What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

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What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by MajinMan » Fri May 26, 2017 6:37 am

I know that most people here started out with the English dub (or any other dub), but a lot of us have converted over to the original Japanese version. I want to know how some of you guys convereted to the Japanese version. Was it the voices? Music? Something else?

My story is basically this (TLDR way below); I started out watching it dubbed on TV like most people. I never really cared for the Japanese version. I never acknowledged its existence. Then around 2010 or so, I found a reinterest in the series and heard about Kai. I found Japanese episodes on the internet of the Cell arc, which I think was currently airing or finishing up, and started watching them. At first I could not tell the difference between Goku or Gohan, and I thought they sounded a bit silly. Contrary to most people, I actually did not hate Nozawa's voice. I just thought it was funny and weird. I don't remember my opinions on the rest of the cast. I think I liked Cell (even though he wasn't nearly as good in Kai). I honestly cannot remember why I decided to watch the Japanese version. It was probably because it was further ahead or something.

Fast forward a year or two, and I see that Dragon Ball is getting a new movie. I was really excited and started diving back again into the series, this time deeper than before. I looked up clips online to refresh my memory, and even started to get into the American soundtrack. I remember looking up Faulconer tracks and listening to them. I did not really pay much attention to the Japanese soundtrack. I really loved the original Dragon Ball's soundtrack though, but the Z specific music I was completely unfamiliar with. I even went with the crowd that claimed DBZ fit better with Faulconer, and DB fit better with Kikuchi (I regret those days). I'm emphasising music for a reason because it will be important later in the story. During this spree, I THOUGHT I enjoyed Faulconer, but the more I heard "his" music, the more loud and annoying it got. There were a few tracks here and there that I always enjoyed, but most of the soundtrack was becoming obnoxious and unbearable. I convinced myself to think that I liked it. Though I still tolerated the voice acting and was unaware of how much the script was changed from the original.

Now when Battle of Gods was released, I was still a dub only fan (not counting my Kai experience). I looked up the spoilers and saw all this stuff about a Super Saiyan God, Beerus, and Whis. It intrigued me so much that I had to see the movie as soon as possible, dub be damned. I eventually did see it, and I loved it. This movie made me become a complete hardcore fan. I still wasn't a sub fan though, and only watched it subbed because that's all there was, but I still didn't hate it or anything.

I started to research deeper and even looked at a few Kanzenshuu stuff without really knowing this site's history and importance. During my research, I found out that there were a number of people calling out the English dub for being inaccurate, poorly acted, butchered, etc. I was like, "Huh, is it really that bad? It can't be. Most people say it's better than the Japanese version."

Because this intrigued me so much, I decided to finally look up Japanese clips of Z to see if they really were better than the dub. And what happened next caught me off guard. The pure POWER and EMOTION in the scenes compared to the English dub version was night and day. The number one thing that stuck out was the use of silence during scenes. Remember when I said that the music in the dub getting obnoxious and unbearable was important? This is why. The fact that there was no constant music blaring in my ears sold me instantly. I looked up more and more clips, and I got more and more hooked. The English dub sounded terrible now. I could not stand hearing it. All my nostalgia and feelings for it disappeared over time. Sure, I will always remember my younger days when I watched it on TV fondly, but my connection with the dub specifically was no more. I also loved Z's Japanese soundtrack just the same as DB's.

Because of my newly found interest of the Japanese version, I started looking at the manga. I looked up the differences between the anime and manga, and eventually read the whole thing. After that I decided to watch Dragon Ball from start to finish in Japanese, and became an official sub fan for life ever since. Now, I appreciate Funimations much improved scripts, accuracy, and voice acting these days, but I still prefer the Japanese versions. That is my story. Oh, and along the way, I signed up to be a forum member for Kanzenshuu. So there's that, too.

TLDR: I watched it dubbed as a kid. I heard of Kai and watched the Cell arc in Japanese as it aired (don't remember why it was in Japanese). Then I heard of a new movie coming out and started looking up dub clips and music. Faulconer started to get annoying, even though I "thought" I liked his music (fake love). Battle of Gods came out, and I watched it in Japanese. Loved it. Started researching stuff about the series. Found Kanzenshuu. Heard dub sucked. Checked it out for myself. Yup, it sucked. Amazed at the emotion and silent moments in the Japanese version. Read the manga then watched anime in Japanese from start to finish. Sub fan ever since, with respect for the newly dubbed material for being accurate and better acted.
Last edited by MajinMan on Fri May 26, 2017 6:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by PsionicWarrior » Fri May 26, 2017 6:41 am

