About 50 questions regarding the Madman-releases

[Vegard Aune]

Okay, maybe that title is an exaggeration, but I just wanted to know a few things about those releases.

First off, I know that they have released all of the original Dragonball-series uncut in Australia, and I heard that one of the "Fortune Teller Baba"-episodes only have dubtitles due to an encoding-error, but is that the only encoding-error on their DVDs? Or are there other errors somewhere too? (Note: If those errors only affect the dub, I couldn't care less.)

Also, I recently bought a used copy of the Bardock-special from Australia, and I noticed that, contrary to what I had heard, it supported both Region 2 and 4. Are the other discs like that too? Being that I live in Europe, and our DVDs are in fact PAL R2, the Madman-discs would propably be easier to play properly than the US ones are. Not that it matters, being that I do have a region-free DVD player, but I wanted to know anyway.

And I heard that the DBZ-singles are dub-only up to a certain point, but when did they start releasing them consistently with the japanese audio? And like the "Fortune Teller Baba"-disc, do any of those bilingual discs have any errors that prevent them from playing properly? (Again, if it's an error in the english track only, I don't care.) And do any of the movies have any similar problems?

And finally: Are they still in print? It obviously wouldn't be very easy to collect them otherwise, and that would be quite annoying, as I currently see those releases as my only way to get the majority of the series in a non-butchered state.

[Kula]

As far as I know, the Baba set is the only one with that particular error. If you're a fan of the Japanese version, you'll have to rely on dub-titles for just one episode.

All of the DB sets are R4 only. I have the final movie set and Movie 13 is R4 and the TV specials are R2/R4. I'm not sure about the other DVDs.

I believe DBZ is dub only until after the Great Saiyaman discs (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

The R4 DB sets are still in print and much easier to find than the R2 versions. If you're looking for the whole series, I'd recommend buying both of the Dragon Ball Collection sets. The first box is 1-6 and the second is 7-11.

[Vegard Aune]

The R4 DB sets are still in print and much easier to find than the R2 versions. If you're looking for the whole series, I'd recommend buying both of the Dragon Ball Collection sets. The first box is 1-6 and the second is 7-11.

That's good, but what about the DBZ-and GT-releases? I suppose they might have stopped producing the Z-singles as they're releasing the season-sets over there, but GT should still be available, right?

[ChibiKenji]

I believe DBZ is dub only until after the Great Saiyaman discs (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Madman released until at least V1.07 (up to ep. 21) of the Ultimate Uncut discs (I'm not exactly sure how far they went, that's all I can see listed in their catalogue), and are currently doing the season sets (with the first two seasons available). Other than those, it's pretty much as you said with everything before the "World Tournament Saga" released being uncut dub at best.

That's good, but what about the DBZ-and GT-releases? I suppose they might have stopped producing the Z-singles as they're releasing the season-sets over there, but GT should still be available, right?

I don't know what, exactly, is still in print but from a quick search of their online store, some of their DBZ releases are in stock, while others aren't. For GT, some of the singles are listed as out of stock but all of the collections are available.

[Vegard Aune]

Other than those, it's pretty much as you said with everything before the "World Tournament Saga" released being uncut dub at best.

So there's no difference between FUNi's singles and the Madman ones from there on out? (Except the region-coding and video-format, of course.) Because I want to be absolutely sure that none of them like, stop halfway through an episode or something. (I realise that I might seem like I almost WANT something to be wrong here, but I've heard a lot of critisism regarding Madman, so I want to stay on the safe side.) If they're the same, I guess I can just get the last three boxes Madman put out, and then try to get the rest used. By the way, which episodes do those last three sets ACTUALLY cover, anyway? The Series 4 part 2-set said it started from episode 215, but none of the singles actually START with episode 215/230... Japanese episode 215 is at the end of the "World Tournament - The Draw"-disc, whereas dub-episode 215 is in the middle of the last "Babidi"-disc...

[Vegard Aune]

Sorry for double-posting, but I still haven't gotten the answers to the question "Are there any glitches on any of the bilingual releases of Z and GT?" which was pretty much the most important question here, as that would be the main thing to make me decide wether I should buy them or not.

[Captain Awesome]

Well, yes.

