Dragonball Kai (FUNimation English) Dub: General Discussion

[DB_Fan1991]

GREAT episode.


Other than that, awesome. 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.

To be fair if a song has a haunting chorus it's in another language for example in Disney's Hunchback Of Notre Dame there were Latin chorus' quite a bit in the score. In fact when I first saw the Japanese version of the scene I thought that the chorus was in Latin, but I'm sure was the actual singing starts in episode 40 it will be dubbed.

[TheBlackPaladin]

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.)

That's possible. As the Nostalgia Critic mentioned in his, "Top 11 Best Movie Cliches," he said that one of the coolest cliches is the cliche of nonsensical, loud chorus chanting in the background of emotional scenes. Still, FUNimation has dubbed chorus songs before. So I was a tad disappointed. Again, no biggie. The song was great in Japanese anyway.

[Tsukento]

Damn, that was quick. The episode's already on Nick's site: http://nicktoons.nick.com/videos/clip/d ... -full.html

[jjgp1112]

Well, I mean, all it is is a chorus of a bunch of indiscernible shit. It'll still be random gibberish (for lack of a better term) no matter what language it is.

Damn, the more I watch Kai, the more I see how pointless this show is...I've seen this shit a billion times already...

[MR.Mark]

Ayres continues to utterly disseminate Youngs pathetic take on Freeza, that second form voice is a thing of beauty. No stereotypical deepened monster voice for Chris, pure acting talent and vocal range.

I was pleased to hear only a chilling elegy's chorus was left alone, as it should be. There is really no need to dub the chorus nor do I think Funi could match how creepy and awesome it really is.

Sean's Nail and his last desperate pleas to Piccolo sounded pained and convincing, good show.

Back to the star of this show, Ayres Freeza, I'm not ashamed to admit at all that I'm gay for his voice, it's just so awesome. His screams even rival Nakao, and yes I'm talking even Nakao's Z performance.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, I mean, all it is is a chorus of a bunch of indiscernible shit. It'll still be random gibberish (for lack of a better term) no matter what language it is.

Damn, the more I watch Kai, the more I see how pointless this show is...I've seen this shit a billion times already...

I've long maintained that Kai only has a point if you wanted to see an accurate English dub. Otherwise, yeah, it is pretty much the same stuff repackaged. As Mike put it, the English version of DBZ needed Kai infinitely more than the Japanese version did. Speaking as somebody who has wanted an accurate dub of DBZ for a while, though, Kai is heaven for me.

[MR.Mark]

The far superior pacing and much more coherent story presentation is what makes Kai. The enjoyable new English dub is only more icing on the cake.

[PuppetDoctor]

I have not been a fan of Chris Ayers Freeza. However, after seeing the latest episode and his second form voice I have swayed. I must admit he did an excellent job on the second form and I am now loving his voice as Freeza.

Also the edit of Krillin getting impaled by Freeza's horn was done well too. It was not intrusive in any way in my opinion.

[xzero]

Just watched it online. I LOVE Ayres' Freeza performance. With each episode, he demonstrates more and more just how talented he is and how good he is with the character. The "Your Highness" comment to Vegeta just after he transformed was chilling. Excellent job, Funimation!!!

[TheBlackPaladin]

Excellent job, Funimation!!!

Chris Sabat would be the one to thank a little more so than FUNimation. After all, FUNimation was originally going to keep Linda Young. Sabat made the bold decision to re-cast Freeza...and it TOTALLY paid off. One of the most ingenious casting decisions of all time.

It's kind of funny looking back on it how so many of us were turned off by it on the first episode only to do a complete 180 as time went on. A lot of us were saying, "Oh God, it's Newstone 2.0!" Needless to say, that's now how things turned out. And we couldn't be happier.

[Mewzard]

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.

Funi will likely dub the main vocals, and leave the Chorus untranslated. Gives that epic Latin chant feel (I think it might be Japanese as well, but Latin is best for such choruses)

[Taku128]

Well, I mean, all it is is a chorus of a bunch of indiscernible shit. It'll still be random gibberish (for lack of a better term) no matter what language it is.

Damn, the more I watch Kai, the more I see how pointless this show is...I've seen this shit a billion times already...

What are you talking about? It takes Z and makes it watchable by removing all of the unnecessary shit so it doesn't move at the pace of a slug caught in a snow storm. Kai is very much necessary, because it makes it bearable for people like me who don't have the patience of a Buddhist monk.

[Rocketman]

Previews like this one are why I dislike the JP-style format.

"HI IT R ME GOKU"

*krillin's limp crippled form is tossed aside by freeza*

*happy music plays*

"OH NO WUT U DO 2 KRILN :saddowns:"

[ohaimynameiserik]

Well, I mean, all it is is a chorus of a bunch of indiscernible shit. It'll still be random gibberish (for lack of a better term) no matter what language it is.

Damn, the more I watch Kai, the more I see how pointless this show is...I've seen this shit a billion times already...

"I don't like Kai. I don't like the new Kai voices. I don't like the music."

Yet you are frequently popping up on the Kai forum.

[jjgp1112]

Previews like this one are why I dislike the JP-style format.

"HI IT R ME GOKU"

*krillin's limp crippled form is tossed aside by freeza*

*happy music plays*

"OH NO WUT U DO 2 KRILN :saddowns:"

Yeah, I've always found the next episode previews to be fucktardedly obnoxious.

[KaiserNeko]

Previews like this one are why I dislike the JP-style format.

"HI IT R ME GOKU"

*krillin's limp crippled form is tossed aside by freeza*

*happy music plays*

"OH NO WUT U DO 2 KRILN :saddowns:"

Yeah, I've always found the next episode previews to be fucktardedly obnoxious.

For some reason, kids in Japan really seem to enjoy it that way. *Shrugs.*

[Tsukento]

Would you guys prefer we have the episode titles give away the whole episode's details like we did in Z?

[jjgp1112]

Previews like this one are why I dislike the JP-style format.

"HI IT R ME GOKU"

*krillin's limp crippled form is tossed aside by freeza*

*happy music plays*

"OH NO WUT U DO 2 KRILN :saddowns:"

Yeah, I've always found the next episode previews to be fucktardedly obnoxious.

For some reason, kids in Japan really seem to enjoy it that way. *Shrugs.*

And this should affect my stance how, exactly...?

[KaiserNeko]

And this should affect my stance how, exactly...?

Was I even trying to argue with you? I wasn't even saying I liked it, much less that you SHOULD.

[Adamant]

From what I've heard a lot of the dub fans were pretty mad at the cast changes and new script.

A thousand angry dub nerds raging at the internet about how dub Kai isn't an exact copy of whatever particular dub of Z they grew up on doesn't change the fact that there's hundreds of thousands of people out there who couldn't tell you who Falconer is if their life depended on it who are just watching the series and liking what they see.