Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

You know considering how poorly the OG DB dub has aged it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It isn't nearly as unlistenable, laughably bad and amateurish as DBZ Season 3 but still quite a ways off from the original version as pretty much most of their pre Kai dubs (barring some exceptions here and there that were decent like the first Broly movie) were in the early 2000's.

I think its better than most people give it credit for: Launch, Tien and Daimao work quite well (I think Sabat's more guttural voice REALLY works for Daimao, but doesn't for Jr), while Krillin and Roshi are the standout best roles. Goku of course is very hit or miss and it really hinges on if you feel it works due to Goku's upbringing, or feel it's because Nadolny can't act with that voice. And considering how pivotal Goku is to these early stories in particular (back when he wasn't written out every 50 episodes), that makes or breaks the entire anime.

I mean yeah, as far as their earlier related dubs of the franchise go it's decent in terms of that era even if not entirely faithful all the way through. They didn't go out of their way to overload it to the max with terrible punched up jokes like Z or foist an unfitting replacement music score, and Brice Armstrong was a good choice for narrator because it wasn't an attempt at sounding like an over the top WWF(E) or monster truck rally announcer like Dale Kelly's had been. Armstrong's definitely felt much closer to Yanami's.

[ArmenianPepsi]

lol. Well, the Dragon Boxes have no subs, in fairness, so it's not like this set would be pointless.
Maybe we'll see an English version released, and you can get the nice feelies and such, and have a subbed version of OG DB based on the Dragon Box masters.
... Then again, I guess there's stuff like the Dragon Radar project.
Maybe someone out there will want to buy the discs but would give you the boxes and such.

That the Selecta Blu-Rays probably have a totally different disc count, so that wouldn't work?

It's made me wonder for so long why they've had this type of attitude toward the original series

We know the answer to this actually, it's Gen Fukunaga. He wanted to adapt DBZ after seeing it in Japan, but he had to try and dub OG-DB first. At the first sign of disappointment, he jumped to DBZ. That attitude has continued where the Funi DB dub was produced less as "completing the story" and more "this is riding the coat-tails of Z". Since Z isn't a new product anymore, there's "no reason" to even look at OG-DB except as a way to draw more eyes to Z/Super.

In retrospect, considering how ATROCIOUS the initial dubs are (especially of movie 2), I wonder if he didn't do a half-assed job on purpose to sabotage DB and skip to Z.

You know considering how poorly the OG DB dub has aged it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It isn't nearly as unlistenable, laughably bad and amateurish as DBZ Season 3 but still quite a ways off from the original version as pretty much most of their pre Kai dubs (barring some exceptions here and there that were decent like the first Broly movie) were in the early 2000's.

I feel you right there. When I was watching DB, I watched the dub, but gave up around episode 25 and just switched to subs exclusively. Just something about it felt so wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was because kid Goku and kid Gohan basically have the same voice, and I can not stand kid Gohan's voice, so it just got grating

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

That the Selecta Blu-Rays probably have a totally different disc count, so that wouldn't work?


We know the answer to this actually, it's Gen Fukunaga. He wanted to adapt DBZ after seeing it in Japan, but he had to try and dub OG-DB first. At the first sign of disappointment, he jumped to DBZ. That attitude has continued where the Funi DB dub was produced less as "completing the story" and more "this is riding the coat-tails of Z". Since Z isn't a new product anymore, there's "no reason" to even look at OG-DB except as a way to draw more eyes to Z/Super.

In retrospect, considering how ATROCIOUS the initial dubs are (especially of movie 2), I wonder if he didn't do a half-assed job on purpose to sabotage DB and skip to Z.

You know considering how poorly the OG DB dub has aged it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It isn't nearly as unlistenable, laughably bad and amateurish as DBZ Season 3 but still quite a ways off from the original version as pretty much most of their pre Kai dubs (barring some exceptions here and there that were decent like the first Broly movie) were in the early 2000's.

I feel you right there. When I was watching DB, I watched the dub, but gave up around episode 25 and just switched to subs exclusively. Just something about it felt so wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Yeah, i mostly watch it in Japanese as well because although i can bear to watch the dub from time to time i know it heavily diverges from the original as there's been some times where i've turned on the subtitles and seen just how different the dub's scripts of the episodes really are. This is also the case with the movies as well but especially in the case of Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle because that one's hands down even worse than DBZ Season 3. Of course, it predates the latter by about a year being the very first thing the in house cast ever did.

