Majin Buu Arc “Full Color” Akira Toriyama Q&A Translations

[dodge2461]

Wouldn't Michelle have been a better name since it's the feminine version of Michael? I guess Michaela would've worked, too.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Enma-Daiō and the oni look like salary men!
It feels like a real-world government office! By the way, it seems Enma-Daiō‘s palace has an airport, and spirits bound for Heaven make the trip by airplane.

Looks like Toriyama is mixing filler in with the manga again. I think the idea that souls/spirits board a plane to get to Heaven is hilarious, but... I don't wanna go this route.

No, just like when Toriyama came up with the Tsufruians for the anime staff, he was the one who came up with Enma's palace having an airport when he designed the cosmos orb for them.

For God’s temple, I gave it a comparatively mysterious feeling, but on the other hand I thought it’d be good to have the afterlife be realistic. So Enma-daiō and the oni all wore suits like salary-men. I think you can see this by looking at the world map in this book, but there’s a thing called the airport to Heaven. The background on that is that the people who go to Heaven all have to go by plane. This complete map was originally background information that I drew at the request of the anime people, but I took this opportunity to add the Kaiōshin World, which wasn’t included in the complete map before, to make it perfect. In truth, this complete world map is something I made after I finished drawing the story, to make everything consistent. (laughs)

[kei17]

"Why didn't he choose Michelle or Miguela insted?" kind of indications sound unreasonable to me because most of the Japanese are not familiar with Western naming rules. It's the same as most of those who are from countries outside the Arab world don't know that Hussein was not Saddam's surname. You should take account of cultural contexsts.

[SaiyaJedi]

"Why didn't he choose Michelle or Miguela insted?" kind of indications sound unreasonable to me because most of the Japanese have are not familiar with Western naming rules. It's the same as most of those who are from countries outside the Arab world don't know that Hussein was not Saddam's surname. You should take account of cultural contexsts.

I sense a double standard in how people are getting bent out of shape over this name, but not the fact that the majority of the main cast is named after food or underwear. How is this one instance any different from what Toriyama's given us before? It's complaints like this that get perfectly good name-puns like "Karin" warped into nonsensical things like "Korin".

Plus, you know, there are plenty of absolutely preposterous "Western" names that show up in even the highest-profile Japanese cartoons (Gundam, Death Note, etc. etc.). People laugh at those, but never really seem to complain.

[Shoryuken]

Now hold your proverbial equines, folks. Migeru is also a possible Japanese female name.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Hell, I have less of a problem with the name when I just spell it "Migeru" or "Migel", as I pronounce it in Japanese instead of how we'd pronounce Miguel in this part of the southern US.

[hleV]

But Babidi was said to be Bibidi's son...

Anyway, can anyone explain this to me?

Meaning “magic” or “demon”, and used to write madōshi/mage and majin/magical being

How is "Ma" used to write madoshi and majin? I don't get this sentence -_-'

[RandomGuy96]

But Babidi was said to be Bibidi's son...

I guess the primary exposition was wrong... again... about pretty much everything.

Damn, Kaioshin's like the new Raditz now, isn't he?

"The saiyans are the most powerful warrior race in the galaxy [except Freeza and his 'race'], and used to run the planet trade [or were just disposable minions to the real masterminds behind the planet trade]. All but four (five... at least) were wiped out when a meteor hit the planet [when an alien pirate blew it up]. You, Kakarot, were sent to conquer this planet [just kidding, you were sent here for your own protection]." There's probably more that I'm missing.

"Majin Buu is a monster created by Bibidi [except he wasn't, no one created him, Bibidi just summoned him], who rampaged across the universe and killed four [well, killed two and absorbed two others] Kaioshin [nvm, there's only three], and who is about to be revived by Bibidi's son [actually just Bibidi himself/a clone]."

I found a few tidbits here mildly interesting: Vegeta giving his techniques English names because he wants to sound cool, the existence of a type of fusion that has nothing to do with battle power, the small size of Dabra's realm, and the apparent acknowledgement by the company of more anime material as "canon" to the manga's storyline. I'm also oddly amused by his trolling of the interviewer (see the question about what Babidi's "M" stands for) and need to insert random facts and call backs with the worst segues ever.

Some of his answers just confuse me though. Like his comment that "No matter what sort of opponent, Goku wanted to fight them one-on-one!", even though he doesn't want to do that when confronted by Super Buu and begs Vegeta to fuse with him. And his comments on the Kaioshin.

[Herms]

I'm irked that the one question I actually cared about ("Does the "M" on Vegeta's forehead stand for "Madoshi" or "Majin?") was not even slightly answered by Toriyama's response.

