Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

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Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by BootyCheeksJohnson » Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:44 pm

It's a popular talking point on this forum to point out how controversial the 1999 Funimation in house English dub of Dragon Ball Z is amongst Kanzenshuu regulars.
However that got me thinking, to you dub aficionados out there, has Funimation produced a dub that is equal to or worse than their dub of Dragon Ball Z? Or, on the other end of the spectrum, are there good dubs that they have produced that make you wish Dragon Ball got a similar treatment?
We need a Steve Simmons retranslation of the manga.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by MyVisionity » Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:46 pm

I feel like the original GT dub was worse, but I don't remember exactly.

I'm not sure if there are any Funi dubs that are actually worse than the original 1999-2003 dub.

The 2001 dub of Dragon Ball and the dub of Yu Yu Hakusho are both moderately better than DBZ, but they still aren't good dubs in my view. I guess the bar was set pretty low with their Z dub.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:58 pm

The Big Green dubs and the Speedy dubs may be worse, but they are enjoyable for being so bad that they are good. Funimation's in house dub was awful and missed the point on what made Dragon Ball good in the first place. Goku feels out of character and the dialogue was terrible.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm

The Z dub but in particular Season 3 was bad, though even worse was their dub of Dragon Ball movie 2 given it was THE very first thing FUNi did after transitioning to in house. One can tell how rushed and cheaply that was done because apparently they didn't even have good audio recording equipment at the time and the line delivery was on par with if not even worse than what was to come in the Freeza arc dub less than a year later.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by BootyCheeksJohnson » Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:07 am

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm The Z dub but in particular Season 3 was bad, though even worse was their dub of Dragon Ball movie 2 given it was THE very first thing FUNi did after transitioning to in house. One can tell how rushed and cheaply that was done because apparently they didn't even have good audio recording equipment at the time and the line delivery was on par with if not even worse than what was to come in the Freeza arc dub less than a year later.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
Wow that was bad. I've never seen any version of that movie, but yeah that's somehow worse than the Namek dub.
We need a Steve Simmons retranslation of the manga.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by MyVisionity » Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:18 am

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
I thought that was pretty good actually. At least in that one clip. Better to me than Season Three Z.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by Aim » Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:28 am

BootyCheeksJohnson wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:44 pm It's a popular talking point on this forum to point out how controversial the 1999 Funimation in house English dub of Dragon Ball Z is amongst Kanzenshuu regulars.
However that got me thinking, to you dub aficionados out there, has Funimation produced a dub that is equal to or worse than their dub of Dragon Ball Z? Or, on the other end of the spectrum, are there good dubs that they have produced that make you wish Dragon Ball got a similar treatment?
God it’s awful, and now it’s become the norm. Fuck Funimation. So much for variation in dubs, they are swallowing up everything in sight.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:31 am

I think GT went further into the reversioning than Z did. But Z is still honestly worst. By the time of GT the acting had improved a fair point and there was less awkwardness in the punch up dialogue. Season 3’s attempt to be funny was like watching someone bombing at amateur stand up comedy night and they just keep trucking along.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:53 am

GT is worse. Goku's mindless preaching about how to be a good person and light overcoming darkness is so forced and more out-of-character than anything the Z dub ever did to him.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:00 am

MyVisionity wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:18 am
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
I thought that was pretty good actually. At least in that one clip. Better to me than Season Three Z.
Not the worst, but overall the delivery in general wasn't good and it was almost in a way a preview of what was to come later. Still, it's a pretty awful dub overall even for 1998 standards.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:06 am

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
Did they dub this using the mic found on webcams in the late 90s?! Wooow, I never saw this dub but man. Did this ever not get re-dubbed?

This is more jarring than the ocean/funi jump

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:11 am

eledoremassis02 wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:06 am Wooow, I never saw this dub but man. Did this ever not get re-dubbed?

Nope. Funimation will go out of their way to redub the Ocean movies under the pretense of “consistency” despite those movies being uncut and well received by fans. But this piece of garbage is still being put out by FUNimation despite not having either primary voices for Kid Goku or Bulma.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:12 am

eledoremassis02 wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:06 am
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
Did they dub this using the mic found on webcams in the late 90s?! Wooow, I never saw this dub but man. Did this ever not get re-dubbed?

