In Viz’s English translation of the DragonBall manga, this is one of #17′s first lines after being awoken/activated by Dr. Gero:

“Good morning, Dr. Gero…“. It’s a pretty straight-forward, more-or-less accurate translation of the original dialogue. Here’s how it is written in the original Japanese version:

Like I said, it’s a pretty accurate translation. What #17 says is, “ohayo gozaimasu, dokutaa gero-sama“. There’s one little thing that’s “missing” in Viz’s “translation”, though, as accurate as it is: it’s that “-sama” suffix. It’s not really necessary to translate, but it comes into play a little more than you might think. While you can clearly imply that #17 is being overly-polite (to the point of it being a ruse), it’s really driven home by the fact that he actually uses the “-sama” suffix… which he would never otherwise use for this jerk-face of a doctor that forced him back asleep. It’s that one specific formality that leads Dr. Gero to initially trust him (and also #18).

In the end, it’s not a huge lost-in-translation issue, but it’s certainly an interesting one, none-the-less.

Like this kind of stuff? Hell, you’re probably already checking out our weekly podcast about that there Japanese cartoon from the 80s/90s about monkey aliens hitting each other after staring at each other for an episode. At least it’s good fun, huh?