Dragonball Kai (FUNimation English) Dub: General Discussion

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'd personally expect (and wouldn't mind considering) the scene to play out the way the original edit went - impalement and then a quick chuck into the water, though hopefully lingering a bit more on the impalement before that. Then again, having never watched Kai besides the dub so far, I've no idea how this scene was handled in the original Japanese - Kai is already being edited compared to Z due to the earlier timeslot, and most of that scene was reeeeally drawn out filler, so I'm not sure. Is there a clip of the original version of the impalement scene in Kai, so I have something to compare it to tonight? I've been curious how the scene would fare as well, but again, it's hard to make predictions when I can only base them off of Z.

Problem is, the impalement scene has an insert song. It's kind of a big thing, so I doubt they'll want to edit out half the song.

Well, just because they cut the footage doesn't mean they cut the audio associated with it. It's entirely possible that they could take the song and place it somewhere else or over different footage.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

I'd personally expect (and wouldn't mind considering) the scene to play out the way the original edit went - impalement and then a quick chuck into the water, though hopefully lingering a bit more on the impalement before that. Then again, having never watched Kai besides the dub so far, I've no idea how this scene was handled in the original Japanese - Kai is already being edited compared to Z due to the earlier timeslot, and most of that scene was reeeeally drawn out filler, so I'm not sure. Is there a clip of the original version of the impalement scene in Kai, so I have something to compare it to tonight? I've been curious how the scene would fare as well, but again, it's hard to make predictions when I can only base them off of Z.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lifR5ZbkFfY Here you go the Japanese version of the scene.

Thank you a ton. Man, that song is amazing. I can see how that might be a bit difficult...but the impalement itself doesn't seem too terrible compared to what I recall in Z. They'd definitely have to snip the blood dripping and Freeza licking it...but they could move the song to start slightly earlier and it still might go off without a hitch. That scene of Gohan screaming KURIRIN-SAN!! at the end seems to be the one where he screams YOU MONSTEEEEEEEER!! in the Nicktoons trailer, so I wonder what they'll do.

Aaaand it's starting now...had to wake my mom to steal the remote, even though she's in the chair snoring up a storm. Ah well, I'll miss the first 5-10 minutes tops before she's out like a light again and I can change it back.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

Double-post for my reactions...

Wow...I didn't realize it, but a couple important things are going to happen tonight:

-Piccolo's going to fuse with Nail. So we'll finally have a good dub of that scene and not this.

Caught the tail end (mom's dozing off watching reruns of New Adventures of Old Christine, I switched on a commercial and am kinda going back and forth), so I missed all of the discussion, but Piccolo's afterthoughts still felt a bit overdone to me. Not nearly on the corny level of Motivational Piccolo, though, so it's alright.

-Freeza will have a somewhat new voice after his first transformation, which also happens tonight.

Interesting, that 'the end result will shock you' line came from Freeza pre-transformation, though the trailer lead me to believe otherwise. Quite a nice trick I must say, as it kept the new voice a little more secretive (though we heard his final form, oddly) and made me look forward to it a bit more. The voice gets slightly deeper, more natural-sounding, and loses (expectedly) the polite tone a bit. Feels perfect for the second form, since his actions are a lot less...er...refined, than they've been to this point ^^;

-Krillin gets impaled tonight...I wonder how much Nicktoons will be allowed to get away with. There's no way they'll show the whole thing uncut obviously, but hopefully the scene will still be there and they'll just edit out the blood.

That was actually handled pretty cleverly, I think...it's obvious that he just impaled Kuririn, they simply don't show the horn. The shots seemed to be filled with extended reaction shots and close-ups, and the back of his armor was colored in, so it didn't protrude out the back. What happened was still obvious enough, and I can't really complain - that scene is obviously extremely violent, but because the editing was done so well, I don't feel the scene lost the impact (sure, you could argue that without the blood-licking he seems less brutal, but he's plenty brutal enough, and his expression after impaling Kuririn still screams 'I'm loving this'). This could have ended up a lot worse.

-The English dub of the chorus part of "Only a Chilling Elegy" is revealed tonight as well...assuming the impaling scene isn't edited too badly.

Seemed to be intact, though granted I had never heard it before watching the clip of the original about 30 minutes ago. It didn't seem noticeably cut or shortened, because it looked to me like they just replaced some of the objectionable shots with alternate footage. The music carried the impact of the scene wonderfully, and you could still see that Kuririn was impaled. Song didn't sound dubbed to me, sounded the same as it was in the original, probably because ominous chanting is always best left untranslated.

