Personal pronoun guide

[Herms]

----Notice:This old thread is part of my series of guides. To avoid necro-posting, please post any comments you have in the sticky thread for my guides, rather than here. Thanks!----

Or more specifically, a guide to how DragonBall characters say “I”. One of the differences between English and Japanese is that Japanese has all sorts of different ways to say “I”, while English of course has pretty much just one. In Japanese each form of “I” has a different connotation, and which form a character uses says something about them. The same character might also use different forms of “I” depending on the situation, or change to a different one as they grow older or transform. This is an aspect of the dialog that is basically impossible to translate, so I figured I’d make a guide so that those who read/watch the series in English can be aware of these distinctions.

First I should explain the different forms of “I” in Japanese and what they mean. Wikipedia has a page on this, but I’ll summarize for the ones most commonly seen in DragonBall:

Watashi: Polite and gender-neutral.
Watakushi: Even more polite than “Watashi”, gender-neutral. You don’t see it too much in DragonBall though.
Washi: Informal form of "Watashi" used by old men.
Boku: Informal, generally used by young males.
Atashi: Informal, used by young women.
Ore: Informal, generally used by men, and gives a sense of masculinity. Most of the male characters in DragonBall use this.
Ora: Hick form of “Ore”.
Oira: Another hick form of “Ore”.
(own name): Very childish.

Goku: Goku usually uses “Ora”, the hick form of “Ore”. However, when he first becomes Super Saiyan he switches to “Ore”. He does this when he goes Super Saiyan against Freeza, and switches back to “Ora” when he reverts to his normal form and tries to leave the fight, but the goes back to “Ore” again when Freeza forces him to go Super Saiyan once more to finish the fight. Super Saiyan Goku again uses “Ore” when he fights No.19, but after training in the Room of Spirit and Time he uses “Ora” even as a Super Saiyan, perhaps because he got used to the form. As Vegetto he uses “Ore”, probably due to Vegeta’s influence, and the same is true of Gogeta.

Gohan: Gohan first uses “Boku”. He keeps on using it as a 16-year old, but as Ultimate Gohan he uses “Ore". However, by the time of the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai he has switched back to “Boku”. In Trunks’ future he uses “Ore”.

Goten: As a seven-year old he uses “Boku”. I can’t find an instance of him using a personal pronoun during the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai segment at the end of the series, so I don’t know whether he switched to something else as he grew up. I guess I’d have to watch go re-watch GT to find out. As Gotenks he uses “Ore”.

Pan: “Watashi”

Uub: “Oira”, another hick form of “Ore”.

Mister Satan: He uses “Ore” during most of the series, but has switched to “Watashi” by the time of the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai.

Chi Chi and Gyuumao: They both use “Ora”, like Goku, but when they say “Ora” it’s written in hiragana, whereas with Goku it’s written in katakana. However, at some point in the series Chi Chi’s “Ora” starts getting written in katakana.

Kuririn: Uses "Boku" as a kid but switches to “Ore” at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai. When talking to Kame-sennin he uses "Watashi" or "Watakushi" to show his respect.

Yamcha: “Ore”
Tenshinhan: “Ore”
Chaozu: "Boku"
Yajirobe: “Ore”

Oolong: Normally uses "Ore", but when transformed as an oni, telling the villager's daughter that he's really nice, he uses "Boku-chan", I guess to seem cute.

Puar: Puar uses "Boku", which as already mentioned is almost always used by males, giving us the only indication of his gender.

Piccolo: Usually “Ore”, but during his egomaniacal villain phase he sometimes uses “Ore-sama”, like most of the villains do at some point. In the anime, during his fight with Freeza after merging with Nail, he uses "Ore-tachi", the plural of "Ore".

Kami: “Watashi”
Dende: “Boku”
Shenlong: “Watashi”

Bulma: Starts out using “Watashi” but switches to “Atashi” at some point in the Freeza arc. She uses “Ore” when trying to convince General Blue that she’s actually a man.

Videl: “Atashi”

Lunch: Uses “Watashi” in her calm form and “Ore” in her violent form.

Vegeta: Usually “Ore”, but in his more maniacal phases he uses “Ore-sama”.

Trunks: Future Trunks generally uses “Ore”, but as a kid during the “Trunks the Story” he uses “Boku”. But there’s at least one instance of grown-up Future Trunks using “Boku”: when telling Freeza that he’s not as soft as Son Goku. Chibi Trunks uses “Boku”, and Gotenks uses “Ore”.

Uranai Baba: She usually uses "Washi", but goes with "Watashi" in that horrible song she sings to distract Yamcha when he's fighting the invisible man, perhaps to seem less old.

