Here's the first half of volume 5, which conveniently leaves off right at the end of the 21st TB. I've got notes done for everything up to the end of volume 8, so hopefully it won't take too long to expand them into coherent sentences.
Chapter 49
[**]
Jacky, on the announcer saying he’s struggling and that Goku has the upper hand
Tr: What~~? Shithead! “I’m struggling”, you say?...
Viz: Okay, okay~~!, I get the stupid idea!! I’ll show him an “upper hand”…
Jacky calls the announcer (or maybe he’s referring to Goku? Or just kind of muttering to himself?) “kusottare” (くそったれ; くそ/kuso=shit), which can be translated as various insults, like “shithead”, “asshole”, etc.
[name]
Goku’s monkey-mimicking technique is the Saruken (猿拳), “Fist of the Monkey” or “Monkey Attack” (which is what Viz goes with). “Saru” is “monkey”, while “ken” literally means “fist”, but in technique names isn’t usually mean literally (Goku’s Saruken doesn’t involve actually punching Jacky, for instance), and essentially means “attack”.
[*]
The announcer originally calls Jacky’s pose “ominous”, while in Viz he calls it “ludicrous”, making his comment more tongue-in-cheek.
[note]
Jacky’s lullaby in Japanese goes “Go to sleep soon. You’re a good little kid, boy. Go to sleep.” In Viz, he sings “Rock-a-bye-baby”.
[name]
Jacky hypnosis technique is called “Yoiko Min-Min Ken” (よいこ眠眠拳), the Good-Kid Sleep-Sleep Attack (there’s that “ken” again). Viz calls the Nighty-Night Baby Attack. “Yoiko”, literally meaning “good child”, is a Japanese phrase equivalent to “good kid”, “goodie two-shoes”, “good little boys and girls”, etc.
[**]
Jacky, on whether his technique is hypnosis or martial arts
Tr: What are you talking about?! It’s a splendid martial art, isn’t it?!
Viz: It has a fancy Chinese name, doesn’t it?!
“Yoiko Min-Min Ken” isn’t Chinese, so I’m not sure why Viz used the phrase “fancy Chinese name”. It might be a reference to the fact that the technique names in DragonBall are generally written in kanji, the writing system that the Japanese took from the Chinese, although even then the “yoiko” in the technique’s name is written out in hiragana, which is Japanese in origin.
[*]
Tr
Announcer: B-but it’s going to be a lousy climax to this tournament if you win the championship with that sort of pitiful technique…
Jacky: Who cares?!! It’s worse to be instantly taken in by a pitiful technique!
Viz
Announcer: B-but what are people going to say about my tournament if you win it with a lullaby?!
Jacky: Is it my fault my opponent is such a doofus I could sing him to sleep?! Count!
Mostly I wanted to point out that the announcer doesn’t originally refer to the Tenkaichi Budoukai as “my tournament”.
[*]
Jacky, as Goku wakes up
Tr: I'm-I'm…impossible…this can’t be…
Viz: Gblixl…mnguh…kblorgl…
I think the people at Viz must just get tired of having to deal with the same generic Japanese exclamations over and over again (the exclamations here being “bakana” and “sonna”, which are used endlessly throughout DragonBall), so they try to come up with more creative stuff, such as this. Well, actually it seems that in later Viz editions, this was changed to be more faithful to the original, so that he says actual words to the effect of “impossible!”.
[**]
Announcer
Tr: Contestant Son has woken up! Truly in the nick of time!!!
Viz: And the match is still on!!! Good news for the dignity of martial arts!!!
[*]
Jacky, on the Janken
Tr: I’m already able to predict the Janken!
Viz: Know how many rock, scissors, and paper I’ve seen?
Goku, in response to this
Tr: But the Janken was only my grandpa’s technique…
Viz: B-but it was my grandpa’s special, secret move…he said…
“Only my grandpa’s technique” in the sense that only he used it (and not in the sense of “merely my grandpa’s technique”).