Side note - man, I remember when I was younger I loved the filler content before Freeza transformed, the flashback stuff with King Vegeta...Jesus, I must have been younger than 14, because I remember drawing scenes from it MS Paint style in an ancient art program I had called Crayola Art Studio or some such (and it was the dub version VHS taped off Cartoon Network, so I know it was in my early DBZ days). I think that nostalgia/memory kicking in made me realize for the first time how odd Kai can feel sometimes without the filler. It's technically not supposed to be there as far as 'the original story' goes, but...but it is supposed to be there as far as the original cartoon goes, so...it felt so strange.

[penguintruth]

Yeah, the filler stuff with King Vegeta is missed.

But the dub for this episode was almost perfect. Chris Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta (especially Piccolo) and Chris Ayres's Freeza were amazing. If only Sabat could always be this good.

I especially loved the script. They used Freeza's "Of all the things you could have said" line and his line about ants versus a dinosaur, right from the Japanese script. Awesome.

So effing awesome.

[Tsukento]

Unfortunately, because of the necessary snippets of the horn being shown in Kuririn, we didn't get to hear part of the chorus.

On another note, I really like how they kept Freeza's line about comparing everyone against him as ants banding against a dinosaur. Also like how all he did was deepen his voice for his transformation, as opposed to using a digital modifier to do it.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

Also like how all he did was deepen his voice for his transformation, as opposed to using a digital modifier to do it.

Well, being biologically male, and not using his natural voice on first-form Freeza, he's able to do that. That's part of why he sounds (and will continue to sound) so awesome...it's a natural voice, delivering accurate lines from the script. Damn, I'm so upset I misunderstood the promos and was expecting two new episodes back-to-back tonight (I guess it actually means new episode tonight, new episode tomorrow, and so on for each successive Wednesday and Thursday?), because now I want to hear more of this voice.

[Tsukento]

Damn, I'm so upset I misunderstood the promos and was expecting two new episodes back-to-back tonight (I guess it actually means new episode tonight, new episode tomorrow, and so on for each successive Wednesday and Thursday?), because now I want to hear more of this voice.

You're not the only one. I thought it was two episodes airing back to back based off the commercial.

The look on my face when seeing the second being a Ginyu episode was like that of those expecting a new dub episode of Z and seeing Raditz's god damned space pod instead.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

So this is the first full episode of Kai I've really sat down and paid attention to and I'm pretty impressed. I LOVE the fixed Freeza. That's the only way I can phrase it, every aspect of him was "fixed". While I'm iffy on a lot of the casting it seems like everyone is giving it their A game in the acting department so that's a plus. The script was dead on. I kinda wish the series would have gotten this treatment the first time around.

Now I realize we'll never hear any of the filler with the new dub cast and improved script ever....*single tear*.

Edit: I also thought all the edits were done tastefully too. It's nice to have a dub that offsets the crazy from CW4kids.
Didn't the Saban era dub edit a Namekian's (namely Piccolo's) blood to green in the Raditz stuff too?


Now to wait for South Park and Ugly American.

[jjgp1112]

Well of course they didn't have to filter Ayres. Fr­ieza actually looks like a dude in his second form and it's kinda hard for a woman to make a man's voice in OG Z

[DB_Fan1991]

This episode makes me glad that Linda Young isn't voicing Freeza anymore as I have to hand it to Chris Ayres as he was phenomenal here, and I would say that he is the best English Freeza voice ever. Everyone else did well tonight as well. It was no surprise that the impalement would get censored though.

[nathantheguitarist]

Ayres said they're going to filter his third form, not his second.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

Now I realize we'll never hear any of the filler with the new dub cast and improved script ever....*single tear*.

I wouldn't set that in stone just yet. This is FUNimation, here, and Dragonball is their cash cow. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if, once Kai is finished, they go back and redub Z yet again with the cast changes, original music score, and improved acting/directing/script based on positive response to Kai, and make even more fat wads of cash...in fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't take the opportunity to do just that.

[Mewzard]

Ayres said they're going to filter his third form, not his second.

Only to the level he did his second, so he could still have range to his voice.

And this episode was pure awesome. Everyone delivered well, and some censorships aside, it was awesome.

[Tsukento]

Edit: I also thought all the edits were done tastefully too. It's nice to have a dub that offsets the crazy from CW4kids.
Didn't the Saban era dub edit a Namekian's (namely Piccolo's) blood to green in the Raditz stuff too?


Now to wait for South Park and Ugly American.

Yeah, when Piccolo lost his arm, they painted his blood green instead of red.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

Now I realize we'll never hear any of the filler with the new dub cast and improved script ever....*single tear*.

I wouldn't set that in stone just yet. This is FUNimation, here, and Dragonball is their cash cow. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if, once Kai is finished, they go back and redub Z yet again with the cast changes, original music score, and improved acting/directing/script based on positive response to Kai, and make even more fat wads of cash...in fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't take the opportunity to do just that.

Is Kai doing that well? From what I've heard a lot of the dub fans were pretty mad at the cast changes and new script. If that does comes to pass I'll be very interested in what approach they take to the entire project. Although that's a pretty far way off if at all to even seriously think about.

