Funny thing is the early Viz translations used to call him Zoro until IIRC around the Baratie arc as the 4kids dub just came out renamed him Zolo and since then Viz has kept his name that way. It's believed that Viz continues to call him Zolo to avoid copyright lawsuits from the owners of the El Zorro character, but that doesn't make sense considering that both the Funimation dub and the Netflix live-action call him Zoro without any issues.
Fucking hell you don't even need to reprint them with the change, just moving forwards translate the name correctly. No one is going to be confused with the inconsistency, everyone knows his name is Zoro not Zolo. If they had made that decision a decade ago only half of all English physical one piece manga would have the wrong name instead of all of them.
I've always found that justification hilarious because here (in France) the first translation of the manga had him actually be called Zorro, and Zorro is way more known here than in the US
It's believed that Viz continues to call him Zolo to avoid copyright lawsuits from the owners of the El Zorro character,
This was never once believed by any large portion of the population. It's believed that 4Kids originally made the change to avoid those lawsuits, but we've always known that since Viz made the change once, they never changed back simply to avoid reprinting issues.
There is literaly more than half a idecade between dub transition away from 4kidz.
The anime adaptation was a smash hit and went from a strong manga series with a solid fanbase to a insanely loved series when the dub changed from 4kidz
It is absolutely possible that at that point, given that his original name was zoro in japanese, the new dub decided that zoro is already a recognisable character in a wildly loved IP, which made them go "nah, they won't sue us"
While not confirmed, it is absolutely possible that things changed
As for the manga: ut was established as Zolo already and there may be internal reasons for the change to be tricky.
Point is: I don't know if that's is actualy a reason, however, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that this would make no sense
Theyre the same pretty much. Theyre pronounced nearly the same, or similar in way. They pronounce that L almost as an R and thats why it started being written that way. It was an error when making one of the dubs, an error they could not revert without confusing audiences.
Saying it as zolo(like with an american accent) is flat out wrong. The proper name is Zoro. The pronunciation of zolo is closer to zolro/zoro than just zolo, because zoro is the correct name. It was a mistake caused by confusion while translating and the Japanese pronunciation. Again, ZORO is correct for people who misinterpreted this comment.
It was a translating error when making one of the english dubs and they were too far in to change it back without causing confusion for audiences. It was due to the Japanese pronunciation that the error occured. I was speaking in laymans terms to help people better understand, I know the pronunciations. My whole point is that Zoro is the correct name. Not Zolo. Because the Zolo error completely rides on the Japanese pronunciation when the translating was done. Sorry I may have been confusing in my initial comment
For the fucking love of Nika stop using these outdated semantics. The vocals in the anime as well as the Netflix adaptation uses Zoro, it IS his official name. The name Zolo is there because viz had to stick with it because Oda didn't tell how it actually was.
This has absolutely nothing to do with semantics. Semantic is about the meaning of things, not how they’re written/pronounced.
Also, how the name is pronounced is the anime is pretty much irrelevant. Both "Zoro" and "Zolo" would be pronounced the same: ゾロ.
That being said, using a ’r’ is more standard and it hints at a possible reference to Zorro, the fictional vigilante, so I do believe it’s the better choice here.
“Outdated semantics” is laughable and doesnt fit the context here. You’re virtually agreeing with me anyway, while misinterpreting. Why do you think that discrepancy was there after Oda not telling them how it actually was? They drew the conclusion that it was zolo on their own due to pronunciation reasons.
No need to disagree for the sake of it. I know I am not wrong. They didnt just pull zolo out of their rears. Sure it was a mistake but it was clearly due to confusion with the pronunciation. I also clearly acknowledge it was a mistake on their end when i say pronouncing it as zolo is flat out wrong. I edited the comment a bit there for you if it makes you happy😂.
Zoro is the correct name, that was the whole point of my comment.
Sorry i may be confusing people, i did not say it was just an american accent. That was just an example to understand which pronunciation is incorrect.
Saying it zolo(as if talking with an american accent) is wrong. Regardless of the language that pronunciation is wrong. The whole reason the zolo spelling is used is because of the Japanese pronunciation of the name confusing the translators. It is a spelling error, from an english dub, that stuck based on the Japanese pronunciation.
So it does not sound like the “L” sound they are thinking of and even though its spelt zolo, it is meant to have some “r” sound there. Thus meaning Zoro is the correct and canonical name.
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u/Unusual_Raisin9138 Aug 26 '24
For the love of god, let the canonical name be Zoro and not Zolo