Fans of FUNI Unite!

John · Post by **John** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:12 am

I love Funimation, I really do. I hate a shhiiiitload of decisions that they've made, but overall I think they're swell.

There's too long a list of things they've done wrong with the Dragonball series, so I won't go into that.

The current dub cast has grown on me quite a bit. After all, that's the way I was exposed to the show. The first episodes I really really got into were the Freeza episodes. My first impression was, "Wow this is poorly dubbed. What the hell is with this dialogue?" But hey I used to watch Speed Racer.

Over time, the cast got really good. I'd say it was around the end of the Cell arc that I noticed it. For instance, Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 scream sent chills down my spine (and yes I'm aware that that's one of the more infamously butchered dub scenes).

One of my favorite dub actors is Jon Allen when he played Pink Hat Guy. MAN. What an actor.

In all seriousness, though, watching the dub of the original DB series gave me a taste of what DBZ could have been. Original Japanese music, decent acting, uncut-itude...

That's why I'm eagerly anticipating these upcoming box sets. I look forward to this "improved English dialogue."

Lavender Saiyan · Post by **Lavender Saiyan** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:19 pm

Wait a second, I wanna bring this side of the story into things. a lot of DB fans say that Funimation is a good company and has dubbed a lot of Animes very well, such as Fruits Basket & FullMetal Alchemist, but DB sucked. But I think it's only because people here are fanatics for DB/Z/GT and know so much about it that they have to look at every change or alteration made from the standpoint of a hardcore japanese fan. Rather than looking at it in a more positive way, such as seeing the DB they love in a new light. But the reason people do not feel this way over other Anime is because they are not fanatical over it, changes here & there from the JP track do not bother you. For example, in Fruits Basket, Tohru's voice is much deeper and older sounding then her Seiyuu, yet people still seem to enjoy Laura Bailey as her (as do I). Plus, there are always line changes here and there bu Funimation, it's just what happens in all Anime.

I'm not saying the early Dubbing of DBZ was great, infact a lot of it sucked, poor musical inserts. Not meaning the songs themselves, but rather where they were inserted. The voice acting started out bad but got better. IMO the first line that Schemmel executed perfectly was when he was talking to Vegeta on Namek as Vegeta was dying after after his death. When Schemmel starts saying how Vegeta never had a chance to be anything else, it just send shivers down my spine. But it seems like errors made with bad lines & probably some of the early bad Voice acting will be fixed in the new sets. Such as the Capt. Ginyu Saga where Schemmel & Sabat are trying to imitate Kelamis and Drummond. But you have to realize, these guys were just kinda thrown into this thing as was Faulconer. It's not entirley their faults. But once we get to the Trunks & Cell era, things pick up, they get into their character & Faulconer put out his best Scores.

You don't have to love the Dub, but from the Cell Era & on, their Dubbing has been pretty solid for the most part. Faithful to the original script, good music, and solid Voice Acting. You may not like this musical choice, but it's a different perspective, everyone has their own take & this is America, that kind of sound is what appeals t this audience. FUNi did what they needed to to make DBZ the hit in America that it is...& now you're all getting JP Music on the English track, so I think all should be well & good. We'll have screw up's fixed, the Original Music now, & more talented and into charcter actors. Since everyone wanted the Original Music in the Dub, now you don't need to complain anymore if you don't like the Dub Music. It's really perfect.

As for the acting it's self, it may be different, but IMO they suit the characters just as well. Schemmel does a perfect job at showing the innocent and serious side of Goku. One of my favorite and IMO perfectly executed lines by Schemmel is in the Pre-Cell Games when he is talking to Krillin by the take and says "These are precious times Krillin, being together is everything right now. That's all that really matters to me right now". Sabat is great at showing an arrogant sounding Vegeta which is truley what Vegeta is. Sabat's Piccolo is wise sounding.

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:14 pm

GI_Judd2287 wrote: Faulconer did a great job, however.

Eh, to each his own. I persnally cant stand his "music" and I use that term loosely. Anyone who knows how to work a synthesizer could do what he did. I thought Faulconer was the worst part of the dub, well and Tiffany Volmer.

Majin Buu · Post by **Majin Buu** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:15 pm

Lavender Saiyan wrote:As for the acting it's self, it may be different, but IMO they suit the characters just as well. Schemmel does a perfect job at showing the innocent and serious side of Goku. One of my favorite and IMO perfectly executed lines by Schemmel is in the Pre-Cell Games when he is talking to Krillin by the take and says "These are precious times Krillin, being together is everything right now. That's all that really matters to me right now". Sabat is great at showing an arrogant sounding Vegeta which is truley what Vegeta is. Sabat's Piccolo is wise sounding.

