Omg yes. Despite being offput by the sudden change in everyone's voice halfway through the Ginyu fights, the one that actually had me upset was Ginyu himself.
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The Original Dragon Ball Z Funimation English dub is worse than i remembered. Much Worse! (RTTP)
- Thread starter Wariobenotware
- Start date
Omg yes. Despite being offput by the sudden change in everyone's voice halfway through the Ginyu fights, the one that actually had me upset was Ginyu himself.
I remember being so pissed when the new episodes debut and the cast was changed. They had been hyping new episodes in anime magazines but failed to mention the casting changes. I love Ocean dubs like Ranma , Inuyasha and Gundam Wing.
Lemme stop you right there
Serious/Hurt/Angry Japanese Goku doesnt come close to the Mexican Dub, German dub is also better than japanese in that regard
Snobs care, that's who! Enjoy Dragon Ball Z the way I say is best! Everything else is trash.
Compared to this. I'll admit the recording quality is meh but at least he sounds like he understands the context for what he is saying. The American dub sounds like he's making fun of a football player but his acid reflux started acting up halfway through and started gargling his bile. He doesn't even sound invigourated, he sounds confused.
Yeah same. Some of the early dubbed movies are bad. History of Trunks specifically comes to mine.
The Fusion Reborn dub where everything is weirdly homoerotic is amazing though
YES! This is the one I watched!
so good
purists. maybe the original source sucked and taking liberties was the only way to make the thing interesting in the first place
I read this and had to tilt my head. anything is better than Japanese Goku
I read this and had to tilt my head. anything is better than Japanese Goku
Wat lol
But yeah I was watching through Kai recently and listening to All Systems Goku when they got to the Trunks movie and it was a pretty wtf moment for me and them at the quality of the dub on it. It was so bad.
Except the original source material was amazing, and is still to this day super beloved, and many countries didn't take the ridiculous liberties with Dragon Ball that America did. Hell, FUNi generally doesn't do that kind of dubbing anymore. They show the source material respect.
I was one of the people in the 90s that would nag Funimation Though email to restore the Japanese music.
It's all nostalgia. Hell, I'm the first one to bash the dub but can still enjoy it for that reason alone. I was like 14 watching it when it first came on and didn't know any better. But now I understand that the Kai dub is what it should have been the whole time and it's hard for me to watch the OG dub, and go for the Japanese now that I'm familiar with how the characters are actually supposed to be.
I do prefer the Ocean Ginyu as well but it's the rare situation where I think the Funimation dub gave them pretty decent voices even if they are still just attempting to imitate the Ocean dub.
Also Ocean Jeice is the only one that has the full 11 heavy metal energy. It's funny how every actor after Scott McNeil imitates his Australian accent but ends up with some odd thing between Aussie, British and like New York or something so it's impossible to decipher what he's saying half the time because it's all just "Myeuh moi moouuyeeeugh Vegeta gyaaaaaahhh". But Scott McNeil is actually Australian so it sounds sooo much better when he does it and is actually parsible.
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There is some weirdly heavy sexual tension between Goku and Vegeta in that movie isn't present anywhere else in that dub. Mostly with the fusion stuff. I think it comes across that way because they kept Sean using his Super Saiyan 3 voice after he left that form so he's just talking in this deeper voice in this heart to heart with Vegeta
That's definitely why Dragon Ball was a worldwide phenomenon already before a single episode of DBZ ever aired in the US
Nothing is worse than the Bardock special where they only had the Spanish audio and no Spanish translator, so they literally made up the entire script for it. It's why Bardock's crew's names are so wildly different from the Japanese when usually the worst you get is a transliteration that misses the pun.
Also there are some genuinely good tracks in the Faulconer score, like King Kai's Planet theme music.
Faulconer's music actually bumps in the whip though
I can't get jiggy to no Journey to the West music
I can't get jiggy to no Journey to the West music
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Ummm what? I am not going around preventing people from enjoying the dub. I have no idea where you even got that from. One thing i always hate about internet discussions is how blindly defensive people tend to get. Almost like if you are attacking their precious childhood.
I just don't think the quality is good. Nothing more to it than that. I don't think trying to present a show to an audience but changing everything about the show is a mark of a good dub by any measure. Sure many people were introduced to DBZ because of it but that has no bearing on its quality. The worst thing to happen to DB was that Funimation got a hold of it as far as i'm concerned. They had no business dubbing this show when considering that they themselves admitted that they had no idea what they were doing. Straight from the horse's mouth. They admitted that the Funimation dubbed for DBZ sucked.
Solid State Scouter, unlike Faulconer sounds good and it was used as far as i remember only once in the series. It stands out but it doesn't suddenly make my point about loud out of place shitty synth having no business in DB or DBZ as a whole invalid. Especially bad synth, which the Faulconer score definitely was imo. Even so Solid State Scouter was chosen to be in the Bardock Special by the people who were involved with the production of that episode. It is how the episode is supposed to be experienced. Same with the rest of the show. It is made with the Kikuchi OST in mind. None of the dub replacment score does and it shows.
