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Woolseyism
Well said, Kefka. Well said.
"This is White Snow, a town filled with snow.
Enjoy the world of snow.
(Note: This is what happens when you do a direct translation.)"
—Rhapsody (Atlus Games)

In short, the difference between a translation and a localization.

Ted Woolsey was the primary translator for most of Square's SNES-era RPGs, including Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Woolsey is a polarizing figure in the video game community, even today — depending on who you ask, Woolsey was either an iron-fisted dictator who was convinced that American gamers were morons or a hard-pressed grunt who was the primary reason the scripts for these games weren't completely remolded, but either way his impact was keenly felt, as he frequently modified the scripts he was handed in order to render them more accessible for American release. Fans coined the term "Woolseyisms" to refer to places where Woolsey had obviously been tinkering with the original Japanese.

Sounds like Adaptation Decay, right? Well, not quite...

Here's the thing. Woolsey's changes? They worked. Some of the lines were so well integrated into the collective consciousness of the game that they have been embraced by the fandom instead of reviled. While a good number of the script changes were probably unnecessary, many fans have come to the agreement that they don't hurt the final product, or even make it better. The script has diverted from the original — maybe wildly — and yet, it works anyway. That's a Woolseyism: The Pragmatic Adaptation's answer to a Macekre.

This sometimes leads to the strange effect that rereleases with more literal or accurate translations (whether they are purely literal or merely closer to the original while still being localized) can actually start wars between fans of the Woolseyisms, the diehard purists, and the poor saps who only know one way to read the story and have no idea what's going on. Attempts to appease the first two groups have led more recent rereleases to reuse some of the more favorite lines. After all, who can think of Final Fantasy IV without wanting to scream "You Spoony Bard!" at the top of their lungs?

Woolseyisms and well-made dubs overall are most likely to be found within translated seinen anime, where even with the Animation Age Ghetto, translators know better than to attempt to turn an adult program into a low-quality kids' show. Shonen anime, with their younger demographics, usually don't fare as well. Woolseyisms are also so common in Latin American dubs, that many people actually prefer watching the Hispanic dub rather than the Japanese original.

Atlus.com lays bare the processes of Woolseyizing with their Production Diaries. (Keep in mind, some are about Woolseyizing, but others are about localization in general — marketing, website design, etc.)

Compare Good Bad Translation. Contrast They Changed It Now It Sucks. Not to be confused with Cardinal Wolsey.
Examples:

Video Games
  • The most famous example of Woolsey's handiwork is probably the aforementioned Final Fantasy VI.
    • Terra Branford was originally named "Tina" in the Japanese version. That's a western name, so a translator today would probably let it pass unchanged. However, the reason she was named that was because to the Japanese ear, "Tina" sounds exotic and unusual. Obviously this was not the case in the west, so Woolsey changed it.
      • Terra arguably fits the character better, as it plays up the contrast between her and Celes.
    • The game's antagonist, Kefka, was given dozens of new lines, many of which were absolutely hilarious and excellently established Kefka's character as a misanthropic nutcase. Recurring comic relief Ultros got a similar treatment.
    • The Final Fantasy VI Advance remake for the game, released twelve years later, contains an NPC who takes a shot at a Fan Translation of the game which was far more literal — and not nearly as entertaining.
  • The name of "Espers" for the summon beasts was another Woolseyism - in Japanese, they have always been called "Phantom Beasts". This has been appreciated for thematically creating the same effect, and other localizations have similary deviated from the Japanese term to great effect on the script (Eidolons and Aeons in particular).
    • That one, though, has less to do with deliberately setting out to change something, and more to do with space restrictions. Whatever name is used for them, it has to fit on the menus, many of which which have room for about five letters (maybe six if you squish it.) There are not very many six-letter English words that could work.
  • Similar to the Tina/Terra case, there's an urban legend that the two principal characters in Final Fantasy VII were originally named "Kuroudu" and "Arisu", Japanizations of the English names "Claude" and "Alice", and that to make these sound less prosaic in the English release, the translation team re-Anglicized the Japanese names to arrive at "Cloud" and "Aeris". Of course, the katakana is quite obviously "Kuraudo" and "Earisu", and Cloud and Aerith are clearly supposed to evoke the English words "cloud" and "earth" (or perhaps "cloud" and "air") but the fact that the rumour still survives makes it a strong example of the original Woolseyisms' impact on later games and their fans.
  • The Goldfish Poop Gang in Chrono Trigger were named after condiments (Vinegar, Soy Sauce, and Mayonaise) in the original Japanese. This was not very intimidating, so they were changed to heavy metal stars (Ozzy, Slash, and Flea) instead.
    • This created something of a problem when the Japanese version of Chrono Cross actually included a main character named Slash that was supposed to be a rock star, which could have been handwaved if they hadn't also included an optional boss fight with the aforementioned Goldfish Poop Gang in the same game. This led to his name being changed Nikki, a reference to Nikki Sixx, in the English version.
    • The Chrono Cross team deserves a medal for how well they handled translating some incredibly long names in the face of space constraints. "Snakebone Master Jakotu" was changed to the similar "Lord Viper" (just "Viper" on the character menu). But they lose a point for totally ruining a reference to the first game by changing "Alfador" to "Guile".
    • Chrono Trigger is rife with this sort of thing. The aforementioned salad trio are definitely an invention of Toriyama (and if the game had been made in the US when DBZ was more popular they might have kept the names). The Japanese Gonzales was changed to Gato. It could be argued that "Maou" could be interpreted as Dark Lord or Magic Emperor, as opposed to the English title Magus, which while having a similar meaning, loses some of the imperial nature of the title. Whether this all stays in the hands of Woolseyism or not is based on the opinions of fans...
    • The gurus in Chrono Trigger were originally named Bash, Mash, and Gash. Woolsey changed them to the Biblically-influenced Balthazar, Melchior, and Gaspar, much more appropriate for three old wise men.
  • The Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games frequently use Woolseyisms, to the point of tossing out large portions of the original script. (The pianta yakuza gang in The Thousand-Year Door becoming Goodfellas-style mobsters, for example.) Despite this, the games have some of the best localizations out there.
