Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by ABED » Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:25 pm

Being animated in Japan doesn't make it anime.
No matter how many times you attempt to assert your view as fact, or undermine people's preference of the original Funi dubbing over Kai, it won't change the fact that there is a audience out there that enjoy it for reasons you cannot seem to perceive without said belittling. You can respond to every single post on this forum at any opportunity that the dubbing gets praised, you may try to come up with every excuse imaginable to why fans of the Funi dub like these things due to bias, but once again, it will never change that there are pros beyond what you feel personally that appeal to others about it.

Nostalgia be damned.
I'm not belittling them, I'm belittling that atrocious dub, and it was. It was a dub done on the cheap in every conceivable way. That's just how it is. I get that there's an audience out there but that doesn't change what it is. It is ironic that you use "excuse" when instead of dub fans, I should call them apologists.

And do you really think I don't understand what some fans like about DBZ dub? I get it, I've talked to them and heard their views and their views of what DB is are very skewed. Many don't understand the nature of the show and the characters. Many of them see DB as being mainly Pilaf arc tone wise and that DBZ is the main series. DB is some irrelevant prequel. DBZ is all ACTION! They also view the show as a superhero type show with characters out to save the world.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:44 pm

Arugela wrote:
8000 Saiyan wrote:
Arugela wrote:
Anime did not become popular here because of toonami and funimation or even in the 90's. Anime has been popular here since the 70's or earlier(Much earlier). All of the 80's saturday morning cartoons were anime. Transformers, thundercats, Not sure about He-man, Those flying bird people. There are more and I can't remember them all. Things like macross and others weren't exactly unknown, they were just not televised all the time and it was too expensive to get them on VHS or whatnot. Japanese animation was not just mainstream it was the most popular stuff in our culture at the time(Beyond just being mainstream). It just wasn't the bubbly anime you see today where everyone has massive oversized heads and whatnot. It was more sci fi and other related genres. I keep seeing lots of kids saying anime this or anime that became popular because the stuff when I first watched it did this. They are all wrong. They lack perspective. Before anime it was sci fi like godzilla which was hugely common if not more in both U.S. and japan and crossed all over(I mean the old sci fi and the newer stuff like . The stuff was rock solid from a cultural perspective. Just not all the same genres. And it all basically was sci fi related. That is how modern anime genres eventually established. that culture was the begining of it and is very old. Before that or with that was stuff like Lord of the rings and the fantasy side. None of it is new and did not just become popular. They were massive crazes and completely mainstream decades or more before. Just not with the current art style, assuming it did not have variations then. I know rainbow bright and other, I beleive, purely american animations did have that look. In fact the farther back you go the more likely to get big headed things like Disney and other cartoons plus things like the muppets... I'm not sure where the current art originated. But it's not new either in terms of potential origin or blatant use in Japanese anime.

In fact if you look at the 70's and earlier there is a much larger shared culture and origin of both american and japanese genres and influences. It's only now becoming more isolated as the original community that is mostly the progenitor of it, that is now what you called nerdy, is not actually being defused and is actually disappearing and becoming, "mainstream." That originally was the remaining culture of a greater community spanning science engineering and much older things in our culture that were more related to what made things in our culture in the past. This all used to be better known too as it was a normal thing in culture that was core to culture and because there was more understanding of the origin of that culture as well. AI our education system failed us, to put a stupid phrase to it. Although the education system is fundamental superficial and an end result of all of this and not the thing that makes it.
1980's Saturday morning cartoons were not anime. Sure, Japanese animation studios were responsible for the animation of those shows, but that doesn't make them anime.
It was directly anime and viewed as anime back then. It was never considered otherwise except by the small handful of people how didn't know it was Japanese in origin. When those things first debut everyone knew it was japanese. This was the 80's. It was riding off of past japanese invasion that had been occuring consistently for decades before it. That is where and why things like the song I think I"m turning japanesa came from. It was a very known thing at the time. It only later became unknown and then later on, decades later, people started to be surprised by anime in the last few decades. The anime art style was just different back then. We basically had a decades long brainfart where everything before going back 50+ years it was known by everyone. Japanese stuff in our culture is not new. And nobody mistook it in the past before very recently.

