Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 51 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies.
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.
If this was Toonami US from the first 9 months of 1999, we would be looping back to the beginning of DBZ at this point.
Also, apologies for how dub-heavy the trivia is this week... It's about the only interesting stuff I could think to write about for this week's episodes, so I just went ham on it.
Regarding next week, the plan was for no new thread next Wednesday because it's Christmas week... But I made that plan before COVID, so I'm debating just putting a thread up anyway. I don't really know. I'm still debating it. Let me know your thoughts below.
Previous thread: Week 50 (DBZ 63, TVS1, 64)
Next thread: Week 52 (DBZ 70-74)
Anyway, without further ado...
Episode 218 - Don’t Die, Gohan! Goku Finally Touches Down on the Battlefield (DBZ episode 65)
Dub title: Let the Battle Begin
Originally aired 31st of October 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 30 - The Hellish Reacoom! Keep Me Entertained, Vegeta-chan (last half)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 52 - Enter Goku (some footage incorporated into Episode 51 - The Relentless Recoome / No Refuge From Recoome)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Mitsuo Shindō
Freeza has assembled the Dragon Balls, but he doesn’t know the method of getting his wish granted. In order to learn this method, Freeza heads for the Eldest’s house. Gohan battles Recoom, but Recoom easily blocks his attacks! Even his full power Masenkō merely scorches Recoom’s hand. He attacks Gohan as if enjoying himself. His kick blows Gohan away. His neck is broken, and he’s already at death’s door… At that moment, Goku finally arrives on Planet Namek!!
Anime-only/filler content: Gohan firing a Masenko and Butta being surprised by his power level, Chichi trying to go to space to rescue Gohan, Captain Ginyu performing the dance of joy.
Episode 219 - Uncommon Strength!! The Legendary Super Saiyan, Son Goku (DBZ episode 66)
Dub title: Goku's New Power
Originally aired 7th of November 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 31 - Son Goku Finally Arrives! Knock the Ginyu Special-Squad Around (first third)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 53 - Goku... Super Saiyan? (some footage also incorporated into Episode 52 - Enter Goku)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Tatsuya Orime
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa
Goku gives a senzu to not just Gohan and Kuririn, but Vegeta as well. By searching through Kuririn’s memories, he knows about the time that Vegeta had saved their lives! Goku faces Recoom alone. With his extremely calm appearance, does he not know his opponent’s strength…? Gohan and the others think this, and become uneasy. But Goku defeats Recoom with a single hit!! Is Goku the legendary Super Saiyan?!
Anime-only/filler content: Kaio watching Goku land on Namek, Reacoom flipping off Goku, Dr. Brief and Chichi calling Bulma, Vegeta's Super Saiyan flashback sequence, Butta and Jheese trying to attack Goku after he appears behind them.
Episode 220 - Lightning Balls of Red and Blue! Jheese and Butta Attack Goku (DBZ episode 67)
Dub title: A Legend Revealed
Originally aired 14th of November 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 31 - Son Goku Finally Arrives! Knock the Ginyu Special-Squad Around (middle third)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 53 - Goku... Super Saiyan? (first six minutes), Episode 54 - Ginyu Assault
Written by: Aya Matsui
Episode director: Daisuke Nishio
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama
Goku has defeated Recoom with one hit! But Jheese and Butta don’t think that Goku defeated Recoom through skill. They come at Goku together, but can’t hit him even once. Instead, they are blown away with just a kiai. Goku instantaneously raises his ki, so the scouters don’t pick it up! Goku deflects the pair’s combined attack, the Purple Comet Crash, and even Jheese’s Crusher Ball, all with one hand…!
Anime-only/filler content: Butta and Jheese throwing ki blasts at Goku while he invisibly dodges them, a scene of Freeza approaching the Grand Elder's place talking to himself to try to fill time, Captain Ginyu holding auditions for new Ginyu Force members, Goku deflecting Butta and Jheese's special attack by shouting at it (kiai), Bulma being homesick and nearly getting killed by a stray ki blast.
Episode 221 - At Last, a Direct Confrontation!! Captain Ginyu Takes the Field (DBZ episode 68)
Dub title: Ginyu Assault
Originally aired 21st of November 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 31 - Son Goku Finally Arrives! Knock the Ginyu Special-Squad Around (last third) and Episode 32 - The Star Performer Takes the Stage?! Captain Ginyu vs Son Goku (first half)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 54 - Ginyu Assault (first 12 minutes), Episode 55 - Incredible Force
Written by: Keiji Terui
Episode director: Jun’ichi Fujise
Animation supervisor: Masahiro Shimanuki
Goku’s speed exceeds that of Butta, who prided himself as the fastest in the universe! In order to show that he exceeds Jheese and Butta in power as well, Goku defeats Butta with a single blow. Goku tells Jheese to stop this pointless fight. Jheese flies off to summon Captain Ginyu. Vegeta finishes off the immobile Recoom and Butta, and cautions Goku that he won’t be able to win against Freeza with such softness. Jheese then returns, having brought Captain Ginyu!!
