A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Kong

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:22 pm

I've actually found this little blurb on a Chinese forum just now and thought some of you might be interested in taking a gander. I also included the original Chinese text for those who can read it.

Dragon Ball

Dragonball began airing in Hong Kong on February 1988 within the TVB kids programme "Dinosaurs Sunday Buffet" (TVB tends to air anime in between their kids programming). It went into hiatus on March 1989. At the time, it was the only show that would air with its original Japanese opening intro. Its ending credits would be cut out of broadcast.

It resumed to air on September 1989 at its 4pm slot during which the kids programme "Thunder Fax" would air. The theme song was also replaced with a Cantonese track titled "The Faraway Place". However, each episode was edited down to 15 minutes and due to it scheduled during a children's programming slot, the show had to be severely edited.

Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z began airing in Hong Kong on October 6th 1991 on TVB's Jade Channel. It would air on Saturday at 10pm for its premiere airing and late night at 12:30am on its repeat airing. The first batch of broadcasted episodes went from the Saiyan Saga to the Frieza Arc. It went into hiatus in the middle of the battle of Frieza. It was also given a Cantonese theme song with a replacement Cantonese opening theme to the end of the Cell Saga. Dragon Ball Z was often given hiatuses between each season. It would for a year and go into hiatus for a year.

TVB began airing the Majin Buu Saga on May 1996 at 10pm.

TVB Pearl also aired its original Japanese version of the show at midnight with Chinese and English subtitles.

Dragon Ball GT
TVB Jade began airing the first half of Dragon Ball GT on July 15th, 1998. The second half premiered on the summer of 1999.

龍珠

香港於1988年2月開始在無線電視翡翠台星期日的 “恐龍新地自助餐 ”播放，到1989年3月停播當時喺唯一播出原裝日語OP的動畫 CUT掉了ED

再於1989年9月安排在下午4點的兒童節目閃電傳真機內繼續播放，并配上粵語主題曲《飄渺的遠方》，但每集只播15分鐘而且由於是兒童時段所以遭到大幅刪減，部份集數更刪剪至只有一節

龍珠二世

香港1991年10月6日起於無線電視翡翠台逢星期六10點首播后轉至深夜12點半檔播放至菲利篇（菲利篇決戰中途停播）并配上粵語主題曲，後重配粵語主題曲繼續播放至《斯路篇》結束龍珠二世播放中途經常停播播1年停1年

1996年5月開始在香港無線電視夜晚10點開始播放魔人布歐篇

明珠台深夜時段曾播放原帶帶中英字幕的龍珠Z

龍珠GT

香港於1998年7月15日在無線電視翡翠台開始播放龍珠GT第一部份 1999年暑假再續播第二部份

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:35 am

Bumping this thread up for kei17.
Perhaps he can use this info for his site.

JulieYBM · Post by **JulieYBM** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 8:53 pm

Wow editing the show down to fifteen minute episodes? That must've been weird.

It's interesting seeing the earliest exporting of the franchise. Back in the pre-internet days, too!

InfernalVegito · Post by **InfernalVegito** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:32 pm

I'd like to see such an edited episode, because 15 minutes sounds utterly awkward. I know anime series are often cut and censored in international dubs (I grew up on a cut DB/Z/GT version) but cutting that much is weird.

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:47 pm

I hadn't realized how censored the Cantonese dub until I saw the Cantonese re-dub last year.
The re-dub was thankfully uncut when TVB aired it on their J2 Channel.

Gokuden · Post by **Gokuden** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:17 pm

So when the people's party took over, they didn't really stop broadcasting anime.
I wonder how much influence on DBZ the takeover had.

