Which DB series got the worst dub?

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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:21 am

Well, I don't think the OP intended to count the Malaysian English or the AB Groupe English dubs. If we can include those, I would say the Malaysian English dub was the worst.

However, if we can't include those...then I'd say it's probably Z. The Z dub could have been much better, but whenever someone asks me if the dub was good or not, I always have to answer with a follow-up question: "Which part?" In spite of how poor the dub was overall in comparison to Kai, there are scattered episodes here and there throughout the Z dub that are actually quite good. I would point to the episode where Gohan kills Cell as an example of good acting and excellent adaptation/writing (with the exception of the addition of one previously non-existent joke). As a bonus, the mixing for that episode on the 5.1 audio track is very good. The 5.1 mixes for some episodes had the original score so damn low in volume that it was unbearable, but they mixed it nice and loud on this episode.

I don't even count the replaced scores against the dubs anymore since we can now hear the dubs with the original score on the DVD sets. So to me, the replacement scores are a moot point now. I don't care that it took them a couple years to finally include it. Better late than never, I say.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Fulicer » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:08 am

Gonstead wrote:I will say though that the Big Green Bardock and Trunks specials were better quality dubs out of what they had dubbed.

Big Green Bojack Unbound wasn't that bad either.
Unfortunately Bojack's voice was really...unusual. To be fair, Mr. Satan's (or "SAW-TAWN" as Big Green says it) voice was appropriate. Seems like it was done by the old guy that does 20 other characters.

Speaking of Big Green, like the Malaysian dub they call the Big Gete Star the Big "Gete-ster." Oh and don't forget the Filipino English dub of the Coola movies. His voice was unusually deep.

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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Piccolo Daimao » Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:29 am

TheBlackPaladin wrote:In spite of how poor the dub was overall in comparison to Kai, there are scattered episodes here and there throughout the Z dub that are actually quite good. I would point to the episode where Gohan kills Cell as an example of good acting and excellent adaptation/writing (with the exception of the addition of one previously non-existent joke).
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Gaffer Tape » Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:39 am

Fulicer wrote:To be fair, Mr. Satan's (or "SAW-TAWN" as Big Green says it)
That's how his name is pronounced in the original version too...
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Gonstead » Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:23 pm

Piccolo Daimao wrote:
TheBlackPaladin wrote:In spite of how poor the dub was overall in comparison to Kai, there are scattered episodes here and there throughout the Z dub that are actually quite good. I would point to the episode where Gohan kills Cell as an example of good acting and excellent adaptation/writing (with the exception of the addition of one previously non-existent joke).
Stephanie Nadolny. Son Gohan. Acting. Three things that don't go well.
Ehh, to be honest she wasn't really THAT bad as Gohan. Maybe not the best voice and acting but certainly not the worst.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by DragonBalllKaiHD » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:08 pm

To be honest, I don't realy get why people are bashing the Z dub so much. The only parts that got bad dub is Freeza and early Artifical Humans arcs. But that's only because they were very inexperienced as that was their first time dubbing DBZ. As the series progressed the dub was getting pretty good, as shown in Cell arc, with Buu arc being the best one, non-Kai wise.

If they had proper translated scripts that correspond to the original Japanese and better director, DBZ would have been much bettter dub overall.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by VegettoEX » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:11 pm

Didn't you just answer your own question? Still no properly-translated scripts and still not even proficient direction. If people are talking about dubs that aren't up to snuff, wouldn't it be natural to want those two things included in a dub to NOT make this list...?
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by DragonBalllKaiHD » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:22 pm

That's why I said 'overall'. Even Boo arc wasn't up to the par of what it should have been in the first place. The improved voice-acting and semi-proper script only made that arc a bit better. Even I quite enjoyed that arc because of it.

I'm just saying that what the people are saying about Z dub as a whole is a bit exaggerating , when there was a slightly-improved dub in certain arcs. Just saying.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by VegettoEX » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:26 pm

It gets pretty ridiculous if you have to break it down like, "Well, in this part of the series it's OK, but this part didn't have even remotely translated scripts, but this re-dubbed part did, but even then the direction wasn't amazing, but there were a couple re-casts that helped this part, but then there was a third music shift at this part..." and so on and so forth.

Classifying the entire thing under "meh" for an "overall" quality score/judgement seems entirely appropriate. Slightly-better-smelling crap is still crap, especially if you're going to put it head-to-head against its modern Kai equivalent which had all that stuff done properly from the start.

So again, I still don't see a problem.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by DragonBalllKaiHD » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:41 pm

I get your point. Yeah, it's very inconsisent but it's not completely unwatchable. I would definitely love to get Kai treatment on DBZ, though.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by CaBrPi » Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:04 pm

DragonBalllKaiHD wrote:I get your point. Yeah, it's very inconsisent but it's not completely unwatchable. I would definitely love to get Kai treatment on DBZ, though.
You're definitely not the only one in this regard.

But yes, even having grown up (kinda) with the old FUNi dub, I will say that it's definitely the worst of the four.