Anime-only/filler content: Captain Ginyu's Ginyu Force auditions continue, and Bulma does some more worrying.
Episode 222 - Incredible Force!! Did You See It, Goku’s Full Power? (DBZ episode 69)
Dub title: Incredible Force!
Originally aired 28th of November 1990
Kai equivalent: Episode 32 - The Star Performer Takes the Stage?! Captain Ginyu vs Son Goku (last half)
Edited dub equivalent: Episode 55 - Incredible Force (first 14 minutes), Episode 56 - Frieza Approaches
Written by: Aya Matsui
Episode director: Minoru Okazaki
Animation supervisor: Mitsuo Shindō
Gohan and Kuririn head off to search for the Dragon Balls. Vegeta flies off, abandoning Goku. Goku and Ginyu’s one-on-one fight begins! Jheese backs Ginyu, but Ginyu scolds him for it, hoping to have a fair fight. Ginyu presses Goku to display his true power. In response, Goku steadily raises his ki!! Ginyu loses his calm at Goku’s battle power, which far surpasses what he had imagined!
Anime-only/filler content: Extensions to Goku vs Captain Ginyu, Bulma wanting to use the Dragon Balls to wish herself home, Ginyu throwing a ki blast at Jheese out of frustration.
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Interesting trivia:
- At this point in time in the manga, Dende heals Kuririn, Piccolo arrives and fights Freeza, Freeza goes to form 3, and Vegeta has Kuririn nearly kill him so he can get a Zenkai boost.
- Z episode 66 is the first episode to use music from Z movie 3.
- The golden Oozaru we see in Vegeta's flashback in episode 66 symbolising the original Super Saiyan is a concept that is later revisited in GT.
- Kai episode 30 has 29 redrawn shots, episode 31 has 21 redrawn shots, and episode 32 has 10 redrawn shots.
- Those of you watching the uncut series with the Funimation English dub, particularly with the US replacement score, will have an interesting run of episodes this week; episode 67 marks the end of Nathan Johnson's work scoring DBZ (outside of a few of the movies), and the end of the 2005-2006 "Ultimate Uncut" redub of the first 67 episodes.
- Edits in the original dub:
- Uncut episode 65 had various shortenings of shots where punches and kicks connect, some gore is edited out, Dr Brief's cigarette is painted out, and a star was painted over Reacoom kicking the back of Gohan's neck.
- Uncut episode 66 had Reacoom flipping him off cut, though Goku's smile in response to it wasn't. Additionally, Reacoom's exposed butt and bloody face were censored, and Dr Brief's cigarette continues to be painted out.
- In the first six minutes of uncut episode 67, blood is painted out as usual... And then that's the end of the Saban dub! You may think that's the end of these notes, but Chris Psaros continued to write guides describing the censorship in Funimation's TV edits, so we continue on!
- In the remainder of uncut episode 67, equivalent to edited episode 54, there are no paint edits. The recap uses a lot of footage from earlier in this uncut episode and in the previous episode, but all the blood that was painted out in the previous edited episodes is left in. This is likely because Toonami had far more lax restrictions than Saban enforced in syndication; Toonami was a cable channel, and DBZ wasn't airing in a morning timeslot anymore, so less restrictions were put on it. They still usually weren't allowed to swear though, and even in the uncut version of these episodes, they use very clean language most of the time.
- In uncut episode 68 (which was cut up into edited episodes 54 and 55), we begin to see dialogue changes in the uncut vs TV versions. The first one Psaros notes is Butta says "Bite me" in the uncut version, whereas he says "Turkey!" on Cartoon Network. Psaros notes that "Another dimension" is mentioned here. He also notes that Vegeta stomping on Butta's neck and blasting Reacoom into oblivion was not cut. One scene that was cut, about 48 seconds in length, was Bulma sitting at the camp site, thinking about Goku. This scene was kept in the uncut version released on VHS and DVD, but was cut from the TV version. Weirdly, if you watch the "uncut" version with the English language track, there's a digital paint edit that covers up Goku's genitals in a flashback to the bath scene from the Pilaf arc, whereas if you watch the Japanese subtitled track, the scene is uncensored.
