Worst Dub Errors/Mistranslations

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Here's a few highlights of some of the most glaring and grevously wrong translation/dubbing errors of FUNi's DBZ dub both Ocean and in house, as in the ones which completely made up info that was not in the Japanese version at all and directly contradicted bits of information that are revealed later or refer back to the original series on account of them skipping over the majority of the show until 2001. Also, the acting especially of the latter few in particular are horrendous coming from the initial in house era. Needless to say it was so bizarre hearing those early takes again after so many years, and a clear indicator of just how much they have improved in 20+ years. Thankfully, these were for the most part corrected much later but definitely should have been addressed much much sooner given just how erroneous they are, it's a pretty clear reflection of how much FUNi was making up stuff as they went along with not having nearly the level of knowledge about the in's and out's that they'd have by the time Kai came around to give them another stab.


Bardock was a brilliant scientist

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F_DFJ-OXTzQ


Goku believes Vegeta killed Grandpa Gohan

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3nukDTiWduc


Those are Freeza's men!!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M_WSO55WhoM


Freeza made me what i am

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs0nYE21vlI


Dr. Gero was behind the Red Ribbon Army (Not!!!)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_s471uWGB8

[Metalwario64]

A strange one in Kai is when Goku's telling everyone he's gonna stay dead, he says something along the lines of "King Kai was already revived, but he's going to stay here with me." When he's shown with a halo, clearly still dead. The original like was that Kaio chose to stay dead (still don't know why), and I can't remember, but I don't think this error is in the original dub, because I can't remember its dialog for this scene.

Also, I hate how they made 17 and 18 purely mechanical in the Z dub, since it's a strange change to begin with, and they always spout off things like "That doesn't compute" (because their robots, get it?), and it creates a massive inconsistency in the Buu arc that they try to wave it away, but it goes against dialog in the Cell arc.

[WittyUsername]

In the case of the “he made me what I am” part, I don’t think that was an error, so much as it was an attempt by the writers to try and paint Vegeta in a more sympathetic light, thus making the conflict more simplistic and black and white for the kids.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

In the case of the “he made me what I am” part, I don’t think that was an error, so much as it was an attempt by the writers to try and paint Vegeta in a more sympathetic light, thus making the conflict more simplistic and black and white for the kids.

Hmm, i guess they thought the "avenge your/our race and defeat Freeza" that he tearfully pleas to Goku in the Japanese version wasn't quit sympathetic enough to go along with Vegeta before dying from the laser through his chest so they came up with that bit there.

[Robo4900]

I'm pretty sure the narrator in the last episode of Kai 1.0 says the Dragon Balls were used to revive King Kai. Solid plot hole right there.

The worst dub error, though, has to be... The entire in-house Funi dubs of DB, Z, and GT.

[90sDBZ]

These are some of the less mentioned ones.

In the Funimation and Westwood dubs Roshi says; Tao was a General who wanted world domination, there were 5 years between the tournaments, Goku and Tien's fight was a draw, and Goku married Chi Chi before the 23rd Tournament. All of this can be chalked up to them not watching DB before dubbing Z.

And in the Westwood dub, when the announcer sees Goten and remembers Goku vs Jackie Chun, Kid Goku can be heard saying "I am the champion!", which is wrong as that would have meant he won the match. I think the Funimation dub actually got this one right, keeping the "I am the champi-" line from their DB dub. I guess Ocean thought it was a mistake when they looked at Funi's script.

In the Blue Water GT dub, when Goku is about to blow himself up against Syn/Li Shenron he says "This is the move that defeated Majin Buu". And on the very last episode, when it flashes back to Goku reuniting with his friends, instead of saying "Hey guys" he says "Haha see ya!". And it's technically not an error as it was in the Japanese version, but they kept the mistake of Goku saying he was born on earth.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I'm pretty sure the narrator in the last episode of Kai 1.0 says the Dragon Balls were used to revive King Kai. Solid plot hole right there.

The worst dub error, though, has to be... The entire in-house Funi dubs of DB, Z, and GT.

Ain't that the truth, and i can actually handle watching DB's dub from time to time but with Z and GT on the other hand it's exclusively subbed all the way because their respective dubs are straight up not even close to remotely good at all. That's why i am glad Kai (at least 1.0, TFC/2.0 is another story) exists which allowed them to make a genuine attempt at dubbing the series much more faithfully compare to before and for the most part they did a pretty good job overall even though there are indeed flaws.

