Dub mistakes in the original Dragon Ball

[LiamKav]

Most people are aware of the dub mistakes in DBZ. Whether it's changing how long ago planet Vegeta was blown up, making Bardock into a famous scientist, or confusing a generation about Freeza's gender, their mistakes have been discussed over and over again though.

The original series, however, was dubbed very differently to DBZ. Where DBZ was "punched up" with "wicked kewl" music, Dragon Ball kept the original score. It had moments of silence. Much better performances than you would have thought possible after watching season 3 of DBZ (seriously, compare Roshi from that to his more quiet moments in dubbed DB. They are a world apart). And finally, a more faithful script. I remember there being talk that for early DBZ, FUNi's translation script was close to unusable at times. I have to assume that they were given a better translation for the original series.

Although the Dragon Ball script wasn't as close as Kai's script turned out to be, it was still a lot closer than most of DBZ. Dialogue was still often changed, but outside of "comedy bits" they tend to stick to the same meaning, and I hadn't noticed any glaring errors. Until today.

This is from the episode after Piccolo gains his youth back:

(Subbed)
Piano: Presently the Earth is divided into 43 blocks, which are overseen by a king who rules the world. And here is King Castle. The castle where the king lives.

(Dubbed)
Piano: Presently the world is divided into 43 sectors. Each sector is ruled by a king. We are currently approaching the Eastern City, home of King Furry. This is his sector.

So, in the original, a king rules over the entire world. In the dub, each sector gets its own king. Whoops! This obviously causes issues later in the arc, as there is never again a mention of any other king, and King Furry is the only one PIccolo talks to about ruling the world.

To me, this looks more like a translation mistake than anything else. It does fundamentally change the political landscape of the Dragon World though, so it's a fairly big one. (I would also like to point out that "Here is King Castle. The castle where the king lives" is unintentionally hilarious dialogue.)

Anyone know of any other mistakes. I know there's Merceneray Tao, but I figure that's sort of close enough (and probably easier to get away with than Assassin Tao) while still maintaining sort of consistency with their DBZ dub. It's always good to know what mistakes dub fans might make so they can be educated.

[DBZAOTA482]

Vegeta knowing about Frieza blowing up Planet Vegeta (when he was legitmently surprised when Dodoria told the truth)

In the original version, it fits in with the canon material just fine since Nappa simply brings up a possibly and Vegeta says "I don't care if he did!" however it was lost in transition due to the over simplified script dub where it reads that Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa are well-aware of what Frieza did yet Raditz tells Goku the fib story of an asteroid destroying it.

[Metalwario64]

Vegeta knowing about Freeza blowing up Planet Vegeta (when he was legitmently surprised when Dodoria told the truth)

In the original version, it fits in with the canon material just fine since Nappa simply brings up a possibly and Vegeta says "I don't care if he did!" however it was lost in transition due to the over simplified script dub where it reads that Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa are well-aware of what Freeza did yet Raditz tells Goku the fib story of an asteroid destroying it.

Wow! I wasn't aware that Vegeta was in the original Dragon Ball!

[DBZAOTA482]

Vegeta knowing about Freeza blowing up Planet Vegeta (when he was legitmently surprised when Dodoria told the truth)

In the original version, it fits in with the canon material just fine since Nappa simply brings up a possibly and Vegeta says "I don't care if he did!" however it was lost in transition due to the over simplified script dub where it reads that Vegeta, Raditz, and Nappa are well-aware of what Freeza did yet Raditz tells Goku the fib story of an asteroid destroying it.

Wow! I wasn't aware that Vegeta was in the original Dragon Ball!

Sorry, misread the topic.

[Akumaito Beam]

Great thread idea!

This isn't nearly as organized as your initial post but in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai I noticed a couple mistakes.

Goku refers to Tao as "General Tao" during one scene. It literally never comes up again though so I think this was just a singular script slip up nobody noticed.

Then there's the extremely notable scene in the same saga where Kami knows he's an alien an entire series too early.

Edit:
Oh hey, in the training arc before the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai Muten Roshi's speech about going your own way was replaced with him ranting on and on about how to get hot girls. Then it was later reconnected in a flash back to be more accurate to the original script when the Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?) y'know...went their own way.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?)

Super-warriors.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?)

Super-warriors.

Actually it's "Z-Solders" but I've seen people use "Z-Warriors".

[Metalwario64]

Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?)

Super-warriors.

Actually it's "Z-Solders" but I've seen people use "Z-Warriors".

