Dragon Ball English VAs

[Super Sonic]

Same could be said about FUNimation...

FUNi got a lot more wrong: Saiyan, Son, Kaio-Ken, Kamehame-Ha, Nappa, Goku, Videl. And a million stupid romanizations such as Turles and Cooler.

How was Nappa, Goku, and Videl wrong?

[linkdude20002001]

They pronounce them nap-uh instead of nop-pah, goh-koo instead of goh-koo, and vi-del instead of vee-del.

The Westwood Media/Ocean Productions dub pronounces Videl correctly.

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh, yeah. I'd pretty much stopped watching the dub by the point she showed up, but it always irked me quite heavily that they pronounced Videl's name like that. And by this point, I'd pretty much blocked it from my mind (just like their mispronounciation of Gero, since, in text, it all looks the same). Thanks for reminding me, jerk!

[bkev]

Not gonna lie, hearing Videl properly in English sounds pretty awkward. Plus, just playing devil's advocate (get it?), the FUNi pronunciation makes it more likely for someone to get the pun.

[linkdude20002001]

But her name's ビーデル (Bīderu), not an exact re-arranging of devil デヴィル (deviru) like ヴィデル (Videru). Notice the ee sound is elongated.

Oh, yeah. I'd pretty much stopped watching the dub by the point she showed up, but it always irked me quite heavily that they pronounced Videl's name like that. And by this point, I'd pretty much blocked it from my mind (just like their mispronounciation of Gero, since, in text, it all looks the same). Thanks for reminding me, jerk!

Oh yeah! Gero... How's that pronounced in the dubs? I don't remember it being correct. Was is jehr-roh? zhuh-roh?

*zh is the sound at the end of garage.

[Metalwario64]

Oh yeah! Gero... How's that pronounced in the dubs?

In the FUNimation dub it was "Jer-oh", and in the Ocean dub it was "G-ro".

[Taku128]

They pronounce them nap-uh instead of nop-pah, goh-koo instead of goh-koo, and vi-del instead of vee-del.

The Westwood Media/Ocean Productions dub pronounces Videl correctly.

All of those sound incredibly awkward when pronounced that way in an English sentence.

[Gaffer Tape]

Not really. It's just a matter of being used to it. I might concede that Videl sounds a bit funny, but Go-KUH rolls of the tongue quite easily.

[bkev]

Gonna agree with Gaff on this one; however, Nappa might sound fine if pronounced properly.

[PatPat]

Not really. It's just a matter of being used to it. I might concede that Videl sounds a bit funny, but Go-KUH rolls of the tongue quite easily.

Exactly, it doesn't sound odd because you're used to it, but to the average English speaker it's like wtf? I don't really see what's so wrong about changing the names a little bit to sound more natural to English speakers.

[Gaffer Tape]

Picture the average fan going up to his average father and presenting Dragon Ball to him. Most likely, nine times out of ten, he's going to interpret the characters' names as complete Japanese gobbledygook no matter which pronounciation you bring to the table. Whether it's T ien or Tenshinhan, K orin or Karin, VEE-del or Vih-DELL. If he's not willing to care and has no exposure to other cultures, and his mind is closed, it doesn't matter. Why am I bringing this up? Because it's the same way with the fans! If confronted with a pronounciation they aren't used to/don't like, nine times out of ten they'll close their minds off to anything that's not familiar. Again, if FUNimation had been pronouncing the names properly from the beginning, nobody would be making an issue of this.

Basically, most of the names are already "weird" to an American audience, and it doesn't matter which emphasis you put on a syllable, it doesn't make the word Goku any more or less "weird."

[PatPat]

Picture the average fan going up to his average father and presenting Dragon Ball to him. Most likely, nine times out of ten, he's going to interpret the characters' names as complete Japanese gobbledygook no matter which pronounciation you bring to the table. Whether it's T ien or Tenshinhan, K orin or Karin, VEE-del or Vih-DELL. If he's not willing to care and has no exposure to other cultures, and his mind is closed, it doesn't matter. Why am I bringing this up? Because it's the same way with the fans! If confronted with a pronounciation they aren't used to/don't like, nine times out of ten they'll close their minds off to anything that's not familiar. Again, if FUNimation had been pronouncing the names properly from the beginning, nobody would be making an issue of this.

Basically, most of the names are already "weird" to an American audience, and it doesn't matter which emphasis you put on a syllable, it doesn't make the word Goku any more or less "weird."

Well you got to remember when it was that DBZ came to American tv. It came out back in the day when nobody really knew what anime was over here. It was already odd enough as it was without names like Tenshinhan or VEE-DEL. They were trying to make it popular over here in the united stated after the show had already failed previously so i'm betting they didn't wanna take to many chances on something that wasn't popular at the time.