But...he did answer it. He said it (probably, he thinks) stands for the kanji 魔/ma, the general written character for all things magical and demonic. That's what it stands for, full stop (he thinks, probably). It's not like "M stands for 魔, and 魔 is short for 魔導師/madoushi" or anything like that. The M just stands for 魔 (he thinks, probably), meaning magic/demon.

I can't bring myself to care about Videl's mom until Toriyama actually draws her. Not in "Mister Satan Minus," or anything. Just a sketch.

Maybe the new rule should be that Toriyama has to draw at least one picture to go along with each new tidbit he comes up with.

Anyway, can anyone explain this to me?

Meaning “magic” or “demon”, and used to write madōshi/mage and majin/magical being

How is "Ma" used to write madoshi and majin? I don't get this sentence -_-'

I went into this a bit above, but here's how all this is written in Japanese:

魔: MA
魔導師: MAdoushi
魔人: MAjin

Hopefully that helps somewhat.

Enma-Daiō and the oni look like salary men!
It feels like a real-world government office! By the way, it seems Enma-Daiō‘s palace has an airport, and spirits bound for Heaven make the trip by airplane.

Looks like Toriyama is mixing filler in with the manga again. I think the idea that souls/spirits board a plane to get to Heaven is hilarious, but... I don't wanna go this route.

Like TheDevilsCorpse said, the "airport to Heaven" think actually was something Toriyama came up with for the anime. But besides that, the quote in question isn't even Toriyama talking, it's just one of the captions. Sorry if that wasn't made clear.

I2.) We're back to the Super Exciting Guide information for the Kaio(shin)...and no mention of how this works with the Twel-Buu blurb.

I'm pretty sure the Toriyama's explanation about all that was simply copied wholesale from the SEG, and they just didn't bother noting that while Toriyama did say that, he said it over five years ago in a different book. In fact, quite a few of Toriyama's responses feel like they're lifted from earlier daizenshuu interviews and whatnot, but I haven't been able to check. If so, it feels a little cheap, like they didn't get enough new answers from Toriyama this time around, so they had to pad it out with old stuff. At the very least they should note that this stuff is from a different, earlier source.

[UltimateHammerBro]

I guess I'll call the character "Migeru".

[Cold Skin]

Well, French guys won't have a problem with the name, since a feminine version of the name Miguel does exist for us ("Miguelle"). It is common for us to make a difference between male and female in the way we write "Michael"-derived names by adding extra letters for girls, keeping the same pronunciation.

Our own French-made version of Michael/Miguel is "Michel" for boys and "Michelle" for girls.
So it's just gonna be the same with that name, we have "Miguel" too and the translator will use the feminine name "Miguelle" - which does exist for us French guys, which is why if you type it on Google you primarly see French sites.

So yes, the name Miguelle does exist and is meant for girls and would be written in Japanese just as Toriyama spelled it.
He did give Mister Satan's wife an existing, feminine name despite what you guys seem to think: Miguelle (ミゲル).
Girls and women have the name Miguelle in our real world, just like boys and men wear the name Mark in our real world, so where's the problem? Don't they fit together as a couple, having some of our "real world" names?

So yeah, boys are named Miguel, but don't forget that girls are named Miguelle too, search on Google, and have fun viewing hundreds of "real" Miguelle girl names.
I'm surprised you guys didn't know about the existence of the name and thought there was just the "Miguel" male version, it must really be something from France (much like the name Cargot chosen by Toriyama for Dende's "brother").

[Herms]

I guess I'll call the character "Migeru".

I'm not really sure how that solves anything. The entire joke behind the name is that it's the name of an angel. "Miguel" fits that bill, "Migeru" doesn't. What's more, several people have pointed out that "Miguel" actually is used as a woman's name occasionally. And even if that weren't true, as others have said there are way crazier things in DB than a woman with a man's name.

Well, French guys won't have a problem with the name, since a feminine version of the name Miguel does exist for us ("Miguelle"). It is common for us to make a difference between male and female in the way we write "Michael"-derived names by adding extra letters for girls, keeping the same pronunciation.

...although, having said all that, maybe we should have used "Miguelle". If that has the same pronunciation as "Miguel", then it would be another valid way of romanizing ミゲル. I haven't managed to find an example of "Miguelle" written in Japanese yet though. In fact, there are apparently no English or Japanese Wikipedia pages for anybody named "Miguelle"! I guess it can't be a super common name.

