Sarte

Sarte
サーテ (Sāte)
English Name(s)	Sarte
Name Pun	Satay
Anime Debut	Dragon Ball Z Episode 196
Personal Data
Notable Skills	Martial artist

Sarte is a minor fictional character in the Dragon Ball universe, introduced as one of the many fighters present at the Afterlife Tournament that Son Goku encounters or observes in Age 767. Goku first meets him ahead of the Afterlife Tournament, which takes place some time after his death in the battle against Perfect Cell. Sarte was a fighter from a planet in the North Galaxy; he defended his planet from a collision with a meteor approximately 3,500 years before the events of the series.

Sarte first appears in episode 196 of the Dragon Ball Z television series, as scripted by Aya Matsui, which debuted 11 August 1993 on Fuji TV.

Biography

Sarte was born and lived his life on a planet in the North Galaxy approximately 3,500 years before the events of the series. At that time, he defended his planet from a collision with a meteor; it is not known or specified if he died at that time or later. He was also a powerful enough martial artist that he was granted his body in the Afterlife. He may have trained with North Kaiō and by Age 767 was training on Dai Kaiō's planet in the hopes of receiving lessons from the master himself. Sarte was subsequently a spectator in the Age 767 Afterlife Tournament.

Name

Characters introduced in the Afterlife Tournament largely appear to have names based on some sort of east/southeast Asian food dish, or have a name that is an on-the-nose play on their overall appearance. Sarte's name is likely the former, being derived from Satay, an Indonesian meat skewer dish that is eaten in many parts of southeast Asia. This food is called サテ (sate) in Japanese, which is taken for the character's name and altered with an elongated vowel.

Despite Sarte's connection with the afterlife, the apparent similarity to Jean-Paul Sartre is coincidental. Sartre is perhaps best known for his play No Exit, an exploration of the afterlife and where we get the English expression, "Hell is other people."

Production

Due to the production schedule inherent in producing a weekly anime series based on a weekly comic, the writers of Dragon Ball Z interjected anime-only material both as a means of extending the runtime and to flesh out the Dragon Ball universe. Sarte and the entire Afterlife Tournament arc was written to depict Son Goku's experience in the afterlife prior to the time-skip and the arrival of Boo.

Notable Skills

Sarte is a formidable martial artist, powerful and just enough that he was permitted to keep his body after death. He has continued to train and improve himself on Dai Kaiō's planet for hundreds of years.

Performance

Sarte is unvoiced in his appearances to date.

Notable Appearances

• Dragon Ball Z Episode 196 - Sarte's introduction