Dbzfan94 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 12:48 pm
My personal hills
The whole Dub vs sub that exists to this day is insufferable to read in 2020.
the fans of either version (yes, both sides) who throw jabs at each other and/or their preferred version needs to stop.
Agreed.
Whether you like Funi's dubs, Ocean's dubs, the Japanese version, the manga, the French dub, the Spanish dub, or whatever else, you need to just enjoy the show, and stop telling other people that their version is wrong. Furthermore, I think fans of one version should do themselves a favour and try giving the other versions a go.
I originally wrote this out in my sig, but I feel this is relevant to say here:
Constructive criticism and amateur analysis can be fun, but in this fandom, I've found it's all too common to hate on any version of the show that isn't your favourite. And frankly, that's ridiculous.
It's better to just enjoy the versions you enjoy, and accept that the other versions are widely-enjoyed for reasons just as valid as why you enjoy yours, and it's immature to hate on them just because you prefer another version. I've done this in the past, you probably have too, and it's an immature-as-hell attitude, an extension of the negativity culture on the internet, where you can't talk positively about one thing without talking negatively about another. You don't talk postively about GT without talking negatively about Super, or positively about the Star Wars prequels without shitting on the sequels... And vice versa, of course... It's ridiculous. You don't have to hate on one thing to praise another.
Scott McNeil will always be Piccolo to me. Does that make Toshio Furukawa or Chris Sabat somehow less valid in the role? Hell no. Both are talented actors and good dudes who've paid their dues and earned every bit of praise they get. Same goes for pretty much every creative/performer who's worked on the show, from the Team Faulconer composers to Norhito Sumitomo, to Toei's script team.
Dragon Ball is Dragon Ball, whatever flavour of it you prefer; American, Japanese, Canadian, French, or Spanish; DB+Z+GT, or DB+Kai+Super, or whatever else. So just enjoy it, and don't sweat the details.
But don't skip OG DB, or you're enjoying the show wrong.
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Now, I do think there is some truth to the fanbase having been fractured by Funi changing the show so drastically back in the '90s, and those changes still persist to this day in one form or another, and I've been real salty about this kind of stuff, but... Well... Here's a thing I conveniently forgot to mention at various times when I bashed Funi's version: At various points in my life, I've watched the Japanese version, the Funi dubs (including probably every single episode of DB, Z, and GT), and the Ocean dubs (including Saban Z, Westwood Z, Blue Water DB, and Blue Water GT), and y'know what?
I enjoyed all of them immensely, and I still hold a strong nostalgia for ALL of those versions. For a time, I got super gatekeepy about the Ocean dubs being better, and Funi being "evil" or some other shit like that, but y'know what, that was stupid. Getting cross about some unfortunate business decisions from over 20 years ago, and shitting on various actors who work their butts off for this show is just crazy, almost as crazy as telling someone they're wrong for watching their preferred version of the show instead of your preferred version.
Equally crazy is still giving Funimation shit for partaking the super-common practice at the time of just trying to make a bunch of episodes of kids TV in the '90s, rather than putting in the effort to give an accurate translation... Would I, right now, be happier if I could watch a version of Dragon Ball dubbed by Ocean in the style of the Pioneer dubs, with accurate translations, the original score, and covering all 508 episodes plus all 17 movies? Yes. Is it worth getting upset over this not being the case? Fuck no. There's still plenty of lovely ways to enjoy Dragon Ball, all with their own pros and cons, and all with their own different levels of nostalgia, so I have nothing to complain about (though I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little sad that Ocean don't do any new Dragon Ball dubbing anymore).
Just enjoy whichever version of the show you prefer, and let everyone else do the same.
I'll also say that it's also pretty crazy to get super worked up about the subpar home video releases. It sucks that the video quality is poor and it's generally cropped to widescreen, and it sucks that Funi could do better if they were interested in doing so, and it's well worth criticising this stuff, but it's not something to get worked up over, as some of us (
points at myself) can often end up doing.
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... Not to totally hijack this thread with my own introspection on my conduct and outlook in this fandom.
... But man, that felt good to get off my chest.