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Dragon Ball (Z/Super) is horrendous in English
- Thread starter FernandoRocker
- Start date
I cannot watch DBZ without Schemmel and Sabat. I literally grew up english DBZ. Anything else just sounds wrong to me.
God that movie was so unbelievably good. So glad I went to see it in theaters.
God that movie was so unbelievably good. So glad I went to see it in theaters.
The argument that people could only like the English DB dub because of nostalgia, in the context of a thread where the OP is talking about how much they don't like it compared to the version they grew up with, is an interesting one to make.
Yeah, Goku's voice in Japanese really doesn't seem to fit him. It got worse once I started understand what he was saying.
You mean the voice hand-picked by the creator of the franchise that is the voice he hears when he writes Goku?
Translations | Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk
English translation of the special 'Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk' from the Japanese 'The World of Akira Toriyama' exhibit
www.kanzenshuu.com
"Toriyama: I've said this many times, but in drawing [Dragon Ball] for such a long time, only your voice would come to mind, Nozawa-san, so as far as I'm concerned, it's something that's perfectly normal, I guess you could say.1
Interviewer: During the serialization.
Toriyama: Yes. I'd remember, "Ah, surely Goku has this kind of voice." And it really is true for your voice, Nozawa-san. Would you mind doing a bit in Goku's voice?
Nozawa: Like, "Kamehameha"?
Toriyama, Interviewer: Ohhh~."
Toriyama also thinks Goku is perfectly fine with Frieza terrorizing the universe now, so who cares what he thinks about the character tbh.
People can criticize something about a a work of art even if the creator thinks there's nothing wrong with it.
How can we forget the GOAT Vegeta?
These sabandijas don't know how awesome is Latin American Vegeta.
Dragon Ball - the OG series - has a good English dub. You can tell there's actual camaraderie among the voice actors, and that they enjoy what they're doing. Kai has a good English dub as well.
I once went to a conference with Mario Castañeda (Goku's voice) and he 'complained' that people were more hyped for Vegeta's voice actor when he called everyone sabandijas before introducing himself during another conference.
I mean, yeah, the english dub for Dragon Ball is trash by most standards (especially that godawful OST) but good luck trying to convince a predominantly english speaking forum that the thing they grew up with sucks.
Out of the ones I'm familiar with, for me it goes:
Latin American spanish > Japanese >>>>>>>>>> English.
Out of the ones I'm familiar with, for me it goes:
Latin American spanish > Japanese >>>>>>>>>> English.
Because the rest of the world keeps saying how trash that dub, especially its soundtrack is.
I grew up with the french dub, I can tell you today it's trash despite having fond memories of it. Nostalgia means I have fond memories of it but I'm not blind: It's trash.
Well that english dub is the same. The fact that for instance, in the SSJ2 scene Gohan has an inner monologue just show how trash it is and how they missed the point. That + 16 talking like a freaking cliché robot.
Heck, you want to talk about Rock the Dragon ? Why the hell does Shenlong makes a freaking Godzilla sound ???
Nah Vegeta's piano is too good. I actually like the jp ost more on the whole, but no song on the jp ost has the foreboding feel of that frigging piano
You mean the voice hand-picked by the creator of the franchise that is the voice he hears when he writes Goku?
Translations | Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk
English translation of the special 'Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk' from the Japanese 'The World of Akira Toriyama' exhibit
"Toriyama: I've said this many times, but in drawing [Dragon Ball] for such a long time, only your voice would come to mind, Nozawa-san, so as far as I'm concerned, it's something that's perfectly normal, I guess you could say.1
Interviewer: During the serialization.
Toriyama: Yes. I'd remember, "Ah, surely Goku has this kind of voice." And it really is true for your voice, Nozawa-san. Would you mind doing a bit in Goku's voice?
Nozawa: Like, "Kamehameha"?
Toriyama, Interviewer: Ohhh~."
Cool. Not the person you're responding to, but that doesn't change anything about it not fitting for me, and being a huge personal hurdle in watching the series in Japanese.
Music is subjective, fans of the old dub soundtrack have no issues talking about its flaws such as the sound mixing and it never stopping, but the style and several of the tracks themselves works for many people and it's not like the Kikuchi soundtrack is anything special. Definitely not something worth this hostile "everything you like is trash and you're blinded by nostalgia" thing going on.
And let's not complain about characters talking in a cliché way in the dub, because the Japanese actors do the same to a more extreme level, haha.
OP
OP
Yes, let's talk about it. Let's talk about Android 13. Let's talk about Android 16.
Now you realize why this dub is that bad.
Nozawa's Goku is a stereotypical hick...
Like how are we gonna complain about a character sounding like a cliché making the dub bad when the main character is one in the original, haha.