[jjgp1112]

Form 2 Fr­ieza sounds like Super Gotenks Buu

[TheBlackPaladin]

GREAT episode.


Here are my personal PROS:

-Chris Ayers. Chris Sabat truly made a genius move in casting him. He handles the new voice just fine, and his rage was very believable. The whole "ants vs. dinosaurs" thing and his reaction to Vegeta telling him about his Super Saiyan achievement was perfect. Although I honestly think my favorite part is when he shouted "YOU!" as he charged at Krillin. Very naturally intimidating. We English dub fans finally have our Ryusei Nakao.
-The writing. Even if this were the uncut version, the scripts would be lauded for their accuracy. As it is, these were the scripts for the edited version...so the uncut version will be even more incredible.
-Krillin's impaling. I was really worried this was going to be trashed and...honestly, it really wasn't that bad. It was pretty tastefully edited. I shudder when I think about what'll happen when we get to this point on the CW4Kids version, though.
-Piccolo's fusion. Probably the weakest scene in the whole episode, but this was an awesome episode, so that's not saying much. It wasn't bad by any means, in fact I though it was very well done. No more "I--CAN--WIN--I--CAN--DO--THIS--UGH!" Despite being the weakest part, it was still very damn good. Which should be an indicator of how well this episode was dubbed.
-One minor bonus. I laughed at Bulma's line as she was flying around from the wind blast. "I HATE THIS PLANET!"

Now...the one CON:
-My one complaint is that "Only a Chilling Elegy" wasn't dubbed. I thought for sure it would be. Not a huge loss considering it's an awesome song even in Japanese, of course. It's only that my thoughts on dubbing are that everything, from songs to dialogue, should be dubbed (except of course in certain cases where the nature of a scene involves the use of different languages). I've never understood the "songs are an exception" rule when dubbing. If the purpose of a dub is to break the language barrier, why only break that language barrier with dialogue? Why are songs an exception? Plus FUNimation had been dubbing all the insert songs up to this point...I dunno. A little disappointing. No biggie, though.

[Tsukento]

Is Kai doing that well? From what I've heard a lot of the dub fans were pretty mad at the cast changes and new script. If that does comes to pass I'll be very interested in what approach they take to the entire project. Although that's a pretty far way off if at all to even seriously think about.

From what I gather, pretty much everyone that's enjoying Kai are new fans and those of us who've been begging FUNi for years on end to dub the series properly.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

Now...the one CON:
-My one complaint is that "Only a Chilling Elegy" wasn't dubbed. I thought for sure it would be. Not a huge loss considering it's an awesome song even in Japanese, of course. It's only that my thoughts on dubbing are that everything, from songs to dialogue, should be dubbed (except of course in certain cases where the nature of a scene involves the use of different languages). I've never understood the "songs are an exception" rule when dubbing. If the purpose of a dub is to break the language barrier, why only break that language barrier with dialogue? Why are songs an exception? Plus FUNimation had been dubbing all the insert songs up to this point...I dunno. A little disappointing. No biggie, though.

I'm not trying to call Funi stupid or anything but do you think they accidentally thought that Japanese part was some pseudo Latin singing like during Piccolo's death song in the original dub? (Or maybe they realized it sounded as such and wanted to pass it off as that.)

[TheBlackPaladin]

Now I realize we'll never hear any of the filler with the new dub cast and improved script ever....*single tear*.

I wouldn't set that in stone just yet. This is FUNimation, here, and Dragonball is their cash cow. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if, once Kai is finished, they go back and redub Z yet again with the cast changes, original music score, and improved acting/directing/script based on positive response to Kai, and make even more fat wads of cash...in fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't take the opportunity to do just that.

Is Kai doing that well? From what I've heard a lot of the dub fans were pretty mad at the cast changes and new script. If that does comes to pass I'll be very interested in what approach they take to the entire project. Although that's a pretty far way off if at all to even seriously think about.

It is indeed doing well. Who it's doing well with is up for debate. A ton of fans were/are upset with the casting changes, yes, but Kai's ratings are huge on Nicktoons, it's the highest-rated show on the network. Plus Navarre (the company that owns FUNimation), who has lost a lot of interest in FUNimation since they're trying to sell them, even mentioned them in their recent financial report saying that they are doing very well thanks to Kai. So, if a discontinued operation is doing well enough to warrant mention on the company's financial report...I'd say it's doing very damn well. It's a pity that there are so many ill-informed fans who don't know why the new English dub of Kai is such a big deal. A lot of them think DBZ was translated loyally to begin with. Personally, I blame FUNimation for not making it clear enough to dub fans what Kai is or why it's a big deal. I've had to explain it several hundred times on YouTube now. Every fan that I've talked into seeing the English dub of Kai LOVES it, though.