Underrated dubs?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Having rewatched the Blue Water dubs a lot in recent years I've come to really appreciate the talents of Ocean's translators and writers as any close comparison of their dialogue with Steve Simmons and Clyde Mandelin's subs (as Robo4900 and Danfun64 have done) reveals that their dubs of GT and original Dragon Ball (particularly the former and the latter the further it goes on) are extremely accurate, comparable to the gold standard of Dragon Ball English dubs, which is the Pioneer movies.

While some errors have been pointed out with Blue Water's dubs (namely Goku saying in GT episode 33 he was born on Earth, although Simmons' subtitles render Goku describing the Earth as "M-My land of birth" so its not really something Ocean can be blamed for, or episode 59 where Simmons' subs state "Vegeta, I'm going to use that same skill you used when you tried to blow Boo away!", meaning Ocean's line about Goku self destructing finally defeating Boo was more of an oversight than an actual bad translation) for the most part the scripts are quite competent, and evidently translated from the Japanese version as no other source has been cited as being similar. I'm still not sure about the line where Goku tells Yi Xing Long if he wanted to land a hit he should join a boyband in episode 58, as I believe in the Simmons subs Goku said something about being able to dodge by a hair's breadth, so it may have been an issue with getting the scripts ready on time or the writers thought it would make sense for Goku to make fun of Yi Xing Long (II Shenron / Omega Shenron depending on your dub) for not being able to bring out hits fast enough (as many pop songs can come and go in the charts, the US and Canada were also oversaturated with boybands and girlbands in the late 90s to the extent many got forgotten quickly. I've admittedly been critical of this line before, but it's far from being the most erroneous adaptation choice ever made in a Dragon Ball dub). Overall a great dub with positives far outweighing the negatives, and one I wish got more attention.

Additionally the even more overlooked Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball, which isn't exclusively translated from the Japanese version, like GT does reference Funimation's scripts early on but they are almost always rewritten to flow better, and in many cases, particularly later on the rewrites become more extensive, episode 45 being the first example of a completely original script which bears no resemblance to the corresponding Funimation episode and is very close to Simmons' subs, and fixes the intent of various scenes and character lines. Theres no implied feud between the Crane Hermit and Tao Pai Pai, Black having a sister isn't mentioned, nor is King Piccolo fighting beings all over the universe or the spoiler that both him and Kami were aliens. There are some oddities early on like in episode 25 where Nam says Goku will never regain consciousness whereas both the Funimation dub and Simmons' subs state Goku will sleep for 8-10 days, and neither the Blue Water nor Funimation dub rendered the scenes with the revelation about General Blue being gay correctly, but considering the entire dub was clearly recorded within less than 2 years straight after Blue Water GT I think its commendable the extent to which Ocean went to make a solid TV dub.

Of course a lot of the voices are so-so for each dub, although many border on being quite good like Zoe Slusar's Goku, Dave Pettitt's Shenron or Brendan Hunter's Tien/Tenshinhan, but most English dubs of Dragon Ball around this time didn't have amazing voice acting, so for their time Blue Water's performances were quite respectable, again given the tight deadlines they must have been under, possibly from AB Groupe to have new episodes ready to sell to Toonami UK (as these dubs were produced in Canada by Westwood Media and had to be shipped overseas) it is impressive what they were able to do in these circumstances. Would be great to be able to track down any of the translators or writers who worked on these dubs and ask about their mindset working on them, etc.

Does anyone else have examples of dubs they feel don't get enough appreciation or respect? Of course dubs of any language (not just English) are welcome.

[Tian]

Does anyone else have examples of dubs they feel don't get enough appreciation or respect? Of course dubs of any language (not just English) are welcome.

Polish dub of Kai.

It may not be a masterpiece but it doesn't suck as much as some people (mainly on YT) want you to believe.

[Cure Dragon 255]

European Portuguese.

Nah just kidding. Spain. The acting and casting was great. The dub was failed by awful scripts from France. If Spain had dubbed Kai it would be one of the best dubs bar none.

[Hellspawn28]

Blue Water's dub for GT is underrated. They use proper names for once like Oozaru and not something stupid like Great Ape. The performances and voices sound better too. Super Yi Xing Long and Sì Xīng Lóng doesn't sound like someone who is smoking several cigarettes in one succession. Dr. Myu doesn't have the bad German accent either.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Polish dub of Kai.

It may not be a masterpiece but it doesn't suck as much as some people (mainly on YT) want you to believe.

Yeah, the Canadian dubs always get trashed there. Think YouTube is the last place to go for any nuanced discussion about dubs because you always know the naysayers are just waiting to trash anything that's not what they're used to.

