Dub lines that you find interesting.

[ulisa]

Totally agree here, and it carries a subtext that Gohan has to REALLY take the situation seriously in order to unlock it. It also partially explains why Vegeta had such a hard time getting it, from a philosophical perspective.

Honestly, for me, when I first saw the dub where Gohan transforms into Super Saiyan, I always saw it as spiritual change for him, in that he was no longer going to need protecting but instead would become a protector, which is something that follows him all the way to the end of the series. It's likely just my head canon but I love that connection to Goku's earlier words about it being a need, not a desire and that for Gohan, it becomes a need to protect.

[MasenkoHA]

It's funny, we mock the "next dimension" stuff because of the way it cheapens death, but at the same time it's pretty accurate to how death is actually treated in Dragon Ball. Yeah, the use of that term is obviously for censorship purposes, but if the Japanese version or even the Kai dub started using it, I don't think I'd bat an eyelid.

I think the use of Next Dimension doesn't work on two levels. First, very few characters in the story would even have knowledge of life after death, unless we assume everyone, including aliens like Raditz and Frieza, knows and believes Buddhist/Chinese mythological afterlife lore. That isn't implausible given that they all speak English or Japanese or Spanish or what have you, but it's rather unlikely.
.

As far as I'm aware next dimensions's aren't part of typical Buddhist/Chinese beliefs? I'm not buddhist though.

[KBABZ]

Honestly, for me, when I first saw the dub where Gohan transforms into Super Saiyan, I always saw it as spiritual change for him, in that he was no longer going to need protecting but instead would become a protector, which is something that follows him all the way to the end of the series. It's likely just my head canon but I love that connection to Goku's earlier words about it being a need, not a desire and that for Gohan, it becomes a need to protect.

Agreed. And it doesn't wipe away the earlier use of it either by having a bad day, it's just contextualized to be broader than that.

As far as I'm aware next dimensions's aren't part of typical Buddhist/Chinese beliefs? I'm not buddhist though.

I was more thinking stuff like King Yemma, who is literally the actual Buddhist god named King Yama. In a filler episode of Dragon Ball after the Baba Yaga Saga, far before the Raditz era, Yemma is name-dropped in the Demon Land episode and it isn't even made out to be anything special, because the show assumes the target audience (young Japanese boys) automatically knows who that is.

[PacificOceanDub]

When Bulma calls Kame House to tell them about the remote to deactivate 17 and 18, and Yamcha tells Krillin not to accept the collect call charges. Bulma says she’ll only let them use the remote if Yamcha gives her a foot massage. What the hell, Bulma. There’s robots terrorizing the entire planet, you need to let them use the remote NOW!

[Attitudefan]

I've never understood how Goku's response of "It's the Kame-sen'nin style of martial arts" made it into the dub in 1996 (to the ogre after meeting with Enma).

I'm still flabbergasted and fascinated 22 years later.

The line isn't really wrong though, is it? The Kamehameha would be the key technique to the Turtle Hermit's style, no? I know Roshi claims that he doesn't really offer a style, but no choice is still a choice, if you know what I mean. I like to think that working with your hands as Goku had to do in training, became part of his style of fighting. It's the ultimate blue collar fighting style, and that makes the juxtaposition to his opponents like Tien and Vegeta that much more interesting in my mind. Tien has a very disciplined and traditional upbringing in the Crane Hermit school of martial arts and Vegeta has his techniques coming from royalty.

[Adrian Malacoda]

I've never understood how Goku's response of "It's the Kame-sen'nin style of martial arts" made it into the dub in 1996 (to the ogre after meeting with Enma).

I'm still flabbergasted and fascinated 22 years later.

The line isn't really wrong though, is it? The Kamehameha would be the key technique to the Turtle Hermit's style, no?

It's more the fact that the name "Kamesennin" made it into the 1996 US English dub, which was notorious for it's very liberal interpretation of the source material.