    • And who could forget the hilarious internet speak employed by the mind-controlled Hammer Brothers in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time? After you free them from spouting off phrases like "PREPARE 4 TOTAL PWNAGE. WOOT! WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!", one of them wonders who talks like that.
    • Another notable example is Fawful from Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga, whose speech is a deliberate spoof of poorly translated games. As he himself says, "I have fury!"
  • The characters in the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series all had their names Americanized in the localization, but the writers took great care to retain the subtle wordplay and puns of the original. "Kamen Mask", for example, was translated as "Mask DeMasque", since kamen is Japanese for mask.
    • The second and later games went even further, sneaking various internet memes into the dialogue. Can you say "In West Clownadelphia born and raised..."?
      • "SuPer-Admin Restricted Desktop Access password-protected!? What!? This is madness!" "No, Maya, that is SPARDA."
      • It's not just modern pop culture references, either. From the third game: "Let us say the figurative Sir William will be dropping his panties before lunchtime."
      • "And my last name sounds like 'oh really'!"
      • "Well, look whose milkshake bring all the boys to the yard."
      • At yet another point in the third game, the Judge protests that he's "no spoony bard".
      • This troper closed his DS and cried into his sheets when he quickly realized to what Bob Marley tune Gumshoe was singing "No Motive, No Crime".
  • Opinions on the translations of the late Working Designs are split — fans of the company insist their changes are Woolseyisms, but others consider them Macekres.
  • One excellent Woolseyism occurs in the first two Shadow Hearts games, where, for the US and EU releases, the Half-Japanese, Half-Russian male lead's name is changed from pseudo-Russian Foreign Sounding Gibberish to "Yuri", a name that's authentically both Russian and Japanese...even if it's normally used for differing genders in the countries (male in Russia, female in Japan).
  • Planet names in the European version of Meteos were heavily Woolseyised compared to their American counterparts (often straight transliterations from the Japanese planet names), giving them a more Greek or Latin feel. Example subsititutions include "Gigantis" for "Yooj", "Aetheria" for "Brabbit" and "Insomnis" for "Dawndus".
  • An early, minor Woolseyism took place in the translation of Castlevania 3, as the characters Ralph C. Belmondo and Grant DaNasty became Trevor Belmont and Grant Dynasty, respectively, due to the localization team feeling that the original names came off a bit silly. Curse of Darkness gives the impression that the Japanese adapted the name "Trevor" in the Japanese canon when one chooses to hear the Japanese voice track. In truth, he is still called Ralph in Japan. They simply rerecorded the Japanese dialogue so that the Japanese actor says Trevor instead of Ralph (confusing, isn't it).
    • It should be noted too that "DaNasty" was originally taken from "Danesti", a rival family brutally persecuted by Vlad III — aka Dracula.
    • The name Castlevania itself is a Woolseyism; the series is called Akumajou Dracula (literally "Demon Castle Dracula") in Japan.
    • In the Sorrow arc, native Japanese student Souma Kurusu became a foreign transfer student, and his name became Soma Cruz, which amuses this troper because "Cruz" is his middle name. Remind his mom's side of the family to keep their kids indoors during the solar eclipse of 2035.
  • Despite the terrible translations of Mega Man Battle Network 4 and 5, there were some gems in the first few games. In the first game, shopkeepers and at least one boss used basic AIM-speak. In the second, this editor remembers one particular line, "Speaking of chow, where's Chaud?", a pun on the character's name that even takes into account the proper French pronunciation, unlike the dub of the anime (which prounounced it "Chod").
  • Several Woolseyisms in Valkyrie Profile. Most notable was the change of "Ahly"'s name to "Hrist", as the latter is a valkyrie in Norse mythology.
  • In the US version of the SNES ports of Final Fight and Street Fighter Alpha 2, the character Sodom has his name changed to Katana. Considering that his character is a Japan-ophile, the As Long As It Sounds Foreign sword certainly seems more appropriate than the inscrutable Biblical reference. As well, in the same port of Final Fight, the metalhead thug Damnd has his name changed to Thrasher, which many fans felt was more appropriate. These changes were most likely made due to Nintendo of America's policies regarding religious references and offensive material in games, rather than any sort of desire to punch up the translation, however.
  • The Advance Wars series has had a long history of doing this: For instance, the villain of the first two games was called "Herr Böse" — meaning "Mr. Evil/Angry/Nasty" in German — in the Japanese game. While undoubtedly exotic to the Japanese ear, it was slightly less impressive to the American/European markets and the villain was renamed "Sturm" in the English script. Many of the other CO names were similarly reworked.
    • Granted, this was also responsible for turning Jake Totally Radical, so they weren't all Woolseyisms, unless you count that as So Bad Its Good.
    • The latest installment in the series was translated independently by Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe, creating two translations — the American Days of Ruin and the European Dark Conflict. While the European version is more true to the original Japanese version, including the names, the American one contained a good deal of woolseyisms, including making Lin into more of a Deadpan Snarker and giving Ax Crazy Creepy Child Penny (Lili in Dark Conflict) some extremely hilarious dialogue involving her stuffed bear.
  • Through the magic of the Woolseyism, a decidedly average Famicom platformer titled Magic John became a hilarious sendup of '80s surfer dudes called Totally Rad. Check out all the gnarly differences, dude!
  • Many people very much enjoyed the DeJap translation of Tales Of Phantasia, which often added adult humor to the text. The problem is that many people didn't realize these were changes, and bitched that the official translation of the GBA version horribly white-washed the original (which it did, but not nearly as much), and took the mistranslation of a small number of words (Ragnarok/Kangaroo) to mean the entire thing was horrible, though the whole thing wasn't perfect either.
  • In Metal Gear Solid, Mei Ling, a character responsible for saving the game, would read out a Chinese proverb, and then read out the same characters with a coherent Japanese reading to relate to Snake's current situation. Since it was completely untranslatable, the localiser Jeremy Blaustein rewrote Mei Ling's dialogue from whole cloth, with the result that her sphere broadened - she now quoted Western literature and various thinkers as well as Chinese proverbs.
