Other then character names, this dub's really not that bad.

[Rocketman]

"Giru" sounds like a pun on "Gear"

I don't know about that... "Giru" / "gia"?

I meant to the US audience.

[FindKenshi]

Well this spun wildly off topic pretty quickly. I was hoping we could just focus on discussing the greatness of the Malaysian English Dub. I mean my first impression of this dub was to explode with laughter.. but now I can't get enough of it.

[NeptuneKai]

Well this spun wildly off topic pretty quickly. I was hoping we could just focus on discussing the greatness of the Malaysian English Dub. I mean my first impression of this dub was to explode with laughter.. but now I can't get enough of it.

I think they try to fit too much dialogue in the mouth flaps. They refuse to rephrase thus everyone has to talk super quickly.

[Super Sonic]

Well thank God they didn't. It's just saying that them making it Bulla is not as bad as if they completely changed it,

You have a point there, at least when they make name changes they don't westernize it completely. Like calling Mr.Satan "Bob" or Bra "Jessica". Like a certain Sailor Moon dub I know. So it could be worse, it doesn't bug me that much though because I don't watch the dub. But name changes don't generally bug me to begin with.

They kept the pun though with the main character. And most of the girls' names were close to their Japanese names.

[TheGreatness25]

Damn...that was a show that was around a LONG time ago. Brings me back to the good old days. Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and Reboot on Toonami. Ah yes, the memories. Reboot...hey that was a damn good show.

[Adamant]

The name might originate from the English word "bloomers"

It definitely does.

Sorry, I'm tired and phrased that a bit wrong. The word originates from the English word "bloomers", yes, but "burumā" aren't bloomers, and Bulma's name would not be interpreted by the Japanese as a pun on what English-speaking folks know as bloomers. Likewise, the there's no English word for burumā (I've seen them called "gym shorts" in some subs, but that's a rather broad description), nor are the existance of the item very known of in English-speaking countries, making the actual pun somewhat hard to understand for your average dub-watcher. "It's a pun on a word that doesn't exist in English that describes an item you've never heard of" isn't really going to make them much wiser.

There.

[Vekurotto]

The Malaysian dub would be good if I couldn't stop laughing at it. Everything they say is done in such a ridiculous manner than it's hard to watch it seriously. The translations are accurate too but it has this feeling that I'm listening to a child making fun of Asian people. So other than that they use a direct translation and that they use the original music, it's not that much special. It's more like comedic value to me.

Honestly, lets say you're an 11 year old watching DBZ and your mom's in the room and Bra's name comes up. Wouldn't that be embarrassing. And think about the parent's opinion on DBZ. Just perverted smut. I like that her name's not Bra, but Bulla sounds...weird.

Well, Hanna Montana on the Disney Channel is full of underwear jokes and the target audience for that show is about 6-13 or so. So I don't think that'll be a big deal at least since figgin Disney allows Miley Cyrus to run around with her bra outside of her shirt for more than one episode. But what they could have done was change it for the "Uncut" English like how they did Mr. Satan's name. But can't complain I don't watch the dub or GT

[TheGreatness25]

When I got my first Dragon Ball GT DVD (I got the first Lost Episode DVD as the first DVD I got when I started collecting the series) and I specifically looked out for if they'd call her Bra or Bulla in the uncut dub version. Well they called her Bulla. Really though, I think her name is mentioned like 4 times in the entire series, so it's not that big of a deal lol Her name is never mentioned in DBZ, funny enough. At least I don't think. I don't think she has a speaking line in DBZ, just walks with Vegeta's family and sits with the gang to watch the tournament.

[Vekurotto]

^ Oh yeah I know it's not a big deal at all kinda like the Seipa/Fasha thing goin' on in BT3. Her name was never mentioned in the Bardock Special so I could really care less. I like the Japanese version better, I like the Dragonboxes better than Funi's releases, but I'm not a purist to the truest sense of the word. It's just some name changes bother me more than others though like Shenron, Mr. Satan's dub name(since the filter won't let me spell it), Vegito, Fri-eza for example. Buu/Boo, Cooler/Coola, Broly/Broli/Brolly, Bebi/Baby, its all the same to me there. Bulla's just that middle of the ground type name that I don't like but don't hate either since as mentioned, her name isn't that big of a deal anyway.

