[lost]
At the tail end of last chapter’s notes, I discussed the word
kehai, used when you can “sense” or “just tell” that someone or something is nearby, through instinct, intuition, or subtle clues. It’s a term used reasonably often in everyday life, and so it’s not inherently tied in with notions of DB-style ki-sensing. Viz repeatedly translates it as Goku saying he can “sense” people nearby, which isn’t wrong, but don’t get confused: this almost certainly has nothing to do the type of ki-sensing that pops up later. Case in point, one line doesn’t even include the word
kehai and literally is Goku saying “it seems like there are lots of people around”, which Viz translates as “I’m sensing all kinds of people”. Viz’s use of the word “sensing” here is a tad liberal but not too far afield, but again, the sort of “sensing” being described here is when one can just kind of tell people are nearby through more down-to-earth intuition than, for instance, Vegeta tracking people down on Namek or stuff like that.
---
[edit]
Even in Japanese, the guy who axes Goku on the head has “Sherman Priest” written on his door in large, friendly English letters. Strangely though, Viz changes the image so that it says “Sherman the Shaman”, and they put it on a black name tag instead of having it be written straight on the door (presumably this was to make their edit of the image look better). I’d assume this is simply a gag, as a shaman is essentially a type of priest, and “Sherman the Shaman” rhymes. Of course, “Priest” would presumably be the guy’s last name, not his profession (for the record, this guy is identified as the village mayor in Daizenshuu 3’s character model sheets library). At any rate, despite having what is presumably his name written on what is presumably his house, I don’t believe this guy is ever referred to as “Sherman Priest” anywhere in the Japanese manga, anime, or guidebooks (being variously called in the guidebooks “village mayor”, “axe-wielding old man”, “father of girl who Oolong had his eye on”, etc). However, Oolong does call him “Sherman Priest” in the Funi dub. In the anime, his character design was reused for the elderly scientist who studies the Fire-Eating Bird.
---
[*]
Sherman “Axe-Wielding Old Man” Priest, when Bulma says she would have died if she had been the one to take an axe to the head rather than Goku
Tr: “I’m so ashamed”
Viz: “L-Lucky it wasn’t, eh? Heh heh”
This is the first of several non-apologies that pop up in the Viz translation of these early volumes.
---
[lost]
Like Bulma earlier, Oolong is described as a
youkai, a Japanese term for monsters/goblins/demons/etc. Viz continues to translate the term as “demon” (it’s one of several terms throughout the series that can be translated as “demon”). Shape-shifting in an ability particularly associated with
youkai. In fact, in Japanese folklore ordinary animals like foxes or raccoon dogs that manage to live long enough are said to become
youkai and acquire the power to shape-shift. That
sorta fits in with Oolong starting out as an ordinary, everyday pig-boy who learns how to shape-shift at Shape-Shifting Kindergarten. A little bit.
---
[**/lost]
Sherman says that Oolong took the form of an
oni when he came to select Sherman’s daughter as his next bride, but this gets left out in Viz. An
oni is a demonic, ogre-like creature from Japanese folklore. The term is often translated as “ogre” or “demon”, though it’s also frequently left untranslated, particularly when discussing Japanese folklore. They are sometimes portrayed as the assistants of Enma Daio, which is how they later turn up in DB.
---
[***]
After the old lady says she has a dragonball, Sherman replies:
Tr: “Grandma Baozi [Paozu]?”
Viz: “You do…?”
So Viz leaves out the old lady’s name, which in fact is another one of those accursed Chinese-derived names.
Baozi are Chinese steamed bun treats, and
Paozu is the Japanese approximation of this Chinese name (similar to how “Shenron” is the Japanese approximation of the Chinese “Shenlong”). On the reason for this character’s name, in the guidebook DragonBall Forever Toriyama said “I think that’s the Chinese name for
manjuu”…
manjuu being a vaguely similar Japanese steamed bun. But Toriyama was mistaken, and in fact the Chinese equivalent of
manjuu is actually
mantou. Confused yet? Geeze, no wonder Viz left this lady’s name out.
