"Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters" FUNimation English Dub Official Announcement and Discussion Thread

[sintzu]

When did we have the first mention of the Buu arc of Kai? Was Battle of Gods in production at that point? If so, they might have just had him work on both from the beginning.

December 2012 while BOG was announced earlier and according to Toriyama went into development in 2011.

[Nejishiki]

I wonder if "TFC" was originally going to be scored by Sumitomo when they first started working on it, or if they just brought him on after hiring him for Battle of Gods? When did we have the first mention of the Buu arc of Kai? Was Battle of Gods in production at that point? If so, they might have just had him work on both from the beginning.

Dragon Ball Kai The Final Chapters was formally announced February 2014. At that point, the 2013 Dragon Ball Z movie was released for home media September 2013.

[Scsigs]

The music placement is so shitty too. Both the Faulconer and Kikuchi scores did much better jobs with these scenes.

I wonder if "TFC" was originally going to be scored by Sumitomo when they first started working on it, or if they just brought him on after hiring him for Battle of Gods? When did we have the first mention of the Buu arc of Kai? Was Battle of Gods in production at that point? If so, they might have just had him work on both from the beginning.

They probably should have just reused the Kikichi score again for TFC, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't originally plan to do so, considering how cheaply TFC was made. Ideally, they would have digitized more Buu arc pieces and given the score a wider selection of tracks to choose from, but even then who know how the placement would have been (it could have been more slipshod than the first Kai).

We first got word of TFC in late Summer 2013, if I'm remembering correctly. Battle of Gods came out earlier in the year & Resurrection F was starting to be planned out. Remember, the dub came out over a year late due to Fox's bullshit holding FUNi back for a year from dubbing it.

[Nejishiki]

It was informally revealed (via voice recording) around November 2012. The 2013 movie itself was first officially teased in a July 2012 issue of Weekly Shounen Jump.

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

The music placement is so shitty too. Both the Faulconer and Kikuchi scores did much better jobs with these scenes.

I wonder if "TFC" was originally going to be scored by Sumitomo when they first started working on it, or if they just brought him on after hiring him for Battle of Gods? When did we have the first mention of the Buu arc of Kai? Was Battle of Gods in production at that point? If so, they might have just had him work on both from the beginning.

They probably should have just reused the Kikichi score again for TFC, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't originally plan to do so, considering how cheaply TFC was made. Ideally, they would have digitized more Buu arc pieces and given the score a wider selection of tracks to choose from, but even then who know how the placement would have been (it could have been more slipshod than the first Kai).

We first got word of TFC in late Summer 2013, if I'm remembering correctly. Battle of Gods came out earlier in the year & Resurrection F was starting to be planned out. Remember, the dub came out over a year late due to Fox's bullshit holding FUNi back for a year from dubbing it.

Resurrection F didn't start production until 2014

[Scsigs]

I wonder if "TFC" was originally going to be scored by Sumitomo when they first started working on it, or if they just brought him on after hiring him for Battle of Gods? When did we have the first mention of the Buu arc of Kai? Was Battle of Gods in production at that point? If so, they might have just had him work on both from the beginning.

They probably should have just reused the Kikichi score again for TFC, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't originally plan to do so, considering how cheaply TFC was made. Ideally, they would have digitized more Buu arc pieces and given the score a wider selection of tracks to choose from, but even then who know how the placement would have been (it could have been more slipshod than the first Kai).

We first got word of TFC in late Summer 2013, if I'm remembering correctly. Battle of Gods came out earlier in the year & Resurrection F was starting to be planned out. Remember, the dub came out over a year late due to Fox's bullshit holding FUNi back for a year from dubbing it.

Resurrection F didn't start production until 2014

I said "starting to be planned out," as in preproduction work. After the success of Battle of Gods, I imagine Toriyama got a call from Toei asking if he had anymore plans for DB material & he started coming up with ideas. Plus he stated Resurrection F was something he'd wanted to do in the original manga, but didn't, if I recall correctly. I assume even Japanese films & such get prep time too.

[Scsigs]

It's weird - while the acting is much better and there's less corny joke and wild rewrites, I feel like there's a lot of spots were the original dub dialogue was actually better - particularly the Goku and Majin Vegeta confrontation. I think the problem is the Buu saga dub was decently accurate as it was, and whoever is in charge of the script wants to avoid rehashing lines, so you get some unnecessary rewrites where the original dub was closer to the JP version.

I've noticed the same thing.

I'm not a fan of McFarlane's Roshi here though. His lines seem too punched up, as well as his delivery. When Goku is about to show off Super Saiyan 3, when Roshi says "Wow! you've been busy!", bothers me, because not only is the line not really at all reminiscent of the Japanese line, but he sounds so over the top when he says it. His Roshi in the prior dub of Kai could tone that down and sound serious (even if he wasn't the best fit for the role).