European Portuguese.

Nah just kidding. Spain. The acting and casting was great. The dub was failed by awful scripts from France. If Spain had dubbed Kai it would be one of the best dubs bar none.

A lot of the European dubs back in the day got screwed because AB Groupe only provided many of them with materials for the French dub, which had its share of issues.

Kinda surprised there hasn't been a European Spanish dub of Kai yet.

Blue Water's dub for GT is underrated. They use proper names for once like Oozaru and not something stupid like Great Ape. The performances and voices sound better too. Super Yi Xing Long and Sì Xīng Lóng doesn't sound like someone who is smoking several cigarettes in one succession. Dr. Myu doesn't have the bad German accent either.

Also "ki" and "artificial human", their Dragon Ball dub also has "Nyoibō" and Goku introduces himself as "Son Goku". Honestly there's moments the Blue Water dubs feel like love letters to the Japanese version. Its a shame that they've never got the credit they deserve.

And yes I quite like Noah Umholtz's Yi Xing Long, he always came across very cunning and dastardly. I love Chris Sabat but the last Evil Dragon was one of his worst performances.

[Dragon ball master]

If I had to choose one I'll go with the BLT dub. The Dubs vocie cast is really good like the voice of goku to me fits perfectly for the early episodes. The replacement score was a nice even if thebtracks we limited the tracks on the cd were long so they can just use a certain part. And compared to gt. gt had more episodes with short songs so they have to play the songs over and over for much longer so BLT did it better, And the transition to the blt dub to funi was not looked at enough. For some early vhs copys of the tournament saga and movie 2 they still uses the blt db logo and they even used blt music for movie 2s promo. But the dub didn't go well so they decided to dub dbz and it was a smash hit. so the blt dub give us the ocean dub and if the blt dub did well then we wouldn't have dbz intill the early 2000s. So the blt dub is Underrated.

[Cure Dragon 255]

If I had to choose one I'll go with the BLT dub. The Dubs vocie cast is really good like the voice of goku to me fits perfectly for the early episodes. The replacement score was a nice even if thebtracks we limited the tracks on the cd were long so they can just use a certain part. And compared to gt. gt had more episodes with short songs so they have to play the songs over and over for much longer so BLT did it better, And the transition to the blt dub to funi was not looked at enough. For some early vhs copys of the tournament saga and movie 2 they still uses the blt db logo and they even used blt music for movie 2s promo. But the dub didn't go well so they decided to dub dbz and it was a smash hit. so the blt dub give us the ocean dub and if the blt dub did well then we wouldn't have dbz intill the early 2000s. So the blt dub is Underrated.

I LOVE the BLT dub the opening is amazing. And it has the most awesome crossover even for the premiere. GOOF TROOP AND TINY TOONS. What's not to love?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If I had to choose one I'll go with the BLT dub. The Dubs vocie cast is really good like the voice of goku to me fits perfectly for the early episodes. The replacement score was a nice even if thebtracks we limited the tracks on the cd were long so they can just use a certain part. And compared to gt. gt had more episodes with short songs so they have to play the songs over and over for much longer so BLT did it better, And the transition to the blt dub to funi was not looked at enough. For some early vhs copys of the tournament saga and movie 2 they still uses the blt db logo and they even used blt music for movie 2s promo. But the dub didn't go well so they decided to dub dbz and it was a smash hit. so the blt dub give us the ocean dub and if the blt dub did well then we wouldn't have dbz intill the early 2000s. So the blt dub is Underrated.

I think the BLT dub is more overlooked than underrated, as it seems to be relatively well liked among the fans who have seen it, many fans I've spoken to have gone as far as to say its as good as a 90s edited TV kids anime dub could be. I've never seen the claim ratings were poor substantiated. More than likely it did reasonably well considering the poor timeslots SeaGull gave it. We know for sure that 13 more episodes were pre-produced, there was a toy line with Krillin/Kuririn and Lunch figures, VHS and DVD sets. Its more likely Funimation had a bad deal going on with SeaGull, wanted to get out of it as soon as possible, Saban swept in with a better deal, offering better timeslots, better merchandising deals, etc, and most of all helped them negotiate with TOEI to skip ahead to Z. So due to circumstance and perhaps a bit of luck Funimation had more success with Dragon Ball Z, but theres no reason to think that had a better deal been in place they could have had similar levels of success with BLT Dragon Ball.

