Are You Interested In Dragon Ball's Many Dubs?

[TheBlackPaladin]

This is a general question, so feel free to be as general (or detailed) as you want.

Besides Japanese and English--which are probably the two most talked-about versions of Dragon Ball on this forum--all of the animes received a myriad of different dubs. Go on YouTube, and it won't take you long at all to find a ton of different multi-language comparison videos of the many different dubs that the Dragon Ball animes have had over the years. Sooo....generally speaking, what's your interest level in learning about the different dubs out there?

I can only speak for myself, but in my case, I absolutely friggin' LOVE learning about all the different dubs! I love learning about how they were done, when they were done, what sort of changes there were, watching interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the dubbing process...I love it all. It has gotten to the point that I now know the names (and voices) of a many dub cast members even though the dubs aren't in languages that I'm fluent in (Eric Legrand plays Vegeta in France, Tommy Morgenstern plays Goku in Germany--and sang a few of the dubbed songs--and Laura Torres plays Goku, Gohan, and Goten as children, just to name a few).

What about the rest of you? To what degree do you like learning, watching, and listening about the other dubs out there? To be clear, any answer is fine, and I assume many here will only be interested in one particular version, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just curious, really.

[Nejishiki]

I'm sorta in the same boat. Rather than comparing different dubs, I love comparing different text translations of the manga and the subbed Japanese audio. It's interesting to myself how everyone translates the same lines to their own flavor. One user's signature that had dialogue to Piccolo's plan to sneak attack Nappa with Vegeta mocking them led me to looking at my own stuff and the internet to see how consistently every translator gave it its own language while retaining, more or less, the same meaning. The translation from the signature might be my favorite but I would mix and match sentences from all sources if I could. I'm just the sort of person who would waste time with something like that, ahaha.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'm sorta in the same boat. Rather than comparing different dubs, I love comparing different text translations of the manga and the subbed Japanese audio. It's interesting to myself how everyone translates the same lines to their own flavor. One user's signature that had dialogue to Piccolo's plan to sneak attack Nappa with Vegeta mocking them led me to looking at my own stuff and the internet to see how consistently every translator gave it its own language while retaining, more or less, the same meaning. The translation from the signature might be my favorite but I would mix and match sentences from all sources if I could. I'm just the sort of person who would waste time with something like that, ahaha.

Nothing wrong with that! In fact, it touches on one of the reasons I love comparing dubs: the creative choices involved in translation. Translation is part science, part creativity, so there will always be some subjectivity when deciding what the best translation of a line is. So it's very interesting for me to see what different creative choices different translators went with, especially if the meaning is still the same.

One example I can think of immediately is comparing the English subtitles for the Japanese audio. The first three DBZ movies, as a lot of us know, received uncut, bilingual DVD releases from Pioneer before FUNimation went back and re-released them with both a new dub and a new subtitle track. The subtitles on the Pioneer DVDs are completely competent and get the points across in a perfectly coherent manner, but Steve Simmons "flavored" his subtitles a bit more for the re-release (for example, making Goku's dialogue more hick-like and adding in the word "ain't" in several places).

Of course, with dubs, not every line is changed for creativity's sake; in many cases they are changed or re-phrased to fit the lip movements. Manga translations don't have that roadblock to worry about.

[Vijay]

Unless the Dub is done super professionally as Japanese version, I'm not interested

I've come across Eng Dubs (Funi, Ocean), Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hindi, Speedy & while each Dub have their own takes at the series (which I've grown to appreciate over the years) none of them have actually "attracted" me to learn the language as original Japanese version did.

Maybe its about heart & soul that goes into DB/Z makes the connection.

Though I'd say I'm curious to watch/learn German & Italian dubs considering how much praises those dubs get.

[Cipher]

I'm not.

I'm just not fascinated enough in the show as a cultural object to enter that wormhole. And frankly, I don't particularly care about any news regarding even the English dub I grew up with (FUNimation's) at this point. I'm interested in the story itself, and whatever behind-the-scenes details might affect its delivery (so, you know, production information on the anime is cool), but I can't say I share the fascination others do with following various aspects like its international history, all the various home-media releases other than the best ones available, etc.

