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Ok guys. For those of you who read the Manga outside of Japan you know that Zoro was changed to Zolo. Well, when disscussing One Piece on another website someone keeps insisting that it has always been Zolo. So, I need a few people who really know how to explain this to post here that way I can get a picture of this page and show the kid how many people agree with me.
Normally I would link to here so you can tell the kid, but the site rule says that that is not allowed. So, please support me on this to educate someone who needs to be educated.

-CS-

Robin Stjernberg

L and R are the same letters in japanese. Luffy/Ruffy and Zoro/Zolo is both correct.

Buccaneer

However, Oda clearly meant for it to be "Zoro."

Ivotas

That "l" and "r" are almost identical in japanese have nothing to do with this discussion. The guy Chef Sanji is talking about seems to be pronouncing it as a english "l" and thatÂ´s definitely not how it is intended to be.

And Chef Sanji, we donÂ´t need to post lost of stuff here to show the guy the truth. Just let him watch one japanese episode where we hear his name pronounced and where we see a pic of his wanted poster. Since that would be the original reference it would have a much larger impact on him then just reading what other fans have to say, because IÂ´m sure that if he seeÂ´s lots of us saying that it is Zoro, he will say that he doesnÂ´t care what online fan-boys think. I would even bet money on it that this would be his reaction.

Zio

Oda called him Zoro, yet he probably cares very little about name changes, espically ones as minor as Zoro to Zolo.

To me, it's a "Whoop-die-fuckin'-do" situation.

Buccaneer

Originally posted by Ivotas@Jul 4 2005, 08:15 AM
**That "l" and "r" are almost identical in japanese have nothing to do with this discussion. The guy Chef Sanji is talking about seems to be pronouncing it as a english "l" and thatÂ´s definitely not how it is intended to be.

And Chef Sanji, we donÂ´t need to post lost of stuff here to show the guy the truth. Just let him watch one japanese episode where we hear his name pronounced and where we see a pic of his wanted poster. Since that would be the original reference it would have a much larger impact on him then just reading what other fans have to say, because IÂ´m sure that if he seeÂ´s lots of us saying that it is Zoro, he will say that he doesnÂ´t care what online fan-boys think. I would even bet money on it that this would be his reaction.
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Hearing his name pronounced wouldn't help anything.

Ubiq

Originally posted by Chef Sanji@Jul 3 2005, 06:54 PM
Well, when disscussing One Piece on another website someone keeps insisting that it has always been Zolo. So, I need a few people who really know how to explain this to post here that way I can get a picture of this page and show the kid how many people agree with me.
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From his first appearance in Shonen Jump up until slightly after the 4Kids dub came out, Viz always translated his name as Roronoa Zoro, which is the way it appeared on his wanted poster.

Since then, they switched to Zolo, which is a valid translation, but that's not necessarily what Oda intended, especially seeing as how Zoro could be intended as a reference to Zorro. Of course, by that token, it probably should be Lolonoa Zoro as he is named after Francis L'Ollonais.

GoAnderson

Originally posted by Zio@Jul 3 2005, 06:17 PM
**Oda called him Zoro, yet he probably cares very little about name changes, espically ones as minor as Zoro to Zolo.

To me, it's a "Whoop-die-fuckin'-do" situation.
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… Couldn't resist.

I really don't care so much about Zoro/Zolo anymore, but I do prefer Zoro. It just seems to flow better... and it is written on his Wanted poster. So, I've gone with Zoro since… oh, forever.

But, to each his own.

Buccaneer

Originally posted by Ubiq@Jul 4 2005, 08:30 AM
Since then, they switched to Zolo, which is a valid translation, but that's not necessarily what Oda intended, especially seeing as how Zoro could be intended as a reference to Zorro. Of course, by that token, it probably should be Lolonoa Zoro as he is named after Francis L'Ollonais.
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It's also a play on "zorome," a Japanese word having to do with a number being repeated, like in his birthday, November 11th. Thanks omae.

If he was directly named after the Frenchman, his last name would have to be "L'ollonois," so I just assume that Oda used its sound instead of it exactly.

CosmicDebris

I guess showing your friend the Wanted poster from the manga would be a good place to start. It's not a big deal to me either, but Zoro does appear to be the original official spelling of his name. That's what I go by. I don't care of Roguetown makes more sense, it's spelled Loguetown in the manga, so that's what I call it.

e1n

Originally posted by CosmicDebris@Jul 3 2005, 06:57 PM
I guess showing your friend the Wanted poster from the manga would be a good place to start.
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QED

Ivotas

Originally posted by Buccaneer@Jul 4 2005, 12:28 AM
Hearing his name pronounced wouldn't help anything.
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Why? You can clearly hear that it is an "r". Ok it may not be a english "r" but itÂ´s the same "r" as you can find in all roman and slavian languages. Other then that japanese canÂ´t say an english "r".

