百獣

[Trium Shockwave]

Recently an uncut subtitled version of GoLion was released in the US, so now we can enjoy Voltron's progenitor in all its... ah... campy glory.

I was thinking about its full title though, and I have a bit of a question. 百獣王ゴライオン seems like it would directly translate to "Hundred Beast King GoLion." It's never done that way, however. The usual translations are "Beast King" or "King of Beasts".

Adding to my confusion, the same kanji are used in the title of 百獣戦隊ガオレンジャー. That title is almost always translated something like "Hundred Beast Squadron/Taskforce Gaoranger." In this case, 百 is translated literally.

So, my question is this: In this context, is 百獣 a metaphor referring to all beasts, not just the literal hundred? If so, is 百 ever used this way with any other words? And is there a reason why Gaoranger's title would be translated differently, aside from simple preference among fans of the shows?

[hatch_jp]

In these cases, "百" means several, many, all kinds or so on.

The following words are that 百 means those but not hundred.

百獣 = all kinds of animals
ライオンは百獣の王と呼ばれる = The lion is aslo called the king of beasts.

百貨（hyakka） = all kinds of goods
百貨店（hyakka ten） = store which sells all kinds of goods. = departmentstore

百科（hyakka） = many objects (for study)
百科事典（haykka jiten） = dictionary of many objects = encyclopedia

百人力（hyakuninriki） = tremendous strengh

百害（hyaku gai） = several/ great damage(s)

[Trium Shockwave]

Ah, so it was as I thought. Thank you for settling that for me.