Best Place for Digital?

[FeatsofPower]

I'm a bit confused on what is the best option to owning the entire Dragonball series. Right now I have Dragonball Remastered, DBZ the latest Amazon package, DBZ Kai, all of the remastered movies and the Super movies.

I want to purchase Super, but I notice I might end up only with the English version. I own everything physically, but I feel maybe I should own it digitally as well. Might be easier for my purposes instead of having all of this physical media.

Where is the best place for me to buy everything digital and to make sure I have Simmons translations. Simmons is the best translator? Is he the only translator for TOEI's subtitles for Dragonball?

Is there a better or worse translation from Simmons from Z to Kai? Did he also do DB?

So yeah, what is the best way to owning this digitally? And even physically, which Dragonball Super Blu-Ray should I get? Thanks.

[ABED]

Simmons did some of DB, I believe, but it's mostly Clyde Mandalin.

[Adamant]

Simmons did some of DB, I believe, but it's mostly Clyde Mandalin.

Simmons did episode 14-28.

[ABED]

Simmons did some of DB, I believe, but it's mostly Clyde Mandalin.

Simmons did episode 14-28.

That's right, he did the Tournament Saga. Thanks.

[MyVisionity]

If you own it physically, don't you already own it digitally...?

I don't like Simmons subs but he's arguably the better translator.

[FeatsofPower]

Where do I buy Dragonball Super with Japanese audio and English subtitles? Is this the correct one? On a lot of American streaming services, they only seem to offer English audio.

[ABED]

Where do I buy Dragonball Super with Japanese audio and English subtitles? Is this the correct one? On a lot of American streaming services, they only seem to offer English audio.

funimationnow.com has the original japanese audio.

[MyVisionity]

Or just use the FUNimation app.

[FeatsofPower]

Thank you. Now if I wanted to buy it physically, so long as it says Japanese audio, I should be good, right?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If you own the series physically you don't need to buy it again digitally. Just rip your discs to have files for use on any other devices.

And even physically, which Dragonball Super Blu-Ray should I get? Thanks.

You can just get any Super Blu-Ray, they all look the same.

Thank you. Now if I wanted to buy it physically, so long as it says Japanese audio, I should be good, right?

Physically yes. All the home releases have the Japanese version other than old out-of-print DVDs like the Pioneer singles and Rock the Dragon collection.

[MasenkoHA]

Thank you. Now if I wanted to buy it physically, so long as it says Japanese audio, I should be good, right?

Every dvd release, aside from the Lionsgate release of the 95 Funi dub of the first arc of Dragon Ball and the Pioneer release of the first two seasons of Z from syndication, both of which are long out of print, include Japanese audio.

[Anonymous Friend]

If you own the series physically you don't need to buy it again digitally. Just rip your discs to have files for use on any other devices.

What if he wants to watch on one of his devises and not worry about storage space? This is the future, ye kno.

This is why I stopped worrying about buying discs anymore. Plenty of streaming options available, between Hulu and FUNi app, and others.

[MyVisionity]

This is why I stopped worrying about buying discs anymore. Plenty of streaming options available, between Hulu and FUNi app, and others.

That's fine if your only concern is *watching* the series, but some people want to actually *own* the series. For a variety of different reasons.

[Anonymous Friend]

This is why I stopped worrying about buying discs anymore. Plenty of streaming options available, between Hulu and FUNi app, and others.

That's fine if your only concern is *watching* the series, but some people want to actually *own* the series. For a variety of different reasons.

I did own the series. I bought all the season sets and movies as they released. Then My home was invaded a decade and I lost all my discs and my three consoles. All my dragonball, Fullmetal alchemist, Yu Yu Hakusho, and several other series. Between my PS3, 360, and wii were 200 games.

Now I only worry about what I want to watch when I want to watch them. I'm completely digital.

[Robo4900]

If you watch on Funimation's streaming service in Japanese, you'll have better video quality than any purchaseable version at the moment (DBZ in particular uses the Dragon Box masters), and it will all use the nice and accurate subtitles of Steve Simmons and Clyde Mandelin.

As for the subtitles themselves; Simmons' cred is established, I personally enjoy Mandelin's subtitles more as far as the classic (pre-Kai) era is concerned, but the two use the same name conventions and such, and they're both very good at what they do, so if you're watching an official stream of Dragon Ball that includes Japanese (as Funimation does, and presumably as Crunchyroll will when it all migrates over), you will have good subs.

More detail on Simmons vs Mandelin:

Spoiler:

Simmons is the primary Japanese to English translator of Dragon Ball for Funimation and has been for a very long time, and he has always done a good job. Some criticise his subtitles for being a bit too literal in their phrasings, though. In any case, he was too busy to subtitle all of OG DB when Funimation was dubbing that show, so Clyde Mandelin was hired.

Mandelin translated DB 1-13 and 29-153, writing the subtitles and providing the translations for Funimation to base their scripts on for their English dub (from 29 onwards; I believe Funimation's dub of 1-13 was just based on the prior dub scripts from 1995 and 1989). He also did a good job, and in the opinion of many, his work yielded much more natural-sounding English subtitles than Simmons' very literal translations did, even if certain quirks of certain characters' speech patterns weren't made clear (for instance, Mr. Popo speaks in very broken English in Simmons' subs, but not in Mandelin's, and Simmons leaned a lot harder into Goku's country bumpkin speech patterns in a way Mandelin didn't), but ultimately both are really just very good.

It's also true that in the years since Simmons started working on DBZ back in 1999 and his work today, he's continued to get better at his job, so for instance his subtitles for Kai are better-written than his subtitles for Z, and his subtitles for Super are even better than any of those.

