Question about the manga/show.

[SuperAndroid11]

Are Goku and company supposed to be Japense or Americans? I know the TV show colors them with white skin, but is the manga trying to make them look Causasian or what?

[Cacarot]

I always thought they were white because when they go super they have blonde hair.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Are Goku and company supposed to be Japense or Americans?

Goku's a Saiyan, so neither...the same kind of applies for the rest of the characters as well, since its Dragon Ball Earth and not our Earth. There are some throwaway references to real world locations, but the map of the planet hardly looks anything like our own, so they probably don't actually exist. For the sake of the topic though. the others really look more like a mixed bag. I'd say characters like Tenshinhan, Kuririn, Yamcha, Chi Chi and the like and probably of whatever counts as Asian decent in the Dragon World, while the others like Bulma, the Budokai announcer, Mr. Satan or Videl strike me more as Caucasians.

[Herms]

Ugh, well DB Earth doesn't have such real-life countries (the entire world being united into a single country), so the characters have no nationality in real world terms. And Goku's not from Earth, of course.

Still, in early DB the series' setting was supposed to be quasi-Asian (to contrast with Dr. Slump's quasi-Western feel, as Toriyama says in his Daizenshuu 2 interview). Goku's got black hair and black eyes and is named after the hero of a Chinese fantasy novel, so he seems intended at this period at least as quasi-Asian. Whereas Bulma has non-black hair, wears clothes with her name written on them in alphabet letters, and says she comes from "way in the west", so she seems intended as quasi-Western.

There are some throwaway references to real world locations

I think in the original manga there's only Murasaki's US flag. Stuff like "Bangkok Surprise Prize" or referring to King Kamehameha of Hawaii are only in Viz. On the other hand Arale and co. do show up, and Dr. Slump often mentions real world countries. But that's one of many ways Dr. Slump's continuity doesn't mesh well with DB's. Penguin Village itself is supposed to be part of Japan, despite Toriyama wanting to give it a Western feel, and one 4th-wall breaking moment points out how silly it is that blond, blue-eyed Midori is intended to be Japanese.

On that note, it might also be worth pointing out that early Yamcha looks pretty much identical to Tsun Tsukutsun from Doctor Slump, and Tsukutsun is supposed to be Chinese. So Toriyama's ways of depicting Asians aren't necessarily what you'd expect.

[TripleRach]

The manga doesn't have color most of the time, but when it does, Gokuu often has a slightly darker skin than most of the cast. GT gave him his manga tan in anime form.

As for the light flesh tone that most characters have, that's up to interpretation, I guess. Some people say it looks like European white skin (but obviously not the really pasty kind), and some people say it looks like lighter shades of East Asian skin tones.

[lash]

Daizenshuu 7's race guide depicts Saiyans with yellow skin color(while earthlings are listed as being yellow, brown, white, etc). And, while not to sound prejudice, Asians more than other races tend to have that type of complexion.

GT Goku certainly enjoyed his tanning sessions though.

[Satan-Sama]

(but obviously not the really pasty kind)

Hahahaha excellent reference.

[Gaffer Tape]

Stuff like "Bangkok Surprise Prize" or referring to King Kamehameha of Hawaii are only in Viz.

"Bangkok Surprise Prize"? When did that happen in Viz?

[Super Sonic]

Stuff like "Bangkok Surprise Prize" or referring to King Kamehameha of Hawaii are only in Viz.

"Bangkok Surprise Prize"? When did that happen in Viz?

It's not literally said in the Viz manga, except for a sidenote as a translation to Jackie Chun's Bankoku-Hikkuri-Shou. If anyone wonders how the dub did it they called it "Lightning Flash Surprize".

[jjgp1112]

Tien, Krillin, Chi-Chi, and DB Yamcha always struck me as Asian.

[Gaffer Tape]

Stuff like "Bangkok Surprise Prize" or referring to King Kamehameha of Hawaii are only in Viz.

"Bangkok Surprise Prize"? When did that happen in Viz?

It's not literally said in the Viz manga, except for a sidenote as a translation to Jackie Chun's Bankoku-Hikkuri-Shou. If anyone wonders how the dub did it they called it "Lightning Flash Surprize".

Really? I wonder if that's some intermittent addition or subtraction because I have the first Shonen Jump printings, and I can't recall that footnote at all, and that seems like something that would stick out to me, especially considering how many times I've read it. In fact, I can't recall any footnote to that attack.

[Sun-Wukong]

I've noticed that in Dragon Ball, Yamcha looks Asian, but in DBZ, even from the very beginning he looks Caucasian.

