Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 52 - DBZ 70-74

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 52 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies.
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.

Back from the Christmas break! Though KBABZ is still off. He'll be back next week.
The news continues to be depressing, so let's all take solace in the joys of Dragon Ball. That said, Z movie 4 is next week... Yikes!

Previous thread: Week 51 (DBZ 65-69)
Next thread: Week 53 (DBZ movie 4)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 223 - What of the Battle’s Outcome?! Freeza’s Evil Hand Closes Around the Eldest (DBZ episode 70)
Dub title: Frieza Approaches (Funimation)
Originally aired 5th of December 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 33 - Son Goku at Full Power! The Terrified Ginyu Has Something Up His Sleeve?! (First half)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 56 - Frieza Approaches (some footage also incorporated into episode 57 - Goku is Ginyu & Ginyu is Goku)
Written by: Aya Matsui
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Minoru Maeda

Goku’s battle power reaches 180,000. Ginyu is frightened, thinking Goku might be a Super Saiyan. Gohan and Kuririn arrive at Bulma’s hiding spot, but Bulma has gone off with the Dragon Radar. Meanwhile, Freeza arrives at the Eldest’s house! Not listening to the prohibitions of Nail, Planet Namek’s strongest warrior, some Namekian warriors challenge Freeza, but Freeza instantly blows them away!!

Anime-only/filler content: Ginyu throwing ki blasts and a rock at Kaio-Ken'd Goku, Bulma going to the remains of a Namekian village, Nail returning to the Grand Elder, Gohan and Kuririn searching for Bulma (since filler has moved her from her original location), three Namekians going to the Grand Elder's to defend him from Freeza.

Episode 224 - Surprise!! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku (DBZ episode 71)
Dub title: Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku (Funimation)
Originally aired 12th of December 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 33 - Son Goku at Full Power! The Terrified Ginyu Has Something Up His Sleeve?! (Last half) and episode 34 - Surprise! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku?! (First third)
Written by: Aya Matsui
Episode director: Tatsuya Orime
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa

In order to buy time so that Dende can inform Gohan and the others about the password for summoning Shenlong, Nail challenges Freeza to battle! Nail regenerates when his arm is ripped off, but his battle power has fallen… Aiming for the place where the Dragon Balls are assembled, Bulma is chased by dinosaurs, but saved by Gohan and Kuririn in the nick of time. Taking the radar, Gohan and Kuririn head in search of the Dragon Balls. Meanwhile, Ginyu uses Body Change to switch bodies with Goku!

Anime-only/filler content: Ginyu throwing some ki blasts at Goku before doing the bodyswap, Bulma being chased by a pterodactyl and being rescued by Kuririn and Gohan.

Episode 225 - Come Forth, Super Shenlong!! Grant Me My Wish (DBZ episode 72)
Dub title: Calling the Eternal Dragon (Funimation)
Originally aired 19th of December 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 34 - Surprise! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku?! (Middle third)
Written by: Aya Matsui
Episode director: Mitsuo Hashimoto
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Goku has had his body swapped with Ginyu’s. Not used to Ginyu’s body, and wounded, Goku is unable to fly fast! Gohan and Kuririn discover the Dragon Balls near Freeza’s spaceship! Ginyu in Goku’s body and Jheese arrive there, and Goku also catches up with them!!

Anime-only/filler content: Vegeta killing some Freeza soldiers, some general padding when Goku and Ginyu have just switched bodies.

Episode 226 - That Ain’t Me! Gohan, Don’t Lose Your Nerve, Hit Your Father!! (DBZ episode 73)
Dub title: Gohan, Defeat Your Dad!! (Funimation)
Originally aired 9th of January 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 34 - Surprise! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku?! (Last third)
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Daisuke Nishio
Animation supervisor: Mitsuo Shindō

Ginyu tries to display the power of Goku’s body, and puts his power at full throttle! But his battle power is only 20,000?! Not being used to Goku’s body, he is unable to put forth all of its power! Ginyu has a difficult fight as Gohan, Kuririn, and then Goku attack him. Vegeta defeats Jheese as well, and then attacks Ginyu! Ginyu receives considerable damage, but this time he begins to Body Change with Vegeta!

