What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

[LuckyCat]

I'm in the same boat as Mike. It's funny now to imagine a time when there was literally no English option for fans who wanted to watch the Ginyu saga onward. Bootlegs of DB, DBZ, and DBGT were huge and I had a few friends order VHSes packed with random episodes with various qualities of subtitles. Eventually the I-Channel gave us a weekly fix.

I remember us thinking how much more mature the Japanese version was because of blood, "swearing", and partial nudity. I can laugh at that now because I know Dragonball is primarily a kids' show, even though compared to even the uncut version FUNimation released, the original product still feels more mature.

[Hellspawn28]

I started to watch the Japanese version when I was first becoming a fan of the series. I found out DBZ was badly edited and Americanize for TV in the US, so I would track down Japanese episodes. I was lucky to find episodes in Japanese back in 2001.

[Metalwario64]

I first encountered the Japanese version during ye olden days of the internet, when I saw many clips and episodes in quality like this. I downloaded and watched that clip so many times as a kid, as this was before the dub reached the Buu arc. I think I first saw some of the Japanese version around the time Cell showed up, so I heard Spirit vs Spirit before Gohan turned Super Saiyan 2 in the dub, and so when I saw that scene in the dub I was pretty disappointed, since I loved that song. I also saw a handful of Japanese GT episodes on the old International Channel. Those, coupled with downloading the old Super Famicom and Playstation Dragon Ball Z games gave me a familiarity with that version at a young age, so I never found it "weird".

I never had any problem with Nozawa's Goku, since I assumed it was just a high pitched voice imitating Bruce Lee's fighting sounds, because when I was a kid, I assumed Bruce Lee talked in a high pitched voice because back then I only ever heard parodies and imitations and had not yet seen any of his films. I also never really noticed the "flaws" of the old dub back then, and I liked that it was different so that I'd have two distinct versions to enjoy. That actually rings true today as well, since I can watch Kai for a good dub, the original Z for the best version in Japanese, and the old dub for nostalgia.

When I joined Kanzenshuu, despite being 18, I was pretty immature, and I also wanted to "validate" my nostalgia of the dub, so I defended the dub with the Japanese score on the Orange Bricks for a couple of years. I was fooling myself, as I knew how bad the dub was, but I imagined it was better with the Japanese music. Of course, then I started watching the entire series in Japanese when all of the bricks hit, and it filled me with nostalgia, and I realized just how good it really was. It was probably easier for me to "adapt" to it due to my early exposure to that cast, and so about that time, I basically admitted it definitely was the superior version. It also helps that Kai was hitting around that time, and that fulfilled my desires for a better English version, and that gave me the last push to really admit that the old dub was vastly inferior. I really regret my first couple of years of posts on this site.

I still watch the series dubbed when I watch it with my father, since he's getting old and has trouble keeping up with the subtitles all of the time, but the only real problem there is with Dragon Ball's dub, but I can at least tolerate it. Now we watch Kai together for the English viewings of Z. I still occasionally watch Kai in English by myself from time to time as well, but the majority of my viewing is with the Japanese versions. I also sometimes watch some of the old dub (with the Faulconer score) for some childhood nostalgia.

[Footlong Shoe]

I don't remember the exact moment I decided to switch to Japanese, but I'll go over this the best way I can.

As I've said in threads before, my introduction to the series was the manga. I never became too familiar with it, however. I was in elementary school, and I don't think I had ever read past the first story arc. Anyway, years later I decided to try truly getting into Dragon Ball, so I bought the First Season DVD set. At the time, I was dub-only, and to be honest, I didn't even realize there was a community that preferred watching with subtitles (not just for Dragon Ball, but anime in general!).

In the midst of watching Dragon Ball, I started watching other anime. Attack on Titan was a popular one at the time, and having only recently finished, there was no dub yet, so I had to watch it with subtitles. This quickly became my go-to with anime, but not for Dragon Ball. I had heard from many that Dragon Ball Z's Japanese version was no good. In fact, I knew many people with the mentality of "always watch with subtitles, unless it's Dragon Ball". So I continued watching in English.