[Super Sonic]

Actually to be honest, since I never watched a lot of GT, I've never heard her name spoken. (Neither Japanese or dub of Z refers to her by name).

[TheGreatness25]

Two times I know her name was mentioned was in the first or second episode of GT where they're building the space ship and Gohan asks where Bulla is and Videl tells him she's with "her father".

Another time is when she and Vegeta are in the car and are attacked by Baby Gohan (I acutally like this scene). Vegeta says, "Go home Bulla."

Other than that, I really honest to God can't think of a time where her name was spoken.

No names other than a few were changed, just the spelling. But lets be honest, you can't really say that the spelling is wrong. When it's in Japanese letters, the characters are totally different, so translating it into English requires a totally different alphabet. The translations that most people are used to are the fansub translations. The only true way to spell the characters' names is to just sound it out. The US version did that, but I'll take those as the official, because those are the ones that are released, whereas most people still like the fansub translations. I think that since the official Japanese subtitles on the DVDs spell names differently, those are the real Japanese spellings I guess. The subtitles spell Goku, Vegeta, etc normally. Changes are Kuririn, Vegetto (I think), Shenlong, Polunga, Kabit, Kakarrot (2 Rs as opposed to one), etc.

[FindKenshi]

You know, it's not her name being changed from Bra that bugs me. It's just the name they gave her.. Bulla.. is one of the lamest sounding excuses for a 'name' I can imagine. Heh, that's my only gripe with it it.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

I know that, I'm just saying that if you can accept the "Bulma" spelling even though it's based on the word "bloomers", the "Bulla" spelling is a possibility as well.

I never understood the controversy with people hating 'Bulma' when...well, look at the original artwork for the very first chapter of Dragonball.

See what it says on her shirt?

SEE THAT IT IS LIKE THIS IN THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE VERSION?

It does indeed say Bulma. Whether the pun was from bloomers or not, her name was indeed listed by Toriyama-Sensei himself as 'Bulma'. Just like how Kuririn, even though the 'kuri' comes from chestnut, was written as 'Kulilin' on his hat in the beginning of the Freeza Saga. Etc. Bulma is not the direct pun, no, but it is how her name was written by the creator himself in the very first chapter. It's not 'wrong' when you consider that, even if it doesn't really convey the pun on 'bloomers'.

[TheGreatness25]

In an episode when Cell is destroying islands looking for Android 18, some guy is wearing a shirt that says "Super SAIYAN".

[Li'l Lemmy]

It does indeed say Bulma. Whether the pun was from bloomers or not, her name was indeed listed by Toriyama-Sensei himself as 'Bulma'. Just like how Kuririn, even though the 'kuri' comes from chestnut, was written as 'Kulilin' on his hat in the beginning of the Freeza Saga. Etc. Bulma is not the direct pun, no, but it is how her name was written by the creator himself in the very first chapter. It's not 'wrong' when you consider that, even if it doesn't really convey the pun on 'bloomers'.

Weren't we discussing this one on the phone some night during DBR Week?

Seems that we have two extremes of fans in DBZ Land where character names are concerned; those who worship the dub to the point of complete ignorance (and sometimes unintentional disrespect) toward the Japanese version, and those who try so hard to remove association from the dub and adhere to the original that they sometimes don't acknowledge common sense.

I've actually had this discussion with people before-- people who say Buruma and argue that "Bulma" is a dub-centricity or otherwise elsehow unjustified-- and by the time I'll get around to mentioning the manga, they'll usually say that an "Engrish" approximation by the Japanese creator like "Bulma" simply does not count. And yet some of these same people will embrace terms like Gokuu and Gokou that show up at various points in the series and use their appearance as a reason to blurt them "officially". Ah, well.

Myself, I say Bulma.

In an episode when Cell is destroying islands looking for Android 18, some guy is wearing a shirt that says "Super SAIYAN".

And in those weird, florescent-yellow letters, no less! This being drawn into the original show is funny to me for the reason that it earns a strange counterpart of sorts when dub Majin Boo questioningly utters "Super . . . Saiya-jin?" and made us all go WTF?!


~Da Lemmy

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

This being drawn into the original show is funny to me for the reason that it earns a strange counterpart of sorts when dub Majin Boo questioningly utters "Super . . . Saiya-jin?" and made us all go WTF?!