Seriously, it's so bad in a way that it makes their later dubs (even Season 3) look better even with all of their numerous flaws.

[ArmenianPepsi]

You know considering how poorly the OG DB dub has aged it honestly wouldn't surprise me. It isn't nearly as unlistenable, laughably bad and amateurish as DBZ Season 3 but still quite a ways off from the original version as pretty much most of their pre Kai dubs (barring some exceptions here and there that were decent like the first Broly movie) were in the early 2000's.

I feel you right there. When I was watching DB, I watched the dub, but gave up around episode 25 and just switched to subs exclusively. Just something about it felt so wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Yeah, i mostly watch it in Japanese as well because although i can bear to watch the dub from time to time i know it heavily diverges from the original as there's been some times where i've turned on the subtitles and seen just how different the dub's scripts of the episodes really are. This is also the case with the movies as well but especially in the case of Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle because that one's hands down even worse than DBZ Season 3. Of course, it predates the latter by about a year being the very first thing the in house cast ever did.

Seriously, it's so bad in a way that it makes their later dubs (even Season 3) look better even with all of their numerous flaws.

Worst part is that the early Funi dubs are bad, but not "So bad they're good". Like you can watch Big Green or Speedy DBZ and get a good laugh with how terrible they are, but with Funi's DB dub it just nearly turned me off of watching.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I feel you right there. When I was watching DB, I watched the dub, but gave up around episode 25 and just switched to subs exclusively. Just something about it felt so wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Yeah, i mostly watch it in Japanese as well because although i can bear to watch the dub from time to time i know it heavily diverges from the original as there's been some times where i've turned on the subtitles and seen just how different the dub's scripts of the episodes really are. This is also the case with the movies as well but especially in the case of Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle because that one's hands down even worse than DBZ Season 3. Of course, it predates the latter by about a year being the very first thing the in house cast ever did.

Seriously, it's so bad in a way that it makes their later dubs (even Season 3) look better even with all of their numerous flaws.

Worst part is that the early Funi dubs are bad, but not "So bad they're good". Like you can watch Big Green or Speedy DBZ and get a good laugh with how terrible they are, but with Funi's DB dub it just nearly turned me off of watching.

I know right, foreign dubs like those aforementioned ones are such in a different way because they are laughable and incomprehensible to such an extent that they're gifts that keep on giving with their sheer badness. FUNi's earlier in house dub works like DB movie 2 and DBZ season 3 on the other hand are poorly aged productions that show just how amature and inexperienced the cast was back in 1998/1999. Watching something like Kai or their dubs of the recent movies compared to the stuff from very early on is night and day, to an extent where it's quite frankly embarrassing.

[KBABZ]

I mean yeah, as far as their earlier related dubs of the franchise go it's decent in terms of that era even if not entirely faithful all the way through.

Oh yeah, the script is a mess. At best it vaguely matches the manga's wording, at worst they make shit up that contradicts Z and completely and unnecessarily recontextualizes the scenes, like Goku asking about the Announcer's sunglasses.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I mean yeah, as far as their earlier related dubs of the franchise go it's decent in terms of that era even if not entirely faithful all the way through.

Oh yeah, the script is a mess. At best it vaguely matches the manga's wording, at worst they make shit up that contradicts Z and completely and unnecessarily recontextualizes the scenes, like Goku asking about the Announcer's sunglasses.

Indeed, it's not quite to the same extent as Z but still quite a lot of deviations or things completely made up that wasn't at all in the original version.

[MCDaveG]

Yeah and it's such a simple fix too. Something somebody with 20 minutes of experience with Vegas could do.

I'm somebody with 20 minutes of experience with Vegas! : D

a lot of the problems with this set would have been simple fixes

It just shows how this company lacks the technological and quality background... Funimation works as licenser, re-seller but when it is time to make their own production besides dubbing, it fails hard. Or rather, than lacking the background, they are doing it low-cost and fast, so they can cash on it easily. They got better in dub nowadays, but I remember the times when Cristopher Sabat was dubbing like half the characters in the whole series and I am still not sold on Piccolo and Vegeta. Piccolo - calm Christopher Sabat, Vegeta - shouting Christopher Sabat.

