MasenkoHA wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 7:55 pm
[Oh yeah, I guess it would have been weird if the UUE dub had accurately translated scripts just to transition to the 99 dub shitfest in the middle of the conflict with the Ginyus.
I mean, very soon after, they did a (partial) redub of the "season three"/"Captain Ginyu/Frieza sagas" stuff in the "Season Three" orange brick DVD box set in 2008, where quite a few VAs re-recorded their lines (and a few got out-and-out replaced, like Butta/"Burter", Dende, and the narrator). In particular, Sonny Strait, Chris Sabat, and Stephanie Nadolny redubbed ALL of their lines as Kuririn, Vegeta, and Gohan (though Sabat unfortunately left his 1999-2000 Piccolo performance alone, which IIRC you've (accurately) referred to in the past as "Moron Piccolo"
, so we still get the same absolutely lovely "YES YES YES I.CAN.WIN.I.FEEL.GREAT.I!CAN!DO!THIS!UUARRGH!" from '99), but problem is... the vast majority of those re-voiced lines were the exact same.
You had that infamously AAAAWFUL "Woah... mondo cool!" "That's right, boys... MONDO COOL" scene (that also included the 1000% incorrect bullshit about "the liquid in the [healing] capsule is synthetic Saiyan DNA"... I can't even BEGIN to explain all the things wrong with that) being reproduced WORD FOR WORD, despite ALL THREE characters in the scene having re-recorded lines. Like, Sonny's Kuriririn sounds less high-pitched and nasally, Sabat's Vegeta sounds more deep and uncomfortably gravelly, and Stephanie's Gohan sounds less raspy. But they're all still saying the same dumb, juvenile "Mondo cool!!" garbage from nine years earlier. Like, WHY bother re-recording 40+ episodes of dialogue (I think they stopped re-doing every line at the end of the Garlic, Jr. arc) if they were gonna keep the same HORRIBLE dialogue? Clearly, FUNimation simply DID. NOT. CARE.
So yeah, while I definitely understand the notion that having the first 67 episodes be re-scripted to be more accurate to the Japanese version would be weird and offputting when they lead straight into the decidedly inaccurate 1999 episodes, at the same time... they DID also redo a LOT of material from those 1999 "season three" episodes. They COULD have gone all the way if they wanted to, but they chose to be fucking lazy, as always.
Even in Kai they would occasionally reuse old not all that accurate dialog from their Z dub.
Like the scene where Mr.Popo and Kami talk about the changing Piccolo, the Kai dub reuses the Z dub dialog word for word right down to omitting the bit that that Raditz going to the next world instead of being unable to pass on was a sign Piccolo was no longer a mazoku (which creates a dub only plot hole since the original Dragon Ball dub did keep the whole "those killed by Piccolo and his tribe can't pass on to otherworld and are doomed to suffer as restless spirits" albeit without explaining WHY that was a thing)
I mean, Kai's dub as a whole is NOWHERE NEAR the GIGANTIC improvement so many claim it is. On top of Kai just... not being a particularly good product at all even in its original Japanese for a dozen different reasons, the only real improvement in the Kai dub was the more accurate dialogue (and I suppose Chris Ayres' perfectly-okay-but-still-kinda-average performance as Freeza still being WAY better than Linda Young's ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS Freeza), but that's really about it. And it does count for a decent bit, sure, but here's the thing... aside from the correctly pronounced use of Makankosappo thankfully replacing "sPeCiAl BeAm CanNoN" (you know... the literally only two times it's ever said, which is only in the very first three episodes lol) and Kaiōken, and Grand Elder replacing "Guru", there's still SO many dub names and spelling and pronunciations that remain totally unchanged. The Kai dub still uses "Say in", "Tien", "Krillin", "King Kai" and "Supreme Kai", "Tri-Beam", "Flying Nimbus", "Shenron", "Yemma", "Korin", "Yah-djuh-row-bee", "Dr. Djuh-row", "Dabura", "Vegito", "Frieza", "Androids", "Guldo", "Recoome", "Jeice", "Burter", and so much other shit. Hell, they couldn't even be bothered to pronounce Kienzan correctly, and instead said "KienzEn" (I mean, I'm
*GLAD* "dEsTrUcTo DiSk" went away, but COME ON. That all but PROVES they didn't ACTUALLY care one bit).
And the voices, my god... yeah, they're still BAD. Contrary to the EXTRAORDINARILY popular belief that I've seen parroted time and time and time again both here and elsewhere (Reddit, YouTube, etc), 99.9% of the returning actors still sound EXACTLY the same as they did in the last few years of the Z dub in 2002-3. In particular, Kaiō-sama, Gyūmaō, Reacoom, second form Cell, fat Majin Boo, Yajirobe, Sea Turtle, Oolong, and more ALL still sound like absolute fucking IDIOTS who are IMPOSSIBLE to take seriously in ANY way and to ANY degree whatsoever. First form Cell and Butta's generic bug alien voices are still seriously grating. Muten Rōshi's southern hick accent and Jheese's Australian accent are still horribly, cartoonishly overdone. No. 16 still has his dumb, generic, monotone, emotionless robot voice. Sabat's Piccolo is still trying WAY too hard to be all "stoic and cool and suuuuper deeeeep-voiced". Sabat's Vegeta (the dub voice I hate the most by far) still sounds like the illegitimate lovechild of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan's stage voices that smoked a pack a day since the day he was born, and it's impossible to take him at all seriously as well (his forced, fake cartoon "tough guy" voice has honestly become SO obnoxiously gravelly that it's almost physically uncomfortable for me to listen to, kinda like a nails on a chalkboard sensation).
And a few of the new voices are even worse than their predecessors IMO; Nadolny's Gohan was never all that good, but anyone who thinks his new actress (I forget her name, nor do I care) sounds like a 4-5 year old in the Saiyan arc needs their ears checked (and if Nozawa could believably sound like a very young child when she was in her 50s/60s, which she absolutely DID... they have NO excuse). Vollmer's Blooma always sucked, but her Kai-onward actress (ditto with her name) turned the character into an ABSOLUTELY UNLIKABLE BITCH. Like... I can't. That's the real reason why the more accurate dialogue doesn't ACTUALLY improve things ANYWHERE NEAR as much as I see SOOOO many people keep saying... because said more accurate dialogue is STILL being delivered via a whoooole heapin' bunch of HORRIBLY unfitting '80s He-Man kiddie cartoon silly voices.
As a whole, Kai is a completely lazy, half-assed show to begin with, and FUNi's dub of it is equally lazy and half-assed. I'll take Japanese Z every single time over a half-assed dub of a half-assed show, thank you very much (or better yet, the manga lol).