It's cool that others do, but it's not my jam.

[Bansho64]

I'm usually interested in a lot of dubs. I've watched many clips and I like to judge each one I come across. The ones that actually attracted me in to learn the language are the TVB Cantonese dub and the LaTAM dub. I love the way the cantonese language sounds and spanish is very convenient for me to learn right now. Both are extremely accurate and both have a very well done cast. I'm kinda interested in the Thai one but it's not very liked by anyone except for a youtuber named Bruceleecollector77 who uploads short clips of it. When it actually comes down to it though, I'd probably choose cantonese with a bullet.

[Soppa Saia People]

Yeah, I love seeing different translation choices and how accurate or how nonsensical they can be.

[NitroEX]

I can't say I share your interest in international dubs outside of English but then again, I'm not a professionally trained actor nor am I multilingual so perhaps that's the reason for it. Outside of a mild curiosity for certain music choices (like the German SS2 scene) or script/name change I don't personally find much reason to explore that side of the franchise, however, as I have been picking up French in recent years I may eventually decide to watch a French version of the show and, who knows, that may one day lead to exploring more foreign dubs.

When it comes to English dubs of the franchise that's a subject I would say I'm quite passionate and knowledgeable about, I feel as though this was an inevitability for me though. Having grown up mainly in the UK, I got to see many different English versions of the series from Saban/Ocean to in-house Funi to Westwood/Ocean and Blue Water dubs. Just as the shows began to end in the UK I moved overseas for two years and got to rewatch parts of Z and GT, once again with the Funi in-house cast. It was also during this time that I got my first exposure to the DBZ movies (again, Funi in-house). Unfortunately I missed out on the UK TV premieres of the Big Green dubs during this time but thanks to the internet I eventually saw those too (although it doesn't look like I was missing much).

Since practically all of the alternate dubs I grew up with never saw DVD releases they were basically relegated to memories for a long time. Whilst many of my peers simply forgot about those dubs I felt compelled to hunt them down, and thankfully I eventually did. Rewatching those versions got me interested in finding out more about the actors themselves, the differences in productions (intros/endings, censorship, music, sound effects, script etc..) and, eventually, comparing them to the original Japanese version and seeing how things were translated.

I would say my interest in the dubs probably edges out my interest in the franchise and it's stories at this point. While I'm still a pretty big fan of the animation and visuals of the show I find that the stories seem to not hold up that well now that I'm older. I'm still in love with the show for nostalgic reasons but knowing a little bit about crafting stories, I can't help but be critical of it at times. Anyway, the thing that kept my interest peaked over the years was more so the dubs than anything else, especially with all those damned Ocean Kai rumours.

[smoothkaz]

I used to obsessively watch comparison videos on Youtube of Ocean vs Funimation (I always preferred Ocean, and still do overall) but I can still recall the names of almost every actor and actress in each dub. It's really fascinating to know the behind-the-scenes of the various adaptations and people's reception and fanaticism over it.

For years I would hear the Ocean voices in my head when I read the manga.

[sangofe]

I really like to compare different voices the different characters have in the many worldwide dubs.

[90sDBZ]

Outside of the various English dubs and the Japanese version I can't say that I pay much attention to other language versions. I suppose the fact that they're mostly direct translations of the original with the original music left intact kind of takes away any interest from me. The fact that the Funimation/Ocean dubs make various changes to the dialogue and use replacement scores makes them stand out as their own thing, whereas other language dubs just kinda make you feel like you might as well be watching the Japanese version. That's not to say that some of those other performances aren't great in their own right, it's just that I don't feel compelled to commit to watching those versions in full. I generally prefer to watch stuff in my own language, although I will check out the original versions too just cause they're the original.

The fact that I first watched the series on UK TV kind of forced me to draw comparisons between the various English dubs. The fact that we were forced to adjust to different dubs so often made me feel pretty strongly about the whole Funimation vs Ocean debate for a long time. My favourite was always Funimation, but I knew that there were always those who felt differently. I've always felt interested in discussing the subject, hearing the reasoning behind their preferences, seeing what we could agree and disagree on, and maybe even learning something new about the production of those other dubs. I'll also say that there are parts of the Ocean dub that I actually love, such as the Saban dub of the series, and the Pioneer dub of the movies. I enjoy comparing both English dubs from this part of the series because I can honestly say I can find positives in both.

