Above: "Spyro" in Japanese looks like "Ripto".
Below: The villain of the sequel is called Ripto.
Below: The villain of the sequel is called Ripto.
"Incidentally, Bowser is known as Koopa in Japan, but the Japanese name for this bike is Super Bowser. How rare."
— Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (American English translation) on the Flame Runner/Bowser Bike.
When a work is translated into multiple languages, it's bound to become a worldwide phenomenon. Some Dub Name Changes and Woolseyisms become so iconic or just sound so cool that even the original creators become aware of them, and reference them in the original version of a later installment. This is sometimes an act of gratitude to acknowledge the importance of the foreign dub for making their creation popular.
Compare Mythology Gag, where an installment throws in a reference to other (often older) parts of their own franchise; Recursive Import, where an altered version of a product or piece of media meant for consumption in foreign markets winds up being sold in the home country (sometimes alongside its own original version); and Ret-Canon, where an element introduced in an adaptation makes its way into the source material.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Astro Boy: In the 2003 anime, Astro gets his name from a sign that's nearby when he's first activated. The sign is thoughtfully designed to include both "Atom" (his Japanese name) and "Astro" (his English name), one as the first word on the sign and the other as the acronym formed by the initial letters of all the words. The Japanese logo in the opening also includes "Astro Boy" in English above the show's Japanese title.
- Battle Angel Alita: The protagonist is named Gally in the original Japanese publication, but renamed Alita in the American English translation. When she is put into a Lotus-Eater Machine that sees her found and named by a different character, the author nods at the translation's way by naming her Alita. The translation, naturally, names her Gally instead.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Adventure 02: One of the World Tour episodes features an English-speaking chosen child who refers to himself as a DigiDestined in the original Japanese version, acknowledging the English version of the term.
- In Digimon Adventure: (2020), Takeru's hat says "TK" on it, as a nod to his nickname in the English dub of the original series.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: The chorus of the anime's first opening, "Love Dramatic", nods to the English title through the repeated English refrain of "Love is War".
- Made in Abyss: One English fan translation comedically translated a sound effect used in a major moment of the Idofront arc as "rumble of scientific triumph". When it came time to adapt that part of the story in the "Dawn of the Deep Soul" movie, the background OST playing during the scene was actually titled "The Rumble of Scientific Triumph".
- The Pokémon: The Original Series episode "The Purr-fect Hero"note has "Meowth" written out in huge letters in an Imagine Spot parodying Superman, even in the original Japanese version, where the species is called Nyarth.
- Space Battleship Yamato was translated into English as Starblazers. In the English dub, some soldiers killed in the attack on the Pluto base were referred to as robots. Decades later, the reboot, Space Battleship Yamato 2199 actually has the Gamillons using robotic foot soldiers. Also, merchandise refers to the series as Starblazers alongside Space Battleship Yamato.
- The "SSSS" in SSSS.GRIDMɅN and its sequel SSSS.DYNɅZENON is a nod to Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, the localized version of Gridman: The Hyper Agent.
- In Yokai Watch, Keita’s English name, Nathan Adams, is displayed on the side of his racecar (albeit with an extra H) in the episode "Yo-kai Grand Prix."
Films — Animated
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run's credits theme, "Agua", refers to SpongeBob by his official Spanish name "Bob Esponja" several times.
- In all versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, the stat screens that appear when a monster is summoned read the English TCG’s Dub Name Change for that monster on the display.
Films — Live-Action
- Godzilla is known in his native Japanese as Gojira, but is arguably better known globally by his Westernized name. This has been referenced in a few different films:
- In Shin Godzilla, the man who discovers the monster gives it a name in English: Godzilla (supposedly on his native Odo Island, this means God Incarnate.) When transliterated into Japanese characters, it reads as Gojira instead. The other human characters note the irony of this, as this version of the character was first discovered and then covered up by the American government.