I noticed little things like that even before TFC. While the first 3 arcs of Kai are reasonably well-translated & expertly scripted for the most part, some things leave it to be desired. My main example being Gohan saying "hi, dad" in the Kai dub, when it was just "father" in both Japanese & the Z dub! it makes me cringe every time because Nodolny delivered it really well, since it was one of her final episodes as English Gohan, & I was expecting Clinkenbeard to say it too, but it was changed for NO reason whatsoever. It doesn't even make sense in the context of the scene either, since Gohan was seeing a vision of Goku, it made perfect sense for him to just say "father." "Hi, dad" doesn't make any sense. It's not even a lip flap problem either, since there are 2 syllables in the Japanese version. Clinkenbeard's delivery is also not that good either, since it's a moment where Gohan, most likely, wouldn't be talking too loud, hence why Krillin was the only one reacting to him saying it, but she says it as if he's just about to talk normally. I don't know.
The only place where I noticed any real differences between the dubs in terms of scripting the translation is where Mr. Satan was telling Bee to be quiet &, in the Japanese version, he snaps at him for a second & says he'd turn him into a hot dog. That line was kept in Z, but changed for not good reason at all in TFC, which makes it feel like, while they're correcting the sins of the past, they also needlessly changed things that were just fine in Z's dub script for no other reason than to do so. Ether that, or the script writers didn't think they were good enough already, so they decided to change it.
I still love this dub & highly recommend it over Z's any day of the week, but little things like that make me question the logic behind it a bit.

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

We first got word of TFC in late Summer 2013, if I'm remembering correctly. Battle of Gods came out earlier in the year & Resurrection F was starting to be planned out. Remember, the dub came out over a year late due to Fox's bullshit holding FUNi back for a year from dubbing it.

Resurrection F didn't start production until 2014

I said "starting to be planned out," as in preproduction work. After the success of Battle of Gods, I imagine Toriyama got a call from Toei asking if he had anymore plans for DB material & he started coming up with ideas. Plus he stated Resurrection F was something he'd wanted to do in the original manga, but didn't, if I recall correctly. I assume even Japanese films & such get prep time too.

Toei's films take a year to make usually so pre-production probably also took place in 2014

[Metalwario64]

according to Toriyama went into development in 2011.

I see. Then Sumitomo was probably working on TFC from the very onset then.

[veggiechan]

It's weird - while the acting is much better and there's less corny joke and wild rewrites, I feel like there's a lot of spots were the original dub dialogue was actually better - particularly the Goku and Majin Vegeta confrontation. I think the problem is the Buu saga dub was decently accurate as it was, and whoever is in charge of the script wants to avoid rehashing lines, so you get some unnecessary rewrites where the original dub was closer to the JP version.

I've noticed the same thing.

I'm not a fan of McFarlane's Roshi here though. His lines seem too punched up, as well as his delivery. When Goku is about to show off Super Saiyan 3, when Roshi says "Wow! you've been busy!", bothers me, because not only is the line not really at all reminiscent of the Japanese line, but he sounds so over the top when he says it. His Roshi in the prior dub of Kai could tone that down and sound serious (even if he wasn't the best fit for the role).

I noticed little things like that even before TFC. While the first 3 arcs of Kai are reasonably well-translated & expertly scripted for the most part, some things leave it to be desired. My main example being Gohan saying "hi, dad" in the Kai dub, when it was just "father" in both Japanese & the Z dub! it makes me cringe every time because Nodolny delivered it really well, since it was one of her final episodes as English Gohan, & I was expecting Clinkenbeard to say it too, but it was changed for NO reason whatsoever. It doesn't even make sense in the context of the scene either, since Gohan was seeing a vision of Goku, it made perfect sense for him to just say "father." "Hi, dad" doesn't make any sense. It's not even a lip flap problem either, since there are 2 syllables in the Japanese version. Clinkenbeard's delivery is also not that good either, since it's a moment where Gohan, most likely, wouldn't be talking too loud, hence why Krillin was the only one reacting to him saying it, but she says it as if he's just about to talk normally. I don't know.
The only place where I noticed any real differences between the dubs in terms of scripting the translation is where Mr. Satan was telling Bee to be quiet &, in the Japanese version, he snaps at him for a second & says he'd turn him into a hot dog. That line was kept in Z, but changed for not good reason at all in TFC, which makes it feel like, while they're correcting the sins of the past, they also needlessly changed things that were just fine in Z's dub script for no other reason than to do so. Ether that, or the script writers didn't think they were good enough already, so they decided to change it.
I still love this dub & highly recommend it over Z's any day of the week, but little things like that make me question the logic behind it a bit.

