Japanese names for Pokémon objects? (e.g. Poké Ball -> Monster Ball)

About list of pokemon objects.

They currently use the English names. Shouldn't they use the Japanese names instead, perhaps with aliases from English in some cases?

Some of the most notable changes would probably be:

• poke ball -> monster ball (モンスターボール)
• pokedex -> pokemon zukan (ポケモン図鑑)

These tags have few posts but in my opinion the name changes would be interesting nonetheless:

• vs. seeker -> battle searcher (バトルサーチャー)
• potion (pokemon) -> kizuguzuri (キズぐすり)
• revive -> genki no kakera (げんきのかけら)
• amulet coin -> omamori koban (おまもりこばん)
• choice band -> kodawari hachimaki (こだわりハチマキ)

Some badges would change too:

[three Kanto examples]

• boulder badge -> grey badge (グレーバッジ)
• cascade badge -> blue badge (ブルーバッジ)
• marsh badge -> gold badge (ゴールドバッジ)

And Berries:

• pecha berry -> momon no mi (モモンのみ)
• leppa berry -> himeri no mi (ヒメリのみ)

Then we would first need to change the Pokémon names from English to Japanese first.
I'm already confused why we don't use the English names for the persons and the Japanese names for the humans there. It reeks of inconsistency.

Provence said:

Then we would first need to change the Pokémon names from English to Japanese first.
I'm already confused why we don't use the English names for the persons and the Japanese names for the humans there. It reeks of inconsistency.

Do you actually think it'd be better to use Japanese Pokémon names (bulbasaur -> fushigidane, etc.) or are you just making an argument about consistency?

Personally, I don't mind whether we keep using English Pokémon names or switch entirely to Japanese at some point.

But it seems the current English Pokémon names are an exception, and using Japanese names is the norm. That's why I think maybe it's best to rename Pokémon items to Japanese.

This system really is inconsistent if we keep English names for Pokémon species, but it does not mean we are free to assign Japanese and English randomly.

If we change Pokémon items like from poke ball to monster ball, there are relatively few items to change.

Danielx21 said:

Do you actually think it'd be better to use Japanese Pokémon names (bulbasaur -> fushigidane, etc.) or are you just making an argument about consistency?

Personally, I don't mind whether we keep using English Pokémon names or switch entirely to Japanese at some point.

But it seems the current English Pokémon names are an exception, and using Japanese names is the norm. That's why I think maybe it's best to rename Pokémon items to Japanese.

This system really is inconsistent if we keep English names for Pokémon species, but it does not mean we are free to assign Japanese and English randomly.

If we change Pokémon items like from poke ball to monster ball, there are relatively few items to change.

Using the japanese term for objects is the norm? That would be really new for me.
In the end, it's all about habits and it would certainly feel pretty weird if we suddenly start using Japanese terms for everything. This may make sense for characters in a series, but should the same be done for simple objects?
Danbooru is also an English-speaking website and if we extend that to even more subjects then it could lead to more confusion that it would solve. (Nearly) everyone knows what a PokéBall is.

Why are PokeBall or Bulbasaur translated, but Misty isn't? Why is the fan translation for Chrom or Tiki used, but none of the names for Robin are used, and the English translated name for Tharja or Olivia are used?

If there are official English language names for the characters, why not use them? It seems pretty obvious in the case of Pokémon, why is it not extended beyond that for consistency's sake?

Because names can vary from localization to localization, e.g. English to German, or even American English to British English. At least using the Japanese (or whatever the IP's country of origin is) names puts everyone on the same page.

So why is Pokemon an exception, at least creature-wise? You can read the 9-year-old topic #1099 to learn more, but tl;dr: Japanese Pokemon names are too damn confusing.

I also don't see why this thread was created when everything's been working fine thus far. Are you bored or something?

Provence said:

Using the japanese term for objects is the norm? That would be really new for me.

No. I was unclear, and I apologize. I meant using Japanese names for INVENTED stuff, like copyrights and characters, so maybe even invented places, techniques and objects should use Japanese, not English.

I even used the word "maybe" a few times in this discussion. I'm not saying we should do it, I'm just wondering if it should be done to some extent, for consistency.

Hillside_Moose said:

So why is Pokemon an exception, at least creature-wise? You can read the 9-year-old topic #1099 to learn more, but tl;dr: Japanese Pokemon names are too damn confusing.

Thanks for the link. That's informative about Japanese/English, including Pokémon and other copyrights. The Beedrill/Spear comparison in that topic is a interesting one. If we wanted to use Japanese tags for Pokémon species, we would have to convert beedrill -> spear_(pokemon) because spear is a common object.

Oh, fuck. That thread made me realize that we use resident_evil (English) instead of biohazard (Japanese). Oh, the inconsistency.

Hillside_Moose said:

I also don't see why this thread was created when everything's been working fine thus far. Are you bored or something?

No, I just like to seek consistency if possible, and I'm looking for the "right" thing to do. The issue of which language to use is important and seems to be a normal topic of discussion around here.

If for some reason we should use Japanese names for Pokémon items, then I would feel inclined to fix the current tags, because I created a number of tags and wikis for Pokémon items using English names.