Why does the Funi dub refuse to acknowledge Piccolo is a demon?

[MasenkoHA]

I get that they when they skipped from the Shenron arc to Z they missed the entire Piccolo Daimou stuff but even when they went back to dub Dragon Ball they utterly refused to refer to King Piccolo as a demon even once and instead he and Kami already know they’re aliens. Even though Kami and Piccolo aren’t suppose to know they’re aliens yet.

The closest we get is the dub acknowledging people killed by King Piccolo go to limbo. There’s no explanation for this mind you. It’s just because the visual reference meant the dub had no choice but to keep it.

And then Kai in its closer to the Japanese script mindset still makes zilch reference to Piccolo being a demon. Instead Funimations opts to replace portions of the Japanese version were references to him being a demon were made with wholesale recycled dialog from their Z dub. (The scene where Piccolo gives Gohan news clothes and Kami and Popo discuss Piccolo’s change of heart comes to mind)

And it’s not like the dub never utters the word demon. So it’s not like they were afraid of the term. They just don’t want to refer to Piccolo as such?

I guess it’s a step up from having him make references to Judeo-Christian stories.

[ABED]

I get that they when they skipped from the Shenron arc to Z they missed the entire Piccolo Daimou stuff but even when they went back to dub Dragon Ball they utterly refused to refer to King Piccolo as a demon even once and instead he and Kami already know they’re aliens. Even though Kami and Piccolo aren’t suppose to know they’re aliens yet.

The closest we get is the dub acknowledging people killed by King Piccolo go to limbo. There’s no explanation for this mind you. It’s just because the visual reference meant the dub had no choice but to keep it.

And then Kai in its closer to the Japanese script mindset still makes zilch reference to Piccolo being a demon. Instead Funimations opts to replace portions of the Japanese version were references to him being a demon were made with wholesale recycled dialog from their Z dub. (The scene where Piccolo gives Gohan news clothes and Kami and Popo discuss Piccolo’s change of heart comes to mind)

And it’s not like the dub never utters the word demon. So it’s not like they were afraid of the term. They just don’t want to refer to Piccolo as such?

I guess it’s a step up from having him make references to Judeo-Christian stories.

I don't remember the Dragon Ball dub. Did they not bring up he's the King of DEMONS!?

[MasenkoHA]

I get that they when they skipped from the Shenron arc to Z they missed the entire Piccolo Daimou stuff but even when they went back to dub Dragon Ball they utterly refused to refer to King Piccolo as a demon even once and instead he and Kami already know they’re aliens. Even though Kami and Piccolo aren’t suppose to know they’re aliens yet.

The closest we get is the dub acknowledging people killed by King Piccolo go to limbo. There’s no explanation for this mind you. It’s just because the visual reference meant the dub had no choice but to keep it.

And then Kai in its closer to the Japanese script mindset still makes zilch reference to Piccolo being a demon. Instead Funimations opts to replace portions of the Japanese version were references to him being a demon were made with wholesale recycled dialog from their Z dub. (The scene where Piccolo gives Gohan news clothes and Kami and Popo discuss Piccolo’s change of heart comes to mind)

And it’s not like the dub never utters the word demon. So it’s not like they were afraid of the term. They just don’t want to refer to Piccolo as such?

I guess it’s a step up from having him make references to Judeo-Christian stories.

I don't remember the Dragon Ball dub. Did they not bring up he's the King of DEMONS!?

Lol nope. Nada. He’s called King Piccolo but we dont know what’s he’s a King of

[Shiro97]

I would just chalk it up to Funimation not knowing (or caring) about the source material.

[MajinMan]

If Goku can’t have his last name, then Piccolo can’t have his demon title. Just Funimation things.

[MasenkoHA]

I would just chalk it up to Funimation not knowing (or caring) about the source material.

I would assume they still got translated scripts?

I get that they probably don’t get, for example, that Son Goku is a Japanese reading of Sun Wukong and maybe barely understood that Son is his last name hence just calling him Goku. And there’s obvious disregard for things like Krillin, a Buddhist, saying a Christian prayer in the 1996 dub. But they don’t see the translated scripts calling Piccolo a demon?

Even in Dragon Ball Kai which has them all “we read the manga we finally understand Toriyama’s story and this isn’t just some low pay job we took until something better comes along this is our passion” still goes out its way to stay away from the D-word.

