Does anyone ever actually watch the Z dub with the Kikuchi score?

[MasenkoHA]

Just something that I had been thinking about. Most fans who watch the Z funi dub for whatever reason (can't watch Goku being voiced by a woman, have issues with subtitles, nostalgia, etc etc) seem to usually prefer it with the Johnson/Faulconer score. (well the Faulconer score really). And I get the dub was made with the replacement score in mind but I was curious if there are fans who prefer watch the English dub but also like watching it with the Kikuchi score?

[JohnnyCashKami]

The title should be edited because "Z dub" is pretty vague, there are tons of Z dubs out there. But no, I don't watch the FUNi dub with the original music, tbh, I hardly watch Japanese cartoons these days.

Planning on watching YYH as I never finished.

[8000 Saiyan]

Nope. And if I did, I think it'd sound out of place, kind of like how watching the Japanese version with the Faulconer score sounds out of place.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I don't have much of a reason to watch the DBZ dub any more since I have a better alternative in the form of the Kai dub. It's also true, from what I've seen, that the "English Dub with Japanese Music" audio option doesn't appear to be a very popular one. Dub fans tend to like the dub's music, and sub fans aren't interested in hearing the dub.

.....Haaaving said that...before Kai came out, that was my favorite way to watch the dub.

Actually, I wasn't even aware that the music was replaced until around 2006 or so when the orange bricks started coming out and mentioning the phrase, "Original Japanese music." I was like, "Oh, it was changed? Well, lemme give the original score a listen." I LOVED it! Loved it, loved it, loved it from the first note I heard of it. Not just the music itself, but I loved how there were many scenes without music. It gave a lot of scenes this great intensity, like I was hanging on the character's words, tensely waiting for whatever they were going to say next in between the long stare-downs. Plus, I'm generally a bigger fan of orchestras than synthesizers anyway. From that day forward, I switched to the original score every time I watched DBZ and never looked back.

But apparently, I was one of the very, very few weirdos who felt this way. For most sub fans, the inclusion of the original music at this point was too little, too late, and attached to a dub that they did not enjoy. For most dub fans, the inclusion of the original music was an unwelcome intrusion into the viewing experience they preferred.

In addition, one of my issues with that audio track is the lack of consistency when it comes to loudness. The volume levels of the original score on that audio track were incredibly inconsistent, and on too many occasions, the music was underwhelmingly quiet in the mix. I've heard some hardcore dub fans say that the original music "doesn't sound epic at all," and based on how incredibly quiet the original music was in some episodes/movies/TV specials, I can't completely blame them for coming to that conclusion (depending on what they watched). That's not to say it was underwhelmingly quiet all the time, of course. Actually, if you want a good example of this inconsistency, listen to that audio track on the Bardock TV special, and then compare it to the same audio track on the Trunks TV special. In the Bardock special, the music is embarrassingly quiet, whereas in the Trunks special, the music is gloriously loud and well-mixed.

[ABED]

I have. It's weird and while Faulconer's score goes with the dub better, the Kikuchi score makes the dub a slightly more tolerable experience. I haven't watched the dub in a decade and don't plan to do it ever again, at least not DB/Z/GT dubs.

[BlueBasilisk]

I did when I got the orange brick for the Saiyan Saga. That was a crazy experience as I'd never heard the original score before that.

What's really jarring is watching GT's english dub with the original Japanese music. The NEP theme and the narrator's edgy voice clash so hard.

[90sDBZ]

I have a few times but I mostly go for the full dub experience with Faulconer. The dub with Kikuchi is hit and miss in that it sometimes matches well but not always.

I will say that I much prefer Movie 1 with Kikuchi as I found the Menza score to be terrible there. I also prefer Kikuchi in the movies to Kikuchi in the series as most tracks were composed with the movies in mind specifically. Although I still like Movie 8 much more with the dub score, there are some where I prefer Kikuchi, like Movie 9 which had some awesome tracks in the original.

If I want Kikuchi for the Z portion of the series I go full Japanese.

[Mister_Popo]

For me the Japanese score is more nostalgic because i used to watch in French and it used the Japanese score.
The Faulconer's score isn't bad, but it's a bit too noisy at times. The Japanese score stays more 'silent' at critical moments when tension is building. That soothes better for me.

[MasenkoHA]

The title should be edited because "Z dub" is pretty vague.

Using context it’s really not that vague. The english dub of Z is as far as I am aware the only one to replace the bgm as pretty much every other language kept the Japanese score intact to begin with. The Ocean dubs, aside from the 3 movies with Pioneer never put the Japanese music back in.

