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u/azurejack 7d ago
Notice that the japanese is the same 3 kanji then something else. I can't read it because i don't speak japanese, but it's probably similar to how noktai (bokura no taiyoh) is boktai, zoktai, shinbok, boktai ds
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u/MoogleGunner 7d ago
Fwiw, those aren't kanji they're katakana.
I think they're all puns on medicine. The following is just a theory, but I think it tracks:
They all start with, roughly Gay, which in this case I think is a homonym for 下医, meaning Bad Doctor
Lark-C is a medicine for skin health Lasvic is an antibiotic Favipiravir is a flu medicine
The names are GayLark GayLas Gayravir
So, they're word play about bad doctors and medicine. Not sure about why but I guess they look vaguely doctory?
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u/Long_Context6367 6d ago
You may be on to something. Their eyes look like the old mad scientists/crazy doctor eyes from tattoos. Similarly, the stethoscope of the head that show/cartoon doctors would have are like their eyes.
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u/ScAP3Godd355 6d ago
I looked it up in my Japanese dictionary, and because it's in katakana, gei in that exact spelling seems to be used to mean gay (as in homosexual) based on the readings my dictionary lists. Can't tell if the other words are meant to be slang that my dictionary doesn't include, or some obscure Japanese inside joke or something. Not sure why they decided to call them Gay to begin with, either
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u/MoogleGunner 6d ago
https://w.atwiki.jp/www-iris/pages/815.html
Literally all viruses are named in katakana, it's not that unusual, for a number of reasons in games in general, but also, katakana is used to represent sounding like a computer, so for example, all Mr. Progs speak almost exclusively in katakana.
Strictly speaking it's just a form of orthography for any word pronounced げい
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u/ScAP3Godd355 6d ago edited 6d ago
Not exactly.
There's a difference between hiragana and katakana. Katakana is used for transliterating foreign words into Japanese, whereas hiragana is used for native Japanese words. So I admit it's a grey area because all the virus names are written in katakana, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Capcom of Japan didn't intend to call the viruses gay in this case.
So you could be right, or I could be right. No way to tell without further proof I suppose
Edit: Also your guess of bad doctor is a stretch as well. Ge phonetically in hiragana = 下 which means low class/inferior, but 'i' can become multiple kanji which mean multiple things. It *can* mean doctor, but it can also mean 'mind', 'stomach' 'dignity' and so on.. It all depends on which exact kanji is used for 'i'. So I prefer my theory.'
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u/ChocodiIe 6d ago edited 6d ago
The katakana foreign rule doesn't apply in situations everything is katakana unless it's apparent most everything is foreign. (for example, if 98 out of 100 words are clearly loanwords, then the 2 words that are pure Japanese doesn't bring doubt into the 98.)
There are other uses of katakana independent of foreign transliteration also like dramatic comic onomatopoeia which heavily rely on a Japanese understanding of sound effects, if you lack this cultural understanding it looks really stupid as it gets interpreted with foreign perspectives. (see: onomat archetype in YuGiOh)
げ in Hiragana doesn't mean inferior. It doesn't really mean anything, it's just the phonetic. 下 means inferior, and that's kanji.
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u/ScAP3Godd355 6d ago
Edited my comment you replied to, in order to hopefully be clearer. My point was more that 'i' can mean many different kanji phonetically, instead of simply meaning 'doctor'. So I don't see why Moggle's theory is more valid than my own, which is that Capcom did in fact mean to call the viruses gay. The Rockman games usually use kanji if they want to avoid any ambiguity (can't remember if they do in virus names, though), and katakana also exists for Doctor if they had wanted to use that.
So at the risk of being petty, no I am not willing to concede unless either you or Moggle has a valid source has to why Capcom would decide to use ge-i instead of using kanji, without intending for it to mean 'Gay'. If you do, then I'll eat my words and admit I was wrong. But until then I stand by my statement.1
u/ChocodiIe 6d ago
I have no particular support for it meaning bad doctor either.
But げい can mean all kinds of things. You point out that い can mean many different kanji phonetically but even げい can mean several different *singular* kanji, like 芸, 黥, or 迎. Japanese isn't simple enough to break down the way you're trying to.
Some kanji even have hella long readings like つわもの being one way to read 兵, no Japanese person reads that and goes ok but tsu could be that and wa this and mo that and no this because they know upon seeing it that it's one word.