[Hellspawn28]

Not even the uncut dub of the first DB show calls him a demon king. I think by the time of the Saiyan saga, no one cares about him being a demon anymore.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I've always never understood that one, i mean you would think that they'd have the translation right there which clearly laid out what/who Piccolo is.

[eledoremassis02]

Also possible they dont use it or didnt to upset heavily religous households? heck I know people who's parents told them they couldnt watch pokemon cause it was made by the devil...

[JohnnyCashKami]

Also possible they dont use it or didnt to upset heavily religous households? heck I know people who's parents told them they couldnt watch pokemon cause it was made by the devil...

Well, FUNimation certainly tried not to offend religious folks even moreso that there was a deal around that.

When you think about it, it also makes sense they got rid of Mr. Satan and replaced it with Hercule, this dub-name originated in France as "Hercules" and then FUNimation borrowed it too. Although, they removed the "s" for some reason.

If you search for "Hercules", you'll find the Roman God known as Hercules and the Disney character. However, if you search for "Hercule", then you'll see the DBZ character. Why the miniscule change? Who knows, it's hard to say.

Would've been kinda funny if there was also some Dragon Ball character named "Socrates" and then slightly changed to "Socrate". lol

Goku on the Harmony Gold dub was renamed to "Zero" so you never know, but it won't happen now.

[Shiro97]

I would just chalk it up to Funimation not knowing (or caring) about the source material.

I would assume they still got translated scripts?

I get that they probably don’t get, for example, that Son Goku is a Japanese reading of Sun Wukong and maybe barely understood that Son is his last name hence just calling him Goku. And there’s obvious disregard for things like Krillin, a Buddhist, saying a Christian prayer in the 1996 dub. But they don’t see the translated scripts calling Piccolo a demon?

Even in Dragon Ball Kai which has them all “we read the manga we finally understand Toriyama’s story and this isn’t just some low pay job we took until something better comes along this is our passion” still goes out its way to stay away from the D-word.

You got me dude, I have no idea. If I was to take a total stab in the dark, maybe it's because they don't give a shit about all the mystical kung fu stuff.

[MyVisionity]

Same reason they don't refer to Kami as God. As to not trouble the Christian audience. A few utterances of "demon" here and there don't change that.

As for more recent material, they probably don't feel the need to change what their core audience has been accustomed to for the last twenty years.

[Kunzait_83]

There's an even bigger elephant in the room than this one that FUNimation has to this day never once corrected on or acknowledged: Ki. The word "Ki" NEVER ONCE shows up in their dub, nor is it ever given a truly proper explanation (there's a few explanations for it in Japanese). Ki, you know, one of the core-most concepts that the ENTIRE franchise literally hinges on and revolves itself around.

To this day, if you only go by only the dub, the characters have all of these incredible abilities and skills for literally NO REASON other than "just because they do", and the totally non-defined and generically-termed "energy" that they wield throughout is something you're NEVER ONCE let in on just what the fuck it is or why even regular human characters like Yamucha and Kuririn can do all these incredible things with it (like fucking FLY and blow up mountains).

Outside of maybe Viz's manga translations, the only reason that the mainstream, dub-only English audience even knows the term Ki at all is purely because of the video games: specifically the Budokai games, which were best sellers and are likely THE reason that anyone who is a dub-exclusive loyalist has ever first come across the term Ki in DB at all.

And also, I'm fairly sure that Beerus may well be the first major deity character in the Dragon Ball dub who is ever flatly and consistently acknowledged as a god at all. Kami is referred to as a "guardian of Earth" (which is totally generic and tells you NOTHING about his nature), and the Kaio and Kaioshin's natures are similarly swept under the rug. Dabura I think was one of the first (possibly THE first) notable characters that FUNimation ever copped to being a demon of any sort.

The bizarre (and at this point, very inconsistent) skirting and whitewashing of mysticism and religious concepts in DB remains one of the single most baffling creative choices that FUNimation's ever made with this franchise, which is saying something. I get what the intention of this was in the earlier days of the dub (when they were going for the milquetoast Saturday morning cartoon audience), but their continued sticking to it LONG after that "appeasing Christian soccer moms" rationale was no longer as much of a factor with earlier-introduced concepts even as they loosen it with later-introduced characters, remains an incredibly frustrating, pointless, and beyond stupid head-scratcher.

