Zamasu's and Black's Mannerisms

[sailorspazz]

I set out to rewatch all the scenes of Black from the earlier part of the arc, basically so I could experience them again with the knowledge that he’s Zamasu. As I was watching everything all in a row, I was struck by some of the differences I noticed when it came to Black's and Zamasu’s styles of speech, since they can vary quite a bit despite being the same person. I made some notes about how/when their mannerisms changed to see if any sort of insight into their character(s) could be gleaned from this information.

Basically, I’ll distinguish between the types of Japanese they’re using by simply noting if their speech was primarily polite/formal or casual/neutral, and also make notes about the pronouns they use (I don’t explain these differences in too much detail because I’ve already written way too much here, but I can address them if anyone has questions).

I’ll try to go somewhat in the order that the series is presented to us, even though there are jumps back and forth in time. So I’ll start with Black’s early appearances, where he’s terrorizing Trunks in the future. His style of speech is primarily casual, though he does use the personal pronoun of “watashi”, which ranges a bit higher in the politeness scale (though really is fairly neutral). One would usually expect this sort of character to use a rougher masculine pronoun like “ore”…more on that later. He also uses “omae” as his choice pronoun for saying “you”, which is decidedly less polite and can be quite rude.

So then we have episode 50, where Black encounters and fights Gokuu. With him, he suddenly becomes incredibly polite, using formal greetings and speech (that “how do you do?” almost felt like he’s just rubbing in how proper he is!). His term for “you” switches to the less rude “kimi”. And the duration of this fight is the only time Black speaks like this; when he addresses other characters, or is talking to himself, he’s right back to the more neutral style.

Now to move on to the other character in this examination (or rather, the character before he turned into Black). When Zamasu speaks in episode 53 (and throughout the majority of the time we’re following him), his speech style is mostly very polite and proper. Granted, most of the time he’s addressing superiors, so that may just be a function of his apparent subservience. His inner monologues are more neutral, though, and like Black he also uses “watashi”.

One exception to his normal polite demeanor is when Gokuu challenges him to a fight in episode 53. Every time he speaks to Gokuu in that episode, his speech is almost always condescending and rude, clearly showing his frustration with this Saiyan who doesn’t know his place. But when Gokuu accompanies everyone to visit Universe 10 again in episode 59, Zamasu treats him with the same faux respect as all the other gods present (probably because he’s staying much more level-headed, trying not to let on that he’s planning to murder Gowasu).

Two other exceptions to his polite façade: when he’s making demands of Zunou in episode 57, and after his evil plan is revealed in episode 59…after all, if everyone already knows you’re planning to go on a murderous spree, no need to keep up appearances anymore!

And now, back to Black again. From his second encounter with Gokuu onward, he no longer uses the formal speech he addressed him with when they fought in episode 50, and now speaks to him the same as any other character. Also, in episode 56, after transforming into Rosé, he switches his personal pronoun from “watashi” to “ore”, and continues to use it throughout the rest of the episodes that have aired so far, regardless of whether he’s talking to himself, his other self, or the heroes. Nothing else about his style of speech changes except for the rougher pronoun.

Since Future Zamasu is different than the one that became Black, his mannerisms might be less relevant to this discussion, but I made note of them anyway (more excuse to continue listening to Shinichirou Miki’s lovely voice!) He’s actually less consistent than the other one…he starts out being quite polite, but has a tendency to also switch into rougher speech at times. He’s mostly casual when it’s just him and Black (after all, it’s pretty much the same as an inner monologue at that point…no need to be polite to yourself), and that extends to some of his interactions with the heroes. The closest common factor I could find for him being more polite is when he’s addressing Gokuu (for example, the infamous kabe-don moment when he pushes Gokuu up against the wall as Black explains how he killed his family was an instance of him speaking formally, even using the more polite “anata” instead of “kimi” or “omae” like he usually does). And when he and Black are making speeches about their ideals together, it’s always tends to resemble Black’s style of speaking more than Future Zamasu’s.

*phew* I’ve already typed out a wall of text, yet still have to explain what I think it all means! The first point of interest is that early on, Black and Present Zamasu have kind of opposite styles from each other: Black was polite only to Gokuu, while Zamasu was polite to everyone but Gokuu. But once Zamasu stopped giving a damn about keeping up appearances (which pretty much coincides with his decision to become Black), he dropped his formal style of speech almost entirely (though, almost cruelly, he was polite to Chichi before he murdered her husband). The only time he bothered with it after that was the fight with Gokuu, which is an interesting choice. My thought is, since he saw Gokuu as a disrespectful oaf who didn’t even know how to greet people properly, he decided to demonstrate how someone in that body should actually act when dealing with higher beings. He only does it the first time he encounters him as Black, not any of the times they meet in the future, so maybe it was just a one-time lesson he wanted to impart…

Second point of interest: Black switching to “ore”. It was kind of an interesting parallel to Gokuu himself: after his first Super Saiyan transformation, he switched from his hickish “ora” and used “ore” for a while, though only while transformed. Black, though, continues using “ore” whether he’s Rosé or not. Could this be a sign of him coming into his own character, tossing aside the man he used to be and embracing his new identity?

Finally, that Future Zamasu. I’m not quite sure what to make of the fact that his politeness is usually targeted at Gokuu (though he’s not completely consistent about it). Not like he ever met him before, since he’s dead in that timeline, but on the other hand he’s been working together with someone who looks just like him for quite some time. Is he showing respect to the man whom his other self was obsessed enough with to steal his body? Appreciation for the power he knows that body possesses? Or is it all a mockery, meant to be condescending?

Well…this turned out to be way longer than I thought it’d be, so I’ll just leave it at that. Let me know if you have your own insights/observations to add!