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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Piccolo Daimao » Wed Jul 04, 2012 7:37 am

Gonstead wrote:
Piccolo Daimao wrote:
TheBlackPaladin wrote:In spite of how poor the dub was overall in comparison to Kai, there are scattered episodes here and there throughout the Z dub that are actually quite good. I would point to the episode where Gohan kills Cell as an example of good acting and excellent adaptation/writing (with the exception of the addition of one previously non-existent joke).
Stephanie Nadolny. Son Gohan. Acting. Three things that don't go well.
Ehh, to be honest she wasn't really THAT bad as Gohan. Maybe not the best voice and acting but certainly not the worst.
Out of the original Japanese, Ocean Group, and FUNimation in-house casting choices...yes, she was the worse. It didn't even sound like a proper child and her laughter sounded horrific. Thank Dende we have Colleen Clinkenbeard now. And Dameon Clarke's always been good as Cell.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Fulicer » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:33 am

Gaffer Tape wrote:
Fulicer wrote:To be fair, Mr. Satan's (or "SAW-TAWN" as Big Green says it)
That's how his name is pronounced in the original version too...
I know. But it's an English word so it should be pronounced correctly when dubbed in English. I don't know any Japanese so I assume it's correct the way it was pronounced in that version as well.

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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by LiamKav » Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:24 pm

The later Ocean Group dub for Canada one that we got in the UK suddenly during the Artifical Humans arc (do we have a proper name for that dub) does show you that even if you have good actors, poor direction can really, really, REALLY hurt them.

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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by DemonRin » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:23 pm

The Z dub hands down.

DB and GT are only marginally better, tho GTs "Lol Rap in a 10 year old anime for some reason" soundtrack was very WTF.

DB had a slightly more accurate script and used the original music but still fell VERY short of the mark. Like, the General Blue - Bulma scene where she goes "I KNOW SUMO!" instead of the line about him being Gay pretty much sums up the entire tone of that dub. Cheesy moronic jokes thrown in where they don't belong.

Really, to be honest, before Kai FUNimation never did Dragonball Justice. Every release has SOMETHING wrong with it.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Gaffer Tape » Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:35 pm

Fulicer wrote:
Gaffer Tape wrote:
Fulicer wrote:To be fair, Mr. Satan's (or "SAW-TAWN" as Big Green says it)
That's how his name is pronounced in the original version too...
I know. But it's an English word so it should be pronounced correctly when dubbed in English. I don't know any Japanese so I assume it's correct the way it was pronounced in that version as well.
See, I'm the opposite of that. He's not Satan. He's a guy who appropriated the name. It's his name, and, as his name, he pronounces it that way, so... yeah. So I pronounce it the way it's written and spoken.

Then again, I'm not necessarily against a dub changing it to Say-tan. But... I dunno, still doesn't seem like that's actually his name.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by TripleRach » Thu Jul 05, 2012 4:44 am

Fulicer wrote:I know. But it's an English word so it should be pronounced correctly when dubbed in English. I don't know any Japanese so I assume it's correct the way it was pronounced in that version as well.
Judaism predates the English language entirely. I don't know anything about the original Hebrew pronunciation, but there are different pronunciations of "Satan" throughout different languages. The Japanese pronunciation more than likely comes from a non-English language.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Piccolo Daimao » Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:34 am

LiamKav wrote:The later Ocean Group dub for Canada one that we got in the UK suddenly during the Artifical Humans arc (do we have a proper name for that dub) does show you that even if you have good actors, poor direction can really, really, REALLY hurt them.
I think it's commonly referred to as the Westwood Dub, and yeah, it was pretty poor.
DemonRin wrote:DB had a slightly more accurate script and used the original music but still fell VERY short of the mark. Like, the General Blue - Bulma scene where she goes "I KNOW SUMO!" instead of the line about him being Gay pretty much sums up the entire tone of that dub. Cheesy moronic jokes thrown in where they don't belong.
That was censorship, to avoid homophobic soccer moms complaining about their children being corrupted. They never outright called Blue gay, and I think I recall that, after the scene where Blue first knocks back Blooma's advances and calls her disgusting, Kuririn calls him something like "sissy" rather than "gay".

And I've mentioned this before, but FUNimation really failed hard when they censored the infamous scene with Blue and Obotchaman, where they had Blue say that he reminded him of his long-lost brother/cousin, but still retained al the visual hints that still made it clear he was attracted to him. So they inadvertently ended up making him incestuous on top of paedophilic.
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Re: Which DB series got the worst dub?

Post by Fulicer » Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:38 pm

TripleRach wrote:
Fulicer wrote:I know. But it's an English word so it should be pronounced correctly when dubbed in English. I don't know any Japanese so I assume it's correct the way it was pronounced in that version as well.
Judaism predates the English language entirely. I don't know anything about the original Hebrew pronunciation, but there are different pronunciations of "Satan" throughout different languages. The Japanese pronunciation more than likely comes from a non-English language.
I do know that Judiasm predates English. Also, it's pronounced "shay-tawn" in Arabic, and that's a different pronunciation that I've heard over the years.

Instead of saying that it's an English word, I should have said that the English word is pronounced say-tan, so in my opinion an an English dub should have that pronunciation. So what I meant to say that it's English in writing, as there are quite a lot of animated English words in the series already. That kind of ties in with my opinions on adapting Mr. Satan. Bad wording on my part.

My second sentence in that quote was also written poorly. I meant to say that they have their own way of saying it in the Japanese dub, and I don't have a problem with that.

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