How General Blue's sexuality was censored in the Greek dub of ANT1

[TheRed259]

A very interesting video was uploaded showing how General Blue's sexuality was censored in the Greek dub of ANT1 from 1995. In episodes 46, 47, 48, 49 and 51 Blue was referred to as a woman and they gave him a female voice while in episodes 50, 52-59 Blue was referred to as a man and has a male voice.

When the series was released on DVD in 2011, DeAgostini did not only cut out the audio where he was referred to as a woman but also edited the audio from the original ANT1 dub by changing the pitch of Blue's female voice actress so that she sounds like man.

In the first part is the edited version of DeAgostini and in the second one is the original version from ANT1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjv5Ovzt8ZI

[JulieYBM]

Country so obsessed with a gay man's sexuality that they trans his gender and turn him into a presumably the straightest trans dyke of all time. Amazing.

[MasenkoHA]

Seems weird to give a character a sex change when they're clearly male (and get plenty of shirtless scenes to confirm that).

And it's not like a Sailor Moon scenario where said gay character is in relationship with a man or frequently crossdresses to get the attraction of multiple men. All of Blue's "gayness" can be done away with by dialog rewrites and a few snippety snips on some small scenes.

Country so obsessed with a gay man's sexuality that they trans his gender and turn him into a presumably the straightest trans dyke of all time. Amazing.

This is another point I didn't think of. They just made Blue a pre-op trans woman.

Reminds me of when the old Sailor Moon SuperS English dub made Fish Eye a woman. One episode had the character rip their shirt off to make it clear they were born male. For the edited version they just badly danced around it with cuts and zoom ins to not show said chest. But since the uncut dub didnt bother with alternate dialog the character was now plain as day a trans woman since they were still referred to with she/her pronouns.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Wasn't the Greek dub also inconsistent about Freeza's gender by saying he was a woman first and then correctly referring to him as a male?

General Blue has been tricky for any dubs to respect from what I can tell. He's an antagonist and has an attraction to a child, so while in most cases I'd be against any dubs censoring a character being gay its hard when viewers/readers are already predisposed to not liking him unless they root for the bad guys.

On a similar note to your case Mandelin's English subs have Blue say "A-Actually, I look like a girl, but I'm really a guy!" and then "As if any men have breasts like that!". So even though neither Funimation nor Blue Water's dubs had similar lines I don't blame them because the former could be seen as transphobic and the latter doesn't present gay men in a positive light as there is nothing wrong with them not finding women attractive so I don't like it sounding like they think only men exist and mocking a female for not looking like them.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Also there was the infamous thing in Cloverway's dub of Sailor Moon S where Haruka and Michiru's/Amara and Michelle's relationship to one another is altered because even if they had tried to cover it up by hilariously calling them "cousins" like every five seconds all the scenes of them blushing, or getting touchy feely with one another or other characters (Chibiusa.etc) blushing around them still give away what's actually happening. It's by far one of the if not THE funniest things about the older SM dubs. It makes it look like they're just close relatives (like really close...to almost incestuous levels) but even with that the editing of the dialogue is so obvious in that they were trying to make it look like these two were almost surely NOT into each other that way but pretty much anyone with a brain can figure out what's really happening.

[TheRed259]

Wasn't the Greek dub also inconsistent about Freeza's gender by saying he was a woman first and then correctly referring to him as a male?

Well, in Dragon Ball Z before he appears on the screen they were referring to him as a man (up until ep. 43). When he was introduced in ep. 44 they were referring to him as a woman and they gave him a female voice. After more than 1 year without any new episodes on TV, when the series returned with ep. 78 Frieza was referred to as a man and has a male voice up until ep. 87. From ep. 88 onwards Frieza was referred to as a woman and gets his female voice back but he was still referred to as a man in some scenes maybe due to the fact that the changes to the script were made in the last second I guess? Also, in Dragon Ball Z Frieza can be heard with a male voice once again in eps. 146, 284 and 286.

[JulieYBM]

Seems weird to give a character a sex change when they're clearly male (and get plenty of shirtless scenes to confirm that).

And it's not like a Sailor Moon scenario where said gay character is in relationship with a man or frequently crossdresses to get the attraction of multiple men. All of Blue's "gayness" can be done away with by dialog rewrites and a few snippety snips on some small scenes.

Country so obsessed with a gay man's sexuality that they trans his gender and turn him into a presumably the straightest trans dyke of all time. Amazing.

This is another point I didn't think of. They just made Blue a pre-op trans woman.

Reminds me of when the old Sailor Moon SuperS English dub made Fish Eye a woman. One episode had the character rip their shirt off to make it clear they were born male. For the edited version they just badly danced around it with cuts and zoom ins to not show said chest. But since the uncut dub didnt bother with alternate dialog the character was now plain as day a trans woman since they were still referred to with she/her pronouns.

Shit, they also made her pre-HRT. It's not necessary to be trans, of course, but damn, at least let the poor girlie grow her tiddies.

[MasenkoHA]

Shit, they also made her pre-HRT. It's not necessary to be trans, of course, but damn, at least let the poor girlie grow her tiddies.

The real reason she joined the Red Ribbon Army, the great Healthcare plan to pay for her HRT.

That Capsule Corp health coverage aint shit

[JulieYBM]

Shit, they also made her pre-HRT. It's not necessary to be trans, of course, but damn, at least let the poor girlie grow her tiddies.