- In uncut episode 69 (which was cut up into edited episodes 55 and 56), Vegeta says "If there's one thing I've learned from this whole ordeal, it's that I'm a friggin' genius!" This was toned down in the TV edit, and rendered as "If there's one thing I learned from this whole ordeal, it's that I'm an absolute genius!" Additionally, about a minute of shots of Goku powering up was cut from the TV version.
- After edited episode 53 concluded DBZ's 30-episode second season (27 if you don't count the Tree Of Might 3-part episode... Which you should, but many people don't), Saban decided to change their syndication lineup, and I believe their block shrunk in size. Primarily, they focussed on in-house programming like Power Rangers, so DBZ -- being an outside production -- was dropped. Although many apply a very dramatic story of it failing and finding its first success later on, this is completely wrong! DBZ actually did very well in syndication, its second season in particular, in which the format was changed from season 1's one episode per week schedule to a one-hour/two-episode slot every week, had more than 85% coverage of the US and received top ratings for a weekly syndicated series. By all accounts, DBZ was a hit (and a very notable one, since it was an anime that was a hit in the US before Pokémon), it just wasn't a show Saban wanted to continue syndicating after 1998. The last episode of DBZ to air in syndication aired in May 1998, but it was back on the air almost immediately, with the previously-unaired episode 10 airing in September that year (which would mean reruns began roughly in August). The second DB movie, "Sleeping Princess in Devil Castle" released in December, arguably being a sort of "Pilot dub" to see if the Texas cast could dub Dragon Ball, and new DBZ episodes were on store shelves for American audiences to buy in May, merely a year after the last new episodes to air (not counting the skipped episode 10 that debuted on CN in September '98). These new episodes would air on Cartoon Network, in an edited form, that september, just four months after the video release (16 months after the last syndicated episode aired; roughly 13 months after DBZ began airing on CN).
- Unfortunately, fans were dismayed when the new DBZ episodes (and the Sleeping Princess movie) featured a new cast that sounded real shitty. While you know them today as the well-loved, and honestly solid group of actors who dub Dragon Ball for Funimation, back in 1999, most of them were just barely starting in acting, were working under equally-inexperienced directors, all being paid about the minimum that was legally possible, all non-union, and all using very cheap, outdated equipment, with the one and only requirement of their work being that it sounds close enough to what the professionals up in Canada had been doing for the past four years that most kids wouldn't be too bothered by the change. Exactly why the change was made at all is a somewhat controversial thing, but essentially it boils down to an attempt at penny-pinching; unlike the Funimation of today, Funimation of the '90s would cost cut (and corner cut) in every single way they possibly could, down to not paying the Canadian cast for screams or grunts, and only paying them about a dollar per spoken line. In those days, the attitude was "If we can save a buck, we do it, whatever it takes." So, they dropped their cast and brought in even cheaper work that would work out of cheaper studio spaces, with the already-on-staff producers taking on directing duties so they don't have to pay for a dedicated director. Additionally, costs would be saved from Barry Watson being able to be hands-on in recording without flying out to Canada, and the voice recordings wouldn't need to be transported from Canada either.
- In the early in-house Funimation dub, the entire cast was basically cast as voice-matches for the Canadian cast. In particular, Chris Sabat did his best imitation of Brian Drummond's Vegeta. Like most of the cast, this would change quite drastically as the run went on, and these days many would argue his Vegeta voice bears little resemblance to Drummond's. Meanwhile, others such as Sean Schemmel's Goku and Kaio remain very close matches to their Canadian counterparts to this day (though the performance itself has become far more refined in the past 21 years).
- To be clear, none of this is to suggest any disrespect for the Funimation cast. As they are now, I (Robo) have the utmost respect for them. However, in the interest of these trivia entries, we're looking at when they began, when they weren't chosen because they were the best actors to play their parts, they were chosen because they were the cheapest possible choices who could sound close enough to the Canadian voices, even though they grew far beyond that in the ensuing years.
- The in-house Funimation dub also had a serious down-turn in scripting quality. It's not clear why, but there's a long stretch of episodes from roughly when Funimation took things in-house up until somewhere in the Androids/Cell sagas where the scripts, even accounting for Funimation's usual "Punching up", seemed to pay even less attention to the original Japanese dialogue than before; at some points, it almost seems like they were simply missing a few pages of script and just had to make something up in the voice recording booth.
- One positive change made to the DBZ dub's production is that it was recorded uncut starting from episode 68/54. However, because the Saban dub's final episode, #53, ended about six minutes into uncut episode 67, they had to first bring the edited and uncut numberings into alignment. For the stretch of episodes from uncut 67/edited 54 up to uncut 71/edited 57, there were actually three different episode numberings; the original Japanese numbering, Funimation's home video numbering (where episode 54 was simply ~35 minutes long, containing the rest of Japanese episode 67 and all of episode 68, so all episodes following this line up exactly with an uncut episode), and Funimation's TV numbering (where small cuts are made to each episode so they slowly, over the course of episodes 54-57, come into alignment with uncut, being fully aligned at episode 72/58). There is one additional wrinkle, which we'll get to soon enough.
