Lucario's Japanese Name Confusion

[Magmar's Wrath]

Being a fan of Lucario and Pokémon, I know many Pokémon have different names between Japanese and English versions of the game. Actually, only Pikachu and Pachirisu come to mind right now, but I digress.

So Lucario's Japanese name is Rukario. I know this because I sometimes name my Pokémon after their Japanese names, like Furaigon (Flygon), Gonbe (Munchlax), and my Croagunk is Greg (Gregguru).

In all the videos and pictures of Lucario in the Japanese versions, he is called Lucario. Why is that? Jigglypuff begins Purin, Bowser becomes Koopa, the Pokémon all say their Japanese names when released. Why is Lucario still Lucario in Japanese when he should be Rukario?

Did they really like the English name? I'm not upset, complaining or bitter, I'm just really curious why his name didn't change.

 

[S2]

Being a fan of Lucario and Pokémon, I know many Pokémon have different names between Japanese and English versions of the game. Actually, only Pikachu and Pachirisu come to mind right now, but I digress.

So Lucario's Japanese name is Rukario. I know this because I sometimes name my Pokémon after their Japanese names, like Furaigon (Flygon), Gonbe (Munchlax), and my Croagunk is Greg (Gregguru).

In all the videos and pictures of Lucario in the Japanese versions, he is called Lucario. Why is that? Jigglypuff begins Purin, Bowser becomes Koopa, the Pokémon all say their Japanese names when released. Why is Lucario still Lucario in Japanese when he should be Rukario?

Did they really like the English name? I'm not upset, complaining or bitter, I'm just really curious why his name didn't change.

L and R translate the same into English.

Rukario and Lucario are the same name, just translated differently. Since the L/R are interchangable and the K/C sound is the same thing.

If anything, Nintendo is showing that this is the official English spelling for all regions(Lucario) by putting it that way in Brawl.

Yes, some pokemon do have name changes. Not Lucario though. Its the same in both languages.

 

[Magmar's Wrath]

Thanks, S2, but it does seem strange that serebii.net has Rukario under Japanese name for him either way. Crazy translation process.

 

[S2]

Serebii.net is still correct though.

Translation from Japanese can be very tricky. Serebii knows more about Pokemon than I do, perhaps he was being spelled as Rukario in English before Nintendo standardized it (or maybe they never did).

For instance, in DBZ, many translators put Krillin's name as thing like Kurriren. Because essentially its phonetically similar to how the Japanese would say it.

For the English version it is Lucario. NoA has chosen that that translation is the official one. But Rukario/Rucario/Lukario/Rewkario/etc would all be fairly good translations of his Japanese name.

Yeah, its confusing if you don't understand the basics of Japanese translation. I leave you with a little interesting Mario translation tidbit to think about.

So Waluigi is a pun on 2 puns that doesn't translate well.

-Luigi is supposed to be the name Luigi, but since L/R is the same in Japan it is also "Ruigi" which means a copy of something. So Luigi's name is a pun over there for him being a copy of Mario. Obviously this doesn't translate.

-Wario is a pun on the prefix "Waru" which means an evil version of something. So Wario is essentially "waru" and the last part of Mario put together. Wario literally is a pun meaning evil Mario.

-Waluigi puts both the puns together. "Waru"= evil version, "Ruigi" = clone. His name literally is a double pun meaning the evil version of a copy. Its actually pretty clever. And no, it does not translate at all to English.

 

[Magmar's Wrath]

Serebii.net is still correct though.

Translation from Japanese can be very tricky. Serebii knows more about Pokemon than I do, perhaps he was being spelled as Rukario in English before Nintendo standardized it (or maybe they never did).

For instance, in DBZ, many translators put Krillin's name as thing like Kurriren. Because essentially its phonetically similar to how the Japanese would say it.

For the English version it is Lucario. NoA has chosen that that translation is the official one. But Rukario/Rucario/Lukario/Rewkario/etc would all be fairly good translations of his Japanese name.

Yeah, its confusing if you don't understand the basics of Japanese translation. I leave you with a little interesting Mario translation tidbit to think about.

So Waluigi is a pun on 2 puns that doesn't translate well.