Chapter 50
[*]
In the original Jacky says Goku will probably survive the Bankoku Bikkuri Shou because he’s Goku’s, while in Viz he says he’ll probably survive because he’s young.
[**]
Goku, on Jacky saying he’s lost
Tr: Eh?! Why am I going to lose!? [This match] isn’t settled yet!
Viz: Lose?! That’s stupid! I’m ahead! He said so!
I think it’s kind of out of character for Goku to rely on a referee’s comments to determine how a fight is going.
[name]
Jacky’s electricity technique is the Bankoku-Bikkuri-Shou (萬国驚天掌), which is most likely a pun on the Bankoku Bikkuri Show (万国びっくりショー ; “International Surprise Show”), a variety program broadcast on Fuji TV beginning in 1967. For the attack name, the “ban” part is written with an alternate version of the regular kanji for it, “bikkuri” is written out in kanji in a way it wouldn’t usually be (it’s pretty much always written in hiragana), and “shou” is written out with the kanji for the palm of the hand, so the attack name would basically translate to “International Surprise Palm” (which makes a sort of sense, in as much as Jacky shoots the attack from the palm of his hands).
Viz calls it the “Bankoku Hikkuri Shou” (no idea why they’ve got it as “hikkuri” and not “bikkuri”, the furigana for the attack name is clear enough), which they translate as “Bangkok Surprise Prize”. “Bankoku” when written out in katakana is Japanese for “Bangkok” (バンコク) and “shou” can mean “prize” when written with another kanji (賞). Presumably Viz figured that the attack name was a pun where only the reading for the characters were important and the kanji were simply chosen to match the reading, a not uncommon thing for shonen attacks (for instance, an attack name where the kanji that make it up mean “big impressive thunderbolt” or something, but how the kanji are actually pronounced spells out “this will kill you stone-cold dead”; OK, I completely made that up, but hopefully you get the idea).
Well, hopefully that all made some degree of sense. Oh yeah, another thing is that Viz puts their translation of the attack name inside a little box that they insert into the actually image where Jacky’s shouting the name, instead of stuffing it in the space between panels like they usually do with notes.
[*]
Kuririn, on the above attack
Tr: Uwa--!!!
Viz: Stop it!!!
[**]
Goku, when Jacky tells him to give up
Tr: N…no way!!! I-I won’t give up!! [sticky out tongue]
Viz: O-okay, old man!!! L-listen up…an I’ll say…[sticks out tongue]
Goku also goes "Cr-cr-crap~…!!!" in the original, but this gets replaced with generic screaming in Viz.
[*]
Tr
Yamcha: Th-this is bad!!! The moon tonight!!! [ ] I-it’s a full moon!!!!
Kuririn: Wh…what…is that…??
Viz
Yamcha: Gaa!!! I forgot!!!
Kuririn: About…what…??
Yamcha: The full mooooon!!!!
So originally, Yamcha’s two speech balloons form when uninterrupted train of thought (the [ ] marks the break between balloons), and meanwhile Kuririn is off freaking out on his own. In Viz, Kuririn is asking Yamcha what’s going on, and Yamcha’s second speech balloon becomes a response to Kuririn.
Chapter 51
[*]
Jacky, on Oozaru Goku
Tr: Gieeeee~!!!!!
Viz: What do I do now?!!!!
[*]
As I said earlier, Viz often takes what is originally generic crowd noise sound effects and makes them into actual dialogue. The crowd response to Goku’s rampage is a good example (since I’m not going to keep track of all of these):
Wa—
Kyaa—
Hiee---
Helllp
Runnn
Yaaa
[**]
The announcer
Tr: Uwawawa--!!! Th-this is dangerous--!!! Bu-but I can’t run from my place as a referee--!!!
Viz: Hey!!! Whoa!!! Waaaaaatch it!!! You’re not going to win by crushing the referee!!!
[note]
As the announcer is saying this, you can see what appears to be Garfield’s back amidst the fleeing crowd.
[*]
When saying how he can’t go out of the ring, since he’d lose, Jacky originally says that he’s the one most in danger, which drops out in Viz, presumably because they changed the announcer’s “this is dangerous!” line that Jacky was responding to.
