Piccolo's lines in Dragon Ball Z VizBig Edition

[dbgtFO]

Also, for some reason in the Buu arc, Piccolo randomly reverts to this speech style when he yells "Away from me, man! Piccolo is green!"

That must be the Viz volume corresponding to volume 36 right? It sounds like something he would say, when that News lady tries to interview him.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Also, for some reason in the Buu arc, Piccolo randomly reverts to this speech style when he yells "Away from me, man! Piccolo is green!"

That must be the Viz volume corresponding to volume 36 right? It sounds like something he would say, when that News lady tries to interview him.

Don't feel like checking the volume, but it doesn't take place during that interview segment, its when the Budokai attendant is checking on the fighters who passed the prelims before the tournament starts up. The guy asks if he can help him cause he looks green, and Piccolo goes all "Let that child alone" on him. lol

[dbgtFO]

Also, for some reason in the Buu arc, Piccolo randomly reverts to this speech style when he yells "Away from me, man! Piccolo is green!"

That must be the Viz volume corresponding to volume 36 right? It sounds like something he would say, when that News lady tries to interview him.

Don't feel like checking the volume, but it doesn't take place during that interview segment, its when the Budokai attendant is checking on the fighters who passed the prelims before the tournament starts up. The guy asks if he can help him cause he looks green, and Piccolo goes all "Let that child alone" on him. lol

That's Volume 36/20, it takes place one page after The news lady tries to interview the Z Squad. I completely forgot that Piccolo actually doesn't talk to the News Lady.

[NeoKING]

Talking to Shen some more
Org: Don’t tell me you’ve come to get rid of me…
Viz: Has a god left his heaven to seek my destruction?

Is it wrong that I vastly prefer the Viz version and am disappointed that's not the original line?

There's nothing wrong with preferring something over its original counterpart.

[Cipher]

Tokyopop did something similar. Have Rayearth vol. 3 with me now and it mentions a translator and English adaptation. I'm guessing it's just how manga is done or something.

That's (likely) because translating does not equate to writing ability. It takes one person to translate, and another to work it into natural, character-fitting English dialogue. How good a job they do with that may vary, but that's the basic idea.

Otherwise you end up with the comic book equivalent of Steve Simmons' subtitles. I love them to bits, but they get away with being very stiff and literal because we can hear the voice actor's intonation at the same time. It works. Those translations alone, in print, would not.

[Ashura]

The DBZ subtitles are more literal than most. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it's different than I prefer... even though at this point I can watch the show and mentally reword it in a manner that sounds like the character to me if that makes sense? Some people like it, others don't.

Even in anime, though, there is (or used to be when people had money) an editor who goes through and cleans up the script depending on translation ability. It's usually the person who times the script, or again, at least it used to be.

There's a few translators who are good at both; that is, translation and writing the dialogue naturally. Some are even better at writing dialogue naturally to cover up their (lack of) skill, and then there are others who are great translators but not great writers.

[TheGreatness25]

Wondering about this myself, was I.

By the way, really nice explanation. How do you know all of this stuff?! lol

[Attitudefan]

"WHAT SAY YOU!?!"
Hated that line! I always thought it was a screw up, it is just awkward. Now I don't know if that's even Elizabethan but it doesn't really sound like it.

The Heavens stuff is really fitting as he's a "demon" related to God; those parts are written well, unlike "what say you... etc."

[Rocketman]

"WHAT SAY YOU!?!"
Hated that line! I always thought it was a screw up, it is just awkward. Now I don't know if that's even Elizabethan but it doesn't really sound like it.

Elizabethan, I dunno, but it was common in older English. It's basically direct from the German, "Was sagt dich?"

[Attitudefan]

"WHAT SAY YOU!?!"
Hated that line! I always thought it was a screw up, it is just awkward. Now I don't know if that's even Elizabethan but it doesn't really sound like it.

Elizabethan, I dunno, but it was common in older English. It's basically direct from the German, "Was sagt dich?"

Hmm, you're talking 18th and 19th century dialogue then? I don't think they would talk like that but then your German reference is convincing they probably did.

But what I found out it is around Shakespearean times. What an odd thing to give Piccolo, in a DBZ manga of all things...

[Michsi]

What say you? sound more like asking for someone's oppinion rather than a threat. Same as in german, but I believe the correct line is "Was sagst du"? but yeah the word order is like that.

I think I read somewhere once about how people who try to recreate old english always use this wod order and that in reality people didn't speak like that hundreds of years ago, or something like that.

[BobZ]

You know, for a moment there, when I started reading the manga, I thought that Piccolo would speak like that during the whole time and I was worried.
But it seems that he only does it for a chapter or so and only accasionaly goes back to it.
I'm glad that he speaks normally most of the time.

[Michsi]

You know, for a moment there, when I started reading the manga, I thought that Piccolo would speak like that during the whole time and I was worried.
But it seems that he only does it for a chapter or so and only accasionaly goes back to it.
I'm glad that he speaks normally most of the time.

