The Power of Nostalgia

[ABED]

Maybe it's because I've become much more reflective after turning 30, but does anyone else get really nostalgic about the old dubs from the 90s? I do even though I'm well aware, and was so even then, if the quality wasn't up to snuff. I read all about Dragon Ball Z and read Curtis Hoffmann's manga summaries, but I hadn't seen the entire series, so seeing even season 3 was a great time for me as a fan.

[Nejishiki]

I'm afraid not. When the English dub of Kai reached the point where the Goku and Freeza fight was near its conclusion, I decided to compare Funimation's last dubbing attempt of serialized Dragon Ball. Needless to say, I was less than satisfied with what I was hearing. I might be bit biased, seeing as I never enjoyed that version of the dub, but the difference in quality was truly distracting for myself.

[ekrolo2]

I barely remember what portion of the series I watched as a kid bar Goku vs Freeza and even less who voiced them so no nostalgia from me I'm afraid

I do occasionally check out the other stuff just to see how one actor compares to the other or how the main cast compares to their rookie days out of curiosity.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Of course, if a certain product (like an old dub) helped you to get into a series, especially when you were young you tend to look back at it fondly.

I'm only 24 but I have nostalgia for the original Dragon Ball Z dub, I acknowledge its flaws but I do rewatch an episode or two from time to time. I've watched Z in Japanese and the Kai dub since then, and there's no doubt in my mind both are superior products but because I got into Z (mostly through the Westwood dub) I can't completely abandon it because watching it brings back memories of when I was getting into the series.

I still have nostalgia for the 4Kids Yu-Gi-Oh dub even though I don't agree with the levels of censorship it had.

[Lord Beerus]

The dubs from the 90s were terrible and have aged awfully. Of course as a kid, I never really noticed how bad the acting the was, but after re-watching the show several times I got older, I would often recoil at certain moments in the dub of Dragon Ball, Z or GT because of how terrible they were in terms of writing and general performance. So, no. I have zero nostalgia for the old dubs from the 90s.

[SaiyanGod117]

The dubs from the 90s were terrible and have aged awfully. Of course as a kid, I never really noticed how bad the acting the was, but after re-watching the show several times I got older, I would often recoil at certain moments in the dub of Dragon Ball, Z or GT because of how terrible they were in terms of writing and general performance. So, no. I have zero nostalgia for the old dubs from the 90s.

I agree, its just impossible for me to go back to the Z dub,the acting is subpar, the script is too kid friendly, and it strips too much away from the characters personality and morphs some characters into something completely different. However there are few scenes I can watch in the Z dub which are undoubtedly better for instance, the Farther-Son, Goku and Vegeta going SSj2, Gohan going SSj2, it really mostly do to Bruce Falcouner.
But I've also noticed something about the voice acting in the movies its significantly better than voice acting in the anime. Especially during key scenes when their is a lot tension and struggle or just even talk among characters, I was wondering if other people notice this as well? I'm not talking about the early DBZ movies though just Movie 8 and onward.

[HybridSaiyan]

I must be the only one who doesn't have a problem with the 1990's Funi Dub xD

[Danfun64]

I never really saw Dragon Ball until the last couple years or so, so the only nostalgia I had was for the "Over 9000!" meme, Super Mario Bros Z... and *very* infrequently seeing commercials for Kai on Nicktoons.

...and when I actually started to see the series, it was Japanese with subs...so.......

[Boo Machine]

I have nostalgia for the old dub. The nostalgia might be the major reason I still even like it at all, considering how bad it is compared to Kai's dub, which I love.

So yes, I still look back on it fondly, horrible script and acting, and all.

No regrets.

[Ozotto]

Funi dub is amazing...

Top notch compared to other anime's made in the 90's.

Considering how much more technology has advanced for animation, there's no excuse why Super or Kai aren't far greater.

If you can't appreciate Faulconer's score, and the fact if it wasn't for the funi dub more than half of you wouldn't even know about DBZ or anime in general as it's influence is stretched far and wide and felt in all anime's.

People these days don't have a deep appreciation for the art... just look at the animation on the dragon boxes...