Sure there are tons of Z dubs but only one dub that actually has the option of the Kikuchi score or a replacement score

[Kakacarrottop]

I try to avoid the Funimation dub whenever I can (which is difficult) but if I do have to watch it then it would be with the Kikuchi score, even though the silence makes the acting seem worse for episodes that were intended to have replacement music. The Funimation dub with the Faulconer score is just too cringy for me these days, despite being one of those people who grew up with it. The only release of theirs I own that actually has their dub with Kikuchi is the Orange Brick of season 9. All the other dvds I own are old Faulconer/Menza/Rock band only singles from the early 2000s.

[SheonGT]

The first time I ever watched the Orange Bricks/Blu-Rays, I did for the Saiyan + Namek sagas because I don't like Johnson's UUE score. However, I do have a soft spot for Faulconer so I switched over at that part.

Regardless, if I want to hear Kikuchi, I'll go fully subbed. The difference in tone is just too great. The Funi dub just is too unfaithful to the original source material to be synced up, what with characters constantly talking when their mouths are out of frame (when they originally weren't)
Kyle Hebert's narration, for example, is delivered for Faulconer's hardcore techno score like a monster truck announcer. Not hating, that's just how it is. So it sounds quite jarring, and frankly, wrong on top of Kikuchi's score.

The same thing happens on GT's Green Bricks that have a similar audio mix. Andy Chandler's narration is super dark to match the tone of GT Funimation was trying to push, and it's laughable with the Japanese OST.

[Daisetsu]

Yep. Like SheonGT, I didn't like like the Johnson score, so I figured I would the first 68 episodes with Kikuchi and then switch to Faulconer but I enjoyed the music too much and only switched when I wanted to compare scenes (or in the spots where the vocal tracks were taken out). It's actually what got me into watching the show in Japanese, to begin with.

[MasenkoHA]

)
Kyle Hebert's narration, for example, is delivered for Faulconer's hardcore techno score like a monster truck announcer. Not hating, that's just how it is. So it sounds quite jarring, and frankly, wrong on top of Kikuchi's score.
.

Meh I think Dale Kelly was more monster truck announcer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zmhbMDFSveQ


Hebert just seemed more super duper serious than anything. Shame they didn’t have Brice Armstrong do it

[Gyt Kaliba]

I pretty much always watch it with the Kikuchi score when I watch it nowadays. It may not always work the best together, but it still adds more cohesion between DB to Z to GT when I presumably move from one series to the next each time.

That said, there are still moments where I'll switch to the Falcouner score at least briefly, for nostalgia purposes. Just off the top of my head, Vegeta's first Super Saiyan transformation and Goku taking out Kid Boo with the Genki Dama both spring to mind.

[Kuwabara]

I think some of the film dubs like Movies 9 and 13, and scenes in the series like the arrival of Future Trunks, do benefit from the original score. Overall though, watching the English dub with Kikuchi's music is an exercise in futility as far as I'm concerned, two totally different tones. I prefer the Japanese version in general, but if I happen to be watching it in English for whatever reason, I would rather just watch it with the Faulconer Productions score. In fact, I genuinely wish there was a 5.1 mix of that version...

[MasenkoHA]

I pretty much always watch it with the Kikuchi score when I watch it nowadays. It may not always work the best together, but it still adds more cohesion between DB to Z to GT when I presumably move from one series to the next each time.
.

I think that’s the best argument for watching the Z dub with the Kikuchi score. If you’re gonna watch Dragon Ball and then Z (as you should) the Kikuchi score ties it all together much better.

However, I get many people grew up with Z isolated from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball being treated as the just for fun comedic prequel and if you watch Z dubbed without Dragon Ball first than eh the Johnson/Faulconer score was the way it was meant to be seen or whatever.

[JEFFMAN219]

For the most part I pretty much now only watch the dub with the Kikuchi score. It was jarring at first due to me being use to watching the dub with the Falconer score but over time I got use to the English voices going with the Japanese score.

[GTx10]

I have. I have watched DB/Z/GT with the Uncut English dub on and the JPN score on as well. I think it works very well and it is not as jarring as folks make it seem.

[OutlawTorn]

Yes, whenever I watch the Z dub it will always be with the Kikuchi score. I have never liked the Faulconer score so when the orange sets and the Dragon Boxes were released with the option, it was easy to watch the dub with the original score.

One thing I have always hated about the Faulconer score was how disjointed it always was with radically different themes for every character and nothing to tie them together into a cohesive product. Then, combined with the constant changing of what is playing based on which primary character happens to be on screen at that moment made for a very unpleasant experience.

[Dbzfan94]

I do. 1-67 at least. Then I switch to Faulconer for 68 to the end.

And the movies except for Fusion Reborn I watch with dub + kikuchi as well.