I started getting close to reaching Dragon Ball Z, at which point I started researching the different versions, since I'd heard of some "Dragon Ball Z Kai" thing and wanted to see what that was all about. This was when I started realizing that the English version wasn't as great as I thought it was. After reading what people had to say about the many dubs and versions, I continued the series dubbed, but with a new perspective. It took a while before I was past the more recently done "remastered" portion of the dub, which I didn't think was all that bad, but as soon as that line was crossed, I immediately noticed a drop in quality. Sure, some characters were redubbed further, but some unsatisfactory acting was still left in, most notably for Goku.

There was actually a point during the Goku vs. Freeza fight that I actually switched to the Faulconer score. I watched that way for about three episodes and I actually got a headache. That was probably the turning point where I decided "nobody knows what the hell they're talking about, this dub sucks". At this point, I was way too invested, though. I simply had to finish the dub, since I'd already watched half of the series that way. By the time I had finally finished the series, Battle of Gods had already been released on Blu-Ray here in the US, and that was where I finally made the switch, opting to watch it in Japanese (funny that the first dub I skipped was actually a good one).

I haven't finished rewatching the series in Japanese yet, as I've been having a hard time making myself go through the Orange Bricks again. Not only did I eventually transition to the Blu-Ray seasons later on, but I had actually gotten my hands on the first Dragon Box, so just imagine going from that to the Season Two DVD.

[SHINOBI-03]

My first Dragon Ball stuff to watch in its "original form" were DBZ Movie 8 and GT vol. 1. For a while I only watched them dubbed because that was the default option for the DVD and I wasn't aware that you can switch the language track (I was still new to DVDs after growing up with VHS so don't take it on me).

Once I switched to the original Japanese language track, it felt as I once had described as "like finding a treasure under a toilet". I was blown away on how much different and better the original Japanese version was from the voice acting to the music it felt like I was watching an entirely different thing! GT didn't have these stupid jokes, there were moments of silence, and the music didn't have that annoyingly depressing tone, and Movie 8 had a real soundtrack and not random rock bands that didn't fit the movie, it was certainly an experience. Video games that came with voice option did help further in loving the Japanese cast.

[KorgDTR2000]

I'm actually watching the anime for the first time in over a decade. I've watched some movies occasionally, but the actual serialized story was something I only experienced in print for years. I'm about 300 episodes in and I've only watched one in English. Reason being, it was the Fake Namek arc and I just didn't want to pay that much attention to it so I threw on the English version (with Japanese music) and let it play in the background while I did some drawing. I could only make it halfway through.

The biggest thing, above all, is the cheese. I just cannot handle the cheese. Whether it's bad performances, bad localization or simply bad source material, it's so cheesy that I cringe. The Japanese version has no such issue for me. Is it because the performances are that much better, or just because I can't understand the language which covers up how ridiculous the dialog might sound? I dunno, but it works.

[Zephyr]

For whatever reason, I watched a fair bit of Japanese Kai as it was coming out (I think it was around the point where everyone's fighting Cell on the islands). That allowed me to get used to the Japanese voices. Some time later, after I had gotten the first Dragon Box, I said fuck it: decided I was going to get stoned, and watch DBZ in Japanese. Was pretty much hooked from there.

[ShinkenRed]

My first exposure to Dragonball was the Castilian Spanish dub. When I moved to the States I was bummed to hear that the music had been replaced. I started buying the original single DVD's with my pocket money and watched the Japanese version and it just felt like home due to the music. I quickly fell in love with the rest of the Japanese version, the voices and that original script through the wonderful subs provided.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

Nothing It just happened. I watched the show for the first time in full-Japanese* sometime between 2006-2009 and it just replaced the series I had in my mind (the French dub). Performances were brilliant, voices were perfectly chosen for their roles, watching episode after episode made me like, enjoy and appreciate the series more and more.

Now, when I go back to the 1999-2001, I remember the Japanese version, despite the fact, that I had no idea about Japanese voices back then Nostalgia works in its entirety here.

* - the French dub kept some shouts, screams and words/names in the original language, so I was already used to it to some extent.