First version I've seen was French dub, then English dub, and lastly in original language. What made me switch was IIRC some scene I saw on youtube which was subbed and I just found Nozawa's screams to be absolutely fantastic. The kid voice bothered me at first, but got used to it pretty fast and also love the symbolism that his voice somehow reflects his kinda immature mind for some things, in my opinion.
Also the music, original score just beats it all.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by TheBigBoy » Fri May 26, 2017 7:57 am

I remember discovering Greg Werner's site back in the "Ocean dub" days that had a bunch of screenshots (often devoid of context) of stuff that was missing from the English dub. I loved the dub at the time, but it was probably the first time I felt that kind of "nerdy righteous outrage." Dragon Ball Z wasn't a kids show, it had blood! Nudity! Swearing (at least according to the fansubs)! It was a cool show for ADULTS, man! I wanted to watch the original version but didn't have a way of doing so outside of spending hours trying to download a 30 second clip of a blurry fansub. I liked and heard what I saw, however.

I remember watching the uncensored Ginyu Assault tape when it first came out with a couple friends. One of the first shots is of Vegeta's face caked in blood. We all threw up a cheer when we saw that...then groaned when we started hearing the voices. I absolutely hated the music too. I liked the Japanese version but didn't have a good way to access it until years later.

The dub has improved immeasurably, the scripts are more accurate and the voices are decent (though I chalk this up to low standards), but I pretty much exclusively watch the Japanese version now.
Last edited by TheBigBoy on Fri May 26, 2017 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by simtek34 » Fri May 26, 2017 8:13 am

Its 2011, I've been watching DBZ Kai on 4Kids for a while now, then while on vacation, I discover NickToons! They were Way ahead of The CW on the show, but we didn't have NickToons on our cable.I was begging my dad to upgrade the cable after I found out. After binging DBZ Kai on NickToos.com, I had to see more. But NickToons was on hiatus after Episode 63, due to the Yamamoto Scandal, So I decided to watch the Japanese version on a Pirated Website, me and my sister were watching it like crazy! I still remember seeing Gohan, Trunks, and Bulma finding Cell's Egg. I was also thinking "Whats up with all the Sans and Kuns etc", but now I know they are honorifics, I kept on watching until I realized "Where is Episode 98?" due to the Earthquake. I ventured into the DBZ dub and decided to watch the Missing Kai episode and the Other World Budokai stuff. Luckily, it was with the Japanese score. i kept on waiting for the Boo arc (or should I say Buu Saga) to come out then in 2012, the blog post came out. After that, every once in a while, I would Google "DBZ Kai Buu Saga" Every couple months while still watching on 4Kids/Vortexx. Then, on April 7, 2014 I was at a friends house, IT CAME, I started watching the Fansubs Week by week unil I started to Lose Interest in Dragon Ball, which happened to be a couple weeks before Super was announced. i came back around early 2016, then Finished Kai, then I found about Super... And now I watch Exclusively in Japanese Besides currently watching Kai, because my sister and I have been waiting 5 years.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by VegettoEX » Fri May 26, 2017 8:19 am

For me it was pretty much availability. I got into the series right alongside Z's American debut in 1996, so there simply wasn't an English dub that existed for me to watch beyond what was airing for the first time each weekend. Over that first year as I fell in love with the series and had that burning desire to learn more, it was just consume-consume-consume, and that was obviously the original Japanese version. That's all there was if I wanted more of the story.

(And, ya' know, the voices and music just EVER SO SLIGHTLY grabbed me and I was further hooked from there...)

When "my" dub ended in 1998, there really weren't any compelling reasons to stick around and patiently wait for more dubbed material. The in-house dub was saved for what I can now recognize and concede as straight-up, miserable "hate watching" in 1999. Once that started taking a toll on my enjoyment of the overall franchise — combined with FUNimation's bilingual DVD release in 2000 — the dub-drop was complete. I no longer had a need to watch it because that's all I knew about, I no longer had a need to watch it because that's all that was available to me, and I no longer had a need to watch it out of any sense of personal fandom/reporting obligation.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Fri May 26, 2017 11:17 am

I wanted to watch DBZ in it's purest form and that's where I found it back in mid 2000's.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Ajay » Fri May 26, 2017 11:31 am

To sum it up as simply as possible, here's a timeline of what lead me to the Japanese side of things:

