Validity of leaving 'Kami' untranslated

[Herms]

For the second sentence, do you mean "Funi's general approach" as pertaining to the Dragon Ball franchise or in general? Because that's not something they do in general.

Oh, just towards DB. I know they used words like "demon", "hell", and "saint" plenty in their Yu Yu Hakusho dub, and even in DB Dabra got properly described as "king of the Demon World". And all indications are that they'll be sticking with the name "Super Saiyan God", right? So they've certainly gotten better over time, but DB seems to suffer because much of the dumb stuff they did starting out just keeps getting carried over, even into the Kai dub.

[ABED]

Anyway, whether it's overkill or not, "demon" is part of the title that the guy's called by all the time. It's an important component, and leaving it out drastically changes the meaning of the title, rather like leaving the "artificial" out of "artificial humans". I don't think it's really the job of an English adaptation to go "well, he's called 'demon' way too many times in the original, we'd better clamp down on that or else we're just spoonfeeding the idea".

Regardless it still made sense to call him king, if they had called him "demon" it's not like the fact that he's an evil king would've gone over people's heads. I want to make it clear that I'm not arguing in favor of King Piccolo, simply that I do think it makes sense.

I think Viz oscillates between King of Worlds and Kaio-sama. Kaio sounds better than "King of Worlds" it's shorter, and fits the mouthflaps. It's all preference anyway as to what you leave translated and what you don't. It's not like the original didn't have random English words. There are always going to be translation issues no matter how you slice it. How would you deal with Kaioshin calling himself Shin? What about Kami calling himself Shen? Doesn't Shen Long translate to Dragon God?

And no, I don't think Demon in Demon King isn't the same as Artificial in Artificial Human. The Demon is an adjective, whereas Artificial Human is all a noun, since humans and artificial humans are different beings. While we're on the subject, Cyborg is a better and far less literal (for lack of a better word) translation.

[Fizzer]

In the Funi dub they flat-out said that Piccolo was an alien, and had Piccolo say "I've fought all over the galaxy". I think that wasa combination of being overly-PC and trying to appeal to the Zeee ccrowd.

[ABED]

In the Funi dub they flat-out said that Piccolo was an alien, and had Piccolo say "I've fought all over the galaxy". I think that wasa combination of being overly-PC and trying to appeal to the Zeee ccrowd.

I don't think it's them being PC, technically Piccolo is an alien. Yes, I know he doesn't know at that point, please don't give me his bio. I'm just saying.

[ConfusedPhantom]

I seem to recall him being referred to as 'Guardian of Earth' at some point.

In the Japanese version? I'm pretty sure that never happens.

Nah, not the Japanese version. One of the dubs. I can't remember which one. *scratches head* .....Though come to think of it, they just used that as a title and still called him Kami. ^^;;; But, I dunno. It could be that my memory is playing tricks on me.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

@ConfusedPhantom: He's called the "Guardian of the Earth" in the FUNimation English dub.

[Gaffer Tape]

I remember the first time "God/Kami" was brought up was actually during the anime King Piccolo saga... when Tambourine was going around killing people I remember he killed one that was terrorizing a small settlement. The villagers were grateful and were sure GOD had sent him or something like that, like he was an angel of sorts. At the time I was Catholic and, while I knew Japanese had a different culture with a concept of Gods/Great Spirits, it felt weird the way they said it. My mother would watch the show with me and my sister, and while it raised some eyebrows on her part, she went along with it.

By sheer coincidence I watched this episode for the very first time about an hour after reading this post. It's interesting. Assuming there isn't any faulty memory going on on your part, it seems that even your version "softened" the scene a little bit. In the original text, they don't think Tamborine is *sent* by God. They think he *is* God and address him as such several times.

As an aside, since they're praising a guy who just slaughtered one of their enemies right in front of them, I'm guessing their idea of God is a bit more "Old Testament."

[Levlik]

On the subject of Kami's name, I've always assumed that it was Piccolo.

[Ninja Murasaki]

I can see him being referred to as Guardian spirit or something similar, but they likely avoided it calling him "God" as a precaution.

[Rukura]

I personally feel like leaving it as "Kami" instead of "God" is counter-productive. The point is to translate and adapt to the target language and that's nothing more than not translating a word. Pretty much the same as leaving it as "White Shogun" instead of "General White".

This has nothing to do with religion and what qualifies to be called as a god. This is a green slug alien whose full-time occupation in the Dragon World is to be its god. Thus he is Earth's God, which, in Japanese, is "Kami".

[Daisetsu]

@ConfusedPhantom: He's called the "Guardian of the Earth" in the FUNimation English dub.

And then there's the Kai dub, where Enma calls him "Kami of the Earth." Only happens once, though.