Post
by Herms » Thu Feb 12, 2009 5:37 am
Well, here's volume 3. I know I still haven't put up the rest of volume 2, but for various reasons I got this batch completely finished first.
Chapter 25
[*]
Kame-sennin, on Goku’s inability to pick out attractive women
Tr: I’m worried about this…
Viz: What, are you missing some chromosomes?!
[note]
The mermaid’s t-shirt has “Pie Pie” written on it, which is probably from pai-pai, Japanese slang for breasts. The way it’s written, she’s got one “pie” on each “pai”.
[lost]
For the “panties=punch” joke with the mermaid, the word used for “panties” in Japanese is panchii (パンチー), taken from the English word, while the word for “punch” is panchi (パンチ), also taken from the English word. As you can see, they’re very similar, the only difference being the lengthening stroke on the end. However, “panties” is more often spelled pantii (パンティー; this spelling being used for instance when Oolong wishes for some), so it seems Toriyama chose the other spelling this time to make the wordplay work better. Anyway, since both “panties” and “punch” are originally English words, the wordplay still works fairly well in English, so Viz left the whole joke as-is.
[*]
Kame-sennin, after getting a nosebleed when told the girl wasn’t wearing panties
Tr: I-I cant. Just from imaging it…
Viz: Augh…that blood pressure…
[sound]
TESE: Splash!, Punch!
[*]
Kame-sennin
Tr: However…!! Even a mermaid has boobs!!!
Viz: Of course…busty is still best!!!
[*]
After the mermaid incident, Kame-sennin asks Goku to bring a woman who’s not half fish, which Viz has as “one who isn’t sushi on the bottom”.
[*]
When Kame-sennin’s thinking how luck he is to have Sea Turtle away on vacation, Viz adds in that he won’t be on vacation for much longer.
[lost]
Kuririn and Goku, on Goku being a disciple
Tr
Kuririn: You don’t look like you do martial arts…
Goku: I love grapes!
The joke here is that in Japanese “budou” can mean both martial arts (武道) and grapes (葡萄). Viz comes up with a good English pun here:
Viz
Kuririn: You don’t look like you have the stomach for it!
Goku: Oh, I got plenty of stomach!
[note]
Goku says that Kuririn’s head looks like a pachinko ball. Pachinko is a Japanese gambling game somewhat like a cross between a pinball machine and a slot machine. It’s played with small metallic balls similar to pinball balls, which as you might expect have very little hair on them.
[**]
Kuririn originally says that all martial artists shave their head in order to draw in their ki, while in Viz it’s to unfetter their ki, which would seem to be the opposite.
Chapter 26
[lost]
Kuririn’s usual personal pronoun at this point is boku, a form of “I” used by young males. He uses it in casual situations, but uses the politer forms watashi and watakushi when speaking to Kame-sennin.
[*]
In Japanese Goku says that it’s “best to” help Lunch, while in Viz he says they’re “supposed to”.
[**?]
Kuririn, on why they shouldn’t help Lunch
Tr: If you don’t touch things, you won’t be cursed by god
Viz: God helps those who help themselves
I’m guessing the Japanese original is some old expression, but I haven’t found anything in my (admittedly little so far) research.
Chapter 27
[*]
When Kuririn assumes that Lunch must be a wealthy heiress, Viz adds in him also assuming that the policemen chasing her were kidnappers.
[lost]
While Kame-sennin usually uses “washi”, the form of “I” used by old men, when claiming Goku and Kuririn are his younger brothers, he switches to “boku”, the form of “I” used by young males. Also, Kame-sennin speaks politely to Lunch, much politer than he does with anyone else, since she’s his guest and all (well, actually there’s probably a few other motivations to his politeness…).
[just weird]
In Viz, Kame-sennin tells Lunch he is teaching Goku and Kuririn “budo”, which is one of the Japanese names for the martial arts (which happens to be a homonym for the Japanese word for “grape”, as we’ve seen). The thing is, in Japanese Kame-sennin tells Lunch she’s teaching the boys “bujutsu”, another Japanese name for the martial arts. So for the English translation, Viz just replaced one Japanese word with another, very similar Japanese word. Weird.