[Vegard Aune]

Dragon Ball never aired in my country, but even as a kid, watching stuff like Digimon and hearing how the English dub (which was what the Norwegian dub used as its source) had censored and changed a lot of stuff, I always wanted to see the original. And by the time I tried watching Dragon Ball (via YouTube uploads, which were pretty much all in Engish), I had long since gotten to a point where I preferred watching everything in its original language. So from where I'm standing, there was never a time I didn't want to see the show in Japanese, it's just that initially I didn't know where to get it and so I had to settle for the English version. I eventually started buying whatever DVDs I could get my hands on (I believe they were mostly out of print by then, and even if they weren't, I had to rely on my local import store to get them for me as my parents didn't let me import stuff directly) and from that point on I only ever watched the show in Japanese.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

One thing I'm going to note here is that the inevitable discussion & implication of "the dub is terrible & not the same thing" feels like more of an English-language/centric discussion. As obvious as that is, I feel it is not really universal & is certainly worth pointing out, as Cure Dragon 255 has, that many of the dubs were pretty respectable & not really worthy of the dichotomy of "sub vs obviously terrible censored dub" implicit in discussion of this & most 4Kids/Saban/Nelvana dubs. I feel the discussion is (inevitably, & understandably) English-centric, but I'm sure that, for non-English fans, the sub/dub dichotomy in general & the purism of original language is still a discussion worth having. It's just not quite the same discussion as it is for the English-language fans.

Anyway...unlike most people here, I didn't have much experience to DB at all growing up (though what I did have was certainly FUNi's in-house dub), until around 2006-08 when I when out of my way to read the manga (anime was just expensive & super-confusing); I randomly happened upon Japanese track on a DVD I borrowed from the library, but I wasn't viewing subs in general & the dubs I'd had were largely good anyway, so it didn't cross my mind to even think of viewing it. I think I got back into DB & anime in general through IGN at the end of my HS, almost 4 years ago, & I only entertained subs for things I really wanted & had no dub (like HxH, whose manga I grew up on). Thus, I sort of defaulted to the dub (Kai, thankfully), even though I had very little idea of how bad the changes were; I didn't know a whole lot about anime or join fandoms or anything. Over 2014 I learned of different dubs & translations & had a bit of interest in Japanese VAs - I still, to this day, prefer dubs for simple enjoyment of a series (I think the first current-season show I saw in JP was Samurai Flamenco), yet at the same time I at least looked at JP casts & had developed a vague understanding of budgets & how separated VA pools were.

Probably about two years ago (going by my old posts on here) I started watching this show in Japanese solely because "it's a work of art that I love" & only around late '15-early '16 as I frequented Behind the Voice Actors did I realize that Dragon Ball in Japanese is so awesome as a showcase of it's country's native voice-over work, in the same way that various Disney or WB productions are for Hollywood. While that's not discrediting any & all dubs (I like plenty of dubs I've noted on here, & I even wish for more Texas-inclusive game dubs), I feel like the English ones aside from Ocean Pioneer, Bang Zoom Super, maybe Harmony Gold DB, & I suppose FUNi Kai, are pretty drastically underwhelming & rather shoddy to be given so much attention. D-list/=/bad (something the producers behind OK! KO should learn), sure, but there's a modicum of attention & care that I expect a show like DB to get, even for "just a dub", & I'm pretty frequently taken aback as to how Toei & FUNi treat/ed this property.

TL;DR I switched to Japanese (including post-Kai, even though I dont have problems with newer casting/translation) as I began to realize the depths & implications of just shoddy this show was treated in English, & how gloriously it was in Japanese.

The source and original material. I always watch movies, shows, animation and programming in original language (with subs of course), regardless what language it is. It's the closest to the original vision of the author(s)

I think while I see the point you're trying to make here, I feel like if I really wanted the original, I'd read the comics in this case. The cartoon studios make changes too (while the author is still involved, it's not the same thing). I'm not going to sit here & contend that the changes are comparable to the DB dub, however it is usually the case that when a company's foreign branch dubs its own show, the casting & scripting goes through the original producers. FUNi is US-only so they can cheat a lot more, but it isn't as if no showrunner cares about dubs. While dubs often do have to alter for lipsync, subtitles are also often altered for timing, & all translation has to be adaptive to some extent.

Though I'll definitely admit that our manga translation can be a problem for DB; it's not as good as Steve Simmons' subs, even if its the original work (language aside), so it's kind of a rock & a hard place there. What can ya do, I suppose.

