Kai dubs that weren't as good as the Z dubs.

[Bansho64]

What are some dubs of Kai that you felt didn't live up to their original Z dubs? Why do you feel that way and what do you think could've been done to make it better?

[ShaneisMC]

I mean obviously as incredibly talented as the Japanese cast still are even in their now senior years, obviously they don't exactly live up to how good they were back when they were more in their prime ya know 20-30 years ago.

[Metalwario64]

I mostly agree, but I am actually a fan of Horikawa's Kai performance. His performance in the fighting scenes was extremely aggressive and intense, and I quite liked it.

[Bansho64]

I agree with you Metalwario64! Horikawa's stuff in Kai seemed more like a different take rather than being plain worse. Of course, there are some lacklustre performances in there like ShaneisMc suggests.

I feel like a really good example of a Z>Kai situation is the German dub. German dubbed Z had some hard work put in there. Especially considering that they had the frickin' French dub as a basis. But they overcame that for the most part.
1.They went back and got good manga translations to correct names and script changes that were originally in the French dub.

2They did some beautiful German versions of the original Japanese themes.

3.The effort put into the voice acting and the screaming was phenomenal.

The big downside was the script. They did fix a lot of issues that were in the French dub but there were still many inaccurate lines from what I've heard. Example: When Kuririn dies on Namek, Goku says, "He was just/almost a child". Yeah, there were some bad lines in there.

The German version of Kai is really lacklustre when you compare it to what was originally done when they did Z. I don't even think it was by the same company IIRC. I honeslty don't feel it lived up to the original.

[TheBlackPaladin]

The Latino Spanish* dub and the Brazilian Portuguese* dubs, easily

For both of the Z dubs in those languages, the dubs were uncut and featured great translations and great performances. For that matter, in the case of the Spanish dub at least, it was dubbed directly by the Latin American branch of Toei, and that dub in particular is generally considered to be one of the best--if not the best--dubs that DBZ ever got. I've heard rumors that the Portuguese dub may have been a dub of the Spanish dub (which is to say that it used the Spanish dub's audio, visual, and script materials), but I haven't been able to confirm this. Even if it was a second-hand dub, the Spanish dub was an excellent dub, so Brazil at least got a solid foundation.

....Then we get to the Kai dubs.

Different companies did the dubbing this time around, and they had almost no money compared to the budgets for the Z dubs. The two biggest consequences of this were tons of re-casting for major roles since the original voice actors could no longer be afforded as well as both dubs being second-hand dubs...of the Nicktoons-edited English dub (even using the Nicktoons English episode title cards). Also, while I don't blame this on the dubs themselves, I was saddened to learn that apparently, the actors who replaced the original actors were relentlessly harassed online, to the point where Gohan's new voice actress was so traumatized that she quit after the end of the Cell arc, and said she'd never do any Dragon Ball-related dubbing ever again. I know fans are passionate, but...some of the things they said were, in my opinion, just so unnecessarily cruel and mean-spirited.

An additional low-point for the Portuguese dub: it had some of the least professional sound mixing I've ever heard in a dub. The dub became semi-notorious for weird mixing errors. For example, there were a few scenes where the music would randomly switch between the Yamamoto score and the Kikuchi score, and since they used the audio/visual materials of the Nicktoons English dub, occasionally bits of the English dub audio mix would sneak through. One particularly famous incident occured when an episode aired on Brazilian TV with the English dub audio for almost ten minutes before suddenly switching to the Portuguese dub audio...in mid-sentence while a character was talking.

They did have some saving graces, to be fair.

Spanish: While some of the re-casts were not good, some were. There were still plenty of scenes with great acting, and Edson Matus, the new Goku, has some of the most badass screams I've ever heard. Irwin Daayan, the director, also tried to soften the blow of using an edited English script as the translation source by swapping out English pronunciations and terms with the pronunciations and terms that the original Spanish dub of DBZ used. So, "Spirit Bomb" was changed back to "Genki Dama," "Super Saiyan" was changed back to "Super Saiyajin," "Shenron" was changed back to "Shenlong"...that kinda thing. It didn't do much to soften the blow, but hey, it was cool that the director tried to do the best job he could with what he was given.

