Ever since the announcement of the re-dubbing of Sailor Moon, I've been thinking a bit about the days when anime characters received westernized dub names. Most English speakers knew Usagi as Serena. Likewise, Satoshi from Pokemon became Ash and Taichi from Digimon was Tai. I'm sure there are other series that gave characters westernized names, but I'm not as aware of them as I am of these three examples. If you know of any others, please comment and tell me.

Nowadays, dubbing companies want to preserve characters' original Japanese names. But what if they didn't? Think of an anime set in modern-day Japan. Think of the characters. What would those characters' names be if the dub changed them?

I have often wondered this, especially in the case of the anime, Azumanga Daioh. Chiyo would likely have a "cute" name like "Christie", Sakaki would have a more masculine name like "Morgan", and Osaka's nickname would be "Alabama". Even after all those name changes, there are so many gags and cultural references that they'd have to cut or change to make the show make sense for western audiences. Basically, the show would be butchered. Kind of like the original Sailor Moon dub.

My final thought on the subject regards anime in which the characters' names are clearly western to begin with. When I mentioned Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan to my dad for the first time, he had to cut me off to tell me that Eren's name should be Japanese. I tried to defend myself by telling my dad about Mikasa, but I purposely neglected to mention that her last name is "Ackerman".

I guess the east is as interested in western culture as the west is with eastern culture. At least, that makes things a bit easier to translate.