You all forget how evil the name Zolo can be. Remember it was because of it that set up "Hey Zolo! It's time to golo!"

SteveRessel

Look, its simple.

The name IS Zoro, the lawyers for 4Kids probably demanded the name change so Disney or whoever couldn't get any handgrip on a lawsuit against the name Zorro. That's how it goes these days. When you work on an animated show, you pass everything through lawyers and they research and tell you if there is possible trademark/copyright infringement. Most of it is ridiculous, but who wants a crippling lawsuit these days over one letter in a name?

Ivotas

IÂ´m not going to argue with the copyright agrument since it really is like that how the world works now. However since Disney Inc is a company with that works worldwide one would assume that the copyright issue should actually also count worldwide. But it is just the US market that is suffering from the namechange.

Buccaneer

Originally posted by Ivotas@Jul 4 2005, 03:32 PM
Why? You can clearly hear that it is an "r". Ok it may not be a english "r" but itÂ´s the same "r" as you can find in all roman and slavian languages. Other then that japanese canÂ´t say an english "r".
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It's pronounced with thesame 'r' Luffy is. So by listening, every name should have an 'r' in it.

Ivotas

Originally posted by Buccaneer@Jul 4 2005, 02:57 PM
It's pronounced with thesame 'r' Luffy is. So by listening, every name should have an 'r' in it.
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Good point. Completely forgot about that. Well ok, then the wanted posters will have to do the trick.

Bounty1Berry

Originally posted by e1n+Jul 3 2005, 08:18 PM–>QUOTE(e1n @ Jul 3 2005, 08:18 PM)

Carly

Bad translation. It's 100,000,000, which is a hundred million for American. Japanese that'd be senmansen (1000,0000). British… is milliard really right ? o_o;

No it's not a milliard, that's a straight billion x_x; It'd still be a hundred million in UK. Auugh, UK numbers confuse me even more than the Japanese ones :lol:

Robin Stjernberg

The translation maybe sucks? XD

Can't see why anybody say that Zolo is directly wrong. Because it isn't, or, not as wrong as many other changes. Just like Luffy is named Ruffy in germany and sweden (probably in some other countries too).

Buccaner: "It's also a play on "zorome," a Japanese word having to do with a number being repeated, like in his birthday, November 11th."
Couldn't it become "zolome" too?

Ivotas, why isn't the discussion about "l is r" right? Yeah, we should all listen to Odas exact words, but most of the people don't, so I can't see why Zoro can't become Zolo (it don't sound good, but what the heck).

Buccaneer

No, it can't. Japanese words are never romanized with 'l's in them. And it's obviously a play on "Zorro" too.

Robin Stjernberg

Aren't them? So you mean it can't be written Luffy?

Ivotas

Thanks Buc, I was about to say the same thing.

Buccaneer

Originally posted by Robin Stjernberg@Jul 5 2005, 03:46 AM
Aren't them? So you mean it can't be written Luffy?
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"Luffy" isn't something that originated in the Japanese language, like "zorome." It could be after the old English family, or just made up, but it means nothing in Japanese.

Robin Stjernberg

Oh, yeah, Luffy is a name and all. Didn't think of that.

Ubiq

_Originally posted by Ivotas+Jul 4 2005, 08:06 AM–>QUOTE(Ivotas @ Jul 4 2005, 08:06 AM)IÂ´m not going to argue with the copyright agrument since it really is like that how the world works now. However since Disney Inc is a company with that works worldwide one would assume that the copyright issue should actually also count worldwide. But it is just the US market that is suffering from the namechange.
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As I have pointed out so many, many times on this forum:

A. Disney does not own the Zorro trademark.

B. There can't be a copyright issue because a name cannot be copyrighted.

A name can be trademarked, but it then has to appear as part of a certain logo. "Star Wars" for instance isn't copyrighted or trademarked, but the distinctive Star Wars logo is.

Quite a few things have trademarked the name Zorro that are not the famous swordsman, largely because it's a word that existed well before the Zorro.

@Jul 4 2005, 02:49 PM
"Luffy" isn't something that originated in the Japanese language, like "zorome." It could be after the old English family, or just made up, but it means nothing in Japanese.
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_Isn't it a reference to the sailing term 'Luff'? He seems like the kind of person to just sail straight ahead into the wind.

As far as the rest of his name goes, I wouldn't be surprised if the Monkey isn't a Monkey Island reference._

wintergt

Originally posted by Ubiq@Jul 4 2005, 02:16 PM
As far as the rest of his name goes, I wouldn't be surprised if the Monkey isn't a Monkey Island reference.
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Hm never thought of that before.. The Secret of Monkey Island was one of my favorite games on my C64 when I was little. You think Oda has played the game too?