What it comes down to is, characters in the show resemble certain real-world ethnicities for the same reason they speak Japanese; it's a matter of convenience. Also, I've noticed that nobody is mentioning the black characters like General Black.

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, to pick nits, Black isn't a General. He's an Adjutant. But what is it you want us to say? Yeah, I guess it is pretty obvious and inarguable that characters like Black are supposed to resemble the negroid type, much more so than you can easily pin down other characters' perceived ethnicities, so that is a good example.

But in general I'd say it's less a matter of convenience that "earthlings" in the series resemble real-life Earthlings than it is simple frame of reference. We write what we know because... well, it's what we know. It's difficult to have a basis of comparison when we have nothing else to compare it to. So... it just comes out looking similar, either to real-life models or to real-life perceptions of that model.

[Super Sonic]

"Bangkok Surprise Prize"? When did that happen in Viz?

It's not literally said in the Viz manga, except for a sidenote as a translation to Jackie Chun's Bankoku-Hikkuri-Shou. If anyone wonders how the dub did it they called it "Lightning Flash Surprize".

Really? I wonder if that's some intermittent addition or subtraction because I have the first Shonen Jump printings, and I can't recall that footnote at all, and that seems like something that would stick out to me, especially considering how many times I've read it. In fact, I can't recall any footnote to that attack.

I don't have the SJ version but it was in my copy of vol. 5 from the bigger previous print:



Sorry it doesn't look so good, but scanner's down at the moment so had to take pic with camera in hand.

[Gaffer Tape]

Ah, yes, that would explain it. The older, bigger prints in general seemed to have some wild crap in them. I mean, weren't those the ones that referred to the Kikoho as the Chi Kung Pao (I know the Shonen Jump versions did too but only in footnotes as if they were desperately trying to hold on to the idea that their version really needed to be in there somewhere). But, yeah, I'm almost certain that footnote doesn't exist in the SJ printings. Thanks for showing that to me.

[Herms]

Really? I wonder if that's some intermittent addition or subtraction because I have the first Shonen Jump printings, and I can't recall that footnote at all, and that seems like something that would stick out to me, especially considering how many times I've read it. In fact, I can't recall any footnote to that attack.

Could be; it's definitely in their early, pre-Shonen Jump label graphic novels. If they did remove the footnote, it's probably because it was essentially a mistranslation. While Bankoku (when written in katakana) is the Japanese word for "Bangkok", bankoku as written in kanji like in Kame-sennin's attack means "international". While it's probably not beyond the realms of possibility to write the latter while meaning the former in a punning sort of way, the joke behind the attack name is actually that it's a pun on an old Japanese TV series called the "Bankoku Bikkuri Show" (International Surprise Show). The English word "show" is swapped out for shou, one of the readings for the kanji for "palm".

Edit: Super Sonic's scan shows that they also mis-wrote "Bikkuri" as "Hikkuri" (they must have not seen the daku-ten).

Technically speaking I suppose using the term "international" is also inconsistent with the idea of DB Earth being united into a single country, but you could probably write it off as a holdover from before the one-world government emerged.

[Super Sonic]

So what would be the more proper translation?

[Gaffer Tape]

I'm almost certain the Shonen Jump printings continue to use "Hikkuri" instead of "Bikkuri" because it's one of those things I always find my mind correcting when I read through the English manga.

[Herms]

So what would be the more proper translation?

Something like "International Surprise Palm". Viz translates shou as "prize" because that's one of the things it can mean in Japanese (when written with the kanji 賞), but in the attack name it's written with 掌, meaning (among other things) palm of the hand. I guess that, like with Bankoku, they thought it was a pun on something it really wasn't. It's worth noting that in the attack's name, bikkuri is written with unusual kanji, 驚天 (they still mean "surprise", but aren't usually read as bikkuri, which is itself typically written in hiragana). This may have given them the idea that there were other bits of wordplay in the attack name. But as far as I can tell there's nothing to connect the attack to Bangkok or prizes, and the entire attack name is explained by the "Bankoku Bikkuri Show" reference, so I think Viz was probably overreaching.

[TheRealGokuSS4]

Are Goku and company supposed to be Japense or Americans? I know the TV show colors them with white skin, but is the manga trying to make them look Causasian or what?

from my experience, most with a handul of exceptions (master roshi, krillin, yahmcha) characters in anime never look asian to me, even if they are in an area surrounded with asian culture and actually are asian they always seem to be portrayed as causasian, we dont know where the town that the main dbz characters live is meant to be, but theres a good chance its somehwere in japan considering the mountainous landscape and intricate technology