10gigtriforce wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:45 am
I have to wonder much of this is toei's fault. Westwood/blue water dubs from canada and europe were also cut/censored, the mexican dub was some too, I've heard stuff about french and other European ones but seeing as I only understand english and some spanish i cant speak for those.
Not to say how funi did it was A-ok(though like you said we did get uncut english and japanese eventually) but i do wonder how much influence toei had since a looot of the western dubs were cut. This *is* the same company that forced onepiec on 4kids, even knowing their reputation, and gave the stamp of approval to their butchering. And also let viz make an uncut sailor moon dub that turned out even worse than the cut up dic dub from the 90's with their horrid voice casting
The Westwood/Blue Water dubs were cut/censored because they were TV-only dubs.
Though, it is worth noting that the Blue Water GT dub was mostly uncut. Aside from about four episodes (basically they cut any shots of Goku's penis), all the actual episode contents were completely uncut.
And since Blue Water DB was done after this, and we know they used the French masters, and we know the French masters were heavily pre-censored, it's easy to lay most of the blame for that censorship at AB Groupe's feet for providing masters that were already censored.
Westwood Z, I don't know. I think there was an expectation for them to cut back a lot of violent content or something, I'm not sure.
But for certain, this wasn't something Toei mandated. Toei just do not care.
eledoremassis02 wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:23 am
While I do think that Dragon Ball could have been dubbed by a much more competent company, in the long run, we still got the uncut Japanese run and while I don't care for FUNi's casting choices, I simply just don't watch it.
A. Yes, we did get the Japanese uncut run, EVENTUALLY. Funimation picked up the Dragon Ball license in about 1994. The first time we got any Japanese subbed media was the first three Z movies that Pioneer put out on their sub-license in 1998. The next year, Funi put out their first uncut DVD, Ginyu Assault, which was the first time a TV episode had been out subbed... But that first episode was episode #68 of DBZ. Episode #221 of the overall run.
Again, EVENTUALLY, we got the first uncut DB singles too... Starting from episode 14... Starting release in
2003.
We didn't get the first few 68 Z episodes in uncut/Japanese until the Ultimate Uncut singles in 2005... Which stopped 27 episodes in, in favour of the
UNBELIEVABLY SHIT Orange Brick DVDs in 2007, alongside the pretty shit Blue Bricks of DB, which finally released the first 13 episodes for those of us who aren't Australian.
So, the first time you could actually watch through Dragon Ball in Japanese was THIRTEEN YEARS after Funi acquired the license, twelve years after DB first hit TV, eleven after Z first hit TV, eight after it had hit Toonami, and a full four years after DB and Z had finished their run on TV.
So yes, EVENTUALLY, we did FINALLY get the uncut, Japanese version... But if you wanted to watch Dragon Ball in full in 2005/2006, you were shit out of luck if you didn't like Funimation's butchered presentation; the first 67... Sorry, 53

were dub-only, cut, and censored, ditto for the first 13 of DB unless you were willing to pay to import from Australia. The rest, yes, you could watch in Japanese...
If you had the money and shelf-space it took to buy each of the eleven Dragon Ball volumes (including the first from Australia), and each of the
EIGHTY-SIX DBZ volumes (eighty-seven, if you bought the wrong version of
Prelude To Terror)...
And finally, in 2007, you could complete that inconvenient, overpriced, cumbersome, awkward collection by adding the DVD seasons... But you have to double-dip on some episodes... And they're cropped... And the remastering is shitty...
B. Dragon Ball's initial, most pushed, most prominent presentation in the west has always been Funimation's shitty, butchery of the original. The fact that you could seek out expensive, shitty DVDs that would allow you to dig into the settings and watch the Japanese version doesn't change this. The Japanese viewing option was, at best, a nominal olive branch for the hardcore fans who already were watching fansubs anyway, and were big enough fans that they would be willing to buy a hundred overpriced, shitty DVDs.
The first time the subbed version was available to the fans at large was the Orange Bricks, and I don't need to go over the numerous reasons why that release was a fucking travesty, or any of the reasons why most people ended up ignoring the Japanese version and just watching what they thought was the version they remembered from TV.