Kame-sennin: “Washi”
Dr. Brief: “Washi”
Bulma’s mother: “Watashi”
Karin: “Washi”
Enma Daio: “Washi”
Kaio: “Washi”
Kaioshin: “Watashi”

Mister Popo: Mister Popo doesn’t use any personal pronoun, but rather always refers to himself as “Mister Popo”. AnimeNation’s John wrote an “Ask John” article explaining this sort of practice, but the short version is that it’s a childish way to talk.

Pilaf: “Watashi”

Tao Pai Pai: Uses “Watashi” but refers to himself as “kono Tai Pai Pai” half the damn time (literally “this Tao Pai Pai”; hard to translate but it’s basically a self-important way of referring to yourself). Most of the villains and other arrogant people do this at some point. For full effect, the honorific “sama” is added onto the end.

Tsuru-sennin: “Washi”

Piccolo Daimao: Uses “Washi” when old, but uses “Watashi” when actually making his wish to Shenlong, I guess to be more polite when making his wish. Immediately after having his youth restored he still uses “Washi”, but he soon switches to “Watashi”.

Raditz: “Ore”
Nappa: “Ore”

Freeza: Oh boy, Freeza runs the whole spectrum. In his first form, he usually uses “Watashi”, but he uses “Watakushi”, the more formal form of “Watashi”, when first explaining his transformations to Vegeta and the others. In his second form he switches to “Ore”. In his third he uses “Watashi” once but then switches to “Watakushi” when announcing his final transformation. In his final form, he starts using “Boku”, like a child, but after coming back from being hit with the Genki Dama he switches to “Ore”. As Mecha Freeza he goes back to using “Boku”, which again gives him a very childish feel to him, especially since he calls King Cold “papa”.

King Cold: He uses “Washi”, but in katakana rather than hiragana, unlike most of the DragonBall characters who use that personal pronoun.

No.8: "Ore"
No.16: “Ore”
No.17: “Ore”, but he briefly uses "Watashi" when pretending to be obdedient to Doctor Gero.
No.18: “Watashi”
No.19: “Watashi”
No.20: “Watashi”

Cell: He normally uses “Watashi”. However, he uses "Ore" the very first time he uses a pronoun to refer to himself (when telling Piccolo "I am your brother"), and also during his self-destruction sequence. He also uses "Ore" when using No.17's voice to trick No.18.

Babidi: Very early on he uses “Washi”, but he soon switches to “Boku”, a rather childish way to talk for someone who is millions of years old (and similar to Mecha Freeza, he refers to Bibidi as “papa”). In the Japanese manga he also talks in a different font than the other characters, a thinner, more scratchier-looking one. That has nothing to do with personal pronouns, but it’s kind of interesting so I figured I’d mention it.

Dabra: “Watashi”

Majin Buu: Fat Buu and Super Buu uses “Ore”, but Super Buu starts using “Watashi” after absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo, which is kind of odd since neither of them use that personal pronoun. I suppose it’s just supposed to be an instance of Freeza-like mock politeness. After absorbing Gohan, he keeps on using “Watashi” while he has the upper hand, but when Vegetto starts making him mad he switches to “Ore”. Skinny Buu doesn’t talk in the manga, but I think he parrots Fat Buu in the anime, using “Ore” in the process. Muscley Buu and Kid Buu don’t talk, of course.

[desirecampbell]

Neat stuff!

[Forgotten Hero]

Cool! You posted this thread in my thread, so my question has to do with what you said about Future Gohan. So, I don't know Japanese, when is Gohan using ore as a masculine sense in his dialog?
Are there any particular scenes where Gohan uses ore?

[Herms]

Future Gohan uses "Ore" during the special Trunks manga chapter ("It seems you'll surpass me it a few more months"), and probably in the Trunks TV special as well (too lazy to check right now). Then Ultimate Gohan uses "Ore" as well, though he's only seen using it when talking to Majin Buu. Not that he's shown using something different when talking to other people, it's just that the only time he's shown using any pronoun to refer to himself is during his scenes with Buu, and even then only in the scene where Gotenks and Piccolo are absorbed and onward. One of the things about Japanese is that it's easy to leave pronouns out of your speech, so a character can talk for pages before using one, in situations where any English translation would have to include one constantly. Another thing to note is that in Japanese there's no distinction between "I" and "me". The same word is used for both.

[Forgotten Hero]

You mean Future Gohan, lol
I can check the tv special, myself, later. I don't have it right now.
But thanks for translating the manga special, I only have the english verson(Manga and Shonejump clip out).

[Terra-jin]

Thanks again Herms for your efforts! It's interesting to see how Freeza's poise changes with his intentions. I've always liked how he always acted very politely, even though his true nature is more rude. I've never looked at Freeza being childish. I wonder, is this also part of his true nature, or a new kind of mockery on his part?

Is there any significant meaning to the different between writing pronouns in hiragana or katakana?

