Dragon Ball Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Articles on
Mr. Satan
IntroductionBiographyPower and AbilitiesMiscGallery


Directory: CharactersEarthlingsDragon Team Support

"Don't you worry about me! I'm a master of martial arts and I'm also packin' some serious heat! And as soon as Majin Buu pops his head outta that hole, he'll be eatin' a lead salad!"
— "The Old Kai's Weapon"


Mr. Satan (ミスター・サタン Misutā Satan), also known as Hercule Satan in the Funimation dub, is the World Martial Arts Champion and the Earth's protector. His real name is Mark (マーク Māku).[2][5]

Appearance

SatanKanzenban

Art of Mr. Satan by Akira Toriyama

Mr. Satan is a tall man of a rather muscular and hairy physique and tends to adopt an imposing appearance when seen in public. His black curly Afro, mustache, and well-trimmed sideburns are among his most recognizable traits, as well as his cleft chin. Mr. Satan typically is seen in his martial arts uniform or in fitted suits but has been known to wear more luxurious clothing when resting or making public appearances. His gi is often accented with either a red or white cape depending on which gi he dons, and his notably hairy chest and arms are usually displayed openly.

In the end of Dragon Ball Z and throughout Dragon Ball GT, his black curly afro is now in half as the center of his head is naturally bald and a few wrinkles due to his age. In his later years, his mustache now connects to his sideburns.

In Dragon Ball Super, Mr. Satan's muscular physique has visibly weakened as a result of indulging in his fame over keeping up with his training, though he otherwise remains the same as his appearance in Dragon Ball Z.

Personality

During the Dragon Ball Z time period, Mr. Satan is the reigning World Martial Arts Champion, a title won fairly by beating other normal earthlings in a time when Goku and other powerful fighters were battling on Namek and later against the Androids.[6] During the time of the Cell Games, Mr. Satan was already rich and famous, but also an egomaniac. He boasted endlessly on television about his strength, and that he was the "best fighter in the world." In the eyes of characters who know otherwise, he is considered to be a showboating blowhard.

Mr. Satan also has a tendency to believe his own hype, such as referring to the Z Fighters as "Those guys that were there when I beat Cell," even though he was talking to himself, and no one was nearby for him to maintain the charade with. He's been known to become cocky about facing the likes of Cell and Majin Buu before remembering that he can't actually beat them.

When the Dragon Team arrives on the scene starting with the Cell Games, he starts a pattern of claiming them to be his disciples, which, while preserving his status and self-serving ego, has produced good results in the past. Mr. Satan is introduced as quite an unrepentant lech whose head is easily turned by a pretty face (not unlike Master Roshi and Elder Kai), and he selfishly uses his fame as "the Hero who defeated Cell" to seduce and sleep with multiple women after his wife Miguel passed away, causing a rift between him and his daughter Videl (though as Videl implied, some of them may have initiated the seduction). His manager, Miss Piiza, is implied to be one of these women at some point based on some of her comments. These lecherous tendencies are further exemplified by Mr. Satan's copy of Bob & Margaret, a controversial adult book (a copy of which was also owned by Master Roshi) which Majin Buu later found and read inspiring Majin Buu's fission that lead to the creation of Miss Buu and eventually gave rise to the Majin race after Majin Buu and Miss Buu used the book to develop the Love-Love Beam technique.

In some ways this makes his personality similar to Master Roshi's as both are lecherous yet heroic martial artists, the only difference is that Mr. Satan is apparently far more successful with women than Roshi due to his fame and wealth. Despite his lecherous tendencies, he apparently does not encourage said behavior in others as he is shown trying to convince Majin Buu to return the book in Xenoverse 2 after he discovered his friend had found it in the Majin Buu's time rift anomaly, stating that it wasn't the type of book someone like the pure hearted Buu should be reading indicating that he was trying to preserve his friend's innocence, though eventually gave up when Majin Buu stubbornly refused (ironically despite this Majin Buu never creates Miss Buu in the anomaly's timeline as Buu was inspired by Mr. Satan's relationship with Videl to create his children via fission instead). This also shows he at least recognizes that it is bad to encourage lecherous behavior as he doesn't encourage Buu's reading a book like Bob & Margaret which is in sharp contrast to Master Roshi who encourages such behavior in his students (willing to accept dirty magazines from Krillin as a bribe) and even used Bob & Margret to teach Goku how to read showing he had no problem exposing an innocent like Goku to such adult content (fortunately Goku was too oblivious to understand until he was much older though his familiarity with Roshi made him willing to bribe Elder Kai so he would train Gohan even suggesting Videl and later Bulma after Gohan angrily objected due to his feelings for her when he refused to accept magazines).

