To you OG Ocean Dub Watchers...

[TheBigBoy]

When did you start watching DBZ, what channel and what timeslot? And I'm talking about the initial, highly cut up Ocean dub run.

For me, it was Fox 59 in Indianapolis. It aired at 6:00 AM on Saturdays. I had heard about Dragon Ball Z from various game rags. They all made it sound like the show (and the lousy video games) were the most mindblowing thing. I had to check it out. I was hooked from day one.

For the second season, they upped it to TWO episodes every Saturday from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM. I still remember that cool intro they had with the CG Dragon Balls before Rock The Dragon (Stay tuned for DRAGON. BALL. ZEEE. Coming next!) While there were twice as many episodes, it also meant they ran through them twice as quickly. Voluntarily watching the Fake Namek arc multiple times probably would hold up in court as evidence of insanity, but anyway...

I remember looking at the TV guide in September 1998 and noticing DBZ was no longer on the schedule. I was really disappointed, but I was also completely burnt out on the show at that point (Bulma and the crab being the only new episode in months will do that to you...). It took the Funimation dub, and subsequently discovering the original version to reignite my interest in the series.

Were your experiences similar? I know DBZ aired at different times in different markets.

[ABED]

It was syndication, so I don't recall what the channel was. I just remember that it was Channel 20 in northern VA.

[TheGreatness25]

I know it aired on Saturday morning on 11 in NY, which was WB (became CW). I also remember it was on at 6:00 am on Sundays. I remember watching "Tree of Might" as if it were 3 episodes and I remember thinking, "Well this doesn't really fall in line with the story." Because they presented it as if it was following Goku coming to Namek.

[Metalwario64]

I remember seeing it back in the Moltar days of Toonami, and the first episode I probably glanced at was when Gohan, Krillin and Bulma were getting ready to go to Namek. I then finally sat down and decided to watch it around the time Vegeta fought Dodoria I believe. It was around that point at least, and I was so confused when the show started back at the first episode when Goku finally reached Namek. I was glad to be able to catch up though.

I also remember Toonami showing the first 3 Z films (they once showed Tree of Might in the edited TV format, and then another time edited together back as the original film, but it was still the TV dub). I could tell that the music was older, and more traditional, and I also really enjoyed it (and I immediately recognized several pieces when I first saw the Japanese version a couple of years later), but I preferred the Levy score because it was the one I was introduced to the series through, and it was "cooler". On that note, the thought of censorship never entered my mind, and I believed that all of the "next dimension" stuff was just "cool" ways to those things, since for some reason when I was a kid Dragon Ball Z was like, the definition of "cool" for me or something. I remember when Goku said to Krillin "don't sink down to [Vegeta's] level", that it was cool lingo for "don't impale that sword through his heart"!

Anyway, unfortunately, the series restarted 2 or 3 more times before they finally started dubbing the series again, with the new voice cast and music that stood out like a sore thumb to me. The entire tone felt different, and even back then I could tell it was cheaper to a degree (and I never questioned anything back then. ), but I didn't care, because it was more Dragon Ball Z, and that was all that I wanted. I was always curious as to what the series would have been like if the Ocean actors had continued, and around 2002 I discovered through clips on the internet that it did continue in other countries. By then I had gotten used to FUNimation's cast (and I had seen a decent amount of the series in Japanese, so that was another version to watch), so the Ocean cast was a passing curiosity for me at that point.

I still watch the Saban era Ocean dub to this day though, because that's the most nostalgic product from the series for me, and there are genuinely good performances in it. The movies still hold up extremely well.

[Boo Machine]

For me it aired weekdays, sometime in the afternoon, I don't remember anymore, whenever Toonami was airing in Texas. Channel 35 Cartoon network, Which is channel 39 now, so I guess it could be next to the other childrens channels like Disney on 38 and Nickolodeon on 40.