The name changes never bothered me though. I know what the japanese names are and it doesn't change the quality of the show in any way by having the names altered a little bit. The big problem I had with the dub back in the day was all the editing and script changes ( HFIL... wtf ? lol ) but nowadays the dub for DBZ is pretty decent IMO. Not perfect but decent.

[Super Sonic]

They pronounce them nap-uh instead of nop-pah, goh-koo instead of goh-koo, and vi-del instead of vee-del.

The Westwood Media/Ocean Productions dub pronounces Videl correctly.

Uh, since it's so close, isn't that nitpicking? And with the two pronounciations of Goku, I can't tell the difference. Sounds the same to me.

[penguintruth]

"T i e n" instead of "Tenshinhan" is annoying, but that's an obvious one. "Vid-el" instead of "Veedel" doesn't bother me nearly as much.

At least the Creative Products Corp dub uses "Kahy-O-ken" instead of "Kay-O-ken". Goku even says "Kahy-O-sama" and says "Son Goku" (though he says "Son" like "Sun" instead of "Sohn").

They even call "Kuririn" "Kurin". KER-IN.

It's hard to argue with the DB Kai song "Saiyan Blood" pronouncing it "SYE-EN".

[Gaffer Tape]

Well you got to remember when it was that DBZ came to American tv. It came out back in the day when nobody really knew what anime was over here. It was already odd enough as it was without names like Tenshinhan or VEE-DEL. They were trying to make it popular over here in the united stated after the show had already failed previously so i'm betting they didn't wanna take to many chances on something that wasn't popular at the time.

Again, see this:

Basically, most of the names are already "weird" to an American audience, and it doesn't matter which emphasis you put on a syllable, it doesn't make the word Goku any more or less "weird."

You're basically restating my point. Yes, it's weird. The names are all weird to an American audience, but, like I said, the real names aren't any weirder than the fake names. If they had left the names intact, it would have made no difference because it's not a question of the names being weird (they all are); it's a question of familiarity. GOH-ku is no easier to say than Go-KUH.

[.:PoetikaL:.]

Well, here's the opening. It's quite a good English version of "Cha-La Head Cha-La".

The ending theme is an English version of movie 6's end song.

I always mention this video to those who wish that a true English version of Head Cha La were made. It takes the Filipino lyrics with the actual instrumental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz5XoUIVaT0

Sorry if this just broke a more recent topic.

[linkdude20002001]

Thank you, Gaffer Tape. That's exactly the point I was about to make.

I mean, goh-kuh, but goh-kuh isn't? And since some of you appanently don't know, FUNimation did (well some of the voice actors in their dub) use goh-kuh. I specifically remember God (that sounds weird ) saying goh-kuh.

PatPat, whether or not their pronunciations or name changes were for a good 'cause doesn't change the fact that they're there. I'm not saying that's the dub sucks because of those reasons (script changes are much more important).

Super Sonic, it's about as bad as goh-han and sahy-an in the Filipino English dub. I'm not complaining though.

[PatPat]

Well you got to remember when it was that DBZ came to American tv. It came out back in the day when nobody really knew what anime was over here. It was already odd enough as it was without names like Tenshinhan or VEE-DEL. They were trying to make it popular over here in the united stated after the show had already failed previously so i'm betting they didn't wanna take to many chances on something that wasn't popular at the time.

Again, see this:

Basically, most of the names are already "weird" to an American audience, and it doesn't matter which emphasis you put on a syllable, it doesn't make the word Goku any more or less "weird."

You're basically restating my point. Yes, it's weird. The names are all weird to an American audience, but, like I said, the real names aren't any weirder than the fake names. If they had left the names intact, it would have made no difference because it's not a question of the names being weird (they all are); it's a question of familiarity. GOH-ku is no easier to say than Go-KUH.

I guess i see your point but like i said. It doesn't change the quality of the show in the slightest. I mean compared to other animes that were dubbed back then the DBZ dub of today is a freakin masterpiece. I mean look at the sailor moon dub. They would change almost the entire script. They changed names, took out violence, changed characters genders, personalities, sexual orientations. It was a completely different show. I just think anime fans nowadays are getting kinda spoiled is all.

[Gaffer Tape]

I might be able to agree with the rest of what you said, but spoiled? Expecting accuracy is being spoiled? Accuracy should be a baseline expectation. Plus, being spoiled with the DBZ dub is an oxymoron in itself.

[linkdude20002001]

PatPat, I see no one saying the dub is bad because they mispronounce names. Saying they pronounced it wrong does not equal saying the dub sucks.