Fake TPOT: International

It is a long tradition among fan-created BFDI dubs to translate the characters' names into their own languages. This is not so difficult to do, as nearly every character has the same name as the objects they represent, plus or minus a sound change or two.

One can find many examples of such changes in the existing BFDI dubs. Thanks to all the creative people who have made comprehending BFDI possible in any language, Leafy is now called *Foglia* in Italian, *Listik* in Russian and Lövis in Swedish. The changes can also be seen in the series' officially translated subtitles, no link-hopping necessary: in BFB 13, for example, Pillow is called *Travesseiro* in Portuguese and *Makura* in Japanese. This has been going on for almost as long as the show has existed.

This page chronicles the long road to publicity that the show took over the course of its fifth season. The great length of this season led to the show being officially dubbed in several countries and the characters being renamed in completely different ways.

*Note that these names are not set in stone and may be subject to change.*

## On dubbing

**Dubbing** is a process behind the scenes of a film or a TV show in which new sounds (often dialogue) are recorded to create a slightly different piece of media for a foreign-language audience. This is usually done so that viewers can understand what is being said without having to read subtitles. The two dubbing languages to be focused on the page are Swedish and Japanese.

If you've been browsing the various the pages and blog posts on this wiki, you might think that Swedish is the default second language here. That's because it is: it's what the author is currently learning in order to improve his interactions should he ever visit the country in the future.

But it is also because of this point of trivia that Swedish is emphasized in this section above all other continental languages: As the popularity of TPOT really began to soar, and the show rose in the U.S. TV ratings in the mid-1970s, Sweden released its own dub of the series in June 1977. This may seem counter-intuitive, given that the Swedes already speak good English, but it all goes back to a visit by Jacknjellify to Stockholm in 1969, before BFB premiered. Yes... Jacknjellify quietly made a stop in Sweden on their world tour. They returned in the mid-1970s to promote the series, fell in love with the country all over again. And with the show now more popular than ever, they supplied the Swedish broadcasters with the funds to be the first to provide an official (perhaps semi-unnecessary) dub for the series.

Also because many of the names are neutral in nationality and can be found, mostly untranslated, all over the continent. (It does not help that Sweden lies north of the centre of Europe.)

The following tables display the names selected by the Western European and Japanese broadcasters to represent the *Fake TPOT* characters. In previous dubs of the series, such as the 1968 fan-made Slaget om Solskensön dub, the objects were not given human names that were customary in their cultures. However, the Swedes established a precedent for subsequent dubs, some of which are listed here.

*Fake TPOT* broadcasting history
* **1973**: United States (pilot *and* over the YOUTUBE, an acronym that surely stands for something related to analogue broadcasting)
* **1974**: United States (syndicated)

Original English dub, over network television
* **1976**: Canada, United States
* **1977**: United Kingdom (original accents)
* **1978**: Australia, New Zealand
* **1988**: United Kingdom (in which Ruthie Lawson and Jane Doy re-record their old lines in their own accents for reruns of the series. No other change is made to the series.)

Swedish dub
* **1977**: Sweden

First batch of dubs
* **1977**: German dub (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
* **1978**: French dub (France, Wallonia and Switzerland); Italian dub (Italy)
* **1979**: Spanish dub (Latin America)
* **1980**: Japanese dub (Japan)
* **1981**: Spanish dub (Spain)
* **1982**: Algebralien dub (Equation Playground)
* **1984**: Portuguese dub (Brazil—Portugal continues to subtitle the series)
* **1987**: Cantonese dub (Hong Kong; in which the characters' names are translated literally)

Second batch of dubs (after the series ended)
* **1990**: Swahili dub (Kenya, Tanzania)
* **1991**: Korean dub (South Korea)
* **1993**: Arabic dub (Egypt, rest of the Arabic-speaking countries)
* **1995**: Danish, Finnish, Norwegian subs (only subtitles; the names were still changed)
* **1997**: German dub (Germany, Austria and Switzerland; re-recorded); Mandarin Chinese dub (Mainland China)
* **1999**: Hungarian dub (Hungary)
* **2001**: Mandarin Chinese dub (Taiwan)
* **2003**: Hebrew dub (Israel); Russian dub (Russia)
* **2010**: Polish dub (Poland)
* **2011**: Romanian dub (Romania)
* **2014**: Ukrainian dub (Ukraine)
* **2019**: Võro dub (Estonia)
* **2020**: Vai dub (Liberia)
* **2021**: Turkmen dub (Turkmenistan, Iran)

And here are the names of the characters, translated into a selection of other languages.

