#jetpad

(why am I doing this? Idek.)

Due to my terrible memory, I've forgotten the plots of most Go Jetters Episodes, so I can't post anything episode-specific. But I have watched the Chinese dub of the show for a few times (the voices were so different, I couldn't get used to them), so I'm going to talk about it!

I will list the Chinese translations of all the main characters' names (and a few recurring ones), rate them on a scale from 1 to 10, and provide the reason for my rating.

I'm using the Taiwanese Mandarin dub as reference since that was the dub I watched, but as far as I know, the names are the same in the Chinese Mandarin dub. The Chinese characters used in this post are Traditional instead of Simplified.

So, here we go...

Xuli (Chinese name: 緒莉 Xù lì) 9/10

Xuli's Chinese name, when written in Pinyin, is practically the same as her original name, but it's pronounced differently (you can use Google Translate to hear the pronunciation). I think it's pretty solid as a name, which means I'll give it at least 7 points. Two bonus points are added because it sounds like 蓄力 (accumulating strength), which suits her a lot since she's the leader and probably the most powerful of the group.

Kyan (Chinese name: 凱恩 Kǎi ēn) 10/10

Kyan's Chinese name is perfect, I think. It sounds like a name that a real Chinese teenager would have, and it also sounds like the original. I don't know if the team working on the Chinese dub were aware that Kyan is Chinese-American, but they did a good job nonetheless.

Lars (Chinese name: 拉斯 Lā sī) 6/10

Lars' name is where things sort of start going downhill. I can't blame the dubbing team, though. Due to Mandarin being a language in which most syllables are open, i.e. ending in a vowel instead of a consonant, it's impossible to transliterate the "s" sound at the end without attaching a vowel. If I were to transliterate Lars into Chinese, I would also choose 拉斯. (I was supposed to give it 7 points because it's a solid translation, but as an unfortunate coincidence, 拉斯 sounds the same as 拉絲, which is what happens when you pull a mozzarella stick apart— the cheese forming strings. Again, this coincidence is not the dubbing team's fault.)

Foz (Chinese name: 福斯 Fú sī) 6/10

Foz's Chinese name gets the same score as Lars', and the reasoning is same. Solid transliteration, the name is always going to sound weird due to Chinese phonology, and one point deducted because of unfortunate coincidences (福斯 is also the translation for Fox (as in Fox News) and the Taiwanese translation for Volkswagen). Oh also do you see the 斯 again? Mandarin does not have a "z" sound, so we have to use a "s" sound instead.

Ubercorn (Chinese name: 萬能獨角獸 Wàn néng dú jiǎo shòu) 5/10

Um... the Chinese name literally means "omnipotent unicorn". I mean Ubercorn literally means "extremely good (uni)corn" so I guess the dubbing team were just working with what they had. I think though, and it's just my opinion, that they should have done a transliteration of the name instead. Gave it 5 points instead of 3 because it made me laugh.

Grandmaster Glitch (Chinese name: 麻煩大師格里奇 Má fán dà shī gé lǐ qí) 6/10

We can break the name into three parts: 麻煩 (trouble), 大師 (master), 格里奇 (transliteration of the name Glitch). The dubbing team made an interesting choice here. They translated "Glitch" two times. The first time is when they added "trouble" (sort of a synonym for glitch) in front of "master". The second time is when they transliterated the name Glitch. They probably did this to match the syllable count of the original English version so the lip-syncing wouldn't be off. I give it a 6 because while it's a good translation, I don't like how 格里奇 sounds. (Trivia: in the Chinese dub, the GJs often only call him 麻煩大師 (trouble master), dropping the Glitch part, while in English they call him Glitch and drop "Grandmaster".)

Grimbots (Chinese name: 機器格里 Jī qì gé lǐ) 5/10

I had a hard time rating this because while I don't like the translation, I can't think of a better one myself. The Grimbots' Chinese name consists of 機器 (robot) and 格里 (transliteration of Glitch) so it literally means "robot Glitches", which is fitting for these little mechanical menaces but doesn't roll off the tongue as well as the original. Another interesting thing: note the 格里 ("gli" sound), they're the same characters from Glitch's name, but missing the final syllable 奇 ("tch" sound), so it's like the Grimbots' Chinese name is actually "robot Gli".

Jetpad (Chinese name: 飛機電腦 Fēi jī diàn nǎo) 4/10

It literally means "airplane computer"... were the team even trying? (I think they did try, that was written as a joke.) I actually haven't thought about what the "pad" in Jetpad means, but I don't think it means computer? Somebody help me please.

Tala (Chinese name: 塔拉 Tǎ lā) 7/10

Honestly, this is the only way to transliterate the name Tala. Good job, team.

Vroomster (Chinese name: 魯姆飛行器 Lǔ mǔ fēi xíng qì) 8/10

The name means "vroom (魯姆) aircraft (飛行器)". I think the translation's good because it keeps the spirit of the original name —childish and fun (seriously no mature person is gonna name their aircraft Vroomster). Only downside is the syllable count. The original name has two syllables, while the translated one has five.