Biggest exageration by fans?

[MozillaVulpix]

This isn't such a big one, but some people seem to act like Dragon Ball has none of the issues that Z does. For example, people say how the humans are really important characters, when in reality, they're still pretty useless when it comes to the fighting sections. As soon as they stop being villains, Goku outclasses them by a ridiculous degree. And sometimes Goku still outclasses them when they are villains.

The 'everyone else is just fodder until Goku arrives' didn't start in Z.

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

Someone being ooc in DBS just because the plot is making gags with them or not being badass.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

And then we get to the Buu Arc, where they are still portraying hero!Goku, but they're still confined by the way Toriyama writes him, so we have this "hero" completely about face into a stupid, negligent, sociopath, while still trying to make him out as this paragon of virtue.

I call that "Goku is a terrible hero" an exaggeration, even if grounded in other contexts when used to contrast his character objectively.
Like when people thoroughly complain about why Goku would "risk the fate of the world" by just allowing things around him to get worse or ignoring "more logical/practical solutions" or exploits of their in-universe rhetorical solutions - we outside it tend to judge it by. It projected in exaggeration against what the characters are actually limited by in their personalities and attitudes about themselves. It has people thinking Goku's speech about "a sword of injustice" is some sort of Toriyama conspiracy, often used to inflate what people say is allegedly "wrong" with Goku's character as a "hero." Yet it completely writes out his actual characterization for the sake of an inaccurate meme.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I've made no secret of my personal pet peeve example though:



This is the one that this community in particular is REALLY especially guilty of. If you were to go by some of the folks here, you'd almost get the sense that DB is the manga/anime equivalent of Sesame Street, but with characters maybe occasionally shooting lasers from their hands at stuff.

Its a kid's show, we get it, but playing the "Nakama" thing up to such an absurd extent (particularly when in reality its all but close to non-existent in the actual series itself and is in large part the product of total revisionist projection from later fans) is literally the EXACT same wrongheaded thing as what some people do when they go all Nu Metal Faux-Grim N Gritty with their take on it, just in the opposite extreme.

Regarding Kanzenshuu, I understand the broader meaning here (Just try to say that, by the textbook defintion, Dragon Ball is a violent series. The names you will be called.), but where does friendship come into it?

[Hellspawn28]

Biggest exaggeration by fans for me is:

- Dragon Ball Evolution is the worst movie ever - I can give you a list of movies made in the last 20 years that are worst then DBE. DBE was a movie that had no hype because everyone knew that it was going to be awful. The trailers and TV ads made the movie look like total shit. The movie's director and the casting was a bad sign too that this movie was going to be bad.

- DBZ IS DARK AND EDGY!!! THE SHOW IS RATED R!!! - DBZ is very tame when it comes to it's violence. Sure it has it's bloody moments, but the series was never that violent to begin with. The series uncut is rated TV PG here in the US, not TV PG-14 or TV-MA. Not saying DBZ is flowers and sunshine, but the show is not very dark and violent neither.

- The series never had good writing - I get so sick of hearing this. Yeah the series was far from perfect, but the writing in the series was nowhere as bad as some people make out to be. Sometimes I feel like people use bad writing to defend the old DBZ movies when most of the 13 DBZ movies where bad. GT was pretty bad too since the Black Star Dragon Ball arc is a chore to sit through. The Bebi saga is not much better. Everytime I try to rewatch GT, I turn it off. When I go back and re-read the DBZ manga, I can still have fun with it.

[Kakacarrottop]

The badness of the Ocean dub.

[LSSJGODSSJ4Gogeta]

Agh what the damn hell?

Seriously, this is what's wrong with this whole thing - people throw out their ideas as if their side is "right."

If you prefer Goku in the dub, there you go, dub Goku for you. You got it. If you prefer original Goku and the Japanese version, bam, you got it. Nobody's hiding it from you, nobody's telling you that you can't watch it.

The problem is when one side decides to overstep to the other side. It's all subjective. You can't convince someone that what you like is better than what they like. All you can do is explain what you like and why you like it. But there is no right or wrong way to enjoy Dragon Ball.

Toei gave FUNimation full legal rights to do whatever they want with the material. So yeah, FUNimation adapted it. They did whatever they did and it wasn't right or wrong, it was all allowed by Toei. The same way that Toei was allowed to make filler material and changes as they saw fit to Akira Toriyama's work.

It's all well and good to like what you like and be passionate about it, but have some respect for the other side. Because really, it's annoying that each side keeps trying to force the other side to believe what they want. And don't say, "I'm not saying you can't enjoy the dub," that's basically what you're saying. You're passionately arguing that it's complete garbage and you can't enjoy it at all. It would be fine if it ended there, but this is something that goes back and forth, so yeah, you're kind of forcing your opinion on people who don't agree with it.

