First off, I have to mention the wonderful job that was done to Kageyamas original DBZ intro as both the translation and the singing is fantastic and upbeat to say the least.
Radditz calls Goku Kakaroto, which is more accurate than some OTHER dubs.
Gohan is probably one of the most bizarre changes made to the hebrew dub. For an unknown reason, the dub decided that Gohans full name is not Son Gohan, but Gohan Chan. I find it bizarre why they thought that seeing as the translators knew Japanese culture and knew what the Chan suffix meant, but very quickly you see he is always called Gohan Chan while after the first few episodes nobody else is. My guess is that maybe the translators didn't realise Son was a last name and thought it was some cool nickname, so Gohan just HAD to have one of his own. Though later Gokus Grandfather is named Son Gohan, so I don't really know at this point. It's a bit of a messy topic, and up for speculation really.
Piccolo dubiously gets translated as Picoro, and while it shows they translated from the original Japanese (L and R being a single letter in Japanese and so are interchangeable in translations) also shows a lack of knowledge on the translators part as Picollos name is an obvious pun and a recurring one from Dragon Ball with his brothers and him being named after instruments.
A word to note for the rest of this series is that I will be using the hebrew names of each character. While this may agitate some purists, I feel that when looking at a dub like this you should try to be accurate to it so you get the intended experience.
I am so grateful personally the Japanese scored is used as Picoros theme is just so darn dramatic.
Throughout the episode Radditz keeps saying that he sees a power level X away from him, without stating a unit of measurement. I admittedly haven't watched the majority of DBZ in other languages, but did he originally didn't state a unit of measurement as well? Because here it's just a little bit off hearing him say "Kakaroto is 12900 away" without specifying 12900 WHAT exactly.
While we are at Kame-senins house, we might as well talk about names and suffixes. Most of the names recieved minor changes while some received major ones (more on that later), but for the most part they tend to stick fairly accurately to the original. Here we are introduced to:
קרירין(Kririn): I tend to not fuss over Ls and Rs, but since he is later shown in the Namek saga with a hat saying Kuririn I'd say this is pretty close.
בורמה(Burma): This is a bit of an odd one. I know I said I don't mind L and R switches, but the original name is a pun on the word Bloomers so I using the R sound seems like they didn't quite get the original intention.
קאמה סנין(Kame-Senin): I like that they didn't call him Turtle Teacher or something stupid like that, keeping it original and simple. Good job guys.
יאמצ׳ה(Yamcha, only mentioned here): Not much to say on this one.
לאנץ׳ (Launch): Got it right with this one, gotta mention it here since she won't be mentioned very often in the future really.
The other important thing about this scene is the usage of suffixes. Burma asks Kame-Senin where Launch-san is. The usage of japanese suffixes is something that as far as I recall, will quickly be abandoned. There could many reasons why they stopped using them, but my two best speculations are as follows:
1. They didn't want israeli children to be confused with these odd suffixes that mean nothing to them
2. They had decided Chan was kind of Gohans thing and after calling Yamcha "Yamcha-chan" in a later episode they realised it makes no sense to give Chan to other characters.
A line that I believe was added for the hebrew dub was Radditz saying that Goku was supposed to kill the humans as they "interrupt them on their plan to take over the universe". This is not only made up but also very untrue, as right after he mentions they just take planets and sell them and later on we find out who the Saiyans work for, so that makes this line rather out of place.
Oh right, I guess this is a good place to talk about the translation of the word Saiyajin. The two ways they say it in the show are Saiyan, usually when they talk about a person, and Sayia, which is what they say when talking about something more general like the Saiya tribe (which is what they call the Saiyan race) or when talking of the two Saiya men who are coming to earth. It's a logical take on the word too as it matches regular terminology well like a Hungarian who comes from Hungary, so I applaud them for thinking outside the box.
In general though, Radditz story adds a few things that aren’t mentioned anywhere else. Mainly, when referring to the 4 remaining Sayians, he says “Me and another one where off on another planet. The third one did the same thing. And then there’s you, Kakaroto”. This is an important line to me because it implies the Nappa and Vegeta aren’t always together as it seems, and that in general Radditz and them work together more often and they split up at various points. This and another line I will get to quite a bit later show an odd sense of camaraderie between the 3 Saiyan warriors, which I am not sure is fitting or not but it’s different to say the least
Gokus Kinto-un got localised as "Anana", which is simply the hebrew word "Anan" which means Cloud with an extra A in the end to make it sound more like a name. It does sound hilarious when he yells it though
When discussing summoning Shenglong with the dragon balls Goku refers to the Dragon Balls as just that, Dragon Balls, without translating them at all. He also calls Shenglong himself as "El Hadrakonim" or "The dragon god" instead of a proper name. Remember these two details as they will both come up at a later time.
Not much of note happens from here to the end of the fight really, as it is kept primarily the same. The thing of note is that Kamehamea is kept the same but the Makankōsappō is called "Ball of light" in this episode. However, I am willing to assume he just meant it as a general energy blast as he yelled "Take this Ball of light!" at him, because a few episodes later in a filler he calls it ״קרן שטן רצחנית״ which translates to "Murderous Devil Ray", which is a bit closer to the original and I believe the changed Demon to Devil just because the hebrew word for demon isn't nearly as dramatic.
The final thing of note is the Saiyans Vegeta and Nappa. One of the most infamous changes done in the english dub is the renaming of Vegeta to Makita. First, let's clear one thing out: Makita is NOT an israeli food pun. Makita isn't the hebrew word for vegetable or cucumber or anything, it's just a meaningless name which if anything, sounds similar the hebrew word for Attack which could show his aggressive nature. Instead, I believe the nature of this name change comes from that little logo in the top right: Arutz Haieladim, or the kid channel. Now imagine yourself as a kid watching this fun show about fighting when out of nowhere you're bombarded with all of this information about aliens and races and planets, and both a planet and the main bad guy are both called Vegeta. Imagine just how confusing that could be to a little guy! So my guess is that for the sakes of keeping things simple, they changed it up to Makita so that kids have a clear distinction between the two. I would also like to give massive praise to Ami Mendelmen, the voice actor of Makita for giving one of the cheesiest and most quotable deliveries in the entire show. More will come later, but as they are leaving for earth he tells Nappa "Boh Narbitz Shena" which basically translates to "Let's hit the sack", which is so uncharacteristic of him that it's beautiful. I'm not sure if none israelis realise it, but this sentence is so unbefitting of a Saiyan prince and more fitting to a local falafel salesmen it's just great.
And that about wraps it up for Radditz. Next time we will take a brief skim through the Filler arc, all the way until Goku's arrival at Kaio-sama! I promise next parts won't be as long as this one, but we needed to get a lot of things out of the way which are important for the rest of the series.