- This is also Played With in both American entries:
- In Godzilla (1998), the first people who encounter the monster are a Japanese fishing crew, the sole survivor of which is videotaped calling him Gojira. Later on, the American press gets ahold of the footage and mispronounces it on-air as Godzilla, which sticks.
- In Godzilla (2014), he is likewise originally named Gojira by the Japanese scientist who studies him, but over the course of the film this mutates into Godzilla, and eventually that becomes his 'default' moniker. The Japanese characters continue to refer to him by his original name, however.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who: In "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", young Grant gives the Doctor the nickname "Doctor Mysterio" since it sounds more like the superheroes Grant is into, which the Doctor (then played by Peter Capaldi) quite likes. This is a nod to the fact that Doctor Who is called Doctor Misterio in Mexico (as the literal translation of the title, "Doctor Quien", would make less sense in Spanish than in English). Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi had encountered this when they visited there in the Doctor Who World Tour and Capaldi, in particular, fell in love with the name, so Moffat decided to use it in an episode title.
- Kamen Rider has an odd example where the original adopted a translation's lack of change. In earlier years, mainly in the 2000s, the title would be officially Romanized in Japanese as its English translation "Masked Rider". However, an American adaptation, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, was made in 2009; and the producer actively decided to keep the "Kamen" name (partly to distance the show from a previous failed adaptation that was called Masked Rider). The parent franchise followed suit, and starting with Kamen Rider Double would use "Kamen" almost exclusively. The "Masked Rider" label would still appear from time to time, but only as a Grandfather Clause referring to earlier Riders.
- Super Sentai sometimes makes references to references to its English frankenslation, Power Rangers.
- The Humongous Mecha that Gien uses in the endgame of Mirai Sentai Timeranger is called the G-Zord, referencing the Zords that all the mecha are called in Power Rangers.
- The heroes' Transformation Trinket in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters announces "It's morphin' time!", and the evil giant robots are called Megazords. Both are Power Rangers nods, in which "It's morphin' time" is the standard heroes' transformation cry, and the heroes' combined mechs are designated Megazords.
- Word of God says the Tegasword in No.1 Sentai Gozyuger is named after the Megazord as well.
Music
- Psychic Lover, for their 15th anniversary album, released an English language cover of their opening theme to Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, which includes the lyrics "Go Go Samurai, We Get it On". This was likely a nod to Shinkenger's English language adaptation, Power Rangers Samurai, where "Go Go Samurai" was the transformation phrase.
Rides
- Super Nintendo World: For the Donkey Kong series, most of the 2D games starring the ape (other than Jungle Beat) are called Donkey Kong Country. This does not apply to Japanese where the Rare made games were instead called Super Donkey Kong while the Retro games lacked both naming schemes. When a section of the park based on the series was created, it was given the name Donkey Kong Country, including in Japan.
Toys
- Transformers: Thanks to the franchise's long history, and being owned by both American and Japanese companies, this is quite common:
- Prior to the release of Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film, in Japanese the Autobots were known as Cybertrons, the Decepticons known as Destrons, and Optimus Prime known as Convoy (with the name Convoy used in the same way as "Prime" was in the West with characters like Rodimus Convoy/ Rodimus Prime). After the live-action films, Takara Tomy began using the Western names even in Japanese (e.g. in Transformers: Animated, the names Autobots and Decepticons were used instead of Cybertrons and Destrons), outside of adult collector oriented toy lines. However, even before this, there were examples of this occurring on both sides, especially as Hasbro and Takara/Takara Tomy began collaborating more closely in the 2000's.
- Some manga (e.g. the pack-in manga for some of the high-end Masterpiece toys) would have examples where a character's alternate names are mentioned. An example is when Convoy was making a report, and his in-universe nameplate during the broadcast included both his Japanese and English names.
