Funimation's Early "Accurate dubs" vs their later work (Both DB and others)

[TheGreatness25]

I'm actually watching Yu Yu Hakusho now. I like the dub. I don't know how accurate it is (I will analyze it some other time), but I don't have reason to believe that it's inaccurate. That's that's different with Dragon Ball--the dialog was just so nonsensical so often, that it always triggered this alarm like "There's no way that's in the original." Yu Yu Hakusho doesn't have that. Honestly, the only thing I'll point out is that whatever Sabat was trying for Kuwabara is just not working for me.

[CashMane]

I mean I thought Blue Gender had a pretty good dub and that was like 2001-2002.

Chris Sabat mentioned in an interview that Blue Gender was the first time they made a conscious effort to stay true to the Japanese version. A lot of that was because the producers (read Barry Watson and Gen Fukanaga) didn't care about that show and weren't paying attention like they were for the Dragon Ball series and Yuyu Hakusho

Damn, no wonder it was so good lmao. From what I remember the show itself was pretty good too.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

If you wanna compare an old Funimation dub to their more current work we can use Dragon Ball as an example. A lot of old school fans hold the Funimation/Pioneer/Ocean Dub of the first 3 non canon movies in high regard. And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

Funimation's inhouse redub of the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies was an enormous downgrade from the Pioneer versions. Not only did they (ironically) censor all references to Hell but they also left out insert songs, added jokes and colloquialisms. The most baffling is the Tree of Might redub, which is based on the Saban TV version despite the Pioneer dub being available to base their scripts on. I'm sure Funimation would have punched them up, as they did with the first two movies making it less accurate than Pioneer's version but by using the Saban version they made an inaccurate TV dub even less accurate.

I wish the uncut Pioneer movies were included as extra audio tracks on the home releases because Funimation's redubs were just lousy inferior knockoffs, and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when the original Dragon Ball movies had three kid Gokus, three narrators, three Bulmas and two Oolongs.

[MasenkoHA]

and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when they had Colleen Clinkenbeard play kid Goku in movie 1 but Stephanie Nadolny in the other original Dragon Ball movies.

Worse. Nadolny is only Goku in Path to Power. Ceyli Delgadillo (Dende's first Texas voice before being redubbed by Laura Bailey) is Goku for Sleeping Princess and Mystical Adventure. In fact Path to Power is the only non-Z Dragon Ball movie to match the 1986 tv series Funi dub casting entirely. Probably because it was the only one dubbed while the original Dragon Ball series was being dubbed.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when they had Colleen Clinkenbeard play kid Goku in movie 1 but Stephanie Nadolny in the other original Dragon Ball movies.

Worse. Nadolny is only Goku in Path to Power. Ceyli Delgadillo (Dende's first Texas voice before being redubbed by Laura Bailey) is Goku for Sleeping Princess and Mystical Adventure. In fact Path to Power is the only non-Z Dragon Ball movie to match the 1986 tv series Funi dub casting entirely. Probably because it was the only one dubbed while the original Dragon Ball series was being dubbed.

I just remembered that there (probably just as you were typing and I was editing ) but the same goes for Bulma being played by Monica Rial (movie 1), Leslie Alexander (movie 2) and Tiffany Vollmer (movie 3 and Path to Power), Oolong having two between Bryan Massey (movie 1) and Brad Jackson (movies 2-3, Path to Power), actually now that I think about it there may have been three narrators too:

• John Swasey (movie 1)
• Chris Sabat (movies 2-3)
• Brice Armstrong (Path to Power)

But I guess like anything else its just a show of how half-assed the redub efforts were to begin with, especially with the pre-Raditz era material that Funimation never really cared about.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

Funimation's inhouse redub of the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies was an enormous downgrade from the Pioneer versions. Not only did they (ironically) censor all references to Hell but they also left out insert songs, added jokes and colloquialisms. The most baffling is the Tree of Might redub, which is based on the Saban TV version despite the Pioneer dub being available to base their scripts on. I'm sure Funimation would have punched them up, as they did with the first two movies making it less accurate than Pioneer's version but by using the Saban version they made an inaccurate TV dub even less accurate.

I wish the uncut Pioneer movies were included as extra audio tracks on the home releases because Funimation's redubs were just lousy inferior knockoffs, and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when the original Dragon Ball movies had three kid Gokus, three narrators, three Bulmas and two Oolongs.

I don't know how others feel, but the only times the dub team has ever produced something that felt that authentic to the original version since then was the dub of the first 3 canon movies (and Super Broly still had a major mistranslation left in). I can't comment on Super Hero's dub because I haven't seen it, but it uses "Special Beam Cannon" so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[MasenkoHA]

And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

Funimation's inhouse redub of the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies was an enormous downgrade from the Pioneer versions. Not only did they (ironically) censor all references to Hell but they also left out insert songs, added jokes and colloquialisms. The most baffling is the Tree of Might redub, which is based on the Saban TV version despite the Pioneer dub being available to base their scripts on. I'm sure Funimation would have punched them up, as they did with the first two movies making it less accurate than Pioneer's version but by using the Saban version they made an inaccurate TV dub even less accurate.

