One Punch Man: Why does Child Emperor hate his name?

One Punch Man features a plethora of memorable characters with unique quirks and powers. Child Emperor is one among these, particularly beloved for his genius intellect and caring personality. However, during the later stages of the manga, this hero undergoes a significant transformation, completely changing his name and his personality.

Fans who are not yet caught up with the series may wonder what brought about this situation. Child Emperor hates his name in One Punch Man because the Japanese translation of his title, Dōtei, is also a pun that means “virgin” or “male virgin”.

The boy discovers this during the Neo Heroes Saga, while he is facing intense internal turmoil due to the corruption within the Hero Association, the newly introduced Neo Heroes, as well as his own unresolved struggles with his identity.

Child Emperor reinvents himself in One Punch Man

As mentioned, Isamu, who goes by the hero name “Child Emperor”, is the former S-Class Rank 5 hero of the Hero Association. Despite being only 10 years old, he is the core of heroes, acting as a de facto leader and strategist.

Child Emperor’s intelligence and strength particularly stand out during the Monster Association Arc, where he comes up with the plans for all the heroes to raid the enemies’ base, and even defeats Dragon-level monsters on his own. He is idealistic, empathetic, and has the most “normal” personality among the top heroes.

At the same time, Child Emperor has always been sensitive about his age, as he often feels that others don’t take him seriously since he is a child. Additionally, during the Neo Heroes Saga, he uncovered the betting scandals and cover-ups within the Hero Association, causing him to lose faith in its corrupt ranks.

The boy’s breaking point came when he met up with Zombieman at a restaurant, looking visibly distraught. When questioned, he revealed that he had been teased by his classmates about his hero name, which sounded similar to the Japanese word for “virgin”.

Zombieman was stunned that the smart Child Emperor was not aware of this before, but the young boy had been restricted from accessing such topics by his mother. Feeling that everyone around him had smiled and ridiculed him till then, he ran away angrily.

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Surprisingly, the next time Child Emperor appears, he is revealed to have joined the Neo Heroes group after having drastically changed. With gelled hair, sunglasses, a more serious personality, and no traces of his earlier innocence, Isamu abandons his earlier superhero name and identifies as Diabolical Emperor or Wild Emperor.

Notably, this is yet another clever piece of wordplay by the author, since Diabolical Emperor, or Hidōtei, is a pun on the Japanese term for “non virgin”. It symbolizes the hilarious misunderstanding caused by Child Emperor’s name as well as his decision to completely reinvent the person that people had known up to that point.

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