Japanese HeroQuest: Card Translations

[j_dean80]

闇の魔王グリンデッド (King devil of the Dark) Grindead! my Wife used N, she went on to say L/R are the same to her, she is a native japanese speaker.

闇の魔王 King devil of the Dark.
グリンデッド Grindead she wrote it so I could prononce it as follows Gurindeddo.
Personally I would think of him as a Chaos crazed Evil Wizard that laughs with a strange evil smile.

So it could be Glindead?

[Daedalus]

So it could be Glindead?

The Japanese woman I spoke with had the same r/l equivalency in her pronunciation, so I'd say "Glindead" could also be considered possible. I didn't hear a 'gl' blend sound that an English speaker would read aloud, however. Having heard it spoken correctly, I understand why the transcription reads "Gurindeddo". After hearing the name for the third time for clarification (the woman was very gracious), I convinced myself I was hearing "Grindead".

I'm hoping there is an English meaning intended by Gurindeddo, but I'm not sure if the author would have definitely chosen to approximate an English-based name in Japanese for effect as a homage to the original game. I can say that sound-alike loan words happen between languages (ie. sushi), and I can also say at least Mandarin commonly creates nicknames directly from two words.

[Chwat]

Glindead is how it is spelt! its to do with Japanese grammar used, my son is a native Japanese speaker. Thats how he spelt it, my wife said it has no meaning just a name, my son said it makes him think of a greenbean. They think we are all crazy

[j_dean80]

Glindead is how it is spelt! its to do with Japanese grammar used, my son is a native Japanese speaker. Thats how he spelt it, my wife said it has no meaning just a name, my son said it makes him think of a greenbean. They think we are all crazy

I think I prefer Glindead over Grindead. Not thinking of a Chaos Warlock with a giant grin.

[Daedalus]

Glindead, Grindead, or Grimdead--I think most any crazy Hero Quest fan can recognize a Hero Quest naming convention similar to the Witch Lord (two words) or Sinestra (one root word in commom with sinister). The concept behind all of these villians' names (JA and EU/NA) supports their infamous reputations. Perhaps the author was emulating this style knowing that a Japanese audience would readily accept this as a good RPG fit.

I wonder if one author wrote both the Quests and published map, which would justify Grimdead as the intended English name. Should that be the case, then perhaps there isn't a grammatically acceptable way to write Gurindeddo/Grindead with an 'm' using Japanese phonetic symbols. Just speculating here, but Chwat's son made a remark that opens this possibility in my mind.

Only 'dead' is in common for all three names as far as meaning is concerned. The Sorcerer figure has a skull face, so that at least partially explains the choice. I can't specifically recall if the villian was lich-like, but if he is, then 'dead' is surely a good fit.

[Kurgan]

Gojira = Godzilla

Keep up the investigation!

[Daedalus]

Godzilla!

(Also uses the HQ naming convention.)

[HispaZargon]

Today I talked with my Japanese speaker colleague and he said me that sound 'L' does not exist in Japanese like it exists in i.e Chinese language.

If true (I guess yes), this means that when a Japanese native speaks in Japanese he/her never pronounces the sound 'L', so if they try to write in a paper how their Japanese words sound in our alphabet, they will never write any L letter, but maybe a 'R' yes... I see this very important because I still think that "Grimdead" word written in the rulebook map could be correct if written by a Japanese person trying to write グリンデッド, and we know from the last Stephen Baker's interview that it is something totally posible because he suggested that probably all the Japanese edition was created by the Japanese Takara Company, not by a Western one.

AerynB also mentioned the 'L' thing back in the day in this post.

More information about the 'L/R' in Japanese available here.

Grimdead was translated as Grindead to me in Tokyo. Has
your colleague seen his name? Maybe he can lay this to rest.

I will ask... but remember that the original Japanese map in the back cover of the rulebook had clearly written "Grimdead" in our alphabet.

About the 'N/M' thing, my colleague said me that it is true that sound 'M' does not exist in Japanese, so for the same reason it would be really difficult to directly write a M by a Japanese speaker. He said me that the correct wording for グリンデッド would be "Grindead" however attending to the context of the name and the title given to this villain in other parts of the questbook (Demon King), he and me see rather probable that the map author wanted to give the whole name some meaning in English because デッド is an adjective that means "dead" so he/she decided to link it with sufix "Grim" instead of "Grin".

In other words... I see better keeping "Grimdead" word in our translation as originally, it makes all the sense I think and looks like it was the actual intended name given by a Japanese person in our alphabet, so why changing it then?

Anyhow, my colleague said me that "Grimdead" should have been written in Japanese like グリムデッド if the name had been firstly created in Western alphabet and after that converted to Japanese phonetics.

[Daedalus]

That all makes a lot of sense. If you get the chance, thank your friend for me. And thanks, HispaZargon, for seeing this through and assuring us of the best answer. Grimdead it is.

[cornixt]

About the 'N/M' thing, my colleague said me that it is true that sound 'M' does not exist in Japanese, so for the same reason it would be really difficult to directly write a M by a Japanese speaker. He said me that the correct wording for グリンデッド would be "Grindead" however attending to the context of the name and the title given to this villain in other parts of the questbook (Demon King), he and me see rather probable that the map author wanted to give the whole name some meaning in English because デッド is an adjective that means "dead" so he/she decided to link it with sufix "Grim" instead of "Grin".

To be clearer, M doesn't appear at the end of any Japanese words, N is the only consonant that isn't always followed by a vowel sound. Gurima or Gurimu would be a more likely alternative, the latter is what your friend suggested. There is a little room for artistic flow and sometimes it becomes a pun in Japanese.

To show similarity, a character in the Japanese Bleach manga is called Grimmjow in English, but in Japanese it is Gurimujō. It's intentionally a foreign name converted, fairly common for this fiction.