- As early as the G1 toyline, while Takara decided to use Cybertrons in place of Autobots there was still a nod to the name when the characters sold as the "Autobot cars" in English (e.g. Jazz, Prowl, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe among others) were marketed as "the Autobot unit/squad/team" in Japanese. This matched the Theme Naming of other units where the hero teams ended with "-bot" (e.g. the Aerialbots were the Airbot unit) while the villains ended with "-tron" (e.g. the Stunticons became the Stuntrons).
- In Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Micron Legend (brought over to the west as Transformers: Armada), the Evil Doppelgänger of Convoy, known in the dub as Nemesis Prime, was called Scourge. This is likely a nod to Transformers: Robots in Disguise (the dub of Transformers: Car Robots), which featured a similar character named Scourge (renamed from Black Convoy). The toyline exclusive Run-Over is also named Sweep in Japanese, which instead references the Sweeps from G1. Run-Over/Sweep is Nemesis Prime/Scourge's Mini-Con partner, and the Sweeps were clones of the first Scourge.
- Still in Armada/Micron Legend, he character known in English as Hot Shot is named Hot Rod, after the character known in Japanese as Hot Rodimus (thus explaining his recoloration part way through the series).
- In Transformers Galaxy Force (brought over to the west as Transformers: Cybertron), Vector Prime is notable for being identified using "Prime" rather than "Convoy" like the other leader charactersnote . This was an acknowledgement of how Convoy is the Japanese equivalent of the Prime rank for Autobot leaders. Hasbro's version of the toyline, meanwhile, released a redeco of Optimus's figure under the name "Galaxy Force Optimus Prime".
- The Japanese Henkei! Henkei! toyline included a figure of Technobot Strafe redecoed from the Cyclonus from the same line. As the Cyclonus figure came with a Targetmaster partner, it had to be included with Strafe too. The Targetmaster was so introduced as a new character called Rocketbot, which is the same name Strafe was called in the Italian dub of the cartoon.
- One of the TransTech prose stories from the Collectors Club introduced three characters called Ego, Bricolo and Corvo. Their names are taken respectively from Starscream and Scrapper's French dub names and Skywarp's Italian dub name.
- The boxes for the Japan-only Transformers Legends toyline feature the character names written both in Japanese and in English. While early on both writings used the Japanese names (for example, the Rattrap figure was marked as "Rattle" in both languages), after a while they began using both names on the boxes when the Japanese name differed (so, for example, the Springer figure is called "Springer" in English but the katakana still say "Sprung").
- When the Transformers: Combiner Wars toyline released figures of the Breastforce from Transformers Victory, they were referred to as "the Destrons", the traditional Japanese name of the Decepticons (and Beast Wars Predacons).
- Back when Power Of The Primes started, a new, updated toy of the Predacons and Predaking was released. However, one of the individual Predacon's names, Tantrum, was no longer available by that point, probably due to being too vague and hard to trademark. As a solution, Tantrum was renamed Torox, which was his Italian name during G1.
- This happened as early as 1990. Optimus Prime's original G1 toy was first released as the Battle Convoy in Diaclone, and re backported as "Convoy" during the Japanese release of G1. During the Action Master portion of G1, Optimus was released with the Armored Convoy vehicle.
Video Games
- Animal Crossing:
- In the English localisation, Totakeke's name was shortened to K.K., though it's still said that his real name is Totakeke. Said shortening made its way to Japan in New Leaf via his alter ego being named DJ KK, even in Japanese.
- The Japanese logo for amiibo Festival has the franchise's title in yellow lettering on top of a wooden background, similar to the English logo.
- In New Horizons, most of the album covers for K.K.'s songs have titles on them. In all versions, this is the title from a language the game is available in that suits the genre. (eg: The traditional Japanese song Spring Blossoms has the Japanese title, the yodelling Mountain Song has the German title, the Hollywood-style K.K. Adventure has the English title, etc.)
