Is a narrator really needed?

[Codarik]

I've been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. The series doesn't need a narrator, the narrator is always out of place and ruins the whole "realism" of the series. The episode can end without someone questioning what will happen next and doesn't need someone to recap what happened last time. A narrator is unnecessary for a series like Dragon Ball. IMO.

What do you guys think about the narrator?

[VegettoEX]

You seem to think it detracts from the experience, but I personally think (especially with Yanami's delivery) that it adds to the serial nature of the story telling and brings a nice, old-fashioned style to it that harkens back to Journey to the West an incredible amount -- each chapter ends with something like (randomly opening volume three, and pulling the last paragraph from chapter 68):

After he had gone inside, we do not know what sort of illness he was able to discern or what kind of medicines he prescribed. If you want to know the result, you must listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

It brings a smile to my face. It's fun. It's cheeky. I like it.

(It's also there to fill up time so they can animate just a little less to keep on that weekly schedule!)

[Tsukento]

It depends on which version you're referring to. The dub had a habit of having the narrator yammer on and on and on when the original would have the narrator give maybe one or two lines during the recap while letting the actual footage and characters do all the showing and telling. It's amazing how much of a difference there is when you see how little the Japanese narrator says when compared to the English dub narrator.

[desirecampbell]

It depends on which version you're referring to. The dub had a habit of having the narrator yammer on and on and on when the original would have the narrator give maybe one or two lines during the recap while letting the actual footage and characters do all the showing and telling. It's amazing how much of a difference there is when you see how little the Japanese narrator says when compared to the English dub narrator.

Agreed, the Funi dub narrator was terrible, and seemed to go on forever.

While the original narrator fit the series tone much better, I'm not sure it was "needed". I don't think it was distracting either, though. I agree with Mike that the narrator helped serialize the story and give it a more "mythic" or "fable" quality, but none of the narration was necessary plot-wise.

[Tsukento]

Not to mention, outside of the recap, the narrator said just as little during the episodes and the end of the episodes. Plus whatever he would say at times at the end would have him come across as him following allowing with the story and wonder how things will play out, but not to the point where he's wordy. He was there, but he was never intrusive. He never overstayed his welcome and never broke the fourth wall, reminding us that this is a show and not a story.

The English dub is a whole other story...

[Drabaz]

Sometimes narration is necessary because the artist isn't skilled enough to explain what's happening through the story itself. I feel that's not the case with Dragonball though. It's simply included to add to the mood of the show. It does catch me off gaurd to hear narration in the middle of an episode though. But that rarely happens.

[dprez]

I agree with what VegettoEX said. The narration never felt out of place or anything like that to me. I think it actually benefits the story.

[Akumaito Beam]

The only dumb narration I noticed was in Z when that big B^Uckly box popped up in the final form Freeza Vs. Vegeta fight that said the equivalent of "VEGETA IS CRYING BECAUSE HE'S VERY SAD AND SCARED!" Masterful writing if ever I've seen it.

As for the pre-episode narration that was sort of necessary as a buffer if you missed the last episode when this show was airing week to week in Japan.

[eledoremassis02]

The narration is useful when you only watch the series once a week and or missed an episode. Or if the episode stunk but the next one looked awesome.

[JulieYBM]

Twenty-six years and 605 TV episodes later (not to mention specials, movies, and games) I must say 'yes'. Yanami is as much a part of the franchise as Nozawa. He's always fit in because the series has always been fit to include him. Yanami really gives the series a regular voice for when even Nozawa isn't used.

[OzzyApu]

Right, take it in the context of the show as it was airing for the first time on television. Is it really necessary now with ownership of physical copies and even having episodes ripped from them onto your computers? No, not at all. I skip them all the time for this reason. However, for people (mostly kids) watching these shows a week or longer apart in episodes, then it fits. Now for storytelling purposes, I'd prefer the narrator to keep to himself, but I thought it was fitting during moments like Bulma leaving with Goku on the first episode and some others before large time gaps and such.

[dbboxkaifan]

Yeah, he's (or even a she) is really needed, the recaps without a narrator are really awkward, just take those DBK episodes as proof.

[Beji]

I love the english dub but...for the dub narrator, the only time I ever cringed was the History of Trunks.... You guys know what I'm talking about. The wrestling match, the rhyming was just... I can't even go on... It absolutely took away from the realism of the series.

I do not know if they re-dubbed it since but I hope they did. I dare someone to find a worse narration from the show than that.