We have an issue with cultural dissonance today for some reason. It's a general education issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR4XNqrqxrU The popularity of sushi is not new either. And it was that common in the past. People are just younger today and do not know of past fads and crazes and popular and widespread they were in the past. And this has gone on, literally every decade, as long as there has been connection between the east and the west. Although this was much better known in the past.
A small handful of people? I don't think so. I doubt that a lot of people back in the 80's knew that the Transformers was originally based on a Japanese toyline called Diaclone.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by KBABZ » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:20 pm

IMO anime is a style of art and storytelling, not a "it was made there for there" thing.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Arugela » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:26 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:
Arugela wrote:
8000 Saiyan wrote: 1980's Saturday morning cartoons were not anime. Sure, Japanese animation studios were responsible for the animation of those shows, but that doesn't make them anime.
It was directly anime and viewed as anime back then. It was never considered otherwise except by the small handful of people how didn't know it was Japanese in origin. When those things first debut everyone knew it was japanese. This was the 80's. It was riding off of past japanese invasion that had been occuring consistently for decades before it. That is where and why things like the song I think I"m turning japanesa came from. It was a very known thing at the time. It only later became unknown and then later on, decades later, people started to be surprised by anime in the last few decades. The anime art style was just different back then. We basically had a decades long brainfart where everything before going back 50+ years it was known by everyone. Japanese stuff in our culture is not new. And nobody mistook it in the past before very recently.

We have an issue with cultural dissonance today for some reason. It's a general education issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR4XNqrqxrU The popularity of sushi is not new either. And it was that common in the past. People are just younger today and do not know of past fads and crazes and popular and widespread they were in the past. And this has gone on, literally every decade, as long as there has been connection between the east and the west. Although this was much better known in the past.
A small handful of people? I don't think so. I doubt that a lot of people back in the 80's knew that the Transformers was originally based on a Japanese toyline called Diaclone.
A lot may have not known it was based on the specific toy. But a lot did. And most knew it was japanese. Most people knew then most of those cartoons were japanese because they were just continuing like things that had been common and popular for over a decade. My grandmother knew it was japanese. Literally. You have to look at what was happening before that. And the decade prior. Then prior to that. There is a basically unbroken line of japanese/american crosses for half a decade or more since WW2. And before that general engineering that went into the sci fi side was cross cultural because it always is. And that knowledge was not as sparse or uncommon as it is today as the farther back you go the more people understood those things in general despite our modern view of who is educated. Engineering culture is a culmination of material knowledge from farming, blacksmithing, woodworking and other fields with direct heavey usage of materials and those were more common in the past. And most people who understood one understood the other to a pretty large degree as they are basically the same thing. Until farmers got a lot of tractors and turned dumb later. 8) But that happened to culture in general. When all farmers were architects and blacksmiths and all other fields they are not stupid. And that was the culture in general coming to the last century and when this stuff started. That is where sci fi and fantasy and modern animation come from culturally. And it's just now finishing going through a sad bout of stupidity and it's potential partial or greater death. BTW this is why education is dieing. It's dependent on base knowledge and we lack that now. It also lowers our perspective as those base subjects make it easier to see things over time as their use is so longstanding and base to things around us. Wether we recognize it or not. Our understanding of culture over time is becoming more fragmented.

Anime is just japanese animation. It's not a particular style. It's all Japanese animation. And vultron and macross and there predecessors were it before, along with the popular art styles of the time and story telling methods before now. I'd say the bigger reality is just ease, affordability, and capacity, for now, of transmission methods. That is the only real difference. If we had the network capacity we have no then it would have been even larger if it was possible. I think it's timid compared back then. it was relatively more intense back then if you get my drift. Now it's just easy to get. Which is directly relates as the internet sci and other similar things are all culturally related at the base. There is a reason a lot of older anime is sci fi or fantasy like.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:41 pm

Arugela wrote:
8000 Saiyan wrote:
Arugela wrote:
It was directly anime and viewed as anime back then. It was never considered otherwise except by the small handful of people how didn't know it was Japanese in origin. When those things first debut everyone knew it was japanese. This was the 80's. It was riding off of past japanese invasion that had been occuring consistently for decades before it. That is where and why things like the song I think I"m turning japanesa came from. It was a very known thing at the time. It only later became unknown and then later on, decades later, people started to be surprised by anime in the last few decades. The anime art style was just different back then. We basically had a decades long brainfart where everything before going back 50+ years it was known by everyone. Japanese stuff in our culture is not new. And nobody mistook it in the past before very recently.