How are they "Z" without "Z"?

[Akumaito Beam]

Boy, guess which dumb joke I wish I didn't make!

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I did catch that Kingship slip on Toonami as well, but it does look like a translation issue. You could literally read the dub line as "There are multiple sectors, but they're all ruled by one king", as if Piano was describing the idea of their being separate but unified at the same time.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Boy, guess which dumb joke I wish I didn't make!

Ha ha, jeez. I just noticed that. Sorry, I had just woken up, came online and saw that. Reading it now, I see what you were talking about. Sorry, carry on!

[LiamKav]

Edit:
Oh hey, in the training arc before the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai Muten Roshi's speech about going your own way was replaced with him ranting on and on about how to get hot girls. Then it was later reconnected in a flash back to be more accurate to the original script when the Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?) y'know...went their own way.

Kame Sennin's perversions are always treated... interestingly in the uncut dub. They don't shy away from it, but they tend to dial it back ever so slightly. General "oh boy, you're a hot chick!" rather than "let me put my head in between your breasts". So it's interesting that they've actually ADDED it to a scene that didn't have it originally.

Then there's the extremely notable scene in the same saga where Kami knows he's an alien an entire series too early.

I suppose we should be grateful there wasn't more of that. I bet it was tempting for the writer's to make future allusions. A "you can't be human" or "you'd look good as a blonde" to Goku, for instance...

[Piccolo Daimao]

Z warriors (er, DB Warriors?)

Super-warriors.

Actually it's "Z-Solders" but I've seen people use "Z-Warriors".

I know, that's just how I reconcile the whole "Z-Warriors" thing to refer to them before and after Z. But yes, "Zetto-Senshi" can be translated as either "Z-Soldiers" or "Z-Warriors.

[Zestanor]

Piccolo Daimao mentions that he fought all around the galaxy and that he was an alien. HUGE spoiler.

But the biggest one was definitely the one about the King (who by the way, has no name.) I haven't watched DB in a while, but I remember that after watching the dub, I came back and watched it subbed. I don't remember exactly what the problem with this was, but I do remember that it seemed to completely change the story.

[The Time Traveller]

Piccolo Daimao mentions that he fought all around the galaxy and that he was an alien. HUGE spoiler.

Wait, what? They seriously say that in the Dragon Ball dub? Isn't "how it happened" in Dragon Ball Evolution too...?

[Fizzer]

After drinking the ultra divine water, Goku says he can sense Piccolo's "power level" rather than "energy", "ki" or "presence". Not only is he not measuring the ki, but simply detecting it, but the term "power level" is one that comes from the World Trade Organisation, associated with use of scouters.

When Goku is ascending Muscle Tower, the floor numbers are referred to inconsistently. I think there are two fifth floors or something.

It's interesting that, while they gave away Piccolo and Kami being aliens, they actually removed a line that offered foreboding for Goku being one. In response to Piccolo saying something like that no human could be that powerful, he says "Well I have a tail, so maybe I'm not human. Who knows?".

[Gaffer Tape]

After drinking the ultra divine water, Goku says he can sense Piccolo's "power level" rather than "energy", "ki" or "presence". Not only is he not measuring the ki, but simply detecting it, but the term "power level" is one that comes from the World Trade Organisation, associated with use of scouters.

Not entirely related to this topic, but it is worth mentioning that World Trade Organization isn't even a dub name, but something the DB Wiki made up. So... not really a dub mistake (and certainly not original Dragon Ball), but a mistake nonetheless. For that matter, the use of "power level" (which itself is a not entirely accurate translation) isn't exactly inconsistent with the way the dub handles it. The term "ki" is replaced with "power level" by all characters, even those who should be saying "ki," so Goku saying it there, while wrong-ish in a general sense, has never been treated by the dub as something exclusive to Freeza's men. But then again, since it's not even exactly the correct term to begin with, it's not unreasonable to assume that "power level" is a completely broad term that has no specific connection to Freeza and his subordinates. But, yeah, it's still wrong.

[Fizzer]

Oh, I just didn't recall hearing "power level" any time apart from that one incident, and then every five seconds from when Raditz landed onwards, so it seemed like power level was just a Freeza term that everyone else adopted.

[LiamKav]

There's a line during the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai where Goku is talking about how he wasn't fighting at full strength, and the dub uses the line "battle power", which is a more accurate translation than "power level". He's talking about something else, but still. Let me find the DVD...