- Grew up with the weird mishmash of Ocean/Funi/Westwood and whatever else you can think of that aired in the UK
- Revisited the series from time to time, but found that the quality of the dub was much stronger in my memory than reality
- Checked out Dragon Ball Kai's dub since the better acting and promise of accurate scripts appealed to older me
- Got bit by the Dragon Ball bug again
- Realisation that Kai of course only covers one part of the series
- Adamant refusal to watch trash dubs and/or wait for international companies to catch up
- Swap to Japanese and never look back

It was a pretty natural transition. I watched every other anime/foreign movie in its original language, so checking out Dragon Ball in English initially was just a familiarity thing. Swapping to English Kai killed all familiarity, so I kinda just went into everything else with an open mind. Didn't take very long to get used to the Japanese cast.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Basaku » Fri May 26, 2017 11:38 am

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)

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Super_Divine_Genki » Fri May 26, 2017 11:59 am

Nice story, MajinMan, and an interesting road traveled. Glad that you found your way to the light. :p

I mentioned some things in my Kanzenshuu introduction, but here goes...

My story with DBZ began in late 1996 with the Ocean dub. I found it by pure accident during the time when it was basically Nappa VS All, or maybe shortly before that as my memory is a bit foggy there. To this day, I still find those voices in themselves to be mostly what I'd prefer an English dub for a DB series to sound like, with the extra help of improved directing and accurate scripts of course. The original Pioneer/Ocean trilogy of DBZ movies 1-3 are the only evidence that I need for my opinion on that. Sadly, a production overhaul took place and DBZ went on an indefinite hiatus -- that is, until new episodes emerged straight to VHS around late Spring 1999. Well, we all know the story from there...

There wasn't a particular event that made me switch over -- it was more of a curiosity. In those days, I had no idea about Japanese anime or that DBZ was originally a series produced in Japan. My first exposure to its original language was when I'd purchased the Uncut and bilingual DBZ Movie 1 Dead Zone DVD, sometime in 1998 -- probably around the time that DBZ had began re-running on Toonami after it had been bought out from its original syndication run.

*Sidenote: So, yeah. For all of those that aren't so fond that Super is a weekly TV series, many of us from back in the original 1996-1997 English dub run had to wait a whole week for another 20 minute episode of a DB series as well (later on it became 2 per week at some point). It wasn't until the Toonami era in 1998 that viewers got to see DBZ pretty much every day. Yep, censored Episodes 1-53 over and over and over again. But, by that time, I'd already seen all produced episodes through its original every Saturday morning run.

Anyway, Dead Zone DVD featured the original language track as well as a few bonus clips of withheld content in its original language under Features. I watched the film on a PC in Japanese (this DVD featured the original Japanese music track only) and then watched the bonus clips, and that was that. There was no adjusting, and I warmed up to Nozawa-san and all other seiyuu without thinking anything of it. And that was back when I found the English dub to be good, before the Great DBZ Depression of 1999. Yeah, before "in-house", "Faulconer", "hardcore", and "DeeBeeZee" became the norm.

*Sidenote #2: The Captain Ginyu Assault/Doublecross VHS's were rolled out in 1999 -- after I'd waited for over a year for new DBZ content -- and they were even Uncut! Long story short, it was after the following VHS releases when I'd heard Piccolo's new dub voice, that I actually began watching the series... muted. Yep, I would purchase new tapes and just *watch* the story unfold because I just had to see where it was going. The new voices and new music were so bad and cheap that it made me feel unwell. :(

Finally, bilingual DVD's of "Season 3" began rolling out in mid 2000, in which I'd purchased a DVD player specifically for that occasion. Once I'd heard Horikawa-san's Vegeta for the first time -- as well as Nakao-san and others -- that was officially that. And the heaven sent original music was here too!! It was like a life altering experience. :P

I still hold a soft spot for the Ocean Productions dub and have sometimes wondered "what could've been?". But, no English dub could replace Dragon Ball's original audio for me.
Last edited by Super_Divine_Genki on Fri May 26, 2017 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Saikyo no Senshi » Fri May 26, 2017 12:42 pm

My story is total opposite. I had no need to convert. My first exposure to Dragon Ball was with the original version in 2008. The JSAT SP that is. If anything, its dubs that I found just a mere curiosity that too in my early fandom years. Now, I'd say for a couple of years infact, I don't even have that curiosity left. I have like zero interest in dubs for reasons Basaku already mentioned.