[Nejishiki]

I'm confused on your position? The Dragon Box footage is what the series is ideally supposed to look like, Kai had been an edited version of the original footage, and Super is using the technology of today in its production. I assume you have qualms with the main animator's designs like many do. I'm afraid you'll have to speak for yourself as well, for while I did buy the North American DVDs, I was introduced to Dragon Ball via subtitled tapes of the Freeza arc before seeking out the beginning of the series.

[Kamiccolo9]

Nostalgia is cancer to critical thinking.

That being said, I do have a fondness for some of the crazy lines in the old dub ("Thank you Goku I accept this bean without hesitation!")

[Metalwario64]

I too get very nostalgic for the old dubs. I started getting the Pioneer DVDs of the Ocean/Saban era episodes before the Rock the Dragon set was even announced, and I was starting to get the singles out of nostalgia (though I seem to have misplaced them, or lost them in a recent move), though I am okay with using the Orange Bricks for the English dub, because despite the various changes, it's mostly what I watched as a kid, especially past season 3.

In fact, due to their convenience and audio choices, I have been watching the Orange Bricks almost exclusively the past couple of years. I used to care for the picture quality, and of course I haven't forgotten their huge flaws in that department, but I'm at a point in my life where I've got lots of important things to worry about (which I was in a fortunate position to be able to avoid those worries as a young adult for the most part), and when I can pop a disc in and watch an episode in Japanese, and then watch a few dubbed episodes with Faulconer out of nostalgia, I really don't care about the picture quality anymore.

Of course, I do still wish there was a solid, standard release 4x3 aspect ratio version out there for fans who really do want, and deserve it.

Nostalgia is cancer to critical thinking.

It can be, but I'm pretty confident in my ability to separate liking things out of nostalgia, and for legitimate quality. More people need to stop being afraid to admit they like something just because it brings back good memories.

[Kamiccolo9]

Nostalgia is cancer to critical thinking.

It can be, but I'm pretty confident in my ability to separate liking things out of nostalgia, and for legitimate quality. More people need to stop being afraid to admit they like something just because it brings back good memories.

That's all well and good, but I don't see where I ever indicated that I was afraid to admit I liked anything.

[Metalwario64]

I wasn't at all referring to you. I was making a general statement about people who insist that something is good just because they watched it as a kid. You said that nostalgia is bad for critical thinking, and I was suggesting that it can be, but if one separates things they legitimately like, and things they like only like out of nostalgia, then there's no problem.

I mean that, instead of trying to convince themselves and others that it's definitely good, they shouldn't be afraid to admit when they like something just because it reminds them of their childhood. That's pretty much how I am with the old DIC Nintendo cartoons. I watch the Super Mario Super Show every once in a while, but I'm well aware that even in its day it was a very simple and flawed cartoon, but I love it to death because it brings back memories.

Of course, quality itself is entirely subjective, but that's just my take on things.

[Kamiccolo9]

I wasn't at all referring to you. I was making a general statement about people who insist that something is good just because they watched it as a kid. I'm saying that instead of trying to convince themselves and others that it's definitely good, they shouldn't be afraid to admit when they like something just because it reminds them of their childhood. That's pretty much how I am with the old DIC Nintendo cartoons. I watch the Super Mario Super Show every once in a while, but I'm well aware that even in its day it was a very simple and flawed cartoon, but I love it to death because it brings back memories.

Of course, quality itself is entirely subjective, but that's just my take on things.

Oh, ok, my mistake.

The equivalent in my case are the old dubs of the Showa Godzilla movies. They are all terrible and cheesy, but sooooo much fun.

[ABED]

Nostalgia is cancer to critical thinking.

That being said, I do have a fondness for some of the crazy lines in the old dub ("Thank you Goku I accept this bean without hesitation!")

It's an emotional response. As long as you're cognizant of that, I see no issue.

[Soppa Saia People]

Ah the power of nostalgia, make a one man weep, make another man sing.
Anyway, while I'm fairly new to Dragon Ball, I've only been watching/reading since 2011, that being said, I have a lot of nostalgia for the opening of Funi's Dragon Ball dub, and of course this
[spoiler][/spoiler]
In fact have a lot nostalgia for the first 13 episodes of the dub.

