We Translated Your Favorite Anime Character’s Names Over Fifty Times, These Are the Cursed Results

Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor

Jan 1, 2025 3:00 PM EST

Welcome, anime fans and stans. Have you ever played the Telephone Game? You might've played it on an elementary school playground during recess or as an icebreaker at some corporate company function. The purest form of the game starts when someone whispers a phrase into another person's ear. That person then whispers exactly what they heard to the person next to them, until the phrase circles back around to the original whisperer. In this game, the more is the merrier as the original phrase becomes more and more distorted with each pass until it is hilariously unrecognizable at the end. There are numerous versions of the game, including a drawing version that is even funnier when no one present has any sort of artistic ability.

Today, we play a sort of Telephone game by translating anime character names into 50 random languages at a time and then back to English. The results are varied with some words seemingly completely irrelevant to the original input. Other results follow a sort of sonic or etymological logic. And other resulting words are just way too ironic to be a coincidence. Scroll down to read them all!

01
Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

via Eiichiro Oda
02
Nami (One Piece)

via Eiichiro Oda

I wonder what that's referring too.
03
Usopp (One Piece)

via Eiichiro Oda

You can definitely follow the logic with this mistranslation.
04
Sanji (One Piece)

via Eiichiro Oda
05
Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)

via Eiichiro Oda

More like Rusted Copper Color.
06
Naruto

via Seishi Kishimoto

His name is so iconic that the translation software refused to translate his name to anything unique.
07
Itachi Uchiha (Naruto)

via Seishi Kishimoto
08
Gon Freeccss (Hunter X Hunter)

via Yoshihiro Togashi

This is really sinister considering Gon's transformation during the Chimera Arc.
09
Killua Zoldyck (Hunter X Hunter)

via Yoshihiro Togashi

The Hank Schrader to Gon's Walter White.
10
Kurapika (Hunter X Hunter)

via Yoshihiro Togashi
11
Leeorio (Hunter X Hunter)

via Yoshihiro Togashi
12
Yuji Itadori (Jujutsu Kaisen)

via Gege Atakumi

My favorite Japanese MC, Italian U.G.
13
Gojo Satoru (Jujutsu Kaisen)

via Gege Atakumi
14
Kakashi (Naruto)

via Kishimoto

There is some foreshadowing with this translation.
15
Megumi Fushiguro (Jujutsu Kaisen)

via Gege Atakumi
16
Nezuko Kamado (Demon Slayer)

via Koyoharu Gotouge

I mean, she does live in a box.
17
Tanjiro Kamado (Demon Slayer)

via Koyoharu Gotouge
18
Zenitsu Agatsuma (Jujutsu Kaisen)

via Koyoharu Gotouge

The irony here is deafening.
19
Son Goku (Dragon Ball)

via Akira Toriyama
20
Gohan (Dragon Ball)

via Akira Toriyama

This is painfully accurate.
21
Vegeta (Dragon Ball)

via Akira Toriyama

I guess that makes sense.
22
Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

via Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
23
Asuka Langley (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

via Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

I mean she really never stops yapping.
24
Light Yagami

via Artist
25
Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

via Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

This one is really freaky given the context of the show!
26
Near River

via Tsugumi Ohba

The word "Near" and "Almost" certainly have similar meanings, and Near was almost as interesting as L but ultimately missed the mark.
27
Suguru Geto (Jujutsu Kaisen)

via Gege Atakumi
28
Ryuk

via Tsugumi Ohba

More like people are deaf to his existence.
29
Misa Amane

via Tsugumi Ohba
30
L

via Tsugumi Ohba

"L" to "el" to "He"