    • Another change was that of Psycho Mantis's dying words - 'It feels very nostalgic'. Since the nostalgia could only be explained by a thought process Hideo Kojima would have to explain in supplemental material which would be very unlikely to be released in the West, Blaustein changed it to the more internally consistent 'it feels kind of nice', which gave the character a Psychopathic Manchild feel, making him more sympathetic. This change was reverted in the Video Game Remake, and even after explanation, few fans regarded it as an improvement.
    • The Fan Translation of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, while being of rather dubious quality, had a Czech speaker in the translation team. This meant they were able to turn Kio Marv's dialogue from Foreign Sounding Gibberish which was vaguely intelligible with some knowledge of Russian into completely new dialogue in real Czech, giving a Bilingual Bonus.
  • One word: "Robotnik". So many American and European Sonic fans still prefer that name over the Japanese "Eggman", even after the name Eggman got transplanted into the Western continuity in Sonic Adventure (just look around the site!). Of course, so many of them don't.
    • So much so that as of Sonic Adventure 2, Robotnik is his official name worldwide(though he's still only referred to as Eggman) — partly to throw a bone to the non-Japanese players, and partially because a name that sounds more like an actual name is more conducive to drama. Of course, a decent story would also be conducive to drama.
  • In Persona 3: FES, the two game modes, called "Episode Yourself" and "Episode Aegis" was changed respectively to "The Journey" and "The Answer" in the localized version. Considering the theme of the story, this a much welcomed change compared to the rather Engrish names the original version used. Furthermore, the ultimate Persona, Orpheus Kai, which means "Reborn" or "Custom", was changed to Orpheus Telos. Telos is the Greek word for "goal" or "purpose." Similarly, Lucifel, the Angelic form of the demon Lucifer, had his name changed to "Helel" (the Hebrew name of the fallen angel) out of necessity to differentiate it from the demonic form of Lucifer.
    • Additionally, in the original game, the period of time during which the team fought the Shadows was originally called "Shadow Time" in the Japanese release. The American localization changed this to the much more ominous-sounding "Dark Hour."
    • One of the social links is related to playing an MMO. In the Japanese version, the MMO was based off the original two Megami Tensei games for the Famicom, which were never released outside Japan. In the English version, all of these references were changed to refer to the two Persona 2 games, one of which was released in America.
    • I'm surprised nobody mentioned the softdrinks in vending machines. What was a japanese only drink (I'm assuming) turns into Starvicks (An unusual blend of coffee and cough syrup) 1up, Fountain dew ( an unusually yellow drink) Dr. Salt, Etc.
  • The translator of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, a member of the Something Awful Forums, edited much of the the NPC speech in the game to include internet slang. The player character is repeatedly called a noob by other trainers, "for the win" is used at least once, one Galactic Grunt threatens to hit the player's weak point For Massive Damage, and a clown even exclaims "a winner is you!". This is appropriate, as D/P was the first game to use Nintendo's Wi-Fi Service, and most friend codes are traded via the internet. They also have a few Shout Outs to the Something Awful forums ("My Pokemon is fight!")
  • Alexander O. Smith's work on Vagrant Story, the first Phoenix Wright game, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy XII(alongside Joseph Reeder) is rarely passed over in reviews of said games, usually being held up as hugely successful Japanese-to-English translations (at least when they're not being criticized for Purple Prose pretension).
    • Apparently this sentiment is echoed in Japan as well - he was asked to provide the English lyrics for the two vocal songs on The Skies Above, the second album by Nobuo Uematsu's band The Black Mages.
  • The English translation of Odin Sphere added many more references to Norse mythology than were in the the Japanese script. Most fans appreciated how much deeper this made the game.
  • A special case for Osu Tatakae Ouendan - an entire sequel was made that transplanted the gameplay concepts to a setting (and soundtrack) that could be appreciated outside of Japan while still retaining the quirky appeal of the game that spawned it.
  • The English translation patch of La Mulana renames a few MSX ROMs (not the ones you download, the ones you collect in-game). Vampire Killer, which has officially been released under only one other name, Akumajou Dracula, gets renamed to Castlevania, and Uranai Sensation gets renamed to Diviner Sensation. The former gets this troper's underwear in a bit of a bunch, because according to the translator, the MSX Vampire Killer and the NES Castlevania are the same game, never mind that Castlevania is a linear romp through Dracula's castle and Vampire Killer is more of a Metroidvania.
  • The American version of Final Fantasy X had many changes made to fit the lip-movement of the characters - thanks to that, "shibito" (corpse) became "unsent" (which is a very good word given the setting of the game), "inorigo" (Child of Prayer) became "fayth" and "shokanju" (summon beasts) became "aeons", among others. The words chosen by the English version were very well accepted though. The lip problem also led to many sentences ending with "You know?" in the english 'dub', among other small line changes. In the game's finale, originally Yuna just thanks Tidus (for protecting her), while in the dub she says she loves him (since "I love you" fits the lip movements for "Arigatou" better than "Thank you"). This troper personally loved the change.
  • Final Fantasy V Advance has a fairly ridiculous English translation, but probably intentionally so, with things such as Gilgamesh saying "Inconceivable!" after being defeated, or Bartz commenting that a defeated crab enemy has been served. This troper greatly enjoys it, and its an improvement over the Play Station release, which had a Blind Idiot Translation.
  • The World Ends With You probably has way more than these few examples, but these are the obvious ones—all the characters use modern American teenage slang properly (i.e. "Totally Radical" is avoided except in one intentional case); Beat goes even farther with a stereotypical "gangsta" speaking style, whereas in Japanese his speech is simply rather rough and impolite.
  • Sort of like the Spoony Bard example, the re-translation for the Final Fantasy Tactics PSP release took out the classic lines like "Die in obscurity!" and rewrote the script in general with a Purple Prose flavor - although this seems to be the direction that the Ivalice continuity is moving in general.