As for your critique on the voice acting, I'll have to go into toned down rabid subbie mode here for a bit.

You said Schemmel does a good job of bringing out Goku's innocence, I have to disagree. To me he just doesn't do a good job of bringing out Goku's childlike innocence. I think it's the fact that the way he voices the character is too manly and not gentle sounding enough. He sounds like a generic superhero. Sabat's Vegeta went from a poor imitation of Brian Durmmond's to sounding like he's constipated all the time and he doesn't put that much emotion into his performances. And Sabat's Piccolo sounds like a generic tough guy who, like Vegeta, suffers from some kind of constipation problem. They both sound like they're talking through a grunt instead of speaking naturally. That's another problem I have with the voice acting, most of it just doesn't sound natural. It sounds like they're just forcing their voices to sound like something they're not (though I think most of this comes from Sabat since he voices the most characters). Plus I don't think the quality of the actual acting is all that great either. Like I mentioned with Sabat's Vegeta, the performances usually don't sound emotional enough and because of that I usually don't feel any kind of emotional connection to whatever's happening.

Lavender Saiyan · Post by **Lavender Saiyan** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:31 pm

Schemmel? Super Hero Voice? Manly? No way man, given it's much more manly than Nozawa...but, grown men aren't supposed to soudn exactly as they did when they were 11. I love the job Nozawa did & respect her work greatly, but it just doesn't work for an adult character IMO. Schemmel has the balance of innocent and sweet & tough/serious when he needs to be. Nozawa doesn't caputre that for me. I'm not going to retaliate to your comments about Vegeta & Piccolo, because in all honestly, I don't know how to counter "consitpated" except with "no they don't".

Duo · Post by **Duo** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:54 pm

May we please not get into a discussion of the individual Voice Actors vs. The Seiyuu? I think the intention of the thread is broader than that.

Just a request.

Mr. Announcer · Post by **Mr. Announcer** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:03 pm

I'll have to agree with some of the previous posts here with regard to the First Strike set. My limited faith in FUNimation was shaken by their ghastly dub versions of all three movies. The utter lack of regard for the original dialogue was just inexcusable and the music that was played constantly throughout failed to stir any emotions in me (was it just me or was the music track too loud for the voice track?). It was just shocking to see after so many years of work from FUNimation a dub this inaccurate and inferior to the original dubs with the Ocean cast.

As for FUNimation in general, I just don't like their dub of DBZ. Not even because of my love of the Japanese version, but simply because I almost feel physical pain while watching it. There are a few voice actors I really do appreciate (Sonny Strait!) but really, the bad just far outweighs the good for me.

TheMajinRedComet · Post by **TheMajinRedComet** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:06 pm

Well I really like Sabet now, I hated him in the Frieza saga, but the whole cast has learned a lot since then.

Funi is a really good Anime company, but sometimes they just over localize thing, such as GT.

Chaotic Strike · Post by **Chaotic Strike** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 1:39 am

I perfer funi voices over the jap. voices and music(falconer only of course) though the jap. can obviously have some better voices in my opinion. yes I'm a one of those people who dont like gokus and grown up gohan etc femine voice. It just never fit to me though it was obvious she could bring out the childish side of goku more than sean could but I found that sean could do it decently. when it comes to frieza dont even ask the jap one stomps on funis because easly one of my favs. of the jap voice actors. my fav. funi voice actor is Dameon Clark I think he gave cell (my fav. character) a perfect voice for each of his forms.

as for the ocean dub I've seen the early version they dubbed and a lot of there cell saga episodes and i can safely say that other than scott Neil I couldnt really find anyone I liked sure drummond was good with his screams in the saiyan saga but I found he got surpassed by sabat in the later episodes such as the cell saga and the majin buu saga were he didnt scream nearly as good and i never liked his normal voice he could never play a sentimental vegeta like the funi and jap counterparts IMO.

as for music the early ocean eps. had loud and overblarring music that ruined the talking though it did improve in their later eps. i never found much quality with there megaman recycled music they did use some of funis music but not near enough.as for jap and facoulners music ("trunks saga" to the end of the buu saga) I perfer facoulner inshow music abit more over the jap inshow music. I found a lot of the jap music catchy but overall surpassed by themes such as pikkons theme and trunks theme and many more. the japs had it moments when it beat falcouner with spirit vs spirit and some music that just felt better in the scene.

well thats basicly what my opinions are in a nut shell have a great amount of respect for the jap. version even though I perfer funi after all i am going to buy the new dvds so funis saiyan saga and frieza saga can be complete with the jap music over the crap ultimate uncut edition music.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 1:48 am

Welcome to the forum, remember the rules. Grammar matters!