[DrakenballP]

I question the dialogue heavily in the English Dubbed versions and whether or not it actually is similar to that of the Japanese Subbed version. When I watch Dragon Ball Kai (I believe episode 11 it was) when Vegeta and Gohan are face-to-face, I question if without their lips moving, are they actually thinking those words they've said in their head in the Japanese version, or is this only a Dubbed version thing.

So the Japanese version is where I stick unless if I'm watching the series with my fiancee.

[TheGreatness25]

I started watching Dragon Ball Z when the first episode aired in syndication. I liked it a lot. By 1998, Dragon Ball Z was super popular. I mean super, super popular. In the infancy of the internet, childhood curiosity overtook me and many of my classmates, so we started looking up anything and everything Dragon Ball Z related. That's when it was exposed that Z actually finished in Japan and they even had another series (GT). It was fascinating. I also came across "Dragon Ball Z Uncensored," so I knew that there were changes.

I was first hit with just how different the U.S. dub was around early 1999 when I saw Dragon Ball Z airing in Spanish on Telemundo. I was such a huge fan that I knew almost every scene and piece of dialog from that episode. However, the Spanish version had no edits or cuts, so I saw a lot of things that I didn't see in the U.S. version. So at that point, I knew just how heavily edited the U.S. version was. Then, in September my parents bought me the Japanese version of Final Bout and Greatest Legends for PS1 and I got my first real exposure to the Japanese voices. It was a little jarring at first, but I quickly got used to it.

Fast forward to 2003 (I believe) when I got my very first Dragon Ball DVD (it was Path to Power). At that point I decided that I was going to collect the series on DVD because I loved it so much. Well, I switched the audio to Japanese. By the time all of the Z "bricks" finished coming out, I had seen all of Dragon Ball in Japanese (I had all of the singles DVDs), all of Dragon Ball GT in Japanese (also had all of the singles DVDs), and Dragon Ball Z in Japanese (a combination of having the single DVDs and the bricks).

I'd say that I watch a lot of Dragon Ball in Japanese, but also a fair share in English too. I don't hate the dub and while I think the Japanese version is vastly superior in every measurable way, I never had an issue with the dub, as I see it as a totally different show that I have nostalgia toward. After all, I finished watching all of Z in English before I watched it in Japanese, so there's always going to be a special place in my hart for it.

[Gokuto]

I got into the franchise fairly late and was introduced to it via Dragon Ball Kai, English dubbed.
I've never liked the DBZ English dub for that reason, as it always seemed sub par to me. I always watched it dubbed, had all my games set to English, and admittedly I thought I couldn't stand the Japanese dub at first.

But then Resurrection F rolled around, and with it came Dragon Ball Super. I was impatient and jumped right in, saw both in Japanese and was charmed immediately. I fell in love with Nozawa's Goku right away, and soon enough I found myself preferring the Japanese version by a lot. Now I'll always take it subbed over dubbed, anyday, any time. I prefer the sub voices for almost every single character save for a few exceptions (like the Ginyu Force, Raditz, Nappa, etc...The characters that tend to have more "generic" voices in the Japanese dub).

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

Mine was in 2008 (I have watched clips here and there before then) when Yo Son Goku and his Friends Return and since their was no dub, I watched it sub. As well the Bardock special, Battle of Gods and Super I have watched sub since then.

[DrBriefsCat]

Back when the only legit English releases were the BLT/Ocean dubs of the show, to see the rest of the franchise you pretty much had to watch it in Japanese. I remember seeing Movie 8 at a time thinking it would never be dubbed.

[Ripper 30]

