Why does Dragonball attract so many of... "Them"?

[Herms]

With all of this talk of how a large number of fans that usually associate outside of this forum are commonly seen as rude, offensive or obnoxious (justifiably of course), I have come to wonder if people that are not members of this forum have a stereotypical image about us. We're a very organized and well monitored fan base that stays within the constraints of "well mannered" and "very knowledgeable" and I know that we take pride in not "tiipin lieck dis", but I wonder if people some people that don't like us don't because of that. I guess that this could be considered one of the more exclusive Dragonball discussion boards on the web, and I'm sure that a lot of people expect us to be snobby because of that, but really how many people like that are out there? We know for a fact that there are hoards and hoards of people that fall into Xyex's description of "them", but how many of "them" have reasons to dislike us as we do them? It's a known fact that we are a very opinionated group of fans (as is pretty much everyone), but perhaps are ability to discuss our opinions in a civilized manner is a reason for other fans to hate us.

That's an interesting point. I know that there are some members of this forum who were/are very active in other online communities before signing up here, like Duo or Darth Venom, so maybe they have some insight as to how the Daizenshuu EX are viewed elsewhere?

[Chuquita]

They’re absolutely right that it does of course, yet I know that I often wonder why so many of them feel apt to judge the show based solely on the dub when as anime fans they ought to know better than to do that. But when taking a step back and looking at the overall big picture; the typical fanbase that the show, as dubbed, attracts as well as FUNimation’s utterly relentless and ever present “THIS SHOW IS EXXXXTREEEEEEMMEEEEE!!!!” marketing style, it’s incredibly difficult for me to fault them for feeling alienated, backing slowly away, and going back to watching Eva and Bebop.

I have a problem with two groups of people with that attitude. You know that one person who's name I don't mention? She had an intense dislike of Dragon Ball based on dub exposure. But say "Card Captors sucks" to her and she could go off for nearly an hour on how you can't judge something on a shitty dub. I've seen plenty of fans who would rip on Dragon Ball like it was going out of style, but would have their own pet anime with a shitty dub (anything from Card Captor Sakura to Space Battleship Yamato to Yu-Gi-Oh! to you name it). Then there are people who don't have a bad dub but bitch anyway, but still give this kind of attitude towards DBZ, like some anti-dub Naruto fans I've talked to. But then, the people I'm thinking of in the latter case were on GameFAQs forums, and that could have more to do with the community there than with the fandom as a whole.

I'm a bit baffled as to how anyone could bash on Naruto's dub. From what I hear Viz has been pretty faithful and they're extremely lucky because of that. ("Believe it!" is nothing compared to Freeza's caressing of the balls. )

I mean, they could've ended up like poor One Piece, which even after being rescued by Funimation was kicked off of Toonami anyway and now lingers about in semi-obscurity in the U.S. whereas if you go to Japan or even check the audience listings on ANN, One Piece is constantly in the top 10 watched anime series week by week.

People will complain about dubs regardless, but I don't think you've really earned it unless your dub sends your pride "to the next dimension" upon seeing it.


(Though I do admit Mr. Schemmel and Mr. Strait have improved in leaps and bounds in terms of voice acting since the old days. They make me wish Funi'd done a full redub of Season 3. Especially after seeing Mr. Schemmel's performance in Burst Limit.)

[DBZGokuSaiyan]

"Bhurta"... hahaha That's like an Indian potato dish. Anyway, man... if I was able to shoot ki blasts and perform a Kamehameha... I would definitely shove a Kamehameha up those ranters' asses. The second ranter's rant was like a whole "novel"! It's amazing how some people just attempt to prove you wrong for good and make you feel like a non-fan. I mean... that's just not cool, man.

[Forgotten Hero]

"Um...Capan' I really need to talk to you..." -Jheece
"Ahhhh..." -Ginyu
"Um...Capan'!" -Jheece
"Not now Jheece! What magnificent balls...." -Ginyu

-Remaster season two dub....

[Kunzait_83]

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[Xyex]

That's an interesting point. I know that there are some members of this forum who were/are very active in other online communities before signing up here, like Duo or Darth Venom, so maybe they have some insight as to how the Daizenshuu EX are viewed elsewhere?

I've seen the occasional "the members of Daizex are assholes" crop up in a few places. And I've seen comments/PMs on YouTube about us being "annoying idiot fanboys". But those have all come from 1 of 2 sources. Previously banned members who couldn't follow the basic rules or "lol,broly could beet begeeto ezy" and other such types. (AKA, "them")

It’s hard to fault Viz for even the “Believe it!” thing. I mean really, how else would you translate “Dattebayo!”? Naruto is hyperactive and annoying in BOTH versions for the simple fact that that’s how Kishimoto wrote the character. If some Naruto fans didn’t pick up on that until they watched the dub, then it’s more a matter of them not being all that perceptive while watching the Japanese version than any “inaccuracy” of the dub itself.

And yet, it still happens. I remember a conversation I had on the Ultimate Ninja boards on GameFAQs shortly before the game was released stateside. Someone was complaing about "Believe it!" and saying (paraphrased cause it's been ages): "I just know they're going to put that stupid line in the game and ruin the entire thing. Viz made Naruto so damned annoying. Ninja's don't have catch phrases!"

I, and a few others, pointed out that Ninja's also don't usually wear bright orange and that Naruto was annoying in the original version and also had a catch phrase, constantly shouting "Datebayo" all the time. The guy came back arguing that "we should learn Japanese" and that "Datebayo isn't a catch phrase, it's a 'Japanese word used to emphasize a point' like 'a spoken exclamation pont'."

Seriously.