[Cure Dragon 255]

If I had to choose one I'll go with the BLT dub. The Dubs vocie cast is really good like the voice of goku to me fits perfectly for the early episodes. The replacement score was a nice even if thebtracks we limited the tracks on the cd were long so they can just use a certain part. And compared to gt. gt had more episodes with short songs so they have to play the songs over and over for much longer so BLT did it better, And the transition to the blt dub to funi was not looked at enough. For some early vhs copys of the tournament saga and movie 2 they still uses the blt db logo and they even used blt music for movie 2s promo. But the dub didn't go well so they decided to dub dbz and it was a smash hit. so the blt dub give us the ocean dub and if the blt dub did well then we wouldn't have dbz intill the early 2000s. So the blt dub is Underrated.

I think the BLT dub is more overlooked than underrated, as it seems to be relatively well liked among the fans who have seen it, many fans I've spoken to have gone as far as to say its as good as a 90s edited TV kids anime dub could be. I've never seen the claim ratings were poor substantiated. More than likely it did reasonably well considering the poor timeslots SeaGull gave it. We know for sure that 13 more episodes were pre-produced, there was a toy line with Krillin/Kuririn and Lunch figures, VHS and DVD sets. Its more likely Funimation had a bad deal going on with SeaGull, wanted to get out of it as soon as possible, Saban swept in with a better deal, offering better timeslots, better merchandising deals, etc, and most of all helped them negotiate with TOEI to skip ahead to Z. So due to circumstance and perhaps a bit of luck Funimation had more success with Dragon Ball Z.

I know this is about the BLT dub but I feel so sad I cant find the thread about the executive from Saban Entertainment (A woman) who saw DBZ and thought "Well, that could be interesting."

[TheRed259]

I don't know if the Greek dub of the Dragon Ball Z anime could be described as underrated but I definitely think that there are quite a few good acting moments that are overshadowed by the fast production of the dub and with all that entails, the various sources of the script, the limited cast as well as the voice filters in several characters which most people probably didn't like.

[90sDBZ]

I feel the Saban dub of Seasons 1-2 doesn't get enough love these days from the wider fanbase.

It's probably more overlooked than underrated. Many newer fans have never seen it, and in some cases don't even know it exists. Obviously the fact that it hasn't had a re-release since 2013 doesn't help (and even that was limited).

It's the dub that most English speaking countries started with, and set the precedent for how the characters would sound in English.

There's also a stigma associated with it due to the censorship, with "Next Dimension" becoming a meme. While these criticisms are valid, I've never been bothered by it that much. The characters actually do go to another dimension when they die afterall. "Brilliant scientist" is a bit harder to defend, but the scene has its charm.

Aside from that, the performances are mostly great, and Ron Wasserman's score is awesome.

I also enjoy a lot of the cheesy lines, and over the top performances. Drummond's Vegeta was incredible early on, and I still think of him as early Vegeta.

[Tian]

Yeah, the Canadian dubs always get trashed there. Think YouTube is the last place to go for any nuanced discussion about dubs because you always know the naysayers are just waiting to trash anything that's not what they're used to.

Yup, they're as annoying as some of my fellow Latin Americans bashing the European Spanish dub.

Man, by this point, they should know that most of the EU Spanish dub's mistakes were due to the source material (French dub)

Another dub I remember that is underrated but for a different reason is the Russian dub. Despite the video quality and the script, it's good in terms of voice acting and cast.

However, it is underrated because it wasn't popular among audiences due to its bad schedule time (weekend early mornings) and the TV station that aired it is seen as controversial (there are even some Russian voice actors like Aleksandr Gavrilin who refuse to work for dubs aired in the channel)

It's a pity because had Z been premiered in the 90s in Russia, no matter whether it was voice-over or a dub of the French version, I think it would have been a hit in the country or at least, it would have had a better reception than in 2011...

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

There's also a stigma associated with it due to the censorship, with "Next Dimension" becoming a meme. While these criticisms are valid, I've never been bothered by it that much. The characters actually do go to another dimension when they die afterall.

For what it's worth in Super when Goku and Vegeta began their training and the path behind was disappearing Whis said they could fall into another dimension, even in the Japanese version. Whether this was an intentional throwback or a coincidence is anyone's guess.

But yes I love the Saban dub too. The Ocean cast's performances make all those corny lines entertaining at least.

[Tian]

The Ocean cast's performances make all those corny lines entertaining at least.

True. Despite that the script they were given to work with would be better suited for a western cartoon, they still gave really damn good performances.

That's why I'm looking forward to the Ocean Kai dub because if FUNi redeemed themselves from their horrible Z dub with Kai, maybe the Ocean cast gave all they've got with their Kai dub.

Hell, it is even known that they recasted Goku in order to stay true to the original version and I want to believe it when this dub releases... someday.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The Ocean cast's performances make all those corny lines entertaining at least.