But really, all this stuff is just interesting trivia to note. Mandelin, Old Simmons, and New Simmons all did excellent work so if you want to watch any Dragon Ball content with the official subtitles, you can go in comfortable with the knowledge that the subtitles are accurate and well-written. No need to worry about who translated what, or when.
Besides, if for instance you weren't keen on the idea of Mandelin subtitles, you don't really have another option.

[FeatsofPower]

If you watch on Funimation's streaming service in Japanese, you'll have better video quality than any purchaseable version at the moment (DBZ in particular uses the Dragon Box masters), and it will all use the nice and accurate subtitles of Steve Simmons and Clyde Mandelin.

As for the subtitles themselves; Simmons' cred is established, I personally enjoy Mandelin's subtitles more as far as the classic (pre-Kai) era is concerned, but the two use the same name conventions and such, and they're both very good at what they do, so if you're watching an official stream of Dragon Ball that includes Japanese (as Funimation does, and presumably as Crunchyroll will when it all migrates over), you will have good subs.

More detail on Simmons vs Mandelin:

Spoiler:

Simmons is the primary Japanese to English translator of Dragon Ball for Funimation and has been for a very long time, and he has always done a good job. Some criticise his subtitles for being a bit too literal in their phrasings, though. In any case, he was too busy to subtitle all of OG DB when Funimation was dubbing that show, so Clyde Mandelin was hired.

Mandelin translated DB 1-13 and 29-153, writing the subtitles and providing the translations for Funimation to base their scripts on for their English dub (from 29 onwards; I believe Funimation's dub of 1-13 was just based on the prior dub scripts from 1995 and 1989). He also did a good job, and in the opinion of many, his work yielded much more natural-sounding English subtitles than Simmons' very literal translations did, even if certain quirks of certain characters' speech patterns weren't made clear (for instance, Mr. Popo speaks in very broken English in Simmons' subs, but not in Mandelin's, and Simmons leaned a lot harder into Goku's country bumpkin speech patterns in a way Mandelin didn't), but ultimately both are really just very good.

It's also true that in the years since Simmons started working on DBZ back in 1999 and his work today, he's continued to get better at his job, so for instance his subtitles for Kai are better-written than his subtitles for Z, and his subtitles for Super are even better than any of those.

But really, all this stuff is just interesting trivia to note. Mandelin, Old Simmons, and New Simmons all did excellent work so if you want to watch any Dragon Ball content with the official subtitles, you can go in comfortable with the knowledge that the subtitles are accurate and well-written. No need to worry about who translated what, or when.
Besides, if for instance you weren't keen on the idea of Mandelin subtitles, you don't really have another option.

This is great stuff, who wrote this? It's good to hear we can have faith in Simmons' translations.

[Adamant]

Some criticise his subtitles for being a bit too literal in their phrasings

These "some" don't actually know Japanese, though, and just assume the lines are phrased the way they are because they stick (too) close to the literal wording of the Japanese line... which isn't really the case.

[MyVisionity]

Again, it wouldn't hurt to have someone new come in and do the translations. Simmons is good, but no translator is perfect.

I don't see this happening, though.

[Robo4900]

This is great stuff, who wrote this? It's good to hear we can have faith in Simmons' translations.

All me. Thank you.

Some criticise his subtitles for being a bit too literal in their phrasings

These "some" don't actually know Japanese, though, and just assume the lines are phrased the way they are because they stick (too) close to the literal wording of the Japanese line... which isn't really the case.

Certainly it is in some cases. "And that's what you call the weasel's last fart" for instance, comes off as jarringly goofy for where it is in the Goku vs Vegeta fight in Z, but in Kai he changed the idiom out for some alternative in English (can't remember exactly what). There's also the fact he always included honourifics (which really aren't necessary) and translated God's name as "Kami-sama", and the world tournament as "Tenkaichi Budoukai", which are much like the memetic "All according to keikaku"; you're just refusing to translate a thing and leaving English-speakers stumped.
It's also been said by many who I would consider far more knowledgeable on this stuff than me that some sentences just can't be literally translated into English in a way that sounds like something any native-speaker would say. Mandelin would adapt it a little more, Simmons (circa 1999-2003 at least) would just stick with the clunky, literal line.

Again though, Simmons has got better in the years since he subtitled Z. I can't remember where I read this, I think it was somewhere on this forum, but apparently if it wasn't already established that Dragon Ball's official subtitles use honourifics, Simmons would have not used them in Kai.

[Adamant]

Certainly it is in some cases. "And that's what you call the weasel's last fart" for instance, comes off as jarringly goofy for where it is in the Goku vs Vegeta fight in Z, but in Kai he changed the idiom out for some alternative in English (can't remember exactly what).

Sure, but that's just translating an idiom literally (which I agree is not ideal). What I was saying is that there's this belief that the reason the various sub lines are phrased the way they are is because they stick very close to the original Japanese sentence structure, and that's not really the case.

There's also the fact he always included honourifics (which really aren't necessary)

There's this utterly bizarre belief among monolingual English-speaking anime fans that this is some sort of weird peculiarity you only find in anime subtitles, when the actual fact is that it's a standard practice all over the world for translations from all kinds of languages to all kind of languages. Hell, one of the only places you tend to NOT find this is English anime subtitles, since anime translators have somehow circlejerked forth this notion that "real translators don't do this". It's weird.

and translated God's name as "Kami-sama",

So did the English dubs.

and the world tournament as "Tenkaichi Budoukai"

I believe Simmons used "Tenkaichi Tournament". Leaving "budokai" in Japanese is a dubism found in video game titles and such.