Underrated dub contributions

[mecha3000]

So, the dub is kind of like a hot topic on this forum (in many cases, for good reason). But I want to focus on positive things that have come from the dub. I have four in particular that come, specifically from Chris Sabat (two from Kai, two from Super).

Kai #1. Redubbing "It's Over 9000!" specifically for Nicktoons Kai so there would be a Kai version of that iconic scene since the home release opted for the more accurate "It's Over 8000!"

Kai #2. Having TFS do the Cell Games re-enactment for Buu Kai (still bummed Toei axed it, but it lives on at YouTube and in the fandom)

Super #1. Bringing back Brian Drummond for Copy Vegeta

Super #2. Bringing James Marsters to voice Zamasu

Also, notice something about all four of these things? They all link to different aspects of Dragon Ball's history (Brian Drummond and Over 9000 from original/Ocean dub, cast from the TFS abridged series, and James Marsters who played Piccolo in the live-action movie).

I feel like in some ways, it gives the dub a unique identity and meta feel that even the sub can't replicate because all of these aspects come directly from the English side of Dragon Ball.

Anyone else have a positive dub opinion or not? Also, feel free to include other dubs other than the English dub.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'll go with contributions from the Canadian dubs because they are not as well liked, or as widely available as Funimation's dubs. While these are not all decisions made by a single individual it is likely a lot of them can be credited to Diana Gage as she oversaw the entire creative process for Westwood Z and Blue Water GT (not sure about Blue Water Dragon Ball, but I know SX10 confirmed with her that she was over all the creative choices for GT for sure).

The Blue Water dubs of original Dragon Ball and GT, as both are very underrated and have plenty of examples of underappreciated contributions. Original Dragon Ball in particular referenced Funimation's scripts but made corrections, which helped the dub in the long run, and GT was as faithful as the Pioneer movie dubs because it was translated directly from the Japanese version.

• DB #1 : Had more dialogue in the flashback sequence in episode 91 than the Japanese version and talked about how much the Crane Hermit loved his brother, but didn't make the mistake of suggesting they grew apart.
• DB #2 : Tournament announcer at 22nd Budokai recognizes Goku, Krillin, Yamcha and Jackie Chun, which establishes his fondness for them later on in the series when he tells Goku he knew they defeated Cell, not Mr Satan.
• DB #3 : In episode 113 a guard says "We have a situation here; a big green situation!".
• GT #1 : The decision to cast children as kid Goku and Pan as their actors Zoe Slusar and Caitlynne Medrek who were 14 and 13 respectively at the time was a nice touch.
• GT #2 : Casting actors similar sounding to the (likely) planned reprisals. Originally Ocean were going to dub GT in Vancouver, so we probably would have heard Kirby Morrow and Brian Drummond as Goku and Vegeta again, but I appreciate that Jeremiah Yurk and Roger Rhodes did their best to emulate their performances.
• GT #3 : The Evil Dragons' names follow the original scheme of "Chinese for [Number] Star Dragon". For example "One" is Yi, so the One-Star Dragon's name is Yi Xing Long, which once transliterated into Japanese that gives us Ī-Shinron and validates the Blue Water name "II Shenron", the most direct English romanisation of the Japanese pronunciation.

DB #1 and #2 fix issues in Funimation's dub of original Dragon Ball, namely the suggestion of a feud between the Crane Hermit and Tao Pai-Pai, which didn't make much sense given what we know about their relationship, as well as establishing the Tenkaichi Budokai announcers fondness for Goku and friends later on in the series when he tells Goku he knew they defeated Cell, not Mr Satan whereas in Funimation's dub Goku just said he liked his shirt and was thanked. DB #3 of course we know "Big Green" is a meme from the infamous English dub made in France although this was likely a coincidence because AB Groupe were only involved with distributing the Blue Water dub and providing video materials.

While GT #1 makes a separate point to #2 you can also link them together under a general heading of honouring the Westwood Z dub as I can hear some Saffron Henderson influence in Zoe Slusar's kid Goku, so the Blue Water actors were likely shown clips of the earlier dubs with the Canadian cast (maybe even BLT Dragon Ball where Henderson plays kid Goku) and told to match the performances as those characters. Cam Desmond was the director for these dubs so we can probably give him/her the credit for that. GT #3 also showcases the good work of Ocean Studios' writers, namely Alex Kind and Paul Coldrick who were credited for script adaptations.

As for some positive underrated aspects of the Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z:

• Z #1 : While scripts are largely the same as FUNimation Z there are some examples of smart amendments such as in episode 142 where Vegeta says to Cell "I do a lot of pushups and situps, and I drink plenty of milk" instead of "I do a lot of pushups and situps, and I drink plenty of juice".
• Z #2 : Throwback when the narrator says Kid Buu is coming to the "Next Dimension" (I think this was also in Funimation's dub, if it is then its something neat for both dubs) in the NEP for episode 278.
• Z #3 : During the final episode Goku's line "sounds thrilling doesn't it? Going head to head in an all-out battle" which is exclusive to the Westwood dub.