[**]
When asked if she’d like to train too, Lunch originally says that as a women, she wouldn’t be able to keep up. In Viz, she simply says it sounds fun, but “your training must be so rigorous”, averting some of the sexism.
[**]
In the original, Kuririn says that there’s nobody at any martial arts tournament who doesn’t know of Kame-sennin, while in Viz he says that there isn’t a martial artist in the world who wouldn’t kill to be trained by him. The main thing about the original line is that it implies Kame-sennin has been in a lot of martial arts tournaments before.
[**]
When Kuririn causes Lunch to go inside to change, Kame-sennin originally tells him to go back to his homeland, while in Viz he says “did I actually say you were my kind of student…?”.
[**]
Kame-sennin, on Lunch
Tr: Young girls are great
Viz: Oooo…
[*]
Violent Lunch, to Goku and co.
Tr: Who are you people?!!
Viz: You brought me here!!
[**]
Lunch, on Lunch
Tr: It seems my personally switches each time I sneeze.
Viz: I warned you about my sneezes, didn’t I?
The main thing here is that in the original Lunch speaks as if she doesn’t have first-hand knowledge of her personality changes, showing she doesn’t remember anything at all of the transformation.
Chapter 28
[just weird]
When Kame-sennin suggests they do some training before dinner, in Viz, Kuririn responds with “We are honored, sensei”. “Sensei” is the Japanese phrase used for teacher, doctors, professors, and other people who generally know more than you (or ought to). The only thing is…Kuririn didn’t say “sensei” at all in the original! Instead he responded with “Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu”, a very polite way of saying “thank you” or “if you please” (its exact meaning varies a lot depending on context). “We are honored” is a good translation, but why the “sensei” part? Why add in a Japanese word not used in the Japanese version into the English translation? That’s like… reverse translating or something.
[**]
Lunch, after yawning
Tr: Well, I’ll go make dinner!
Viz: Gosh, I’m really sleepy!
[*]
Viz has Lunch say “Get your stinkin’ hands off my beer!” as she chases him with the knife, but originally she just swears at him.
Chapter 29
[edit]
Viz inserts an arrow explaining that the symbol on the stone means “turtle”
[edit]
The black lady who Kuririn borrows a marker from has had her lips removed, to avoid looking like a racist caricature.
[just weird]
During the dinner scene, in Viz Lunch says “Thank you, sensei” to Kame-sennin, when in the original she just says “doumo” (another way of saying thanks in Japanese). So again, they add “sensei”, a Japanese word, into the English version when it wasn’t there in the Japanese version.
Chapter 30
[lost]
Lunch talks differently in her different forms, the docile one talking politely and feminine and the violent one talking rudely and more masculine. This comes out pretty well in Viz, but one aspect of this that doesn’t translate is that Lunch uses different forms of “I” in each form. In her docile form she uses the polite and gender-neutral “watashi”, while in her violent form she uses the informal and masculine “ore”.
[**/lost]
When violent Lunch shoots at Goku, in Japanese he calls her “kon’nyaro~!!!”, a slangy distortion of “kono yarou”, basically equivalent to “you bastard”; Viz has this simply as “So--!!!”. Now, I say “kono yarou/kon’nyaro” is equivalent to “you bastard”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it should always be translated as that or anything similarly profane. Swearing in Japanese is a lot more context-based, in that it’s not so much the word that’s bad as it is to who you say it, when, and how.
[note]
In the original, after the monk mentions the Tenkaichi Budoukai, Kuririn simply repeats the name, while Viz has him say the English translation of the name, “Strongest under the Heavens…?!”, so that readers will know what the name means (well, he doesn’t get around to saying “tournament”).
[**]
In the original, Kuririn describes the Tenkaichi Budoukai as having martial artists from “throughout the country”, while in Viz he says they are from “all over the world”. The original line is interesting, because the Tenkaichi Budoukai is portrayed as a global tournament, and we eventually learn that the DragonBall Earth is a single global nation. So is this line a sign that Toriyama had already thought up the Earth’s one-world government at this point?