[Kunzait_83]

Nostalgia is cancer to critical thinking.

This. So very, very much this.

There's way, way, way too much I could say about this, but I'll abstain for now. Short and simple though: nostalgia has been an ever present and ever increasingly worrying recurring theme throughout geek culture in particular for the last decade+ or so now. It seems to always be at the root center of why a lot of people have the vested interest and passion they have in various properties and what keeps a lot of those properties alive and viable well past the point of reason.

The problem is that a lot of people it seems AREN'T cognizant of how disconnected the emotion is from their critical faculties and more times than not nostalgia is used in lieu of an actual reasoned argument or rationale for why a given work holds any value. This has the unfortunate side effect of causing a lot of, what I would argue is, moronic garbage that almost no one gave a shit about back in its day to become retroactively hoisted up as "classic" and given an undue and undeserved level of cultural weight and credence, oftentimes at the expense of vastly more important and worthwhile subjects.

Some people are thoughtful enough to understand that nostalgia is a raw, visceral emotion and to separate it from objectivity. A worryingly large number of people it seems in particular today don't bother to though and operate purely off of that emotion unchecked. In cases of the latter, this very often has incredibly damaging consequences for how a person views and appreciates art or media in general.

Blind nostalgia without critical thought carries the consequence of horrifically stunting a person's overall creative sensibilities, their general tastes, how they emotionally & intellectually engage with things, and can lead to their viewing art and media through a regressive, debasing lens where its seen not as something that can enrich, educate, expand, and entertain, but rather as a vicarious mental time machine to transport them back to reliving their earliest childhood years (i.e. the years where one is the most ignorant and uninformed about the world around them) over and over again. Nostalgia can all too easily turn into a mental barrier and shackle that removes from a person the desire to truly explore new and exciting horizons.

Nostalgia, at its worst and most extreme, can turn into a mental blinder and an indicator that one desperately wishes to check out of and unplug from the world entirely. A desperate yearning to surround oneself only with totems that can help one to feel regressed back to their most larval period of time as a person, before they had developed any real understanding or intelligence. A person's relationship with nostalgia can say an awful LOT about them: about how they feel about their own present day existence, about how much or how little they really think of the value of art and culture, about how they truly feel about personal growth and development, etc.

Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone of course, as EVERYONE at various points in their lives are apt to feel nostalgia for something at some point or another. We're all human and its a perfectly human emotion. The key is to not become RULED OVER entirely by that emotion and allow one's yearning for "a simpler time" or what have you to become a corrosive thought-virus and cloud their view of how very, very much a more informed, educated, and broader palette has to offer for them.

Feeling nostalgia once every so often is perfectly normal and even healthy at times, in moderation: becoming a prisoner and slave to it however is incredibly self-destructive to one's mental and emotional growth as a person.

And tragically, that seems to be a specific pitfall that an ever and ever more larger subset of geek culture in the 21st century has been succumbing to.

[ABED]

Blind nostalgia without critical thought carries the consequence of horrifically stunting a person's overall creative sensibilities, their general tastes, how they emotionally & intellectually engage with things, and can lead to their viewing art and media through a regressive, debasing lens where its seen not as something that can enrich, educate, expand, and entertain, but rather as a vicarious mental time machine to transport them back to reliving their earliest childhood years (i.e. the years where one is the most ignorant and uninformed about the world around them) over and over again. Nostalgia can all too easily turn into a mental barrier and shackle that removes from a person the desire to truly explore new and exciting horizons.

Nostalgia, at its worst and most extreme, can turn into a mental blinder and an indicator that one desperately wishes to check out of and unplug from the world entirely. A desperate yearning to surround oneself only with totems that can help one to feel regressed back to their most larval period of time as a person, before they had developed any real understanding or intelligence. A person's relationship with nostalgia can say an awful LOT about them: about how they feel about their own present day existence, about how much or how little they really think of the value of art and culture, about how they truly feel about personal growth and development, etc.

I think you are blowing this way out of proportion. I wouldn't call that nostalgia as much as fearing the future.