Mr

Mr. Satan thinking how to defeat Mighty Mask and Android 18

Despite this, he is still very protective of his daughter Videl, and would not allow her to hang out at any boy's house unless they are tougher than him (which he might consider). After the Majin Buu conflict he accepted Gohan's relationship with Videl, presumably due to Gohan's power and likely due to Mr. Satan accepting him as being worthy of his daughter, due to Gohan being the true winner of the Cell Games, which Mr. Satan had taken credit for (as well as being aware of Gohan's good nature). Similarly, he also was very protective of his granddaughter, Pan, as evidenced by the 28th World Tournament: When Pan managed to beat Wild Tiger, his very first action upon her winning was to scramble onto the ring towards the locker rooms in a panic and ask if she was alright, and also was constantly worried about her during the match.

In spite of showing many signs of greed and cowardice, Mr. Satan is still a fundamentally honorable, decent, sensitive and kind-hearted man. He genuinely cares about protecting the innocent and fighting for justice to the best of his abilities and is prone to violent and righteous anger when faced with the abuse of helpless innocents by villains. He shows moments of great courage when his family and friends are threatened by evil. Also, as Mr. Satan listened the Earthlings refuse to assist Goku with the Super Spirit Bomb, he became increasingly disgusted and angered with the Earthlings's selfish and ignorant comments, and lashed out at them, and while lying by saying he was the one fighting Buu, Mr. Satan's motives were purely genuine and heroic. While he did initially take advantage of Innocent Buu's gullibility so he could covertly attempt to kill him using everything from poisoned chocolates to a handheld video game rigged with explosives, it was mainly out of fear of Buu and a legitimate desire to live up to the people of Earth's expectations, even if it meant resorting to such underhanded and cowardly methods (making him similar to Yajirobe who is also known to resort to potentially dishonorable tactics such as attacking his opponent from behind). When Innocent Buu offers him some human candies, he pretends to eat them but spits them out in disgust as soon as Buu took his eyes off him. This shows that Mr. Satan finds the idea of eating the candies morally reprehensible and fits in with his later convincing Buu that what he was doing was wrong upon realizing how Buu was innocent and didn't understand what he was doing was wrong due to the bad influence of Bibidi and Babidi.

Mr. Satan's true colors are foreshadowed when he risks his life to get Android 16's head near Gohan, which leads to Gohan's transformation to Super Saiyan 2. In the Majin Buu Saga, Mr. Satan is revealed to be a fundamentally good man as opposed to the arrogant showboat persona he exhibits, and his bravery and kindness towards the good Majin Buu play a major role in Kid Buu's defeat at the end of the Kid Buu Saga. Prominently, he has saved the lives of Bee, Vegeta, and even Majin Buu (recognizing that Majin Buu was used in his innocence by Babidi, he tearfully begged Vegeta to spare his life as he laid helpless after being beaten by Kid Buu, and was ready to risk death to protect him; Mr. Satan's love for his friend moved Goku enough to join in his defense, allowing the formerly evil monster to start a new life as a hero and benefactor to society).

Mr. Satan's skill as an orator came into good use by the series' end. Without the adoration and support of his legions of followers, the Z Fighters would never have been able to raise the Super Spirit Bomb and defeat Kid Buu. On that note, when he overheard the various people of Earth rudely rejecting Goku and Vegeta's attempt at building the Super Spirit Bomb, he was shown to be genuinely angry that the people of Earth were wasting their one chance at defeating Kid Buu and blurted this out. By the end of Dragon Ball Z, Goku and his friends come to see the good in Mr. Satan and decide that he is a noble hero.