  • As the creator of Katamari Damacy decided to leave the project when Me and My Katamari was being made, the Japanese script was therefore very dry and empty. The American translator was given the task to ghost-write the script entirely from scratch, and did so brilliantly. The King's dialogue was full of obscure literary and cultural allusions and his campness was played up to new, hilarious heights.
  • In Super Robot Wars Original Generation, one of the original character, Giado Verendi, was originally supposed to be Italian. When translating the game, Atlus took one look at his portrait, a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, and took the obvious route, mon.

Anime and Manga
  • Any of the Disney-Ghibli dubs are not word-for-word translations, but are often Woolseyisms, although still faithful to the original scripts in tone overall. Fans were divided, but Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli applauded the Disney dubs, which have allowed new audiences to enjoy their films who have never experienced them in Japanese or in previous English translations.
    • This troper's favorite? In Princess Mononoke, one particularly memorable line was re-turned to tie right into some previous forshadowing- "I told you...a wolf's head can still bite..."
    • Kikis Delivery Service and Castle In The Sky contain similarly altered lines which tie into previous conversations. -in the former, Kiki asks Ursula if she'll fly again instead of coming to see her again; in the latter, Sheeta refers back to the old miner, Uncle Pom's warning about her crystal in exchange for her talk about her crystal's heritage.
  • The Mexican dub of Inuyasha had Kagome's name changed to Aome, because "Kagome" sounds like "cagóme", which is Spanish for "I crap on myself".
  • A good voice actor will sometimes use Woolseyisms in the dubs of anime. Since many characterizations and plot points use pronouns, honorifics, word play, and accents that don't directly translate into English, the writers, directors, and actors in a dub will often have to search for a local equivalent in order to make those plot points work.
    • Gin Ichimaru of Bleach speaks using the Kyoto dialect, which is polite but indirect. His voice actor in the dub, Doug Erholtz, uses polite language, but with a mocking, facetious tone of voice to indicate the character's duplicitous nature.
    • Orochimaru of Naruto uses feminine pronouns in the original Japanese to make him seem more sinister. This cannot be accurately reproduced in English, so his dub voice is low-voiced and raspy to replicate the effect.
      • Rock Lee never uses contractions in the English dub to match with the fact he uses a very polite speech pattern in the Japanese version. To achieve a similar effect in the Latinamerican dub, he was give a military pattern of speech with an enthusiastic accent.
  • Osaka from Azumanga Daioh speaks with, as could be judged, an Osaka dialect. Typically, characters with accents in anime might be given a southern accent in the dub, if it was acknowledged at all. The dub team for AzuDai went out of its way to think about the aspect, deciding that not only was a Texas accent more appropriate for Osaka, but a regional Texas dialect of an area of the state that they felt most accurately reflected a similar lifestyle to Osaka. See Kansai Regional Accent for more on the subject.
    • ADV Films' being based in Houston might have had something to do with this...
    • In a late episode, Tomo is testing Chiyo with some really bad brainteasers. In comes Osaka, the Cloudcuckoolander, who thinks out of the box and nails every one. What's odd is (at least in the manga - this troper cannot find footage from the english dub, and apologizes profusely) the translators couldn't decide whether to translate or Woolseyize the puns. So for example, "What bird gets in trouble with the police? / Sagi" (where the answer translates as both "heron" and "fraud") becomes "There are five apples on a table. You take away two. How many have you got? / Two.", but "A truck carrying pumpkins, eggplants and tomatoes approaches a sharp curve, what drops? / The speed" remains.
      • Oddly enough, "If nihongo (the Japanese language) is Japanese, what is eigo (the English language)?" changed. (The answer is "Japanese" - eigo is Japanese, as is furansu-go (français), doitsu-go (Deutsch), supein-go (Español)...
      • This troper has seen the English Dub, and the puns are translated exactly without any explanation, making them completely incomprehensible. A woolseyism would have been much appreciated.
      • They're not that bad: "What fruit do you eat in the summertime?" In Japanese: Persimmon (kaki) sounds like Summer (kaki). In English, "Persimmon, it's fer swimmin'!" "Who's always busting up cars?" In Japanese, "haisha" is both "dentist" and "smashed car". In English, someone who bangs up a car is a dent-ist. "What kind of bird doesn't get along with police?" In Japanese, as mentioned before, "sagi" is both "Heron" and "fraud". In English, "A rook", perhaps because it sounds like "A crook". "Who built Osaka Castle?" In Japanese, the carpenter; in English, the mason. The Japanese/English and the truck riddles are unchanged.
      • To be fair, they kind of explained it in the translator notes. The heron pun requires knowledge of language puns which necessitated the change. The truck one, while not one you'd hear much in English, still comes off as a valid logic trick.
    • Another episode has Osaka pondering the nature of hemorrhoids. In Japanese, she asks whether it's spelled as "ji" or as "chi" with a tenten (which sounds almost exactly like "ji"). In the English manga, she instead asks whether she would look under H (for hemmorhoids) or R (for 'roids) in a dictionary. The anime, however, left the entire conversation untouched, which undoubtedly left many American viewers confused.
    • This troper personally preferred the manga's choice in adapting the accent to a Brooklynite one rather than the southern accent. Then again, New York accent probably translates better to text anyways, but it helped make some slang jokes come off better (Chaunen turns to Fugheddaboudit, and the like). Then again...this troper wasn't much a fan of the dub in general.
  • Similar to the Cyrano de Bergerac example, the original dub of Ranma 1/2 switched out Kuno's quoting of Japanese poetry for quoting of appropriate Shakespeare.
  • The noticeably old-looking Lupin III was redubbed for the US market with lots of pop culture references that certainly didn't exist in the Japanese original, and definitely not at the time of its writing. Arguably, a lot of the jokes got funnier, and it was otherwise faithful to the series. Sadly (or gratefully depending on your point of view), once the TV deal for Lupin III ended, the dub dropped this convention and later episodes released to DVD are dubbed straight. Probably one of the best bits of new dialogue was when Zenigata had chased Lupin into a subway tunnel at night. When a train came by in the original, he just said there wasn't a train this late, and that there was anyway when it came. The dub changes it to this:
    (train can be heard)
    Zenigata: Nah, must have just nodded off for a sec. Probably one of those sex dreams I've heard about.