He does? I only have the Piccolo Saga and the Saiyan Saga from Viz. Does it change later on?

[BobZ]

Well, I currently own everything from Dragon Ball VizBIG 1-4 and had to skip to DBZ Vol. 1, because the final Dragon Ball Volume is currently unavailible. I've only noticed Piccolo speaking like that in the first chapters of DBZ when he meets with Raditz basically. And a few odd lines here and there, but nothing too shocking. I've read up to Gohan's training for the battle with the Saiyans so far and Piccolo seems to behave as normal.

[kaialone]

"WHAT SAY YOU!?!"
Hated that line! I always thought it was a screw up, it is just awkward. Now I don't know if that's even Elizabethan but it doesn't really sound like it.

Elizabethan, I dunno, but it was common in older English. It's basically direct from the German, "Was sagt dich?"

I think its "Was sagst du?"

[dbgtFO]

"WHAT SAY YOU!?!"
Hated that line! I always thought it was a screw up, it is just awkward. Now I don't know if that's even Elizabethan but it doesn't really sound like it.

Elizabethan, I dunno, but it was common in older English. It's basically direct from the German, "Was sagt dich?"

I think its "Was sagst du?"

Yeah, "Was sagst dich" would be grammatically incorrect, since "dich" is used, when it's the object(Akkusativobjekt).

Since the english language doesn't differentiate between "you", when it's the subject and "you", when it's the object, here's another example.

2nd person singular:
"Was sagst dich?"

The equvalent in 3rd person singular:
"Was sagt ihn?"

Which in english would be:
"What say him?"

I hope this illustrates why "Was sagst dich" is wrong.

@Topic, Piccolo's quotes just sound like somebody is trying too much.

[Herms]

^ Viz actually completely acknowledges that there Dragon Ball is an adaptation. In volume 16 (The one with this line) Mari Morimoto is credited with the translation. There's also a credit given for the English adaptation, which was done by Gerard Jones.

As has been noted, this is pretty much standard practice to ensure that translations sound as natural in English as possible. While it can lead to weird deviations from the original lines at times, I think on the whole it's a sound system that works pretty well. Here's an interview with Gerard Jones where he explains his role:

PC: Barb wants to know: "How much would you say you ADAPT and how much do you REWRITE?" In which adaptation is tinkering with sentence structure and rewriting is more like adding a whole new gag in (lawn chairs? veritable smorgasbord?)

GJ: Barb asks a good question. My official title is "rewriter." But...I try to be more of an adapter. My ideal is to convey the original author's intent and style. I want to contribute that and get out of the way. But: there are times that I just couldn't do that without leaving the original incomprehensible. Or adding explanatory footnotes, which Viz very much tries to avoid. It depends more on the specific reference or gag in question.

Also, why I've never found confirmation of this, rumor has it that Piccolo's speech in Viz was specifically the work of editor Trish Ledoux, so if that's true it really didn't have anything to do with the translator/adapter system. Jason Thompson was Viz's editor for DB/Z for most of it's run, and he summarizes his job like this (emphasis mine):

When people come to my house and ask "Why do you have an entire bookshelf full of Yu-Gi-Oh! graphic novels?" I answer, "Because I li... I mean, because I edited that manga." The next question is, "What does a manga editor do?" and the answer to that is, a lot of little things. American manga editors aren't anything like manga editors in Japan (or OEL/original comic editors in America), who have firsthand creative control over their titles, and are often de facto collaborators with the artist. Instead, they do many things: proofreading, writing things like back-cover text and ad copy, and recommending new titles for translation. Most of all, though, they are (usually) the final arbiter on translation decisions. Name spellings, typos, censorship, the particular phrasing of a particular line... the editor is involved in all of this, and if something goes wrong, they're the ones to send angry e-mails to.

So hopefully that gives some insight into this whole process.

Especially since I have other volumes in german where he speaks rather bluntly and sometimes down right crudely.

Yeah, that's pretty much how he talks in Japanese, and it really messes with his character to instead have him talk in an elaborate, fanciful way, even if some of the lines he says like that are near (though personally I think whoever wrote them was trying too hard to sound cool).

[Timo]

"Was sagst du?" is correct. If your dialog partner is a superior, unknown or you have a lot of respect for him it would be "Was sagen Sie?". Furthermore, when the setting is somewhat archaic (till the 20th century) it's "Was sagt Ihr?"

BTW. 3rd person would be "Was sagt er/sie/es" (male/female/thing).

[Rocketman]

My bad, it's been a long time since my last German class.

[G1Ravage]

I personally liked the way they had Piccolo "speaking" in the manga. During the early days of the Viz manga, I always imagined Piccolo speaking in Scott McNeil's voice, and those lines sounded damn awesome coming from his imaginary mouth.

I also noticed that oddity on the back cover of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, where the colored image on the cover has Piccolo speaking one way, but the actual black and white page in the book is cropped differently and has a completely different translation (while still saying the exact same thing, basically).