JAPANESE NAMES

as used in

'CAPTAIN SCARLET and the MYSTERONS'

The following information has been provided by Captain Yellow, a Japanese friend and member of the Spectrum Headquarters forum, who got it from a Japanese Captain Scarlet fan site: http://www.kcc.zaq.ne.jp/hato/ncs/ncs.html. You can go check, but it’s all in Japanese.

The 1967 British TV series “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” was very popular in Japan when it was first released and still is today. Because of the language barrier, the show needed to be dubbed in Japanese, obviously, so some names were changed in the process to appeal to the new audience.

However, not that many changes were made; ‘Spectrum’ was still ‘Spectrum’, but was pronounced ‘Supekutoramu’, while ‘Bunkou’, the Japanese world describing the ‘spectrum of light’, wasn’t used.

The ‘Mysterons’ remained the ‘Mysterons’, although were actually called ‘Misuteron’, in the Japanese version.

Original English name	Japanese Version
CHARAcTERS:
Captain Scarlet	Captain Scarlet
Captain Blue	Captain Blue (Blue Taii)
Colonel White	Colonel White (Howaito Taisa)
Lieutenant Green	Lieutenant Green (Gureen Shosa)
Captain Black	Captain Black (Black Taii)
Captain Ochre	Captain Ochre (Ochre Taii)
Captain Grey	Captain Grey (Grey Taii)
Captain Magenta	Captain Magenta (Magenta Taii)
Doctor Fawn	Doctor Fawn
Destiny Angel	Concerto Angel
Harmony Angel	Sally Angel
Melody Angel	Carol Angel
Symphony Angel	Symphony Angel
Rhapsody Angel	Fantasy Angel
VEHICLES, CRAFT AND OTHERS:
Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle	Tsuiseki Sentousha (from the Japanese “Tsuiseki” - ‘pursue’ and “Sentousha,” - loosely translated, ‘tank’)
Maximum Security Vehicle	Kyouryoku Soukousha (“Kyouryoku,” – ‘powerful’, and “Soukousha” – ‘Heavy-armor car’)
Cloudbase	Spectrum Kichi (“Kichi” – base)
Spectrum Helicopter	Spectrum Helicopter
Spectrum Passenger Jet	Cho-Onsoku (“Cho-Onsoku” – ‘supersonic’, and “Renrakuki”, loosely translated to ‘Passenger Jet’)
Spectrum Saloon Car	Spectrum Patrol Car
Angel Aircraft	Angel-ki (“Ki” refers to ‘machines’ in Japanese)

To note that, contrary to his colleagues, ‘Captain Scarlet’ kept his Western name, and is not referred to as ‘Scarlet Taii’ (‘Taii’ meaning ‘Captain’). Of course, the change of name would have given little meaning to the title of the show – which remained ‘Captain Scarlet’ in Japan.

Regarding the Angels’ names, it is interesting to note that, a search on the net, using one online English/Japanese dictionary, the Japanese word for ‘Harmony’ – in the musical term – actually gave ‘Haamonii’ (amongst various other words), while other online dictionary, for ‘Rhapsody’ gave ‘Rapusodi-’, ‘Merodi’ for ‘Melody’ – all of those words quite similar to the English words, but which weren’t used for Harmony, Rhapsody and Melody Angels. Still according to one of those online dictionaries, the Japanese translation for ‘Symphony’ would be, amongst other words, ‘Shinfoni-’, which is also close enough to the English word. Symphony was actually the only Angel to keep her original name, while Destiny – whose names has numerous translations and meanings in Japanese, none of which were close to her English name – who was the only Angel in the English version not to have a musical related name, actually won one in the Japanese-dubbed version, to become ‘Concerto Angel’. This last information provides with the mystery behind that numerous listing of an Imai Destiny’s action figure on e-Bay, under the name of ‘Concerto Angel’.

While not that many changes had been made to the Japanese-dubbed version of the series, the Japanese opening credits were quite different. The original British opening was removed, and replaced with a montage of scenes taken from various episodes. The theme song used for that montage was also quite different – very high-spirited, and corny – with lines like ‘He (Captain Scarlet) isn't afraid of invisible enemies!’ This theme would not be recognised by anyone familiar with the Western, gloomy tones of the original theme tune. The Japanese version was added as a curious extra in the ‘Complete Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’ DVD boxset, released in 2001 in the U.K. It can also be found on various sites on the net, if you’re curious enough to make a search for it.

Below you will find the links to the consulted online English/Japanese dictionaries, which provided for added information to this page. Have fun consulting them!

http://www.freelang.net/online/japanese.php

http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html

http://www.englishjapaneseonlinedictionary.com/

http://dict.pspinc.com/

Text by: Chris Bishop

Upon information provided by: Captain Yellow (with all my thanks!)