Talk:Hikaru Sulu

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I'm not going to bother reverting, but I thought the stuff about 'L' in Japanese was trivial and irrelevant. And is it even true? Would they have left it unchanged if his name was "Quezon"? - - Paul Richter 02:34, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Let's see. Japanese has no letter L (this is a fact, that's why Japanese immigrants can't really pronounce it in English), and the name "Sulu" has an L in it. Wow, I wonder why they would change the name when they made a Japanese version of Star Trek? Can anyone guess? Philwelch 04:59, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I added the fact that Sulu is named after the Philippines because there is ample documentary evidence that Gene Roddenberry did so, and it's relevant to the character. Can you come up with any evidence that the difficulty of pronouncing 'L' was the primary reason, or any reason at all, that "Sulu" was renamed "Kato"?
It is FAR more likely that the change was made because the character was pan-Asian, and the producers of the Japanese version found that they could easily make him Japanese and thus popular with the viewers.
Can the sarcasm, and back up your claims. - - Paul Richter 05:15, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I changed it to "at least partly because." I mean, if the name of a character is unpronounceable in a given language then that would at least be a reason to change it in a translation to that language. There should be no canon evidence that Sulu was Japanese even in the Japanese version, other than being named Kato, but that proves nothing, he could still as easy be from San Francisco as McCoy is from Georgia and not Scotland. Philwelch 17:33, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Sulu, or Kato is defined as at least a part Japanese in the translated version of Star Trek. His name was changed to reflect the fact that "Sulu" is not a possible Japanese name. His family name "Kato" is written in Kanji while "Hikaru" is written in Katakana indicating that he is not a 100% ethnic Japanese. Reasons of change is that "Sulu" can not be written into Kanji and other being that first "Su-" part is pronounced as a long vowel breaking just about every common senses for a Japanese name. It is like having someone named "John Johansen(with an umlaut over "o")" and not "John Johnson" as an American character, technically possible, but sounding completely out of place.
"L" is pronounceable in Japanese but lacks a difference in the pronounciation between "R". Linguistically, Japanese pronounces a intermidiate "L/R" sound and thus the listener's prejudice determine which sound is heard. When written, however, Japanese make distinction between "L" and "R". "Hikaru" is never written as "Hikalu" when using the alphabet. The alphabet became a part of Japanese language in the 20th century and at the time of translation, it was considered better to adjust a character's name into something understandable in Japanese, much like how most of the characters in anime is changed when marketed outside Japan. Revth 02:47, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Does anybody know what the h*** is going on here? 64.107.*.* has been adding vast chunks of text and then reverting them back a minute later? They have done this a lot of times in the last week or so, and also with Leonard McCoy and other Star Trek names. Is this copyvio? Is there someone with a reversion fetish out there? DJ Clayworth 17:41, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The above mentioned user is back, and is banned again. DJ Clayworth 14:59, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Lt.Sulu of the I.S.S. Enterprise

In the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror, Lieutenant Sulu is ahead of Lieutenant Commander Scott ,in the ISS Enterprise chain of command (remember he'd stated that with Kirk & Spock's death he'd be in command). Where's on the USS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Scott is third in command (after Kirk & Spock). Is this a script writers blooper or not? Mightberight/wrong 0:18, 12 November 2005 (UTC).

[edit] page cleanup

the page needs to be cleaned up. the templates are overlapping.

[edit] Lt. Sulu's voice

People tell me that my voice sounds exactly like Sulu's, so I figured, what the hell, why not offer it up for some use. I've attached an audio file which reads this article.Brinticus 12:50 04 Aug 2006 (UTC)

haha you do sound like him kind of --E tac 04:57, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Captain's Daughter

Having read the book in question, there's no way that backstory would EVER be canon. The novels are not canon in general, and that story is particularly... silly. Shouldn't all reference to the novel be removed from the Films section? The background is given in the entry on Demora Sulu, where it fits better anyway.

After all, we're not putting in comments about his potentially belonging to a group marriage. (Read the novelisation of ST3 and a few other Vonda McIntyre Star Trek novels.)

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