A Boy and His Fushigina Blobby

I didn't even realize it until I read a post on Gamespite that the Japanese version of A Boy and His Blob had a few changes from its original American incarnation. The most obvious is that the stupid looking stick figure boy now looks a lot more adorable, although the rest, at least from the few minutes I played, seemed to be the same. The title is "Fushigina Blobby: Blobonia no Kiki", which basically means "The Mysterious Blobby: Trouble on Blobonia." It was published in Japan by Jaleco.



What I did notice is that the stuff you feed your blob are no longer "jellybeans", but rather simply "candies". What's more, a lot of them have changed. This makes sense, because the flavor and its transformation type were usually linked by some kind of meaning, a few of which involved cultural or linguistic understanding. I went through the original batch of candy you get at the start to compare them to the English versions, and found some interesting stuff, even though I can't quite parse all of it.



Licorice (Ladder) = Apple (Hashigo) - I don't see the connection here. "Licorice ladder" is a nice bit of alliteration, but I don't see or get anything in Japanese.
Strawberry (Bridge) = Nashi (Hashi) - A "nashi" is a type of Japanese pear and rhymes with the word for bridge. Easy enough! I never understood the English one - how are "strawberry" and "bridge" connected, other than them sounding nice together?
Cinnamon (Blowtorch) = Curry (Gas Burner) - Both are spicy, obviously. Curry is just more recognizable in Japan than cinnamon, perhaps?
Vanilla (Umbrella) = Kinoko (Kasa) - "Kinoko" means mushrooms, which look like umbrellas, don't they?
Apple (Jack) = Nikki (Jack) - In English this is a reference to the "Apple Jacks" cereal. I'm not even sure what a "nikki" is, much less the correlation.
Tangerine (Trampoline) = Purin (Trampoline) - A "purin" is a type of Japanese custard. Trampoline is pronounced "to-ro-po-ri-n", with the last part of the word sounding similar to "pu-ri-n".
Root Beer (Rocket) - Champagne (Rocket) - Maybe just another case of something the Japanese are more familiar with? Champagne works better, honestly, because it reminds me of a cork popping off, more similar to a rocket flying into space. Root beer just reminds me of fizz.
Ketchup (Catch up) - Coffee = I guess this is just another gross candy, since the blob won't actually eat it. I'm not sure what the pun on coffee (pronounced "koo-hii") is supposed to be, if any.
Punch (Hole) - Donut (Ana) = Self-explanatory....donut hole. I think I like this one better, too.

The rest - Cola, Coconut, and Honey, are all the same. I guess if I'm bored enough at some point, I'll try to get the other candies and see what they're called.