[sangofe]

I've been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. The series doesn't need a narrator, the narrator is always out of place and ruins the whole "realism" of the series. The episode can end without someone questioning what will happen next and doesn't need someone to recap what happened last time. A narrator is unnecessary for a series like Dragon Ball. IMO.

What do you guys think about the narrator?

I really like the Japanese and French DBZ narrators. I really do, and it would feel strange without them.
Edit: also, the episode where Vegeta sacrifices himself would be really, really awkward without a narrator.

[VegettoEX]

also, the episode where Vegeta sacrifices himself would be really, really awkward without a narrator.

Definitely one of my favorite examples of all time ever holy crap the weight of that scene gets me every single time this is why the answer is yes good job stealing my answer jerk.*

*run-on sentence done on purpose don't judge me

[dbboxkaifan]

Watch this video and tell me if it'd work better without a narrator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8fBosEkh4A

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Going to get stoned attempting to defend Kyle Hebert for a moment, but I'll do it with pride; I love his ending and recap redubs of the first dub. The guy knows how to play punchy dialogue without it killing it. You can yammer on about how it doesn't have to be there (Which it shouldn't) but if it's going to be there no matter what anyone says (it is) I'd much rather someone be directed to do in a slightly tongue in cheek way.

That and cutting the Hell's Bells from Vegeta's suicide blast did soooo much for the scene in English. I swear.

As for Yanami, while I can't imagine him not being there either, the "let the animation explain itself" approach the Japanese takes sometimes make him feel straight redundant, particularly when he comes in very late in the recap.

[VegettoEX]

I sorta hate to put this comment into the mix, and I didn't even really want to address it...

... but this question/discussion is precisely the type of thing I'm talking about when I say how as we* discuss the show that we know and we grew up with and is what we picture and hear in our mind when we talk about it... well, it's completely different between the original Japanese version and the 1999-onward FUNimation English dub (OK, I guess it also extends back to 1996, but it's at its peak in 1999).

The experience isn't the same. There are no puns and alliteration. There is no hammed-up script or performance. There is significantly less spoken dialogue. They're almost the complete opposite of one another, and the experience has no parallel in any way.

Yes, the underlying show, story, characters, etc. is all exactly the same and on a larger scale you're going to get the exact same thing out of it... except in little cases like this, where it's entirely different. It's a tiny, little, insignificant thing; it's just the extra crap at the beginning and end of an episode... but think about that. The way every single episode begins and ends - the exact type of mood and atmosphere that the show dictates for you - is completely different.

When I talk about the way that DBZ episode 237 ends (Vegeta death scene), that imagery and sound that I have in my head is worlds apart from what Jimmy-Nine-Year-Old experienced in 2002.

Not saying "better". Not saying "worse". Saying "different".

(*we = Kanzenshuu)

[Beji]

Going to get stoned attempting to defend Kyle Hebert for a moment, but I'll do it with pride; I love his ending and recap redubs of the first dub. The guy knows how to play punchy dialogue without it killing it. You can yammer on about how it doesn't have to be there (Which it shouldn't) but if it's going to be there no matter what anyone says (it is) I'd much rather someone be directed to do in a slightly tongue in cheek way.

I guess if we are talking about the series and you don't put the specials in then yes. I am not completely familiar with the narrator's name but I always enjoyed having it in the series. It was just this ONE special that was alittle too "over the top" for me and could only be looked at comically for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgvHaI11X5s&t=0m52s

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Not saying "better". Not saying "worse". Saying "different".

All I'm saying is that I don't find all of the Funi narration utterly awful.

And Vegeta's 237 death is spectacular in Japanese, no narration was necessary for it at all. Didn't think I'd react to it nearly as much as I would, having already known the events from the dub. Playing right in to "vastly different experiences" there.

Done with small text now.

Going to get stoned attempting to defend Kyle Hebert for a moment, but I'll do it with pride; I love his ending and recap redubs of the first dub. The guy knows how to play punchy dialogue without it killing it. You can yammer on about how it doesn't have to be there (Which it shouldn't) but if it's going to be there no matter what anyone says (it is) I'd much rather someone be directed to do in a slightly tongue in cheek way.

I guess if we are talking about the series and you don't put the specials in then yes. I am not completely familiar with the narrator's name but I always enjoyed having it in the series. It was just this ONE special that was alittle too "over the top" for me and could only be looked at comically for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgvHaI11X5s&t=0m52s

That... honestly... having not watched the Trunks special in any language in close to decade... is so hammy it's good, honestly. Really different strokes here.