The Sandman Misconception
(This will contain Part 7 Spoilers and really minor Part 8 Spoilers)
One of the more contentious parts of Steel Ball Run is Sandman, particularly his name and whether its a retcon or not
The Story
As you may know, during the "A Silent Way" arc, racer Sandman becomes an antagonist of our protagonist duo, wielding "In a Silent Way", a stand similar to Echoes Act 2. In this arc Sandman reveals to the duo that his real name is "Soundman", with "Sandman" being a name given to him by white settlers. Pretty simple, right?
Sandman revealing his name, SBR Chapter 44
The Retcon
In this chapter, Sandman claims the name Sandman was given by settlers, with his tribesmen calling him "Soundman", except this wasn't always the case, as Chapter 1 of Steel Ball Run has them referring to him by Sandman, Including his sister
Sandman's Tribesmen and his sister referring to him as Sandman
With this, you can easily come to the conclusion that Araki changed his mind, a retcon if you will (and there is nothing wrong with that!), likely thinking that the sound-based powers worked better and the name change added to the character. Simple, right?
The Issue
The "retcon" explanation appears to be contentious, with people claiming that it's a mistranslation or a pun that went past the translator's heads. The following will explain why that is not the case:
Point 1: It doesn't make more sense in Japanese
One of the more common explanations I've seen online is that "Sandman" and "Soundman" is a pun that makes more sense in Japanese, however, it's explicitly not in this case.
Both names are spelt differently in Japanese,:
サンドマン for Sandman (San - Do - Man)
サウンドマン for Soundman ( Sa- Un - Do - Man)
Katakana (the writing Japanese writing system used often for stand names in Jojo), is syllabary system, which in simple terms mean that each character represents a syllable or morae, much unlike the writing system used in english. This actually makes the difference between Sandman (サンドマン）and Soundman (サウンドマン）much more explicit than it is in english, as the pronunciation is much more explicitly different. This is unlike english where with enough of an accent you can probably make Soundman "sound" like Sandman.
Point 2: Furigana
For context, Japanese has 3 Character Systems:
Hiragana (ひらがな）
Katakana (かたかな）
Kanji (漢字)
Hiragana and Katakana are Phonographic, meaning that each character represents a sound or syllable (as shown above). Kanji, on the other hand, are logographic, meaning each character represents something with a meaning or semantic
In other words, the katakana character サ represents Sa, which means nothing by itself, but the kanji character 中 means middle, with different pronunciations based on how and where it is used.
There is also Furigana, which are small kana written besides or above kanji as a pronunciation guide. This helps readers understand how to read kanji (as there are thousands of kanji in the language)
The hiragana にほんご is written above the kanji 日本語, showing the it is pronounced \"nihongo\"
However, furigana is not just pronunciation guides. Occasionally, the small writing on top may be an unconventional reading or something that doesn't read as the large writing at all. This can be used for song lyrics, jokes, etc.
In Jojo's case, furigana is used for stand names to more explicitly define to Japanese readers what the stand name is about, as stand names are usually lifted from english songs. Examples are the stands Star Platinum and The World
The World and Star Platinum as they appear in the Japanese Raws
In the panels above, you can see both names written in Kanji but with furigana in Katakana. The furigana, which is what you actually hear the characters say, is not an actual pronunciation of the large kanji characters, with the kanji essentially acting like a "japanese translation" of the stand names
The World (with furigana ザ・ワールド , Za Waarudo) is written as 世界 (Sekai, literally meaning World)
Star Platinum (with furigana スタープラチナ, Sutaa Purachina) is written as 星の白金 (Hoshi no Shirogane, literally meaning Star Platinum)
This is important for Sandman, as his name is written as 砂男 (Sunaotoko / Sunaoo, literally Sand Man) but with the furgana written as サンドマン (Sandoman , literally Sandman). This is the same with how the tribesmen refer to him earlier.
Japanese raws 、tribe referring to him as 砂男
This explicitly defines him as a "Sand Man" by his tribe, with no room for "Sound".
Other Japanese examples referring to the Sandman or a sandman-like figure as 砂男
Point ３: Translation Error?
Another point I've seen is that Sandman was mistranslation by the translators, however, the points before this show that this is not the case. It is also important to understand that not only are there multiple different translations and translators working on the series, most translations have also been done with the part finished or mostly finished, meaning the information about "Soundman" should already be known, if it were genuinely a translation mistake, it would've been caught by the power of hindsight. It would be strange to assume that all of them got it wrong by writing it as Sandman in chapter 1
Other Explanations?
Some people suggest that an explanation to this is that Sandman was replaced by an alternate version like Diego, owing to how he first appeared in his arc, explaining the discrepancy.
Even I gotta admit that this feels like a deliberate attempt to show the use of D4C's power, however it is kinda strange narrative wise considering:
- We never got to see him again (at least not before the whole D4C arc alternate universe mess, which was mostly hot pants and diego if I remember correctly)
- Him being from an alternate universe never really mattered to anyone in the story? Why make it a thing if it contributes nothing to the story (not counting the name discrepancy)?
(This was also before D4C. Valentine was still fat, showing Araki still hasn't made him a "Physical Fighter" which Araki attributed the design change. There's also the matter on whether D4C's ability was changed but that's a whole 'nother can of worms, the Silent Way arc would've been before both different abilities, and the possible use of the D4C ability on sandman would've been the latter change that most are familiar with)
In short, It is just a retcon, and that's fine
Its not unreasonable to think that in between the almost 3 years between Chapter 1 and the Silent Way arc, Araki changed his mind to tell a better or more interesting story with Sandman. Telling long-running stories means you might change something along the way, Araki isn't alone on that, nor is he immune from it. We even see it in Part 8 (Spoiler warning!) with >!the flashback man that went nowhere .!<Propping Araki up and saying he wont ever retcon will only set you up for disappointment and confusion when he does.
Why write a long ass post just to say he retconned it?
Because the misconceptions shows up a lot. Knowing how its written in Japanese shows that these aren't the case at all, and I'm rather confused where the notion that its a pun or mistranslation comes from. This series is already extremely prone to misconceptions, such as Araki hating the PB movie to an editor forcing Anasui's gender change. What's 1 less misconception?
If you got this far, thank you for reading! I am aware that this post is not gonna change the consensus considering how far reaching the misconceptions are but it doesn't hurt to inform. I can already see people not reading the post and reiterating the points I already said above
Edit: Grammar, its a long ass post
Sources:
Jojowiki.com
English Scans from Jojo's Colored Adventure
Japanese Raws from Internet Archive and Jojowiki Gallery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana