Would you be more forgiving towards the dub if....

[Ringworm128]

Would you judge the Funimation dub less harshly if instead of a full Kai style redub they simply did some George Lucusing to their old Z dub and removed the really OOC stuff like "the hope of the universe" speach, incorrect statements like "he's faster than the speed of light" etc.

[KentalSSJ6]

Would you judge the Funimation dub less harshly if instead of a full Kai style redub they simply did some George Lucusing to their old Z dub and removed the really OOC stuff like "the hope of the universe" speach, incorrect statements like "he's faster than the speed of light" etc.

Ill be honest, if we never got Kai, id have likely stopped watching DBZ. At the most id give the Japanese dub a shot (not a huge fan of it, but its growing on me).

[penguintruth]

It would still have some pretty poor casting, wonky, substandard acting, and replacement music. And even if they took out "Ally to good, nightmare to you!" and the like, there's still dozens of scenes they'd have to redo entirely.

I mean, it's not that the dub is just somewhat bad and I've been exaggerating for effect. It's rotten down to the keel. Even the Kai dub isn't spectacular, though a good number of the cast has improved.

[Codarik]

Well if they just re-dubbed certain lines, the actors would have to deliver the replacement line just like how they did the original line. Can't have the actor sound awkward from an old line from 1999 then suddenly a perfectly delivered line from 2014 shows up outta nowhere. The Orange Brick season 2 has a similar case to this.

[Big Momma]

My biggest problem with the old dub is inaccuracy. If the script itself were more faithful, I could live with the voices I'm not a fan of.

[Bullza]

I'm fine with the dub as it is, I own the manga if I cared that much for accuracy I'd just read that.

[dbboxkaifan]

The putrid dub would still be awful regardless of precision.

Poor voice acting of Schemmel, Sabat, Linda Young and the rest would still be flawed, music would have too and plenty more issues. FUNimation's Kai dub was an overall improvement but Sabat still made Vegeta sound too deep, Schemmel turned Goku to a Superman and Colleen's nailed it to the coffin by making Gohan to sounding like a high-pitched annoying college girl.

[90sDBZ]

Isn't the partial redub of Season 3 and early Season 4 sort of a George Lucasing thing? Anyway I'm glad they didn't really go too far with that route. Much like the partial redub of Season 3 making changes here and there it just wouldn't' please anyone. Fans who loved the original dub the way it was wouldn't be happy and fans who wanted a completely new faithful dub wouldn't be happy. The Funimation dub of DBZ was exactly what it set out to be and was already popular so why make a half-assed attempt at making it more faithful?

I think the way they saw Kai as an opportunity to take that direction instead of further messing with Z worked out for the best. This way we have Z and we have Kai with no confusion and no fans complaining they can't see the version they grew up with.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I was about to say the same thing - they already kinda-sorta did that a little bit with the Season Sets, which I believe has been the exact same 'English version' ever since, on every release. It's already awkward enough in some spots hearing a newer, better Sabat compared to the old audio for pretty much everyone else. In all honesty, it probably would have been for the best if they had just left the dub as is - most anyone interested in the dub already loves or at least knows what they're getting into with it, and most others wouldn't be interested in anything less than a from-the-grounds-up re-dub (that we get anyway, somewhat, in the form of Kai).

I fail to see how Schemmel's Kai performance is anything 'Superman'-like though...

[MagicBox]

I would have loved it if they had gone back and re-written/re-recorded more of the Z dub to be more accurate. The problem with that is... where exactly do you draw the line? Yeah, the biggest offenders like the "hope of the universe" speech are easy enough to pick out, but unless they thoroughly comb over the entire dub, they're bound to leave in a lot of inaccurate lines. And at that point, you're essentially redubbing the entire series.

Anyone who's ever seen my signature knows that I'm (slowly) doing dub/sub comparisons for Detective Conan / Case Closed. I once tried this with the "uncut" dub of the first Dragon Ball Z arc and some of the movies. A revised version of DBZ Uncensored, if you will. And... I had to stop. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was essentially transcribing entire episodes. Voices and dub music aside, some of the scripts are just that bad.

Something like that can't be fixed with just as little "George Lucas-ing." It can be improved, yeah, but it comes to a point where you just have to abandon ship. Kai gave them the perfect opportunity to do that. Personally, I have a TON of nitpicks about the Kai dub. I made it to the end of the Freeza arc before switching back to Japanese. But the majority of the (informed) fandom seems to be more than satisfied with it, and it is a vast improvement over the Z dub, so I'm good. I've "forgiven" FUNimation.

[Herms]

The reason I don't watch the Funi dub is because I think the voices are bad and the music is bad. Also, I think the anime as a whole is pretty bad compared to the manga, so I don't watch any version of the anime all that much. Given all that, a version of the Funi dub with a more accurate script wouldn't tempt me too much.

On the other hand, an accurate dub would be something I could safely not watch and then not have to concern myself with at all. As is, I don't watch the Funi dub but I still have to deal with all the really stupid character names, backstory, and whatnot that the Funi dub made up.