[z_cherub]

Definitely interested from an informational standpoint, but I have no interest in actually watching anything but the original Japanese version.

[Wezenheim]

Of course! I think its interesting to look into how each dub handled translations and such. Little things like that are cool to me. I remember taking Italian classes a year ago and finding it really cool that they called Kuririn "Crillin" (at least I think thats what they went with, please correct me if I'm wrong) since if I remember correctly the letter K is never used much if at all in Italian. Its minor, but I was like "Ah, I see why they did that! Nice!"

Voice acting is also something I find to be really enjoyable, that's probably part of the reason why I never mind watching the Kai dub. I dunno if I'd invest money into that side of Dragon Ball (although I have considered it), but I'll definitely invest time when I get some.

[Lord Beerus]

With every new dub that Dragon Ball gets, a different approach or interpretation of the characters in the show are provided. I always find it quite intriguing seeing how different companies dub Dragon Ball, because you get a sense of how they view the show and how they think it should be translated to their specific audience for the to understand as well as enjoy.

[UltimateHammerBro]

I'm really interested in the matter. I absolutely love the world of voice acting, and Dragon Ball offers a great deal of insight into it.

In fact, I'd say that my love for voice acting and DB are strongly related. Quite a few years ago, I had nothing more than a passing knowledge about dubbing, but I liked Dragon Ball. Then I realised how many translation mistakes my country's dub contained, and I wanted to know how it had ended that way, so I started to do some research on the subject. On the process, as I learned more and more about dubbing and voice acting in general, I fell in love with it all, and only then I found out that the other dubs of the series offered a lot of insight into how the job is done in different countries, so I started reading about them too.

So I could say that Dragon Ball made me be interested in voice acting, which in turn led to my interest in its many dubs.

[floofychan333]

This is a general question, so feel free to be as general (or detailed) as you want.

Besides Japanese and English--which are probably the two most talked-about versions of Dragon Ball on this forum--all of the animes received a myriad of different dubs. Go on YouTube, and it won't take you long at all to find a ton of different multi-language comparison videos of the many different dubs that the Dragon Ball animes have had over the years. Sooo....generally speaking, what's your interest level in learning about the different dubs out there?

I can only speak for myself, but in my case, I absolutely friggin' LOVE learning about all the different dubs! I love learning about how they were done, when they were done, what sort of changes there were, watching interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the dubbing process...I love it all. It has gotten to the point that I now know the names (and voices) of a many dub cast members even though the dubs aren't in languages that I'm fluent in (Eric Legrand plays Vegeta in France, Tommy Morgenstern plays Goku in Germany--and sang a few of the dubbed songs--and Laura Torres plays Goku, Gohan, and Goten as children, just to name a few).

What about the rest of you? To what degree do you like learning, watching, and listening about the other dubs out there? To be clear, any answer is fine, and I assume many here will only be interested in one particular version, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just curious, really.

Yeah, I've always wanted to know about the foreign dubs, but I don't know much because they're almost nonexistent on the DB Wiki.

[Ree]

I am, i love seeing what intros they use and how well they sing it as well as other music choices and name changes.

[MCDaveG]

I was some years ago. Jumped into Daizenshuu's bandwagon of crazy geekiness and Star Wars approach to Dragon Ball,
so I've invested lot of time into the trivia and foreign dubs was one of the many challenges I had.
Nowadays, I only nostalgically feel somenthing for the German dub, which was the one I watched on television for years as a kid.

[Jaetinh]

I'm only interested in the Japanese and German versions. Good to see you know about Tommy Morgenstern, he's got the most badass voice for Goku.

[Captain Space]

I do have a fondness for basically any anime dubbed in (any variety of) Spanish. It's just a cool-sounding language for anime dialogue, for some reason. (My first viewing of Resurrection F was actually in Spanish.)