It's one of those weird things that just makes you go huh, like that random one-off mention of "Tien Shinhan" early on in the dub (which isn't strictly correct but it's them acknowledging that his name isn't just "Tien")

[KBABZ]

It's one of those weird things that just makes you go huh, like that random one-off mention of "Tien Shinhan" early on in the dub (which isn't strictly correct but it's them acknowledging that his name isn't just "Tien")

Tien Shinhan does appear a fair bit in Funi's DB as well as Kai, I must say. It's very much played as being a First Name/Last Name thing with Tien being the first name, rather than "Ten" being his nickname. I suspect the motivations for it is that, on trickier translations, Funimation buys themselves two extra syllables to write with in the mouth flaps, while still being able to use the full three syllables for shorter lines of dialogue. Of all the main characters Tenshinhan easily has the longest name.

[Kataphrut]

It's one of those weird things that just makes you go huh, like that random one-off mention of "Tien Shinhan" early on in the dub (which isn't strictly correct but it's them acknowledging that his name isn't just "Tien")

Tien Shinhan does appear a fair bit in Funi's DB as well as Kai, I must say. It's very much played as being a First Name/Last Name thing with Tien being the first name, rather than "Ten" being his nickname. I suspect the motivations for it is that, on trickier translations, Funimation buys themselves two extra syllables to write with in the mouth flaps, while still being able to use the full three syllables for shorter lines of dialogue. Of all the main characters Tenshinhan easily has the longest name.

Fun fact: In Dragon Ball FighterZ, if you have voices set to English and select Tenshinhan, the announcer will say "Tien". If you set it to Japanese, he will say "Tien Shinhan". English Goku also has an in-game line directed at "Tien Shinhan" and maybe some others as well. The fact they say "Tien Shinhan" in Japanese is especially interesting because I'm pretty sure they have Justin Briner as the announcer in all versions of the game, meaning even Japanese region players will hear "Tien Shinhan" in the character select screen. I wonder what they think of that.

This game came out in 2018.

[KBABZ]

Fun fact: In Dragon Ball FighterZ, if you have voices set to English and select Tenshinhan, the announcer will say "Tien". If you set it to Japanese, he will say "Tien Shinhan". English Goku also has an in-game line directed at "Tien Shinhan" and maybe some others as well. The fact they say "Tien Shinhan" in Japanese is especially interesting because I'm pretty sure they have Justin Briner as the announcer in all versions of the game, meaning even Japanese region players will hear "Tien Shinhan" in the character select screen. I wonder what they think of that.

This game came out in 2018.

Yyyyyyeah I might prefer Tien out of the two, but using Tien for the Japanese audio is just sloppy and inappropriate.

[Kataphrut]

Fun fact: In Dragon Ball FighterZ, if you have voices set to English and select Tenshinhan, the announcer will say "Tien". If you set it to Japanese, he will say "Tien Shinhan". English Goku also has an in-game line directed at "Tien Shinhan" and maybe some others as well. The fact they say "Tien Shinhan" in Japanese is especially interesting because I'm pretty sure they have Justin Briner as the announcer in all versions of the game, meaning even Japanese region players will hear "Tien Shinhan" in the character select screen. I wonder what they think of that.

This game came out in 2018.

Yyyyyyeah I might prefer Tien out of the two, but using Tien for the Japanese audio is just sloppy and inappropriate.

I can get behind 'Tien' because it works well enough as an abbreviation and sounds better than the alternative 'Ten'. "Tien Shinhan" is the worst of both worlds since it's not only inaccurate but adds an extra syllable.

[matt0044]

. Drawing attention to the plot hole of everyone speaking English/Japanese doesn't make the problem go away.
.

That’s not really a plot hole....just a necessary convenience of the genre.


The next dimension lines were always interesting to me sometimes the show was basically treating it like death and it was just a more sci fi heavy variant of heaven/hell/other world/afterlife other times it felt like the show was trying to say “Don’t worry nobody dies in this stort they just get beames into other dimensions”

Hell, Other World practically is another dimension. Or another universe altogether. It was never exactly clear...

[ekrolo2]

"This new level will make the ultimate sword for justice, and when your sword is mighty enough you don't need a shield." A really good way on changing the dialogue but keeping the intent behind the same.

[Doctor.]

"This new level will make the ultimate sword for justice, and when your sword is mighty enough you don't need a shield." A really good way on changing the dialogue but keeping the intent behind the same.

Funimation's modern dubs have a tendency to add flowery dialogue. I feel like it usually doesn't fit unless it's characters like Freeza or, in this case, Zamasu.