When you're responsible for translating a fucking Japanese by way of Chinese Mystical Kung Fu Fairy Tale (who's story roots are steeped to the eyeballs in ancient Taoist and Buddhist folklore), its kind of a MASSIVE - not to mention beyond pointless - hurdle when you refuse to ever acknowledge the existence of more than half the god and demon characters' natures as well as the very existence of the mystical life energy that every character's martial arts abilities revolve around and are based on. Even if the voice acting were beyond stellar throughout (and it obviously is anything but), this would STILL be a SEVERELY crippling issue with the dub that renders much of its plot needlessly muddled, vague, and incoherent.

Think about it: we're more than 20 years on from the dub's beginnings, and like almost half a dozen different English redubs of Z itself, and are now currently on Super (the franchise's 20-years-later revival series): and to this day, Ki as a term/concept is STILL not ONCE referenced, acknowledged, or give a proper introduction to English dub-only watchers, who are at this point more than likely just piggybacking their knowledge of what Ki is from reading about it from sites like this one online, or just playing a ton of the various DB video games.

Imagine if there were an X-Men show that never at ANY point mentions the word "mutants" or explains what exactly they are as a concept in ANY way, and had Cyclops shooting optic blasts and Storm controlling the weather being just things they could do just because and for no real clear reason other than "don't ask questions, just roll with it". Now imagine if that incarnation of X-Men were literally THE sole, main, primary incarnation of the franchise that almost nearly ANYONE in the English speaking world was aware of.

This kind of thing is, in my view at least, simply inexcusably, unforgivably fucking stupid in the extreme, and is clearly one of THE central reasons why most people in the U.S. at least are still entirely unclear as to what kind of series Dragon Ball even is in the first place, on just a barebones basic level.

[Valerius Dover]

Oh, yeah, there was actually a filler episode in DB called "Goku Goes to Demon Land". And then there's the aforementioned Dabura. And not to mention games going as far back as Budokai used Demon. Attack of the Saiyans also referred to Piccolo as a Demon.

[MasenkoHA]

There's an even bigger elephant in the room than this one that FUNimation has to this day never once corrected on or acknowledged: Ki. The word "Ki" NEVER ONCE shows up in their dub, nor is it ever given a truly proper explanation (there's a few explanations for it in Japanese). Ki, you know, one of the core-most concepts that the ENTIRE franchise literally hinges on and revolves itself around.

I think what amazes me most about that (aside from the localized video games using the words ki) is that I’m willing to bet your average American at least has some bare minimum idea what chi is. Or can at least associate chi as a martial arts concepts in kung fu movies.

[ABED]

Apparently when they were in the early stages of adapting Yu Yu Hakusho, there was concern about whether they would be able to use the term "demon".

[Valerius Dover]

Apparently when they were in the early stages of adapting Yu Yu Hakusho, there was concern about whether they would be able to use the term "demon".

That would add more credence to censorship being the inital reason, then. Yu Yu Hakusho started airing about half a year after the Buu arc began on CN.

[MyVisionity]

Apparently when they were in the early stages of adapting Yu Yu Hakusho, there was concern about whether they would be able to use the term "demon".

That's another thing about Funimation's Hakusho, how they would refer to the Demon World as the Spirit World as if there were only two realms (Living World and Spirit World), and chose to translate youkai as "apparition" instead of "demon". It's pretty clear what was going on there.

[ABED]

Apparently when they were in the early stages of adapting Yu Yu Hakusho, there was concern about whether they would be able to use the term "demon".

That's another thing about Funimation's Hakusho, how they would refer to the Demon World as the Spirit World as if there were only two realms (Living World and Spirit World), and chose to translate youkai as "apparition" instead of "demon". It's pretty clear what was going on there.

Did they? I don't remember it. I thought they did use 'demon'.

[MyVisionity]

Apparently when they were in the early stages of adapting Yu Yu Hakusho, there was concern about whether they would be able to use the term "demon".

That's another thing about Funimation's Hakusho, how they would refer to the Demon World as the Spirit World as if there were only two realms (Living World and Spirit World), and chose to translate youkai as "apparition" instead of "demon". It's pretty clear what was going on there.

Did they? I don't remember it. I thought they did use 'demon'.

I think they only began using 'Demon' about halfway through the series when the plot forced their hand, but I'm not really sure to what extent they used it afterwards.