BrollysKin · Post by **BrollysKin** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:25 am

desirecampbell wrote:Welcome to the forum, remember the rules. Grammar matters!

As well as spelling and racial slurs.

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:23 pm

BrollysKin wrote:
desirecampbell wrote:Welcome to the forum, remember the rules. Grammar matters!
As well as spelling and racial slurs.

Why must we continue to beat up someone for using an abbreviation that happen to be an commonly used so-called derogatory term that most people growing up in the last 20 years may not even be aware of?

I know he doen't mean anything bad, you know he doesn't mean anything, and any actually Japanese person on the site may probably know that he doesn't mean anything by it.

Back on topic, I enjoy the FUNi dub. And, no disrespect against the original Japanese version, it's my preferred means of viewing the anime. If they didn't make changes, someone else would have and would have become the focus of hatred. If some the anime had been presented without any changes, it would have aired for about four weeks before an inflood of complaints from parents about all the violence and blood. And it would never have came back again.

Besides, if most of real anime fans wouldn't watch any kind of dub at all.

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:06 pm

Sure, changes were made for it to be aired on US television but there's a lot of things that didn't need changed for such purposes. Let's take the music for example. It was changed simply so FUNi could be more royalties when the show aired on TV. That's the kind of crap that bothers me most about the FUNi dub.

However, overall, FUNimation has done some good things. For example, FMA turned out well.

KinoFourpaws · Post by **KinoFourpaws** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:14 pm

Kendamu wrote:Sure, changes were made for it to be aired on US television but there's a lot of things that didn't need changed for such purposes. Let's take the music for example. It was changed simply so FUNi could be more royalties when the show aired on TV. That's the kind of crap that bothers me most about the FUNi dub.

However, overall, FUNimation has done some good things. For example, FMA turned out well.

Actually, there are some cases where a dubbing company like FUNi CAN'T use the original music when dubbing an anime, as per direct request from its licensing company in Japan. You mention Fullmetal Alchemist, which had a similar problem: you notice how the intro for the entire first half of the series for its television run is always "Ready Steady Go," and "Melissa" isn't played at all? The Japanese company (BONES, I think it was?) specifically asked that it be done that way for the American airing. Why did they do it? I have absolutely no idea, but the fact remains that they did.

I'm thinking it may be a similar problem with DBZ and GT's music. It may not be so much that FUNi didn't want to pay royalties to use the original music as it could be that Toei deliberately told them they couldn't, at least not for TV. (You'll notice that the problem with FMA's intros is nonexistent when you watch the episodes on DVD.) I'm not sure why they would ask us not to use the music for DBZ and GT and still let us keep the original music for Dragonball, but that aside, I seriously think that's the case here--otherwise, why would they care about letting people watch the dub with Japanese music for the new Remastered set?

Please, people. It's not always FUNi's fault that they don't end up using the original music for a series. Honestly, I'm kind of sick of seeing people bash FUNi over something they've probably never even had that much control over. Unless you can pinpoint me to a source proving that they actually did have the option of using the original music and they just didn't take it, please don't complain about it.

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:19 pm

KinoFourpaws wrote:
Kendamu wrote:Sure, changes were made for it to be aired on US television but there's a lot of things that didn't need changed for such purposes. Let's take the music for example. It was changed simply so FUNi could be more royalties when the show aired on TV. That's the kind of crap that bothers me most about the FUNi dub.

However, overall, FUNimation has done some good things. For example, FMA turned out well.
Actually, there are some cases where a dubbing company like FUNi CAN'T use the original music when dubbing an anime, as per direct request from its licensing company in Japan. You mention Fullmetal Alchemist, which had a similar problem: you notice how the intro for the entire first half of the series for its television run is always "Ready Steady Go," and "Melissa" isn't played at all? The Japanese company (BONES, I think it was?) specifically asked that it be done that way for the American airing. Why did they do it? I have absolutely no idea, but the fact remains that they did.

I heard it was due to some sort of deal with the bands that did "Ready Steady Go" and "Rewrite" is why they were the only ones played. Have to say, I didn't like that "Melissa" song when I first saw the intro. So like many in the States, I think of "Ready Steady Go" as the intro first.