I remember fliping through channels, until I get to Cartoon Network and to my surprise I see a cartoon that didn't look like anything else. A spiky headed dude in orange and this green dude were fighting this long haired man and failing at it completely. Then the episode ends and "Gasp" the conflict wasn't concluded?! I thought episodes were supposed to have an entire story, but you're telling me this one continues!? I got to know what happens next!

My life ended that day.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I love you topic Creator. I always wanted to know about the syndication channels people watch DBZ on but was too afraid to ask!

[TheBigBoy]

I love you topic Creator. I always wanted to know about the syndication channels people watch DBZ on but was too afraid to ask!

Thanks! Yeah, most people's nostalgia for the dub is for when it aired on Toonami. Mine is tied into getting up at the ass crack of dawn on Saturdays rather than watching it on weekday afternoons.

Watching this cut up dub also gave me the opportunity to discover the show I had been watching was heavily censored. I remember after the initial syndication run, I found Greg Werner's old site, which had a gallery of scenes that were censored or cut. There was blood! Swearing! Some blonde chick getting drunk in a bar! I was getting ripped off!

I know it aired on Saturday morning on 11 in NY, which was WB (became CW). I also remember it was on at 6:00 am on Sundays. I remember watching "Tree of Might" as if it were 3 episodes and I remember thinking, "Well this doesn't really fall in line with the story." Because they presented it as if it was following Goku coming to Namek.

I had that exact same experience. New episodes of the Namek arc hadn't been aired in forever. All of a sudden, they're back on Earth? Why is Piccolo and company alive? Who is this guy that looks like Goku? I completely racked my brain trying to figure out when it was taking place.

I got my chance to watch the uncut dubs of the first 3 movies not too long after. A neighbor kid who collected anime bought them. I was really impressed - the animation and fight choreography were tremendous. Plus the music was so much better than what we got on the TV show!

[Gerky]

Channel 10, during Cheez TV, at 8am starting in January (I think, whenever it started airing, I was there) 2000.

That is a long time ago.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I watched it on Cartoon Network UK and AKA, which was a programming block exclusive to our market. As far as I remember it was around 4 or 5pm and then half 7 on AKA for repeats.

Although, unlike the US and most other countries we didn't get Dragon Ball Z until 2000 so we went straight from season 2 to 3 without the long wait.

[Robo4900]

I used to watch the show on the various incarnations of CN/CNX/Toonami the show was on here in the UK with my brother. We got the Ocean dub for basically the whole run(Episodes 54-107 being the exceptions), although I don't remember seeing any of the first 53. I was quite young when it was running, so I would basically just watch it when it was on(IIRC, it was mostly reruns), but I remember them airing it in a rather confusing order most of the time.
My brother watched almost the entire run as it aired, though. I think he actually skipped a few of the Funimation episodes, though(I remember him telling me he didn't watch a lot of the filler between the end of the Freeza arc, and the start of the Androids arc. Most notably, he entirely missed Garlic Jr.).

[TheGreatness25]

It must have been a trip for U.K. fans. For us U.S. fans it was like, "Oh new episodes! Hey, why's the music different? Why the heck does Vegeta sound like that? What is going on?!" For the U.K. fans it must have been even more perplexing because not only did you guys have that, but then it was like, "Well... the voices are back now... over 50 episodes later... Why's the music sound like that? What is going on?!" lol

[Robo4900]

The way I understand it, we didn't mind the changing music, we were really bothered about Funimation's voices, and we were happy to have Ocean back in their second run.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Honestly at the time I didn't notice the change in cast between Ocean and Funimation. I probably would have if the Funimation cast had done their own thing from the get-go, but Sabat's Drummond impression blended in perfectly with the latter actor's performance, despite how bad it initially was, as did all the other cast members with their respective imitations. I was just happy to see more Dragon Ball. The music change was fine too, because after Faulconer it changed to Keenlyside and Mitchell anyway so by that point it just felt like each part of the dub had its own tone, which was nice.

