Pronouns

This page details the various Japanese personal pronouns (人代名詞) used throughout Dragon Ball. These pronouns cannot be strictly translated due to the limitations of the English language, but Japanese speakers have a range of pronouns to choose from with different shades of formality, humility, and gender color that can vary by region and evolve over time.

First-person pronouns

First-person pronouns (一人称 ichininshō) are the pronouns that characters use to refer to themselves. English first-person pronouns vary only by grammatical case: nominative "I" and accusative "me". Japanese pronouns do not vary by grammar at all. Some Dragon Ball characters only ever use one first-person pronoun, while others will change pronouns depending on age, situation, and personal preference. Examples are given here, but each character's first-person pronouns are included in the character page infobox when they are known.

Watashi

Watashi (私 or わたし) is polite and gender-neutral.

わたしの名は”セル”人造人間だ
Watashi no na wa Seru. Jinzōningen da.

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My name is Cell. I'm an artificial human.
— Cell, Dragon Ball Chapter 363