    (train is coming down the tunnel toward him)
    Zenigata: This symbolism's very disturbing!
  • Samurai Pizza Cats is a great example of a Woolseyism, if you discount the fact that there wasn't much of an option of translating the show to begin with. The translators were given the raw Japanese footage — and no transcripts. So instead of having to work out all the dialog, puns, and cultural references, a whole script was written from scratch that is still considered to be good entertainment. Considering the general irreverent nature of the source material, this actually works.
  • Episode #14 of Neon Genesis Evangelion has a show on the radio in Shinji's hospital room. The Japanese version is a one-joke stupid pet trick about a counting dog (playing on "wan" being both "bow-wow" and how a Japanese person would pronounce "one"; "what's 325 minus 324?") The talking pup is in the dubbed version, but his vocabulary is a bit larger, since the translation crew adapted an old joke about a talking dog. Of course, since it's Eva, they subvert it by jumping to the punch line without explanation. "Who was the greatest baseball player who ever lived?" "DiMaggio?"
    • Also from Eva, in the original Japanese version of the Alternate Universe segment at the end of the final episode, Gendo Ikari responds to his wife's questions with a series of disinterested affirmative "Mmm"s. In the English dub, they engage in playful banter instead... which is pretty unnerving after the cold-hearted normal Gendo we've seen up to that point.
    • And say what you will about Tiffany Grant's delivery as a whole, but both the writing and the pronunciation of Asuka's Gratuitous German dialog improved vastly in the dub.
    • The Mexican dub also turned Asuka's occasional Gratuitous German into full-fledged Poirot Speak (with Bilingual Bonus to bout), and replaced her flawless Japanese with Spanish spoken with a rough German accent.
  • In the fifth episode of Samurai Champloo, Mugen is looking through an ukiyo-e catalogue and just gives a vague description of it's lewd content (one fansub simply translates it as "Oh, oh. They're doing it."), while the dub gives a fairly humorous line indicating a specific kind of lewdness for which it is the opening quote in the article for said trope.
  • The shonen fighting anime Saint Seiya was translated into Italian by Enrico Carabelli as "I Cavalieri dello Zodiaco" (Zodiac Knights). Trying to convey for Italian viewers the same sense of mystery and awe that classical mythology, which they are all too familiar with, inspired in the culturally distant Japanese, he cranked up the "epicness" of the dialogues, added quotes from classical Italian poems and Dante's Divine Comedy, and generally raised the stylistic level of all dialogues. Though he also introduced a number of inaccuracies and misinterpretations of the original plot, the dub had exceedingly good reception; and to this day many Italian fans say that they don't actually like Saint Seiya, they like the Cavalieri.
    • On a similar note, the (really good, voice-acting wise) Latin American Spanish Mexican dub of Saint Seiya used the Italian opening translated into Spanish, and to this day, any Mexican born between 1985 and 1990 insists that the good opening is the one from Caballeros del Zodíaco.
  • When Chrono Crusade was translated and localized, the staff researched and added 1920s slang to the dialogue. (The setting was America during the Roaring Twenties). To most viewers, it went pretty smoothly.
  • Bobobobo Bobobo originally relied quite a bit on Japanese popular culture humor and puns that would probably not be understood well in the US. The English dub kept the spirit of the show by removing them and instead using many English puns and culture jokes.
    • Of course, this results in many half-hearted puns coming out of nowhere, completely out of context, and sounding incredibly awkward. Good thing, then, that the show is supposed to be completely random.
      • Crayon Shin-chan's Funimation dub also had to modify the reference humor so viewers would understand them. To add the icing on the cake, a lot of the dialogue was fit for where it ended up: Adult Swim. 40+ eps down, over NINE THOOUUUSSAAAAND more to go, Funi.
  • The pun and portmanteau-heavy names of the Pokemon didn't translate with any degree of significance to non-Japanese ears. In every locale, new names were given to the Mons, with fresh puns - for instance, Hitokage (Japanese for "salamander" — lit. "fire lizard") was rendered into Charmander (char = to burn, mander = from 'salamander'), which hinted at the little creature's ability. The names of the humans were changed too - for instance, Kasumi (meaning 'mist') was changed to the luckily similar-in-meaning English name Misty. Strangely, Satoshi, an Only One Name, grew a surname in his Woolseyfied variant to fit the length and mouth-flaps - he became Ash (which sounds a little similar to 'Satoshi') Ketchum ('catch 'em' = Gotta Catch Em All, a clever tie-in of the then series catchphrase to the character).
    • Possibly the most elegant are Bulbasaur/Ivysaur, in Japanese as "Fushigidane" and "Fushigisou". While strictly translated as "Mysterious Seed" and "Mysterious Plant", they could also mean "Strange, isn't it?" and "Yeah, it's strange."
    • Also, Team Rocket's dialogue, which is probably the most memorable part of the show.
      • In the Latin American Spanish dub, where several Team Rocket jokes are re-written with Mexican slang and jokes on Latin American pop culture. And it works.
    • Used in the Pokémon Special Manga where Bill, speaking in Japanese as though being from a different part of Japan, is given a Southern accent in English.
    • Another impressive Woolseyism in the Pokemon anime occurred in the second movie. The movie involves a Prophecy Twist, with the relevant line in the prophecy being "The water's grand guardian will rise to quell the fighting, but alone his song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash." The characters eventually realize that "turn to ash" refers not to destruction, but to Ash Ketchum. The Japanese version of the prophecy simply mentions "an exceptional trainer", eliminating the Prophecy Twist entirely.
