Today is a busy day for all of you Dragon Ball fans. May 9 has rolled around, and the special date marks not one but two holidays for the anime series. So, if you were feeling confused about the Piccolo v Goku fan-wars over on Twitter, there is no need.
Videos by ComicBook.com
After all, the two characters do share the day evenly with one another.
If you haven’t heard, May 9 is both Piccolo Day and Goku Day. The unofficial holidays may not be recognized in Japan, but fans around the world have adopted the dates due to some punny reasoning.
May 9th is a Japanese number pun on “Goku” (May=5=Go, 9=ku). And so that’s why Goku Day and Piccolo Day are the same day. This is also why Goku goes around in a jacket with 59 on it prior to the Cell Games. pic.twitter.com/5MYYVY7qZE
— Todd Blankenship (@Herms98) May 9, 2018
Sussing out the histories behind these holidays comes down to phonetics and anime. For Goku Day, the holiday was decided up thanks to a quirk in the Japanese language. The language uses two different kinds of number systems, and they can be used to make up codes. When you tell a date in Japanese, the systems can be intermixed to make secret messages, and May 9 can be pronounced as “Go” + “Ku” as such.
As for Piccolo, the Namekian got his big day way back in Dragon Ball The original anime once saw King Piccolo declare that “every May 9th will be celebrated as Piccolo Day” — and the honor stuck around even once the demon king died and was reincarnated as the Piccolo fans know and love.
Can you choose a favorite between these two characters? Does Goku take the cake? Or does Piccolo get your heart racing? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!
Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on Funimation, VRV, and Crunchyroll.
If you want to catch up with the English dub, the first 52 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are now available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and available to purchase on Amazon Video as well. The 52 episodes span the full range of what has aired in the North America and covers the “Battle of Gods” arc, “Revival of F” arc, the “Universe 6” arc, and bringing the series right up to the current TV airings of the “Future Trunks” arc.