[NitroEX]

Honestly at the time I didn't notice the change in cast between Ocean and Funimation. I probably would have if the Funimation cast had done their own thing from the get-go, but Sabat's Drummond impression blended in perfectly with the latter actor's performance, despite how bad it initially was,

My impression was different, I remember noticing the change to Sabat despite him attempting a Drummond impression. That being said, the voices I remember hating most were Piccolo's, Tien's and Krillin's as they were distinctly different compared to their predecessors. As for the music, aside from a few exceptions like Trunks first appearance, I found it rather dull and unmemorable. I even have a memory of nearly falling asleep during Frieza saga reruns with that awful 80's droning synth paired with Linda Young's boring/dry delivery. I actually enjoyed the music in the Westwood episodes at the time as it was quite lively and reminded me of 90s action toons I grew up with such as X-Men and Mighty Max. I hadn't seen the Megaman cartoon at all so all the music I heard in DBZ was new to me. I had seen Monster Rancher but by the time the Buu arc rolled around I believe Monster Rancher had been off TV so I didn't notice any repeated tracks from that show.

The music change was fine too, because after Faulconer it changed to Keenlyside and Mitchell anyway so by that point it just felt like each part of the dub had its own tone, which was nice.

I felt the same. I especially liked how dark and foreboding the Saiyan saga felt in comparison.

[TheGreatness25]

Oh yes. I wanted to say that the Ocean/Westwood music is not bad at all. Yes, if you're a person who's only seen the Funimation dub, watching a 3 minute clip on YouTube, you don't have time to really get used to it all. If you watch an episode or two all the way through, it's really not bad at all. It's not worse than Funimation (except for some delivery here or there, but let's not pretend that Funimation isn't just as guilty). The music isn't "Dragon Ball," but it does remind me of 90's cartoons, which I'm perfectly fine with.

The shift from Ocean to Funimation was very noticeable for me, especially since we had "Z-Day" where they played episodes "52" and "53," back-to-back followed by episode "54," which was totally different in tone, voices, music, everything. I expected the Ocean voices, so watching the Westwood dub, it's like, "Well, that's how I imagined they'd sound in 1999." But I don't want to blow it out of proportion, I was a kid and while it was strange, I very quickly got used to it and rolled with it. I think it took me like two days to get over it. I was a kid and a massive fan; at that point, I didn't really care what they did with it as long as I got to see it.

[90sDBZ]

It must have been a trip for U.K. fans. For us U.S. fans it was like, "Oh new episodes! Hey, why's the music different? Why the heck does Vegeta sound like that? What is going on?!" For the U.K. fans it must have been even more perplexing because not only did you guys have that, but then it was like, "Well... the voices are back now... over 50 episodes later... Why's the music sound like that? What is going on?!" lol

I actually got used to the Funimation voices pretty quickly, and loved the Faulconer score from the get go to the point were it felt like an essential part of the show. While I loved the Ocean cast and the Ron Wasserman score for episodes 1-53, I was massively disappointed when Ocean returned for episode 108 onward. For me most of the performances were off to the point of being worse than Funimation's initial efforts, and the Keenlyside music was even more dreadful. It wasn't so much the fact that the music was recycled, but that it was just so darn repetitive and bland and completely did away with character themes. "The army theme" actually wasn't bad, but got played so often that hearing it just became depressing and sucked all the emotion from many important scenes.

As bad as many of the performances were I've got to say that they were the lesser of 2 evils, the music being the worst thing about that dub. And it's not just an exposure thing either as I watched that dub all the way through plenty of times and just couldn't warm up to it until the late Buu saga were they finally improved the music.

I don't even consider Ocean episodes 1-53 and episodes 108-276 to be the same product, because the difference in quality is just that severe.

[ABED]

I don't know how anyone didn't notice the switch between the Ocean dub and the in-house actors.

[Wilderness]

I'm pretty sure UK Cartoon Network cut in between Funi & Ocean as the series progressed. Used to be on at 5pm every night!