Ochikobore Kenshi, Tsuihousareta no de Majutsushi ni Tenkou suru - Kenshi no Toki wa Gomi Skill datta "Zettai Kioku" wa Majutsushi ni Totte wa Kami S…

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While I understand and fully support your point, the choice of names for that argument couldn't have been worse. Those names are actually westernized, as they are wasei-eigo (Japanese words derived from English but not exactly the same). For instance, Kakarot is actually Kakarotto, while carrot is Ninjin in Japanese. Similarly, Vegeta is Bejīta in Japanese, whereas vegetables are called yasai. These names were coined by Toriyama based on English words, adapted into Japanese characters to approximate their sounds.

Most names in this manga fall under gairaigo (Japanese words borrowed from a foreign language i.e. English) or wasei-eigo. For example, if we keep Ice Cream's name in Japanese, it would be pronounced as "aisu kurīmu," sounding identical to "Ice Cream." Since the pronunciation is the same, it makes little sense to confuse readers by keeping them in their original forms. However, some letters produce sounds that do not exist in Japanese, and so they are forced to use characters that produce similar sounds. This was the case with "Purin" or "Pudding." The sound for the letter "D" does not exist in Japanese, so when the word was transferred over, it was spelled slightly differently.

However, there was one exception that was not a English gairaigo or wasei-eigo. The only exception in this manga is Tangerine, whose word originates from Chinese rather than English. I conducted a poll to decide whether to keep the name as Mikan (the Chinese name) or change it to Tangerine to match the others. Since nobody voted for Mikan, I opted for Tangerine.

Sorry for the long post.
I'm hoping they grow on me just like Dragonball did 👍

I do find that Dragonball is kinda like shifting a word from google translate back and forth and just keeping the phonetics lol. Carrot -> Karotto -> Kakarotto -> Kakarot.

That being said, Sir Toriyama didn't just straight up name his MC Karotto and bothered to add a little flair, unlike this manga I assume? As you mentioned, Aisu Kurimu is basically just... Ice Cream. Ais Krimm would be pretty close phonetically but that's definitely just an artistic choice at that point.

On another note, Mikan sounds cute but I would never have guessed that it means Tangerine. Thank you for the lesson!
 

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