Watching DBZ in Japanese for first time

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Tue May 27, 2008 5:56 pm

I am a Funi DBZ fan at heart, thanks to CN showing it, and partly from the Beckett magazines, but then I found the Japanese version.

I really like it. I think Masako Nozawa is the perfect voice for Goku, Gohan, and Goten. Anyone who thinks that she's not the perfect voice for Goku, speak now! *crickets* He is so cute as a kid, and when I hear her voice come out, it always puts a smile on my face.

Another reason that I love the Japanese version maybe even more than the Funi version is the music. It sounds so epic, and is very, very, cool. Hironobu Kageyama singing just about every DBZ song from the series and games helps, as well. Mr, Kagayama is such a good singer, and I love to listen to his music, either on my IPod or during a Live event on YouTube, he's awesome.

Anyway, I have watched every DVD that I have in my Collection (Remastered Seasons 1-3, original Androids-Cell Games, Kid Buu, and Movies 1-3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13. I am so glad that I have these DVDs, or else I would not have any version of this awesome show in Japanese.

I am planning to watch every episode and movie that I have on DVD, in the original, raw, Japanese format. I have already started, and I stopped at episode 7.

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:01 pm

Welcome to the family. You will be pleased to know that Dragonball actually has a story, and makes coherant sense now.

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:45 pm

Raki wrote:Welcome to the family. You will be pleased to know that Dragonball actually has a story, and makes coherant sense now.

Ha ha, I guess that's true. This is actually the first time that I've ever sat down and watched ANY episode of DBZ. All I've watched before was the movies. I'm so glad that I'm doing this.

Snail · Post by **Snail** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:08 pm

I've also grown to absolutely worship the Japanese version as well.

And hey! If you're interested in watching the entire series from start to finish with the films alongside it in order (based upon the original Japanese release dates) feel free to check out the link on my sig!

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:21 pm

Snail wrote:I've also grown to absolutely worship the Japanese version as well.

And hey! If you're interested in watching the entire series from start to finish with the films alongside it in order (based upon the original Japanese release dates) feel free to check out the link on my sig!

I do feel like watching the Movies alongside the series in order, but I don't really feel like doing that, because the Movies and Series are so out of order, and I don't have the entire series on DVD, but I do have a few of the Funi VHS tapes, (Not Japanese)

Chuquita · Post by **Chuquita** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:44 pm

I was in awe when I first heard what Goku and Vegeta sound like in Japanese; I love their original voices. X3 They're easily my favorite voices for both of them. The deep, rich, and non-throaty voice fits Vegeta so well; and Ms. Nozawa's Goku voice is so cute. :3

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:43 pm

I've started watching the major fights in Japanese with the season sets. I did Goku/Vegeta, the entire Ginyu Force battle, and the Freeza fights up till the arrival of Piccolo.

It's just hard to do this with the addictions that I have (full blown TV/Video Game habit). I have to make time to actually sit down and watch them cuase even though I've watched them in english a few times and know what's going on, I like to know the exact dialog. But alas I have to finish up the Metal Gear Solid essential collect, open No More Hreos and start the old TMNT arcade games on my PS2.

SSj_Rambo · Post by **SSj_Rambo** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:57 pm

Yes, Japanese is definitely the only way to truely experience Dragonball. I got hooked on it when the season set's first came out (the origional Japanese music is what did it for me!). It's great to know that others are experiencing it along with me!

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:00 am

All I can say to the original poster is that I envy you in that you're getting to watch it all in Japanese for the first time. Ah, nostalgia....

LSSJ4 · Post by **LSSJ4** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:00 pm

Heh, Cool, It wasn't so far back that I changed from dub to orignal. It was in season 3, I got so damn annnoyed by Sean Schemmel's early Goku and Freeza's " Whatever turns you on". I said screw it, and changed it to Japanese. I never changed it back.

Its cool to see people get that whoa, when they find out that Dragonball is more than grunts and yells.

Only one thing I find safe to watch dubbed is the re-dubbed season 1. The voice actors did do better and it seems like their best performance,IMO.

Sun_Wukong · Post by **Sun_Wukong** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:13 pm

I was exposed to the USA Dub in 1999, saw my first fansub at a con in 2001. I think how I grew to loathe the USA Dub was my exposure to Shunsuke Kikuchi's wonderful Japanese score.