I wish the uncut Pioneer movies were included as extra audio tracks on the home releases because Funimation's redubs were just lousy inferior knockoffs, and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when the original Dragon Ball movies had three kid Gokus, three narrators, three Bulmas and two Oolongs.

I don't know how others feel, but the only times the dub team has ever produced something that felt that authentic to the original version since then was the dub of the first 3 canon movies (and Super Broly still had a major mistranslation left in). I can't comment on Super Hero's dub because I haven't seen it, but it uses "Special Beam Cannon" so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I remember watching the dub with the subtitles and I don't recall anything terribly inaccurate the only annoyances I remember having is they went back to Special Beam Cannon and Destructo Disk instead of Makankasoppa (sp?) and Kienzan and made a reference to power levels in place of ki when Kai and Super's dub had gotten so good at keeping power level references exclusive to when the Japanese version was using battle power and localizing ki as "energy"

They did finally reference Piccolo's past as the Great Demon King something the dub had never done before so that was cool.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

Funimation's inhouse redub of the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies was an enormous downgrade from the Pioneer versions. Not only did they (ironically) censor all references to Hell but they also left out insert songs, added jokes and colloquialisms. The most baffling is the Tree of Might redub, which is based on the Saban TV version despite the Pioneer dub being available to base their scripts on. I'm sure Funimation would have punched them up, as they did with the first two movies making it less accurate than Pioneer's version but by using the Saban version they made an inaccurate TV dub even less accurate.

I wish the uncut Pioneer movies were included as extra audio tracks on the home releases because Funimation's redubs were just lousy inferior knockoffs, and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when the original Dragon Ball movies had three kid Gokus, three narrators, three Bulmas and two Oolongs.

I don't know how others feel, but the only times the dub team has ever produced something that felt that authentic to the original version since then was the dub of the first 3 canon movies (and Super Broly still had a major mistranslation left in). I can't comment on Super Hero's dub because I haven't seen it, but it uses "Special Beam Cannon" so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Special Beam Cannon is nothing new, I'm pretty sure Piccolo said it in the Resurrection F dub.

It seems when Funimation started dubbing Kai the plan originally was to use more accurate terms for the home release and cater to old dub fans for the TV broadcasts, although apparently Nicktoons had very tight deadlines, which led to errors seeping through.

One such example was in the TV episodes of the Raditz fight Piccolo says Special Beam Cannon but for the recap they played the Makankōsappō line from the uncut DVD/Blu-Ray release, which was not intended to be heard on Nicktoons.

At some point, maybe halfway into the Kai dub there had just been too many cases like this, and with the Yamamoto chaos rushing the production even more, Chris Sabat resuming recording against his doctor's advised rest period just to get episodes on TV, Funimation seemingly stopped caring and resorted to using old dub terms for good.

Either that or they just decided it wasn't worth it trying to pander to purists. Chris Sabat did say after all the rationale for taking more liberties with the Super dub was to give fans something different because they had already seen the Japanese version (which I respectfully disagree with him on but each to their own).

[MasenkoHA]

[. Chris Sabat did say after all the rationale for taking more liberties with the Super dub was to give fans something different because they had already seen the Japanese version (which I respectfully disagree with him on but each to their own).

To be fair, there was definitely way more dub fans who otherwise wouldn't touch the Japanese version with a 50 foot Power Pole who did watch the sub, simply because it was easily accessible via Crunchyroll's Simulcast subs well before the English dub happened (not helping the dub aired on Toonami as cable cutting was becoming more common so dub fans likely either waited for the blu-rays, pirated the dub version, or didn't get around to watching it until Hulu acquired the dub)

Like there's definitely dub fans who waited until the dub happened and was available to them but Sabat isn't wrong that way more fans saw the Japanese version of Super than any of the previous series.

[JulieYBM]

There apparently hasn't been any dubbing done yet for the foreign language versions of Dragon Ball Daima, so I'm kind of curious as to whether or not the initial release in Fall 2024 will come with a simulcast dub or not. It would be really cool if there wasn't, so more people would watch Dragon Ball Daima with the original cast.

[TheGreatness25]

Either that or they just decided it wasn't worth it trying to pander to purists. Chris Sabat did say after all the rationale for taking more liberties with the Super dub was to give fans something different because they had already seen the Japanese version (which I respectfully disagree with him on but each to their own).

I feel like that's a backpaddle after they made such a big deal about being accurate for Kai. "Oh, we wanted to give fans something different because they already saw Super... So, we changed some stuff from the dialog here and there, but kept the music and video." I don't know what kinds of idiots Funimation took their fans for. I feel like they were more interested in having their own fun rather than produce quality work.

There are voice actors who are artists and who search for the character in their vocal performances. And then there's the majority of the Funimation cast who make silly voices and use them to get giggles out of fans at conventions and order pizzas using the voices and whatnot. Just like there are serious producers, directors, and translators and then there are those that want to slip in some funny lines to make themselves laugh. I'm not trying to throw shade at Funimation for it, but I never saw any one of them seriously sit down and explain how they were concerned with producing quality rather than having fun with each other. And maybe they're right, I don't know. But please don't give silly excuses. Just say that you were looking to have fun doing it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Sabat isn't wrong that way more fans saw the Japanese version of Super than any of the previous series.