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I grew up on the Ocean dub and wondered whatever happened to the story. I was heartbroken when Cartoon Network had new episodes with the Funi voices. Basically stopped watching post Frieza saga. Probably also grew out of caring about DBZ so whatever lol.
This is correct. Latin american dub with original ost was hands down the best dub dbz has ever had. I cant for the life of me understand what people saw in loud metal music ost in english dbz, shit was so bad.
I'm not entirely clear where the line between original dub and funimation dub is drawn. I have the funimation blu rays specifically because they have the 'as originally aired' option, but I don't know what differences there are between funimation original airing and ocean dub original airing, besides voice actors (ocean being the actual original airing in the US). I think it's supposed to be the original funimation dub, then a redub they did with a more accurate script and more seasoned performances?
The original dub on those blu rays isn't strictly bad. It's 100% a product of its time, and at the time a 100% literal translation was never going to be the way to go, especially without the backdrop of original Dragon Ball to frame it. There's a lot about it that's straight better than the japanese, like the weird industry standard insistence on keeping a female voice actor when a character grows up and clearly shouldn't sound that way. Ocean and Funi Gokus are both superior to the original. And on re-watch, a lot of the jokes the dub makes are fucking hilarious. Like, I can see how someone wouldn't like it, but it's far from being objectively bad or anything. It can be its own thing, theres enough room in the fandom for that.
The exception here is that the Faulconer score is better. It has more variety, plays up more moments, fits the sci fi tone of Z way better, duplicates the feel of some of the original songs fairly successfully, and is really only outshone in a couple of spots in the whole series. The only real problem with it is that the first 60 episodes didn't have it originally.
The original dub on those blu rays isn't strictly bad. It's 100% a product of its time, and at the time a 100% literal translation was never going to be the way to go, especially without the backdrop of original Dragon Ball to frame it. There's a lot about it that's straight better than the japanese, like the weird industry standard insistence on keeping a female voice actor when a character grows up and clearly shouldn't sound that way. Ocean and Funi Gokus are both superior to the original. And on re-watch, a lot of the jokes the dub makes are fucking hilarious. Like, I can see how someone wouldn't like it, but it's far from being objectively bad or anything. It can be its own thing, theres enough room in the fandom for that.
The exception here is that the Faulconer score is better. It has more variety, plays up more moments, fits the sci fi tone of Z way better, duplicates the feel of some of the original songs fairly successfully, and is really only outshone in a couple of spots in the whole series. The only real problem with it is that the first 60 episodes didn't have it originally.
Yep. I watch DBZ in the original Funimation dub with Bruce Faulconer's soundtrack. I've watched DBZ in Japanese and DBZ Kai in English but it doesn't compare IMO.
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The one on the Blu-Ray is a remastered 2005 dub where the re-recorded some of the lines for the Namek portion of the series and redid the earlier parts of the series that were done with the Ocean cast previously. It wasn't so much a "fully redone dub" as it was a slight update to the original Funimation dub that aired on Toonami. It was still really flawed as all the major revisionings were kept. Funimation is basically lying when they say that it is "as it aired" Because that isn't entirely true. I think after the Freeza arc the dub defaults back to the original from 1999.
Like here is one example with a comparison between the two.
Most casual fans don't even know that there is a difference but the only way to get the original Funimation dub that aired on TV is to collect the DVD singles I believe.
Edit: Actually i think the single DVD's are less censored and a few of the lines are more "edgy" than what aired on TV. To get the TV version i think tracking down VHS tapes is the only option.
For Dragon Ball Kai they did redo the dub from scratch and it was much better. But it still carried over some of the lets say questionable decisions form the Z dub. Also because that was a dub of Dragon Ball Kai and not Dragon Ball Z. You would need to put up with a worse version of the show just to be able to watch the series in a watchable state in English. I do think they should redub the Original Dragonball and Dragon Ball Z from scratch for those that don't want to watch Kai but still want Z in English with some amount of quality control.
As for me i don't think it is just a case of the original Funimation dub being inaccurate. But more that It is essentially a completely different americanized and dumbed down show that shares the same name as Dragon Ball Z. I don't think they came even close to nailing anything about the dub. My feelings on the Faulconer score are pretty obvious at this point. I don't really care what a texan dubbing studio thinks with what music goes with the show that they had no involvement with the creation of.
It honestly feels like a bad "fan" cut and not an official dub. Even that is too generous because i think most fans would have the basic sense to not strip out the entire original soundtrack and making so many sweeping changes to EVERYTHING. This is like if i was watching a badly edited fan version of original Star Wars and instead of the incredible original ost, i instead heard badly placed faulconer synth that was clearly added after the fact in order to "spice up" the action. That is a example of how out of place the american soundtrack feels to me. I do not like the other replacment scores that Dragon Ball Z has had either but i think Faulconer sits comfortably at the bottom of the barrel.
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The original music was awful and Goku's Japanese voice is atrocious, like nails on a chalkboardlol no it's awful
you're tone death i'll take that orchestral style music over that shitty noisy music that hack of a composer any day!
All these years, all these threads, I've just kind of said "hey, you watch what you want, I don't understand how you like it because I never did, even when it originally aired."