- The ninth mainline Biohazard game is titled Biohazard 7: Resident Evil; Resident Evil is, of course, the name Biohazard goes by internationally. The English version naturally inverts this, becoming Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
- Crash Bandicoot: Crash's iconic dance was introduced in a Japanese commercial for the first game before becoming a regular detail in later games.
- In EarthBound (1994), Ness is named after the Nintendo Entertainment System, even in the original Japanese, where the console was originally known as the Famicom.
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn makes an reference not to a localization, but its advertising. The original Golden Sun game was advertised in North America with a TV commercial where monsters come to life around an orchestra, including the theater's chandelier turning into a dragon. Dark Dawn sends the party into an opera house, where they meet the dragon from the commercial (now named Crystallux) and it offers to let them summon its help.
- The original Japanese title of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is Bokujo Monogatari: Harvest Moon, a nod to the series English localized title at the time.
- Kirby:
- The final Boss-Only Level of Kirby: Triple Deluxe is called Eternal Dreamlandnote after the English name of Kirby's home nation (officially spelled Dream Land), which is called Pupupu Land in Japanese, as well as being a flowery euphemism for death.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land has a two-way example, because the user interface was designed to fit both Japanese and English text from the start
. The final stage of the main story, Lab Discovera, is named after the game's Japanese subtitle, Discovery; while the post-game Boss-Only Level Forgo Land is named Forgotten Land in Japanese after the English title.
- Kunio-kun:
- The Japanese version of River City: Knights of Justice names Kunio's fantasy counterpart Cooney Valford. "Cooney" was previously used as a name for Kunio in the localization of Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge, where his full name was given as Jeff "Crash" Cooney.
- In River City Ransom: Underground, Alex and Ryan's surnames are revealed to respectively be Kun and Samejima, both referencing the names of the characters they were localised from in River City Ransom. The former is part of Kunio's nickname, while the latter is the same surname as Riki's.
- Japan refers to the River City Girls games as the River City series, which is what the western title for the Kunio-kun series was starting with Natsume's and Arc System Works' translations.
- The Big Bad of Shining in the Darkness was named Mephisto in the original Japanese, but was renamed Dark Sol in English. The villain of the prequel, Shining Force, is Dark Sol's father, who is named Darksol (one word) in all languages.
- Mario Kart Wii: In Japanese, the heavyweights' Flame Runner/Bowser Bike is called the Super Bowser after his English Dub Name Change. He's called "Koopa" in Japanese, which became the name of his species in English.
- Mega Man:
- The Japanese title of Mega Man: The Wily Wars, Rockman Mega World, is a nod to the protagonist's localised name, as well as being a Super Title 64 Advance (it's on the Mega Drive, AKA the Sega Genesis).
- In a case of What Could Have Been, Mega Man Universe was to be a game within the Mega Man series that would have been called such even in Japanese, where the series and character is known as Rockman. Not only that, but it would have had three versions of Mega Man. One referred to as Mega Man, one called Rockman, and one called Bad Box Art Mega Man, referencing the infamous North American box art of the first game (the latter of which ended up becoming a Guest Fighter in Street Fighter X Tekken).
- Pokémon:
- In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, a Pokémon Center nurse enters a Chansey in Pokémon Contests with the name “ちゃんしー” in the Japanese version, which is a transcription of the species’ English name (they're called "Lucky" in Japanese.) In the English version, it was named "Pinky".
- The Japanese logos of Pokémon Sword and Shield resemble the franchise's international logo; the words "Pocket Monsters" (in katakana) are written in a jagged, yellow font with a blue outline. The Pokémon Legends games go a step farther and use the international logo outright, though with different color schemes depending on the game (e.g. Arceus is blue and green, while Z-A is pink and grey).
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus: The "q" and "Q" on Hisuian Qwilfish and Overqwil's tails, respectively, are references to the former's English name.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The primary villain was originally named "Dr. Eggman" in Japanese, but the English translations named him "Dr. Ivo Robotnik" in an effort to make him more intimidating. Later Sonic games have adopted both names in Japanese and English:
- Sonic Adventure: In his first confrontation with Sonic, the doctor introduces himself as "Dr. Robotnik", and Sonic retaliates with "Whatever you say, Eggman!" Both names are used interchangeably for the rest of the game.
