Kuririn Calling Piccolo, "Mao."

[TheGreatness25]

Hey guys. I'm not sure if this came up before, but I'm going over the new Dragon Box 4, and in episode 137, titled, "Piccolo's Resolution!! The Last Measure in His Reserve," or "Last Ditch Effort" as the dubbed title, Piccolo goes nuts and starts yelling about how he's bent on world domination and flies off to Kami's place. Kuririn then tells everyone that he thinks Piccolo is just upset over not being the strongest, and talks about how he is probably going to merge with Kami. Kuririn says, "If Kami-sama and Mao join bodies, they'll return to a Namekian warrior."

Now my question is... what's up with Kuririn calling him "Mao"? I know that in Dragon Ball he entered the Tenkaichi Tournament as "Ma-Junior," but I don't get this.

[Coola Yagami]

-shrugs- short version of sayin Daimaoh?

[Cipher]

大魔王 = Daimao = Great Demon King

大 = Dai = Great, grand or large
魔 = Ma = Demonic/devilish
王 = Ou = King

魔王 = Mao = Demon King

Krillin's just omitting a bit of respect from Piccolo's former title. I'd blame this confusion for the strange fan tendency of always referring to the character as "Piccolo Daimao," like it's one untranslatable word. There's really no reason for any translation to not refer to him as "Piccolo, the Great Demon King" or "Demon King Piccolo."

[TheGreatness25]

Hey thanks. Didn't even think about that, even though he mentions "Piccolo Daimao" right before then. Thanks guys.

[dan2026]

大魔王 = Daimao = Great Demon King

Hah, beat be too it.
I could have sworn Kuririn says the whole thing though.
'Piccolo Daimao', not just 'maou' though.

Edit: Just checked the corresponding episode of Kai, he does say 'Maou'.
My bad.

[Herms]

魔王/maou means "demon king". Piccolo's title back during his days as a demon was 大魔王/dai-maou, "great demon king". Both terms pop up quite a bit in manga, anime, and video games.

I'd blame this confusion for the strange fan tendency of always referring to the character as "Piccolo Daimao," like it's one untranslatable word. There's really no reason for any translation to not refer to him as "Piccolo, the Great Demon King" or "Demon King Piccolo."

Well, both of those are quite longer to write out than "Piccolo Daimao". And there's a strong tradition of leaving titles untranslated. In English, you hear people talk about shahs rather than simply "kings", maharajas rather than "great kings", daimyou rather than "big names", etc.

I could have sworn Kuririn says the whole thing though.
'Piccolo Daimao', not just 'maou' though.

Edit: Just checked the corresponding episode of Kai, he does say 'Maou'.
My bad.

He says maou in the manga too, for the record.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I think Kuririn just referred to Piccolo as "Mao" in that instance for more impact. Like, "If God and the Demon King join bodies", it links back to the past, when such a thing as the two polar opposites (they were enemies) fusing together would be crazy to think of.