Portuguese: This dub fared a little better. Everything that I mentioned above about the Spanish dub's saving graces is true for the Portuguese dub as well. Beyond this, though, one of the few original DBZ dub voice actors they did manage to get back was Wendell Bezerra, the original voice of Goku. So, at least the main character still had the same voice. In addition, it appears that, while they did get the audio/visual materials of the Nicktoons-edited English dub, their translation appears to be a little more loyal. They didn't get the Japanese audio, so I don't know how their translations were better, but they were.

*Meant to distinguish between the European Spanish dub, which is a very different story, and the European Portuguese dub, which is a completely different story.

[ryou766]

I was saddened to learn that apparently, the actors who replaced the original actors were relentlessly harassed online, to the point where Gohan's new voice actress was so traumatized that she quit after the end of the Cell arc, and said she'd never do any Dragon Ball-related dubbing ever again.

When did this happen? I'm sorry, but I'm only just now hearing about this.

[Bansho64]

When did this happen? I'm sorry, but I'm only just now hearing about this.

Long way back when Kai was first getting dubbed into Spanish. She got harassed so badly. Her name's Karina Altamirano.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I was saddened to learn that apparently, the actors who replaced the original actors were relentlessly harassed online, to the point where Gohan's new voice actress was so traumatized that she quit after the end of the Cell arc, and said she'd never do any Dragon Ball-related dubbing ever again.

When did this happen? I'm sorry, but I'm only just now hearing about this.

I don't know exactly when, somebody else (whose first language is Spanish) on Kanzenshuu said that, and I think they said that she mentioned this on her Facebook. I'd have to dig for the post, but I'll try doing that later.

In any event, Altamirano had big shoes to fill. Laura Torres, the original actress, is apparently a legend in the Latino Spanish dubbing business. She played several iconic roles, but definitely one of the AAA-league ones was that she was the voiced Goku, Gohan, and Goten as kids (and apparently they were originally going to have her pull a Nozawa and play the characters as adults too, but they decided against it at the last minute and cast adult men to play the characters when they reached adulthood).

[gregoryluis09]

I've heard rumors that the Portuguese dub may have been a dub of the Spanish dub (which is to say that it used the Spanish dub's audio, visual, and script materials), but I haven't been able to confirm this. Even if it was a second-hand dub, the Spanish dub was an excellent dub, so Brazil at least got a solid foundation.

Yes, the Brazilian dub of Z was indeed based on the Latin American Spanish dub, but Wendel Bezerra (who also was one of the directors of the dub) did some corrections on the script based on some sources who already knew the anime, so "Milk" was corrected to Chi-Chi, "Piccoro" to Piccolo, "Krillin" to Kuririn and etc...

Portuguese: This dub fared a little better. Everything that I mentioned above about the Spanish dub's saving graces is true for the Portuguese dub as well. Beyond this, though, one of the few original DBZ dub voice actors they did manage to get back was Wendell Bezerra, the original voice of Goku. So, at least the main character still had the same voice. In addition, it appears that, while they did get the audio/visual materials of the Nicktoons-edited English dub, their translation appears to be a little more loyal. They didn't get the Japanese audio, so I don't know how their translations were better, but they were.

The translation of the Brazilian Kai dub was good because who did it was JBC, a Brazilian manga publisher and using the original Dragon Ball manga to translate thinking that Toei would give to BKS (the studio) the original Japanese masters, which didn't happened.

[SaintEvolution]

The Latino Spanish* dub and the Brazilian Portuguese* dubs, easily

For both of the Z dubs in those languages, the dubs were uncut and featured great translations and great performances. For that matter, in the case of the Spanish dub at least, it was dubbed directly by the Latin American branch of Toei, and that dub in particular is generally considered to be one of the best--if not the best--dubs that DBZ ever got. I've heard rumors that the Portuguese dub may have been a dub of the Spanish dub (which is to say that it used the Spanish dub's audio, visual, and script materials), but I haven't been able to confirm this. Even if it was a second-hand dub, the Spanish dub was an excellent dub, so Brazil at least got a solid foundation.

....Then we get to the Kai dubs.

