"Z Warrior" or "Z Fighter" (Z戦士) is used in the original Japanese, but only out-of-universe (e.g. episode titles and narration). e.g. episode 107, "Son Goku Survived — The Z Warriors Are All Resurrected!!" It is, of course, never used in the manga (where there is no "Z"), the equivalent term being "Dragon Team" (ドラゴンチーム) e.g. chapter 23, "The Dragon Team Parts Ways"precita wrote:Isn't "Z-fighter" a dub term FUNimation came up with? Do they ever say that in the Japanese version?
The Funimation dub AFAIK uses it more often than the original version, though, and there's at least one instance in said dub of a character referring to himself as a "Z Fighter" (Gohan, in a dream sequence during the ROSAT training). But, in the original version, Z Fighter/Dragon Team is never used in-universe, which is personally why I don't consider Chiaotzu during the Cell Arc - or indeed any character in any arc - as a "Z Fighter" - because there's no such thing, in my mind.
But, going along with the concept of "Z Fighters," since the title of episode 107 mentions them being resurrected - and Chiaotzu happens to be among those resurrected - it would seem to suggest that Chiaotzu is in fact a "Z Fighter." AFAIK there's no notion in the series (from an out of universe perspective) of "Z Fighter" membership being conditional on being active in fights, so it would stand to reason that he remains a "Z Fighter" even now.