The real reason she joined the Red Ribbon Army, the great Healthcare plan to pay for her HRT.

That Capsule Corp health coverage aint shit

I know a few trans women who are veterans and get their HRT through the VA for free and shipped to their houses. There is irony and dark humor in the war machine having to pay to turn their former soldiers into the hottest and happiest women you've ever seen, and in my humble opinion as a professional bisexual woman, it is honestly amazing.

On a darker note, though, god, it would have been insane if Toriyama had just straight up made Blue a trans woman. The homophobia was bad on its own, but the transphobia would be even worse...

[TheGreatness25]

Could they not just go Funimation's route and change up his dialog? Since it was such a big deal for them. I don't know, just doesn't seem like they followed the path of least resistance.

[TheRed259]

I also leave open the possibility that maybe they were initially confused by the Japanese voice actor's performance in these first episodes.

Later on besides Frieza they also made Dodoria and Zarbon females as well, probably because of their looks I guess.

[Tian]

Later on besides Frieza they also made Dodoria and Zarbon females as well, probably because of their looks I guess.

Funnily enough, something similar happened in the Hungarian dub with Dodoria and almost with Freeza.

Freeza was originally called "Dermesztina" in the dub when he was first mentioned but it was later changed to "Dermeszto" when he showed up.

For those wondering, the Hungarian dub translated several names in a literal way. Dermeszto basically means "Freezer" and Dermesztina "Freezer-Tina" in Hungarian.

[TheRed259]

Very interesting info Tian!

However, when it comes to gender changes I was also really impressed by the fact that they made Upa a girl in some episodes in the Latin American dub since this dub is considered one of the good ones. But as it seems they had quite a few problems as SeldionDB showed in his videos.

Sometime we should collect all gender changes from the various dubs around the world!

[Tian]

However, when it comes to gender changes I was also really impressed by the fact that they made Upa a girl in some episodes in the Latin American dub since this dub is considered one of the good ones. But as it seems they had quite a few problems as SeldionDB showed in his videos.

Yeah, even though I grew up with it, I can't deny the LATAM Spanish dub also had its mistakes.

In Upa's case, Gloria Rocha (the voice director) probably mistook him as a girl. Fortunately, it was fixed for later episodes.

And regarding the main topic, if I recall correctly, General Blue's dialogues were modified to make him sound straight. Whenever someone called him effeminate, it was changed to coward in the LatAm Spanish dub.

Sometime we should collect all gender changes from the various dubs around the world!

It would be really interesting to document those cases.

I know there are more around like Selypa in one of the Brazilian Portuguese dubs of the Bardock special (Parisi Video dub) and Master Karin, whose gender was suddenly changed in the Hungarian dub of OG Dragon Ball and has been kept as female since then.

[MasenkoHA]

Could they not just go Funimation's route and change up his dialog? Since it was such a big deal for them. I don't know, just doesn't seem like they followed the path of least resistance.

It does seems like they created more work for themselves

If it's because they thought Blue's mannerisms were too effiminate, damn even the Hays Code would tell them to lighten up

[JulieYBM]

I still can't get over turning Blue into a woman because he acted like such a gay stereotype. That's the shit weirdos accuse trans people of doing to supposedly cisgay people to make them 'straight'. It's projection of the highest order.

[TheRed259]

It would be really interesting to document those cases.

Do you happen to know if Cooler is a woman in the Korean dub? He is voiced by a woman just like Frieza but is he referred to as a woman in this dub?

Spoiler:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... yJWBt8M3H4 (DBZ Movie 5)

[Tian]

It would be really interesting to document those cases.

Do you happen to know if Cooler is a woman in the Korean dub? He is voiced by a woman just like Frieza but is he referred to as a woman in this dub?

Spoiler:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... yJWBt8M3H4 (DBZ Movie 5)

I don't really check the Korean dubs often, so unfortunately, I've got no idea but I am gonna check those anyway. Thanks for the link!

By the way, since you mentioned that Freeza went back to be female in the Greek dub of Ep. 88, wasn't it also the episode where Goku started being voiced by Themis Psihogios, who was voicing Freeza before that episode?

I'm aware that since the Greek dub's cast was small, the fact that an actor played both "hero" and "villain" roles was difficult to avoid but it's really funny that when Psihogios was cast as Goku, he automatically stopped voicing Freeza and as such, Freeza's gender was changed again and given back to his original voice actress.

[TheRed259]

By the way, since you mentioned that Freeza went back to be female in the Greek dub of Ep. 88, wasn't it also the episode where Goku started being voiced by Themis Psihogios, who was voicing Freeza before that episode?

Yes.

[jaisonas]

A very interesting video was uploaded showing how General Blue's sexuality was censored in the Greek dub of ANT1 from 1995. In episodes 46, 47, 48, 49 and 51 Blue was referred to as a woman and they gave him a female voice while in episodes 50, 52-59 Blue was referred to as a man and has a male voice.

When the series was released on DVD in 2011, DeAgostini did not only cut out the audio where he was referred to as a woman but also edited the audio from the original ANT1 dub by changing the pitch of Blue's female voice actress so that she sounds like man.

In the first part is the edited version of DeAgostini and in the second one is the original version from ANT1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjv5Ovzt8ZI

I gotta say i've got almost no recollection of the original run of dragonball on ant1 but DeAgostini did a decent job with the cover-up. Blue almost sounded like he was voiced by Παυλίδης.