In many ways, I'm very happy and glad that I wasn't a fan during the whole Toonami era or whatever. That era totally fractured what Dragon Ball meant and represented and to this day that thing still brings out some of the worst fans in Dragon Ball fandom I've ever seen with zero respect for where the show is made and the people who made the show that they love so much. Again, glad I wasn't part of that era.

My post is kind of totally off-topic cause like I said I didn't need any conversion, but thought I'd share my story as well.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Ki Breaker » Fri May 26, 2017 1:13 pm

It was super, I had to watch the show and waiting for the dub was pointless..
Japanese version grew on me..

It's a matter of familiarity, now that I was familiar with Japanese I could enjoy the Japanese charm as well..

Dub or sub, it honestly doesn't change much for me, I am already familiar with intricacies even the original show dosen't explain, little changes dosen't spoil anything, it only adds a different flavor
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by NitroEX » Fri May 26, 2017 1:25 pm

I had already been familiar with the Japanese voices from playing Final Bout, Ultimate Battle 22 & Budokai (PAL version) so the Japanese cast had never been alien to me. Because I was introduced to it all as a kid I didn't seem to share that anti-Nozawa prejudice that most English fans seem to have. I've always tended to enjoy novel experiences and even at a young age had a growing interest with Japanese & Chinese culture (thanks to anime and foreign movies) so it was a side of the franchise I was already open to exploring.

Budokai 3 and Funi's movie singles kept me satiated after the series ended on TV but it wasn't until the inception of sites like Youtube and Dailymotion and the abundance of DBZ clips/AMVs that I became convinced to eventually revisit the series again. Unfortunately the only available version I could find was the Funi dub, the problem being; I had grown up with the Ocean/Westwood/Blue Water dubs on UK TV so I found the vast majority of the Funi dub very hard to enjoy. The in-house cast had always been a tough pill to swallow but it was slightly remedied in the movies and Budokai 3 thanks to the use of popular metal and Kenji Yamamoto's music. Similarly, the Blue Water cast was much easier to enjoy thanks to Akihito Tokunaga's soundtrack making GT vastly more enjoyable than Funi/Menza's drab score.

Anyway, eventually I was able to locate recordings of the Ocean/Westwood dubs and finally enjoy the show as I remembered it but the absence of certain episodes required me to use another source. Since I hadn't seen the Japanese version at the time, I used the opportunity to finally take the plunge and found it much easier to enjoy than the Funi version with the Faulconer soundtrack, no doubt my experience with the video games helped make the transition easier as I already knew what to expect (in terms of voice). Around that time I was also introduced to the Ocean/Pioneer English dubs of movies 1-3 with Kikuchi's soundtrack, none of which ever saw a release in the UK. It was a fitting way to round off my personal experience with the franchise prior to Kai and everything else that followed.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Chuquita » Fri May 26, 2017 1:29 pm

Shallow reason: early fandom me was blown away by how amazingly cute Z Japanese Gokû sounded and how damn cool Z Japanese Vegeta sounded. I loved both their original voices instantly.

Deeper reason: I've always favored the uncut, original version of shows and movies. Having other versions is fine too and they can be enjoyable, but I still want to also have access to the original.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri May 26, 2017 1:29 pm

Ki Breaker wrote:It was super, I had to watch the show and waiting for the dub was pointless..
Japanese version grew on me..

It's a matter of familiarity, now that I was familiar with Japanese I could enjoy the Japanese charm as well..

Dub or sub, it honestly doesn't change much for me, I am already familiar with intricacies even the original show dosen't explain, little changes dosen't spoil anything, it only adds a different flavor
This is exactly how it is for me. I tend to be more neutral on the dub vs sub debate. As far as I'm concerned if there is good voice acting and writing in both I can enjoy them both. As for growing to like the Japanese version it was Super that really got me into it. I was unfamiliar with the cast originally but from my perspective it was new Sragon Ball content, I had to watch it and with The Final Chapters dub not released at the time I knew the Super dub would be a while so I jumped on it while I wasn't behind on the series and never looked back.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Fri May 26, 2017 4:16 pm

Despite my love for the franchise and Nozawa, Tanaka, Horikawa and Furukawa I have yet to convert. I AM watching Super subbed but that's it. The Latin American dub will always be the version I go to and enjoy the most.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by PelicanDynasty » Fri May 26, 2017 4:21 pm

I've yet to make the switch, and go ahead and call me an idiot or whatever, but I really spend way too much time looking at the captions when watching a subtitled episode. I can't get into the Japanese version pretty much because of that alone.

