Reasons For FUNi's Change of DBZ Dub BGM?

Synapse · Post by **Synapse** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:40 pm

If I'm wrong, let me know, but basically, the Japanese BGM is in many ways synced with what happens. A lot of times, when they cut to a scene, the music would start or change right on cue.

Since the US (most likely) edited the series more heavily than any other country, it would be hard for them to use the same music since they cut out scenes where it would be right in the middle of playing. With this in mind, they decided to make their own music so it would be in sync with what was going on, rather than risk inconsistency between the music and video. Just a guess, though.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:47 pm

No, they've pretty much flat-out said that they didn't want to have to pay the royalties on it

.

Synapse · Post by **Synapse** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:03 pm

ROFL, so much for that.

They really said that? I keep hearing that people have no idea why they did it.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:08 pm

Synapse wrote:ROFL, so much for that.

They really said that? I keep hearing that people have no idea why they did it.

I mean, sure... we can infer a whole bunch of other reasons on their behalf, many of them probably true. It's obvious from the way they market the show and talk to their fans that they're after the "young" and "hip" crowd with the show, so they wander aimlessly through their musical choices (Faulconer --> "real American bands" --> Menza --> cheapest in-house) to try and keep up with these people.

Synapse · Post by **Synapse** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:16 pm

Yeah, true. I guess most of their target audience wouldn't dig the Japanese BGM too much.

TriforceCaptre · Post by **TriforceCaptre** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:19 pm

Synapse wrote:Yeah, true. I guess most of their target audience wouldn't dig the Japanese BGM too much.

I don't think I totally agree with that. I just finished watching the first season (I know, I know. Sorry) with my 10 year old nephew. Since he wouldn't be able to keep up with the subtitles I'd play the English language with the Japanese music and a few times he’d say he liked the music.

Thanos · Post by **Thanos** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:32 pm

What Mike said, and in addition, notice the music in Dragon Ball wasn't changed. It's because they were playing it off like it was classic, oldschool anime (DBZ is too, but FUNi has an unhealthy obsession with changing that).

TheJoo87 · Post by **TheJoo87** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:18 pm

I just wanted to add on that as other's said the music was left the same for Dragonball yet Z was changed because of their "unhealthy" methods.

Also notice how they changed the music for GT man that score was even worse than the score for Z. What was really annoying is I thought GT had the best Backround music of all three series.

kenisu3000 · Post by **kenisu3000** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:21 am

Synapse wrote:A lot of times, when they cut to a scene, the music would start or change right on cue.

Actually, the dub does that too, but seemingly only when it calls for continuous music. I remember in the Trunks arc, when everyone senses King Cold and Freeza coming, the scene switches between the different areas the heroes are at, as they make their comments on the horrifyingly huge kis. In the dub, the music changes at every switch, most notably at the switch to Kaio's planet, where it plays Faulconer's usual "King Kai" music. In the Japanese version, however, the awesome music from the opening scene in DragonBall movie 3 (Mystical Adventure) begins when Kuririn calls Gohan on the phone, and continues throughout the whole scene until the "bakattare" joke.

Taku128 · Post by **Taku128** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:35 am

You also have to remember that when they first started dubbing the series, it was their second anime dub ever, the first of which only lasted thirteen episodes (Dragon Ball). They weren't a very big company back then, so I'm sure they wanted to cut back on costs as much as possible while still having a satisfactory product, or at least what they thought was satisfactory. That and appeal to the kiddies back then with their hip music like Rock the Dragon.

Acid_Reign · Post by **Acid_Reign** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:27 am

Taku128 wrote:You also have to remember that when they first started dubbing the series, it was their second anime dub ever, the first of which only lasted thirteen episodes (Dragon Ball). They weren't a very big company back then, so I'm sure they wanted to cut back on costs as much as possible while still having a satisfactory product, or at least what they thought was satisfactory. That and appeal to the kiddies back then with their hip music like Rock the Dragon.

Very true. And, as I'll admit with only slight reservation, at the age that I was introduced to Dragon Ball Z, I really digged "Rock the Dragon." This was naturally before I knew anything about the original; I just assumed that that was the theme song for the show. Though I wouldn't support the change now, I can why they made it: Japanese cartoons were still very obscure to American audiences at that time, and likewise a song composed in '89 wouldn't "fly" quite so well being introduced in '96. It was a gamble, and so despite being a [not-so] creative change, it's not a stretch to say that it contributed to its success and recognition overseas.

Synapse · Post by **Synapse** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:54 pm

Hmmm...well if FUNi didn't want to bother with royalties, how come Bridge and Blue Water did? Weren't they just as small as FUNi at one point?

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:27 am

Blue Water is only a dubbing studio. They got the order to dub something and nothing else.

Bridge had a big "partner" – AB – which licensed the whole stuff YEARS ago.

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:02 pm

Synapse wrote:Yeah, true. I guess most of their target audience wouldn't dig the Japanese BGM too much.

The ones mostlikely buying the season sets are going to be the ones familiar with the japanese audio. I dont think the dub only fans would be interested.

Conan the SSJ · Post by **Conan the SSJ** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:52 pm

Sun_Wukong wrote:The ones mostlikely buying the season sets are going to be the ones familiar with the japanese audio. I dont think the dub only fans would be interested.

See, a nice perk I like about season 1, its default viewing track is the dub w/t Japanese music. So perhaps pure dubbies could get into it by either curiosity or just pure chance. Nathan Johnson's music score has barely any consistency and real effort put into it, the Japanese score is at least much more epic and grand. A reason why I really started to like Faulconer, he showed a somewhat consistency in how he would score the series, using specific pieces of music for moments of the dub where it was just right for it. Nathan Johnson was just...horrifying defined. Don't believe me, pop in the redubs of DBZ movies 2 and 3 (BLAG!!), DBZ movie 13, and frankly any season 1/2 redub episode. DBZ movie 12 was really the only occasion I noticed him putting actual effort into his work. >_>

Kanzenshuu

Reasons For FUNi's Change of DBZ Dub BGM?

Reasons For FUNi's Change of DBZ Dub BGM?

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