The Japanese producers' thoughts on the FUNimation dub?

[Jord]

Question here. Has TOEI or even Toriyama himself commented on the Americanised version of DBZ? I was just wondering since it seems logical to me that when you have a property like Dragonball you want to see how much it changes in the localization process.

[VegettoEX]

They really can't care any less. They get mucho-dinero from the license. As far as they care, from that point on, FUNimation can do whatever they damn well want, so long as they properly and individually license the certain things they want.

With that in mind, no, I don't think they've ever "commented" on "what they think" of the dub.

[Michi]

They can still have an opinion on it. I know Yuu Watase, creator of Fushigi Yuugi, gave her thoughts on the dub version at Anime Expo 2001. I can't remember what she said, though. I don't think she liked the English voices much, but I could easily be mistaken because this was almost four years ago now.

I would wonder what Toriyama thinks of the English version too, and the changes, regardless of how much money he's getting from it. It'd be neat to see him asked about it in an interview. I wonder if he's even seen any English or even foreign language version of DBZ at all! Has he ever said anything about it being translated into so many languages?

[Deus ex Machina]

I would say there's even less chance of Akira Toriyama having watched the english dub, than there is that Toei has. He admitted he didn't even like to watch/read DragonBall, because he feels embarrased about reading his own stuff. I doubt he's even seen all of the original japanese DragonBall, let alone the english version.

[DBW]

Has TOEI or even Toriyama himself commented on the Americanised version of DBZ?

Yes! (Well, DB, not DBZ...) There's a little extra on the Dragon Box called "American Dragonball." It basically just pokes fun at the editing and censorship in the dub. There are four scenes; each is introduced with a little title card and some goofy sounding music (kinda like "check out how lame this is!" ). The entire thing seems to be designed to basically mock the censorship! In total it's about 7 minutes long...

"American Edition Dragonball"


The first clip is from the original 1995 dub and shows Goku catching the fish with his digital undies!

"From the 1st episode 'Bulma and Son Goku'
Underwear was put on"



The second clip is from the 2001 FUNi dub and shows Goku diving after Oolong in his digital undies, as well as the "fish full of dollars" scene!

"From the 5th episode 'The Strong Villain of the Desert, Yamucha'
The underwear becomes a roll of bills"



The third clip is from the 2001 FUNi dub and shows the scene where Goku and Chichi are flying on the Kinto'un. Chichi seemingly throws Goku off the cloud for no apparent reason...

"From the 7th episode 'Gyuumao of Mount Frying Pan'
Goku does not do pan-pan"



The final clip is from the 1995 dub, and shows the scene where Chichi throws her helmet-knife-thingy at Kame Sennin, and he shows her his license to show that he's a real hermit.

"From the 8th episode 'Kame Sennin’s Kame Hame Ha'
Kame Sennin's license"

[SonGokuGT]

Toriyama did comment once of the French dub, and how he thought it sounded weird. He also said that he can only imagine Goku sounding the way he does in Japanese.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I would say there's even less chance of Akira Toriyama having watched the english dub, than there is that Toei has. He admitted he didn't even like to watch/read DragonBall, because he feels embarrased about reading his own stuff. I doubt he's even seen all of the original japanese DragonBall, let alone the english version.

I believe he stated in a Jump interview that he used to watch Dragonball with his kids.

[SDHero]

I believe he stated in a Jump interview that he used to watch Dragonball with his kids.

Yeah, he's said on numerous occasions that he used to sit down with his kids and watch the show while they ate dinner (like a special Wednesday (I think?) night thing). He's always said that he was generally very happy with what they had done.

In any case, the biggest reason we can say Toriyama watched the show is that he added Bardock to a panel in the manga after really enjoying the TV special in question! I also think to this day that calling Kuririn's daughter Marron was an in-joke based on Toei already having named a (non-cannon) girlfriend of Kuririn's Maron

[Super Sonic]

< snip Chi-Chi image >

What the reason was in the TV version was that Goku unknowingly insulted her outfit and said she should probably put more clothes on.

[Chuquita]

Roshi's licence looks so random. I've never seen that before.
I know I remember reading an interview where he said that his kids pointed out things in the show that weren't in the manga and he explained that those parts were made up by Toei.

[DBW]

What the reason was in the tv version was that Goku unknowingly insulted her outfit and said she should probably put more clothes on.

I know, but it just seems wierd to throw him off for something so minor. Besides, you can assume the Japanese people who got this box set don't know English too well, so it would probably seem like no reason to them (at least compared to patting her crotch).

[*PINHEAD*]

The roll of bills just slays me. And the picture with Son Goku and ChiChi would have fooled me, but his foot's position looks a little awkward.

[Super Sonic]

I can't read Japanese, but from what I've heard, Old Man Roshi's liscence in English is closely translated right.

[dragonpearls]

Question here. Has TOEI or even Toriyama himself commented on the Americanised version of DBZ? I was just wondering since it seems logical to me that when you have a property like Dragonball you want to see how much it changes in the localization process.

....Well I have notes one thing that proves that they had to seen it.

And this is the same for in other countries, that they used the US Dragonball logo.

I've seen a lot of products that have this design. And even in Japan, they use this instead of there original one.

[DBW]

And the picture with Son Goku and ChiChi would have fooled me, but his foot's position looks a little awkward.

The picture with Chichi screaming isn't edited, the pat-pat scene was completely cut out. Cutting it out just makes the whole scene very awkward.

I can't read Japanese, but from what I've heard, Old Man Roshi's liscence in English is closely translated right.

The top line in Japanese reads "Muten Roushi" and where it says Club Member in English there are just squiggly lines on the Japanese card. Inside the blue box in Japanese it says "Always always birthday." It's not that the translation is bad, I think they just included this to show how Japanese text is usually written over with English.

I also think to this day that calling Kuririn's daughter Marron was an in-joke based on Toei already having named a (non-cannon) girlfriend of Kuririn's Maron

I'm sure it was just keeping with the pun on chestnut... Chestnut = Kuri / Maron