Chapter 31
[lost]
When Goku’s reading the book, his speech is all in hiragana, while the foreign names (Bob and Margaret) would usually be written in katakana, and the larger words would be in kanji. Writing all in hiragana is how a child would write, so this enforces the fact that Goku is simply reciting these words, and that he doesn’t necessarily understand what he’s reading.
[**]
Kame-sennin, on swimming laps in the lake
Tr: However, for some reason there are sharks in this lake. Watch out.
Viz: Nothing to it. A veritable siesta. Just watch out for the shark.
So in the original Kame-sennin touches on the absurdity of their being sharks in a lake, which drops out in Viz.
Chapter 32
[*]
The original narration says that Goku and Kuririn are driven in their training by their desire to strong, while in Viz it’s the desire to succeed.
[***]
In the original, Goku and Kuririn constantly pester Kame-sennin to teach them kenpo (martial arts or kung fu, essentially), instead of the physical training he gives them. In Viz, they want him to teach them “moves” (sometimes “fighting moves”), which isn’t wrong per say, but seems like an oversimplification to me, and an unnecessary one, especially considering that they use the very word “kenpo” in DB vol.6.
Eventually when pressed by them to teach them kenpo, Kame-sennin explains that he actually has little left in the way of kenpo to teach them. Their bodies, mind, etc. have been strengthened, and kenpo is nothing more than applying that. So basically, Goku and Kuririn ask to learn kenpo, and Kame-sennin says they already have. He also tells them to “utilize the basics you have learned up until now to study your own kenpo according to your own thinking”.
Now in Viz, when pressed by them to teach them “fighting moves”, Kame-sennin tells them that “there isn’t much more I can teach you”, saying that their bodies, minds, etc. have been strengthened, and martial arts is nothing more than applying that. So basically, Goku and Kuririn want to learn special moves, Kame-sennin says he has none to teach them, but they can do martial arts without them, since the tough bodies/minds is the important thing. He also tells them to “train yourselves on the foundation of what you have learned until now”.
So ultimately, from Viz one gets the sense that the Kame-sennin style of martial arts is devoid of fighting moves, while in the original it does have that sort of thing, but it arises as a natural result of the school’s basic training. This ties into a seeming contradiction later, when Kame-sennin says Chi Chi’s fighting style resembles the Kame-sen school, but I think I’ve gone on long enough on this subject for now.
[note]
In this chapter, Viz translates the name of South City, minami no miyako (南の都), as “the Southern Metropolis”. There’s nothing wrong with this on its own, but later they use “City of the West” for West City. All the cardinal direction cities in DragonBall follow the same naming pattern, X no miyako (Xの都), which can variously be translated as “X City”, “X Metropolis”, “City of the X”, etc; but whichever you go with, you really ought to be consistent with it. Inconsistency bugs me most of the time.
Oh yeah, it’s also worth noting that this is the first time one of the cardinal direction cities is referred to by name. At this point, Bulma has frequently mentioned being from the city, and being from the west, but West City won’t actually be named until the Red Ribbon Army arc.
[*]
When Goku wonders if the plane can fly, Kuririn calls him a hick (inakamon) in Japanese and a rube in Viz.
Chapter 33
[edit]
Viz puts in a little arrow explaining the meaning of the 亀 kanji: “kame”=”turtle”.
[**]
Kuririn, on his new Kame uniform
Tr: I-it’s really flashy…it’ll look bad if I lose...
Viz: It looks like the real thing…I gotta be worthy of it.
[*]
Goku, on being in the first match in his block
Tr: I go right off the bat.
Viz: I gotta start, huh?
In Viz you don’t really get the sense that he’s commenting on being in the very first match.
[me being a sophomoric moron]
Random guys, on #69 having to fight Goku
Tr: Damn, the guy with #69 has it easy!
Viz: 69 must be somebody’s lucky number!
So, uh…anyone see what I see?