For me it was a Little Different, as a Kid in 6th or 7th Grade it was the First time I got into Dragon Ball through my Native Hindi Dub of Dragon Ball and it was the Goku vs Freeza Fight and I also remember we had DBZ Toys in Happy Meal for the first and last time so I had the ssj Goku Toy and I was like when will this guy appear in the show because I didn't knew shit about Dragon Ball at that time so one of my Friends told me this Golden Haired Warrior is same black coloured spiky haired Dude who is fighting Freeza so I just got hooked to TV to see what happens and as I kept on watching it I noticed this show was different to the previous shows I watched like "Pokemon","Beyblade","Digimon",etc. And a lot more violent and then from there on I became a fan although the Hindi dub was based off Ocean/FUNi Dubs but for the Saiyan and initial part of Namek Arc we had Shuki Levy music but from the point FUNimation took over we had Kikuchi's Music but because they had to match the nonstop music atmosphere of Faulconer's Music in Hindi dub, they placed random kikuchi track in silent moments as well where there was no music in Japanese version but still there was something about kikuchi music that was unique and this is almost a decade old Experience still I love the kikuchi music and from there to the point where kid Boo is born they stopped showing dbz in India and slowly I started loosing interest in it because at that time I was almost a Teenager but there was no Internet access and also my curiosity was less but I had this game called DBZ Mugen Edition 2007 which had a mix of Japanese, Latin and English voices and most of the time it was the Kikuchi music so I remember playing that game a lot as a child and sometimes after watching a Certain Episode I would play the game with the character featured in that episode and all but as a child I wouldn't care much about Voices as long as it was Dbz to me but after sometimes I lost interest in that game and as dbz wasn't airing on TV so I stopped caring for the show for almost 5 years until in College one of my friend reintroduced me to the show as he had some movies and he used to Download DB Super Episode from the Lab and slowly I got my interest back into the show and I remember in 2015 we had full Episodes and sagas of DBZ uploaded on YouTube not only in English but Japanese as well so I watched all of Android and cell saga in Dub on YouTube and later on Buu Saga too and initially I used to think the dub is awesome and all until I watched some Super Jaiyan's Dub changes Clips and also some Geekdom Videos and later on I got to know how the dub changes a lot of shit and the 2008 Special "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return" was my first exposure to the complete Japanese episode and I slowly started watching Japanese Version Clips on YouTube and eventually started preferring it due to the Audio, the Music, the oozaru roar and also they have silence in sub which adds a lot to the scene and then there were some Channels which used to meme the FUNi dub and then I got to know Kai Dub wasn't bad and so and now I prefer Japanese version more with The Exception of Kai

[Cure Dragon 255]

I'm sorry but ITS REALLY difficult to read all that without any paragraphs. Separate some of that block of text into paragraphs please.

[ShaneisMC]

Grew up watching the dub as a kid on Cartoon Network. Loved it to death. Years later as a young adult and with Kai having released plus my not having really watched any of the series at all in quite sometime i decided to watch the entirety of everything again in english. I watched it all and then started watching Kai. I really didn't like it at first. I started getting back really into the series though and taking it seriously as an adult and not a little kid so I wanted to truly get to experience everything. I saw everything in Japanese after I got all the Dragon Boxes and everything. I loved it. During that same general period of time as I grew to understand the characters for who they truly were and how the series was intended to be and also being able to begin to truly appreciate just how much Funimation had grown in their talent and dedication all around I fell in love with English Kai as well. Now here I am today and my stance is pretty simple. I am perfectly happy watching either the original Japanese or English Kai. Both are wonderful. I don't understand the whole dub vs sub thing. IMO I much rather they just BOTH be awesome because then it just gives me a good excuse to watch the show twice as much.

[MozillaVulpix]

I think for me, it was the kinds of things I was exposed to. I first decided to find out about the story of Dragon Ball by watching DBZA, and that already had things like "Tenshinhan" and "Kaio-sama" (even as a joke) and Battle Point Unlimited (as well as Head-Cha-La). It definitely didn't have any Faulconer music, and MasakoX was more of a match of...Masako Nozawa than Sean Schemmel. And I definitely felt the tonal shift when I saw random clips from the series, but I also saw a lot of different stuff on Youtube kind of explaining the reasons why that version was the way it was in a way that made it sound interesting. There was another Dragon Ball Dissection not by Gaffer Tape which only did a few early DB arcs that I saw years ago that kind of explained why Nozawa was still voicing Goku and why it made total sense in a way I could totally understand. So, basically, I got educated as to why the Japanese version was different before I had a chance to cringe at it. And, to be honest, I cringed at watching the English dub more than listening to Nozawa screaming in Japanese, so it probably would have happened anyway.

I think I honestly got sold the moment I found out the Japanese version had insert songs.

Plus, when I found out Kanzenshuu had all of this information purely about the Japanese version, it just felt like the more appealing option to get into.