- Sonic Adventure 2: During Dr. Eggman's Do Not Adjust Your Set broadcast, text behind him displays both Eggman and Robotnik. In the same game, Robotnik is the surname of Eggman's grandfather and cousin in both Japanese and English.
- Sonic Frontiers clarifies that "Eggman" first came about in-universe as an insult Sonic made up to mock him, that he decided to appropriate, while his actual legal name is "Ivo Robotnik".
- Splatoon:
- Turquoise October's album art in the first game appears to use the series' Wingdinglish to write their name as "Turquoise October" across all languages, rather than sticking with their original name of "OCTOTOOL" in Japanese (which is the case for their 2 album art).
- Splatoon 2: In the English translations, Marina's surname is revealed to be Ida, a letter off from her Japanese name Iida, in Octo Expansion. This is flipped from the Japanese version of the DLC, where her surname is revealed to be Marine (a letter off from her English name).
- The titular villain of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! got his name from the way Spyro's name is written in stylized◊ katakana (スパイロ) in the Japanese logo. This example currently provides the page image.
- Yo-kai Watch World: The Yo-kai Kage Orochi is referred to as Shadow Venoct in English. In World, Kage Orochi gets a variant named Shadow Orochi, in reference to the Dub Name Change.
- When Street Fighter introduced Guile's fallen comrade in Street Fighter Alpha, he was initially named Nash. When the game was translated to English, he was renamed Charlie. It was noted, however, that both worked together, with common Fanon holding that his full name was Charlie Nash. Combining this with Ascended Fanon, when Guile looks at his dog tags in his Street Fighter IV ending, his name is Charlie Nash, similar to what Capcom would later do with the above-mentioned Resident Evil 7 example.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Inverted in Justice for All. In "Turnabout Big Top", Maya suggests that Phoenix go by the stage name "Naruhodo A. Wrighto". "Naruhodo" is Phoenix Wright's surname in Japanese.
- Capcom partnered with the Takarazuka Revue to create three musicals based on the series. However, they use the English localization in terms of names and setting, despite the show only being for Japanese audiences.
- In The Great Ace Attorney Adventures, one of the murders took place in a horse-drawn omnibus. Examining it reveals a sign that states it is called the "Phoenix Wright Omnibus", both in the Japanese and international versions. Phoenix Wright is the dub name of the main series' protagonist.
Western Animation
- The Family Guy episode "Padre de Familia" (literally "Father of the Family") is a reference to the title of the show in Latin American Spanish.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the German dub of the Season 2 episode "The Cutie Pox", in the scene where Apple Bloom speaks in French, the cutie mark is referred to by the same term as in the French dub ("Marque de beauté") rather than the term used in the English (original) version ("Marque de cutie").
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! has two inversions.
- The episode "The Trojan Koopa" sees Princess Toadstool grab a Super Star and declare, "Princess P. to the rescue!" This is the first known reference to her original Japanese name, Princess Peach, internationally (she was still known as Princess Toadstool at the time the cartoon aired).
- Bowser is consistently called "King Koopa"... which closely resembles his original Japanese name.
- The Simpsons: "¡The Fall Guy-Yi-Yi!", described by its writer as "a love letter of sorts to our Latin American fans," prominently features Humberto Vélez, the Latin American Spanish voice of Homer, as Bumblebee Man. Patricia Acevedo (Lisa) and Claudia Motta (second voice for Bart, third for Marge), also provided voices for the episode
- The We Bare Bears episode "Escandalosos" is about the baby bears forming the eponymous wrestling team in Mexico, which is not only a pun on the Spanish words "escandalosos" (scandalous) and "osos" (bears) but also the title of the show in Latin American Spanish.