We have an issue with cultural dissonance today for some reason. It's a general education issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR4XNqrqxrU The popularity of sushi is not new either. And it was that common in the past. People are just younger today and do not know of past fads and crazes and popular and widespread they were in the past. And this has gone on, literally every decade, as long as there has been connection between the east and the west. Although this was much better known in the past.
A small handful of people? I don't think so. I doubt that a lot of people back in the 80's knew that the Transformers was originally based on a Japanese toyline called Diaclone.
A lot may have not known it was based on the specific toy. But a lot did. And most knew it was japanese. Most people knew then most of those cartoons were japanese because they were just continuing like things that had been common and popular for over a decade. My grandmother knew it was japanese. Literally. You have to look at what was happening before that. And the decade prior. Then prior to that. There is a basically unbroken line of japanese/american crosses for half a decade or more since WW2. And before that general engineering that went into the sci fi side was cross cultural because it always is. And that knowledge was not as sparse or uncommon as it is today as the farther back you go the more people understood those things in general despite our modern view of who is educated. Engineering culture is a culmination of material knowledge from farming, blacksmithing, woodworking and other fields with direct heavey usage of materials and those were more common in the past. And most people who understood one understood the other to a pretty large degree as they are basically the same thing. Until farmers got a lot of tractors and turned dumb later. 8) But that happened to culture in general. When all farmers were architects and blacksmiths and all other fields they are not stupid. And that was the culture in general coming to the last century and when this stuff started. That is where sci fi and fantasy and modern animation come from culturally. And it's just now finishing going through a sad bout of stupidity and it's potential partial or greater death. BTW this is why education is dieing. It's dependent on base knowledge and we lack that now. It also lowers our perspective as those base subjects make it easier to see things over time as their use is so longstanding and base to things around us. Wether we recognize it or not. Our understanding of culture over time is becoming more fragmented.

Anime is just japanese animation. It's not a particular style. It's all Japanese animation. And vultron and macross and there predecessors were it before, along with the popular art styles of the time and story telling methods before now. I'd say the bigger reality is just ease, affordability, and capacity, for now, of transmission methods. That is the only real difference. If we had the network capacity we have no then it would have been even larger if it was possible. I think it's timid compared back then. it was relatively more intense back then if you get my drift. Now it's just easy to get. Which is directly relates as the internet sci and other similar things are all culturally related at the base. There is a reason a lot of older anime is sci fi or fantasy like.
Transformers was based on a Japanese toyline and was animated by Japanese. Like I said, that doesn't make the cartoon Japanese. Transformers was produced and written by Americans, hence it's an American cartoon. If Transformers had been produced by the Japanese, then you could certainly call it a Japanese cartoon or anime.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by KBABZ » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:47 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:Transformers was based on a Japanese toyline and was animated by Japanese. Like I said, that doesn't make the cartoon Japanese.
That doesn't make sense! A cartoon can be japanese without also being anime!
8000 Saiyan wrote:Transformers was produced and written by Americans, hence it's an American cartoon.
I'm sure there are more than a few examples of anime being written by Americans. Do we need to discuss Shelter again? What above the X-Men anime, does that not count because X-Men is American?

The etymology of the word "cartoon" isn't region-specific, and since anime is an art and story style, anime isn't region or culture or race-specific to me. It is of course obviously very rooted in Japan because that's where it comes from, but you don't have to be Japanese or Korean to make something in the anime style, as deviantART proves every minute.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:14 pm

KBABZ wrote:
8000 Saiyan wrote:Transformers was based on a Japanese toyline and was animated by Japanese. Like I said, that doesn't make the cartoon Japanese.
That doesn't make sense! A cartoon can be japanese without also being anime!
8000 Saiyan wrote:Transformers was produced and written by Americans, hence it's an American cartoon.
I'm sure there are more than a few examples of anime being written by Americans. Do we need to discuss Shelter again? What above the X-Men anime, does that not count because X-Men is American?