[WittyUsername]

In the case of the “he made me what I am” part, I don’t think that was an error, so much as it was an attempt by the writers to try and paint Vegeta in a more sympathetic light, thus making the conflict more simplistic and black and white for the kids.

Hmm, i guess they thought the "avenge your/our race and defeat Freeza" that he tearfully pleas to Goku in the Japanese version wasn't quit sympathetic enough to go along with Vegeta before dying from the laser through his chest so they came up with that bit there.

Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

In the case of the “he made me what I am” part, I don’t think that was an error, so much as it was an attempt by the writers to try and paint Vegeta in a more sympathetic light, thus making the conflict more simplistic and black and white for the kids.

Hmm, i guess they thought the "avenge your/our race and defeat Freeza" that he tearfully pleas to Goku in the Japanese version wasn't quit sympathetic enough to go along with Vegeta before dying from the laser through his chest so they came up with that bit there.

Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

Yeah, i definitely prefer it and the proper translated version in Kai.

[MasenkoHA]

[
Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

No, he was definitely crying about their race in the Japanese version. That Freeza wiped out their whole race because he feared them and begging Goku to kill Freeza so that’ll he die by a Saiyan’s hand.


The English dub turned it into “its all about me” thing when he cried that Freeza forced him into being evil and doing whatever he wanted and begging Goku to stop Freeza so that he doesn’t make anyone else like Vegeta.


Which yeah that gets my vote for worst dub error mistranslation no way in hell would a character who has so much pride in his status and in his race would give credit to anyone for making him who he is. And it makes no sense for him to self reflect like and then ignore this epiphany when he was revived.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

[
Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

No, he was definitely crying about their race in the Japanese version. That Freeza wiped out their whole race because he feared them and begging Goku to kill Freeza so that’ll he die by a Saiyan’s hand.


The English dub turned it into “its all about me” thing when he cried that Freeza forced him into being evil and doing whatever he wanted and begging Goku to stop Freeza so that he doesn’t make anyone else like Vegeta.


Which yeah that gets my vote for worst dub error mistranslation no way in hell would a character who has so much pride in his status and in his race would give credit to anyone for making him who he is. And it makes no sense for him to self reflect like and then ignore this epiphany when he was revived.

I'd say it's up there for me in terms of worst mistranslations or erroneous dialogue along with those errors in the Future Trunks and Artificial Humans/Androids episodes that clash with the original series on account of FUNi skipping the majority of it until 2001 and so they just made up stuff until then due to not knowing about all the info regarding things like Tao Pai Pai being a hired assassin not an actual member of the Red Ribbon Army or Dr. Gero merely being a scientist who worked for them but was not directly involved in their ranks.

[WittyUsername]

[
Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

No, he was definitely crying about their race in the Japanese version. That Freeza wiped out their whole race because he feared them and begging Goku to kill Freeza so that’ll he die by a Saiyan’s hand.


The English dub turned it into “its all about me” thing when he cried that Freeza forced him into being evil and doing whatever he wanted and begging Goku to stop Freeza so that he doesn’t make anyone else like Vegeta.


Which yeah that gets my vote for worst dub error mistranslation no way in hell would a character who has so much pride in his status and in his race would give credit to anyone for making him who he is. And it makes no sense for him to self reflect like and then ignore this epiphany when he was revived.

Vegeta flat out stated earlier in the arc that he didn’t care that Freeza killed his race. He was mad that he had to be Freeza’s servant. Yeah, he wanted Freeza to die by a Saiyan’s hands, but he wanted to be the one to do it. Once he died, he passed the baton off to Goku, since he was the only other full blooded Saiyan left. That doesn’t mean that Vegeta cared about his race. If that were the case, then he wouldn’t have gleefully murdered Nappa.

[Polyphase Avatron]

[
Well, the Japanese version made it pretty clear that Vegeta didn’t actually care about his race. He was crying for himself, not because Freeza wiped out the Saiyans. Like everyone else here, I much prefer the Japanese version of Vegeta’s death, but it’s not really a moment that elicits much sympathy, since Vegeta was a pretty vile person.