[TheGreatness25]

I've seen some people say things like, "If they got the original film masters and broadcast studio and next episode previews, I'd buy it." Yeah, that would be the pinnacle of what could ever possibly be released. I'd hope that would do it for people lol

I am disappointed that more care wasn't put into this release. But, it's not worse than any other release aside from the Dragon Boxes. The singles were horrendous (episode count, the colors, the cropping, and the macroblocking), the orange bricks were pfft, the season Blu-rays were meh (and cropped). If I didn't have the Dragon Boxes, this would be my standard way of watching the series. But since I do have them, that's moot. Though, the Dragon Boxes aren't perfect and realistically, despite what's "proper" in terms of color and grain, it is prettier looking than a lot of the dull green/pink tint of the Dragon Boxes. So, it's a tough call. I've seen the series so many times, that I haven't rewatched it in a long time and if I did, it would be on in the background while I do other things, so I guess it doesn't matter which version I choose. Except this has the "broadcast" version, which adds to that Funimation dub cheese.

Realistically, my standard go-to is the Japanese Dragon Boxes. Probably because they're my most prized possession for this series because of how long it took to get them.

[Danfun64]

If by broadcast version you mean it has the respective Johnson and Faulconer replacement scores, then sure, it does.

If by broadcast version you mean the audio mix the singles used transferred from the finalized masters, complete with the original actors and acting instead of the partial redubs and alternate takes, that kind of thing hasn't been sold since the singles. Funi never looked back on their original in house dub ever since the Orange Bricks came out.

[TheGreatness25]

If by broadcast version you mean it has the respective Johnson and Faulconer replacement scores, then sure, it does.

If by broadcast version you mean the audio mix the singles used transferred from the finalized masters, complete with the original actors and acting instead of the partial redubs and alternate takes, that kind of thing hasn't been sold since the singles. Funi never looked back on their original in house dub ever since the Orange Bricks came out.

That's why I put it in quotes lol But yeah, the music mostly. Also, it's untouched after "season 4."

[Danfun64]

Unfortunately, it still isn't. There's still some acting replacements (Dale Kelly's narrator is probably the biggest example), along with some missing vocal filters, some alternate Faulconer placement, different takes from the original recording sessions, new dialogue from the original recording sessions, and removed dialogue. A large percentage of it is the same, sure, perhaps even most of it, but there are still occasional differences.

[TheGreatness25]

It's honestly something that I'm surprised anyone was able to find. The narrator, yes. But the rest? It's amazing anyone spotted those differences.

[Robo4900]

It's honestly something that I'm surprised anyone was able to find. The narrator, yes. But the rest? It's amazing anyone spotted those differences.

IDK. "I guess Piccolo must hate Gohan. Remember, the black water mist amplifies a person's hostilities until they are far too much to control" in the original vs "But remember, Piccolo and Gohan hate each-other! That hatred has been pent-up in Piccolo for years, and probably was released when he breathed in the black water mist." in remastered is a pretty noticeable difference.

As is the lack of vocal filtering, the fact there are a couple of missing lines when characters' mouths move to say those lines, Goku's voice being Ceyli Delgadillo for one line then changing to Stephanie Nadolny for the rest of the scene in that one flashback, where in the original release it was all Nadolny...

There are a lot of weird errors on the "Remastered" audio mixes, which are quite noticeable. The vast majority are fine, but a serious one does pop up now and again. I think they were probably under some very serious time constraints, and weren't able to reference the original dub audio. Probably they didn't have all the original stems to hand, either.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

It's honestly something that I'm surprised anyone was able to find. The narrator, yes. But the rest? It's amazing anyone spotted those differences.

IDK. "I guess Piccolo must hate Gohan. Remember, the black water mist amplifies a person's hostilities until they are far too much to control" in the original vs "But remember, Piccolo and Gohan hate each-other! That hatred has been pent-up in Piccolo for years, and probably was released when he breathed in the black water mist." in remastered is a pretty noticeable difference.

As is the lack of vocal filtering, the fact there are a couple of missing lines when characters' mouths move to say those lines, Goku's voice being Ceyli Delgadillo for one line then changing to Stephanie Nadolny for the rest of the scene in that one flashback, where in the original release it was all Nadolny...

There are a lot of weird errors on the "Remastered" audio mixes, which are quite noticeable. The vast majority are fine, but a serious one does pop up now and again. I think they were probably under some very serious time constraints, and weren't able to reference the original dub audio. Probably they didn't have all the original stems to hand, either.