The etymology of the word "cartoon" isn't region-specific, and since anime is an art and story style, anime isn't region or culture or race-specific to me. It is of course obviously very rooted in Japan because that's where it comes from, but you don't have to be Japanese or Korean to make something in the anime style, as deviantART proves every minute.
Yes, the X-Men anime counts as Japanese because it was produced by Japanese. But you could also call it American since Marvel also produced it.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by KBABZ » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:33 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:Yes, the X-Men anime counts as Japanese because it was produced by Japanese. But you could also call it American since Marvel also produced it.
So it's a co-national production? Does that mean it is or is not anime?

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:40 pm

KBABZ wrote:
8000 Saiyan wrote:Yes, the X-Men anime counts as Japanese because it was produced by Japanese. But you could also call it American since Marvel also produced it.
So it's a co-national production? Does that mean it is or is not anime?
It IS an anime.

The reason why stuff like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Teen Titans are not considered anime although they're influenced by anime and look like anime is because they weren't produced in Japan.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:50 pm

Korra (Just season 2) was animated by Studio Pierrot in Japan, is that an anime? Turning Mecard was animated fullly in Korea, but its anime styled, is that an anime too? How about Steven Universe,its animated in Korea, thus it isnt "Really" an american cartoon.

I think people are moving the goalposts a bit here. Which is sad because otherwise I agree, there was anime before DBZ and it didnt need Funimation to thrive.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:34 am

I don't think that Dragon Ball needed Funimation exactly because another dubbing company would have probably gotten their hands on it.

I'm really glad that Funimation did acquire Dragon Ball, though. If it wasn't them, I would hope that another company would "Americanize" Dragon Ball. I'm not saying that because I hate the Japanese version or don't think that it could have thrived in the market. However, if Dragon Ball was dubbed extremely accurately, then I definitely would not have the curiosity for the Japanese version and thus, I'd never expose myself to it. There is no other anime where I care enough to watch the Japanese version. If it's the same music and same dialog, I'd definitely prefer it in my native tongue. That's just how I am. When I got the Cowboy Bebop movie back in the mid-2000s, I switched to the Japanese track for like 10 minutes. Yes, I respect and appreciate that version, but I don't feel like I was gaining anything out of it, so I just switched back.

I feel like Dragon Ball Z Uncensored (the site) back in the day was fueled by Funimation's take on the series and it helped create buzz around the Japanese version because of its superiority to what we were getting. I truly do credit Funimation's version of DBZ as being the gateway to being interested in seeing the Japanese version -- at least for me, but I'm willing to bet for a lot of people as well. If we didn't know that there was a version of DBZ with blood and more footage and different dialog, why would we be curious to check it out? In hindsight, it's easy to say, "Well because I have an interest to see it in its original incarnation!" but I don't think anyone at the time cared about that. The only reason any kid back in the day wanted to see the Japanese version was because of its superiority to the dub.

Hey, I could be wrong, but I'm just keeping it real with why I (and the kids that I knew back in the day who were fans) were willing to check out the Japanese version.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:43 am

TheGreatness25 wrote:I don't think that Dragon Ball needed Funimation exactly because another dubbing company would have probably gotten their hands on it.

I'm really glad that Funimation did acquire Dragon Ball, though. If it wasn't them, I would hope that another company would "Americanize" Dragon Ball. I'm not saying that because I hate the Japanese version or don't think that it could have thrived in the market. However, if Dragon Ball was dubbed extremely accurately, then I definitely would not have the curiosity for the Japanese version and thus, I'd never expose myself to it. There is no other anime where I care enough to watch the Japanese version. If it's the same music and same dialog, I'd definitely prefer it in my native tongue. That's just how I am. When I got the Cowboy Bebop movie back in the mid-2000s, I switched to the Japanese track for like 10 minutes. Yes, I respect and appreciate that version, but I don't feel like I was gaining anything out of it, so I just switched back.

I feel like Dragon Ball Z Uncensored (the site) back in the day was fueled by Funimation's take on the series and it helped create buzz around the Japanese version because of its superiority to what we were getting. I truly do credit Funimation's version of DBZ as being the gateway to being interested in seeing the Japanese version -- at least for me, but I'm willing to bet for a lot of people as well. If we didn't know that there was a version of DBZ with blood and more footage and different dialog, why would we be curious to check it out? In hindsight, it's easy to say, "Well because I have an interest to see it in its original incarnation!" but I don't think anyone at the time cared about that. The only reason any kid back in the day wanted to see the Japanese version was because of its superiority to the dub.