I swear, this is the never-ending battle.

Damn straight. I feel people who hate Broly do the same thing,or manga purest who will dis credit anything that's filler and say it sucks and you have to hate Pikkon,Broly either for not being in the manga or you're just dumb because they don't like X about Y......like man,we all love the same franchise and yet people fight over the stupidiest shit. If someone likes GT or KAi or Super,THEN LET EM LIKE IT! All over youtube people feel some need to purpously go to videos and hate on it and insult anyone who likes GT or kai and say "dude GT isn't canon. You're retarded if you like it. Not a real fan" or "Kai is for babies. Only squeekers watch this" The community would be so much better without all the self righteous top class fans hating on different opinions of so called fake fans.

[ABED]

- DBZ IS DARK AND EDGY!!! THE SHOW IS RATED R!!! - DBZ is very tame when it comes to it's violence. Sure it has it's bloody moments, but the series was never that violent to begin with. The series uncut is rated TV PG here in the US, not TV PG-14 or TV-MA. Not saying DBZ is flowers and sunshine, but the show is not very dark and violent neither.

They do a fair amount of editing to get the rating down. While the series isn't as violent as some claim, the level of violence can vary. Sometimes, there's little to no blood, but there are times when characters are impaled, children are murdered, limbs are torn off, lungs are punctured, characters cough up blood, etc. None of these things are something you can get away with without either changing the rating or making edits.

[rereboy]

They do a fair amount of editing to get the rating down. While the series isn't as violent as some claim, the level of violence can vary. Sometimes, there's little to no blood, but there are times when characters are impaled, children are murdered, limbs are torn off, lungs are punctured, characters cough up blood, etc. None of these things are something you can get away with without either changing the rating or making edits.

None of the physical or psychological violence in DBZ was edited in Viz's DBZ and it has an "all ages" rating. They only edited some instances of gun use and that was out of fear of people complaining that kids could imitate them and pick up real guns, not due to the violence.

[ABED]

They do a fair amount of editing to get the rating down. While the series isn't as violent as some claim, the level of violence can vary. Sometimes, there's little to no blood, but there are times when characters are impaled, children are murdered, limbs are torn off, lungs are punctured, characters cough up blood, etc. None of these things are something you can get away with without either changing the rating or making edits.

None of the physical or psychological violence in DBZ was edited in Viz's DBZ and it has an "all ages" rating. They only edited some instances of gun use and that was out of fear of people complaining that kids could imitate them and pick up real guns, not due to the violence.

Using guns is a form of violence, and the people who rate comics are a different body than those that rate TV shows and films.

[Avery]

Well, after observing the people here arguing over whether FUNImation's dub was bad or not, I'd like to say that the Japanese version being "horrible" is waaaay more exaggerated. Seriously, outside of this site, how many fans like the original version? How many of them dislike the dub? Only a handful of people on every video on YouTube and they usually get called "weeaboos".

Honourable mentions: IT'S OVER 9000, "Chi-Chi ruined Gohan", Goku being a "bad father" (among the first things you get when you type "Goku is..." into Google). Vegeta & Bulma's "love" story in the Artificial Humans arc, Broli and Bardock in general and "Yamcha/Krillin is sooo useless lol".

[rereboy]

Using guns is a form of violence, and the people who rate comics are a different body than those that rate TV shows and films.

They removed 17's gun from his hand to make it look like he killed an old man with his bare fist instead of his gun, and they changed the guns that those criminals had in the buu saga into less realistic guns while they were shotting people. Aka, they didn't change the violence at all, it's still just as violent and bloody.

And, Dragon Ball is a manga first, and an anime second. Not to mention that two different bodies deciding different things regarding a series that is virtually the same, only one is on paper and the other is in animated form, just shows inconsistent criteria regarding the issue, imo.

[ABED]

They removed 17's gun from his hand to make it look like he killed an old man with his bare fist instead of his gun, and they changed the guns that those criminals had in the buu saga into less realistic guns while they were shotting people. Aka, they didn't change the violence at all, it's still just as violent and bloody.

I don't know what edits they made for TV, I stopped watching it around the early Cell arc, but I know they cut the parts where Freeza impaled Kuririn. In fact, the Freeza "saga" was 33 episodes cut down to 32. ANd it's not as violent and bloody. They cut quite a bit. Freeza pulling off Nail's arm wasn't nearly as graphic and in the shot where the camera pans across the dead Namekians that Freeza killed outside of The Grand Elder's, the shot is noticeably edited. Hell, they used to have to put stars over fighters' faces when there was a face hit during the Ocean dub days. Even on TV there are different standards between cable and network or in this case syndication.

And, Dragon Ball is a manga first, and an anime second. Not to mention that two different bodies deciding different things regarding a series that is virtually the same, only one is on paper and the other is in animated form, just shows inconsistent criteria regarding the issue, imo.