C. A dub should be, at least, a pretty decent viewing option for people who don't/can't watch something subtitled. It should not be a vastly different presentation of the show.
You don't expect the "Easy mode" of a video game to be an entirely different experience, you expect it to be the same thing as everyone else is getting, just in a more easily-digestible format for the casual fan. "You can just play in hardcore mode" doesn't solve the problem that the two modes are vastly different, because a lot of people either can't or won't do that, they'll take the version they experience for what it is, and then move on to something else. By changing the experience for the more common, more easily-digestible version into something entirely different than the original, you're essentially robbing most people of the original experience, and creating a rift between fans of the one version, and fans of the other, and in the process, completely destroying the integrity of the version most people will experience.
Funimation's presentation of Dragon Ball in the west has been a shitshow from start to finish, and any attempts to justify them to the tune of "you can watch the subbed version if you want" is really no excuse; the subbed version only became fully available a decade and a half after they got the license, and only to the most hardcore fans until the super-shitty DVDs came out, the dub version has always -- and will always -- be the most pushed, prominent presentation, so the only time the subbed version has ended up being anything more than "the other version that some hardcore fans enjoy where goku sounds like a woman" was when Super was sub-only on Crunchyroll for a while, and ultimately, any idea that it's OK for the dub and the sub to be so different, for any reason, with any justification, is utter nonsense.
Yes, we all enjoy Ghost Stories. Let's all ignore that example, though, because Dragon Ball is not Ghost Stories. Dragon Ball is a landmark pop culture icon all over the world, and it simply deserved -- and deserves -- far more respect than Funi's ever given it with their shitshow they call brand management.
eledoremassis02 wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:23 am
Even if it got picked up by another company, I do think it would of sound a place on Television with a lot less censorship. Sci-Fi's anime block would have been perfect. A show about a boy who turns into a giant ape and uses martial arts to fight aliens.
Sure. Could've been handled like the Pioneer movies, which are praised as the best dubbing Dragon Ball's ever got (and rightly so), but the only changes made for TV were the muting of a couple of lines that referenced hell, cutting out the shot where you actually see Gohan peeing on Kuririn, and I think one or two particularly violent shots. That, and the completely unnecessary replacement of the OP/ED, of course.
eledoremassis02 wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:23 am
I think the other problem was the history of the dub itself. Even from Harmony Gold it was obviously was aimed at that demographic that was obscure of Japan and little things were edited and major things were changed and FUNimation continued that. Was there pressure of guidance from TOEI to market it for Children, as it was very obviously a children's show in Japan (albeit like Batman TAS a show that Children and Adults can enjoy)? Certainly, the toy rights were in mind as toys came out pretty quick under FUNimation but with modern-day Toei seemingly pre-censoring the visual aspects of Kai and the movies (but leaving Roshi as is).
I don't think this was pressure from Toei. It's just that Dragon Ball, being aimed at 8-year-old boys, is something that the relevant companies decided would be best presented as a saturday morning American kids' show. So, the two companies to give Toei the best offers primarily geared it like that.
eledoremassis02 wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:23 am
Also, if Big Green and Mayalsia are legit licensed dubs the I think TOEI really doesn't (or didnt) care about the quality of the product and in that regard we got lucky we didn't get a Big Green dub (tho Season 3 could definitely feel that way sometimes)
Big Green is legit, licensed work, Speedy isn't.
And... Back in the '90s/'00s? Toei DEFINITELY didn't care. As long as the foreign licensors were earning Toei some money, they were happy. Even these days, Toei don't really care that much about what happens outside of Japan.
eledoremassis02 wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:23 am
Edit: This isnt aimed towards anyone, I just thought of it lol
"you can wish in one hand, and put orange bricks in the other and see which one fills up first"
My Orange Brick hand would swiftly throw it into the trash, where it belongs, and my other hand would soon be on my keyboard, as I google a 4:3 version online, with broadcast audio synced up.

The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.