[Cold Skin]

Well, French guys won't have a problem with the name, since a feminine version of the name Miguel does exist for us ("Miguelle"). It is common for us to make a difference between male and female in the way we write "Michael"-derived names by adding extra letters for girls, keeping the same pronunciation.

...although, having said all that, maybe we should have used "Miguelle". If that has the same pronunciation as "Miguel", then it would be another valid way of romanizing ミゲル. I haven't managed to find an example of "Miguelle" written in Japanese yet though. In fact, there are apparently no English or Japanese Wikipedia pages for anybody named "Miguelle"! I guess it can't be a super common name.

It's fairly common in France, but maybe quite rare around the world.
Searching the name on Google, you find tons of sites and profiles and owners of shops related to French persons, but just a few seem to show English twitter/Facebook accounts.

It is not uncommon in France, but surprisingly seems pretty rare in the world (unlike "Michelle"). However, the pronunciation is exactly the same than for "Miguel" (just like for "Michel" and "Michelle", there's no way you can tell the difference, and if someone vocally mentions the name, you have no way to know if it's about a man or a girl just by the name pronunciation, you need to hear if it's "he" or "she" to know).

[hleV]

I went into this a bit above, but here's how all this is written in Japanese:

魔: MA
魔導師: MAdoushi
魔人: MAjin

Hopefully that helps somewhat.

Yeah I later realized that they/you meant that Ma is used in words like madoshi or majin. To sleepy... Anyway, I'm still curious whether it's a fancy "M" or just a symbol resembling "M".
If going by the recent Toriyama's tidbit about Boo not being created by Bibidi, the "M" should supposedly mean mage and not demon, Bibidi just probably added the "M" on Boo's belt to portray him as his (the mage's) servant.

[Cold Skin]

Did you guys realize those facts?

- Mister Satan and his wife both have real-world names when it's not very common in the Dragon World: Mark and Miguelle.
- While Videl has the devil thematic carried over from her father, her name's form is derived from her mother's: Migeru --> Bideru // Miguelle --> Videl.

[B]

If you pronounce "Migel" the way the Japanese version pronounces "Videl", it sort of sounds more feminine. ME-gehl. VEE-del.

[Cetra]

Lunch, no matter if the 1st one or the 2nd one likes Tenshinhan since they know each other. They don't get together but are still mentioned.

Goddamnit, Nappa. Why can't they be together?

[Gyt Kaliba]

After thinking on it long and hard while reading other's responses, I think I will just stick with 'Miguel' for Satan's wife's name, no fudging around similar names to make it somewhat more feminine at all. As I and others have already said and Herms have stressed, there's far weirder names in DB as it is.

Now, Toriyama, can you please stop throwing out tidbits in regards to Satan while I'm in the middle of writing something that heavily involves him at the moment? Even if I don't include the tidbits, I still have to keep them in mind. You're not making this any easier!

Edit: Oh wow, only now did I realize that I hadn't even read the entire Q&A, just the tidbits from the main posting in the news article. ^_^; Let's see here...

I love that even Toriyama questions the rationale behind screaming out your attack names. But it's so shonen that you pretty much have to do it. It's also interesting to learn that the airport in Heaven is legit even in the manga, I never knew that. Just from what little we do see of Enma though, it was already pretty clear, I thought anyway, that the whole office mentality was still correct. Also, hmm...has it ever been said just why in the heck Baba is so important that she's allowed to let dead people come back for one day? Is she the only one, or are there others like her who can do that?

It's definitely intriguing that the stuff we previously had about Makaio keeps coming up too...hmm...

[Cetra]

Am I the only one that thinks it is weird that the Kaioshin are genderless? Anime or not, the Western Kaioshin definitely had something that I don't have and how can they be perverts sometimes when they don't seem to have any sexual interest (which should be because of them having no gender)? Maybe they are like Piccolo, treated like male or female but technically are none of them because of the missing reproductive organs (though Piccolo has them both in his body but it is a bit similiar as he still is treated like he is male).

[Cold Skin]

It's definitely intriguing that the stuff we previously had about Makaio keeps coming up too...hmm...

He says the Kaio Shins seem to have the upper hand for now.
Could the Ma Kaio Shins be more of a threat than what everyone in the Dragon World is thinking? (everyone aware of them anyway)
Not so long ago, the SHIELD thought they had the upper hand on Hydra, until major events suddenly switched the balance and changed who's the force in control because the enemy had simply been preparing a one-time, one-shot, from-everywhere-in-the-world-at-the-same-time, instantaneous assault for a hundred years.

If the Ma Kaio Shins ever manage to throw off their opposites and cease control of the universe Hydra-style, it would put good guys in a universe-wide complicated situation.