But ya know what?
*puts on gloves*
I unabashedly enjoyed the Ocean dub. The characters actually had character, they kept at least some of the goofiness of Goku in there and they worked with what they could given the broadcast standards at the time. They got really creative with some of it (HFIL is legit one of the most hilariously amazing things I've ever seen).
But... that's not the show or whatever. But it's also not really how it's supposed to play out. Part of the reason the music has so much brass and an actual orchestra to it is because it started in, and kept its tone from, the 80s. Not saying you can't change that during the run, but going from this wide range of music to whatever the hell the Faulconer music was was awful as hell. It reeked of low budget 90s cartoon in a bad way.
I've actually been slowly working my way through the LATAM dub over time. I remembered hearing some on one of our local Spanish stations way back and thought it sounded pretty good, but I've been enjoying the dub if only because they seem to actually care and most of the dialog is pretty close to its original writing. Keeping the original music has also helped this immensely.
I cannot disagree more. It's funny how you mention "variety" when the music was constantly reused in other scenes forever.
I think my other gripe, possibly my biggest one, is that the dub just Won't. Shut. Up. There is always music playing, always. There is also frequently someone is talking when they never were originally. There's never a quiet moment to take in the scene or what's going on. You say tension is built with the music, but a quiet moment can and will actually go a lot further rather than assaulting your ears.
Oh, I feel you. Brian Drummond's Vegeta rage break is still one of the best moments in Dragonball, bar none. Even if Sabat is the character to me nowadays, Drummond's take on that scene remains better than Chris' version, and I think even Sabat knows that.
You lost me at the soundtrack. That's just a straight-up upgrade and I'm grateful that we were granted what was, in my opinion, the better option.
Less hostile response: We have different opinions and none of us need to be this hyperbolic and angry over the fact that some people don't share ours. Basically all of this is subjective.
All these comments about rose-tinted glasses are condescending and inappropriate.
Less hostile response: We have different opinions and none of us need to be this hyperbolic and angry over the fact that some people don't share ours. Basically all of this is subjective.
All these comments about rose-tinted glasses are condescending and inappropriate.
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For what it's worth i think the Brian Drummond and well pretty much everyone else that was dubbing the show in English before the current cast took over was better. I still don't like the dub for all the faults that it had but those actors were much better, if only they had better material to work with.
I wonder how the Ocean dub of Kai turned out. It was supposedly completed but never aired. It is still in a vault somewhere a decade later. Maybe we will see it one day.
I wonder how the Ocean dub of Kai turned out. It was supposedly completed but never aired. It is still in a vault somewhere a decade later. Maybe we will see it one day.
I still remember watching that when it first aired. My brother and I couldn't stop laughing and we still quote it to each other today.
And bless the hilarious TFS version of that scene.
There is a reason they don't do that type of dubbing anymore though. Just keep the anime as it's supposed to be like Kai- forward, and we won't have these stupid fights about it.
It is rose tinted glasses and nostalgia. I'm proof of that. I loved the dub when it aired. Grew up, realized that's not what the series is, and appreciate and love what they've done since with their dubbing with Kai to Super with the voice actors I'm familiar with.
By spending so much time talking about how bad it is when most of the fans of it know it is heavily flawed, you definitely come of as defensively trying to justify the idea that no one should like it.
Maybe that wasn't your intention, but you should probably keep in mind that my post was not directed at anyone in particular. Personally I don't have a strong attachment either way on the sub vs dub thing even if I'm not the biggest fan of the casting choices with Nozawa.
The quality of the music is irrelevant(because both scores are mediocre overall, with just a few standouts).
The Kikuchi soundtrack is not what the original Dragon Ball was made with in mind(same with the voices), since the original is the manga, but even if we ignore that, I don't think there could ever be one perfect style. The Wuxia style is not even the only approach the series has had, the original Kai soundtrack would probably be widely considered the best if it wasn't plagiarized and erased, and meanwhile Super has not cared at all about capturing the feel of the Kikuchi soundtrack. The games love to learn in on the rock and synth more than any other style as well(DBFZ is the best DB soundtrack btw).
There is nothing inherently not Dragon Ball about that old dub music, it's cool if you don't like it, just say that instead of making excuses to justify it that fall apart at a closer look at the rest of the series.
"Just do things the way I like them and we won't have to fight about whether I'm wrong." I feel like you knew you were being arrogant and dismissive when you typed that whole post and it doesn't really leave me inclined to engage with you on it, to the extent your confusion of subjectivity with objectivity was meant to leave any room for actual discussion.
Your personal opinion really has nothing to do with anyone else's. The fact that it was rose-tinted glasses and nostalgia for you has no bearing on whether it was the same for anyone else. For a lot of people in the thread, it clearly wasn't and you're not really in a position to speak down to them by informing them otherwise.
The series is a lot of valid things to a lot of different people and outright rejection of the legitimacy of their experience with the show or their preference for one version or another is ridiculous. Don't dress up your not-so-passive aggressive insults as foregone conclusions.
You're right. I'm sorry. I won't engage anymore. I clearly don't matter.