Pokemon Names - Japanese vs. American
Cynra - cynra@earthling.net

Someone recently sent me a letter asking me a very simple question - "What is Mew's Japanese name?" Now rather than asking this kind person to search on his own, I decided to research this one myself. *grin* I was curious about what I would find.

In case you're wondering, Mew's japanese name is "Myuu." It's pronounced exactly like Mew, but was changed as most Americans would draw a blank at the japanese pronounciation. And before this kind person could ask me, I told him that MewTwo's name was orginally "Myuushii." I was curious; does "shii" in japanese mean two? Which led to an interesting thought - what connections were there between the American Pokemon names and their conterparts?

Now, looking at the chart of the Japanese names and their American versions, we'll see that the majority of these names vary rather greatly. In fact, very few Pokemon have similar names. I can point out two from memory - Pikachuu and Riachuu. Both are pronounced the same. Which is why, in the American version of the anime, Pikachu and Raichu were two Pokemon that did not need to be dubbed over. *grin* A bit of a useless fact, ne?

The majority of the Pokemon in the American version speak their own names - excluding Meowth and various other Pokemon that make random noises rather than speaking their names. I remembered a couple of other little things from the American anime. First off, if you notice, Pidgey and it's evolved forms do not really speak their names, but a variation of it. Looking over the list, I find that the Japanese versions are pronounced almost the same as their American counterparts.