Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

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Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Wrigglything » Fri Mar 24, 2023 6:33 am

What I mean is changing names from Kienzan to Destructo Disc and some new music inserts for the American version. What is the change compared to the Japanese versions, and how do you feel about them?

For me, I don't really like the Falconer score in the context of the show, even with edits that have silence in them, but individual tracks do stick out of my mind. The Final Flash and Ssj3 theme are ones that stick on my mind.

I also don't really mind interchanging terms like the aforementioned Kienzan as well as Tien and Tenshinhan. I guess me watching the dub growing up influenced these decisions.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:47 am

It was really only the English dub that made changes to that extent, so it's not really an international thing.


Anyways, names like Destructo Disk are dumb and the American replacement music is mostly awful and completely unfitting. Thankfully, Funimation has completely moved away from all of that.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Koitsukai » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:08 pm

I know the spanish dub turned Kamehameha into Onda Vital (Vital Wave), and it just sounds funny. Not in a good way, to me at least. I believe kaioken and genki dama also got different names, but I'm not too sure.
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by nineko » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:21 pm

Don't get me started on how mutilated the Italian version of the anime was, especially the original series (they got a little better with Z). Most names got overhauled, some even recycled, and if you feel bad about your "destructo disc", that same move became "cerchio magico" (literally: "magic circle") here, but there's much worse.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Jord » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:59 pm

I love the Japanese version but I have to admit that Rock the Dragon gets me pumped up way more than Cha-la.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Sat Apr 01, 2023 2:06 am

I love all those memes that make fun of the European Spanish dub dont seem to know that Italy also replaced Kamehameha with Onda Energetica. There's flags of random countries and all supposedly remained "faithful" except Spain who are of course portrayed as drooling morons. Even as a fan of the Latin American dub I always hated these memes.
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by NeoZ Duwang » Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:03 pm

One really weird thing in latin american dubs is that they gave Dr. Gero a family name, "Dr. Maki Gero". Thankfully it didn't stick
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Cold Skin » Mon Apr 03, 2023 3:07 pm

In the Dragon Ball Super anime in France, a character's name was changed as it was believed to be a reference to something and the reference was switched for a more popular reference in our country.

The character is Magetta, and it was believed to be the combined names of Mazinger Z and Getter Robo...
With Mazinger Z being less known than its spin-off series UFO Robot Grendizer, the name was modified to reflect the later series instead.

Therefore, Magetta was turned into Goldoma in the French dub (based on "Goldorak", the French name of Grendizer back when it aired at the end of the 70s).
It's a bit as if, in the US, Magetta had be turned into Grendima in reference to "Grendizer".

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:35 pm

NeoZ Duwang wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:03 pm One really weird thing in latin american dubs is that they gave Dr. Gero a family name, "Dr. Maki Gero". Thankfully it didn't stick
It did stick. Many in the Latin American fandom STILL call him Maki Gero or just doctor Maki. Even my brother. And if you meant to say "Well Z Kai corrected it" most of the fandom HATES Z Kai.

EDIT: @The post above: I dont think people are going to get that. I think you could compare it to Voltron which is THE Super Robo anime in the USA, so Voltima it is!
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by super michael » Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:56 am

MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:47 am It was really only the English dub that made changes to that extent, so it's not really an international thing.


Anyways, names like Destructo Disk are dumb and the American replacement music is mostly awful and completely unfitting. Thankfully, Funimation has completely moved away from all of that.
The Spanish dub has Kamehameha as Onda vital.

https://youtu.be/GUrSZRHr4Qw

I haven't watched the Spanish dub in many years, so I can't remember what else was different.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by sunsetshimmer » Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:02 am

I don't mind most of name changes from FUNimation dub. I also like Faulconer music a lot. Can't say the same about their music for GT which was awful. One change from FUNimation i love is giving Shadow Dragons not only actual names that made them easier to remember, but also making it so first letter of each dragons name combined into SHENRON. It was actually very smart of them.