No, he was definitely crying about their race in the Japanese version. That Freeza wiped out their whole race because he feared them and begging Goku to kill Freeza so that’ll he die by a Saiyan’s hand.


The English dub turned it into “its all about me” thing when he cried that Freeza forced him into being evil and doing whatever he wanted and begging Goku to stop Freeza so that he doesn’t make anyone else like Vegeta.


Which yeah that gets my vote for worst dub error mistranslation no way in hell would a character who has so much pride in his status and in his race would give credit to anyone for making him who he is. And it makes no sense for him to self reflect like and then ignore this epiphany when he was revived.

I'd say it's up there for me in terms of worst mistranslations or erroneous dialogue along with those errors in the Future Trunks and Artificial Humans/Androids episodes that clash with the original series on account of FUNi skipping the majority of it until 2001 and so they just made up stuff until then due to not knowing about all the info regarding things like Tao Pai Pai being a hired assassin not an actual member of the Red Ribbon Army or Dr. Gero merely being a scientist who worked for them but was not directly involved in their ranks.

To be fair, it was Toriyama himself who created Dr. Gero years later and retconned him into an arc he was never originally part of.

Also, I'm willing to forgive the 'Bardock the brilliant scientist' thing just because it's such a hilarious meme.

[MasenkoHA]

Also, I'm willing to forgive the 'Bardock the brilliant scientist' thing just because it's such a hilarious meme.

I’m willing to forgive it because in light of Dragon Ball Minus Funimation’s attempt at pushing the Superman thing with Bardock=Jor-El seems prophetic.

[KBABZ]

First off, lifetime achievement award goes in joint to the Speedy and Big Green dubs. There's just no competition there.

IMO it has to go to Goku realizing at the 23rd TB that Kami is an alien. Second place is Daimao saying he's been "all over" the galaxy and never met anyone as strong as Goku is.

No, he was definitely crying about their race in the Japanese version. That Freeza wiped out their whole race because he feared them and begging Goku to kill Freeza so that’ll he die by a Saiyan’s hand.

The English dub turned it into “its all about me” thing when he cried that Freeza forced him into being evil and doing whatever he wanted and begging Goku to stop Freeza so that he doesn’t make anyone else like Vegeta.

Which yeah that gets my vote for worst dub error mistranslation no way in hell would a character who has so much pride in his status and in his race would give credit to anyone for making him who he is. And it makes no sense for him to self reflect like and then ignore this epiphany when he was revived.

Vegeta flat out stated earlier in the arc that he didn’t care that Freeza killed his race. He was mad that he had to be Freeza’s servant. Yeah, he wanted Freeza to die by a Saiyan’s hands, but he wanted to be the one to do it. Once he died, he passed the baton off to Goku, since he was the only other full blooded Saiyan left. That doesn’t mean that Vegeta cared about his race. If that were the case, then he wouldn’t have gleefully murdered Nappa.

Whichever dub you pick, IMO it isn't entirely out of character for Vegeta to put on a macho face and tell himself that he doesn't care, only to drop it on his death bed because he realizes that he's about to die.

[Gligarman]

How about during the Namek arc when Bulma declares that she had know Goku since he was five years old? Where did that number even come from? There’s a whole gag about him telling her he was 14 because he didn’t know what the number 12 was!

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

How about during the Namek arc when Bulma declares that she had know Goku since he was five years old? Where did that number even come from? There’s a whole gag about him telling her he was 14 because he didn’t know what the number 12 was!

That one was so nonsensical, it completely contradicts that whole thing from the beginning of the original series from when they first met.

[Hellspawn28]

I always wonder if Funimation was going off of the HG dub when they dub Tao Pai Pai as General Tao? He is called General Tao in both dubs.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I always wonder if Funimation was going off of the HG dub when they dub Tao Pai Pai as General Tao? He is called General Tao in both dubs.

Then they eventually renamed him Mercenary Tao at some point which better fit his status as an assassin for hire.

[Gligarman]

I always wonder if Funimation was going off of the HG dub when they dub Tao Pai Pai as General Tao? He is called General Tao in both dubs.

Then they eventually renamed him Mercenary Tao at some point which better fit his status as an assassin for hire.

Probably but Toriyama gives his characters silly names on purpose. I think they should have respected that. Besides, how seriously can you take a guy that kills people with his tongue?