Anime-only/filler content: Gohan hesitating to hurt his dad, significant extensions to the fights with Ginyu and Jheese, Ginyu becoming somewhat accustomed to Goku's body.

Episode 227 - A Huge Miscalculation!! Ginyu Has Turned into a Frog (DBZ episode 74)
Dub title: Captain Ginyu... The Frog (Funimation)
Originally aired 16th of January 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 35 - A Great Turnabout for Goku?! Super Shenlong, Come Out Right Now! (First third)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

As the light from the Body Change is about to capture Vegeta, Goku leaps in the way!! He returns to his original body! But Ginyu once again attempts to Body Change with Vegeta! Unable to move, Goku instantly tosses a frog! Why, Ginyu has switched bodies with a frog…! At Vegeta’s advice, the heavily injured Goku receives treatment from a medical machine. The decisive battle with Freeza is straight ahead!

Anime-only/filler content: Goku missing Ginyu with a Kamehameha, various additional scenes added between Ginyu returning to his old body and him attempting to switch to Vegeta's (including an additional failed attempt to swap with Vegeta), Goku's fear of needles, Vegeta appearing distressed at the end of the episode.

-

Interesting trivia:

• These episodes aired precisely 30 years ago.
• At this time in the manga, Dende refuses to heal Vegeta and then does so anyway, Freeza transforms into his final form and kills Dende, Goku finishes healing, Vegeta dies, and Goku begins fighting Freeza.
• In Bulma's cave, a picture of Yamucha can be seen, with several darts piercing it.
• In episode 74, Nail's blood randomly changes between red and purple.
• Funimation added a Wilhelm scream to their dub of Kai in the scene where Vegeta is killing some Freeza soldiers in episode 34.
• Starting from episode 71, each original dub episode is 1:1 equivalent to an uncut episode (with one caveat that we'll get to soon enough), so I will no longer be noting corresponding original dub episodes. However, Chris Psaros's guide still covers a substantial amount of the TV edit's changes and censorship, so our regular "Edits in the original dub" feature will continue...
• On that note, edits in the original dub:
  • In uncut episode 70, the scene of Bulma arriving at the dead Namekian village was cut. Surprisingly, there's no other visual censorship.
  • In uncut episode 71, shots of the dead Namekians at the very beginning were cut, death references are somewhat skirted around, some (but not all) of the blood when Freeza rips Nail's arm off was edited out, and for some reason Kuririn's line in the following exchange regarding where Bulma is was cut: Kuririn says "Maybe a mountain lion drug her into a cave", and Gohan replies with "I'd hate to be the mountain lion." Without Kuririn's line to set it up, Gohan's line comes out of seemingly no where. Later in the episode, Ginyu coughing up blood was painted over, as was a blood splatter when he takes his fist out of his own self-inflicted wound, and some unremarkable footage was cut at the end of the episode; likely just cut for time.
  • In uncut episode 72, the home video line "I'm locked on and ready to kick butt!" was censored to "I'm locked on and ready to kick tail!" for the TV version; in addition, "Are you ready to wish Piccolo back from the dead?" was censored to "Are you ready to wish Piccolo back from King Kai's?", and Ginyu's "It's time for you to die!" was censored to "It's time to say goodbye!", which rather neatly exposes the falsehood of the misconception that Never Say Die ended immediately after the move in-house.
  • In uncut episode 73, we have more euphamisms for death. From Ginyu, we have "I've got to get the strength up in this body, or I'm done like dinner!", as well as "I hope you're both wearing clean underwear, because you're about to take a trip to the emergency ward!"
  • In uncut episode 74, a shot of many bodies of Freeza soldiers that Vegeta killed was cut, though some bodies are still plainly visible int he backgrounds of other shots that were kept in. Additionally, when Freeza jumps on Nail's chest, he opens his mouth and groans instead of puking up blood.
• For anyone interested, Chris Psaros (the author of the website I'm using as my source for basically all my detailed dub censorship information) write an editorial when the VHS of these episodes was released by Funimation. It's an interesting read (though he misattributes many of the voice actors). Suffice it to say, he wasn't pleased with what Funimation did with the show. While Psaros was far from the definitive voice of the hardcore fans in his day, I get the sense his views mirror those of a lot of the more hardcore fandom, albeit voiced rather more fiercely than many others would dare, so I consider this quite an interesting insight into the mindset of the hardcore fandom at the time.
• In Funimation's English dub of Z episode 71, Bulma complains that she hasn't showered in weeks and ran out of lip gloss a month ago, even though they've only been on Namek for a few days at the most, and Bulma had a bath in episode 49, right after they arrived.
• Funimation's English dubs have Vegeta refer to Goku as "Goku" rather than Kakarot in episode 72. I'm unsure if this was a mistake in the Japanese version too.
• It seems Funimation lost the masters of Jheese's final vocalisations, as the "Remastered" dub replaced these with sounds he'd made in previous episodes (and even previous scenes in the same episode).
• Another change in the "Remastered" dub is that one line has Vegeta, once again, refer to Goku as "Goku" in episode 74, whereas he'd correctly said "Kakarot" in the original dub.

