Research from Kururin Squash

[Koopaul]

Hey everyone its been a while but I'm doing some research for a project of mine and figured this would be the best place to go for help. Currently in my project I've been looking up all things Kururin, especially "Kururin Squash". I have to make some creative decisions that involve these Action type Helirin.



Japanese onomatopoeia are used below and I got help translating them: Bukun, Byuu, Booo, and Boka. The key thing is I don't know what they are supposed to mean.

If you must know this for my Smash project where I make special moves for characters and I'm now at Kururin. Making moves based on the Action Helirin from Kururin Squash just made sense. I already have some ideas for how these special moves work but I don't really know what to name them. I figure basing them off of the onomatopoeia here would be a good way to do it.

Anyway, I appreciate any the help on this topic. Thanks.

[nocturnal YL]

Japanese onomatopoeia are rather difficult to describe in words. In general, it's much better to "learn" and experience (human) languages through intuition than trying to make sense of it.

For more-or-less direct translations, I'd give プクン something like "splash splash" or "boing", ビュー "swoosh", ボーッ "foof", and ボカッ "boom" or "bang". These are respectively the sounds of floating (think buoys, or the Mario enemy named プクプク), gliding, emitting fire (in single shots, not continuously, think those fire traps in Sonic 1's Marble Zone, I guess) and the sudden release of spring mechanisms.

I'm not sure if these will make good special move names in English, or even in Japanese, since I can hardly relate these sounds with these Helirin specifically. The names of these vehicles are "heli" plus a sound that's related to their functions, but without the "heli" prefix and prior knowledge of this game, it's hard to imagine what they're supposed to be.

Depending on how do you imagine your moves, I may even suggest to just keep the original names, and use "heli~" for the translation.

[Koopaul]

I gotcha. Thank you for your help. This is a tricky one. 🤔 Well let me explain. Originally I thought to have him fight from inside the Helirin but I think that would be too difficult. Instead I think something more unorthodox like Game & Watch or Pac-Man would work.

I imagine Kururin's own wings would augment during special moves to become the wings of the respective vehicles, as he spins about to attack.

Should I still use the vehicle name even though he's not in them? Perhaps so since Mr. Game & Watch uses a similar naming convention.

[nocturnal YL]

The way you describe these moves sound like the emphasis is on the references, and that the moves aren't very far away from said original references. In this case, I'd say you should use the vehicle names.

Counter-examples would be Mario Tornado and Luigi Cyclone, which are only very loosely based on their spin jumps (and these aren't jumps in Smash to begin with), or something that's made up for Smash, like Corrin's Torrential Roar.

[Koopaul]

Alright sounds good to me. Thank you!

[Evie ❤✿]

With the one closest to the right having punching gloves, I imagine the sounds in boka~ being heavier (like the English 'bam!') but that's just a guess. Like nocturnal YL's "swoosh" ビュー probably is an elongated sound since there is the ー (chōonpu) signifying a lengthened vowel sound, like if you hear a plane (or a car) 'zooming' past you, you'd hear a Doppler effect and the arms look quite long and thin compared to the other Helirins.

[Fryguy64]

Check out the trophy for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The English description for the Action Helirin does use these onomatopoeia in an amusing fashion.

Helirins created by Prof. Rabbit. One is a helicopter that can throw punches from its wings to smash things--HELIBOKAAN! Press and hold a button to submerge, then release to surface--HELIBASHAN! Shoot fire left and right from the wings-- HELIBOBOH! Use a spinning ability to create tornadoes--HELIBURUUN! There are also five varieties which shoot in rapid fire--HELIBIBYUUN!