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Answerman - How Do Franchises Keep English Translations Straight?

It is many years since I last saw German dub of Dragon Ball and my German language skills never were that good, but if I remember correctly, in German dub, Kuririn was Krillin too. Otherwise, they kept the names intact, but this one, if my memory serves right, was changed the same way English dub did. So, may it be that someone in Japan wished the name to be Krillin and not Kuririn in west?

peno wrote:

It is many years since I last saw German dub of Dragon Ball and my German language skills never were that good, but if I remember correctly, in German dub, Kuririn was Krillin too. Otherwise, they kept the names intact, but this one, if my memory serves right, was changed the same way English dub did. So, may it be that someone in Japan wished the name to be Krillin and not Kuririn in west?

Until recently, when an anime had to be dubbed into another language besides English, they'd often just take an English translation and translate that into their language, particularly if the language is European. In Europe, it's way easier to find an English-to-X translator than a Japanese-to-X translator.

At least half a dozen European dubs of DBZ predated the 1996 Funi/Ocean dub. The first non-Japanese version was the French dub. Then the Castilian-Spanish dub. The latter is based on the former, though the French dub is highly inaccurate. Some argue that it's more accurate than the Funi dub, but that's debatable since the Funi dub becomes "more accurate" after the Cell Arc into the Boo Arc, whilst the French dub is consistently inaccurate.

A similar method is used when it comes to such franchises with multiple spin offs (for example a multi-film franchise with books on minor characters). In the script-writing world I believe such a document is called a "Bible".