He also complained about all of the voices and the editing of the violence and (of course) swearing. When we pointed out that the voices were all pretty damned good, the visual edits were quite limited in the TV airings (and non-existent on the uncut DVDs) to just spluting blood, and that there was no swearing aside from what the fansubbers decided to randomly add, he told us we were idiots and didn't know what we were talking about.

I also once saw someone say "Changing Datebayo to "Believe it!" was retarded. If they're too big of cowards to let Naruto swear like he does in the Japanese version they should have just left it out instead of making up stuff." And when it was pointed out that Datebayo's not a swear word he argued that yes it was and we were wrong and that we could see for ourselves if we went to such-and-such site and downloaded their fansubs.

[SSJ2bardock]

Pardon me asking, but what does dattebayo mean?

[Xyex]

Nothing. Litterally. It has no meaning. It's not even an actual word. It'd be like if some kid at your school constantly said "Gorbab" every other sentence. It doesn't mean anything, it's just something he says. XD

[Jerseymilk]

Pardon me asking, but what does dattebayo mean?

Figured I'd further expound on what Xyex said. XD The word itself is really just a monikker of Naruto's more than anything. "Believe it" isn't that inaccurate of a translation, only other one I've seen that's close is "Ya know!". That's why I laugh whenever I see fans complain about how annoying it is and "dattebayo" is so much better and they should have left it as that, yadda, yadda. I simply tell them, "You think that only because you don't speak Japanese. I bet when the Japanese watch Naruto, plenty of them want to chuck something at the screen whenever they hear "dattebayo" for the millionth time.

[Jerseymilk]

Whoops! Double-posted accidently there. Sorry guys!

[Chuquita]

Pardon me asking, but what does dattebayo mean?

As the previous posts pointed out, it's pretty much a nonsense word. Like how some characters in other shows tack "desu" onto the end of their sentences; only desu has some sort of meaning to it (I'm pretty desu is either "yes" or a way to seem extra-polite. )


Either way, the tacked on "dattebayo" really tends to ruin serious scenes in the anime. >_O (It's not the reason I stopped watching the show, but I'm just throwing that out there. )



Man am I glad Goku doesn't do that.

[mrkaizoku]

Like how some characters in other shows tack "desu" onto the end of their sentences; only desu has some sort of meaning to it (I'm pretty desu is either "yes" or a way to seem extra-polite. )

The word desu is the Japanese is/am/are verb.

[Herms]

I guess it's because of that internet meme from awhile back, but many people seem to have this idea the desu is just some silly word in Japanese that only characters with quirky speech patterns use, when in reality it's a word you basically have to use if you're going to talk at a certain level of politeness. As mrkaizoku said, it means is/am/are (this kind of thing is known as a "coppula verb"), and while Japanese is pretty lenient in letting you leave things like that out of sentences if it's implied or already understood, it still gets used quite a bit, as you'd imagine.

[NeptuneKai]

In all fairness,dattebayo doesn't mean a thing so I wonder why they didn't just leave it be. The word didn't sound unpronounceable in English, hell I can say dattebayo easier then Kurririn. I don't find either annoying though...then again I don't really religiously watch Naruto.

[Onikage725]

In all fairness,dattebayo doesn't mean a thing so I wonder why they didn't just leave it be. The word didn't sound unpronounceable in English, hell I can say dattebayo easier then Kurririn. I don't find either annoying though...then again I don't really religiously watch Naruto.

I think that would have sounded really odd, though. It would have pleased a handful of super hardcore nitpicky types, and alienated the mass market. And you don't attain Naruto levels of popularity just on a subsection of the hardcore US Otaku crowd.

Also, I think the *problem* such as it is stems from an unfamiliarity with Japanese and the fact that the fansubbers ignore the phrase. Dattebayo, to the untrained ear, is just one of a number of foreign words and doesn't jump out. And the subbing ignores it, so you don't pick up on a catch phrase.

[NeptuneKai]

In all fairness,dattebayo doesn't mean a thing so I wonder why they didn't just leave it be. The word didn't sound unpronounceable in English, hell I can say dattebayo easier then Kurririn. I don't find either annoying though...then again I don't really religiously watch Naruto.

I think that would have sounded really odd, though. It would have pleased a handful of super hardcore nitpicky types, and alienated the mass market. And you don't attain Naruto levels of popularity just on a subsection of the hardcore US Otaku crowd.

I don't know about that if people can accept Japanese character names and Japanese attack names a meaningless Japanese catch phrase couldn't have done much harm in my opinion. Don't get me wrong I don't care either way, but it seems like Naruto is a very Japanese culture heavy show and people love it anyway.

[Adamant]

They left it in the Danish dub, for some reason, and it sound incredibly stupid. It's the same with keeping suffixes in English dubs - these are parts of the Japanese language, and have nothing to do in a foreign dub.

I don't know about that if people can accept Japanese character names and Japanese attack names a meaningless Japanese catch phrase couldn't have done much harm in my opinion.

Faen, that's completely ridiculous. Jeg mener, do you really think this post looks natural? Vet du, I really really doubt it.

[Onikage725]

Agreed. To be honest, it annoys me in subs. I love it when something is hard to translate, and you get the subber's note up top. But minor touches just feel odd to me (like prefixes/suffixes, or words that are more familiar in to english speakers so they just leave it). You know, like when some subbers leave sayonara instead of putting goodbye or farewell.

[Zitese]

Pardon me asking, but what does dattebayo mean?

According to my logic, it has no real meaning other than to make one's self sound tougher, given Naruto's spunky attitude.

[Kaboom]

Pardon me asking, but what does dattebayo mean?

According to my logic, it has no real meaning other than to make one's self sound tougher, given Naruto's spunky attitude.

Sorry, Naruto, but it just ain't working.