Different companies did the dubbing this time around, and they had almost no money compared to the budgets for the Z dubs. The two biggest consequences of this were tons of re-casting for major roles since the original voice actors could no longer be afforded as well as both dubs being second-hand dubs...of the Nicktoons-edited English dub (even using the Nicktoons English episode title cards). Also, while I don't blame this on the dubs themselves, I was saddened to learn that apparently, the actors who replaced the original actors were relentlessly harassed online, to the point where Gohan's new voice actress was so traumatized that she quit after the end of the Cell arc, and said she'd never do any Dragon Ball-related dubbing ever again. I know fans are passionate, but...some of the things they said were, in my opinion, just so unnecessarily cruel and mean-spirited.

An additional low-point for the Portuguese dub: it had some of the least professional sound mixing I've ever heard in a dub. The dub became semi-notorious for weird mixing errors. For example, there were a few scenes where the music would randomly switch between the Yamamoto score and the Kikuchi score, and since they used the audio/visual materials of the Nicktoons English dub, occasionally bits of the English dub audio mix would sneak through. One particularly famous incident occured when an episode aired on Brazilian TV with the English dub audio for almost ten minutes before suddenly switching to the Portuguese dub audio...in mid-sentence while a character was talking.

They did have some saving graces, to be fair.

Spanish: While some of the re-casts were not good, some were. There were still plenty of scenes with great acting, and Edson Matus, the new Goku, has some of the most badass screams I've ever heard. Irwin Daayan, the director, also tried to soften the blow of using an edited English script as the translation source by swapping out English pronunciations and terms with the pronunciations and terms that the original Spanish dub of DBZ used. So, "Spirit Bomb" was changed back to "Genki Dama," "Super Saiyan" was changed back to "Super Saiyajin," "Shenron" was changed back to "Shenlong"...that kinda thing. It didn't do much to soften the blow, but hey, it was cool that the director tried to do the best job he could with what he was given.

Portuguese: This dub fared a little better. Everything that I mentioned above about the Spanish dub's saving graces is true for the Portuguese dub as well. Beyond this, though, one of the few original DBZ dub voice actors they did manage to get back was Wendell Bezerra, the original voice of Goku. So, at least the main character still had the same voice. In addition, it appears that, while they did get the audio/visual materials of the Nicktoons-edited English dub, their translation appears to be a little more loyal. They didn't get the Japanese audio, so I don't know how their translations were better, but they were.

*Meant to distinguish between the European Spanish dub, which is a very different story, and the European Portuguese dub, which is a completely different story.

About the brazilian dubs:

- In the Z dub, they used the latin spanish dub as source. However, the directors had some backup from some fans and some sources that helped it in the translation and choice of voices. An example? Well, the latin american spanish dub is considerably fateful to the japanese version, but it had some change of names, romanized names a few mispronounces, like "Milk" instead of "Chichi", "Krillin" instead of "Kuririn", "Freezer" instead of "Freeza", and others. But all of this was changed in the brazilian portuguese. Thankfully to that, the brazilian dub didn't had big problems, and had really great scripts.
- In the Kai dub a half of the original cast returned, different of the Latin American Spanish Kai, when something like only 20% or 10% of the original cast returned. However, it had all of the problems you said. But about the translation, it was very fateful, even more than in the original Z dub, but because they didn't used the Nicktoons version to the scripts, but... the manga. Yes, Brazilian Kai had scripts based in the japanese manga, translated and adapted by a brazilian manga publisher, JBC(Japan Brazil Communication). Because of that, the translation was very accurate. By far, the best aspect of brazilian Kai, that in general was a really bad produced work with a super lazy sound mixing.

However, about the Kai dub, and not only about the brazilian one but about the latin spanish one too, all of the problems are about Kai 1.0. In The Final Chapters all of that changed, because they used the international(not censored) version, and with most part of the original casts returning.

[Bansho64]

The Latino Spanish* dub and the Brazilian Portuguese* dubs, easily

Agreed. Both of their Z dubs trump their Kai counterparts completely. Although, Brazilian Kai was pretty awesome. I just don't think it's as good as the original Brazilian dub.
Here's some different scenes from both Latin American
Spanish Z and Kai

Latin American Spanish dubbed Z and Kai counterparts
Example A
Z Version Kai Version
Example B
Z Version Kai Version
Example C
Z Version Kai Version
Example D
Z Version Kai Version

So what do y'all think? Of course, a couple of scenes doesn't speak for a whole dub, but I just thought it might be cool to see what you guys think about these.