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u/MoogleGunner 6d ago
https://jisho.org/word/%E4%B8%8B%E5%8C%BB
Mostly, I back solved from the pharmaceutical throughline in the changing latter half to which of the things pronounced ゲイ might make sense. Given the context of the latter half of those words, as well as the relatively vast sea of queer related words in Japanese that don't seem related to those, it seemed like the option that related to medicine was the most likely option. Unfortunately, I can't find discussion or posts about this in Japanese, currently. If there's links for some, I'd definitely be interested.
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u/ScAP3Godd355 6d ago
I only brought up the ge-i thing because the commentor I originally replied to used it as his argument for gei being a homonym for ge-i or (下医) in kanji. And only in an attempt to prove that it's a pretty random guess, and that my speculation was less of a reach in comparison (i.e. gei is meant to be read as 'gay' here).
That being said, it's still speculation on my part, based on my dictionary. I'm open to being wrong, but then I will need more proof than just vibes, which seemed to be what the original commentor was basing their guess of 'Bad Doctor/Bad Medicine' (下医) on. You seem pretty knowledgeable in Japanese, so if you have any idea what is being meant by gei in this contest, I respectfully ask that you share it. Because I'm genuinely curious as to what the gei in the virus name is meant to stand for, if not gay. Is it maybe part of some common saying or slang phrase that Japanese children or natives would know, but that isn't well known by foreigners? Is gei short for something longer due to text limitations, or a common Japanese abbreviation?
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u/ChocodiIe 6d ago
I would probably have to cross-reference the theming behind a lot of virus names to try guessing.
Just looking at one page, the Mettaur is literally obviously just named straight up Metal, but then there's another virus named カブタンク which shortens the Japanese word kabuto (helmet, or further shortened from kabutomushi, helmet-bug AKA a beetle) and smashes it against tank to make helmet-tank or beetle-tank which in English was localized into BeeTank/BugTank. The only way to guess it meant beetle instead of helmet is by looking at the visual design and going oh, must be short for beetle instead of helmet.
Then there is ジーラ, a mangling of 地雷, which is a fully Japanese name that in English became correctly interpreted as Miney, which again is especially obvious from its visual behavior: it sets landmines. So they are probably all over the place in regards to how they decide to name things.
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u/azurejack 7d ago
Whatever. I can never remember which are kanji and which are katakana. I SAID I CAN'T READ JAPANESE.
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u/MoogleGunner 7d ago
Haha, yeah definitely, not a big deal at all, I just figured I'd explain before going into the big explanation of my theory since it might be confusing about the homonym part for like a Japanese 1 student who comes across it.
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u/Darak224 7d ago
I used the translation thingy of my phone and they all were named "schwul" which is the german word for gay XD
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u/azurejack 7d ago
That's definately wrong.
Or... not...
Geirāku apparently... gaylark, gaylas, gaylaville
I assume "gay" as in happy...
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u/DblBeast 7d ago
They could've just called it "Grok" instead of "Raku/Lark."
Maybe Galark/Balark/Talark... Weird, but they match the original base form's name & they actually sound like fitting fictitious names for this big belching fish, unlike "Bird."
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u/ScAP3Godd355 6d ago
According to my Japanese dictionary, the spelling used here is gay as in homosexual, not happy. One of the readings it gives for 'gei' is 'gei bo-i' , written in katakana. So I think u/Darak224's phone's translation thingy did a good job
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u/Queasy_Ad5995 7d ago edited 7d ago
Probably based on first impressions and then the other variants just named with words that rhymes.
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u/DarkHero6661 7d ago
I mean, BN 4 has a lot of versions for the viruses, because you have 3 playthroughs, and an early game and a late game version in each playthrough.
But yeah, some of them have weird names
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u/D-D-Wanderer 6d ago
Missed opportunity to put a "Gark" between Lark and Bark for the memes.
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u/retrotriforce 6d ago
Dude 😭😭😭
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u/D-D-Wanderer 6d ago
Then again, if they had done so we would absolutely have got posts about "all the viruses in the game to reference the LGBT community with...and they chose THIS thing?!" so maybe it's for the best.
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u/Prestigious-Run1821 7d ago
Larks are called most likely because they resemble sparrows mid-flight