Terrible Japanese game title will have very tough time in English market

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Often times, there’s a wide gulf between what one country’s entertainment media considers normal and what the rest of the world considers normal. Sometimes, though, that gulf is completely unintentional, and manifests due to languages being different. A very pretty Czech fighting game is about to learn the hard way that the language of all markets is something to consider when naming your name, at least, assuming success is a priority.

The game itself is gorgeous. It combines a sharp-edged origami art style with a brightly-colored Mexican flair. It looks like Día de los Muertes decorations had a baby with paper Pokémon — and that reproduction analogy brings us to the game’s name: Bukkaku. As you’re recounting the tale of Bukkaku to friends, someone will surely take a stand and point out how the name isn’t even the same word as what everyone’s laughing about — but it doesn’t take too long to hit something unsavory when searching for “Bukkaku screenshots.”

We’re not quite sure how it plays yet, but we’re pretty sure that the title isn’t exactly going to appeal to parents buying holiday presents for their kids. Perhaps it was lost in translation because the game appears to be developed by a Czech Republic studio and named using Japan language conventions.

That title wasn’t just chosen because, haha, you know. Our dear friend etymology explains exactly why Googling for screenshots of this game will often require some eye-bleach. The term with which porn connoisseurs are more familiar comes from the two Japanese verbs “butsu,” which means “to hit,” and “kakeru,” which means “to pour.” Combined, “bukkakeru” more or less means “to hit someone with liquid.” The name of the game, “Bukkaku,” comes from the same root word, and the title roughly means “to break into pieces,” which is an accurate way to describe the result of fragile paper characters tearing each other to shreds.

Whether or not the dangerous-to-Google-and-even-more-dangerous-to-Bing game has an etymological basis for the naming convention, which in turn accurately describes the physics of the game, developer RZE probably should’ve just went with something else. The game sure does look pretty, though. Check it out.