If that weren’t enough, the anime reuses the name Baozi/Paozu for the mountain where Goku and family eventually, which is probably where most DB fans have heard the name before. However, in the manga it’s only used once, for this grandma here.
---
[lost]
Speaking of Chinese names, the 6-Star Ball pops up in this chapter. Like the other balls, its name is in Chinese:
Liu Xing Qiu (the Pinyin spelling), approximated in Japanese as
Ryuu Xin Chuu. Viz spells it…
Liu Shin Kyuu, which I believe is the old Wade-Giles spelling of the Chinese name. This is inconsistent with Viz’s approach back in chapter 1, where they just used the Japanese approximations. In fact, now that I go back and look, they made the switch back in chapter 4, when Viz!Goku calls the 3-Star Ball
San Shin Kyuu, the Wade-Giles spelling (the Japanese approximation is almost exactly the same:
San Shin Chuu). I’ll make a full-fledge guide for all this crap soon, I swear!
---
[**]
Bulma, on Goku pretending to be Sherman’s daughter
Tr: “Id-idiot! What an awful performance!! He’ll never fool him like that!”
Viz: “Oh great, he’s role-playing!! Who’d ever take
him for a terrified kidnap victim…!?”
So in the original she criticizes Goku’s acting, but in Viz she bizarrely criticizes him for acting at all. What did she expect him to do?
---
[**]
Whenever Oolong transforms, in Japanese he calls out “transform!” (変化/
henge), while in Viz he says “presto”.
---
[lost]
Oolong refers to Goku (disguised as Sherman’s daughter) as
ojou-chan, a less formal form of
ojou-san, a polite way to refer to a young woman, generally one of higher social status than oneself. Sometimes it’s used sort of sarcastically, kind of like how you’d call someone “missy” to belittle them.
---
[*]
Bulma describes her bust as 85 in Japanese, and Viz has it as 34-C. I’d assume the two are equivalent.
---
[censor]
When Oolong is imaging the “puff-puff”, Viz edits out the nipples on the woman in the picture. On that note…while in the uncensored Viz volumes Oolong imagines how he could perform “puff-puffs” with Bulma’s ample bosom, in the censored editions he instead simply says “I’d like to see those…!”
---
[*? Lost? Something]
When weighing the pros and cons of choosing Bulma or Sherman’s daughter (ie Goku), In Japanese Oolong describes Sherman’s daughter with the English phrase “pretty baby”.
---
[lost]
Oolong uses
ore, a masculine, casual form of “I” (most male DB characters tend to use it most of the time).
---
[**]
Oolong, after seeing Goku peeing
Tr: “[He’s] got that which I despise!!!”
Viz: “I saw it!!! I saw it!!!”
I can’t think of a really good translation of the original that doesn’t sound weird, which I guess is why Viz changed it a bit. But basically, Oolong describes penises as “that which I despise”. Next chapter, he also says he despises men. It’s an odd aspect of his personality that kind of drops out in Viz’s translation.
---
[sound]
TESE: Bakoom!
---
[*]
Sherman to Bulma
Tr: “You’ve also got a troublesome personality.”
Viz: “You know, if I had the time, I could really dislike you…”
Another line where a direct translation sounds weird. To be clear, the original line means that Bulma is another personal with a troublesome personality (Oolong and/or Goku being the others, presumably).
---
[*]
When Sherman Priest says Bulma can become Oolong’s new bride in place of his daughter, in Viz he refers to Bulma as “Miss 34-C” (in reference to her bust size). When Bulma objects, in Japanese she says there’s no way she’d go with that “monster”, but in Viz she says “What?! You think I’m wastin’ all
this on an I’m ox?!!!”
---
[*]
Oolong stutters a bit during his threats to Goku, but Viz leaves this out. It’s the first indication that Oolong isn’t all that he appears.
---
[lost]
In Japanese, Goku taunts Oolong by crying “dosukoi”, which is a cry sumo wrestlers make. In Viz this is rendered as “Come ‘n’ get me!!”