[matt0044]

Funimation's modern dubs have a tendency to add flowery dialogue. I feel like it usually doesn't fit unless it's characters like Freeza or, in this case, Zamasu.

Vegeta works considering he's a warrior prince who can sound gruff but knows how to speak dignified when emphasizing this.

The vocabulary can be quite extensive even for their more adaptive stance on dubbing but I feel that they know who'd say what words and not, sounding like how a native English speaker would speak this or that particular line. Like sure, I know it's translated from Japanese but I wanna trick myself into thinking it was written in English first.

Bare in mind, this isn't accounting for their gag dubs like Hajimete No Gal, Shin Chan or Panty & Stocking where they REALLY cut loose for all of the right reasons. However, this being Dragon Ball, there's a lot of over-the-top and mega dramatic dialogue that only a Shonen Anime's known for. And yes, it can come off as "flowery" under certain translations.

[Dbzfan94]

I always found it odd that they would so often say you needed to "let go of your anger" to become Super Saiyan, even though they were clearly transforming out of anger. Seems like a wasted effort to try and make the Saiyans more heroic.

I love that rewrite. No better way to let go of your anger than seeing your best friend blow up. It's like Funimation wasn't even watching their own show.

But Goku literally tells Gohan to get mad and think of all the bad things Freeza (and later Cell) did to get him to transform.

[KBABZ]

I always found it odd that they would so often say you needed to "let go of your anger" to become Super Saiyan, even though they were clearly transforming out of anger. Seems like a wasted effort to try and make the Saiyans more heroic.

I love that rewrite. No better way to let go of your anger than seeing your best friend blow up. It's like Funimation wasn't even watching their own show.

But Goku literally tells Gohan to get mad and think of all the bad things Freeza (and later Cell) did to get him to transform.

Maybe by "let go" the intent was for Goku to imply "Let go of your restraint, let it run loose"?

[90sDBZ]

I just thought of another one. When Piccolo fights 17 he specifically says "Goku punches harder than you", while in the Japanese version I think he makes more of a general comment about 17's punches being weak.

It's an interesting line because earlier Piccolo implied that Vegeta had surpassed Goku, and Vegeta got stomped by 18 who is meant to be weaker than 17. I used to wonder if maybe Goku without the heart virus actually could be stronger than the Androids, but then that still contradicts Piccolo's earlier line about Vegeta surpassing him. Another way I looked at it was that maybe Goku actually could punch harder than 17 due to being a more experienced fighter and martial artist, despite 17 being more powerful overall.

Or maybe Piccolo was just fucking with him.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

I just thought of another one. When Piccolo fights 17 he specifically says "Goku punches harder than you", while in the Japanese version I think he makes more of a general comment about 17's punches being weak.

It's an interesting line because earlier Piccolo implied that Vegeta had surpassed Goku, and Vegeta got stomped by 18 who is meant to be weaker than 17. I used to wonder if maybe Goku without the heart virus actually could be stronger than the Androids, but then that still contradicts Piccolo's earlier line about Vegeta surpassing him. Another way I looked at it was that maybe Goku actually could punch harder than 17 due to being a more experienced fighter and martial artist, despite 17 being more powerful overall.

Or maybe Piccolo was just fucking with him.

Well, the Tournament of Power in DBS saw greater emphasis on things like the strength of one's blows, rather than the strength of the person behind the blows.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that he simply meant it literally.

[matt0044]

History of Trunks has a grandpa comfort his granddaughter by saying, "It's just like watching fireworks, dear," as the Androids blow them up. Way to twist the knife, FUNimation.

Later, Bulma's completing the time machine and has a little nostalgic speech of her father, Dr. Brief, when talking with Trunks. I dunno, that softer side of her was nice to hear.

[ABED]

History of Trunks has a grandpa comfort his granddaughter by saying, "It's just like watching fireworks, dear," as the Androids blow them up. Way to twist the knife, FUNimation.

Later, Bulma's completing the time machine and has a little nostalgic speech of her father, Dr. Brief, when talking with Trunks. I dunno, that softer side of her was nice to hear.

The line I remember most was, "I love you Trunks. If you only knew how much." I'm not the biggest fan of Vollmer, but she was good in that moment.