@Rhaknar:
one thing that really bothers me, im sure there is a explanation for this… but if you're gonna translate everything, how does rubber become gum?
shouldnt it be rubber rubber pistol? (which would be horrible, but still):wassat:
and everytime Luffy says he is a "rubber man", why isnt it "gum man" then?:blink:
then again I hate translating special move names, so...yeah...:getlost:
Ok, it comes from pretty much Every official American Translation of One Piece there is.
It Started with Viz, and the Idea was to Translate "Rubber Rubber" Over in a way that was Phonically Similar (Not The SAME, just similar enough) to "Gomu" while still actually meaning "Rubber".
The Reason the Japanese language calls Rubber "Gomu", which is written in Katakana and is actually just the Japanese way to say the English word Gum. This comes from the creation of Rubber and the Etymology of the word.
Rubber comes from a Certain Tree which was originally called the "Gum" Tree, so Rubber was called "Gum", or something close to that in most old Languages before modern Spoken word changed that.
This tree is still called the "Gum Tree" in certain circles, and in fact Natural Rubber is even officially called "Gum Rubber" In English to differentiate it from "Synthetic Rubber".
TECHNICALLY, that means that the Japanese person is actually saying "Gum" in English with a Japanese accent… I mean... She IS... I mean... Look here… Look at the 2nd definition (1st is in Hiragana, that's not the one Oda uses, he writes it in Katakana, 2nd definition)
So BASICALLY, it was a clever and roundabout way of translating "Gomu" over while still making it Phonically SIMILAR to "Gomu". (Again, Similar, meaning not the same but sharing common traits to make it close, they both have a Hard G and a hard M)
Most people tend to bash this for one of 3 reasons:
1: They Mistakenly believe the term to be a product of 4kids, and bash anything 4kids did. (FYI: It was actually done By Viz, BEFORE they started bastardizing the manga)
2: They're too attached to "Gomu", therefore anything BUT Gomu is wrong in their eyes.
3: They commonly associate "Gum" with Chewing Gum, and therefore assume it's a mistranslation.
There's also the defense that "It sounds too kiddy" but that's usually lumped in with one of the 3 I just listed.
Anyone who uses THIS excuse seems to always forget: THIS IS A MANGA THAT WAS MADE FOR LITTLE KIDS!!
@Kaigun: they're translating it in the Softsub, but it's Untranslated in the Hardsub (I Think) nevermind, see the post directly below this one.
Besides, it's a Softsub.
Open it in Word, Go the the "Find/Replace" Function and just replace every instance of "Gum Gum" With the Weaboo "Gomu Gomu" and you're Weaboo Version Script is ready