About other versions though...Polish version of anime is 'famous' for some very stupid changes. Although it was based on French dub so some of them came from that. Some most noticable examples:
-Saiyans -> Space warriors
-Kamehameha -> Mightiest power
-Piccolo -> Satan Little Heart
-Kakarotto -> Clown
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by NeoZ Duwang » Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:06 am

Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:35 pm It did stick. Many in the Latin American fandom STILL call him Maki Gero or just doctor Maki. Even my brother.
Wait, what!?!?!? I guess I don't interact with the mainstream fandom enough, I just never saw anyone I know in real life or any my friends refer to him as that, so I just assumed that everybody forgot about that, kind of like how I've seen brazillian fans in the wild refer to Tullece and Coola as "Turles" and "Cooler" even though the dubs of those movies in Brazil used the former names
she/they.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by PurestEvil » Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:12 am

I really do not mind the name changes of attacks, especially if they're just rough translations of the Japanese names. I do have an issue with "Tri-beam", though.

Kikuchi made the superior soundtrack also.
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:57 am

I quite like the Tom Leenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris score used in the Westwood dub that was assembled by Ocean' Studios video editors and featured tracks from Megaman and Monster Rancher. It was quite atmospheric like the Kikuchi score although it had a mix of orchestral, rock, synth rock styles. As the music, even when it was intense the fact its played rather quietly makes it feel like a happy medium between the original Japanese and the more bombastic Faulconer Productions scores.

In terms of the scripting, most of the Westwood dub's changes were a result of the parent company Ocean's business arrangement with Funimation, which led to both companies sharing materials until at least the last 4 episodes of Z when Ocean switched to using the French video tracks.

The Blue Water dubs had their own romanizations, although they were closer to the Japanese approximation of the Chinese counting schemes of the original names than Funimation's names, such as "II Shenron" (pronounced "Eee Shenron" rather than "Omega Shenron", which is closer to "Yi Xing Long" as "Yi" is Chinese for "One".

Not necessarily a change per se, but casting Caitlynne Medrek, who was 13 at the time as Pan in GT was a nice touche, since she was closer to the character's age than a lot of the international castings.
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Tian » Tue Apr 04, 2023 7:25 pm

Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:35 pm
It did stick. Many in the Latin American fandom STILL call him Maki Gero or just doctor Maki. Even my brother. And if you meant to say "Well Z Kai corrected it" most of the fandom HATES Z Kai.
1) Welcome back to the forums. I knew I had the feeling something was missing here.

2) Eh, not really. Not in Argentina, at least.
We just call him as "El Doctor Gero" (for foreign folks, we pronounce it with a strong G) or "Gero". Not "Dr. Maki Gero" nor "Dr. Maki".

3) Actually, the opinion about Z Kai has changed over the years. It is no longer universally hated like it was years ago. In fact, there a lot of YT comments and tweets that are praising the Kai cast.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by majinboogc » Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:47 am

Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:35 pm
NeoZ Duwang wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 1:03 pm One really weird thing in latin american dubs is that they gave Dr. Gero a family name, "Dr. Maki Gero". Thankfully it didn't stick
It did stick. Many in the Latin American fandom STILL call him Maki Gero or just doctor Maki. Even my brother. And if you meant to say "Well Z Kai corrected it" most of the fandom HATES Z Kai.

EDIT: @The post above: I dont think people are going to get that. I think you could compare it to Voltron which is THE Super Robo anime in the USA, so Voltima it is!
As a matter of fact, it was just recently revived in the Latin American Dub of Super Hero.
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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by NeoZ Duwang » Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:16 pm

Knowing this makes me happy that Brazil just dubs over the japanese version these days. I can only wonder why they added the "Maki" name
she/they.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Tian » Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:37 pm

NeoZ Duwang wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:16 pm I can only wonder why they added the "Maki" name
It was a decision made by the dubbing director of the Latin American Spanish dub, Gloria Rocha.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by Koitsukai » Wed Apr 05, 2023 3:22 pm

A quick google search says that Gloria Rocha was too old fashioned, and never had any problems changing things if she didn't like something, and thought Gero sounded bad, like rude or something. She had some sushi for lunch that day and almost used the name Dr. Sushi, but realized it sucked, and then she remembered she also had maki that day, so it ended up being Dr. Maki.
When Toei learned about this, there was no going back, the episode had already aired, so they added Gero to Dr. Maki.

I cant' remember the order of the events, but I do remember that sometimes they would call him just Dr. Maki.

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Re: Thoughts about international versions and the changes it made?

Post by theoriginalbilis » Wed Apr 05, 2023 3:46 pm

I will say that I prefer most of the US names for the Z movies/TV specials. Not exactly a hot take, I know. They're more concise and clear.

Except for "Wrath of the Dragon"; which was actually more vague than the Japanese title. Is the Dragon Fist attack the "Wrath of the Dragon", or Hirudegarn?
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