Dragonball path to power has a subtitle glitch, after the 34 minute mark the track simply isn't there, apparently there were new replacements printed, but I've written to Madman twice and gotten replacements that were the exact same pressing of the disc, and fucked up in exactly the same way (I got sick of trying to get a replacement bought the ntsc version instead of dealing with them), the only other Dragonball glitch is in the boxes, there's an episode without Japanese subtitles (it only has dubtitles) and a filler episode where the second half takes you to a different episode, but it's easy enough to fix, you just watch it in english via the menu, and then switch audio tracks with your remote.

I haven't watched all the way through my Buu saga releases (I'm waiting to get the last boxset from my local anime/comics store) but as far as I can see they work fine, I can't vouch for the dub only releases before this, because I don't own them.

Now as for GT, I only own the lost episodes boxset, I haven't finished watching it yet, but it seems free of glitches and has slightly better video quality (encode wise) than the dbz releases, I can't vouch for the rest of GT, because I simply don't own it.

There was a website that listed all of Madman's screw ups, but it seems to be down at the moment, their biggest screw up in my opinion is that for no good reason whatsoever, they released the majority of the series as dub only, all of their boxsets are still readily available, so it's a punch in the face if you want to collect the entire series in 4:3 but watch the Japanese version.

[Vegard Aune]

So, if I want to avoid any glitches, then I'll have to track down the US release of Path to Power and the Uranai Baba arc, at least. I also read that the subtitles on DBZ Movie 5 are somewhat screwed up in the Australian release... if you have that one, is that true? And if you don't mind, could you give a little update after finishing those Buu-saga discs? Just to be on the safe side, I mean. Of course, I could always buy the sets and then give any glitched discs to a friend of mine who prefers watching the dub, but I still want to know in advance if anything's wrong.

[Captain Awesome]

So, if I want to avoid any glitches, then I'll have to track down the US release of Path to Power and the Uranai Baba arc, at least. I also read that the subtitles on DBZ Movie 5 are somewhat screwed up in the Australian release... if you have that one, is that true? And if you don't mind, could you give a little update after finishing those Buu-saga discs? Just to be on the safe side, I mean. Of course, I could always buy the sets and then give any glitched discs to a friend of mine who prefers watching the dub, but I still want to know in advance if anything's wrong.

As of right now, in the way of movies I've only got the NTSC "First Strike" movie box and Madman's movie 13 boxset which includes both of the tv specials, so I can't help you there, though I do intend on pruchasing it after my last Boo saga box comes in next week.

As for the glitch in the Uranai Baba arc, during the fight with the Mummy, it wasn't a big deal to me, the Japanese audio track is still there, and not a great deal (except fighting) really happens in that episode, not to mention the US DB releases are really hard to track down.

I'm just going to give you the rundown of the purchases I made. (MM=Madman)

1. MM's DB box sets (eps 1-154)
2. MM's DB Movie 2, 3, 4
3. NTSC DB Movie box set (Movies 2-4)
4. MM's Ultimate Uncut DBZ Vegeta Saga 1 Box(Eps 1-20 something)
5. NTSC "First Strike" DBZ Movie box (Movies 1-3)
6. MM's DBZ Season set one (already own half the episodes in it )
7. MM's DBZ Season set two (Doubled up on Ginyu eps )
8. NTSC Ginyu-Freeza saga (Bilingual, uncut, 4:3)
9. MM's DBZ World Tournament "Junior Division" & "The Draw" (singles)
10.MM's DBZ Buu Saga Box 1 (Eps 215-236)
11.MM's DBZ Buu Saga Box 2 (Eps 237-261) (Waiting for it to arrive)
12.MM's DBZ Buu Saga Box 3 (Eps 261-290) (Concludes Z)
13.MM's DBZ Movie 13 + Trunks & Bardock
14.MM's DBGT Lost Episodes box (Eps 1-16ish)

The only real glitches (that I have found) are in DB & Path to Power.

And if you were wondering the two World tournament singles are there because the previous box (Saiyaman) was dub only except for those last two dvd's..

I haven't watched through all of Buu yet, so I can't vouch for them apart from the fact that what I have watched, works perfectly.

Anyway, hope that helps.

[Vivisection]

Adding a (most likely) extremely stupid question: how close are Madman's subtitles to FUNi's in the R4 releases?