Of course for Z #1 neither line is very accurate, as in both the manga and the Japanese version Vegeta says he can't be bothered explaining how he got so strong, but I prefer "milk" to "juice" because being a better source of calcium, which is good for bone health I applaud Ocean for making the most out of the bad scripts they had at this moment. No explanation is needed for Z #2 other than "Saban dub". I also like Z #3, it really fits Goku because he's a character who lives to fight.

Diana Gage is also possibly to thank for some of the more accurate names and pronunciations in these dubs like "Instant Translocation", Kirby Morrow as Goku saying "Kai-O-Ken", Nyoibō, "Naw-Mek" and other faithful terms and sounds we may hear in the Ocean Kai dub, etc as Karl Willems said in one of the Anime Time Machine livestreams these things come from a guide provided by the producers.

[AliTheZombie13]

Whenever the dub itself parodies the original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gChsZbGtRR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6vWQuR70k

[Dragon ball master]

#1 they made the tree of might into 3 episode with Neps and recaps the fact that they did that is impressive.
#2 they used there digital paint to put a CG tree with the text the tree of might over the japanese text and they added english credits under the japanese credits for the opening
#3 they were responsible for the editing and censorship of kai that used of there dub and nicktoons dub kai
#4 they made a new version of rock the dragon for the US release of budokai 1
#5 they made promos that were 90s as 90s cartoons can be.
#6 they were able to compress the intro in the legacy of goku games.

[Vegetto95]

#1 they made the tree of might into 3 episode with Neps and recaps the fact that they did that is impressive.

Turning a 60 minute movie into three 20-minute episodes is not all that impressive, really. The movie itself was 61 minutes long almost precisely (that's including the opening and ending themes that were a 1m50s and 1m30s, respectively), and each "episode" was about 22 minutes... count about 2 minutes on for the opening and recap, and about 45 seconds for the NEP and outro (which was the average for the 1996 FUNi dub episodes), and that adds up pretty easily. Besides, the 96 dub was so heavily edited and condensed anyway that they had already been making up their own recaps and NEPs the whole time anyway, so doing so for movie 3 wasn't really anything different for them.

And really, none of that makes up for the three-episode version having a HEAVILY revised script that barely resembled the original Japanese version and instead contained all manner of the horrible dubisms of the day. That version was a FAR cry from the much more accurate home release version that the same fucking people put out just a year later in 1998.

#4 they made a new version of rock the dragon for the US release of budokai 1

Oh, joy. As if an entire minute of "dragon dragon rock the dragon dragon ball z dragon dragon rock the dragon come get me" repeated over and over and over and over again wasn't obnoxiously awful enough, they made an extended version that was a whole 50 seconds longer (almost twice as long!!)... and they did so by erasing Cha-La Head Cha-La that was there in the Japanese version. Yeah, sorry... I don't exactly find getting rid of the amazing original song (that put actual fucking effort into the lyrics and vocals) and replacing it with a "song" that was already fucking ear torture when it was only half the length to be a positive thing in the slightest.

#6 they were able to compress the intro in the legacy of goku games.

They really didn't, though. The opening of the first Legacy of Gokū game contained footage from the original "Rock the Dragon" opening, yes... but only 30 seconds worth (which is half of the entire thing; the full intro, as I just said above, was a minute long). So in other words, they only compressed HALF the intro. And even then, it's SO heavily compressed that it looks absolutely horrendous. Yeah, that was mainly due to the limitations of the GameBoy Advance, but still... it doesn't exactly look pretty lol


Also, you are talking about quite a few different "theys" here. FUNimation, Saban, Cartoon Network, Infogrames, and several other entities all were separately responsible for various things you mentioned. I feel like it's kinda misleading to just say "they" over and over again.

[MasenkoHA]

I honestly thought it was weird they did the "It's over 9000!" meme for the edited Kai dub, where the Nicktoons target audience was in like diapers when the clip became a meme.

[Majin Buu]

The Pioneer dubs of the first 3 Z movies, for showing that English DBZ could be faithful to the Japanese source material at a time when the TV series was very much not (Kaio-Ken instead of "Kayo-Ken" ), and for giving the Ocean cast the opportunity to be in DBZ dubs that at least met the bare minimum of what an English dub is supposed to do.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I honestly thought it was weird they did the "It's over 9000!" meme for the edited Kai dub, where the Nicktoons target audience was in like diapers when the clip became a meme.

I guess Chris Sabat wanted to redo that specific line as his performance in the 2005 redub wasn't very good.

For what it's worth Sabat's reading of that line in Kai was a huge improvement but it still doesn't compare to Brian Drummond's original performance.

[MasenkoHA]

I honestly thought it was weird they did the "It's over 9000!" meme for the edited Kai dub, where the Nicktoons target audience was in like diapers when the clip became a meme.

I guess Chris Sabat wanted to redo that specific line as his performance in the 2005 redub wasn't very good.