Additionally due to Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo having no desire to be publicly recognized for their heroics, Mr. Satan fulfills that role, allowing him to take credit for defeating any villain or threat the people of Earth become publicly aware of such as Cell, Bojack, and initially Majin Buu before his rampage was forgotten thanks to a wish to Shenron. Additionally, Mr. Satan can use his talent for persuasion to create cover stories to supply the media with to explain various phenomenon caused by the Dragon Team's literal Earth-shaking battles as shown during the Beerus Saga. Additionally his reputation is able to fool even aliens and the Frieza's Honor Guard in Dragon Ball Online whom they mistakenly assumed was responsible for defeating Frieza leading then to wait to invade Earth until Mr. Satan had passed away showing his reputation alone is capable of protecting the Earth from invasion (however like the Dragon Team, entities like Frieza and Cell are not intimidated due to being aware of the Dragon Team's existence).

Following his acceptance by Goku and his friends, Mr. Satan showed his graciousness through his monetary generosity, not only giving Goku enough money to pay for Goten's schooling, but also in far more dramatic expressions of his wealth and good will as well. His honorable nature made him feel obliged to give away the two hundred million zeni he had won when given an award called "The World Peace Prize" both to Goku and to Vegeta (who, as husband to one of the richest women on the planet, refused).

Despite his egotistical personality, Mr. Satan is extremely generous towards his daughter and extended family, such as building a massive mansion-style house for Videl and Gohan as they were starting out as a married couple and as parents. Mr. Satan believes that his family deserves the best and only the best, and often acts as financial benefactor for his loved ones. He is much the family man-type, and upon discovering his daughter's pregnancy he was overjoyed and proudly proclaimed that he was going to be a grandpa. He has a very close and affectionate relationship with Pan, often cuddling and hugging her whenever he gets the chance. He also is proud of her abilities, and is frequently dumbstruck by her talents, which eventually causes him to see her as his potential successor to carry on his legacy in Dragon Ball GT.

He and Goku may differ substantially, but they share a very special respect for one another: Mr. Satan admires and respects Goku's otherworldly might despite his fear of it, and Goku in turn respects Mr. Satan's humanity and kindness, which was enough to tame Majin Buu, one of the most terrifying monsters in the universe. When Mr. Satan helped accumulate the people of Earth's energy for the Super Spirit Bomb and carried Vegeta out of harm's way, the Saiyan even remarked that he "might be the savior of the world after all". In Dragon Ball GT, Goku was extremely proud of Mr. Satan for putting his life on the line to try and save Pan from Baby, calling him a true hero.

Though Mr. Satan himself is very wealthy, at Bulma's birthday he was shocked to learn the mild-mannered Dr. Brief (whom he mistook for one of the wait staff) was Bulma's father the President and founder of the Capsule Corporation the richest man in the world when it was pointed out by Chi-Chi and treated Dr. Brief very respectfully once he realized his mistake showing despite his own wealth he is respectful towards those wealthier than himself.

Mr. Satan's greatest strength might just be his extraordinary humanity and kindness. His surprisingly gentle heart is often seen in his interactions with Majin Buu, the dog Bee, and his extended family. This gentleness, however, belies his profound hatred for senseless murder and violence. This was most prominent in his clear disgust of Van Zant, who nearly killed Bee in an effort to provoke Buu. Mr. Satan's righteous fury was on full display as he dispatched the mad gunman, his hatred readily apparent.

While self-serving at times, Mr. Satan's personality truly boils down to a well-meaning goofball whose overwhelming ego has gradually receded with age and experience, showing the hero he has always wanted to be inside to the world. He believes in his friends and family and will even look past his own safety in the face of comically overwhelming odds when pushed past his limits. In many ways, he represents the best that the common human has to offer in the face of the outlandish beings of power he often is in the company of.

