ドラゴンボールSD (Dragon Ball SD) · Volume 4 Discussion 🐉

[Micki]

These panels are from the translation of the original Dragon Ball. I found them helpful in the understanding of page 11. They also show that the penultimate panel on page 11 has been added by Ooishi for the SD version (I though this was a really funny panel!)

Summary

The first panel is: 俺たちが次の天下一武道会で優勝しようと思ったらわずかばかり修業では歯がたちませんね.

Thanks to whoever put in the spreadsheet that 歯が立ちません (not in Jisho) is the same as 歯がたたない (in Jisho!). I thought this was a useful definition for 歯がたたない - “The opponent is so far beyond my skill level that I can’t tackle him”.

I struggled with わずかばかり but it kind of made sense in context and looking at the translation.

---

I had read 占いババ as “fortune-telling Baba”. But I noticed in the translation they call her - “the all-seeing crone”. “Crone” means an “old woman considered to be ugly; a hag”. This ババ is 婆 - which Jisho lists as “old woman” or “hag”.

[Phryne]

I just realised I got the page numbers wrong, because the chapters start one page before what looks like the title page

Also, why are Puar and Upa seemingly disqualified from fighting any more warriors, when they didn’t actually lose their fight? Another continuity issue due to cutting out bits of the original?

Page 27

What usage of こと do you reckon this is?

Page 30

I couldn’t find anything for つきおった. Any ideas?

Page 35

Is this just weird baba accent, or am I missing some grammar?

[Micki]

You always ask good questions! My thoughts - as always may be wildly off the mark!

@Phryne

why are Puar and Upa seemingly disqualified from fighting

In the original they weren’t going to fight at all but were brought in part way through the battle as they’d come up with a strategy to use them. They skipped that part in this story and imply they were always going to fight, but they use the same panel as the original on page 30 to take them out of the battle and pass the baton to Yamcha.

Yamcha says - thanks for your good work. That’s enough from you, I’ll go on now.

They reply - はい！たすかります！Yes, thanks.

This form of thank you is used to express that someone was helped by someone else and saved from an undesirable condition. So I think the panel implies that Yamcha is offering to take over (because they are weak and not really cut out for fighting) and their response indicates they are glad to accept and to be saved from having to face another opponent.

"I appreciate that!" in Japanese: 助かります (Tasukarimasu)!

@Phryne

What usage of こと do you reckon this is?

Perhaps just a straightforward “thing” - their blood looks like a tasty thing?

@Phryne

I couldn’t find anything for つきおった. Any ideas?

I can’t find a word which is つきおう, つきおる, or るきおつ so this must be a compound of two words. Jisho says おる can be used as follows:

• to (have the audacity to) do​ - after -masu base of verb; indicates contempt or disdain for another’s actions

So perhaps it is 付く (to be connected with) followed by おる in past plain form? “You (brazenly) connected well with his weak points”

The translation of the original went for “you grasped his weak points ingeniously”

@Phryne

Is this just weird baba accent, or am I missing some grammar?

I read this as 始めます with a prolonged めー sound and the ます cut off.

[Phryne]

I guess it makes sense that Puar and Upa opted out. I was surprised to see them fight in the first place! I should go back to reading the original alongside the SD volumes. And thanks for pointing out the subtext of 助かります, I think that confirms your interpretation of the events.

@Micki

Perhaps just a straightforward “thing” - their blood looks like a tasty thing?

I dug around a bit and found this reference:

That might fit with the context? It says it’s a feminine expression though… but I do sometimes wonder how rigid those classifications of ‘male/female speech’ actually are

Your mention of つきおった being a compound verb made me wonder if 弱点をつく is a fixed expression, and that seems to be the case! Different kanji though:

https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/弱点を突く

[Micki]

@Phryne

It says it’s a feminine expression though

Yes, this one makes perfect sense. I thought Dracula man was quite an effeminate character anyway!

@Phryne

弱点をつく

Bingo! I love it when the solution springs from the discussion. So we can say this phrase means “to exploit your opponents weaknesses”.

[Phryne]

Week 3

Start date: 3 July
Pages: 40-58

How is the reading going?