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Dragon Ball logo provided by KBABZ. Additional trivia courtesy of Chris Psaros's DBZ Uncensored guide.

[MasenkoHA]

Dragon Ball does the classic "villain and hero switch bodies through the machinations of the villain" trope. Granted, I've always felt this trope works better in live action since it requires the actors to emulate the other's mannerism and acting style. And since it's on a war zone we don't get to see Ginyu really take advantage of being in Goku's body as is usual for this trope so the real novelty is here is seeing Goku look evil (which we kind of got in Tree of Might anyways) and to see Gohan fight his dad.

[*]In uncut episode 72, the home video line "I'm locked on and ready to kick butt!" was censored to "I'm locked on and ready to kick tail!" for the TV version; in addition, "Are you ready to wish Piccolo back from the dead?" was censored to "Are you ready to wish Piccolo back from King Kai's?", and Ginyu's "It's time for you to die!" was censored to "It's time to say goodbye!", which rather neatly exposes the falsehood of the misconception that Never Say Die ended immediately after the move in-house.

I found Funimation's self-imposed censorship of the word butt pretty hilarious considering how often it appeared in other Cartoon Network shows. For pete sake the produced for syndication dub of Sailor Moon used the word butt all the time.

I think the fact that the remastered dvds are the most readily available version made people forget that the dialog was still pretty cleaned up even season 3 onwards and there was plenty avoidance of the use of the words die and kill in the edited version (even the uncut version to some extent)

[*]In Funimation's English dub of Z episode 71, Bulma complains that she hasn't showered in weeks and ran out of lip gloss a month ago, even though they've only been on Namek for a few days at the most, and Bulma had a bath in episode 49, right after they arrived.

I don't know if it's to match with Vollmer's performance or what but Funimation REALLY turned Bulma into a vapid vain valleygirl in season 3. We went from a Bulma talking about how she wanted to be the first woman in her field to win a nobel prize and how she hasn't pulled an all nighter since she was in college to Bulma complaining about not being able to watch her SOAPS and having a bad hair day.[/quote]

[*]Another change in the "Remastered" dub is that one line has Vegeta, once again, refer to Goku as "Goku" in episode 74, whereas he'd correctly said "Kakarot" in the original dub.

Which scene was this in? I know there was that scene when he's thinking about how Ginyu can't use Goku's full strength while Ginyu!Goku is fighting Krillin and Gohan but he definitely said Goku in the original dub. Although maybe it was something that was done incorrectly in the edited version that got fixed for the uncut version (or vice versa I'm not sure which) that got re messed up for the remastered version?