Hey, I could be wrong, but I'm just keeping it real with why I (and the kids that I knew back in the day who were fans) were willing to check out the Japanese version.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:51 am

Yeah, I really don't care who would get it, I think that changing up the music and dialog helped get the Japanese version some new eyeballs. However, I will say that despite the edits, I always thoroughly enjoyed that first Funimation Z dub with the Ocean cast. It might not have been true to the story, but I think it was well-done given what they were working with at the time. It's harder for a dubbed property than an original property because when you're making a cartoon, you can make it with the studio's requirements in mind; when dubbing something, the work might have to be changed to meet those requirements.

In "Batman: Animated," the book by Paul Dini and Chip Kidd, there's a list of all of the things that Fox (I believe) instructed them about. This list included No guns, no drugs, no breaking glass, no alcohol, no smoking, no nudity, no child endangerment, no religion, and no strangulation, no hits with the fist, no racial undertones, nothing that a kid can do to an animal or a smaller kid like picking someone up by the head, no shots to the head, nothing sexual, no blood. Now a cartoon with these in mind can tailor the work to them, but Dragon Ball broke pretty much all of those.

So, I always give the early dub a pass on the "next dimension," nudity and blood censoring, etc. It sucks, but it is what it is. I still think that the work done was great. And again, I'm glad it was different enough to spark an interest in the original.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Super_Divine_Genki » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:33 pm

Zephyr wrote:Dragon Ball thrived in spite of how shitty Funimation treated it.
Here, here. See: FUNi's "immaculate" early production methods and "Season 3" onward media presentation.

Regardless of my general feeling on FUNi's practices with their treatment of the original product, the "creative" team, and in-house talent pool (who I have much respect for), the whole "history of English dubbed DB" is an interesting, yet very odd story in itself. FUNi lucked out (again) by having the talented Ocean cast do the heavy lifting in selling that butchered product to the English-speaking audience early on. By the end of that heavily censored 53 episode run, the (dragon)ball had been set in motion, and everyone wanted to see where the series was going to go (some not even having a clue that OG DB existed!), voice and soundtrack quality notwithstanding. People got invested, the series built up a momentum, and a massive viewing audience came to be. Leading into and during the battle with Freeza, I'm convinced that by that time character dialogue could've been reduced to just nonsensical dubstep noises every time, or something else ridiculous, and people in English-speaking regions were going to buy it up and continue to tune in to see where that story and characters were going to go (like I did with my muted "Season 3" experience until the bilingual DVD's released :p). It's crazy to say that, but maybe not unbelievable ( :lol: ). The "what-if?" had Pioneer got the rights to the brand and teamed up with a fully committed Ocean Group from the beginning for the franchise...

In time, I feel that Dragon Ball's popularity would find its way no matter who secured the English dubbing rights. It sells itself - many many fans of DB/Z that had never experienced the story with original audio/subtitled have been tuning in to watch Super with original audio every episode. There's a charm and universal appeal in its characters, concepts/themes, and story that could've only been contained for so long no matter where on Earth you live. It's something that goes beyond whatever way it was re-presented, imo. Honestly, I think that if DB/Z had been introduced to NA in its original form (including soundtrack) with just english subtitles first, it would've eventually hit just as big (maybe not as fast... ?) and been more respected as a work by casuals. But, the early internet/pre-Youtube era was vastly different. I'm not trying to put DB/Z on the highest pedestal, but in its original form it is at the very least a unique experience, very memorable, and definitely highly influential. There's nothing else like it as a whole out there, flaws and all. The FUNi re-version is probably some of those things for entirely different reasons. :p


I think the question here could be switched around: "Did FUNi REALLY need Dragon Ball to thrive?". It did single-handedly lead to the FUNi empire that we've seen over the years after all.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by ABED » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:40 pm

I think the question here could be switched around: "Did FUNi REALLY need Dragon Ball to thrive?". It did single-handedly lead to the FUNi empire that we've seen over the years after all.
Yes, it did need DB to thrive. It is almost a given that whoever got DB and didn't completely screw it up (e.g. put it on a station and a time that no one watches) was going to dominate the US anime market. What did FUNi have other than DB? Cyboars, that's about it.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Super_Divine_Genki » Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:58 pm