True. Despite that the script they were given to work with would be better suited for a western cartoon, they still gave really damn good performances.

That's why I'm looking forward to the Ocean Kai dub because if FUNi redeemed themselves from their horrible Z dub with Kai, maybe the Ocean cast gave all they've got with their Kai dub.

Hell, it is even known that they recasted Goku in order to stay true to the original version and I want to believe it when this dub releases... someday.

Scott Mc Neil is the only actor who can make "I'm phasing into another dimension" work.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

That's why I'm looking forward to the Ocean Kai dub because if FUNi redeemed themselves from their horrible Z dub with Kai, maybe the Ocean cast gave all they've got with their Kai dub.

And, as I've mentioned with the example of the Blue Water dubs Ocean write their own scripts based on direct translations from the Japanese version. Westwood Z was the exception because they were under pressure to sell their dub to networks. I urge anyone who hasn't done so to compare Blue Water scripts to the Simmons and Mandelin subtitles. You'll be pleasantly surprised how faithful they are, particularly GT and later episodes of original Dragon Ball.

Scott Mc Neil is the only actor who can make "I'm phasing into another dimension" work.

Brian Drummond too.

[Cure Dragon 255]

That's why I'm looking forward to the Ocean Kai dub because if FUNi redeemed themselves from their horrible Z dub with Kai, maybe the Ocean cast gave all they've got with their Kai dub.

And, as I've mentioned with the example of the Blue Water dubs Ocean write their own scripts based on direct translations from the Japanese version. Westwood Z was the exception because they were under pressure to sell their dub to networks. I urge anyone who hasn't done so to compare Blue Water scripts to the Simmons and Mandelin subtitles. You'll be pleasantly surprised how faithful they are, particularly GT and later episodes of original Dragon Ball.

Scott Mc Neil is the only actor who can make "I'm phasing into another dimension" work.

Brian Drummond too.

KNEW you would say that, but look at the wording. Vegeta never goes into another dimension. What he DOES DO is send Cui and Dodoria and he makes "I WILL LET YOU GO TO ANOTHER DIMENSION" work.

[Tian]

And, as I've mentioned with the example of the Blue Water dubs Ocean write their own scripts based on direct translations from the Japanese version. Westwood Z was the exception because they were under pressure to sell their dub to networks. I urge anyone who hasn't done so to compare Blue Water scripts to the Simmons and Mandelin subtitles. You'll be pleasantly surprised how faithful they are, particularly GT and later episodes of original Dragon Ball.

I did watch some of the Blue Water dub (mostly GT) and even though some casting choices were questionable, since apparently they were told to try to sound as similar as the Ocean / Westwood voices for consistency, it's a more enjoyable experience than the FUNi's GT dub.

You want the original soundtrack by Akihito Tokunaga? Blue Water.
You want a script that doesn't divert from the original version? Blue Water.
And you want a dub that doesn't try to sound dark and edgy? Blue Water again.

[MasenkoHA]

There's also a stigma associated with it due to the censorship, with "Next Dimension" becoming a meme. While these criticisms are valid, I've never been bothered by it that much. The characters actually do go to another dimension when they die afterall. "Brilliant scientist" is a bit harder to defend, but the scene has its charm.

Next dimension really isn't too bad of a cover up (although saying they were sent to the Next World would have been better) but "All these civilians totally escaped Nappa's attack" and "Don't worry nobody dies on Namek they just get really big boo boos" were much more annoying cases of Saban's draconian standards placed on the show

I also enjoy a lot of the cheesy lines, and over the top performances. Drummond's Vegeta was incredible early on, and I still think of him as early Vegeta.

It helps the Ocean cast were talented enough to make those cheesy lines palatable. Get lesser actors to act in an equally cheesy script and you get, well, the season 3 dub.

[Cure Dragon 255]

And, as I've mentioned with the example of the Blue Water dubs Ocean write their own scripts based on direct translations from the Japanese version. Westwood Z was the exception because they were under pressure to sell their dub to networks. I urge anyone who hasn't done so to compare Blue Water scripts to the Simmons and Mandelin subtitles. You'll be pleasantly surprised how faithful they are, particularly GT and later episodes of original Dragon Ball.

I did watch some of the Blue Water dub (mostly GT) and even though some casting choices were questionable, since apparently they were told to try to sound as similar as the Ocean / Westwood voices for consistency, it's a more enjoyable experience than the FUNi's GT dub.

You want the original soundtrack by Akihito Tokunaga? Blue Water.
You want a script that doesn't divert from the original version? Blue Water.
And you want a dub that doesn't try to sound dark and edgy? Blue Water again.

Tian is one of my favorite posters here lol.