[**]
When Kuririn is urging Goku to return to normal
Tr: Th-that technique is dangerous for everyone--!!!
Viz: You don’t have to kill the whole audience!!!
I love how the Viz line seems to imply that Goku does in fact need to kill
some of the audience, just not
all of them.
[**]
In response to the above, Yamcha says “that’s not a technique”, which in Viz is “he doesn’t even know who he is!!!”
[*]
Jacky, going into action
Tr: Alright!!! I’ve got no choice!!!
Viz: Ho-kay!!! Here goes!!!
[name]
Jacky’s suped-up Kamehameha is called “Kamehameha Max Power”. The “max power” part is English, written in katakana above the kanji 最大出力 (normally read as saidai shutsuryoku, and which means “maximum output”). Viz calls it “Kamehameha Maximum Power.
Chapter 52
[*]
The announcer originally describes Jacky’s moon-destroying Kamehameha as a “stupendous Kamehameha”, while in Viz he calls it Jacky’s “greatest ever Kamehameha blast”.
[name]
The term “Oozaru” gets used for the first time, by the announcer when describing what Goku turned into. Previously, during the Pilaf stuff, this form had been called “kaibutsu-zaru”, “monster monkey”. “Oozaru” (大猿) essentially means “big monkey”, 大/oo meaning “big/great” and 猿/saru meaning “monkey” (that “saru” becomes “zaru” when combined with “oo” is due to
rendaku. Viz translates “Oozaru” here as “monster ape” and later as “great ape” during the Z era. Generally speaking though, apes do not have tails.
[note]
When the announcer is describing all the terrible things that will happen now that the moon is gone (tides out of control, gravity fuc…oh, that never happens), he mentions that people will now be unable to eat Tsukimi Dango (月見だんご), “moon-viewing dango”. These are a variant of
dango, Japanese dumplings that are way better than flowers. Tsukimi Dango are eaten at moon-viewing ceremonies, and come in many different shapes and sizes depending on the region, such as round ones stacked up into a pyramid shape, long and thing ones, etc. Viz changes the reference to Tsukimi Dango to a reference to
moon pies.
[*]
In the original, Kuririn describes Goku’s Oozaru transformation as having been incredible during the part where he says how Goku won’t be able to become it again, so it doesn’t matter whether Goku knows about the transformation, but this drops out in Viz.
[**]
Goku, on Kame-sennin not being able to shoot a Kamehameha
Tr: So you can’t use the Kamahameha now?!
Viz: So! No more zap-zap thingie, eh?!
Goku had earlier said how he had to watch out for that zap-zap thing, in both the original and Viz. I think what happened here is that Viz assumed Goku was referring to the Kamehameha back then, when he was probably talking about the electrical Bankoku Bikkuri Shou. So on that assumption, it’d make sense to swap out “Kamehameha” for “zap-zap thingie” here.
[*]
In the original Jacky says he and Goku are losing energy through hunger and fatigue, while in Viz he less specifically says that they are both running low on energy.
[**]
Goku, before the final double kick
Tr: Alri—ght!! I definitely won’t lose!!
Viz: Okay, then!! Let’s see who’s stronger!!
Chapter 53
[**]
The original opening narration describes Goku and Jacky’s match as a “very long finals”, while Viz upgrades it to the longest finals ever.
[*]
Announcer
Tr: A…ah…!! Bo-both contestants are knocked out!!! It’s a double knockdown--!!!!
Viz: N-no…Noooo…!! It’s the rarest of the rare—a double knock-down!!! B-both contestants are out cold!!!!
Mostly I wanted to nit-pick on the “rarest of the rare” addition, since the situation immediately escalates into a double knock-out when neither Goku or Jacky stand up by the end of the ten count, so wouldn’t
that be the rarest of the rare?
[*]
Viz adds the announcer saying that the rules for determining the winner in a double knock-out are “according to the ancient tradition”.