...Wait what? I do not remember this. Then again I've never seen any of the Buu Saga dubbed beyond like, 2 or 3 episodes in the Budoukai.

As far as a shirt saying Saiyan, I wouldn't consider that necessarily as having anything to do with the dub, especially since it likely came before the dub was around...Saiyan WOULD be the more authentic spelling of the word, just...not pronounced the way FUNi says it.

[NeptuneKai]

And most of the girls' names were close to their Japanese names.

lol wut?


Usagi-Serena
Makoto Kino-Lita
Haruka-Amara
Michiru-Michelle
Sestsuna-Trista
Mamoru-Darien
Chibiusa-Rini


The only girls that sort of had there name kept in tact were Ami and Rei and even then they spelled it to look like a western name (Amy and Raye)

[Li'l Lemmy]

...Wait what? I do not remember this. Then again I've never seen any of the Buu Saga dubbed beyond like, 2 or 3 episodes in the Budoukai.

If you didn't watch any of the dubbed Boo episodes past the Tenkaichi Budokai, then no; you'd have never seen it. We're talking waaaaaaay, way down the line during Goku's first SSJ3 transformation on earth.

00:20 of this clip. It's . . . surreal, kid.

Nowhere else in the dub is this replicated. Nowhere. The thing is, it's really just that the dub had no "choice"-- by this point in the series, the writers were putting considerably more effort into staying somewhat truthful to the original script (which of course calls for the same line, here), and FUNimation has always been so shamelessly anal about following the "mouth flaps" for character dialogue no matter what. I'd imagine that there was a fair bit of discussion about how to somehow get around this, but probably no other dialogue ("nonsense" or otherwise) would have worked for a scene as strict as this one, so . . . there we go. Weird, huh?

What's truly hilarious is that Boo comes up with it all on his own, since Schemmel didn't (and never does) bother with the jin at all. I mean, really! Boo could have probably said "A Su . . . per Saiyan?"


~Da Lemmy

[TheGreatness25]

Actually, I put the US subtitles on for that line, and it reads, "Saiya-yin?"

To be honest, I see the term "Saiyan" as true to the original. We already know that Saiya-Jin means the the people of Saiyan. Well Russian means people of Russia right? So to say "people of Saiya" in the English language, would be "Saiyan". Also, there is an episode where Cell is destroying the islands looking for 18, where someone's shirt reads "Super Saiyan".

But that's not really the first time where they show a bit of homage to the Japanese version. On Name, when Goku is about to power up his Spirit Bomb, Gohan calls it "energy ball" which I believe is the direct translation of Genki Dama, isn't it? I saw it in a fansub of the Android 13 movie, where it was called Energy Ball and I thought it was a bit...weak sounding.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Actually, I put the US subtitles on for that line, and it reads, "Saiya-yin?"

You're talking about the same subtitles that tell us about how "Cell defeated Cell" in movie 9, and that's just the Japanese ones (which aside from the occasional WICKED blunder like that are otherwise nearly always perfect); with missed punctuation and occasionally sloppy spelling, the English ones-- presumably scripted to disc by a different team altogether, given that the style of typing is notably different from what you see in the Japanese subs-- can be much, much worse. Hell, if nothing else, look at how close J and Y are on the keyboard.

To be honest, I see the term "Saiyan" as true to the original. We already know that Saiya-Jin means the the people of Saiyan. Well Russian means people of Russia right? So to say "people of Saiya" in the English language, would be "Saiyan". Also, there is an episode where Cell is destroying the islands looking for 18, where someone's shirt reads "Super Saiyan".

Oh, there's nobody here that'll tell you that "Saiyan" isn't true to the original-- it is. Hell, even Daimao agrees with that one. The only issue there is with how the English dub chooses to PRONOUNCE the word, the first syllable of which should be given a long i sound as opposed to the long a sound that we hear instead.

Hmm. I can remember an old Burger King commercial from back when DBZ was just starting to get really hot here in the States, and they actually pronounced Saiyan in the correct sai way . . . to which people responded with, "Well, what a fuckup that was." I honestly doubt that Burger King had any "real" knowledge of how to actually pronounce the word, but the fact remains that they did so correctly and got knocked for it. Ngh.


~Da Lemmy