[Herms]

I've always liked how he always acted very politely, even though his true nature is more rude. I've never looked at Freeza being childish. I wonder, is this also part of his true nature, or a new kind of mockery on his part?

I think it's probably another facade, since he drops his childish way of speaking when it starts to seem that Goku is an actual threat. But when Goku first sees Freeza, he does comment that Freeza looks much more like a kid than he thought ("Kisama ga Freeza ka...omotte yori zutto gakippoi na...". gaki is a rude way of saying "child", similiar to "brat", and gakippoi is basically "gaki-like" or "gaki-ish". I've seen Goku's line translated as both "You're a lot younger than I thought" and "You're smaller than I thought"). Though with using "Boku", maybe childish isn't quite the right word so much as simply "young".

I do think that some degree of childishness or immaturity is a thread that runs through all the villians in DragonBall, but I think I'll save that theory for another time.

Is there any significant meaning to the different between writing pronouns in hiragana or katakana?

There's no real difference in meaning that I know of, it's just a different aesthetic, I guess. Katakana is the least frequently used writing system in Japanese, so writing a pronoun in it makes it stand out more.

[Super Sonic]

Does anyone in DB use the form that Kenshin uses? I think it was "sessha" or something like that. (English manga does it as "This One" while more rough form in Battosai mode is just "I").

[Herms]

Yeah, "Sessha" is what Kenshin usually uses (and then "Ore" in Battosai mode). As far as I know, nobody ever uses that in DragonBall.

Laughably late edit: Turns out Murasaki uses sessha only once, the first time he talks, but always uses washi afterward.

[mrkaizoku]

This kinda fits this topic. Kinda.


Goku is such a hick. I love his lack of manners when speaking to someone on a higher 'level' (not strength, but social level) than him. For instance when he meets Enma Daioh and asks なあ　オラのちょと　前に　ラヂィッツっていう やつが来た？ Which translates to "Hey did a guy called Radittz come here a little before me? and Kami says to Goku こ　こら．．．！「来ましたか？」だろ！ Which is Kami scolding Goku for not using the 'proper' form of the verb to come.

Does anyone know what they did for this line when they translated it to English? I have the Viz single issues from years ago, but they are buried deep in a closet.

This dialogue appears on the second page that has Enma on it. It's the second panel. It's right after Goku dies against Radittz. If someone that has easier access to the volumes could let me know what they translated that to I would be very grateful!

[Herms]

I'm just going from memory here, but I think they just have Goku say "Hey, did a guy called Raditz come here a while before me?" or something similiar, and Kami goes "You can't talk to a lord like that!". I remember the Chris Psaros, the guy who ran DBZ Uncensored, wrote on article on Viz's translation of the manga (as they were at the time) and said that he was very impressed with how they handled that line.

[Chuquita]

I love language-related stuff like this. X3 Very cool.

[mrkaizoku]

Thanks for the quick reply Herms!



It's hard to get certain nuances of a Japanese character down in English. Take for instance Personal pronouns (hahaha Japanese people don't use personal pronouns!). In English the words 僕(boku)　おら(ora)　俺(ore) and 　私(watashi)　all translate to "I", but when you are reading them in Japanese they tell you a lot more information about a character. Y'know almost immediately if someone uses 俺(Ore) that they are macho men. Just like if someone uses あたし(atashi) they are going to be very feminine. In English we don't really have anything like it. It's too bad really.

[DominatorLost]

Quick question, what exactly does "ore" mean? Is it just some noise, because often I hear "ora, ora, ora!" in anime.

[The Time Traveller]

I've never really asked this, and it's not really for here, but why does Chichi say "Goku-sa" I've never heard that anywhere else nor heard an explination.

[Tatsunoboshi Horoko]

"Ora" (オラ) is different from "Ora" （己・おら・オラ.） "Ora" derives from "hora" which is a word that's almost equivalent to "hey" but in the "I'm trying to get your attention" way and not the "Hello, nice to see you" way. However, "ora" is also used by some anime characters as sort of a battlecry.

[DominatorLost]

Thought as much, thanks for filling me in.

[mrkaizoku]

I've never really asked this, and it's not really for here, but why does Chichi say "Goku-sa" I've never heard that anywhere else nor heard an explination.

Goku-sa is a shorting of Goku-san. It's one of Chichi's idiosyncrasies. Chichi like Goku is very country.

[DB_Fan]

I have a similiar question, why does Bulma refers to Goku as 'Son-Kun'? I watched the original version several times, and never understood this.

[Pain]

I have a similiar question, why does Bulma refers to Goku as 'Son-Kun'? I watched the original version several times, and never understood this.

Well...Son is Goku's last name. And I've heard "kun" used numerous times before, so I'm guessing that it's used while referring to a friend or something.