The thing with the flashback was interesting and jarring to hear, because Ceyli had already since been replaced as kid Goku with Nadolny by the time the original series' dub started in 2001 so maybe that bit came from very early takes with her voice that had been recorded the replacement happened. I'm guessing during the course of the production on the tracks for the remastered release they were erroneously inserted among the other numerous screw ups that happened as a result of the elements used.

[Robo4900]

The thing with the flashback was interesting and jarring to hear, because Ceyli had already since been replaced as kid Goku with Nadolny by the time the original series' dub started in 2001 so maybe that bit came from very early takes with her voice that had been recorded the replacement happened. I'm guessing during the course of the production on the tracks for the remastered release they were erroneously inserted among the other numerous screw ups that happened as a result of the elements used.

Indeed.

To be honest, I have no idea how it might've happened such that it switches mid-line, but misplacing of elements does happen with stuff like this, so... Someone or something screwed up somewhere. Personally, I just find it funny and interesting. Though it does IMO make it even more sad that the US score track isn't just the original pre-"remastering" dub, since then you'd have both versions to choose from. I get that Sabat and a bunch of the others are embarassed by the old dub, but the "remastered" dub only redubbed like half the dialogue, and only up until like the Cell Games, and it would only have to be an additional track people can dig in the setup menu for.

But IDK. I think Funi aren't interested in any dub other than their most recent work. See also: Their burial of the original "Vendar" dub of Dead Zone, and the lack of Pioneer dub tracks on the first three Z movies, and the fact we didn't get the original TV version of Tree Of Might on home video until 2013.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The thing with the flashback was interesting and jarring to hear, because Ceyli had already since been replaced as kid Goku with Nadolny by the time the original series' dub started in 2001 so maybe that bit came from very early takes with her voice that had been recorded the replacement happened. I'm guessing during the course of the production on the tracks for the remastered release they were erroneously inserted among the other numerous screw ups that happened as a result of the elements used.

Indeed.

To be honest, I have no idea how it might've happened such that it switches mid-line, but misplacing of elements does happen with stuff like this, so... Someone or something screwed up somewhere. Personally, I just find it funny and interesting. Though it does IMO make it even more sad that the US score track isn't just the original pre-"remastering" dub, since then you'd have both versions to choose from. I get that Sabat and a bunch of the others are embarassed by the old dub, but the "remastered" dub only redubbed like half the dialogue, and only up until like the Cell Games, and it would only have to be an additional track people can dig in the setup menu for.

But IDK. I think Funi aren't interested in any dub other than their most recent work. See also: Their burial of the original "Vendar" dub of Dead Zone, and the lack of Pioneer dub tracks on the first three Z movies, and the fact we didn't get the original TV version of Tree Of Might on home video until 2013.

Indeed, and calling the dub with Faulconer replacement score on the Orange Bricks and onward the "broadcast track" makes no sense because it isn't truly the version aired on TV in the late '90s/early 2000's and released on the original single DVDs concurrently. True, the old in house Z dub was no doubt bad and amature but the partial re dub really didn't end up doing all that much in the long run especially in light of Kai. While the re dubbing made some of the voice performances less awful and a few of the terrible jokes stripped out, more was left in than junked and by the time you get to the start of the Androids the redubs all but stop and characters jump back to the way they sounded in the old dub.

[ArmenianPepsi]

The thing with the flashback was interesting and jarring to hear, because Ceyli had already since been replaced as kid Goku with Nadolny by the time the original series' dub started in 2001 so maybe that bit came from very early takes with her voice that had been recorded the replacement happened. I'm guessing during the course of the production on the tracks for the remastered release they were erroneously inserted among the other numerous screw ups that happened as a result of the elements used.

Indeed.

To be honest, I have no idea how it might've happened such that it switches mid-line, but misplacing of elements does happen with stuff like this, so... Someone or something screwed up somewhere. Personally, I just find it funny and interesting. Though it does IMO make it even more sad that the US score track isn't just the original pre-"remastering" dub, since then you'd have both versions to choose from. I get that Sabat and a bunch of the others are embarassed by the old dub, but the "remastered" dub only redubbed like half the dialogue, and only up until like the Cell Games, and it would only have to be an additional track people can dig in the setup menu for.

But IDK. I think Funi aren't interested in any dub other than their most recent work. See also: Their burial of the original "Vendar" dub of Dead Zone, and the lack of Pioneer dub tracks on the first three Z movies, and the fact we didn't get the original TV version of Tree Of Might on home video until 2013.