For what it's worth Sabat's reading of that line in Kai was a huge improvement but it still doesn't compare to Brian Drummond's original performance.

Sure, but back when the uncut dub was recorded the Over 9000! line hadn't become a meme yet. It's the same line because the UUE dub was mostly a copy and paste of the syndicated dub. Seems like Sabat was going for more of an understated delivery because "this isn't the Saturday Morning Cartoon you remembered this is the mature version with blood and we say the word die and the music is dire". Had the line already been a meme I'm sure Sabat!Vegeta would have gone for an over the top Drummond esque delivery in the UUE dub. The Nicktoons version for Kai is just screaming "HEY HEY WE DID THE MEME!! " Sabat got the line "right" in the uncut/home video version of Kai. I maintain, the tv version is some weird pandering to an audience that largely wasn't even old enough to remember the meme when it was a thing on YouTube

[Cure Dragon 255]

I will never stop praising what a Terrific idea it was to 4kids and Toei to bury their hatchet and ask Funimation for DBZKai for the Toonzai On The CW4KIDS. Even now I hope Crunchyrrol buys Litton and puts all their kid friendly anime on Network television. If Litton's uttermonopoly is okay, THIS would be too.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Sure, but back when the uncut dub was recorded the Over 9000! line hadn't become a meme yet. It's the same line because the UUE dub was mostly a copy and paste of the syndicated dub. Seems like Sabat was going for more of an understated delivery because "this isn't the Saturday Morning Cartoon you remembered this is the mature version with blood and we say the word die and the music is dire". Had the line already been a meme I'm sure Sabat!Vegeta would have gone for an over the top Drummond esque delivery in the UUE dub. The Nicktoons version for Kai is just screaming "HEY HEY WE DID THE MEME!! " Sabat got the line "right" in the uncut/home video version of Kai. I maintain, the tv version is some weird pandering to an audience that largely wasn't even old enough to remember the meme when it was a thing on YouTube

It's possible the "Over 9,000", as heard on Nicktoons was intended to be the final, definitive line for Kai even on the home releases. Considering Funimation's Kai dub doesn't shy away from appeasing people who watched Z on Toonami when it wants to, like keeping certain legacy castings, many lines not being incredibly different from the Z dub, obvious TV-safe lines like "Dude, mah truck!!" (which suggests the driver didnt die) carrying into the uncut dub I wouldn't be surprised if "Over 8,000" was an afterthought to please the purists and swapped for the "Over 9,000" line on Nicktoons because Funimation wanted to get some use out of it.

One of the more recent revelations about the Ocean Kai dub is that Brian Drummond was asked to record both an "Over 8,000" and an "Over 9,000" line and there was some conflict between the director who pushed for the iconic pronunciations and naming conventions and the producers who wanted a more faithful approach. We don't know which line was said in the final masters but by the sounds of things a recording for each of the two exists.

I could see a similar case of internal disagreement or too many cooks in the kitchen going on behind the scenes with Funimation's Kai dub. From what I've been told it's not an uncommon occurrence within companies. The fact terms like Makankōsappō, Kienzan and Taiyoken were dropped later on in Kai as well as the fact the Super dub went back to Z dub levels of adding jokes to the scripts makes me think those that were pushing for faithfulness on par with the Pioneer dubs eventually lost the battle, which is unfortunate but it is what it is.

[MasenkoHA]

Sure, but back when the uncut dub was recorded the Over 9000! line hadn't become a meme yet. It's the same line because the UUE dub was mostly a copy and paste of the syndicated dub. Seems like Sabat was going for more of an understated delivery because "this isn't the Saturday Morning Cartoon you remembered this is the mature version with blood and we say the word die and the music is dire". Had the line already been a meme I'm sure Sabat!Vegeta would have gone for an over the top Drummond esque delivery in the UUE dub. The Nicktoons version for Kai is just screaming "HEY HEY WE DID THE MEME!! " Sabat got the line "right" in the uncut/home video version of Kai. I maintain, the tv version is some weird pandering to an audience that largely wasn't even old enough to remember the meme when it was a thing on YouTube

It's possible the "Over 9,000", as heard on Nicktoons was intended to be the final, definitive line for Kai even on the home releases. Considering Funimation's Kai dub doesn't shy away from appeasing people who watched Z on Toonami when it wants to, like keeping certain legacy castings, many lines not being incredibly different from the Z dub, obvious TV-safe lines like "Dude, mah truck!!" (which suggests the driver didnt die) carrying into the uncut dub I wouldn't be surprised if "Over 8,000" was an afterthought to please the purists and swapped for the "Over 9,000" line on Nicktoons because Funimation wanted to get some use out of it.

That's true. When Bulma was explaining to Krillin what happened to Yamcha the broadcast version is the exact same dialog as the syndicated/UUE version but the home video release is closer to the Japanese dialog. The former wasn't anymore child friendly, if anything it was worse because Bulma calls Yamcha an idiot, so Funimation probably recorded the dialog for both versions and then decided to redub it for accuracy before the dvd release. Wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened for the over 8000/9000! line.