User:Samuel Curtis/Case Closed RfC

Request for Comment: Case Closed Naming Conventions

Issues

1. The main article should be named Detective Conan or Case Closed?
2. Which version of character names should be used in articles related to this series? Romanized Japanese (Shinichi Kudo etc) or Anglized (Jimmy Kudo etc) version?
3. When other article refers to characters of this series, which version of the names should be used?

Background information

Main article: Case Closed

This anime/manga series was first published in 1994 and first animated in 1996. Detective Conan is the name given to the series by the Japanese publishers, appearing in small fonts in the logo of the series. Manga official siteanime official site

In 2003, the anime license in the United States was given to FUNimation Entertainment, and, avoiding trademark disputes with Conan the Barbarian, its name in the United States was changed to Case Closed. In the process, the name of the main characters were anglized, persumed under the request from Tokyo Movie Shinsha, Japanese animators of the series. In the same year, the manga was licensed to VIZ Media, using nearly the same set of names.

Subsequent releases in the English world, including Canada and United Kingdom, are based on sublicenses from FUNimation and Viz, hence using the same naming convention. However, people elsewhere knew the show as Detective Conan and refers the characters by their Japanese names.

Statements by editors previously involved in dispute

(Since this topic have been discussed in a few places, the following was extracted from Talk:Case Closed#Moved to "Case Closed"?, Talk:Case Closed#Stop It!!! and Wikipedia Talk:WikiProject Anime and Manga#Case Closed/Detective Conan Naming Convention Problems.)

• Wikipedia's naming convention is to use the English titles unless the work is better known by a different title. When in doubt, go with the English title and names. --TheFarix 17:29, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
• I'd go with "Detective Conan" for two reasons: 1) Case Closed is the official English title in North America only. In Singapore for example, the official English title is Detective Conan. As a result, there cannot be an agreement for an "official English" title. 2) More people use Detective Conan, given a search on google. Using Case Closed may cause more confusion.--Karn-b 05:29, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
• Let make things clear:

1. English is international language, so is also english wikipedia. For Englishmans it is advantage, but also resposibility in meaning clarity (comprehensibility) information for rest of the world.
2. Change names uses only English/US official releases, while the english scanslators, fansubers, and rest of official/unofficial world uses original japanese names.
3. If I'll buy Conan, it will be czech edition (if it will be ever released, I hope, while meantime translating it from english scanslations), either german translation or japanese original.
4. On Amazon.com I won't buy anything till they'll have non-problematic shipping to czech rep. Robin_SnnS 17:05, 05 August 2006 (CET)

• • "2.) Change names uses only English/US official releases, while the english scanslators, fansubers, and rest of official/unofficial world uses original japanese names." Who cares about scanlators? Many of them quit when Conan got licensed. The rest can have cease and desist letters filed against them. And the random Joe Blow who casually reads comics at the book store would know about the official books.

• "English is international language, so is also english wikipedia. For Englishmans it is advantage, but also resposibility in meaning clarity (comprehensibility) information for rest of the world." - The dub names are very international - North America AND Europe - And the same books are imported to Australia too! Anglophone countries are the only relevant ones for the purposes of this debate.
• "English is international language, so is also english wikipedia. For Englishmans it is advantage, but also resposibility in meaning clarity (comprehensibility) information for rest of the world." But on EN we also cater towards groups of people who speak English - I.E. England, USA, Canada... by the same logic we would be having trouble over the names of Pokemon articles (after all, they have other names in other countries, right?) WhisperToMe 15:40, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Comments

• While English is used all over the world, the only English-language editions (aside, of course, from subtitled versions on DVDs) use the dub names - Whether a person buys the English-language edition from the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom - the edition will STILL have the dub names and the new title (which was adopted due to legal issues in the States). To be honest, I do not like the Case Closed dub names and feel that they are inappropriate for a Western distribution. Even so, I feel like EN MUST use the dub names since they are most relevant to its audience. WhisperToMe 18:03, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
  • "# "Case Closed" seemed short lived on TV" - By the way, Case Closed still airs on the FUNimation Channel in the USA and on YTV in Canada. WhisperToMe 18:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
  • The "aside, of course, from subtitled versions on DVDs" section glosses over what's actually a big point. The subtitled versions are official English versions, and use the original names. It just isn't true that the official English versions all use new names. Ken Arromdee 19:42, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
    • But the subtitled versions are still titled as "Case Closed", and, AFAIK, they are bundled with the dubs in bilingual DVDs. Even if they aren't, they are still sold as "Case Closed". WhisperToMe 20:51, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
      • That applies to the title, but it doesn't apply to the character names, and a lot of this argument is about the character names. The subtitled versions are official English versions and they use the original names. Ken Arromdee 01:41, 11 August 2006 (UTC)