Yeah, the answer is obvious. DB/Z then enabled FUNi to acquire the dubbing rights to many other properties. From what I understand, Gen Fukunaga had some connections at Toei.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:32 pm

TheGreatness25 wrote:Yeah, I really don't care who would get it, I think that changing up the music and dialog helped get the Japanese version some new eyeballs. However, I will say that despite the edits, I always thoroughly enjoyed that first Funimation Z dub with the Ocean cast. It might not have been true to the story, but I think it was well-done given what they were working with at the time. It's harder for a dubbed property than an original property because when you're making a cartoon, you can make it with the studio's requirements in mind; when dubbing something, the work might have to be changed to meet those requirements.

In "Batman: Animated," the book by Paul Dini and Chip Kidd, there's a list of all of the things that Fox (I believe) instructed them about. This list included No guns, no drugs, no breaking glass, no alcohol, no smoking, no nudity, no child endangerment, no religion, and no strangulation, no hits with the fist, no racial undertones, nothing that a kid can do to an animal or a smaller kid like picking someone up by the head, no shots to the head, nothing sexual, no blood. Now a cartoon with these in mind can tailor the work to them, but Dragon Ball broke pretty much all of those.

So, I always give the early dub a pass on the "next dimension," nudity and blood censoring, etc. It sucks, but it is what it is. I still think that the work done was great. And again, I'm glad it was different enough to spark an interest in the original.
But there were guns and blood in Batman TAS. Remember that in the episode "I am the Night" Gordon gets shot offscreen and we can see blood. Censors underestimate one thing: kids can take whatever it's thrown at them. And I also love how it never occured to the censors that a laser gun is more powerful than a regular one.
"It was deemed to be too awesome." - Scott McNeil on Dragon Ball Kai not being aired yet in Canada.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:45 pm

I believe there was only one instance of blood in the series (first episode?) and yes, Gordon got shot off-screen. And while laser guns are more powerful than regular ones, the entire point was that they didn't like realistic guns being used. I guess they took the approach that they didn't want it to be realistic and readily-available. Spider-Man the Animated Series had laser guns. Though I will say that Batman The Animated Series pretty much got away with using realistic guns.

You know, it's easy to give them so much flack, but they were covering their asses. Whenever something big happens, who gets blamed? Look at what the GTA series went through because of its violence. When an idiotic kid does a deadly wrestling move to another kid, wrestling gets blamed. You can't blame the networks for trying to avoid this kind of blame. You can't ever say, "Well this kid shot another kid with a laser gun because he saw it in a Spider-Man cartoon," because that could literally never happen. But punching each other in the face, fully possible to be mimicked. Blame society, not the networks.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:21 pm

TheGreatness25 wrote:I believe there was only one instance of blood in the series (first episode?) and yes, Gordon got shot off-screen. And while laser guns are more powerful than regular ones, the entire point was that they didn't like realistic guns being used. I guess they took the approach that they didn't want it to be realistic and readily-available. Spider-Man the Animated Series had laser guns. Though I will say that Batman The Animated Series pretty much got away with using realistic guns.

You know, it's easy to give them so much flack, but they were covering their asses. Whenever something big happens, who gets blamed? Look at what the GTA series went through because of its violence. When an idiotic kid does a deadly wrestling move to another kid, wrestling gets blamed. You can't blame the networks for trying to avoid this kind of blame. You can't ever say, "Well this kid shot another kid with a laser gun because he saw it in a Spider-Man cartoon," because that could literally never happen. But punching each other in the face, fully possible to be mimicked. Blame society, not the networks.
Funnily enough, in the episode where Kingpin talks about his past, you can see criminals using tommy guns and police officers with regular pistols. It makes me wonder if the networks didn't care that day.
Last edited by 8000 Saiyan on Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"It was deemed to be too awesome." - Scott McNeil on Dragon Ball Kai not being aired yet in Canada.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by KBABZ » Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:25 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:Funnily enough, in the episode where Kingpin talks about his past, you can see criminals using tommy guns and police officers with regular guns.
A tommy gun is just an old regular gun...?

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