Reasons for Character and Place Name Changes

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----- Most of the names were changed.  Ryo, Kayura, Saranbo, and Badamon were kept the same.  The rest of the character names as well as the locations in Japan were changed.  These change seem to annoy a lot of people, so I actually did something different than rant about it.  I sat down and tried to figure out why they were changed.  So the following is my conclusion.  This is completely objective speculation but it makes sense.

• Ryo - Kept as Ryo because it is easy to pronounce and memorize, and due to the popularity of the Ryu from the Street Fighter video game series.
• Nasutei - Changed to Mia because the Japanese pronounce it 'nasty' (yes thats how they pronounce it).
• In Japanese the Dynasty is often refered to as Demons (ie: demon soldier, sand demons, etc.)  Believe it or not, certain groups of people are quick to jump on any cartoon with words like that in it (especially used frequently) calling it satanic and the like.  In the American show the only 'satanic' references I could find was Cale being called the 'demon of darkness' and 'Sun Devil'.
• Ankoku Priest - Changed to Nether Spirits - same reason as above, keep religious references out of cartoons.
• Byakuen (White Blaze), Byakueno (Black Blaze), Kenbukyou (Saber Strike), Kokuyoen (Sun Devil), Shuten Douji (Anubis), Dr. Yagiyu (Dr. Coji), Gashura (Gash) - They just have too many syllables to flow easily, and they aren't exactly names that Americans are at all familiar with.  Remember if a show is to be sold to a large audience, the audience must be able to connect with it.  Also remember the target audience is 5 to 12 year olds.
• Seiji - Say Seiji enough times and it becomes Sage.
• Shin to Sai, and Shuu (Xiu) to Kento - Shin and Shuu sound funny in American, espcially because they both sound the same as words already in our vocabulary.  Shin sounds just like the shin (the front part of your leg, below the knee), and Shuu (Xiu) sounds just like shoe.
• Changing Anubis to Cale - I'm not really sure what they were smoking when they did this.  It would have been easyer to keep Cale named Anubis and to change Sh'ten to Cale.  This change just seems to confuse a lot of people.
• Jun to Yuli - Jun sounds like the June, which is a month as well as a girl's name.  Though Yuli sure isn't any better of a choice.
• Rajura to Dais - This is one of the worst changes they made.  Not only because Dais is already an english word (meaning a raised platform), but its very easy to twist the pronounciation of Dais into something not so nice.  And its easy to Americanize Rajura.
• Names of Locations - These were all changed from real places to fictional places (or little known real places) in order to disconnect the show from reality.  American cartoons seem to have a real problem with having shows take place in real places (yes there are exceptions).
• Names I have yet to really figure out why they changed:
  • Touma (Rowen), maybe they thought Touma sounded like a girl's name?
  • Naaza (Sekhmet), I'm not sure.  Possibly sounds too much like Naga, a creature from Dungeons and Dragons? Or possibley felt that it sounds like a girl's name?
  • Arago (Talpa), still not sure.
  • Kayura (kept the same), not sure why they kept it.
  • Badamon (kept the same), not sure why they kept it.
  • Kaos (Ancient), I actually think it would have worked better with both of them, Talpa, the Warlords, and the Ronins post episode 15 refering to him as Kaos, as they would know his name.  And have the Ronins call him Ancient before they meet him in episode 15. Anybody know what exactly Kaos translates too?

----- If you have any other speculation about the changes in names send it my way.

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