Now I just cant watch the dub with the Faulconer score.

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Wed May 28, 2008 5:04 pm

So, I finally decided I needed to watch movie10 today, and dug out my copy. Only then did I realize that I had both the Japanese and FUNi versions, so I decided to watch the Japanese version first. (I'm pretty sure it was from a crappy VHS fansub... ... ... o.o ).

So, I can't read the subtitles, my Japanese isn't enough to make sense of Goten Trunks and Videl's banter, and the sound quality was extremely dated. But between the summary I read at Daizex like two years ago, and what I could comprehend of the Japanese, I picked up just about everything... actually, the things that made it more interesting than "GRAA! Broli Smash!" came across rather well, and hot diggity, Masako Nozawa's performance still managed to surprise me with awesome despite the bits of the Japanese version I've heard before.
(And, hearing Goten, Goku, and Gohan all in the same movie... it's almost impossible to confuse the three; they all talk pretty differently, even with that hick accent...

).

My cousin came in near the end, so we watched it again (and he read most of the subtitles aloud, so I found out that I didn't miss much when watching it raw. XD. Well, now I undertand Trunks peeing on Broli...

).

Neh, he was more eager to watch some of the GT episodes we haven't seen yet than see the perfectly fine movie we just watched in English... and while I'm a little curious as to how FUNimation's cast handled things... I'm not all that interested in watching it in English.

Another thing; some pieces of music in there, I've heard before (Julian's ABC's bumper music; a clip from blackgoku labeled "Gohan's Theme" which came from Gohan's arrival, and a few songs from other movies... and Piccolo's Theme Funky Chessnut remix... XD ).
I don't expect the dub can get that effect with the music, at all, since I'm pretty sure the Faulconer score is gone by this point, and they either did "real bands" (lame!) or Menza orchestration... I'm a little curious as to how Menza music would have worked here (the scene that sticks out in my mind is when Trunks and Broli are going around the waterfall and there's no music, just the water and Trunks' comments)... but good or bad, the dub music already can't get the fun reaction the original had. (I know, that's a bit unfair. True though!

).

Meh, maybe I'll get bored and watch it in English. Still, though, this is the second DB movie I've seen first in Japanese (first was the GT special...). I'll go with the consensus and say that whenever I get my hands on a working copy of Movie11, I'd like to watch the Japanese version first...

. (If anything, the language barier makes it more fun; but, that might not work so well if I didn't already have enough of an idea of what was going on to fill in the gaps...).

Wait, what the heck is this long post for? I could have just said "I watched DBZ Movie10 in Japanese. It's cool! I don't feel like bothering with the dub..." and been done with it. Oh, well.

ulisa · Post by **ulisa** » Thu May 29, 2008 12:05 am

While I generally prefer the dub because those are the voices I fell in love with, I do have a certain fondness for the Japanese. The first time I saw Dragonball Z in Japanese wasn't actually a full episode but the very end of one.

I originally saw Gohan's ascent to SSJ2 in Japanese and I'll never forget it.

As much as I love the dub voices, nothing can come close to Nozawa's scream, with Unmei no Hi in the background. The pure silence then the start of the music, then that scream...

Yeah, THAT scene I always turn to Japanese for.

I was pretty disappointed by how the dub handled that scene. I just can't watch that scene without Unmei no Hi, it sets the scene so well. Gohan's added dialogue was unnecessary, if not harmful, as well. While, I usually don't mind the added dialogue in the dub and many times actually like the addition, this was an exception to the rule. The addition of dialogue just completely changed the mood of the scene.

Dub Gohan seems to have complete control of the situation, and the 'power up' didn't seem any different than previous attempts in the Time Chamber.

Original Gohan, for lack of a better word, completely snaps and loses himself.

Very rare do I find a scene I prefer in Japanese but that one is definitely one of them.

Ulisa:)

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu May 29, 2008 2:32 am

My Dragon Ball experience was pretty hybrid. In the late 90s, I watched all of the DBZ Ocean cast stuff, and that's how I got into it. I even saw (rented on VHS) the Ocean cast Dragon Ball stuff. So, those were the voices that I knew first.

But, before Season 3 was put out by FUNi, I started watching raw Japanese DBZ on International Channel (I was already very taken with the show at this point, obviously.) I probably only missed four or five episodes from that point on. So, most of DBZ and DBGT I watched in Japanese first, then watched it dubbed, then watched it in Japanese with subtitles. . Quite a convoluted way to do it (haha), but I was probably the only 11 year old in America who could sing "Cha La" off the top of my head.

Oh, good times.

Gogeta 00 · Post by **Gogeta 00** » Thu May 29, 2008 7:35 pm

Okay, I'm a dubbie at heart and I always will be. I prefer the English voices so that I do not have to read the subtitles, but after hearing everyone on here go on about how great the the original Japanese version is, I have decided to give it a try. I am going to watch the whole Saiyan saga subbed and see what I think of it. After all, I did it with my favourite anime (Escaflowne) recently and I have to admit I like the Japanese version better. I still love the dub, but I watch it subbed a lot more now. Maybe I will feel the same way about DBZ.

Ex-Dubbie369 · Post by **Ex-Dubbie369** » Thu May 29, 2008 8:49 pm

gogeta 00 wrote:Okay, I'm a dubbie at heart and I always will be. I prefer the English voices so that I do not have to read the subtitles, but after hearing everyone on here go on about how great the the original Japanese version is, I have decided to give it a try. I am going to watch the whole Saiyan saga subbed and see what I think of it. After all, I did it with my favourite anime (Escaflowne) recently and I have to admit I like the Japanese version better. I still love the dub, but I watch it subbed a lot more now. Maybe I will feel the same way about DBZ.

I suggest, rather than watch an entire saga in Japanese, watch one of the movies. You'll be able to give a much more fair judgment by watching a 50 minute movie rather than try to wait out an entire story arc. My first time seeing DB in Japanese was by seeing Movie 13 and I loved it.

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Thu May 29, 2008 9:55 pm

I guess I'm alone when I say I've never watched a full episode of DBZ in Japanese. I really don't care. The basic episode plots are left in tact, and it's not like a 4 Kids dub where it's almost a completely different show. And I actually like Bruce Falcouner's score even more than the Japanese one. I've always liked his scores. Call me an idiot all you want, that's how I feel.

Gogeta 00 · Post by **Gogeta 00** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:03 pm

jjgp1112 wrote:I guess I'm alone when I say I've never watched a full episode of DBZ in Japanese. I really don't care. The basic episode plots are left in tact, and it's not like a 4 Kids dub where it's almost a completely different show. And I actually like Bruce Falcouner's score even more than the Japanese one. I've always liked his scores. Call me an idiot all you want, that's how I feel.

I completley agree with you. Actually since I did not start watching the Saiyan saga in Japanese yet I have not seen a full Japanese episode yet either.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:04 pm

jjgp1112 wrote:I guess I'm alone when I say I've never watched a full episode of DBZ in Japanese. I really don't care. The basic episode plots are left in tact, and it's not like a 4 Kids dub where it's almost a completely different show. And I actually like Bruce Falcouner's score even more than the Japanese one. I've always liked his scores. Call me an idiot all you want, that's how I feel.

Uh the 4kids shows leave the "basic plot in tact" too. They just replace everything with bad music and bad voices...but that is totally unlike Funimation.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:08 pm

Ex-Dubbie369 wrote:
gogeta 00 wrote:Okay, I'm a dubbie at heart and I always will be. I prefer the English voices so that I do not have to read the subtitles, but after hearing everyone on here go on about how great the the original Japanese version is, I have decided to give it a try. I am going to watch the whole Saiyan saga subbed and see what I think of it. After all, I did it with my favourite anime (Escaflowne) recently and I have to admit I like the Japanese version better. I still love the dub, but I watch it subbed a lot more now. Maybe I will feel the same way about DBZ.
I suggest, rather than watch an entire saga in Japanese, watch one of the movies. You'll be able to give a much more fair judgment by watching a 50 minute movie rather than try to wait out an entire story arc. My first time seeing DB in Japanese was by seeing Movie 13 and I loved it.

I agree. The movies are a nice starting place.