• I am reading along
• I am catching up
• I am dropping this book 🙅🏼

[Micki]

Chapter 31

After a little google search, the person in the background on page 48 is:

Summary

Ackman (アックマン Akkuman ) a 200-year-old demon kid and the main protagonist in Akira Toriyama’s Go! Go! Ackman manga.

The bat with him on page 58 is his companion Goldon.

Ackman | Dragon Ball Wiki | Fandom

On page 47, the final fighter is masked, but I love the little clues we get to their identity. The wrinkles on the side of the face, the bald head, the white moustache, the halo above the head…

Page 50
どんなによいこぶったやつにもぜったいに少しは悪の心がある
Is this よいこ (good boy) followed by ぶる (to assume the air of …; to behave like …​)?

No matter how much a person appears to be a good boy, there is always a little evil in their heart.

Page 51
時代が時代ならこのアックマンさまがドラゴンボール史上最強の悪役になっていたことだろう
Is anyone familiar with that construction at the start? Deepl goes for “If the times had been different,” (…this Ackman would have been the strongest villain in Dragon Ball history.)

[Phryne]

@Micki

Page 50
どんなに よいこぶった やつにもぜったいに少しは悪の心がある
Is this よいこ (good boy) followed by ぶる (to assume the air of …; to behave like …​)?

That’s how I took it! Maybe ‘pretends to be a good boy’, even? That sounds more cynical, hehe.

@Micki

Page 51
時代が時代なら このアックマンさまがドラゴンボール史上最強の悪役になっていたことだろう
Is anyone familiar with that construction at the start? Deepl goes for “If the times had been different,” (…this Ackman would have been the strongest villain in Dragon Ball history.)

I think it’s interchangeable with this expression:

https://www.weblio.jp/content/世が世なら#:~:text=「この人が存分,文脈で使われる言い方。

Thanks for figuring out the Ackman reference! I did wonder who that kid was

[Phryne]

Week 4

Start date: 10 July
Pages: 59-76

How is the reading going?

• I am reading along
• I am catching up
• I am dropping this book 🙅🏼

[Micki]

@Phryne

I think it’s interchangeable with this expression:

https://www.weblio.jp/content/世が世なら#:~:text=「この人が存分,文脈で使われる言い方。

I see, so not so much a grammar point but a fixed expression. Thanks for this. I see that 世が世ならhas an entry in Jisho too.

[Micki]

Loved chapter 32 - if you are like me you won’t be able to wait til next week to read on to the next chapter!

[Phryne]

I peeked ahead a bit This is my first time reading this franchise so I was shook to see the surprise! Can’t wait to dive in in a few days

[Phryne]

Week 5

Start date: 17 July
Pages: 77-94

How is the reading going?

• I am reading along
• I am catching up
• I am dropping this book 🙅🏼

[Phryne]

Are these exchanges on page 83 and 91 meta jokes again?

[Micki]

Yes, both are clever references to themselves appearing in other media.

The first panel goes:
I’m a little nervous appearing for the first time in a while.
Eh? You appeared in a movie recently so the kids haven’t forgotten you.

It presumably refers to one of the Dragon Ball Z movies released in 2014/15.

The second panel I read as:
Your way of speaking has changed a bit since your most recent appearance in Dragon Ball.
You are a well informed person Roshi-sama.

The cutaway is from Dragon Ball Minus - a special released in 2014 that was published in Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. It includes the story of Gohan finding young Goku.

I was pleased that my Japanese is good enough now to see the difference in his way of speaking between the two examples!

I spotted the exact panel in Grandpa Gohan’s wiki page

[Micki]

Page 86

To get the joke you need to know that the kid in the red hat is Goku’s son Gohan as a child.

[Micki]

If you read Jaco the Galactic Patrolman in the English translation on the Shonen Jump app the Dragon Ball Minus Story is not there.

But looking at the Japanese version available on Book Walker it’s there as the last story in the table of contents:

[Phryne]

We could just add it to the pile of possible spin-off book clubs of the spin-off book club

[Phryne]

Week 6

Start date: 24 July
Pages: 95-112

How is the reading going?

• I am reading along
• I am catching up
• I am dropping this book 🙅🏼

[Micki]

Page 97
ここであったが１００年目！
Did anyone understand this sentence?

Page 112
The picture shows Pilaf’s machine in “swan mode” - with the middle pod removed (in the original the middle pod took damage so they switched to this mode).