Fans of FUNI Unite!

[Maphisto86]

Ok Iv'e had it up to here... about 6.8 feet I geuss... with all the hate that has existed for far too long concerning the dub by FUNImation of our beloved Dragonball. Now hear me out oh restless masses...

I want all or anyone who even remotley likes the current cast of FUNImation's Dragonball/Z/GT dub to post in this thread and support me in standing up for this much maligned stance in Dragonball fandom. I geuss I was pushed over the edge recentley when I read yet another essay treating FUNImation as if they where out to ruin Toryiama's Dragonball. Now I don't completely disagree with the criticism against FUNImations dub.

For instance I don't like some of the dialogue rehashing they have done because it detracts from the original story. Personally I would like it if FUNImation simply translated the original Japanese script but keep in mind that most of the dialogue that was redone was changed in order to keep the anime as family friendly as possible. Yes their hands where tied because many parents are over protective of their kids which we must admit is the target audience for Dragonball. Still some of the changes where needless and I admit that I am not a fan of this either however changes like Kakarotto to Kakarot where done in order to translate the pun of "carrot" to english.

However I am a passionate fan of the current cast. Despite some changes in the character's voices I think they are good without taking away from the character. For example I have heard many of my fellow fans to deride Sean Schemmel's rendition of North Kaio (King Kai). While some would consider this a bad change I do not. I also do not see how he sound's like "a fish". Schemmel's Kaio is a nod to the character's goofy side and sounds friendly yet can also be serious. I understand why many prefer the original Japanese voice other than because it is the original. The Japanese voice (provided by the ever talented Jouji Yanami) sounds more sagely and wise. I say take your pick....

My biggest beef with the anti-FUNImation lobby is not that they prefer the original Japanese cast, the Ocean dub cast or another dub cast. My problem is with the elitest attitude many of these fans have that proclaim that if you like the FUNImation cast you are not a real fan of Dragonball or you are ignorant.

So please I ask for some support from fans who are likeminded and perhaps we (or I alone ) can create a well thought out rebuttal to all these essays and rants that deride one of our favourite renditions of Dragonball.

[Kirbopher]

So please I ask for some support from fans who are likeminded and perhaps we (or I alone ) can create a well thought out rebuttal to all these essays and rants that deride one of our favourite renditions of Dragonball.

...you realize you just MADE one of those "essays" by starting this very thread. No offense dude, but one of the reasons that pro-dub fans are often persecuted is BECAUSE of things like this.

[VegettoEX]

Dude, if you like the dub... whatever. However, the very fact that you're acting like an asshole towards other assholes lowers you to that exact level, and completely counter-acts any progress you would like fandom to make. You've accomplished nothing, and have made a spectacle of yourself just like the people you're talking about.

[Maphisto86]

Ouch Mike that hurts... fine whatever. I simply wanted to create such a thread but if you see fit then delete it. No hard feelings....

P.S. I was trying not to be an asshole I was simply expressing an opinion. I feel like I was bitchslapped when all I deserved was a warning and a thread deletion.

[aarondirebear]

You will never stop me from hating them, because they deserve every square centemetre of it. They distorted the dialogue, they mangled the music, crapped on the characterization, and essentially made a big mess of it. Furthermore, I would like to point out that they put three episodes on a disc and charged 26 American Dollars after tax, put no special features on them (just ads to flaunt their other victims), and the subtitle track was obviously false. I mean come on, when the word "deshoo" is spoken I expect to see the words "suppose" or "probably" and not for the sentence to be written as absolute fact. It looks like a dubtitle from a British dub of some kind. DragonballZ is not their only victim; every anime they have done has suffered a similar fate. OH sure they kept in the original music for some of them, but the voices are all wrong,t he dialogue is still changed, the Japanese cast is uncredited, too few episodes to a disc, too few features to a disc and too high priced, and the subtitling is innacurate.

Face it, Funimation is a loathsome entity that deserves to have all of its licenses stripped from it. Thusly, all licenses by them ought to be considered null and void by any true anime fan, and the anime series associated with said seerie should be distributed in its true format with translations made by people who understand Japanese and do not think it needs to be dumbed down. To say that Funimation was out to ruin dragonball is a fact, because they did. They willingly and knowingly changed the music, gave them stupid voices and changed the dialogue.

Therefore, please take heed to the words of Socrates but do so in a biblical manner; the precise nugget of his wisdom I refer to would be "know thyself."

[theoriginalbilis]

Face it, Funimation is a loathsome entity that deserves to have all of its licenses stripped from it.

Holy geez... that a little harsh, don't you think?