  • The Latin American Spanish dub of Magic Knight Rayearth replaced the girls' names with culturally appropriate equivalents. Therefore, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu (light, ocean, and wind, in Japanese) became Lucy (from Lucía, a female name for "light,") Marina ("of the sea,") and either Anaís or Anemone (the first means "chaste" or "pure," reflecting the character's personality, the other is related to her element, wind.) Similarly, Magic Knight Rayearth 2's Nova was renamed Luz (literally "light.") Regrettably for the otherwise excellent localization, several other character names were victims of poor romanization or outright ignorance, such as Lafarga becoming Rafaga and Alcyone being renamed Alanis.
    • Though this Puerto Rican troper has never watched Rayearth, he would point out that ráfaga is Spanish for "gust." Now, "Alanis" . . .
      • At least Alanis sounds like a real name...
  • In the original anime of Naruto, the title character finishes many of his sentences with "dattebayo", which means something along the lines of "...you know?" This was translated into "Believe it!" for the Viz dub, which suits Naruto's character well enough: it's probably what a twelve-year old would say, it shows Naruto thinks people doubt him, and it's supposed to be at least a little annoying. It also conveniently matches the mouth flaps. Unfortunately, since Naruto ends almost all of his sentences this way, it got too annoying and they just dropped it entirely.
    • This was arguably more an issue with delivery than with translation. Constructs like "... you know?" are common, if mildly grating, in spoken English—shouting imperatives at the top of one's lungs is not.
  • The English adaption of the Korean manhwa Ragnarok gives several places and characters names pulled from Norse mythology, whereas in the original the names kind of brought together about a million different world mythologies; for example, a summoned dragon originally named after the Babylonian ocean god Tiamat was changed to Nidhogg, the serpent that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil. This troper would be able to appreciate the changes a lot more if there weren't Ragnarok Online it had to tie in with, which leaves in all the original names.
  • The Latin American dub of Digimon Adventure renamed Tailmon as Gatomon, because Tailmon is a Digimon cat and "gato" is Spanish for "cat".
    • Most likely taken from the English dub, who also named her Gatomon.
    • This one doesn't quite work as well, though: being female, it should have been "Gatamon." Of course, the dubbers didn't know she was a 'she' until too late to change it.
    • Chichos, the little Mexican girl who has a crush on Ken in Digimon Adventure 02, became Rosa in the dub, because "chichos" means "little boys" in Spanish (?).
      • Same as the translators for the latin american version of Sailor Moon with Zoicite... they make him a woman because they didn't know he was a man... the mistake doesn't happen again with Fish Eye which is refered as male.
      • Actually, this is in the American Sailor Moon as well. Zoicite was redefined as female so that Zoicite and Malachite wouldn't be a homosexual couple, but a more acceptable heterosexual one.
      • The Filipino dub of Digimon Adventure 02 also made the same flub with Daisuke's older sister, Jun, giving her a male voice actor in her first appearance. All succeeding episodes, however, rectified this, with no explanation at all as to the sudden change in voice gender.
    • Speaking of the Filipino dub, it has made use of Americanized terminologies and some names (ex. DNA Digivolution, Armor-digivolve, Gatomon), however, the original unedited Japanese episodes are used and the Japanese script and episode titles are mostly adhered to, and most of the cast is referred to by their original names except, strangely, for Hikari and Miyako who are, respectively, referred to as Kari and Kyo (the kanji for "Miyako" is the same as the "Kyo" in "Kyoto.").
    • The line that made The Movie worth it: "YOU'VE... GOT... MAIL!!"
  • The Russian translation of the Ranma 1/2 manga added the secondary title "Пол Ранмы" (Pol Ranmy), which can mean both "One half of Ranma" and "Ranma's gender".
  • In Martian Successor Nadesico, Ruri plays an edutainment game that has her pick out the kanji pronounced "ai." The dub gives her the irresistably obvious pun "the ayes have it."
    • To say nothing of the approximate doubling of Neon Genesis Evangelion shout-outs, since the two shows were dubbed by the same studio.
  • The Argentine dub of Serial Experiments Lain replaced the line that Lain tells to the gun-toting junkie from chapter 2, from vaguely prophetic nonsense to pure prophetic awesome. In the Japanese original, she says "No matter where you go, everyone's connected"; in the dub, however, she says "Nobody will escape, not even you, once everyone's connected".
    • Also, the voice that says the chapters' names was made much more scary and ominous.
    • The name "Wired" was also translated as "Nexus", which is much more descriptive and fits much better the context.
  • In Star Blazers, a toast originally made in sake is changed to a toast made in "water, from a favourite spring on Earth". At first it looks like Frothy Mugs Of Water, but given the context, the change adds considerable depth and pathos to the scene. This comes up later, at the end of the series, and again, the scene is far more moving than it would have been with simple sake.
  • In Suzumiya Haruhi, the title character starts a club called 'Sekai o Ōini Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan' (Haruhi Suzumiya's brigade which will greatly enliven the world), or SOS Brigade. In the English dub, this became the 'Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya' Brigade, a name which manages to get the same point across while maintaining the silly acronym.
  • When Bleach was translated into English, shinigami became 'soul reapers'. The original author commented that this was a better name.
  • In HunterXHunter brazilian dub, the character Kurapika was renamed Korapaica, since "Cu-ra-pica" can be translated to something like "Ass-penis".
  • One of the more bizarre villains in Dokkoida was Hyacinth, a bondage queen who could make her slave Pierre transform into various space critters via acts of BDSM. In the original Japanese, the joke was that Pierre would henshin (transform) through hentai (BDSM). When being told about this ability, the hero Suzuo gets the two meanings confused. The English dub attempted to retain the joke by calling this ability the Special Morph attack, referring to it as S&M attack for short and allowing Suzuo the same type of mix-up.
  • Despite her reason for existing at all, Di C's Zoycite has quite a fan following of people who were just that impressed by Kristen Bishop's performance.
  • Captain Tsubasa, apart from being renamed Oliver and Benji and Superchampions in Spain and Latin America, had every single name changed from Japanese to Western. Although this might look rather odd being everybody from Japan, the names stuck, and to this day, nobody in the Hispanic world knows who are Tsubasa Ohzora, Genzo Wakabayashi nor Kojiro Hyuga, but everybody knows who are Oliver Atton, Benji Price and Steve Hyuga.