[**]
Viz gives the giant mustache guy whom Goku fights in the preliminaries a Russian accent, apparently just because he looks a stereotypical Russian weightlifter. There’s nothing unique about how he talks in the original.
[**/lost]
Kuririn, to the Orin Temple guys
Tr : Se…senpai
Viz : …gleep…
“Senpai” is a Japanese term for one’s upperclassmen, senior coworkers, and the like.
[**]
In the original, the short fat Orin Temple guy calls the tall thin one the #1 at Oorin Temple right before his match against Kuririn begins, but this drops out in Viz.
Chapter 34
[edit]
In Viz, the black contestant whom Goku defeats has his lips blacked in.
[sound]
TESE: Hit!
[note]
The big mustache guy Goku defeated earlier can be seen behind Kuririn when he says that the Bruce Lee-lookalike’s attack didn’t hurt.
[*]
Yamcha originally says he had heard about “guys who are really strong despite being kids”, while in Viz he only mentions hearing about a single strong kid.
[note]
When Yamcha shows off his Roga FuFu-Ken to Goku, Viz keeps the technique’s name in Japanese, and a footnote translates it as “Fist of the Wolf Fang Gale”. Previously, in Viz it had been called “Fist of the Wolf Fang”.
Chapter 35
[note]
Bulma says she went to Kame-sennin’s island to try and see Goku, only to find nobody there, but how does she know where it is? She never went there during before, she only met Kame-sennin on the beach.
[*]
Viz somewhat plays up Bacterian’s reputation: in the original, Yamcha says that he has “fearsome strength”, while in Viz he says he is “a legend among martial artists”.
[*]
Kuririn, on Bacterian
Tr: Dirtiness as a weapon, huh?
Viz: Stink-fu, huh?
[*]
Announcer, to Jacky wanting to fight Ran Fan
Tr: Please don’t say selfish things!!
Viz: I’m sorry sir, but no…!
[just weird]
In the original, the announcer adds “san”, the Japanese equivalent of mr/ms/mrs, onto the name of each contestant. In Viz’s translation, he still calls Namu “Namu-san”, but doesn’t do the same for any of the other contestants.
[note]
Giran is described as a kaijuu, in both the original and Viz. “Kaijuu” (怪獣) is technically just a Japanese word for monster (it literally means “mysterious beast”), but it is very strongly associated with giant movie monsters like Godzilla, Mothra, and the like. Giran is patterned after those monsters, although he’s not nearly as big.
[lost]
In Japanese, the announcer mispronounces Goku’s name as “Mago Go-Sora”. The kanji for “Son” in Goku’s name, 孫, means “grandchild” and is read as “mago” when used on its own. The last kanji in his name, 空, means “sky” and is read as “sora” when used on its own (the protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts video games in named “Sora”, after sky, and so is one of the characters from Digimon Adventures). So the joke is that the announcer has incorrectly read the kanji in Goku’s name; Mayumi Tanaka, Kuririn and Uranai Baba’s voice actress, once made the same Son/Mago mistake during a rehearsal. Viz has the announcer’s screw-up of Goku’s name be “Song Oku”, which is a good English equivalent, although since it sounds much closer to “Son Goku” than “Mago Go-Sora”, Goku ends up looking dumber for not recognizing what was going on.
[**]
In response to Goku asking what “vulnerables” are:
Tr
Announcer: To put it coarsely, your “balls”.
Ran Fan: Uh~I don’t have those…
Viz
Announcer: In terms you’ll understand, your “jewels”.
Ran Fan: Um—I thought we couldn’t have jewelry!
Chapter 36
[*]
The announcer mentions how the tournament crowd has “gathered from far and wide”, but this drops out in Viz.
[*]
Bacterian to Kuririn
Tr: Now to finish you off!
Viz: Now for the coup de grace!!
Bacterian doesn’t strike me as the sort to use French, but maybe that’s just me.
[lost]
Kuririn uses the English “thank you” when thanking Goku, like Goku often does.
[lost]
Bacterian using “ora” as his form of “I”, the same hickish form used by Goku and Chi Chi.