I mean, yeah, their DBZ work wasn't great, but you honestly can't sit there and tell me that they've done bad work on their other anime series. Hell, nowadays, most people WANT FUNimation to license other anime series.

This isn't 1997-1999 anymore.

and the subtitling is innacurate.

Wow, you really haven't even watched a FUNimation DVD, have you? Daimao's translations are considered one of the most accurate subtitle translations out there.

- Bilis

[Payne222]

Face it, Funimation is a loathsome entity that deserves to have all of its licenses stripped from it.

Holy geez... that a little harsh, don't you think?

I mean, yeah, their DBZ work wasn't great, but you honestly can't sit there and tell me that they've done bad work on their other anime series. Hell, nowadays, most people WANT FUNimation to license other anime series.

This isn't 1997-1999 anymore.

- Bilis

I agree, the had their ups and downs with DBZ. But come on, now, they are pretty good with their dubs and have very good matching voice actors.

[Maphisto86]

Alright I get the point... Mea Cupla. I do not want to start one of those silly thread wars that seems to sprout up. I also want to make it clear that I did not deride people for making such "essays" because I wanted to make one myself. Though I see it was a stupid idea....

Either delete this thread and we can go on OR you can continue to debase me on one of my favourite forums (not that I already was by the admin who's opinon I respect ). I think I'm being as reasonable as I can. I'm not continuing this discussion any longer. I can admit when I made a mistake.

P.S. Actually my big mistake was entering "rant mode". My original intent to create this thread was to make a place for fans of the dub to discuss it but I made something else entirely!

[Kula]

Dude, if you like the dub... whatever. However, the very fact that you're acting like an asshole towards other assholes lowers you to that exact level, and completely counter-acts any progress you would like fandom to make. You've accomplished nothing, and have made a spectacle of yourself just like the people you're talking about.

I think you may be over reacting. His post didn't come across as being 'asshole-ish'. He even goes so far as to acknowledge some of Funi's faults and even has a positive thing to say about Kai's original VA.

To be honest Maphisto86, I agree with you partly. Just remember that not everyone who dislikes the FUNI dub has seething hatred for it (and I'm sure you're well aware of that). I have seen an equal amount of dub bashing AND JP bashing. Personally, I like both the original version and the dub about the same amount (although most of my exposure to English DBZ is through the Ocean cast). The acting in the dub may be bad at times and I find some of the Japanese voices strange, but I have the common sense not to complain about it.

To those who would 'bitch' about either version, I would say 'don't bother', you just waste your time and everyone else's.

[Sebastian (SB)]

I don't think that's the point, but rather the fact that this thread has accomplished nothing.

[MajinVejitaXV]

*wanders in covered in car oil muttering about a blown valve cover gasket*

FUNi? They fucked up DBZ. They felt the original show wasn't good enough, as evidenced by their actions, and by their own admission tried to tweak it to fit a target demographic of kids age 7-12. So...I stopped watching it. If others prefer FUNi, I don't care, but much like you I hate those who take the approach of thinking the Japanese version is "gay" or "lol dumb" or whatever the fuck the catch-phrase of the week is.

They do fine with other shows. I'm just sorry that after a decade they can't revisit the DragonBall property with the same respect.

-Corey

[Mystery Person X]

and the subtitle track was obviously false. I mean come on, when the word "deshoo" is spoken I expect to see the words "suppose" or "probably" and not for the sentence to be written as absolute fact.

You're criticising Daimao's translations?

Try again when you've learnt some more Japanese. Seriously.

[nathantheguitarist]

FUNi isn't that bad. The only thing I hate them for is the widescreen issue, and the fact that America hasn't gotten a decent release for any of the series, the closest is GT, but there's that extra episode in there because they wanted to put off the first 16 episodes
I also don't like a lot of their script changes, especially as of lately. In fact I wanted to kill myself after watching the new dub for Tree of Might (Goku and Tullece are not "struck from molds" children). The music is actually ok, Bruce Faulconer knows what he's doing. But the music that has been done recently is bad (See "First Strike" movies 2 & 3)

I don't hate them entirely for how they've done Dragonball, it's actually quite good imo, but I despise the way they've handled it... all this cancelling and 3 episodes per disc, and the "real" lost episodes of DBZ so to say, are the ones that were cancelled before the Ultimate Uncuts could be finished, and now is being tainted with widescreen...
End of meaningless jargon ;P

[VegettoEX]

Just continue to ignore aarondirebear's troll-esque comments when it comes to FUNimation. I could embarass him with the asinine PM I got from him with a tirade on supporting bootlegs against the evil empire, but whatever... I'll take the classy route. If and when he finally crosses the line, he'll be gone, and life will continue on as normal.

