Danish - the most unique European dub of Dragon Ball Z

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So with the recent confirmation that when Dragon Ball Super comes to Denmark this autumn it will be indeed getting a Danish dub I thought it would be fun to look back at the Danish dub of Dragon Ball Z, which I must say is the most unique of all the show's European dubs.

Why is it unique?

• Rock the Dragon is used for the OP despite the dub itself using Kikuchi's score
• Like the German dub the scripts do their fair share of referencing it, although a local edition of the manga is used to make corrections where necessary, in this case the Danish manga, which used direct transliterations of the Japanese names for each character. Nonetheless the dub inherits the French dub cuts (might even be AB's edit of the Japanese version)
• It is the only Scandinavian territory thus far to get a dub of the series (all the rest either got movie and special dubs or in Finland's case English)
• The dub contains a lot of swears, but apparently because its seen as "cool" for animation in Denmark, kinda like how it was for South Park elsewhere. The way characters talk has been compared to Speed Racer

The translator was Søren Lampe. Also, while only 104 episodes have been released 160-180 episodes have been recorded as confirmed by the director Jan Tellefsen.

The cast was as follows:

Spoiler:

Caspar Phillipson : Goku
Pauline Renhé : Kid Gohan
Christian Damsgaard : Yamcha, Captain Ginyu, Raiti, Zarbon, Piccolo
Kristian Boland : Vegeta, Gregory
Micheal Elo : Nappa, Zaacro, Cui, Guru, Porunga, Bardock, King Yemma
Peter Secher Schmidt : Raditz, Freeza, Tenshinhan, Kami
Jan Tellefsen : Kuririn, Burter
Mei Oulund : Bulma, Chi-Chi, Lunch
Jørn Gottlieb : Narrator

This dub was produced by Danmarks Radio for their linear channel DR1, recorded at Adaptor D&D and premiered on their channel on August 26, 2002. Prior to broadcast Dragon Ball Z was expected to be shown every day at primetime. According to papers from the time it was aired Monday-Friday at 5.35pm, and by late October it was airing exclusively at 5.05pm on Mondays and 10am on Saturdays.

This doesn't mean Dragon Ball Z wasn't doing well on Danish TV, as Derek Padula has found in his research Danmarks Radio bought the license to new episodes and dubbed them as they received them, so likely production slowed down at some point but then picked up again.

The latest info I could find about the original run on DR1 was June 2005 but nonetheless Dragon Ball Z was taken off the air at some point. Danish Broadcasting Corp were given a license from TOEI's broker Plus Licens in 2011 however and began to air the Danish dub once again on DR Ramasjang from January 17th the same year. Another channel DR Ultra aired the Danish dub but this run ended on January 31, 2014.

Is there anyone here who watched this dub or grew up with it? Would love to hear your stories.

[Tian]

Rock the Dragon is used for the OP despite the dub itself using Kikuchi's score

If I recall correctly, our fellow German Kanzenshueer Timo had mentioned that when both RTL II and Andy Knote from ToyCo (a German music company known for recording German version of anime songs) were shown the Arianne opening, they didn't like it and they were offered to use the original Chala Head Chala for the German dub.

I guess it must have been the case for DR as well. Although I'm not sure why Rock the Dragon and not Chala Head Chala.

Also, while only 104 episodes have been released 160-180 episodes have been recorded as confirmed by the director Jan Tellefsen.

Man, that's bizarre as hell.

I mean, unless they recorded them at the same time as the DR Ramasjang's airing, it is really bizarre that they only aired 104 episodes in both the original run and the rerun and the other 56-76 episodes
went unaired (I really hope DR didn't dispose any of those masters)

[TheRed259]

There is also a Danish dub for Dragon Ball Z Movies 1-9 & TV Specials 1-2.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If I recall correctly, our fellow German Kanzenshueer Timo had mentioned that when both RTL II and Andy Knote from ToyCo (a German music company known for recording German version of anime songs) were shown the Arianne opening, they didn't like it and they were offered to use the original Chala Head Chala for the German dub.

I guess it must have been the case for DR as well. Although I'm not sure why Rock the Dragon and not Chala Head Chala.

Didn't think about that, but you have a good point.

I mean, unless they recorded them at the same time as the DR Ramasjang's airing, it is really bizarre that they only aired 104 episodes in both the original run and the rerun and the other 56-76 episodes
went unaired (I really hope DR didn't dispose any of those masters)

Yeah, it is really strange they didn't air those episodes if they were ready. Would be a shame if the masters were destroyed, so hopefully that's not the case.

It will be interesting to see what happens after Super if DR finish it, logically you'd think the next step would be Daima but if this new Danish dub catches on maybe they could dig into the older stuff.

Hell if 160-180 episodes of Danish Z exist DR could resume it after all these years as there would be less episodes to dub than if they were to dub Kai, which funnily enough there was a petition for that obviously went nowhere.

There is also a Danish dub for Dragon Ball Z Movies 1-9 & TV Specials 1-2.

I'm aware. Probably should have clarified but basically almost all of Scandinavia and the Nordics got those movies and specials with dubs. Finland only got a few VHS and DVDs but probably because they contained the Big Green dub and didn't sell. I don't think Iceland had their home releases either, and like Finland they didn't get dubs but the SF Studios releases of Z movies 1-9 and the 2 TV specials had localized subs for all these territories, which was neat.