Name Change

Due to editing, Mr. Satan was renamed "Hercule" in the edited and dubbed American version on television and in the English-translated manga, in spite of the fact that a variety of references to hell, heaven, and the next life appear frequently in Lilian Olsen and Gerard Jones' Viz translation. He remains "Mr. Satan" in the uncut English anime on DVD, the Mexican InterTRACK dub, as well as the Funimation dubs of Dragon Ball Z Kai (except for Nicktoons and The CW) and Dragon Ball Super. The original name was considered too offensive due to its connection to the biblical Satan, a connotation that was intended but does not have the same religious significance for most in Japan. The new name originates from its use as his name in the French DBZ dub, which was based on Hercules in Greek mythology. Despite its use in the French and Portuguese (Portugal) versions, it should be noted that the changes there were not motivated by editing away offensive content, but instead to distinguish him from Piccolo, who had been renamed "Satan Petit Cœur" and "Coraçãozinho de Satan" respectively (both loosely translate to "Satan's little heart"). In the Portuguese (Brazil) version, Mr. Satan's name is kept the same as the Japanese version.

Mr. Satan was also named "Mr. Savage" on early English Dragon Ball products long before the Cell Saga was dubbed or published in English. In the Philippines, being one of the only two Christian nations in Asia, the name Mr. Satan would sound unpleasant for a cartoon character (whose Filipino translation means "Satanas" or "Demonyo"), therefore it was also dubbed to "blend" with the character. Although there are no manipulations made in the animation (such as changing the names where "Satan" are written, like in "Satan City"), instead they made use of a more slapstick moniker called "Master Pogi", which literally means "Master Handsome" (making his city "Pogi City" or "Handsome City") to match the sense of humor that he brings to the story. Eventually, Satan City was renamed Pogi City. In South Korea, the only other Christian nation in East Asia, Mr Satan's original name was kept, despite some light controversy from religious groups, since the connotation was understood by most Korean viewers.

In the U.S. edition of Shonen Jump published by VIZ Media, an explanation is given that Hercule is the "real name" of the character while Mr. Satan was the name he used as a wrestler (though he has always been a martial artist) perhaps because his design and general showboating personality is similar to a stereotypical western wrestler.

In the booklet for the American release of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22, the character's name is given as "Mr. Hercule Satan", with Hercule being his first name and Satan his last. Dragon Ball Z video games released in the English-speaking world since 2000 (including the Budokai and The Legacy of Goku series) use "Hercule" rather than "Mr. Satan," ostensibly because this is the most familiar name to English-speaking fans. For this same reason, the fusion of Hercule and Son Goku that occurs in Budokai 2 is called Gokule. In the Japanese version of this game, however, the character remains "Mr. Satan" and the fused character is called Gotan. The European version of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai had him named "Mr. Satan" but was later changed to "Hercule".

In the tradition of Dragon Ball name puns, Mr. Satan and his family are named after demons/figures from mythology and religion. His daughter's name, Videl, is an anagram of the word "devil". His granddaughter, Pan, can also be taken to mean the figure from Greek mythology (though since her father is Gohan, it could just as easily mean "bread"; given Toriyama's love of puns, it could be both). The Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume includes interviews with Toriyama, and he is asked about Mister Satan's real name in one of them. Toriyama mentions that Mister Satan is just the character's ring name reminiscent of that of a pro grappler and that his real name is Mark (マーク Māku),[2][5] which is a romanization of a rearrangement of Akuma (Japanese for devil). Since the region where Satan lives does not split up names into given names and family names, his name is simply "Mark".[5]

Interestingly in the English localization of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, Mr. Satan's name is left uncensored and his Super Attack Rolling Satan Punch is also left uncensored.

However, some modern video games will still utilize Hercule in their English localizations such as Dragon Ball Legends. This may be due to either censorship and/or due to Hercule being more recognizable to western fans.

In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot before he becomes world famous, Mr. Satan apparently used his real name Mark early in his career as several characters in Orange City (before it was renamed in his honor) mention Mark as an up-and-coming Martial Artist. This marks the first time his real name is used in the English localization of a video game. Additionally, Kakarot is one of the few games where Mr. Satan's name is not censored and changed to Hercule in the English localization as he is referred to as Mr. Satan and Orange City is later renamed Satan City.

References

  1. French version of Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 2, 1994
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide, 2009
  3. Dragon Ball Xenoverse, 2015
  4. 4.0 4.1 Dragon Ball Online, 2010
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Dragon Ball Q&A" section, Dragon Ball Full Color Androids Saga volume 5, 2014
  6. Saikyō Jump #6, 2014

Site Navigation

Advertisement