Regardless, the fact that it’s in the 2007 partial redub at all is kind of embarrassing. And I’m surprised Chris Sabat didn’t notice it when he was recording so he seems to be a pretty big fan of the franchise (to the point Iirc his script for Z movie 8 was the best non-Pioneer dub in terms of accuracy for the movies) maybe they were really rushed

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Definitely agree there in regard to Tiffany Vollmer's Bulma, her performance for the character was so stereotypical "bratty, vain valley girl" especially in the beginning with Season 3 in a way that Hiromi Tsuru's (RIP!!!!) take in the original version never even remotely was and that can also be extended to the dub voices who came before her like Wendee Lee, Maggie Blue O' Hara, Lalaina Lindbjerg and later Monica Rial in Kai onward. Vollmer was definitely less grating later on but still didn't really fully fit Bulma's character to me.

The thing with Vegeta calling Goku by his Earth name in the dub in those instances is so bizarre of an error to me, especially given that he pretty much almost exclusively referrers to him by the Saiyan name he was originally born with in the original and only mentions the other every once in a while.

[Robo4900]

Which scene was this in?

Not entirely sure. To be honest, I cribbed this one from the DB Wikia. It's not a reliable source of serious info, but generally with stuff like this, as pertaining specifically to the most-widely-available dubbed version on home media, you can trust it.

... But, being DB Wikia, there's no real detail given on this actually-useful information, so... DB Wikia operating as expected.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Which scene was this in?

Not entirely sure. To be honest, I cribbed this one from the DB Wikia. It's not a reliable source of serious info, but generally with stuff like this, as pertaining specifically to the most-widely-available dubbed version on home media, you can trust it.

... But, being DB Wikia, there's no real detail given on this actually-useful information, so... DB Wikia operating as expected.

The DB Wikia is most definitely a cesspool of inaccurate and even outright fabricated stuff that is dub biased, definitely not place that i would go or look to for info about series related things.

[MasenkoHA]

I love the DB Wikia

Excerpts from General Blue’s page

Even his sexuality (although never explicitly revealed)

He is implied to be homosexual, as evidenced by his fearful and disgusted reactions to Bulma trying to seduce him, and to a lesser extent his narcissism. On a related note, largely due to his implied sexuality,

Like jeezus there’s prioritizing the Funimation dub and then there’s actively ignoring the Japanese version

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I love the DB Wikia

Excerpts from General Blue’s page

Even his sexuality (although never explicitly revealed)

He is implied to be homosexual, as evidenced by his fearful and disgusted reactions to Bulma trying to seduce him, and to a lesser extent his narcissism. On a related note, largely due to his implied sexuality,

Like jeezus there’s prioritizing the Funimation dub and then there’s actively ignoring the Japanese version

Wow, that's just laughable bull crap right there. It's like the people who write these things over there don't even bother double checking anything to see whether they are actually true or not.

[MasenkoHA]

Which scene was this in?

Not entirely sure. To be honest, I cribbed this one from the DB Wikia. It's not a reliable source of serious info, but generally with stuff like this, as pertaining specifically to the most-widely-available dubbed version on home media, you can trust it.

... But, being DB Wikia, there's no real detail given on this actually-useful information, so... DB Wikia operating as expected.

So I went and double checked and he does indeed call him Kakarot in the original dub but Goku in the remastered dub for that one specific scene when he takes the group to the healing tank

“By tapping into this system we should have Goku/Kakarot up to speed in no time”

Eh regardless he definitely called him Goku at other points in the 99 dub but good of Funimation to mess up one of the lines they got right the first time I guess...

[ArmenianPepsi]

Definitely agree there in regard to Tiffany Vollmer's Bulma, her performance for the character was so stereotypical "bratty, vain valley girl" especially in the beginning with Season 3 in a way that Hiromi Tsuru's (RIP!!!!) take in the original version never even remotely was and that can also be extended to the dub voices who came before her like Wendee Lee, Maggie Blue O' Hara, Lalaina Lindbjerg and later Monica Rial in Kai onward. Vollmer was definitely less grating later on but still didn't really fully fit Bulma's character to me.

