SFXB Forum

After seeing Episode 20 again, I noticed that Dr. Benn's grave has his name spelt Ben, rather than Benn. Surely it would make more sense for his name to be spelt that way, especially since it was his first name, but its spelt Benn in the end credits and all media (such as the DVD booklet).

(Darthdc @ Aug. 25 2013,22:39)QUOTEAfter seeing Episode 20 again, I noticed that Dr. Benn's grave has his name spelt Ben, rather than Benn. Surely it would make more sense for his name to be spelt that way, especially since it was his first name, but its spelt Benn in the end credits and all media (such as the DVD booklet).Part of me thinks the original English dub Episodes they erroneously thought Benn was his last name-as we really don't hear his last name until---uhh, well I think it was Episode 20 we found it out....

Dr Ben Robinson appears to be the Japanese version of his name.Dr [firstname] Benn seems to be his English-adapted name.Because you never call someone Dr [firstname], unless it's Dr Phil or Dr Nick.

His surname is never mentioned, but only seen on his grave.I know that doctors are usually referred to by surname, so calling him Dr. Robinson would have been the normal action.

Except in Japan, where family names are often given first... (not sure how it works for doctors, though!) Could have been a cross-cultural mix-up...

In Japanese, you would normally address a doctor as '[family name]-sensei'.In the X Bomber Encyclopedia, his name is written in katakana as 'Dokutoru Ben', which is phonetic for 'Doctor Ben', or just 'Doctor'. There's no indication of whether 'Ben' is his given or family name, and I haven't spotted any mention of his family name being 'Robinson' in the encyclopedia.You can see an example of this on this page of the X Bomber encyclopedia. The translation (top to bottom, right to left) goes something like:Here we go, guys!Oooooh!X Bomber leaves Doctor Ben sleeping on the beautiful star M13.To Earth, on the heels of the Gelma home planet...the fate of Lamia one month later...hurry X Bomber!End of comic story.Note the spelling on the headstone. (Also note M13 being referred to as a star, as being discussed in this thread).It's quite common to see errors and inconsistencies in how English words are written in Japanese produced material -- there are plenty of examples of signs, labels, words on computer screens, etc., in manga and anime with very obvious misspellings. Whilst it's somewhat understandable, due to their unfamiliarity with the English language, it can be surprising that they don't have some process to catch the more egregious examples.[Happosai]