  Outline of categories • Character properties (Ages (A to L, M to Z) • LGBTQ headcanons • Names in other languages • Nationalities • Personality types) • Tier list icons
  **1** (Hosts and related beings) • **2** (Contestants) • **3** (Non-competing main characters)**4** (Contestants-hopeful and family members) • **5** (Guest stars) • **6** (Other characters)

## Japanese

In the past, I've talked about translating the names of the BFDI characters into Japanese in a chain of RLBFB-related blog posts. I also touched on the characters' Japanese names in a *Fake* episode and even offered a link to a Japanese blog post that describes specific translation guidelines for interpreters. However, I feel that the contestants' names in the great tongue of Nippon—at least in my headcanon—require an update.

The names I *had* given the characters earlier were quite diverse, many of which cannot be found in a traditional Japanese name book or even in the entire archipelago. For instance, Snowball's name is simply a translation of "snowball" into Japanese. *Zurui* (Eraser's old name) was found as an adjective in a Japanese–English dictionary. I also gave names to Lollipop and Lightning that didn't match their genders due to my ignorance about those kinds of things at the time.

Also, some of the attested names of the BFDI characters are highly anachronistic. As they were conceived between 2015 to 2018, I was more inclined to give them more contemporary names—this was before I modified the timeline—thus it was typical to encounter *Iroha* (Book) and *Shiori* (Naily), names primarily associated with children, alongside with so-called "old people's names", such as *Hatsue* (Bell) and *Kichirō* (Coiny), and even the extremely antiquated-sounding *Zanryū* (Blocky). Now that I've set BFDI in the 1960s and 1970s, the names should reflect the era, namely those typical of people born in the mid–20th century.

Well, here's a breakdown of the *Fake TPOT* characters, both competitors and non-competitors, with their names translated into Japanese. For legacy reasons I've maintained certain names (Pencil will always be *Hisako* and Flower will always have a *Hana* somewhere), but for the most part, the names have been updated to be a bit more fitting for the time period. If they aren't, it just means that they're unique, which isn't unheard of in a series featuring talking inanimate objects.

## Algebralien

For the Algebralien-language dub of series, the translation process is straightforward. Instead of using subtitles (as was the case before 1982), the series has been locally dubbed for an Equation Playground audience. The names of the objects are simply translated into Algebralien, with no need to use common names from the dubbing planet's culture. This is in stark contrast to the dubs mentioned above. The Algebralien names of the TPOT contestants are as follows.

### Hosts

Names of the hosts of BFDI in Algebralien (Yb's headcanon)

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 It is important to note that in the Swedish dub of the series, similar to the original English and other European language dubs, the characters' surnames are rarely mentioned and are assumed to be the same in most other languages. This differs from the Japanese dub, where the characters' surnames are much more widely known and used on a regular basis.
2. ↑ Other calling names (used either in a more formal or casual setting) are not included here, as the failed débutants appear much less frequently than the regular contestants. For this reason, this table does not include a section on "Name changes in other languages".
3. ↑ Then again, I haven't been to Japan in over a decade. As for as I know, there could be hundreds of little Zanryūs running around the sundry metropoleis of the rising sun.
4. ↑ I'll admit that this was easier than I initially thought. I spent much of March this year analysing the names of Japanese immigrants and their descendents in the 1940 U.S. Census to see the extent to which there was a trend in Japanese American naming traditions. Spoiler alert: very much so.
5. ↑ He was born in the early 1950s, shortly after the number of kanji available for use in names was reduced.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 In keeping with tradition, the algebraliens' names shall be written in katakana.

**Fake TPOT** [V]