What is the more literal translation of King Bradley's title?

May 11, 2021 5:35 PM

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Apr 2021

350

While the English Dub and manga translations render it "Fuhrer" like Hitler, the original is "Daisoto", while in Japanese Hitler's title is rendered simply "Soto". What is the more literal translation of Bradley's title?

May 11, 2021 6:27 PM

CPsyche3_

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Sep 2020

AoiroBlueColor said:
While the English Dub and manga translations render it "Fuhrer" like Hitler, the original is "Daisoto", while in Japanese Hitler's title is rendered simply "Soto". What is the more literal translation of Bradley's title?

Fuhrer means Leader or Guide in German so it's not completely far off from Bradley being called Fuhrer Bradley during the events of FMA.

Daisoto I think is consistent of Title and Outside, though Japanese is a weird language so it could be leader because Kanji being the big weird but I'm not completely sure.

For the sake of Fullmetal Alchemist taken place in Germany I'm pretty sure it would be Fuhrer or König.

Fuhrer Bradley or König Bradley probably works, I think Fuhrer works best for the anime's time.

May 12, 2021 1:43 AM

regulusgal

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Oct 2012

According to Google translate, the Japanese title "Daisōtō" or "Sōtō" simply means President.

Apr 8, 2023 8:46 PM

dokugaron

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Mar 2023

Fuhrer King Bradley is Daisōtō, 大総統.

As far as I can tell, the only time in history that this title has been officially used was between 1911 and 1924 in China, where it was held by 8 men, the first one them being Sun Yat Sen, often considered the first "president" of China: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%B0%91%E5%9B%BD%E5%A4%A7%E7%B7%8F%E7%B5%B1

(in Chinese it's written slightly differently, 大總統, and would be pronounced quite differently as well)

As far as I can tell the most common English translation is "President". You can find sources by googling for "大総統 president". But as a native English speaker, I think "president" sounds too democratic to be a good translation, especially in the context of FMA. We are used to "presidents" being democratically elected, but 大総統 definitely doesn't imply democratic election.

You can also find sources translating it as "Great President". This makes sense as the "大" essentially carries the meaning of big or great. But whether to carry that over into the English translation for a word like this is somewhat optional. I think "Great Leader" might make sense too, especially in the context of FMA.

The term used for "president" in the context of "president of the United States" is 大統領 by the way. For example the current president of the United States is referred to as "バイデン(Biden)大統領"

大総統 (as in Bradley Daisōtō) and 大統領 (as in Biden Daitōryō) are similar words, both sharing 大 and 統. But 大総統 sounds a bit more dictatorial or militaristic, that's probably why they went with Fuhrer, although I feel that's a little overkill. The word 大総統 doesn't really have anything to do with Germany or Nazism, although like you mentioned Hitler was referred to as 総統.

Maybe "Supreme President" or "Supreme Leader"?

Well, as is often the case in translation, we have options and there's no cut-and-dry answer, but hope the background helps.

dokugaronApr 8, 2023 8:59 PM

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What is the more literal translation of King Bradley's title?

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