[Random] Joudan (上段), Chudan (中段), and Gedan (下段) and Moves' Names

March 4, 2014 - Random musings related to Virtua Fighter...first of all, I am not fluent in Japanese.  I only know enough of the Japanese language to confidently transcribe command lists for VFDC.  Everything else are very rough translations.  From watching streams of Japanese VF play, I have started picking up some of the words and sentences.  These are mostly VF-centric words and sentences.  The first of my "random" blog posts is about  three common words you may hear when watching Japanese VF streams:  

上段 - Joudan - "High Level"
中段 - Chudan - "Mid Level"
下段 - Gedan - "Low Level"

You can listen to the Japanese pronunciation of these words with google translation (click on the "listen" button).  The Japanese VF stream commentator use these words to describe the move's attack level.  In addition, Japanese command lists or strategy guides used these words to  describe moves' attack level. 

Random Trivia - Two characters in Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown uses Joudan, Chudan, and Gedan in some of their moves' names.  They are Aoi and Jean.

Going somewhat off-topic...since majority of the moves in the game is of Japanese or Chinese origin, Western gamers have difficulty recognizing moves by their name.  Because of this, lots of discussion amongst players about moves are done with command input.  Especially, if the move don't have a slang name for it, like Ten-Foot Toss or Stun Palm of Doom.  Yet, is it easier for the audience to connect a move by saying "Wolf's half-circle toward throw" compared to someone saying "Wolf's Giant Swing"?  For me, it is easier and faster for me to connect Giant Swing with the game's move than "half-circle toward throw".  By going into the background of some of the Chinese and Japanese named moves, I hope it would make some of the "official names" less foreign to the players.

For example, Jean's Gedan Mawashigeri ( 下段回し蹴り ).  As mentioned above, Gedan means low level.  "Mawashi-" ( 回し ) translates to turning or rotating. while "-geri" ( 蹴り ) translates to kick.  Put it together and the move directly translates to "Low Turning Kick" or "Low Roundhouse Kick".  The name for the follow-up option Gedan~Joudan Mawashigeri ( 下段〜上段回し蹴り ) would translate to "Low to High Roundhouse Kick".  Many of the Japanese-based fighting style kick moves would have 蹴り in its name.  Depending on other Japanese characters in the name, it can be pronounced as either "geri" or "keri".  Thus, whenever you look at Goh, Kage, Aoi, and Jean's command lists and see "geri" or "keri" in it, a kicking attack is involved.