Post
by TheGreatness25 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:55 pm
In my extremely long history with the series, there are several things that I flip-flopped on over the years, as can be expected with someone who is basically growing up.
1) I used to hate Goku. Don't know why, but I did. I used to think that he was selfish and only cared about saving Gohan while not really caring about how hurt anyone else was (I have NO idea how I came to this conclusion, even as a 10 year old). I used to love Vegeta and relished any moment when he whooped on Goku -- especially seeing clips online of Majin Vegeta's fight with Goku. But alas, over the years, the gruff and tough demeanor of Vegeta actually started to become annoying, and I found myself gravitating to Goku more. Now, Goku is my favorite of the series, though I do think he can be a little too stupid at times.
2) Used to hate Gohan. Why? I have no idea. I mean, even as a kid, I never really cared for shows that had a child main protagonist. Just knowing that Gohan would become the hero of the Cell Games and later on against Boo (online summaries since this was still during the time that the first two arcs kept repeating on Toonami), just rubbed me the wrong way. To me, Gohan was just an overhyped kid, who crapped the bed whenever it came time to actually go to work (like against Nappa). In time, though, I really started liking Gohan.
3) From the moment that I stumbled upon Dragon Ball Z Uncensored online, I started hating the dub. I found it to be a bastardized version of the real series. I believed that the dialog was completely altered and that they censored so much. Well, once "Season 3" rolled around, I could tell that the censorship mostly went out the window. As for the dialog, I still had a hatred for it and absolutely despised the voices. I mean, I went from Ocean dub -- where I loved the voices despite my feelings toward the censorship and dialog -- to... well... we all know what we got, damn it. I found myself slowly warming up to the voices starting with the first Budokai game, where for some reason, they weren't as irritating as on TV. Over time, I learned to appreciate both versions when I realized that I can have my cake and eat it too with this series. At some point, I looked at them as two different properties; instead of enjoying ONE version of Dragon Ball, I could enjoy TWO versions! And that's been my outlook ever since. I guess the dub is a guilty pleasure of mine, as I feel myself having a nostalgia and almost a time machine feel, popping in the "Ginyu/Frieza" singles in and watching them (for the original voices before the re-dub with the orange bricks). It serves as a time machine and I can just enjoy the thing for all of its goofiness. Of course, the undisputed champion is the Japanese version, but the dub is pretty fun for me too.
4) The Westwood dub? Oh yeah. See, my only exposure to the Westwood dub had been though little clips online. While I appreciated the performances of my favorites in Brian Drummond and Scott McNeil, it did sound bizarre. I admit that I developed a curiosity for this dub, but thought that it was terrible from what little exposure I had to it. Fast forward to just recently, and I find myself having a great time with it. It's bizarre hearing it at first, but I got used to it really quickly -- even that goofy, 90s cartoon theme they used for the intro. While I always loved the Ocean dub, I did have a ton more mileage with the Funimation dub, but after some quality time with the Westwood dub, I realized that this is how I pictured the series would continue before the dub change. Well... obviously not all of it, as there were re-casts and completely new characters down the line, but you get what I mean. It makes me sad that Funimation swapped them out for their in-house dub, BUT... it just gives me THREE versions of Dragon Ball Z to enjoy. Not freaking bad at all. I have yet to really get into the Blue Water dub because I guess I don't have that nostalgic connection to the voices, but I'm getting there.
That's all I can think of. To be honest, there are a lot more things on the opposite spectrum lol I used to love the firs three DBZ movies just because they were "new" material that felt special back when the first two arcs of DBZ were on repeat, but now, I generally find them annoying and bad. I also used to love all of the PS1 video games (don't judge me; I was a kid and it was DBZ/GT for goodness sake), and now... they're kind of bad. On and on and on.
