Mr. Satan

, known as Hercule in certain edited versions of the English dub and in Viz's English manga, is a character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama, he first appears in Chapter 393 of the Dragon Ball manga entitled "The New Kami-sama", originally published in Issue 44 of Weekly Shōnen Jump on October 6, 1992. Within the series, he is a flamboyant and incompetent martial artist who becomes a world-renowned hero after he fallaciously claimed credit for the defeat of the villainous Cell. Years later, he befriends the primordial being Majin Buu and convinces him of the error of his murderous way, leading Buu to expel his evil tendencies which become a different lifeform altogether. After aiding series protagonist Goku in vanquishing the evil incarnation of Buu, the benevolent incarnation moves in with Mr. Satan, and both characters continue to make recurring appearances as supporting characters in the series. Mr. Satan is a popular character with fans of the Dragon Ball series since his introduction, and is generally well received by critics as an effective comic relief character. Development Series creator Akira Toriyama explained that Mr. Satan is a ring name akin to an in-ring persona or character used by real-life professional wrestlers. In another interview, Toriyama revealed that his real name is , a pun on the Japanese word akuma (悪魔), which refers to a malevolent demonic spirit in Japanese folklore. Toriyama also noted that the character is from a cultural region which does not use surnames. In keeping with the naming convention of related Dragon Ball characters after puns with a common theme, his daughter Videl's name is an anagram of the word devil. His spouse is never named or discussed within the series, though Toriyama suggested that she was a beautiful singer named "Miguel" (ミゲル, migeru), essentially his angelic counterpart based on the notion of an unconventional marriage between both characters. Due to negative cultural connotations surrounding his namesake, Mr. Satan is renamed in media translated for international audiences in some parts of the world. In North America he is known as Hercule in some English language dubs for the Dragon Ball Z anime, as well as the localized English manga published by Viz Media. In their initial dub of the series, Funimation changed his name to Hercule. However, when they recorded a new dub for uncut home video releases, they switched to using the original Mr. Satan.