Yeah, this dub of TFC seems kind of inconsistent. For instance they even decide to keep the Z line "I'll cut you down inch by inch the same way you cut down my pride", which according to the Japanese subtitles of Z was more like "I'll put you to death, starting with cutting off your arms". Hell, they even let Vegeta call Goku a clown again like it's 2003. But meanwhile they oddly changed some of the accurately dubbed lines from Z for the sake of change like they're embarrassed the old dub even exists lol. Personally I'm still a bigger fan of the Z dub for the scene where Majin Vegeta overrides Babidi's attempt at mind control to get him to kill Kaioshin

[Metalwario64]

Hell, they even let Vegeta call Goku a clown again like it's 2003.

That really surprises me, and it baffles the mind as well, since they're going out of their way to replace the old dub lines, and that "cut you down inch by inch" is exactly the same line.

At least we got an accurately translated version of my favorite Majin Vegeta line "I'm not going to Hell by myself!" when he gets ready to fight Buu. I always loved Horikawa's delivery of that line, and it's really awesome to hear Sabat do the English translation of it.

[sintzu]

Hell, they even let Vegeta call Goku a clown again like it's 2003.

That really surprises me, and it baffles the mind as well, since they're going out of their way to replace the old dub lines, and that "cut you down inch by inch" is exactly the same line.

They might've left it in as an homage to the original or maybe they just liked it so they decided to keep it.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Yeah they brought clown back again in Super, it is the only thing I don't like about these dubs, it just sounds so corny.

Anyway, I can see why Toriyama made the Majin Vegeta the way he did, it is easily the least interesting thing in those episodes and every-time the anime cut back I was like oh it is not over yet, like how Toei extended Vegetto stuff this fight got boring fast especially with the hindsight of SS3, after a few scuffs the fight just lost all hype to me.

[sintzu]

Yeah they brought clown back again in Super, it is the only thing I don't like about these dubs, it just sounds so corny.

Anyway, I can see why Toriyama made the Majin Vegeta the way he did, it is easily the least interesting thing in those episodes and every-time the anime cut back I was like oh it is not over yet, like how Toei extended Vegetto stuff this fight got boring fast especially with the hindsight of SS3, after a few scuffs the fight just lost all hype to me.

It's one of my best fights in the franchise. If you're going to have a rematch between these 2 then this is how to do it. They could've made it short like the manga or long without much effort but they really went all out with it.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Yeah they brought clown back again in Super, it is the only thing I don't like about these dubs, it just sounds so corny.

Anyway, I can see why Toriyama made the Majin Vegeta the way he did, it is easily the least interesting thing in those episodes and every-time the anime cut back I was like oh it is not over yet, like how Toei extended Vegetto stuff this fight got boring fast especially with the hindsight of SS3, after a few scuffs the fight just lost all hype to me.

It's one of my best fights in the franchise. If you're going to have a rematch between these 2 then this is how to do it. They could've made it short like the manga or long without much effort but they really went all out with it.

I dunno it got stale pretty quick, they scuffed for a bit, talked scuffed for a bit, talked, scuffed for a bit talked and towards the end the animation just goes wonky. I actually think it is one of the most underwhelming fights in the series, doesn't hold much to their first fight.

[sintzu]

Doesn't hold much to their first fight.

Do you mean the entire fight till Vegeta leaves earth or till he loses the Kamehame clash ?

[Bansho64]

I think I talked about this a while back, but I thought I might bring it up again;
What would y'all think of the last couple of FUNi Blurays being fitted to Kai TFC? Personally, I think it'd be a step up compared to the footage we got now. And those last couple of Z Blurays are honestly pretty good looking IMO.

[jjgp1112]

Another weird change was the iconic, "You may have invaded my mind and my body, but there's one thing a Saiyan always keeps..." which was the same as the Japanese line, but more expressive and snappier. In Kai it's something like, "There's something in me you'll never control, I carry the pride of a PRINCE!" It's more or less the same meaning so it's not a radical rewrite or anything, but I dunno. I suppose the line is so closely associated with the old dub that they didn't want to just reuse it but I mean shit, it was an accurate line!

[Dbzfan94]

Another weird change was the iconic, "You may have invaded my mind and my body, but there's one thing a Saiyan always keeps..." which was the same as the Japanese line, but more expressive and snappier. In Kai it's something like, "There's something in me you'll never control, I carry the pride of a PRINCE!" It's more or less the same meaning so it's not a radical rewrite or anything, but I dunno. I suppose the line is so closely associated with the old dub that they didn't want to just reuse it but I mean shit, it was an accurate line!

Yeah, the Kai one just didn't sound as right. they don't have a problem reusing some lines, (Hell, the final Gohan vs Cell clash was pretty much word for word the same as the Z dub) but yet they change it for some places where it actually was accurate.

[sintzu]

They don't have a problem reusing some lines, (Hell, the final Gohan vs Cell clash was pretty much word for word the same as the Z dub) but yet they change it for some places where it actually was accurate.

They had years to work on this compared to the original so that might have something to do with it.