[RocktheDragon]

Would you judge the Funimation dub less harshly if instead of a full Kai style redub they simply did some George Lucusing to their old Z dub and removed the really OOC stuff like "the hope of the universe" speach, incorrect statements like "he's faster than the speed of light" etc.

As some others have stated in this thread the dub problems with the original Z dub is much more fundamental and intrusive than any cursory editing can fix. My hope is that one day (probably decades from now) Funimation re-dubs the original DBZ series with a script much closer to the original Japanese. The only way they can rectify the problems with the dub is to simply re dub it.

[RocktheDragon]

The putrid dub would still be awful regardless of precision.

Poor voice acting of Schemmel, Sabat, Linda Young and the rest would still be flawed, music would have too and plenty more issues. FUNimation's Kai dub was an overall improvement but Sabat still made Vegeta sound too deep, Schemmel turned Goku to a Superman and Colleen's nailed it to the coffin by making Gohan to sounding like a high-pitched annoying college girl.

I think this is the first time I've seen someone be so negative to three of the biggest voice actors of Funimation's dub. I really enjoy their voice work and my only problems lie with the wonky script that was provided to them. They did a heck of a job and put in a lot of passion and hard work into the episodes, can't we at least appreciate their attempt? Anything coming after the original Japanese voice performances isn't going to measure up but they did a valiant job.

[VegettoEX]

I don't see dbboxkaifan personally attacking the individuals or otherwise inferring that they did not make a worthwhile/valiant attempt.

I also think they made valiant attempts for the time, but I wouldn't ever subject anyone - let alone myself - to having to sit through it, either. I thought it was a horrible product in 1999, and I think it's still a horrible product. Incidentally, so do many of the people we're actually talking about.

The two viewpoints can co-exist (thinking they did their job, and not liking their actual output).

[theoriginalbilis]

A lot of the major inaccuracies with the Z dub's dialogue would've been fixed by just removing lines (or muting them out) from the OB/Dragon Box DVDs, rather than then re-recording everything....

Roshi's dialogue for the Red Ribbon Army flashback during the Android arc could've been muted entirely, just playing the music and SFX, and the whole "Gero leading the RRA" nonsense would've been erased for good.

I think this is the first time I've seen someone be so negative to three of the biggest voice actors of Funimation's dub.

Welcome to Kanzenshuu, my pal.

[WittyUsername]

The reason I don't watch the Funi dub is because I think the voices are bad and the music is bad. Also, I think the anime as a whole is pretty bad compared to the manga, so I don't watch any version of the anime all that much. Given all that, a version of the Funi dub with a more accurate script wouldn't tempt me too much.

On the other hand, an accurate dub would be something I could safely not watch and then not have to concern myself with at all. As is, I don't watch the Funi dub but I still have to deal with all the really stupid character names, backstory, and whatnot that the Funi dub made up.

The whole music thing shouldn't be an issue nowadays since the Funi dub can be watched with the Japanese BGM.

[BurakkuForesuto]

Which dub? The French dub? The Portugal dub? The Spanish dub? Didn't I say this before? You cannot use the term "the dub" in such a vague manner, in the context of DBZ. There are plenty of DBZ dubs with dub errors, censorship, bad voice acting and inaccurate scripts. Same thing with Cowboy Bebop. When people say the dub is better than the sub, you have to point out that Cowboy Bebop has about half a dozen dubs, added on to the fact that the English dub of Bebop isn't all that great. Granted in the case of Bebop at least, the English dub predated all other adaptations. The English dubs of Dragon Ball/DBZ/DBGT did not.

[VegettoEX]

I'm generally in the same boat as you with "clarify which dub you're talking about", but the first post literally spells out "the Funimation dub" and then further goes on to clarify which part of their production they specifically mean.

If you're not willing to read the actual post content itself and instead base your response on the title alone, you're not prepared for the discussions on this forum.

[samuraix123]

I don't see dbboxkaifan personally attacking the individuals or otherwise inferring that they did not make a worthwhile/valiant attempt.

I also think they made valiant attempts for the time, but I wouldn't ever subject anyone - let alone myself - to having to sit through it, either. I thought it was a horrible product in 1999, and I think it's still a horrible product. Incidentally, so do many of the people we're actually talking about.

The two viewpoints can co-exist (thinking they did their job, and not liking their actual output).

Come on now....it's not That! bad now is it? I've watched old kung fu movies where the voice acting is just god awful and when I hear people say things that their old dub is unbearable to sit through I kinda get a little laugh. even though there's times where you're like ''wuut?'' I don't believe I would say ''but I wouldn't ever subject anyone - let alone myself - to having to sit through it, either.''

[Gyt Kaliba]

Well...the old dub certainly is unbearable if you don't have some level of attachment to it, like I do, so it is kinda 'that bad'. But I would agree that old live-action dubs (and most live-action dubs in general, really) are far more unbearable. It's part of the reason I still haven't watched any of the Bruce Lee movies I have in this one box, because it turns out all it has is the overdubs. Urgh.