This is more jarring than the ocean/funi jump
I know right, apparently FUNi was running on the cheap in that initial period after the transition and didn’t even have good audio recording equipment at the time. Sleeping Princess and the original 1999 dub of DBZ Season 3 have that type of low quality bargain basement sound to them.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:29 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:11 am
eledoremassis02 wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:06 am Wooow, I never saw this dub but man. Did this ever not get re-dubbed?

Nope. Funimation will go out of their way to redub the Ocean movies under the pretense of “consistency” despite those movies being uncut and well received by fans. But this piece of garbage is still being put out by FUNimation despite not having either primary voices for Kid Goku or Bulma.
It's the most baffling thing, they do all that with Z and yet the aforementioned pile of vomit from 23+ years ago still remains as a dub track with the movie to this day.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by BootyCheeksJohnson » Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:30 pm

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:53 am GT is worse. Goku's mindless preaching about how to be a good person and light overcoming darkness is so forced and more out-of-character than anything the Z dub ever did to him.
Goku felt almost suicidal in that dub with how he was always saying things like: "if I have to die to save this planet than so be it." To every enemy.
We need a Steve Simmons retranslation of the manga.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:04 pm

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm The Z dub but in particular Season 3 was bad, though even worse was their dub of Dragon Ball movie 2 given it was THE very first thing FUNi did after transitioning to in house. One can tell how rushed and cheaply that was done because apparently they didn't even have good audio recording equipment at the time and the line delivery was on par with if not even worse than what was to come in the Freeza arc dub less than a year later.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
Yikes, that is awful. Even the sound quality is amateurish.

The FUNi Z dub is pretty bad but at least FUNimation got better with experience.
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DBZGTKOSDH wrote:... Haven't we already gotten these in GT? Goku dies, the DBs go away, and the Namekian DBs most likely won't be used again because of the Evil Dragons.
Goku didn't die in GT. The show sucked him off so much, it was impossible to keep him in the world of the living, so he ascended beyond mortality.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Wed Oct 13, 2021 8:14 pm

DBZAOTA482 wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:04 pm
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 pm The Z dub but in particular Season 3 was bad, though even worse was their dub of Dragon Ball movie 2 given it was THE very first thing FUNi did after transitioning to in house. One can tell how rushed and cheaply that was done because apparently they didn't even have good audio recording equipment at the time and the line delivery was on par with if not even worse than what was to come in the Freeza arc dub less than a year later.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y47pPCPtVM (Yes, this is sourced from the 4 movie pack version with that horrible frame issue. Ugh!!!)
Yikes, that is awful. Even the sound quality is amateurish.

The FUNi Z dub is pretty bad but at least FUNimation got better with experience.
I think the above is definitely the worst as far as the early days go, it sounds like it was recorded into tin cans in someone's garage and i simply cannot bear to watch the movie dubbed at all. I'd recommend watching the Japanese version exclusively because the dub is really that awful. Another thing is that it's not even consistent with the 2001 dub of DB, considering this was like a year or so before Tiffany Vollmer and Stephanie Nadolny were even part of the cast. Just cheap and amature sounding all around and the fact FUNi still has it available to this day puzzles me to no end. How they could still find this dumpster fire as acceptable to put on home releases when it reflects their early cheapness and voice inexperience, i just don't get it.

As has been mentioned before, it really blows my mind how anyone at FUNi still thinks this dub is release worthy given how poorly it's aged. Especially considering the effort they expended in partially (albeit inconsistently) redubbing the Freeza episodes of Z which was by far the worst part of their earlier in house years.
Last edited by SuperSaiyaManZ94 on Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by ZeroIsOurHero » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:51 pm

Yeah, that Movie 2 dub is really something. Weird that they went to such extreme lengths to redub Z’s Frieza arc for consistency with their later dubs, but then just kept that muffled mess of a dub intact when it doesn’t even feature Goku and Bulma’s later VAs.

