Soul Punisher vs Stardust Breaker

[Travis Touchdown]

What's the official name of Gogeta's glittery attack?

The Budokai & Shin Budokais call it Soul Punisher while the Tenkaichi and I think Raging Blasts call it Stardust Breaker. Which is it officially? Or has it never officially been named?

[DarkPrince_92]

Soul Punisher definitely sounds better. Don't know what it's actually called tho.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I don't think it's been named anywhere other than the games, like you mentioned, so those ARE the official ones. Though personally, I like coining it the Reiki Dama...

[Piccolo Daimao]

I don't think it's been named anywhere other than the games, like you mentioned, so those ARE the official ones. Though personally, I like coining it the Reiki Dama...

What does "reiki" mean? For that matter, what does "dama" mean too? I keep on forgetting; can it be "ball" and "bomb"?

[VegettoEX]

"Dama" is generally just "ball" near as I can tell. "Reiki" is another type of spiritual energy, popularized lately by snake oil salesmen.

Don't have the games in front of me, but Japanese Wikipedia lists the special move as being named both ソウルパニッシャー (Soul Punisher) and スターダストブレイカー (Stardust Breaker) in the same games you're mentioning, so they're at least translated correctly in the North American releases.

Didn't see anything in the Daizenshuu at a quick glance naming the technique, but I could be overlooking something.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Rei/霊 means "soul; spirit; departed soul; ghost", so the Reiki Dama (霊気玉) would gather the reiki energy of the dead instead of genki from the living.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Right, I like that too. "Soul Punisher" would basically be a loose translation of that, in effect.

[InfernalVegito]

I don't know but I prefer Stardust Breaker. Sounds cooler.

[Herms]

Didn't see anything in the Daizenshuu at a quick glance naming the technique, but I could be overlooking something.

I'm pretty sure the daizenshuu don't name the attack.

Rei/霊 means "soul; spirit; departed soul; ghost", so the Reiki Dama (霊気玉) would gather the reiki energy of the dead instead of genki from the living.

"Reiki" is just another term for mystical animism/New Age-type energy; it doesn't have anything to do with dead people. In Yu Yu Hakusho for instance, it's used in essentially the same way "ki" on it's own is in DB. And as Mike noted, real-life charletons claim to be able to harness their own reiki to heal people.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

"Reiki" is just another term for mystical animism/New Age-type energy; it doesn't have anything to do with dead people. In Yu Yu Hakusho for instance, it's used in essentially the same way "ki" on it's own is in DB. And as Mike noted, real-life charletons claim to be able to harness their own reiki to heal people.

Yeah I know "reiki" doesn't actually have anything to do with dead people for its standard definition. But we all know this wouldn't be the first time a term isn't used properly or has had it's definition stretched cover something beyond the norm in Dragon Ball. Since the individual kanji can still carry my intended meaning, I stick by the term.

[Monkey D Goku]

I prefer Soul Punisher simply because the technique does what the name implies lol

[CaptainKatsura]

And I go with Stardust Breaker because it is called such way in Tenkaichi Budokai 3. Just a matter of preference, I don't think there is one canon technique name for this one.