Did Android 18 become a human because of an invention from Bulma? - DB Mistranslations

As Dragon Ball was localized in western countries in the early 2000s, apart from anime and manga also other merchandise came along with it. At these times details were often invented rather than keeping the translation close to the original. One thing that came out of it was that Android 18 did become a human again - thanks to Bulma.

First off, I remembered this topic as Geekdom101 recently did a video about the fact that Shenlong couldn't fulfill the wish Krillin had after the Cell Games and that Android 18 is rather a cyborg, so a modified human, who still kept the reproductive organs which explains why she could have a daughter with Krillin.

However, in addition to that, there was a mistranslation which apparently only spread additional false information around Europe.

Information from a Panini sticker album...

It was in 2001/2002 during the first run of the DBZ TV anime in Germany when Panini released a DBZ sticker album covering the characters and events of DBZ and its movies. In the first album, you find the following quote:

German Quote: C-18 verliebt sich in Krilin, dank einer Erfindung Bulmas kann sie wieder in eine echte Frau verwandelt werden.

English translation:
Android 18 fell in love with Krillin and thanks to an invention from Bulma she could turn into a real woman again.

Means, Bulma could achieve where Shenlong failed? Anyway, what could be the origin here? The company Panini is from Italy, so it's likely that the this album was also released there and possible also in countries like France or Spain.

Therefore it's possibly not a mistranslation into German, maybe even before? But generally it seems like more made up by the creators of the album, anyway, I'm curious about the exact origin.

Another hint in the German dub

Interestingly, one line in the German dub suspiciously connects to the statement from the sticker album. In DBZ Episode 227 after losing against Mr. Satan in the 25. Tenkaichi Budokai Bulma questions why Android 18 purposely lost the final fight.

18 doesn't react to Bulma and ignorantly walks away with Marron. Following that Bulma said the following line:

German Dub:
"Eingebildete Ziege... Als ob sie sich was abbrechen würde ... Was ich für sie getan habe, hat sie also schon vergessen."

English translation:
"Cocky goat... As if it would be too much to ask for... So she already forgot what I did for her."

In this context, what could Bulma have done for her? Making her a human? To be fair, the German dialogues are often not following the original and are in some way improvised and exaggerated. Just one line before Bulma said "I cannot understand why Krillin married you" even though that was never mentioned in Japanese.

But back to the quote from above: In the Japanese the line rather seems about general worrying about the situation on why 18 lost on purpose.

Japanese Original:
な...なあに? あの態度。人がせっかく心配してあげてるっていうのに。

English translation:
W-What's with that attitude? People were worrying too much about it.

So as expected the Japanese mentions nothing about it. Anyway, the German line only makes sentence in connection with the quote from the sticker album. I thought it back then and still think the same.

On another note: The German anime adaptation was based on the French version, so possibly some dialogue changes even came from there.

Update from research via Twitter

After posting this article and asking about it on Twitter, I got some answers which will bring us closer to where it might happened. First a translation from that very anime dialogue by an Italian fan (@Kai_Loop):

ITA: Oh, non capisco. Io le ho fatto solamente una domanda. Pensavo che non si fosse sentita bene.

ENG: Oh, I don't understand. I only asked her one question. I thought she wasn't feeling well.

So that's not it, still fine I'd say. But thanks to @tomatotti86 I also got a translation of that line for French:

FR: Mais quel culot ! Elle pourrait me parler après tout ce que j’ai fait pour elle dans le passé. Elle pourrait quand même être aimable.

ENG: What nerve! She could talk to me after everything I've done for her in the past. She could still be kind.

So there we have it in the the French anime as well. As the German dub was based on the French one, it was therefore taken from there. So let's get back to the Panini sticker album, first the Italian version:

EN Translation (by @Kai_Loop): C-18 falls in love with Crili (Crilin) who decides to marry her. She will become a woman again thanks to his help.

So seemingly that was the 2002 version of the Italian sticker album was fine, but I heard something about a French version from 1994 where that error seemingly originates from.

Anyway, we got closer, but any further information is of course appreciated! Any French, Italian or Spanish speakers here? Can you check how this dialogue was translated in your language and if you have the Panini album somewhere, can you take a look if it's similar? Thanks in advance!