's (or at least that's the period during which I had started watching the series) "La Battaglia dei Pianeti" had been introduced as a direct translation from Sandy Frank's BOTP with images, episodes and all. But soon after they continued with the same name of "La Battaglia dei Pianeti" (that is "Battle of the Planets") but airing the full original Gatch II and Gatch F series one after the other instead. Then Gatchaman was aired again from the very beginning and so on. They also retained the same Italian theme song all along with Zark and all, even if now we were talking about the real Gatchaman! The Team members were called Ken, Joe, Pretty Jane, Jimpy and Ryu ... you're laughing at "Pretty Jane" aren't you ... don't worry cause I always cannot understand exactly why they called Jun as such - not even "Principessa", at least, instead of "Princess"! And in Gatch F, Egobossler called the SNT as the "G Force"! A bit of a garble isn't it! But, all in all, in Italy it was pure Gatch at the end, apart from the confusion in the names and title!
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13-03-2010 15:20
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tatsunokofan
Gatch Guru
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Hi all!
And don't forget that Italy also added in episodes of Gatchaman that were not part of the BotP run. This came about because the Italian production company had aquired the Italian rights for Gatchaman at roughly the same time Sandy Frank got the worldwide rights for Gatchaman, which included Italy. Adding in the missing episodes was apparently part of the compromise reached between the two companies. The Italian dub of episode #'s 103 and 105 of the series are included as bonus material on the last volume of the Italian BotP DVD release.
In pretty much every non-Asian country, it was a straight translation of BotP that aired there. In Asia, it depended on which country you were in as to whether you got Gatchaman or BotP. Places like Taiwan and South Korea got Gatchaman, while the Phillipines, Malaysia, and Bangladesh got BotP. It appears that Hong Kong had both series at one time or another.
By the way, as a point of clarification, Spain had BotP as La Batalla de los Planetas, though it was called Comando G the same way people here referred to Battle of the Planets as G-Force (Not realizing that G-Force was a separate series). It is in Mexico that the Spanish title Fuerza G comes from. If you mention Fuerza G in Spain, they won't know what you're talking about, just as they wouldn't recognize Comando G in Mexico.
The differences in the Spanish dubs actually caused a small problem when the BotP DVDs were being released in Spain. Sandy Frank supplied the video distributor the Mexican Spanish dub, not the Spain dub. The distributor instantly recognized the differences between the Spanish and Mexican accents, and Sandy Frank's people had to scramble to locate the proper dub for them to use. It all worked out in the end, and the DVDs were released on schedule, but it was a bit of a rush for a little while there.
James
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13-03-2010 17:14
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Space Cats!