  • Ah, Death Note. A story so intricate that it leaves very little room for changes of any kind... and yet, this little gem somehow snuck in:
    Misa: I could never live in a world without Light!
    L: Yes, that would be dark.
  • The Pioneer/Geneon dubs for both Tenchi Muyo and El Hazard The Magnificent World both occasionally employed Woolseyism, usually for the improvement of the script. For instance, in the scene where Washuu has Tenchi restrained in her lab with the intent of getting a semen sample, the original Japanese dialogue makes her sound like a bored hooker offering options to her customer ("Should I use my hands, or my chest, or...?"); the English dub dialogue, on the other hand, plays up her whimsy without ever really disguising what she plans to do ("Let's shake the dew off this lily!").
  • When Dotto Koni-chan was brought to Latin America, the local Japanese jokes and double entendre were replaced by allusions to local culture and fads as well as Mexican slang. Combine this with a very enthusiastic cast and it works really well.
  • Four Kids Entertainment probably thinks they pull off Woolseyisms, but it doesn't usually work. About the only successful ones This Troper can think of comes from, of all places, One Piece, where the Royal Marines are changed to the Royal Navy, averting confusion with the US Marine Corps, and in the Kirby anime, where Customer Service of the Holy Nightmare Corporation is changed from a polite and humble Japanese salesman to a used car salesman-style CMOTDibbler.
  • The dub of the first Project A Ko movie slipped in several extra jokes which proved to be pretty popular, such as C-Ko's rambling plot summary at the end (in the original Japanese she simply shouted "Yoohoo!" over and over.) The following sequels were all dubbed by another company, who played it pretty straight for better or worse.

Comic Books
  • European example: the characters' names in Asterix are puns. When translated from French to Spanish, these puns still worked fine, probably because French and Spanish are both Romance languages. However, these same puns often came out rather silly in English: the fisherman, in French, was called Ordralfabétix, from "ordre alphabétique" ("alphabetical order"); now imagine a fisherman called "Alphabeticalorderix". So, the translators created new names out of whole cloth, based on the characters' traits and flaws. For example, the fisherman was often blamed for selling stale fish, thus he was called Unhygienix. The chief was called Vitalstatistix because he had the "vital statistics" at hand, the bard was called Cacofonix because of his awful singing, and so on. One rather clever example: the name of Obelix's pet dog, Idéfix (from the idiomatic phrase idée fixe, meaning "fixed idea") was translated as Dogmatix.
    • Moreover, the narration is full of puns and sly allusions, many of which also didn't translate — but the translators manage to keep the number of jokes per page pretty much unchanged. (This editor's half-French, half-English bilingual relatives are extremely impressed by the skill of the translators.)
    • Sometimes the translators even one-up the originals: in Finland, the Asterix book Asterix and the Normans was translated as 'Asterix and the Landing of the Normans'', an obvious, but still very functional pun on the landing of Normandy.
  • One of the comic magazines in Poland - "Komiks Gigant" (which, as far as this editor knows, is exclusive to Poland) - contains Disney Comics which have been masterfully translated, with lots of puns and new jokes added in.
    • Ditto on the Finnish version of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, which is often superior to the originals.
  • The popular Belgian Tintin comic books by Herge feature a pair of bumbling twin detectives named Dupont and Dupond in the original French language version, pronounced the same way. In adapting Herge's work for foreign audiences, translators usually rename the detectives, giving them names that sound the same in the language they're speaking but that are spelled different. The English version, as just one example, calls the less-than-competent detectives Thompson ("with a 'P', as in 'Pennsylvania'") and Thomson ("without a 'P', as in 'Venezuela'"), keeping Herge's original intent.
    • The same happened in many other languages, including the Dutch Janssen and Jansen, the German Schultze and Schulze (in German, "lz" makes an audible plosive), the Icelandic Skapti and Skafti, the Spanish Hernández and Fernández...

Literature
  • A literary example is Anthony Burgess' excellent translation of Cyrano De Bergerac. He substituted lines and allusions to Shakespeare and Marlowe which were appropriate to the classical French theatre quoted in the original text. For instance, in Cyrano's famous speech about his nose, the mock-heroic line "Is this the nose that launched a thousand ships" is introduced.
  • Another literary example which comes to mind is the decision of one translator of Lysistrata to call the organization of Obstructive Bureaucrats the "Committee of Public Safety", historically the name of the French Revolution government better known as "The Terror". As obviously anachronistic as this may be, given that Athens' government was somewhat similar to Robespierre's and that the modern reader would be unlikely to know much about the real organization, the translated name seems appropriate.
  • A very famous John Keats poem, On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer, is about how the author had read the sober academic editions of ancient works, but was never truly enthralled by Homer until he read George Chapman's more liberal translation. This makes Woolseyism Older Than Radio. As a side note, the literati of the time ignored or dismissed the point entirely - one even going so far as to propose that, since Keats was relying on translations instead of reading the original Ancient Greek, he was obviously not qualified to be an authority on the subject. This may mean that Fan Dumb is also Older Than Radio.
  • In the Harry Potter novels, Hermione starts up the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. The name in Spanish was translated as "Plataforma Élfica de Defensa de los Derechos Obreros", or PEDDO ("pedo" is the Spanish word for "fart").
    • The Finnish translation is full of similar adaptations.
    • The Dutch translation went a bit further, creating Stichting Huiself, voor Inburgering en Tolerantie.
    • The French translation is Front de Libération des Elfes de Maison (House-elves Liberation Front), or FLEM - in french, "flemme" means "idleness".
    • The German translation is Bund für 'ELFEnRechte (Alliance for Elves' Rights) - "belfern" means "rant".
    • In portuguese, it became Frente de Apoio à Liberação dos Elfos (Elves Liberation Support Front), or FALE - portuguese for "speak".
    • Hungarian readers get to know the "Manók Alkotmányos Jogaiért" Országos Mozgalom, or "For the Constitutional Rights of Elves" national movement - by the way, majom means monkey.
