Which characters/scenes had "more to it" in Dubs?

[ABED]

Except that Vegeta's rage and reasons for doing what he did at that moment had ZERO to do with Freeza.

You mean, IN THE JAPANESE VERSION, his rage and reasons for doing what he did had zero to do with Freeza. But that's not what this thread is focused on .

Even in the dub, it's so beside the point and not at all why he did what he did. There wasn't anything to this scene but a bad attempt to give the scene something more. There's already a lot of built up animosity, adding another reason that isn't in Vegeta's character just comes across as a weak attempt at giving more depth by distracting from the actual issue.

[Kakacarrottop]

The original ORIGINAL 1996 dub has the best interpretation of Goku and Vegeta's beam battle, in my opinion. Mainly because of Saban's BGM, which managed to build up a lot of suspense, while still retaining that "epic" feel Bruce Faulconer/Kikuchi fans keep talking of. IIRC in the original Japanese the scene is mostly silent, while in the FUNi redub they had some generic heavy-metal music playing.

[Doctor.]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

[ABED]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

I don't think that's a fair assessment, especially when the Kai dub was as good as it was.

[Doctor.]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

I don't think that's a fair assessment, especially when the Kai dub was as good as it was.

I was referring to the original Z dub.

[ABED]

My bad. Carry on, good sir.

[successoroffate]

If we're talking FUNI: the answer is none.

If we're talking any other dub, well, Gohan's scream in the LatinAmerican Dub when Turning SSJ 2 for the first time was really something. Great dubbing if you ask me. I'm not saying the LatinAmerican Dub 0utdid or outperformed the Original, but it was really top notch quality.

[zDBZ]

Can't think of a specific example off the top of my head, but: a strict translation from Japanese sometimes makes for awkward English, and in comparing the original Funi dub to "Kai" or the manga, every now and again I'll find something that benefited from a looser approach to the translating IMO.

Do you have examples from the Kai dub that you would call "awkward?"

Specific lines? Afraid not.

A general example: Japanese translated too directly can sometimes (sometimes) make for dry, stiff, and expository English.

[Fionordequester]

A general example: Japanese translated too directly can sometimes (sometimes) make for dry, stiff, and expository English.

For example...

Goku: I want to be strong enough that I can't be beaten by anyone. But Gohan? I want you to be even stronger than me!

[Gaffer Tape]

I'm... not really seeing what's all that awkward about the above example.

And honestly, the whole argument that "you can translate things too literally" always ends up coming across to me as some kind of justification for whatever change the proponent of said argument happens to be championing. Because here's the thing (for the most part): if the resultant line ends up sounding stilted and awkward, that's probably because whoever translated it is lacking in writing skills. If the resultant line ends up as some kind of jumbled mess that is in no way in proper grammatical order because they maintained the Japanese language's subject-object-verb order, then that's not translating because translating isn't simply plugging words into Google translate and keeping it word for word. But there's a huge difference between changing word order around for ease of understanding and using said logic as justification for playing fast and loose with the text.

[ABED]

I'm... not really seeing what's all that awkward about the above example.

And honestly, the whole argument that "you can translate things too literally" always ends up coming across to me as some kind of justification for whatever change the proponent of said argument happens to be championing. Because here's the thing (for the most part): if the resultant line ends up sounding stilted and awkward, that's probably because whoever translated it is lacking in writing skills. If the resultant line ends up as some kind of jumbled mess that is in no way in proper grammatical order because they maintained the Japanese language's subject-object-verb order, then that's not translating because translating isn't simply plugging words into Google translate and keeping it word for word. But there's a huge difference between changing word order around for ease of understanding and using said logic as justification for playing fast and loose with the text.

Thank you, plus matching mouth flaps has to be difficult when writing a script for a show that has already been animated.

[Fionordequester]

I'm... not really seeing what's all that awkward about the above example.

Goku completely contradicts himself with the way he structures that sentence. But, knowing what I know about indirectness in the Japanese language, he probably meant something more like...

Goku: You know, I don't really LIKE losing to anyone...But Gohan? I want you to be even stronger than me!

And then of course, there are stock phrases in Japanese like...