He's not, but it still doesn't justify Funimation throwing in more jokes where they weren't needed, like Hit saying "Time to make the donuts". Granted its not to the same extent as their Z dub and generally the intent of most given scenes are the same, and there were some revised lines that were actually in-character like during Zamasu's conversation with Gowasu about overseeing mortals, in the Japanese version there was a line about how mortals must grow but in Funimation's dub this is replaced by a garden analogy, which is suitable as Zamasu was all about his vision of a beautiful universe, but most of the changes weren't made with such care.

I think the wait for Super did ultimately show the fans adamant they would never watch Dragon Ball without the Faulconer score (I kid you not, I've legit seen fans with massive YouTube followings claim this score is in Z seasons 1-2) were just a vocal minority, and a lot of fans who never watched the series in Japanese until Super was airing on Fuji TV did end up liking it. My introduction to the Japanese cast was with Super, so for that reason alone I'll always be grateful for the show existing regardless of any other issues it has.

Just say that you were looking to have fun doing it.

If I recall correctly Chris Sabat said them adding jokes in the Super dub was an extension of the humour between the cast in the booth, so he more or less did admit this was the reason.

[WittyUsername]

Regarding FUNimation’s pre-BoG movie dubs, their dub of Movie 11 is surprisingly pretty faithful too, outside of the fact that ‘Hercule’ is used interchangeably with ‘Mr. Satan.’ Of course, Movie 11 is widely considered the black sheep of the DBZ movies, so it’s not surprising that its dub never really gets brought up.

As for their dub of DBS, I actually do understand Chris Sabat’s rationale for why they punched up so much of the dialogue. A lot of the people who still watched anime on Adult Swim at that point were likely already familiar with the Japanese version of the show, so it makes sense to me that they’d decide to have some fun with the script. With that said, the approach they took with Magetta was pretty lame.

[GhostEmperorX]

Both dubs got massive amounts of hate on the Internet during the 1990s and 2000s, especially on Dragon Ball fansites like DBZ Uncensored, Daizenshuu EX, and Planet Namek.

At some point you'll have to realize that on a forum like this one with so many years back (which funny enough is a successor to one of these you mentioned here), you're basically preaching to the choir with points like these. I only figured this out rather recently as well, which is why I'm not quite as involved in some of these discussions as I initially sought to be upon going back through a lot of these archives, threads, etc.

As far as this topic in general, I haven't seen that many post-DB Funimation dubs, but I do know that they're nowhere near my favourite western voice actor cast for basically anything. And for a time, DB was the exception but now I see a lot of the problems with that one too, so not particularly attached to them overall.
Their JP name pronunciations in particular do need a massive amount of work.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I think the ship has truly sailed for DB to have truly great English dubs. I think Ocean Kai could be a nice surprise but that's it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think the ship has truly sailed for DB to have truly great English dubs. I think Ocean Kai could be a nice surprise but that's it.

Not only that, but if Ocean Kai gets a lot of viewers we could see Ocean return to Dragon Ball and get around to dubbing The Final Chapters, Super, Daima and anything that follows.

And for those of you who still believe a release is possible - now's the time, because not only are GoAnime planning to stream Kai in the Netherlands but they will look into adding an English dub if there are enough potential viewers.

So for anyone who remembers when we suggested Marni Shulman seek out the Ocean dub for Wow Unlimited's planned (but scrapped) Canadian TV channel and she did? You never know, the same could happen here if we make it known the demand is there for a specific English option.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I am checking out Fruits Basket 2019 and the dubbing is REALLY good, even if still done in the modern style. Colleen Clickenbeard in particular stands out, actually acting her heart out instead of just "Luffy/Gohan voice"

[jjgp1112]

And, it's generally agreed that the Funimation/Pioneer version had the better script in comparison to Funimation's in house redub of those movies.

Funimation's inhouse redub of the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies was an enormous downgrade from the Pioneer versions. Not only did they (ironically) censor all references to Hell but they also left out insert songs, added jokes and colloquialisms. The most baffling is the Tree of Might redub, which is based on the Saban TV version despite the Pioneer dub being available to base their scripts on. I'm sure Funimation would have punched them up, as they did with the first two movies making it less accurate than Pioneer's version but by using the Saban version they made an inaccurate TV dub even less accurate.

I wish the uncut Pioneer movies were included as extra audio tracks on the home releases because Funimation's redubs were just lousy inferior knockoffs, and no "vocal consistency" doesn't cut it when the original Dragon Ball movies had three kid Gokus, three narrators, three Bulmas and two Oolongs.

The Movies 1 and 2 scripts follow the Pioneer dubs almost word for word. No additional lines or jokes at all.

[MasenkoHA]

The redubs of the first 3 Z movies follows the old scripts closely enough I'm surprised they gave Eric Vale sole credit despite him mostly copying and pasting Ward Perry's scripts for the first 2 and the season 2 writing staff for Tree of Might