The thing with Vegeta calling Goku by his Earth name in the dub in those instances is so bizarre of an error to me, especially given that he pretty much almost exclusively referrers to him by the Saiyan name he was originally born with in the original and only mentions the other every once in a while.

Indeed, even in the original, all those cutaway scenes with Bulma complaining about how much she hates hanging around Namek alone are boring, but adding a grating English performance with new made up dialogue that makes her seem even whinier, and it gets down right obnoxious.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Definitely agree there in regard to Tiffany Vollmer's Bulma, her performance for the character was so stereotypical "bratty, vain valley girl" especially in the beginning with Season 3 in a way that Hiromi Tsuru's (RIP!!!!) take in the original version never even remotely was and that can also be extended to the dub voices who came before her like Wendee Lee, Maggie Blue O' Hara, Lalaina Lindbjerg and later Monica Rial in Kai onward. Vollmer was definitely less grating later on but still didn't really fully fit Bulma's character to me.

The thing with Vegeta calling Goku by his Earth name in the dub in those instances is so bizarre of an error to me, especially given that he pretty much almost exclusively referrers to him by the Saiyan name he was originally born with in the original and only mentions the other every once in a while.

Indeed, even in the original, all those cutaway scenes with Bulma complaining about how much she hates hanging around Namek alone are boring, but adding a grating English performance with new made up dialogue that makes her seem even whinier, and it gets down right obnoxious.

So true, they really played that up much more so in the dub. Bulma's constant bitching about this and that in those bits in the original version are kind of annoying but Vollmer's awful early valley girl performance in Season 3 on top of how punched up the scripts were at the time made it even worse.

[ABED]

I can't remember if it is in one of these episodes but there is this hilarious edit in the dub where there is a line missing in the edited version.

Uncut
Krillin: “Maybe a mountain lion drug her into this little cave.”
Gohan: “I wouldn’t want to be the mountain lion.”

Edited
Gohan: “I wouldn’t want to be the mountain lion.”

Yup, the set up line is missing in the edited version.

[KBABZ]

[*]In Funimation's English dub of Z episode 71, Bulma complains that she hasn't showered in weeks and ran out of lip gloss a month ago, even though they've only been on Namek for a few days at the most, and Bulma had a bath in episode 49, right after they arrived.

Maybe they're reflecting the real-world schedule of those episodes?

[Robo4900]

Which scene was this in?

Not entirely sure. To be honest, I cribbed this one from the DB Wikia. It's not a reliable source of serious info, but generally with stuff like this, as pertaining specifically to the most-widely-available dubbed version on home media, you can trust it.

... But, being DB Wikia, there's no real detail given on this actually-useful information, so... DB Wikia operating as expected.

The DB Wikia is most definitely a cesspool of inaccurate and even outright fabricated stuff that is dub biased, definitely not place that i would go or look to for info about series related things.

Quite.

Still, as I say, if it's a small piece of trivia regarding the most-widely-available dubbed version, I'll generally trust it. And as MasenkoHA found, this trivia is indeed correct.

But don't get me wrong, it is an utter cesspool and should never be used as a serious source of information. Light trivia about dub dialogue will usually be okay, but nothing else.

Wow, that's just laughable bull crap right there. It's like the people who write these things over there don't even bother double checking anything to see whether they are actually true or not.

Sometimes they just make shit up too.
For instance, before February of this year, the Cell Games announcer had his Japanese name listed as "ジミー・ファイヤークラッカー / Jimī Faiyākurakkā" (anyone who's seen the Japanese version can confirm that he is never given a name)
Looks like someone finally fixed it back in February, but it's pretty much a perfect show of the tendency of that wiki to just contain utter bullshit.

Mind you, they still list that character as having the official Japanese name of "セルゲームアナウンサー / Seru Gēmu Anaunsā", which is also pretty much nonsense, so it's not even totally fixed.