People DIE when they are killed! (yeah, that's an actual phrase. Makes more sense in it's native language)

I shall bury you in darkness!

I won't lose to YOUR kind of guy!

You young punk, with your butt still blue! (In the Japanese language, calling someone "blue" is the same as calling someone "green" in English. So if you have a weapon that's literally translated as the "blue sword", and the "blue" part isn't written in Katakana, then it's most likely supposed to mean something more like the "beginner's sword")

[Dbzfan94]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

I think that's a gross exaggeration for the most part (excluding Freeza) but that's your opinion.

[DemonRin]

Gonna be honest, the dub is by and large terrible at this. Almost any time they attempted to add personality or added anything to any scene it fell flat.
Goku's "Ally to good, Nightmare to you" speech is of course a huge horrible offender, also "Cat loves food, yeah yeah yeah!", and if you want to talk parts where they LITERALLY tried to add dialog (as in dialog where there originally was none) was how they ruined the subtlety and quiet rage of Gohan's SS2 transformation by having Gohan's inner monologue spell out the meaning of the moment as if the audience was stupid and couldn't feel the emotion of the scene from the visuals and music.

BUT.

There is ONE scene, one moment in the whole series where the Dub ad-libbed in something I really like. I'mt not gonna say it's accurate or even something I wish was in the Japanese version, but it was an attempt at humor (so not unintentionally funny like redneck #13) that actually made me laugh.

In the Boo arc when Vegeta and Goku emerge from Kid Boo and everone is returning to full Size, they took a silent scene of Goku and Vegeta shot from behind and had this exchange:

Goku: Look Vegeta! People Popcorn!!

Vegeta:.... WHAT is he ON?!


That got me to laugh, because it was one of the first moments where it felt like FUNi was trying to show Goku's simple-mindedness and it was funny.


Also, the Cell games reenactment scene didn't really Add anything, but it did feel like FUNi was on point and having fun with it.

[Kuririn Fan]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

I think that's a gross exaggeration for the most part (excluding Freeza) but that's your opinion.

It's absolutely not a "gross exaggeration" , it's completely true.

[Dbzfan94]

Absolutely none. The dub did nothing more than butcher every character it got its hands on.

I think that's a gross exaggeration for the most part (excluding Freeza) but that's your opinion.

It's absolutely not a "gross exaggeration" , it's completely true.

Again, it's not. If you're not going to provide any context or points to your post besides the same old (seemingly) passive agressive hate, then don't reply at all because your posts bring nothing to the conversation.

99% of the characters have their personalities intact except for some OOC moments in season 3. Dub-Freeza I fully admit that. Bulma in S3 was too ditsy, Vegeta's OOC moment in his S3 death speech and Goku's hero moments were turned up a few notches, but otherwise everyone else is pretty much exactly the same.

[Kuririn Fan]

Oh wow, for some reason i thought that you replied to my post, but then i saw that your response doesnt make any sense because i never said that they're different (except Freeza and "season 3"), but just that none of them are better than original.

[ABED]

I know I need to take my own advice, but this will be a lot more fun and productive if we're earnest with each other. DBZfan, I agree that Kuririn Fan didn't say they were different, but by the same token, just leaving a brief comment like "None of them are better" isn't condusive to constructive dialogue. It may very well be true (I happen to think it is) but it's not particularly clarifying, interesting, or helpful.

I don't think anything off the top of my head had more to it in the dub. I do however think the dub of Kai was better than the JPN version of Kai.

[Dbzfan94]

Oh wow, for some reason i thought that you replied to my post, but then i saw that your response doesnt make any sense because i never said that they're different (except Freeza and "season 3"), but just that none of them are better than original.

And how does my post not make sense exactly? If anything I think your comment is the one that doesn't make too much sense. The original comment was that the dub butchered every character which is flat out not true. Some parts yes but as I said, a huge exaggeration. Nothing In my post implied I was saying that those changes were better. But if you got that impression then that's not my fault

Where did I say that the dub changes were better? I didn't say that at all: I said that besides those moments a few other OOC moments I could be forgetting, that they were the same. Same as in same as the original.

[Kuririn Fan]

I thought that you replied to my post instead of Doctors. It's just a misunderstanding. But the original version is better in every way possible, that part stays.