KinoFourpaws · Post by **KinoFourpaws** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:24 pm

(Deleted because of double-posting! D: )

KinoFourpaws · Post by **KinoFourpaws** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:26 pm

Super Sonic wrote:I heard it was due to some sort of deal with the bands that did "Ready Steady Go" and "Rewrite" is why they were the only ones played. Have to say, I didn't like that "Melissa" song when I first saw the intro. So like many in the States, I think of "Ready Steady Go" as the intro first.

Well, maybe so. Maybe there was a similar problem with whoever did the original music for DBZ and GT? o_O

Actually, I like "Melissa." And I'm sad to know that they didn't allow us to hear "Undo" for the television airings either (I love that song! ;_; ). I think the only intro/outro songs for the series I don't really like are the last two outros, "Motherland" and "I Will" (though "I Will" actually isn't that bad, now that I think about it). I dunno, I guess I just don't really like the slow, Pop-style kind of music. It got old for me pretty quickly... ^^;

(EDIT: AUGH, no! Sorry for the double-post... CURSE YOU MYSTERY PERSON FOR REPLYING TO ME BEFORE I COULD FIX IT. D:)

Mystery Person X · Post by **Mystery Person X** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:27 pm

Opening and ending themes are a totally different case to background music. The licensing for those involves the record labels that publish the songs, which is why there are quite a few series (Kodocha, Hare+Guu, Zeta Gundam) that are missing one or more of the original theme songs even on the DVD release.

IIRC, the reason Ready Steady Go got used for so much of the series is because L'arc~en~Ciel were trying to break into the US market at the time (they album with Ready Steady Go on it was actually released in the US). It was an agreement as part of a promotional effort.

There's no reason Toei would go out of their way to make FUNi not use the original music. They didn't do it with DB, they didn't do it for any international version of DBZ and DBGT, and plenty of other Toei series have been released with the original background music intact. They might, however, make FUNi pay extra for the priviledge of using it, so it could be an issue of money in that sense. Not to mention, didn't Gen Fukunaga mention in some old interviews that they changed the music so they could get royalty payments for the new music? (I could be misremembering here.)

As to why FUNi would make such a big deal about the dub now having the original music? Because it sells copies, that's why. I know it was the thing I was most excited about when I heard the news about these new DVDs.

KinoFourpaws · Post by **KinoFourpaws** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:35 pm

Mystery Person X wrote:Opening and ending themes are a totally different case to background music. The licensing for those involves the record labels that publish the songs, which is why there are quite a few series (Kodocha, Hare+Guu, Zeta Gundam) that are missing one or more of the original theme songs even on the DVD release.

IIRC, the reason Ready Steady Go got used for so much of the series is because L'arc~en~Ciel were trying to break into the US market at the time (they album with Ready Steady Go on it was actually released in the US). It was an agreement as part of a promotional effort.

There's no reason Toei would go out of their way to make FUNi not use the original music. They didn't do it with DB, they didn't do it for any international version of DBZ and DBGT, and plenty of other Toei series have been released with the original background music intact. They might, however, make FUNi pay extra for the priviledge of using it, so it could be an issue of money in that sense. Not to mention, didn't Gen Fukunaga mention in some old interviews that they changed the music so they could get royalty payments for the new music? (I could be misremembering here.)

As to why FUNi would make such a big deal about the dub now having the original music? Because it sells copies, that's why. I know it was the thing I was most excited about when I heard the news about these new DVDs.

Well, I admit, that's something that got me kind of excited too... >_>;

Well, even with the royalties... maybe it was more complex a matter than just simply paying them, you know? Maybe it WAS a matter of how much money FUNi had at the time they made the decision. I agree with some; if at all possible, they should have kept Faulconer on for the dub's music if they couldn't keep the original score, but things happen, you know? I still believe that it's not entirely FUNi's fault that we don't have the original music for the dubs... :/

Mystery Person X · Post by **Mystery Person X** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:41 pm

Maybe it WAS a matter of how much money FUNi had at the time they made the decision.

Possibly, when they made season 3. That doesn't excuse not switching the original music (at least for the uncut version) once the show became a big moneymaker, and doesn't excuse the Ultimate Uncut dub not using the original music.

Pretty much every worthwhile anime dub uses the original music, and that the ones that don't are/were limited to a few certain companies (like Saban, DiC and 4Kids) that I'm sure I don't need to say much about. For whatever reason, FUNi chose to go down the latter path at the expense of making a good dub.

Still, at least they have finally decided to rectify this ^^