4

In multiple seasons of JoJo's Bizzare Adventure, there are names of Stands that are music references and have their names censored/translated differently:

  • Joskue's Stand is Crazy Diamond (クレイジー・ダイヤモンド Kureijī Daiyamondo) but is translated as Shining Diamond. Crazy Diamond is a reference to Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
  • Yoshikage Kira's Stand is Killer Queen (キラークイーン Kirā Kuīn) but is translated as Deadly Queen. Killer Queen is a reference to Queen's "Killer Queen".

On the other hand, there are other music reference Stand names that are not changed when translated:

  • Keicho Nijimura's stand is Bad Company (バッド・カンパニー (極悪中隊) Baddo Kanpanī). Bad Company is an English band.
  • Rohan Kishibe's stand is Heaven's Door (ヘブンズ・ドアー（天国への扉） Hebunzu Doā). Heaven's Door is a reference to Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

Is this a Crunchy Roll only thing (I watched all of JoJo on Crunchyroll)? Or is this a general English translation thing? Why would they only censor some music references but not others?

Aki Tanaka
  • 12,592
  • 8
  • 51
  • 107
Wimateeka
  • 376
  • 3
  • 15
  • 3
    Does this answer your question? [Why did the stand "Notorious B.I.G" change to "Notorius Chase" in the anime?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/51333/why-did-the-stand-notorious-b-i-g-change-to-notorius-chase-in-the-anime) – Maroon Dec 17 '19 at 19:51
  • It’s the same idea. “Killer Queen” is a Queen song, _Sticky Fingers_ (which is translated as Zipper Man) is a Rolling Stones album, etc. – Maroon Dec 17 '19 at 19:53
  • @Maroon I'd propose it's different because Echos is too generic to be a song/artist reference and (after Googling) even though Crazy Diamond is a reference it's not the full song title, only a partial reference. ~~~ I didn't realize Killer Queen is a song reference, I just thought it was a phrase (Like Queen Bee). I guess then I could change my question to be "Why are some stand names changed/censored and others aren't?" because Bad Company is also a music group and Heaven's Door is a song title reference but they aren't changed. – Wimateeka Dec 17 '19 at 20:21
  • Supposedly Echoes is a reference to a Pink Floyd song of the same name. As to the other question, well, I guess they play it by ear a bit. [This answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/21580/2604) makes sense to me as an explanation. – Maroon Dec 17 '19 at 22:19

1 Answers1

1

There's a couple of possible reasons:

  1. Avoiding copyright of the properties and associations with the artists for legal reasons.
  2. The translator not being very good, translating the meanings literally and not understanding the references.

I'd say it's the first reason though because the translators seem to be very good.

Aki Tanaka
  • 12,592
  • 8
  • 51
  • 107
simonee
  • 21
  • 1