How do they call...?

Iīd like to know if, in English or Japanese (with legends) did you ever see Gohan saying "Krillin-san" or "Mr. Krillin" (or Kuririn-san, etc). I know he says Piccolo-san both in canon and fanfiction, but I canīt remember of him doing the same treatment to Krillin in your language, although he does that both at Brazilian dub and the translated manga. Other funny thing is that he never seems to call Bulma Bulma-san, neither in fandom or canon, though Iīve seen Krillin treating her like that sometimes. (I suspect that Bulma insisted for Gohan not calling her "san")


Other thing: in almost every fanfiction I read, BV or not, I always see Yamcha calling Bulma "babe". Is that a fandom thing or does he do that in canon, too?

I do know that the "babe" thing most likely originated from the Funi dub; but the situation I recall most clearly with it is when Goku and Gohan arrive at Kame House after being in the Room of Spirit and Time; at some point in the scene, Goku calls Chi-Chi "babe", which seemed really OOC to me, so I guess that's why it stuck out in my mind so much.


I'm pretty sure I've heard Gohan use "Kuririn-san" somewhere in Kai.

In the original run of DBZ Japanese style, which I'm currently actually re-watching, Gohan refers to Krillin as "Krillin-san". Right now I'm in the Frieza Saga (Piccolo has just been wished back to life and onto Namic); at this point, Gohan is still pretty formal with just about everyone older than him (naturally not the villains), so he also refers to Bulma as "Bulma-san" as well.

Thanks. Yeah, I remember that in the beginning of the manga Goku said that Chichi was very demanding about Gohanīs manners. Funny, in my translated manga he called Bulma by her name, though, thatīs why I thought she didnīt want to be called "san".

I also noticed that, after Namek saga when Vegeta started living on Capsule Corp, Gohan started calling him "san", too, probably becaus he had practically become one of them.

I would have to vehemently disagree that Vegita "becoming one of them" was what had Goku using "-san".

In my view, this is where the two really start the unique friendship they have with each other. After all the stuff that happened on Namick, and what Goku found out about Vegita - what was strengthen post their first battle, He has a certain respect for Vegita, among other things, which would go into why he'd start using honorifics with Vegita.

I'm pretty sure none of the Z gang has ever referred to a Villain or someone they were fighting against/opposed to with "-san" or anything else.

They wouldn't refer to an enemy - especially one who's antagonistic and doing things out of line with their moral viewpoint - with an honorific, unless they're being rigidly formal or sarcastic (Vegeta did not and never did like Freeza, but he used "Freeza-sama" when Freeza was present in most cases.)

Honorifics are used to establish social hierarchy among individuals. Enemies are outside your social hierarchy, and thus don't warrant an honorific - usually the surname suffices (or just name without honorifics if they only have one name).

Within your social hierarchy, it's a matter of added layers of respect. To Gohan, almost everyone else is "-san," especially when he's a child, because they're higher on the food chain than he is, but they're not rulers over their peers (as Kami-sama, Karin-sama, Kaio-sama, etc are.) Even Piccolo, who trained Gohan from a young age, gets "Piccolo-san" rather than "Piccolo-sensei" because he's not a formally and socially recognized teacher. Gohan uses "-sensei" when appropriate (for legally recognized teachers) in high school.

Gohan actually remains very well-mannered through the entire series. Some of his relationships to the others change, and with them the honorifics, but he's still carefully minding those relationships as the story progresses.

We have issues with respect and social hierarchies as Westerners, and particularly as Americans, which is why we can't even give historically-due titles (President, Professor, Dr., Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc.) proper merit anymore.

I meant Gohan, not Goku. The only persons I remember to see Goku giving honorifcs are Kaioh, Dr. Briefs and the old Kaioshin.