I can't remember if it is in one of these episodes but there is this hilarious edit in the dub where there is a line missing in the edited version.

Uncut
Krillin: “Maybe a mountain lion drug her into this little cave.”
Gohan: “I wouldn’t want to be the mountain lion.”

Edited
Gohan: “I wouldn’t want to be the mountain lion.”

Yup, the set up line is missing in the edited version.

Yep. I noted this in the trivia section.

If I had the time, I'd try to seek out a copy of this episode as it aired in Canada to see if Ocean fixed this error for their edited version of the Funi dub (which was produced for YTV Canada and aired nowhere else; it had a variety of editing differences, such as "Don't piss off the dragon god of love" being swapped out for its TV-safe alternate line, which was mistakenly not the case on Funimation's own TV edit). I would suspect that they did.

[*]In Funimation's English dub of Z episode 71, Bulma complains that she hasn't showered in weeks and ran out of lip gloss a month ago, even though they've only been on Namek for a few days at the most, and Bulma had a bath in episode 49, right after they arrived.

Maybe they're reflecting the real-world schedule of those episodes?

You joke, but that was almost certainly the reality. Funimation had been scripting the Namek arc for about two years by this point, off and on.

[MasenkoHA]

Don't piss off the dragon god of love" being swapped out for its TV-safe alternate line, which was mistakenly not the case on Funimation's own TV edit)

I’m really curious about the history behind that line. This was back when Funimation was avoiding swearing like the plague in their uncut dubs so it was almost certainly an outtake that somehow got mixed in to the uncut and edit dub’s audio. But I’m surprised Cartoon Network let it pass. This is the same company that returned a plot important episode of Sailor Moon back to Cloverway because a monster of the week wasn’t dressed appropriately and continued to move forward with the next episode. Even though it’s obvious Toonami “looked the other way” when it came to DBZ and censorship (and most of the dialog edits between the uncut and edited dub was self imposed by Funimation’s part to make their tame uncut dub seem comparatively edgier) but even they seemed like they would draw the line at piss.


What was the YTV line btw? “Please don’t upset the dragon” ala the remastered dub?

[Robo4900]

Don't piss off the dragon god of love" being swapped out for its TV-safe alternate line, which was mistakenly not the case on Funimation's own TV edit)

I’m really curious about the history behind that line. This was back when Funimation was avoiding swearing like the plague in their uncut dubs so it was almost certainly an outtake that somehow got mixed in to the uncut and edit dub’s audio. But I’m surprised Cartoon Network let it pass. This is the same company that returned a plot important episode of Sailor Moon back to Cloverway because a monster of the week wasn’t dressed appropriately and continued to move forward with the next episode. Even though it’s obvious Toonami “looked the other way” when it came to DBZ and censorship (and most of the dialog edits between the uncut and edited dub was self imposed by Funimation’s part to make their tame uncut dub seem comparatively edgier) but even they seemed like they would draw the line at piss.

It is pretty weird. Apparently UK airings silenced the word "Piss".

What was the YTV line btw? “Please don’t upset the dragon” ala the remastered dub?

I believe so, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Planetnamek]

I'm always a sucker for the whole "hero and villain switch bodies" plot(which the movie "Freaky" used to great effect) and it was done especially well here.

As for the "don't piss off the god of love" thing, I think CN was less strict about language then it was about nudity, as advertisers can get kinda sensitive about that sort of thing(as we found out after Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl) and CN likely didn't want to take the risk, a parent is less likely to complain about "piss off" then they are about half-naked women.

[Robo4900]

As for the "don't piss off the god of love" thing, I think CN was less strict about language then it was about nudity, as advertisers can get kinda sensitive about that sort of thing(as we found out after Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl) and CN likely didn't want to take the risk, a parent is less likely to complain about "piss off" then they are about half-naked women.

Funimation did record an alternate version of the line, though. The most likely explanation is it was just a mistake on Funi's part not to use that particular alternate.

I've heard anecdotal accounts that later US airings of that episode cut the shot with "piss off" in it.