Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub? (besides the "Season 3" ones)

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MarioSonicU
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Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub? (besides the "Season 3" ones)

Post by MarioSonicU » Fri Oct 19, 2018 1:40 pm

Self-explanitory, which saga/arc was the most ear-cringing to you? This isn't another '99 dub bashing thread, this is just an opinions thread. I'm like the Original dub for it's music, but I can see it has a lot of flaws. Flaws that took 11 years for FUnimation to fix in their Z Kai dub.

I guess I'll start with myself. The saga that I honestly can't stop cringing at in English is the Garlic Jr. Saga. While many people highlight the many, many flaws of the Ginyu/Frieza arcs (Vegeta's death scene being ruined by him saying that Frieza made him evil, Goku's "I am" Speech being less about "I'm the Saiyan who's gonna beat you" and more "I'm the hope of the Universe, the inexperienced voice acting, etc.) but Z's first filler arc took those flaws and made them even worse.

IMO the dialogue is truly awful, having nothing to do with the OG JP dialogue, souding like something coming out of a bad Saturday Morning cartoon (Ironic because in the US it premiered on a Saturday Morning Toonami sub-block). The voice direction is all over the place, even most of it remains on the revised dub on the Orange Bricks/FUNi Dragon Box/Blu-Rays (though it changes some voice actors, like Spice now being voiced by one of the greatest DB dub writers ever (J. Michael Tatum)).

So it probably wouldn't count since the Garlic arc is filler, but it wasn't one of the Original Dub's high points. If FUNi gets the chance, I'm all for a Kai-esque redub, but with what we have now, I am a bit dissapointed.

If you want to watch this arc, I highly reccomend the Japanese version (even though the arc isn't too great).
Last edited by MarioSonicU on Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:01 pm

The Freeza saga

“That’s right boys mondo cool!”

“Your shoes came untied!” “I dont have shoe laces!”

“I am the hope of the universe!” Blah blah blah

“You didn’t say please!”

Poor widdle Vegeta isn’t responsible for anything. Nothing is ever anyone’s fault we’re just products of childhood trauma

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Pretty much anything Goku says let’s be real here

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:12 pm

The Freeza Saga. Some of the corniest lines ever and a bunch of inexperienced voice actors.
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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by DHM211 » Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:38 pm

The Namek/Frieza saga. Watch Episode 67(which is the last fully redubed episode), then watch Episode 68. The quality difference is staggering(especially for Goku).

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by ABED » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:04 pm

I wonder how it's in doubt that the dub of season 3 is the in house dub at its worst. The dialog, acting, and music are all god awful.
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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by MarioSonicU » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:26 pm

I probably should have said "Worst saga besides/other than the Frieza arc."

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by Spider-Man » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:42 pm

The Namek saga has some of the worst line like "you didn't say please" or "I am the hope of the universe!" really that is so corny and this is Sean Schemmel at his worst.

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:45 pm

The "Season 3" era (aka the section of the Freeza arc from when FUNimation's in-house dub first began to the conclusion of the arc). Ho boy. Don't get me wrong, it's water under the bridge now, and has been water under the bridge for quite some time. But yeah, it was bad, and years later, even the people directly involved would admit it. It's also appropriately ironic, in my opinion, that the worst section of the DBZ dub also happens to be the best section of the Kai dub.

In fact, I would argue that the most iconic scene in the history of English dubs of Dragon Ball is Goku's "I Am" speech. In the DBZ dub, that scene encapsulated everything that FUNimation did horribly wrong, and in the Kai dub, that scene encapsulated everything that FUNimation did beautifully right.
MarioSonicU wrote:I probably should have said "Worst saga besides/other than the Frieza arc."
Well, in that case, probably the Garlic Jr. arc.
A "rather haggard" translation of a line from Future Gohan in DBZ, provided to FUNimation by Toei:
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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by sunsetshimmer » Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:18 pm

Early DBZ due to weird and cheesy lines.
Entire GT for speeches even worse than "I am". Although performance was excellent. Can't say the same about Namek saga.
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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by MarioSonicU » Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:22 pm

sunsetshimmer wrote:Entire GT for speeches even worse than "I am". Although performance was excellent. Can't say the same about Namek saga.
Yeah, honestly i thought that FUNi GT could have been decent as almost (but not really) all the dialogue isn't as bad as Z was, but they had to ruin it by making Goku some heroic savior...again.(This isn't a problem mostly for when Nadolny voices his kid form, but it is an even bigger problem when Schemmel voices his Adult and SSJ4 forms).

And on an off topic note, thank goodness for Super 130's speech, explaining that the only reason Goku fights his enemies is not to stop their evil plans and protect the Earth, but to protect the lives of his friends and family.

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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub?

Post by SheonGT » Sat Oct 20, 2018 7:29 pm

Now, I am probably the most accepting of what others would consider crappy dubbing on this board. But even I can't defend the Frieza saga. The worst thing I've ever seen in regards to dubbing is
Frieza wrote:I have a little proposition. I'd like to ask you in my native language. aLOaqutiaKUbiLIAGH It means. Let's get down to business.
In the original, he's just laughing. Makes me ask, how hard could it have been to get even slightly more right that that, if they had the original tapes? Gosh.

If Frieza saga's being ignored, then yes Garlic Jr. It was so bad I almost wish it got the redemption of the Kai treatment. The dub improved in pretty much a linear fashion.
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Re: Be honest, what was the worst saga of the Original FUNimation Dub? (besides the "Season 3" ones)

Post by WittyUsername » Sun Oct 21, 2018 8:11 pm

As a couple of others have already said, the Garlic Jr. arc is the most poorly handled one from a dub standpoint outside of season 3, which is no surprise, given that it was released only a few months after FUNimation finally wrapped up the Freeza arc.

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