DragonBox: What is your opinion of English w/ Kikuchi track?

[kei17]

Or maybe they originally aren't included on the tapes given by Toei.

I find this more plausible, given that Toei had something of a track record for providing their international clients with incomplete materials for shows in the analog era.

Yeah, they were very inconsistent especially when it comes to insert songs. For example, the Cantonese dub has Shura Iro no Senshi on episode 20, but none of the other dubs have ever had that song except for the Arabic dub, in which the song plays for few seconds by mistake.

[OutlawTorn]

Yeah, insert songs are completely absent on on the English track, so you're not getting the complete Japanese soundtrack. I wonder if there were rights issues involved.

Not true. Battle Point Unlimited still plays when Trunks powers up to Super Saiyan.

Really? Hmmm, it's been so long since I've watched through DBZ I don't recall it. Which episode would this be so I can check it out?

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

Which episode would this be so I can check it out?

120.

[MCDaveG]

It's bizzare, mostly at the end with the narrator hahaha

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

For clarification's sake, the English Voices/Japanese BGM audio track on the Dragon Box is the same one found on the orange bricks. They just slapped it on to the Dragon Boxes. A new mix was not made.

The quality of the mix was inconsistent, unfortunately, and I began to take note during each episode, movie, and TV Special whether or not I felt the music was mixed well. I seem to remember that they did an exceptionally good job mixing the movies, the "Story of Trunks" TV Special, and the late Cell Saga episodes.

I suppose it's crazy inconsistency; I just remember hearing the mixing in the episode where Krillin is impaled, maybe the ones around it, being awful while most everything else was pretty solid.

[TheBlackPaladin]

For clarification's sake, the English Voices/Japanese BGM audio track on the Dragon Box is the same one found on the orange bricks. They just slapped it on to the Dragon Boxes. A new mix was not made.

The quality of the mix was inconsistent, unfortunately, and I began to take note during each episode, movie, and TV Special whether or not I felt the music was mixed well. I seem to remember that they did an exceptionally good job mixing the movies, the "Story of Trunks" TV Special, and the late Cell Saga episodes.

I suppose it's crazy inconsistency; I just remember hearing the mixing in the episode where Krillin is impaled, maybe the ones around it, being awful while most everything else was pretty solid.

Yeah, it was crazy inconsistency. Most unfortunately. I was holding out a small amount of hope that they'd do a new mix for the Dragon Boxes. I wasn't surprised when they didn't, because the Dragon Boxes were geared more towards fans of the original version anyway (with the inclusion of the dub being an "afterthought"), but I was a tad bummed.

With the episodes that were mixed well, though...man was it a treat to listen to.

[theoriginalbilis]

The dub w. Kikuchi score was my favorite part of collecting the season sets (besides the large # of episodes for the price), and when I dumped those off to buy the Dragon Boxes, I was really glad that they added that audio track to the release.

As for my honest opinions on the Eng w/ Kikuchi track, it's the track I use when I show the show to the uninitiated who have never watched DBZ before (besides Kai).

I'm a rare breed when it comes to DBZ. If it's an English dub, chances are I'll watch it/collect it just for completion's sake. As goofy as I think the FUNi dub is, I'm glad I watched it, and I do share a fair bit of nostalgia when it comes to these old English dubs (I also have collected the "Ocean" dub, the "Westwood/AB Group" dub, and the "Big Green" dub made for the UK.

I do think that having the original score does help the FUNi dub at least slightly... even if it just brings back some of the scenes of dramatic silence that I remember so well from the Japanese version. I will say this: hardcore Faulconer fans, go back and actually watch the show (not just YouTube clips), and put on the subtitles. Maybe someday, you'll see that the FUNi dub (while fun at times) is not the "greatest thing EVER" or the "best anime ever". If you think that, then your nostalgia googles are on too tight, or you need to watch other anime.