What's a Kai?

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

As in "Kai-O sama" I know the "O" part is Japanese for "King" but what about the "Kai" part? I presume it has something to do with spirits or divinity, since its in the names of a lot of Dragonball gods (kaio, kaioshin, hakaishin), but i thought "kami" was the Japanese word for god? Is it the same word that makes up "Yokai" (which seems like the opposite of gods)? What about "Dragonball Kai"?

[Herms]

In the case of the blue catfish guy and associates, it's 界/Kai, meaning "world". 界王/Kaiou literally means "World-King" (hence Viz's translation "Lord of Worlds"). That's the same "Kaio(u)" as in "Kaio-Ken" (界王拳/Kaiou-Ken, literally "World-King Fist/Attack", the idea being that the technique is named after him).

The larger idea behind the name is that the lower-level gods in the DB pantheon are the gods of individual worlds, like that green loser in charge of Earth, and then up above them you've got Kaio, the "Lord of Worlds" who serves as god of many planets instead of just one. Then later the other different Kaios are introduced, corresponding to the different galaxies/areas of the universe, with a Grand Kaio in charge of them. Then above them is Kaioshin, the "God of the Kaios" (or "God of the Lords of the Worlds"...Viz shortens this to "Lord of Lords"). Then Kaioshin turns out to just be one of several Kaioshins. Then Beerus turns up. But I'm getting off topic.

Meanwhile, the "Kai" in the title of "Dragon Ball (Z) Kai" is 改/Kai, meaning to revise or update. It's unrelated to the various gods throughout the series.

Beerus' title is "God of Destruction", which in Japanese is 破壊神/Hakaishin. Here, 壊/Kai means "destroy" and is unrelated to the above to "Kai"s.

[Saiga]

So the full translation of their title is "World King".

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

In the case of the blue catfish guy and associates, it's 界/Kai, meaning "world". 界王/Kaiou literally means "World-King" (hence Viz's translation "Lord of Worlds"). That's the same "Kaio(u)" as in "Kaio-Ken" (界王拳/Kaiou-Ken, literally "World-King Fist/Attack", the idea being that the technique is named after him).

The larger idea behind the name is that the lower-level gods in the DB pantheon are the gods of individual worlds, like that green loser in charge of Earth, and then up above them you've got Kaio, the "Lord of Worlds" who serves as gods of many planets instead of just one. Then later the other different Kaios are introduced, corresponding to the different galaxies/areas of the universe with a Grand-Kaio in charge of them. Then above them is Kaioshin, the "God of the Kaios" (or "God of the Lords of the Worlds"...Viz shortens this to "Lord of Lords"). Then Kaioshin turns out to just be one of several Kaioshins. Then Beerus turns up. But I'm getting off topic.

Thanks! So would that make "Hakaishin" something like: Divine World Destroyer? (I'm assuming "shin" here is the same as in Shenlong, which according to the podcast means "Dragon god", or "Hokuto Shin Ken"/Divine Fist of the North Star for a non-Dragonball use)
edit: oops. I missed the last part of your post. nevermind.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

I guess that clears things up, but does that mean that "shin" has a higher connotation than "kami" Since the latter is used for the highest(?) gods in the universe and kami is used for the "green loser"

[precita]

So was King Kai an accurate dub translation?

[Herms]

I guess that clears things up, but does that mean that "shin" has a higher connotation than "kami" Since the latter is used for the highest(?) gods in the universe and kami is used for the "green loser"

No, they're both different readings of the same kanji, 神. When this kanji is written on its own, it's read as kami. When it's used in a compound word, it's read as shin. That's why it's shin in "Kaioshin" and "Hakaishin".

So was King Kai an accurate dub translation?

To put it into perspective..."Ox King" in Japanese is Gyuumaou (literally "Ox Demon King", but we'll ignore the "demon" bit for the sake of this analogy). Imagine if, instead, of "Ox King", Funi had translated his name as "King Gyu". That's basically equivalent to translating Kaiou as "King Kai".