"Do you have any special skills?"
"I can hold my breath for 10 minutes.."

Ah the memories, lol

Robin Stjernberg

Yeah, didn't Oda say in some interview that he have always liked video games? We already know he has gamecube atleast.

xXSanjiXx

I thought the "monkey" in Monkey D. Luffy had something to do with Dragonball because Oda is such a big fan of Akira Toriyama and all. Because Goku turns into a big monkey….I don't know.

Hibiki

I always wondered why Shonen Jump changed besides doing it for 4Kids. It was along way from their outstanding work on Yu-Gi-Oh. But then it is different from giving him an american name. I just found it rotten that they would change it after what? 2 years?

MR.Prince-Sanji

Is it only for manga or anime also, this change in name? If it apply to animation as well this is going to be problem then.

Greg

Yeah, I imagine the 'monkey' has something more to do with his admiration of Dragon Ball. Given his huge appreciation of the series and worship of Toriyama sensei I think that's the best way of making a tribute to the series without ripping off of it. Aside from that I can only think of one other time he directly alluded to the series in OP.

CosmicDebris

Originally posted by Ubiq+Jul 4 2005, 12:16 PM–>QUOTE(Ubiq @ Jul 4 2005, 12:16 PM)

Ubiq

Originally posted by CosmicDebris@Jul 7 2005, 03:52 PM
This is kind of what I thought, but the argument about copyright continues to fly around the internet, and I haven't been able to find a souce of information to show people this.

Simply show them this: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#title

Point, set, match.

So if it's not copyright, what exactly IS the issue?
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Ultimately, it's probably just that 4Kids picked a particular translation and went with it for whatever reason. Viz then switched to that one (which was trademarked by Shueisha back in December; a search for Roronoa Zoro in the Patent Office Databse sends you to that, so presumably they also own Zoro), most likely for merchandising reasons.

Had 4Kids used Zoro, I suspect that Viz would have stuck with it.

xXSanjiXx

So if it's not copyright, what exactly IS the issue?

Well obviously, since they "americanize" One Piece, they saw Zoro and thought, "wait! Zoro looks like Zorro, which is spanish for 'Fox!' We can't be having that! how about Zolo instead!" :rolleyes:

CosmicDebris

Originally posted by Ubiq@Jul 7 2005, 03:18 PM
**Simply show them this: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#title

Point, set, match.
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Ah, thank you very much. However…

(which was trademarked by Shueisha back in December; a search for Roronoa Zoro in the Patent Office Databse sends you to that, so presumably they also own Zoro), most likely for merchandising reasons.
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I'm not sure what a patent is for, and what effect this has on the name Zoro.

RoboBlue

I think the most powerful piece of evidence is that, to my knowledge, it has never once been printed as Zolo in Japan. A lot of the Japanese and bootleg merchandise have gotten the names wrong, but I've never seen Zoro spelled with an L. Not once. Even the HKs used an R, and they spelled it Suron.

i've noticed this too. after the dubbed version of one piece mention zoro, it said zolo. then any manga i read after that they changed it to zolo. zoro sounds better.

Bounty1Berry

Originally posted by CosmicDebris@Jul 7 2005, 05:43 PM
I'm not sure what a patent is for, and what effect this has on the name Zoro.
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The Patent office in the US is the Patent and Trademark office technically.

Solar Knight

Originally posted by Ubiq@Jul 7 2005, 06:18 PM
Simply show them this: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#title
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I never really cared about the name change (but their excuses kinda annoyed me), but that aspect can finally be put to rest (hopefully).

taboo

Ha ha, what if it was just a typo on 4kids' part? Now THAT would be funny. xD

Eh, they probably changed it because they just felt like it. They seem to take the same liberty with the rest of the show. They probably just didn't want people confusing Zoro and Zorro.

Solar Knight

Ha ha, what if it was just a typo on 4kids' part? Now THAT would be funny. xD

I'd love to see them admit it if it were true XD.

xXSanjiXx

Who has the Zorro Trademark? Because there is a new Zorro Movie coming out.

MR.Prince-Sanji

Originally posted by xXSanjiXx@Jul 10 2005, 10:18 PM
Who has the Zorro Trademark? Because there is a new Zorro Movie coming out.
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What's Zoro's trademark? I don't get it. Is the next movie about Zoro again?

Bounty1Berry

I suspect there are definite cases of typos being enshrined into the series. I note, for example, a character in another series, all the other characters pronounce the name as Shi-Wu, but every piece of written information phrases it as Hsi-Wu.