Dragon Ball is one of the most popular anime in the world.
Since its manga debut in 1984 the series has been a mainstay in Japan and across the globe.
Over 30 years later the series remains at the top of the anime world.
A new anime, Dragon Ball Super began in 2015 and there are still new video games released
every year.
However along with that success, Dragon Ball has a long history of censorship and localization
issues.
Today we’ll be taking a look at one of the most notorious and long standing localization
issues of the franchise: how the martial arts champion of the world, Mr. Satan, came to
be known as “Hercule” Mr. Satan first appeared in Chapter 393 of
the original Dragon Ball manga.
As long time fans know, Mr. Satan is a martial arts champion who denounces the Ki attacks
used by both the heroes and villains alike.
He promises to destroy Cell, a genetically engineered monster threatening to destroy
Earth.
He was used as a gag character throughout the Cell arc, and eventually steals credit
from Gohan for defeating Cell.
Over time Mr. Satan became a semi regular member of the cast after his daughter Videl
got into a relationship with Son Gohan.
Since then he’s shown a compassionate side, buying the young couple a house, giving Goku
money and aiding the main cast in whatever way he can.
The name “Satan” is of course taken from the demon of the same name.
In Christian theology Satan is a fallen angel who rebelled against God and tempts humans
into sinning Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball’s creator, revealed
in a 2014 interview that Mr.Satan adopted the name after becoming the top fighter at
the “Satan Castle” dojo.
The facts surrounding his name notwithstanding, English localizers faced a problem with bringing
Mr. Satan to an English speaking audience.
Unlike in Japan, Christianity is a popular religion in the English speaking world, and
belief in the devil is wide spread.
There have also been several instances of suspected satanic imagery causing controversy.
Localizers most likely sought to avoid such a scandal and attempted to change Mr. Satan’s
name.
Before his appearance in the American Dragon Ball Z dub or manga translation, a toy line
referred to him as Mr. Savage.
However the name that stuck did not come from American localizers Viz or Funimation, but
from the AB Groupe’s French dub.
The French dub had already localized Piccolo as “Satan Petit Cœur” or “Satan’s
little heart”, most likely as a reference to his father, demon king Piccolo.
To avoid confusion they gave Mr. Satan the localized name of Hercule, based off the Roman
hero and god of strength: Hercules.
The name Hercule was adapted both by the Funimation dub on Cartoon network’s legendary Toonami
block and the Viz manga translation.
Changes were also made to things associated with Mr. Satan.
Satan City, were Gohan attends High school was changed to “Orange Star City”.
They also removed appearances of his name on things like clothing.
However his daughter Videl, whose name is an anagram of “Devil”, was left unchanged,
most likely because it is not immediately recognizable as a satanic reference.
Very soon after “Hercule” made his appearance, uncut versions began appearing using the name
“Mr. Satan”.
In a bizarre effort to explain this discrepancy, the English addition of Shounen Jump published
by Viz explained the Hercule was his real name and that Mr. Satan was a stage name.
But this explanation seems to have no connection to series cannon or the author of the manga:
Akira Toriyama.
In a 2009 interview Toriyama revealed that Mr. Satan’s real name is Mark, or “Maaku”
in Japanese.
This is also an anagram of “akuma” the Japanese word for “devil”.
Never the less, the concept persisted.
The 2003 release of the video game Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 explained that
his full name was Hercule Satan.
Video games also continued to identify the character as Hercule.
The name even stuck in the fan community with many fans and fan works continuing to refer
to him has Hercule or Hercule Satan.
The use of the Hercule name continued into Dragon Ball Kai: the shorter, more manga accurate
adaption of Dragon Ball Z released for Dragon Ball’s 20thanniversary.
While unedited cuts of the show used the Mr. Satan name, an edited version licensed by
the notorious 4kids entertainment continued to use the name Hercule.
Even as late as 2016 the name was in use.
Video games Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball Fusions continued to use the censored name of Hercule.
This is possibly because the Hercule name is more recognizable to English speaking audiences,
but it could also be due to religious concerns.
This is in contrast the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Super, which airs on Cartoon Network’s
Adult Swim uncensored and keeps the name Mr. Satan.
Interestingly, the Bang Zoom dub used for Toonami Asia, continues to use the name Hercule.
Due to the franchise's long continued use of the Hercule name, as well as the possible
religious concerns, it seems that the name Hercule will continue to pop up in Western
Dragon Ball media.
Let us know what you think about Mr. Satan’s name change in the comments below and make
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And, until next time, thank you for watching.