Or for that matter, over in One Piece Luffy's dream is to become the kaizoku-ou, the "Pirate King". Imagine if instead of "Pirate King", Funi's dub of One Piece had Luffy going around talking about how he'll become "King Kaizoku".

[Theophrastus]

Or for that matter, over in One Piece Luffy's dream is to become the kaizoku-ou, the "Pirate King". Imagine if instead of "Pirate King", Funi's dub of One Piece had Luffy going around talking about how he'll become "King Kaizoku".

This is nitpicking, but technically Funimation doesn't translate it as "Pirate King". All the official English translations of One Piece (4Kids, Funimation, Viz) translate kaizoku-ou as "King of the Pirates" (to which there has actually been negative feedback from some fans for various reasons).

[Pokewhiz7]

And to go even further, could you translate Kaioken as "Fist of the Lord of the Worlds"?

[Cure Dragon 255]

Why not "World King Fist"? That is if you are pointing out the equivalent you came up couldnt fit the mouth movements.

[Pokewhiz7]

I was just looking for a general translation, not necessarily something that fit the mouthflaps. In that case, yours would be better, yes.

[El Diabeetus]

I usually would adapt it as the Galactic King/Overseer. It may not be literal, but conveys the point without sounding awkward like World King when he oversees more than 1 planet.

[Kunzait_83]

I usually would adapt it as the Galactic King/Overseer. It may not be literal, but conveys the point without sounding awkward like World King when he oversees more than 1 planet.

"Lord of Worlds" always worked for me as an adaptive translation. Its mostly accurate and "Lord" gets the point across better that this is a divine god/deity rather than some weird secularized sci fi alien-thing, which has always been FUNi's fairly lame approach to this sort of thing.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Besides, there's already a Galactic King in the Jaco manga.

[Shoryuken]

I usually would adapt it as the Galactic King/Overseer. It may not be literal, but conveys the point without sounding awkward like World King when he oversees more than 1 planet.

"Lord of Worlds" always worked for me as an adaptive translation. Its mostly accurate and "Lord" gets the point across better that this is a divine god/deity rather than some weird secularized sci fi alien-thing, which has always been FUNi's fairly lame approach to this sort of thing.

With kanji unless there's a pluralising suffix, i.e. 達 (tachi), 等 (ra) etc., it's hard to tell whether the noun in question is in plural or not, therefore translating it as "Lord/King/Ruler(of) World(s)" could technically work. On a related note presumably the teleportation technique "Kaikai" (カイカイ) is derived duplicating the reading for 界 (kai "world/realm").

[Polyphase Avatron]

I usually would adapt it as the Galactic King/Overseer. It may not be literal, but conveys the point without sounding awkward like World King when he oversees more than 1 planet.

"Lord of Worlds" always worked for me as an adaptive translation. Its mostly accurate and "Lord" gets the point across better that this is a divine god/deity rather than some weird secularized sci fi alien-thing, which has always been FUNi's fairly lame approach to this sort of thing.

With kanji unless there's a pluralising suffix, i.e. 達 (tachi), 等 (ra) etc., it's hard to tell whether the noun in question is in plural or not, therefore translating it as "Lord/King/Ruler(of) World(s)" could technically work. On a related note presumably the teleportation technique "Kaikai" (カイカイ) is derived duplicating the reading for 界 (kai "world/realm").

I always thought it meant (from) kai/world (to) kai/world

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Huh. I thought it would have been taken from kai/改 and kai/界, playing off “revised/changed” and "world"...kinda like a joke for changing locations...? No? Okay...

[Shoryuken]

I always thought it meant (from) kai/world (to) kai/world

Huh. I thought it would have been taken from kai/改 and kai/界, playing off “revised/changed” and "world"...kinda like a joke for changing locations...? No? Okay...

Thing is, the technique-name is written in katakana, i.e. a purely phonetic system, so it can in theory be any of them. I just based my assumption on that it's the technique used by the kaioushins hence "kaikai". Interestingly enough though a quick search on Tangorin reveals that there's an expression in Japanese called kaikaide ("swiftly, rapidly, hurriedly").