[desirecampbell]

Adding a (most likely) extremely stupid question: how close are Madman's subtitles to FUNi's in the R4 releases?

Exactly the same.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

I have a question regarding the Australian Cell Games DVDs.

As some of you may remember, FUNi took a hell of a long time releasing those in North America. One volume was released in late 2002, but then the rest weren't released until 2004-2005. However, the 2004-2005 Region 1 Cell Games DVDs had altered versions of the english dub; Dale Kelly's original narration was completely removed, and it was redubbed by Kyle Hebert.

However, apparently Madman released all of the Cell Games on DVD in Australia in 2002-2003, long before FUNi did so in North America. As such, I figure that this would have been before Dale Kelly's narration was removed in favour of Kyle Hebert. Would I be correct in saying that the Australian Cell Games DVDs have Dale Kelly's original narration present, right through until episode 179/194 when Trunks kills the Androids in his future world?

Dale Kelly's narration is almost like a great comedy, and I feel that FUNi should not have removed it from their dub, no matter how "embarrassed" they were by him or whatever.

[dagame10k]

I too am wondering if the Madman R4 Cell games DVDs contain the original Broadcast English dub without the changes of Kelly to Hebert Narration etc. that FUNi decided to change in the R1 DVDs.

[Captain Awesome]

All I know is apparently that is the reason we didn't get the Japanese language track, because of how long Funi were taking with the releases in the US.

I can't help anyone with the Cell saga releases, because I don't own them, they're dub only and thats not what I'm interested in.

[klokwerk]

Guys, I might be able to borrow the season 3 sets from work to check for you. I believe we have one of the three season 3 sets available. Will have a look today.

[klokwerk]

Right, I've got the Season 3: Collection 1 box at home now. It contains 3.1 through 3.8. What's the easiest way to tell which narrator is used? Can someone give me an episode number and quote the two different narration pieces?

Sorry, but it's been a long time since I watched dubbed Dragon Ball Z so I wouldn't know just from listening which narrator is on the discs.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Right, I've got the Season 3: Collection 1 box at home now. It contains 3.1 through 3.8. What's the easiest way to tell which narrator is used? Can someone give me an episode number and quote the two different narration pieces?

Sorry, but it's been a long time since I watched dubbed Dragon Ball Z so I wouldn't know just from listening which narrator is on the discs.

Originally, Dale Kelly was narrator until episode 179/194, "Free the Future," where Trunks returns to the future and kills the Androids and Cell in his own time. Kyle Hebert took over with episode 180/195, "Warriors of the Dead," and continued on until the end of the series and into the redub of seasons 1 and 2.

In North America, FUNimation released the broadcast dub as-is on DVD until the Cell Games, when, for some reason, they decided that they wanted to remove Dale Kelly's original narration and replace it with Kyle Hebert. Hebert redubbed Dale's old lines accordingly.

The changeover would've happened in North America with the second "Cell Games" disc, as of episode 154/169, "No Worries Here."

As such, Hebert would've redubbed the narration from episode 154/169 until episode 179/194.

Kyle Hebert's narration was meant to imitate Dale Kelly's to an extent, but there's a clear difference; Kelly was quite often described as sounding like a "monster truck announcer" while Hebert sounded not nearly as forced or unnatural.

I found two comparison clips on youtube; Gohan's SSJ2 tranformation at the end of episode 169/184, "Children of Cell Attack."

This first clip is obviously a recording of the original Cartoon Network broadcast, and Dale Kelly's narration starts up at 8:50 into the clip, lasting right through to the end because the next episode preview is also present, luckily:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2KcG0dyiiM

This second clip is that same scene, redubbed with Kyle Hebert's narration, which starts at 2:42 into the clip. This is obviously a clip of the DVD version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNaj7mXrwy8

Trust me, you'll hear the difference. While the narrator's dialogue remains pretty much the same, the difference in the voice is unmistakable.

If you watch that episode on the Australian Region 4 DVDs and it has Dale Kelly's narration (like in the first clip), it means Australia is the only place where the original broadcast dub was left intact and unaltered.

[klokwerk]

Thanks, that would be a great way to check... unfortunately the box I have only goes up to episode 127. I'll have to wait until we get in the other boxes.