Anyway, Maphisto86... I think you took my initial comments a little too harshly and without additional thought, which is how it seems you started this thread in the first place. I mean, I totally get where you might be coming from... but it all just seems a little haphazard and as an immediate response to something, not containing the streamlined thought and reason that you should be going with.

After reading it, I just get the impression that you read something someone wrote, got pissed, and immediately made that thread. That's not the way to handle things, and the way it comes off just seems exactly like what you're trying to protest against.

[tarsonis]

This would have been more relevant in the late 90s, when we had the Ocean Studios dub. The ignorant ones were those who refused to acknowledge any aspect of that dub and only look at the negative sides. People would go on unending rants acting as if someone was holding a gun to their head forcing them to watch the dub when they could have simply chosen not to watch it, and who acted as if their precious fansubbed videos were being taken away with every episode that Funimation released. And there were those who apparently never saw the excellent World's Strongest dub, something which proved Funimation had some competence. And finally you had those who couldn't figure out that the Ocean Studios voices were actually good and fitting (well, most of them.) Even the BGM, while not the original, was note-worthy.

[Mr.Piccolo]

I have a question for those suggesting FUNimation should be boycotted: How do you suppose new non-Japanese speaking fans enjoy this show? Let’s just say someone wanted to get into the show and knew absolutely nothing about it (United States). They could buy the Dragonboxes and a new dvd player.. and then what? They wouldn’t know a lick of Japanese, so what would they turn too? I understand FUNi isn’t the greatest company around but I feel it isn’t as horrible as people make it out to be. Yes, its not the original and it never will be; it is what it is in the end. All I’m saying is some of the comments about FUNimation are a bit exaggerated and, at times, pretty funny. In short, since I personally don’t know Japanese and I consider Daimou’s subtitles great, I almost hold no grudges with FUNi. (So in any case for this argument, I’m neutral)
-Rick

[Gokuden553]

and the subtitling is innacurate.

Alright, nobody has mentioned it yet, but what the crap is with the American-style names? "Son-kun" gets translated to "Goku", all Japanese titles are removed (e.g. san, sama, chan, kun) which removes a bit of the context in which the characters are speaking, and I've noticed a lot of translation errors even with my limited knowledge of Japanese.

Also some words such as "Shimata" which originally means "Oh no"... that was translated into "Oh hell" "Oh crap" "Oh damn"

[tarsonis]

Alright, nobody has mentioned it yet, but what the crap is with the American-style names? "Son-kun" gets translated to "Goku", all Japanese titles are removed (e.g. san, sama, chan, kun) which removes a bit of the context in which the characters are speaking, and I've noticed a lot of translation errors even with my limited knowledge of Japanese.

Because for some reason American anime companies think these things should be restricted to the original version, which is why we only see them in subtitles. Yes, it would be nice to actually have a dub someday which kept the original names, including honorifics.

[Kirbopher]

As far as my opinion on the actual topic goes:

I myself haven't seen ANY bashing of ANY original Japanese version of an anime before simply HEARING about it from various people on this forum. I'm gonna take everyone's word for it, since many of you guys've been around the internet long before I have.

I enjoy the dub. I like prettymuch all dub voice actors in general, aside from a very select view, for reasons OUTSIDE of their actual acting. Even some of the 4Kids VAs who can do a crappy cartoon voice on one of their dubs, can do a perfectly FINE voice on a show dubbed by some other company in NY.

I like Ocean Group, I like FUNimation's in-house cast. I am well aware of the fact that the show is mangled from the original work, but then again, so is Pokemon. With these two shows specifically, I grew up with their dubbed edited versions and therefore have SOME sort of odd nostalgic value for them.

With that, I view DBZ like this: I can buy ANY Uncut DVD from ANY saga with 3 or 4 episodes on them, watch the episodes in English, and then watch them in Japanese. Then I view it as getting twice the amount of episodes, because many people who dislike the dub would say "the dub is a completely differentn show from the original version". Since as Mike has stated, DBZ's uncut dub is only graphically unaltered, I take a spin on the fact that the two are different shows, and therefore make it into a positive experience.

Basically, I enjoy dubs a bit more than Japanese versions. I simply get a slightly more enjoyable experience by viewing my anime this way, and anyone who knows me personally would know that I absolutely LOVE english voice actors in general. However, this does NOT mean that I don't like Japanese versions and "think the voices are gay" and I'm not completely oblivious to the cultural references within the show. In fact, despite my preferences lying within dubs, I myself have never seen a badly-done original Japanese language track.

[Menardi]

Some like it, and some not, it doesn't matter anyway and I haven't got a problem with it. Let's all be happy and sing a song....