- Edited episode 54 also marks the beginning of Team Faulconer's work scoring DBZ. However, it is worth noting that Bruce Faulconer himself only composed a very small proportion of the Team Faulconer score overall, while others such as Mike Smith, Scott Morgan, and Julius Dobos (there may be others; I'm not an expert on the situation) composed the vast majority of the music, credited only in technical roles on the official credits, much like their predecessor, Ron Wasserman, whose work was always attributed to Shuki Levy (which is likely a part of why Wasserman was not invited back to continue scoring DBZ when things moved in-house).
- The "Ultimate Uncut" redub covers the entirety of uncut episode 67, so fans of Team Faulconer's music score are deprived of the first 14 minutes of his scoring on the modern DVD/Blu-ray releases.
- Uncut episode 68 also marks the beginning of where the modern DVD/Blu-ray releases did extensive redubbing of about half the dialogue in the series (though some was redubbed for prior episodes too; a small dialogue error for Roshi was fixed in an early episode, and Butta's dialogue was completely redubbed as his Ultimate Uncut casting, who would reprise the role in Kai, was unavailable for the 2007-2008 DVD redub of the rest of the Namek saga, so Butta was redubbed for consistency). The amount of redubbing would reduce a little as time went on, with none at all from the later Cell sagas onwards, but in these first few episodes that Funimation originally did in 1999, all of Kuririn, Vegeta, and Bulma's dialogue was redubbed. The scripts were kept essentially verbatim, but the new line readings used the voices the actors had developed over the course of the run, making them a little more consistent with the 2005/2006 recording of episode 67. But, not all the actors were available for the 2007/2008 redub of episodes 68+, in particular Sean Schemmel wasn't available, so Goku's dialogue is quite jarringly different, despite Vegeta's sounding okay. Additionally, some alternate takes were accidentally used of some lines, the Faulconer score was reverted to an earlier state before the final placements were chosen, some additional cut lines were reinstated, some other lines were accidentally dropped, and the mixing as a whole was a mess... Basically, the "Remastered dub" seen on the new DVD/Blu-ray releases is a mess from top to bottom, unfortunately, and it solves none of the underlying issues of the 1999 dub, much like how the 2005-2006 "Ultimate Uncut" redub failed to address the serious issues afflicting the original dub of the first 67 uncut episodes.
- The "Remastered" and "Ultimate Uncut" dubs seen on the modern releases also ruin one joke in this run of episodes in particular; in the original episode 54 (using footage from uncut 67 and 68), Butta can't believe how fast Goku is and says "No one's that fast!"; Jheese tells him "Apparently he is, mate." This is then repeated a few minutes later when Butta and Goku echo this exchange as "No one's that fast!" "Well apparently I am!" However, the first exchange that this later one is in reference to is gone in the redub of uncut episode 67, but the second exchange remains intact in the partial redub of episode 68.
- There's one more version of Funimation's in-house DBZ dub, which aired on YTV starting from when the Garlic Jr. saga began airing; this new version covered the new Garlic Jr. saga, as well as all re-airings of older episodes. This version was edited by Ocean Productions using all the production materials Funimation were using. The SFX track was sometimes modified, and alternate dialogue that was mistakenly not used in the TV edit was used in the Ocean version (such as "Don't piss off the Dragon God of Love", which had to be partially muted in the UK airings, correctly used a TV-safe line in the YTV version). Why precisely this alternate version exists is a mystery, but I personally believe it was the first step towards Ocean producing their own dub that would end up airing in Europe, and later in Canada. More on that later, when it becomes relevant to the week's viewing.
- This means there is a grand total of four English versions of each DBZ episode from 68/54 until 122/107: The original home video version, the original American TV edit, the Ocean TV edit, and the "Remastered dub" as seen on the modern DVD/Blu-ray releases. Tune in when we get to 123/108 when we'll talk about having five versions of each episode...
- Uncut recaps and previews for the original dub of DBZ episodes 55-57/69-71 do not exist, though they do exist for every episode after that. It's possible the recaps were recorded, but at best they went unused -- the home video uncut releases didn't use recaps or previews except at the beginning of the first episode, and the end of the last episode, on each disc/tape. In most cases, a recap/preview was still recorded, but only used in the TV edit, but since these three episodes' uncut and TV versions don't exactly line up with each other, this doesn't apply.