On the topic of the thread though, I’d say the Z dub (especially the first year or two after they picked up from where Saban left off) is probably Funi’s worst dub. But they got better surprisingly quickly, to the point where I can enjoy their dubs from the Cell arc onwards without any distracting issues. It’s definitely not the worst anime dub ever though: the Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon S makes even Funi’s worst parts look like a masterpiece in comparison.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by OmegaRockman » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:04 pm

Others have brought up Sleeping Princess, which is a fair point, but I still think their early Z dub is pretty on par acting-wise, and while the Sleeping Princess's ADR script isn't what I would call "good," I do think it's at least better than their Freeza arc/Bardock scripts (the only insurmountable issue being the weird attempt to connect the movie to the TV series). Vocally, while mostly everyone is incredibly stiff, it's not really worse than the early DBZ days. In fact, I'd say Sabat's Yamcha is mostly fine since he isn't doing the surfer voice and Steele's Kuririn is pretty decent aside from the clearly different equipment they had her record her lines on. While the Season 3 Z dub had mostly consistent-sounding recordings, the acting is still just as bad and the scripts are pretty much worse on the whole.

Outside of Dragon Ball, Funi's dubs mostly have a baseline accuracy to the original material even when they throw in the odd meme or adlib. Even the Detective Conan dub with all its localized names and occasional references to being in definitely-not-Japan doesn't have a script that strays too far away from the original (though I've only spot checked episodes here and there I admit). Their YYH dub has been getting a small bit of reevaluation in some places (mainly one or two people saying "It wasn't that great you guys" in passing, but I digress), but even with its script quirks it still has a level of faithfulness that's at least baseline acceptable. YMMV on whether those quirks are too much for you or if the cast doesn't really grab you, but I think it's fine from what I saw when I spot-checked; I completed my Japanese watch last year, so I'll probably do a more thorough look when I go through the dub with my wife later on. Still far better than their DB work, though. I heard their Sgt. Frog dub had some changes, too, but I'm willing to bet it's just adjusting the puns and other humor to equivalents that make sense in English with maybe a few adlibs on top. If I'm wrong on that, feel free to correct me.

The only other dub off the top of my head that doesn't at least try to maintain the spirit of the original is probably Shin-Chan, but that at least has the benefit of being a full-on gag dub so it's not really trying to convince you that it's a proper localization of the original show like the DBZ dub was. Plus, even if you don't like the reversioning itself the voice work at least works well for the material and the writing is pretty funny as far as I remember. Can't really say the same for most of the DBZ dub writing and acting.

But yeah, nothing compares to the massive failures of localization that are Funi's pre-Kai DB dubs, Z in particular. And no, the GT dub is not worse than Z. Any problem you have with the GT dub, the Z dub also did it and with worse voice work to boot, and on average GT had more passable ADR scripts than Z did. Still trended towards bad, but still a step up. The only thing that GT did worse was the replacement music, but less bad replacement music doesn't mean Z doesn't have bad replacement music. Plus that's a non-issue now that they both have the dub w/Japanese music track. But putting aside which pre-Kai DB dubs are worse, it's pretty clear that all of them are worse products than just about anything Funi has put out since.

Yes, that's including Super. That dub is fine. It's not as good as Kai, but it's still a solid dub. At the very least it's better than their YYH dub, so it doesn't even begin approach any pre-Kai DB dub.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Funimation's Worst English Dub?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:13 pm

ZeroIsOurHero wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:51 pm Yeah, that Movie 2 dub is really something. Weird that they went to such extreme lengths to redub Z’s Frieza arc for consistency with their later dubs, but then just kept that muffled mess of a dub intact when it doesn’t even feature Goku and Bulma’s later VAs.

On the topic of the thread though, I’d say the Z dub (especially the first year or two after they picked up from where Saban left off) is probably Funi’s worst dub. But they got better surprisingly quickly, to the point where I can enjoy their dubs from the Cell arc onwards without any distracting issues. It’s definitely not the worst anime dub ever though: the Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon S makes even Funi’s worst parts look like a masterpiece in comparison.
Agreed about Sailor Moon, and quite a few of the recasts were a massive step down from DiC like Linda Ballantyne's horrendous Terri Hawkes impression as Serena/Usagi. Good lord that over the top nasal sounding voice she used there at first was god awful and so unfitting for the character.
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