Indeed, and calling the dub with Faulconer replacement score on the Orange Bricks and onward the "broadcast track" makes no sense because it isn't truly the version aired on TV in the late '90s/early 2000's and released on the original single DVDs concurrently. True, the old in house Z dub was no doubt bad and amature but the partial re dub really didn't end up doing all that much in the long run especially in light of Kai. While the re dubbing made some of the voice performances less awful and a few of the terrible jokes stripped out, more was left in than junked and by the time you get to the start of the Androids the redubs all but stop and characters jump back to the way they sounded in the old dub.

I will stand by the Kai dub honestly. I recently finished Kai (1-98), and in my view the dub is night and day, even compared to the "Remastered" dub from the Orange Bricks. While it isnt perfect, it's not like a 1-1 reading of the JP scripts, and from time to time the cheese of the old dub can creep in a bit. I can appreciate the effort they did put to do the show justice, now I wonder what would the english world of Dragon Ball look like if Funi gave Z the more accurate kai-style dub from the beggining.

[KBABZ]

I will stand by the Kai dub honestly. I recently finished Kai (1-98), and in my view the dub is night and day, even compared to the "Remastered" dub from the Orange Bricks. While it isnt perfect, it's not like a 1-1 reading of the JP scripts, and from time to time the cheese of the old dub can creep in a bit. I can appreciate the effort they did put to do the show justice, now I wonder what would the english world of Dragon Ball look like if Funi gave Z the more accurate kai-style dub from the beggining.

This is honestly something I want and yet am deathly afraid of. Much as Clinkenbeard is a fantastic Kid Gohan, whenever she plays Kid Goku there's nothing to distinguish it or make it unique; It's just Kid Gohan's voice. This makes it VERY hard for me to get into her performance as that character. If an OG-DB Kai were to really happen, I'd hope Clinkenbeard would be given the ability to really craft that role into something unique from Kid Gohan, considering how major that part is.

[Robo4900]

I will stand by the Kai dub honestly. I recently finished Kai (1-98), and in my view the dub is night and day, even compared to the "Remastered" dub from the Orange Bricks. While it isnt perfect, it's not like a 1-1 reading of the JP scripts, and from time to time the cheese of the old dub can creep in a bit. I can appreciate the effort they did put to do the show justice, now I wonder what would the english world of Dragon Ball look like if Funi gave Z the more accurate kai-style dub from the beggining.

This is honestly something I want and yet am deathly afraid of. Much as Clinkenbeard is a fantastic Kid Gohan, whenever she plays Kid Goku there's nothing to distinguish it or make it unique; It's just Kid Gohan's voice. This makes it VERY hard for me to get into her performance as that character. If an OG-DB Kai were to really happen, I'd hope Clinkenbeard would be given the ability to really craft that role into something unique from Kid Gohan, considering how major that part is.

I'll second a desire for Funi to go back and do a proper DB+Z+GT dub in the style of their modern/Kai-era dubbing. I would LOVE to have a proper, faithful English dub of the original run to watch. And it wouldn't have to replace the old dub, of course... The DVDs could contain both, easily. Have the modern dub as the default, but have the original dub, in its original non-remastered form, available as a second track. I don't think this will happen unless pretty much the entire current Funimation regime die out and get replaced with people with a very different philosophy, but if by some miracle this happened, it would truly be a great day for the English-speaking Dragon Ball fandom.
It would be like when Funimation took One Piece from 4Kids, except with the old dub still sticking around for those who still want to enjoy the show they grew up on back in the day.

As for Clinkenbeard as Goku... To be honest, I think the main reason she's never stood out in that role is she's simply done it in a rush for flashbacks, or for a somewhat haphazardly-thrown-together redub of the first movie (that movie's redub was a bit of a mess. They didn't reference the Japanese scripts properly, and basically just reused the 1995 script, but they removed lines where the Japanese track doesn't have dialogue, except they didn't rewrite the rest of the dialogue to properly account for this, so the dialogue doesn't make a lot of sense. It's clearly a rush job. Which is a real shame; they had a lot of good talent behind it).
If given 153 episodes of Dragon Ball to dub, I think Clinkenbeard would have a proper opportunity to make the role unique, and make it her own.

I doubt Funimation will ever redub DB+Z+GT, but who knows, stranger things have happened. We can hope, even if it is in vain.