-Luigi is supposed to be the name Luigi, but since L/R is the same in Japan it is also "Ruigi" which means a copy of something. So Luigi's name is a pun over there for him being a copy of Mario. Obviously this doesn't translate.

-Wario is a pun on the prefix "Waru" which means an evil version of something. So Wario is essentially "waru" and the last part of Mario put together. Wario literally is a pun meaning evil Mario.

-Waluigi puts both the puns together. "Waru"= evil version, "Ruigi" = clone. His name literally is a double pun meaning the evil version of a copy. Its actually pretty clever. And no, it does not translate at all to English.

I think I read that when he was first announced, in Mario Tennis 64. He had specture eyes then, looked real evil!

Well, that's a cool little translation factoid.

 

[Drack]

Syllables "Lu" and "Ru" in non-Japanese languages translate to the same character in Japanese ( The katakana ル ). However, when translated back to English it is read "Ru" The Japanese R is somewhere between the English R and the English L.

Lucario is his name. "Rukario" would be a small mistake (That's the romaji's direct phonetic translation). When you see the ル katakana character, you can't tell whether it was originally a "Ru" or a "Lu" in the language it represents in Japanese. The English name clears that up for us. I am aware Pokémon D/P came out in Japan first, but because the name is written in katakana, it implies a foreign (from Japan's perspective) name.

If you still want to call him as the Japanese do, it's ルカリオ.

 

[The_Corax_King]

The announcer says everything english style...


He doesn't call Ike "Aiku" even though you hear the crowd say "AIKU AIKU!"

Same with just about everyone... they use the american pronunciation...


It's really funny to hear the announcer say the 3 pokemon names all american like... it's so awkward lol..


FUSHIGISOU!

 

[kaid]

Lu-Ca-Ri-O is actually the english word Oracle (O-Ri-Ca-Lu) backward. So they pronounce it with an L sound.

 

[Luke Groundwalker]

You're all wrong.

It isn't called Rukario or Rucario in Japan at all. It's pronounced that way, but Rukario/Rucario is just a Romanization of Lucario, which is Lucario's Japanese name in English. If you take Lucario's katakana name, though, it is indeed, however, Rukario/Rucario due to the pronounciation. That, however, doesn't mean it's the official Japanese name spelling in English, which is Lucario in Japan (sharing the English name of the same Pokemon).

It's like with Charizard, his katakana name is Rizādon and pronounced as such. But that is just a romanization of the actual English translation of the Japanese-name which would be Lizardon (as you can clearly see in Brawl).

 

[VaneWalker]

That makes sense. But... I want to call him Ru-Car-Rio cause it sounds awesome

 

[OnyxVulpine]

You're all wrong.

It isn't called Rukario or Rucario in Japan at all. It's pronounced that way, but Rukario/Rucario is just a Romanization of Lucario, which is Lucario's Japanese name in English. If you take Lucario's katakana name, though, it is indeed, however, Rukario/Rucario due to the pronounciation. That, however, doesn't mean it's the official Japanese name spelling in English, which is Lucario in Japan (sharing the English name of the same Pokemon).

It's like with Charizard, his katakana name is Rizādon and pronounced as such. But that is just a romanization of the actual English translation of the Japanese-name which would be Lizardon (as you can clearly see in Brawl).

This confuses me...

All I know is I had fun reading the katakana in the vids after almost a year of not having Japanese class.

MARUSU, RUKARIO, AIKU!

-Onyx

 

[ripman3]

Just say Lucario in a stereotypical Japanese accent. RUCARIO!
Im Ronery!!

 

[S2]

We also run into the problem too that certain sounds are hard to pronounce in certain languages. People's tongues aren't accustomed to saying things differently (a lot of Americans can't roll their R's, because they have no need to learn to in English, where as its integral in speaking Spanish - making it hard to learn for some people English speakers)

That being said, even the way the Japanese pronounce English words you can tell that the L/R sound is jumbled and not as distinct as English. Those sounds are fairly close actually. Pay attention and you'll find native English speakers messing up and using Ls instead of an R or viceversa. Like any language, how clear the Ls and Rs really varies from speaker to speaker.

Translation gets messy between balancing the word in katakana, the romanized version, the intent of the name, etc.

There are a lot of "right" translations. Rukario is not a worse translation that Lucario by any means.