What is a "Mazoku"?

[Tanooki Kuribo]

In one scene, King Piccolo refers to himself and his minions as "Mazoku". Was this just Akira Toriyama giving a name to something and then forgetting it in usual Toriyama fashion? Then I thought maybe it was a slang Japanese word meaning "demon" or something and was just translated like that... I don't know, so what's up with that?

[Amigo Ten]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazoku

So it seems to be just a general term. Dragon Ball is even mentioned in the Notes and References.

[The Time Traveller]

I thought it was Demon Clan. Or Demon Clansmen. Can't remember which.

[VegettoEX]

Fairly sure it's spelled out as 魔族 (mazoku). That first kanji should be pretty familiar to folks -- it's the same ma as in "Piccolo-Daimaô".

In a nutshell, it's "demon clan". The -zoku suffix can mean something like "family" or "class" or "race", and "clan" seems to be not only the most common, but the most appropriate translation of the term. It's one of those cases where it's used so heavily as a proper noun, so Translator's Choice™ is up in the air about using it in its Japanese form or translating out the phrase into English.

Piccolo uses it primarily to refer to himself and his group of henchman/offspring, but then you get all those awesome scenes with the little anarchist kids who want to be part of the "demon clan", as well (and have varying levels of written Japanese knowledge cycling from 魔 to ま to マ).

[Gaffer Tape]

And don't forget Kanzentai's "Demon Guide"!

http://www.kanzentai.com/mini_db.php?id=demon

[Bussani]

The demon guide explains it all, but Garlic Jr. was also a Mazoku. The term also appears in a lot of other fictional works, such as Slayers. Slayers usually translates it as "Monster Race" for the English version, but "Demon Clan" seems to be what gets used for Dragon Ball.

Again, the demon guide explains this in detail, but anyone of the Demon Clan in Dragon Ball apparently has this special trait: when they kill someone, their soul becomes earthbound and unable to enter the afterlife. This sets Mazoku apart from other demonic and devilish creatures in the Dragon Ball Universe, and it is also why Goku is so adamant about restoring the dragon balls.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

It's really weird that the translator left it as "Mazoku" instead of translating it to "Demon Tribe" or whatever. I can imagine a lot of people watching that episode and thinking "what the hell is a Mazoku?" like Tanooki Kuribo.

[NeoKING]

Yeah, this same phrase was used in Yu Yu Hakusho and was left intact in the dub. Mazoku= "Demon Tribe" or simply put "A person of/the Demon race."

[Super Sonic]

The term comes up in The Slayers as well. Though the dub and original subs (hasn't seen Funi's so don't know what they use) translated it as "Monster Race".