What came first or second isn't relevant. In America way more kids saw the anime than read the manga. Yes, they did use inconsistent criteria.

I'm not arguing whether those standards are arbitrary or consistent. It's a FACT that that leaving DB unedited will earn you a different rating in America.

[rereboy]

I don't know what edits they made for TV, I stopped watching it around the early Cell arc, but I know they cut the parts where Freeza impaled Kuririn. In fact, the Freeza "saga" was 33 episodes cut down to 32. ANd it's not as violent and bloody. They cut quite a bit. Freeza pulling off Nail's arm wasn't nearly as graphic and in the shot where the camera pans across the dead Namekians that Freeza killed outside of The Grand Elder's, the shot is noticeably edited. Hell, they used to have to put stars over fighters' faces when there was a face hit during the Ocean dub days. Even on TV there are different standards between cable and network or in this case syndication.

That's the problem. You are focusing on a particular version of Dragon Ball (the anime) that wasn't even uncut. Like it was mentioned, even the uncut anime was TV PG. And if they were consistent with the manga rating, it would be TV-G.

I'm not arguing whether those standards are arbitrary or consistent. It's a FACT that that leaving DB unedited will earn you a different rating in America.

TV PG?

[ABED]

That's the problem. You are focusing on a particular version of Dragon Ball (the anime) that wasn't even uncut. Like it was mentioned, even the uncut anime was TV PG. And if they were consistent with the manga rating, it would be TV-G.

There's no problem on my end. Yes, DB wasn't uncut, it needed to be in order to get that rating, and there's no way DB would get a G rating. There's no way you're getting a guy blasted through the chest and coughing up blood on primetime kids' programming in the US. How many American kids shows do you know of that have DB's level of violence?

Why do you think the edits were made in the first place?

I'm not sure how Kai constitutes a TV-PG, you can't say "bastard" in a kids show.

[Hellspawn28]

Seriously, outside of this site, how many fans like the original version? How many of them dislike the dub? Only a handful of people on every video on YouTube and they usually get called "weeaboos".

If you go on other message boards of the DB series, the Japanese version gets a lot of love too. I remember on the DB Gamefaqs forums, the Japanese version is well liked. I remember it was the same on Planet Namek and MFG too.

[fadeddreams5]

I, myself, prefer the dub. However, the reason there are so many people that do is because a large percentage of them have never invested their time watching the original Japanese version in the first place. I assume many don't watch subbed anime at all. You grow up with a series, watch a scene from another version of the show--one that happens to have a female voicing your hero and music that sounds from an older era--and you can't help but immediately disapprove of what you see.

[Lunatic Fringe]

I, myself, prefer the dub. However, the reason there are so many people that do is because a large percentage of them have never invested their time watching the original Japanese version in the first place. I assume many don't watch subbed anime at all. You grow up with a series, watch a scene from another version of the show--one that happens to have a female voicing your hero and music that sounds from an older era--and you can't help but immediately disapprove of what you see.

I was the same way, really. For a while, I thought that nothing beat the dub and my first impression of Nozawa's Goku was that she was a screechy old woman doing a complete disservice to Goku as a character. Even when my nostalgia glasses were put off and I started to find faults with the '99-'03 dub and understood what the characters were originally portrayed as, I still couldn't believe that the original would be much better, despite the fact that I started watching subbed anime and found some of them more favorable than their dub counterparts at the time and by the time FUNi Kai came out, I really didn't see the need to invest my time into trying to watch it since they made a more faithful approach with more refined performances of voices I was already familiar with.

Super has really been my first invested exposure into listening to how the seiyū's have made characters, that I've been familiar with in an entirely different language for years, come to life and after listening to the FUNi dub again, I found myself thinking that a lot of the voices that I thought were the definitive versions of their respective characters weren't so definitive after all.

[precita]

I can clearly enjoy both versions. I've been watching Super week after week and the Japanese voices sound fine to me. I also plan to watch it dubbed when FUNI does it.

[dario03]

I don't know what edits they made for TV, I stopped watching it around the early Cell arc, but I know they cut the parts where Freeza impaled Kuririn. In fact, the Freeza "saga" was 33 episodes cut down to 32. ANd it's not as violent and bloody. They cut quite a bit. Freeza pulling off Nail's arm wasn't nearly as graphic and in the shot where the camera pans across the dead Namekians that Freeza killed outside of The Grand Elder's, the shot is noticeably edited. Hell, they used to have to put stars over fighters' faces when there was a face hit during the Ocean dub days. Even on TV there are different standards between cable and network or in this case syndication.

How much of Krillin getting impalaed was cut though? I recall it happening and I thought it sill had blood though maybe not spraying.