    • Many of the Harry Potter spells rely on Dog Latin incantations, which is natural, as English-speakers think of Latin as being a magical language. This isn't the case in other places, so when Harry Potter was translated into Hindi, all of the spells were translated into appropriate Sanskrit incantations.
    • In the second Harry Potter book, a character name turns out to be an anagram: Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. This would be *really* hard to translate into Swedish, but since it's too important to skip over, the translator used Latin instead: Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder = Ego sum Lord Voldemort. She did rename the character, but it is elegant.
      • The Spain translation did the same thing, calling the character Tom Sorvolo Ryddle, in order to allow a direct anagram: "Soy Lord Voldemort". However, the Latin-American translation did not, showing the original English anagram followed by its translation.
      • The German Translation called him Tom Vorlost Riddle, making the anagram "Ist Lord Voldemort" ("Is Lord Voldemort")
      • In Norway: Tom Dredolo Venster becomes Voldemort Den Store - that is, Voldemort the Great.
      • In France, they needed to make it spell 'Je suis Voldemort' - so, rather amusingly, they named him Tom "Elvis" Jedusor...
      • In Hungary, "Nevem Voldemort" - Name's Voldemort made him Tom Rowle Denem - cleverly splitting the "W" into two "v"-s.
      • Translators did this for every language. See the rather impressive list.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien planned that his works are translated in this manner. There is even a list of the linguistic roots of names to help with translation. The Finnish translation provides a perfect example of a well done adaptation (complete with an appendix describing the decisions that the translator made). The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit are themselves supposed to be adapted from the common language of Middle Earth (see discussion under Literary Agent Hypothesis and Translation Convention)
  • A similar effort to that of Tolkien was that used by Richard Adams in Watership Down which presented the names of characters and other vocabulary as Woolseyism translations of the "Lapine" language.
  • The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe claims to be a translation of a book from the future. Subverted in that the "translation" uses obscure and archaic terms instead of contemporary equivalents.
  • When this troper decided to translate Dune into his own language I got a bit stuck when it came to translating Combine Honette Ober Advancer Merchantiles. Struggling to translate the acronym as to make it as easily pronouncable as the orriginal, I turned to translations in other languages for inspiration. One of those was the German one, Merkantile Allianz für Fortschritt und Entwicklung im All. Keep in mind that the organisation in question is basically a intergalactic space monopoly.
    • What?? CHOAM stands for this monstrosity? We Hungarians got really lucky then... Until now, I knew only the abbreviation in English and I tried to match CHOAM with the Hungarian meaning with no luck. Now I know why...
  • When the Spaniard publisher Ediciones B got to translate the His Dark Materials trilogy, they soon had to figure out a way to translate the word "dæmon": they couldn't use "demonio", Spanish for "demon", because dæmons are more like Spirit Advisors rather than Always Chaotic Evil beings. The answer? The translators took a look at Greek mythology, found out that a daimon is a supernatural being between mortals and gods which can be good as well as evil, saw that this word was the closest thing to Pullman's term, and thus, they translated "dæmon" as "daimonion", which is essentially the same word but more transparent to Hispanic eyes.
    • Similarily, the scandinavian translations couldn't use the word 'dæmon', because that LITERALLY means 'demon' in Danish (in Norwegian and Swedish, the spelling is "demon"), so, like in Spain, the translator changed it to 'daimon'.
    • Of course, the terms "dæmon" and "demon" are both derived from "daimon" - the Always Chaotic Evil aspect is due to early Christianity declaring all non-Christian supernatural beings to be diabolic in nature. Literally demonizing them, in other words.
  • Douglas Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau de Marot is practically a tome about Woolseyism— it's all about the stylistic choices involved in translation, centering around how to best translate a poem by French poet Clément Marot but with digressions on all manner of other works.
  • Another famous example would be the translation of Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" from German to English. The 1930 English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation is "Nothing New in the West" (Im Westen nichts Neues), with "West" being the war front; this was a routine dispatch used by the German Army. A positive example of a Woolseyism In this troper's opinion, with the phrase becoming famous within the English language.
  • Averted by Tamora Pierce with regrettable consequences: When the German translators of her 'Immortals' series asked if they could change the name of the "Ogre" species, she said no. She later discovered that they had asked because "Ogre" in German literally means "man-eater", not a connotation the peaceful farmer Ogres of the books really needed.
  • Ocurred with some words in the Spanish translation of A Clockwork Orange, "La naranja mecánica". In the original, most of the nadsat language is taken from Russian with little or no change. Some terms, however, were morphed into similarly-sounding English words. Take for example gulliver for "head". As the Spanish word for it (cabeza) sounds nothing like it, the translated nadsat (via Word Of God) became golová, a direct transliteration from the Russian original word. Same happened with horrorshow (which turned into joroschó). Some others changed in less correct ways ("the old in-out" became "el viejo unodós", lit. "the old onetwo", when it could have been "el viejo metesaca"). Several untranslatable terms of jargon were silently converted to their "normal" counterparts, and most of the rest were adapted to comply with the ending and concordance rules of Spanish, but still sounding a lot more like their Russian counterparts than the English portmanteaus (portmanteaux?).

Western Animation
  • The Mexican dub of King Of The Hill had the title translated as Los Reyes de la Colina; fortunately, since "Reyes" turns out to be a real Hispanic family name, the Hills had their names changed and their family name was replaced with "Reyes", thus keeping the pun on the Hills' family name and the phrase "king of the hill". Hank Hill, for example, had his name changed to Héctor Reyes.
    • The French Canadian dub, however, refers to the Hill family as living in Quebec, despite the prevalence of American flags, and lack of any snow on the ground in episodes set during Christmas...
      • Not that they make much of an effort on the whole "this is Quebec" thing either - the entirely random placename-dropping gets rather annoying very shortly.
  • Drawn Together, as translated into Russian by TNT (although it did have its share of flat-out Adaptation Decay). Most jokes specific to American culture that wouldn't make sense to a Russian audience were replaced with Russian-specific ones. In a particularly Anvilicious moment, Foxxy and Spanky recite the names of Russian reality sho