# Dragonball Z villians giving heros the finger and calling them bastards
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 17, 2002, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144 "2002-11-17T07:15:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2002, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/1 "2002-11-17T07:15:35Z")
The foreign language text dubs I come across have some pretty explicit langage for a cartoon. Are Japanese parents OK with cartoons with curse words and obscene gestures in them?
When I saw Majin Buu give Goku the finger and cuss him out I was pretty surprised. :eek:
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### Author:  [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2002, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/2 "2002-11-17T07:27:32Z")
I would say that DragonBallZ and DragonBall aren’t really children’s cartoons at all. They’ve just been cleaned up for kids in America. I mean, I have no idea what passes for children’s television in Japan, but there are worse things going on in the origional versions than obsene gestures and curse words.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/3 "2002-11-17T19:05:21Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl \*
> [B I mean, I have no idea what passes for children’s television in Japan, but there are worse things going on in the origional versions than obsene gestures and curse words. \*\*
Umm… like what?
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/4 "2002-11-17T19:25:30Z")
Those old texts are often spiced up by the “translators” with a lot worse language than is called for by the Japanese.
It’s one of those irritating things in anime fandom. Someone sees a fansub, then when seeing the official translated version complains that the text isn’t precisely what it was before (not that you’re making that complaint astro; I’m not familiar with Dragon Ball Z enough to know the scene and “bastard” might have been appropriate at that point. It’s just that most of the DBZ fansubs I have seen used unnecessarily and impropperly colorful language and that could be something you’ve encountered). To those people it doesn’t matter that the professional translator actually conveyed the intent and meaning of the Japanese better than what they had before, whatever they saw first is the only way it should be.
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/5 "2002-11-17T23:49:30Z")
Well I’d say Dragonball Z was aimed at an audience of older children. The pre-teens and young teens. Specifically the boy. If it was aimed at all, I’m sure the guy, Toriyama, was drawing what it wanted because he wanted it. And he liked to make poor Bulma get stripped or accidentally flashed Master Roshi several times. In his earlier strips (remember the cameo from ) he had them carry around sticks with poop on the end. In the recent Dragonball episode Krillan (or however you want to spell his name) was going to pull down Bulma’s top causing Roshi blood to boil over and come shooting out his nose. Instead he told Goku to go get Roshi and a can of tomato sauce. How that will work I’m waiting to see. Also you see a lot of panty flashing. Bulma falls down there they are. Typical kinda stuff aimed at those 10-15 year old boys.
I know a lot of anime/manga aimed at this age flip the bird too. Like Ryoko in the Tenchi series and Ayesha in Outlaw Star. I assume it’s simply not as vile there as it is here. Rather just a mean way to express comtempt.
Now shows aimed at younger kids don’t do that. Like Hamtaro and … Well I don’t know anymore but you see.
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### Author:  [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/6 "2002-11-18T02:44:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Just Some Guy \*
> \*\* To those people it doesn’t matter that the professional translator actually conveyed the intent and meaning of the Japanese better than what they had before, whatever they saw first is the only way it should be. \*\*
Actually, with DBZ, though they seem to have gotten over it by now, early on the translations were SEVERELY distorted as a way to make the cartoon less violent.
They’d destroy clearly populated cities and call them “abandoned buildings”. They’d destroy manned news helicoptors and call them “robot planes”. People who died were “sent to the next dimension”, where instead of going to “HELL”, they went to “HFIL”, which stood for something really stupid.
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### Author:  [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/7 "2002-11-18T03:02:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> * * *
>
> ## Originally posted by pepperlandgirl [B I mean, I have no idea what passes for children’s television in Japan, but there are worse things going on in the origional versions than obsene gestures and curse words. \*\*
>
> Umm… like what?
Sexual situations that I wouldn’t be comfortable letting kids see. Extreme gore and violence, mass murders, etc.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/8 "2002-11-18T03:10:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Daniel \*
> \*\*People who died were “sent to the next dimension”, where instead of going to “HELL”, they went to “HFIL”, which stood for something really stupid. \*\*
“Home For Infinite Losers.”
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/9 "2002-11-18T03:12:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Actually, with DBZ, though they seem to have gotten over it by now, early on the translations were SEVERELY distorted as a way to make the cartoon less violent.
Actually that’s something else entirely. 🙂 We could get into the difference in the way a show is handled between something intended for anime fans and something intended for a mass kiddie audience but that’s getting way off topic. I still see that complaint come up even regarding the current uncut versions (not the one on Cartoon Network) which is what the Buu stuff would be. That dub (the kind of thing that dwells in anime fan’s nightmares forever; one of my favorite shows Slayers narrowly dodged the bullet on that kind of thing) only ran up to about the middle of Namek.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/10 "2002-11-18T13:09:55Z")
I admit, though I LIKED HFIL!
That’s sooooo much mroe fun 🙂
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonball-z-villians-giving-heros-the-finger-and-calling-them-bastards/137144/11 "2002-11-18T20:39:12Z")
Early translations were done by a different company, and are being redubbed.
I’ve seen some really bad fan dubs. My understanding is that there is little swearing (dependent on how you define swear). Some fans are a bit…overentusiastic. I don’t recall seeing anyone getting flipped off, but doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Cartoon Network got rid of Mr. Satan and HELL; they became Hercules (with a long U) and HFIL respectively. Makes sense given the time slot and audience. They also got rid of Master Roshi’s scenes where he pinches and fondles women. All these items are preserved on the DVDs, and fully dubbed.