[lost]
The phrase that contestants must stand and say in the case of a double knock-out is “yuushou shita mon ne-“. “Yuushou” means to win in the sense of winning a tournament or the like (this is the word characters use when in Viz they cheer him to “go all the way”), so “yuushou shita” is “
won the championship”. Ending sentences with “mon” is a childish way of speaking, and the “ne” is a particle added to the end of sentences to add emphasis. So overall, Viz does really well with their translation of the phrase as “I did so win!!”.
[note]
The announcer’s statement that the contestants have to smile as they say the phrase was originally in the same place as where he first starts explaining the rule, but in Viz that part of the dialogue is moved to the first panel of the next page. It replaces the announcer saying “Is that alright!? Please stand and say “I won the championship”.
[*]
In Viz, the announcer asks the audience to “Watch for those smiles!!!! Listen for those words!!!!”, while originally he asks whether Goku or Jacky will be the first to stand.
[note]
Goku gets equally close to finishing the phrase in Japanese as he does in English. In Japanese he gets as far as “Yuushou shita mon”, only leaving out the final “ne” particle. In Viz he gets as far as “I did so wi…” before collapsing, leaving off only the final “n”.
[*]
Viz adds a punny “And that is the long and the short of it…” to Jacky’s speech on how the relative lengths of his and Goku’s legs determined the match.
Chapter 54
[note]
When the announcer hands Jacky the prize money, Jacky originally says “Gottsan desu”, sumo slang for “thank you”. In Viz he says “I’m glad you remembered”.
[note]
In my printing at least of Viz’s DB vol.5, the screentone for the panel where Kame-sennin urges Goku and Kuririn to train even harder now is mostly invisible.
[edit]
The name sign of the restaurant where everyone eats after the tournament reads “Delicious 菜館” in the original (“Delicious Vegetable Mansion”). In Viz the sign reads “Veggie Manor”.
[note]
They’re eating pork, with Oolong right there! Though I suppose that it’s possible they also had some roast baby earlier, just to be fair.
[lost]
When told that the restaurant is totally out of food, Goku says 腹八分目 /Hara-hachi-bume (sometimes hara-hachi-bu
nme), which could be loosely translated as “keep your stomach 8/10s full”. This saying encourages eating eat moderately and slowly to achieve a reasonable, but not excessive, sense of fullness. Goku, of course, has never done anything even vaguely resembling this. Viz uses the similar English proverb “all things in moderation”.
[lost]
After the meal, Goku (or somebody, you don’t see who’s talking), says “gochisou-sama deshita”, the set Japanese phrase used to express gratitude after meals. It literally means “that was a feast”. Viz has it as “thank you soooo much!!”
[**]
In Viz Kame-sennin says that the 470,000 zeni restaurant bill cost him “every zeni” of the prize money, even though he should still have 30,000 zeni left over from the 500,000 zeni prize (well, I guess he could have ended up spending that already in other ways). Originally he just said that the bill made his prize money go “poof”.
[*]
Bulma, on Goku going dragonball hunting
Tr: You still feel like searching for that!?
Viz: You’re planning to search for those again?!
[*]
Goku originally says that looking for the dragonballs allows him to train, while in Viz he says it is a good way to “get into fights”.
[**]
When saying how he thought he could finally be alone with Lunch, Kame-sennin originally calls her “Lunch-chan”, showing some closeness to her, while in Viz he calls her “that Lunch girl”, showing the opposite.
[*]
Goku, collecting his luggage
Tr: See you later everyone!
Viz: I don’t need a ride then!
In both, he explains that he’ll take off from there on Kinto-un. He also says goodbye again later in both versions.
[note]
Goku treats Kinto-un like a pet, telling it “yoshi-yoshi”, the Japanese equivalent of “good boy”, which is how Viz translates it.
[note]
Kuririn refers to himself using “ore”, the casual masculine form of “I”, when he’s offering to go along with Goku to search for the dragonballs. Up until now he has used “boku” as his standard form of “I”, the form used by younger males. So switching to “ore” could be seen as him growing up, or maybe just trying to soundly manly as he offers his help.
More great work, Herms.