DBZ is absolutely one of them. Especially the FUNi dub of Z. Super especially Season Three of the FUNi dub, where they started.
Now, you want to look at Kai, yeah, they did eventually get good at dubbing.
But Z has horribly inaccurate scripts that often don't even fit the characters, poor acting from actors who had only just begun their acting careers at all (can't place too much fault at them being rough early in their careers), and a soundtrack that does not understand that it's allowed to be silent for some scenes for emotional emphasis or a mood.
I've been watching DBZ Kai again and I can flick back and forth between English and Japanese.
God the English voices are trying so hard to go deep and gruff, they are cringe inducing.
I love the japanese Goku voice.
God the English voices are trying so hard to go deep and gruff, they are cringe inducing.
I love the japanese Goku voice.
The eng dub for Kai and Super are great, what a take.
I will agree that Super is horrendous though. The series is kinda trash in general and peaked in the original release
I will agree that Super is horrendous though. The series is kinda trash in general and peaked in the original release
Just what people like or grew up with.
I watched it in JP, English, and a lot in Latin American Spanish.
I think the Spanish one is absolute trash. To me it really sounds like they took people off the streets to read lines off a paper but apparently a lot of people think it's really good so I think it's hard to say something is really factually bad.
I watched it in JP, English, and a lot in Latin American Spanish.
I think the Spanish one is absolute trash. To me it really sounds like they took people off the streets to read lines off a paper but apparently a lot of people think it's really good so I think it's hard to say something is really factually bad.
Lie detector sounds busted
(But seriously please stop with this dumb nonsense)
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To add to this, I have never heard once in my life an old woman sounding like Goku. Nozawa's normal voice is that of an old woman, yes, but Goku? That voice is unique
Like you said people just learned a surprising fact about who voices Goku and use that as criticism
You mean the voice hand-picked by the creator of the franchise that is the voice he hears when he writes Goku?
Translations | Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk
English translation of the special 'Akira Toriyama & Masako Nozawa Special Talk' from the Japanese 'The World of Akira Toriyama' exhibit
"Toriyama: I've said this many times, but in drawing [Dragon Ball] for such a long time, only your voice would come to mind, Nozawa-san, so as far as I'm concerned, it's something that's perfectly normal, I guess you could say.1
Interviewer: During the serialization.
Toriyama: Yes. I'd remember, "Ah, surely Goku has this kind of voice." And it really is true for your voice, Nozawa-san. Would you mind doing a bit in Goku's voice?
Nozawa: Like, "Kamehameha"?
Toriyama, Interviewer: Ohhh~."
That's okay. I understand it's his vision. But my preference is Goku's voice actor in English. I don't have a problem with the rest of the Japanese cast.
This is obviously just my opinion.I'm not american, so I prefer to use subs with the original VA.
I love super. In fact I enjoy it more then a lot of Z (the future trunks arc ending pissed me off tho).
IMO: Z is largely bad but has some very high highs (I enjoy Cell's end in the original dub infinitely more than the kai dub). Kai is okay throughout, I wish they stuck with the original move names but I get why they reverted back to the english ones. Super is back to hit or miss with some very weird oddities that you'd think Funimation wouldn't still be incorporating (some weird jokes and clear errors).
I'm always a little bit baffled at the absolute extreme takes though. Labelling one version of the show or soundtrack as wholly, absolutely better without any caveat or nuance.
I'm always a little bit baffled at the absolute extreme takes though. Labelling one version of the show or soundtrack as wholly, absolutely better without any caveat or nuance.
That's fine. It really is. I just get really tired of the "subs are always better" / "there's no such thing as a good dub" rhetoric that has to plague EVERY kind of game/anime voiceover thread. It should be about preference full stop not "this way is wrong, people who watch a dub is inferior" type talk.
Lmao. Latin American dubs in general have some killer insults. There's just something about the Spanish language that makes everything sounds 10x more insulting compared to English. Vegeta calling Goku "payaso" cracked me the fuck up the first time I heard it.
holy shit, the way vegeta treats bulma there.
thank god for Super's Vegeta
OG Dragon Ball and Z have awful English dubs and in Z's case, English music. Kai's dub is great though, as is Super's.
The English version of Ultimate Battle isn't great though.
The English version of Ultimate Battle isn't great though.
I believe this is the path most reasonable anime fans follow.
Unfortunately some people never stop being annoying japanophiles.
Have to agree with this one. Yesterday I was watching a Among Us stream in Spanish. When one of the crew members was ejected, he said to them "Imbéciles". It really made me laugh how he said that word. So powerful.
And talking about insults...
Goku: "Eres una sabandija como dice Vegeta!"