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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri May 26, 2017 4:34 pm

Funny, I never consciously made the switch, it's just something that kinda happened when I first decided to watch through the entire series. Most other anime I'd watched had been subtitled, so it was only natural that, despite warnings from many filthy casuals, I'd go with what I was used to. I'd played previous video games and watched some of the show in English before, so I technically did switch from one to the other, but I never had any attachment, or really even familiarity with the Funimation cast.

Recently, however, I've actually switched back over to English, since reading subtitles over a moving screen began causing me nausea akin to carsickness. Still not sure how I'm going to move forward with this series. I'm considering learning Japanese, but I had planned on learning all of the romance languages first, so I'd have to put it on hold for quite a while.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by TrunksTrevelyan0064 » Fri May 26, 2017 5:29 pm

It happened gradually, slowly, but very naturally. In my experience, the longer you remain a Dragon Ball fan, the deeper you dig, the more you get exposed to the original version, the more you grow to appreciate it. My Dragon Ball journey began in 2000-2003, when various English dubs of "Z" came on TV in the Netherlands. The FUNimation cast was the first one I was exposed to, so naturally I developed an attachment to and nostalgia for it.

Then the 'Budokai' games started coming out, which kind of forced me to "endure" the Japanese cast as there was no English voice option. I remember wishing there was, but by the time Dragon Ball games started including such an option, I had already come to prefer the original cast. Learning about the various inaccuracies and mistranslations in the dubs (thank you, Daizenshuu EX / Kanzenshuu!), my appreciation of the Japanese version grew more and more. I've always had an affinity for language, so errors in translation can really get on my nerves. Especially where names are concerned - I'm of the opinion that names should remain unchanged wherever possible. For example, I read the first 6 Harry Potter books in English, then got the 7th in Dutch as a present. When I tried to read that I got so confused by the different names. "Is this a new character or is it one that already appeared in a previous book?"

Again, the longer you remain a Dragon Ball fan, the more you learn about it. Not just in-universe stuff, but about what went on behind the scenes, who Akira Toriyama is and what he envisioned. At this point I adore the original cast and the Kikuchi score. There's so much to love, watching the original while basking in the knowledge that it's the closest thing to Akira Toriyama's vision you're going to get. Aside from the manga, of course, which is one of my most prized possessions.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by Robo4900 » Fri May 26, 2017 10:05 pm

My first exposure to Dragon Ball was through the Saban, Funimation, Westwood, and Blue Water dubs on TV; primarily the Westwood dub of Z, and the Blue Water dub of GT, though.

Later on, I got into the original Dragon Ball series via my dad downloading episodes, and found I enjoyed it more than Z or GT. On top of my subjective preference of the original series, there was also the actually pretty decent English dub, and the fact it kept the original score.
I kind of soldiered on through the failings of the Funimation dub, despite my heavy preference for Ocean's voices, and my general distaste for Funimation's dub scripts. Once I got to GT, though, I gave up about half-way through the Baby arc.

When Kai came along, I really enjoyed its better dubbing, its great look, and the fact it felt like just a more concentrated form of what I liked in Dragon Ball Z, although because I'd already seen Dragon Ball Z not long ago, and I guess because it was still the Funimation voices, I never watched it all the way through. (At one point, I considered waiting until the Boo arc was out so I could binge it all. But we're 8 years later, and that's only kind of happening now)
Anyway, after the news of Super being a thing hit a few years ago, I decided to watch through the original three series again. I watched it all dubbed, and that was a rather poor choice. Once I got to the end, I started watching some bits and pieces in Japanese, some of the movies too, and then eventually Super. And now, I only watch in Japanese, really.

The only time I will ever watch dubbed now is for the Ocean voices. The Japanese version of the show does everything I've always liked about Dragon Ball, but without all the stuff I don't like about Dragon Ball. The only way it could be better for me would be if the voices sounded like the Ocean voices. But honestly, the Japanese voices kick ass, and if it weren't for nostalgia, I'd probably prefer them to the Ocean voices.
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Re: What made you switch over to the Japanese version?

Post by precita » Sat May 27, 2017 12:18 am

The dub was universally hated online by hardcore Dragonball fans back in the early 2000's, so I wanted to know why. So I was curious and watched the Japanese version, but I still watch the dub. Admittedly if I didn't have nostalgia for the FUNi dub I probably wouldn't rewatch it, but as they say...it's hard to move on from something you watched as a young kid or teen.

Also watching all of Super in Japanese since it's debut has helped. Really enjoy the Japanese cast in Super.

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