Hellspawn28 · Post by **Hellspawn28** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:16 am

I wonder what the subs or dubs from Hong Kong are like? I'm a fan of Hong Kong dubs since most of them are enjoyable for being so bad. Hong Kong subs can be pretty funny too since the Hong Kong subs for V3 are hilarious.

kei17 · Post by **kei17** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:39 pm

Thank you for your effort, tinlunlau. This is pretty useful for my website. However, I remember reading a Cantonese website which says that TVB began airing DB in February 1987. Was that a typo, then? If so, the French dub would be the earliest dub in the world.

Do you have any TV recordings from the early days? I'd like to see how they aired the edited dub. Also, IIRC, they once released the TVB dub of DB on DVD. How did they handle it?

Hellspawn28 · Post by **Hellspawn28** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:35 pm

Was any of the DB shows dubbed in Hong Kong?

kei17 · Post by **kei17** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:54 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:Was any of the DB shows dubbed in Hong Kong?

They dubbed everything except for the TV specials.

Hellspawn28 · Post by **Hellspawn28** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:16 pm

I would like to listen to those dubs one day. I might able recognize some of the dubbers from other HK dubs.

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:57 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:I wonder what the subs or dubs from Hong Kong are like? I'm a fan of Hong Kong dubs since most of them are enjoyable for being so bad. Hong Kong subs can be pretty funny too since the Hong Kong subs for V3 are hilarious.

Well, the more recent anime dubs have been pretty good. I'm currently watching the Cantonese dub of "Bakuman (season 2)" and it has been really solid so far. It's even uncut!

Fullmetal Alchemist had an excellent Cantonese dub as far as I know.

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:03 pm

kei17 wrote:Thank you for your effort, tinlunlau. This is pretty useful for my website. However, I remember reading a Cantonese website which says that TVB began airing DB in February 1987. Was that a typo, then? If so, the French dub would be the earliest dub in the world.

Do you have any TV recordings from the early days? I'd like to see how they aired the edited dub. Also, IIRC, they once released the TVB dub of DB on DVD. How did they handle it?

Early day recordings...hmmmm...I don't think I have any. I used to rent them on VHS as they were aired in Hong Kong but that was a long ago. The DVD sets in Hong Kong simply took TVB's old dub and mixed in the original OP and ED back in.

kei17 · Post by **kei17** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 3:30 am

tinlunlau wrote:
kei17 wrote:Early day recordings...hmmmm...I don't think I have any. I used to rent them on VHS as they were aired in Hong Kong but that was a long ago. The DVD sets in Hong Kong simply took TVB's old dub and mixed in the original OP and ED back in.

I wonder how they handled the scenes that were cut in the dub. Does the dub audio switch to the original Japanese version with subs or are they simply cut out? I'd also like to know when they broadcast DBZ on TVB Pearl.

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:05 pm

kei17 wrote:
tinlunlau wrote:
kei17 wrote:Early day recordings...hmmmm...I don't think I have any. I used to rent them on VHS as they were aired in Hong Kong but that was a long ago. The DVD sets in Hong Kong simply took TVB's old dub and mixed in the original OP and ED back in.
I wonder how they handled the scenes that were cut in the dub. Does the dub audio switch to the original Japanese version with subs or are they simply cut out? I'd also like to know when they broadcast DBZ on TVB Pearl.

I've always been told that DBZ wasnt' as cut up as DB was. IF anything, it was only a minute that got cut.
The manga, on the other hand, was completely uncut and was better dealt with.

Hellspawn28 · Post by **Hellspawn28** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:20 pm

tinlunlau wrote:
Hellspawn28 wrote:I wonder what the subs or dubs from Hong Kong are like? I'm a fan of Hong Kong dubs since most of them are enjoyable for being so bad. Hong Kong subs can be pretty funny too since the Hong Kong subs for V3 are hilarious.
Well, the more recent anime dubs have been pretty good.

I never saw any of those dubs. Most Hong Kong dubs that I seen are for live action films. Some of them are pretty decent (like for some of Toho's sci-fi and action films), while others are so bad that they often good.

tinlunlau · Post by **tinlunlau** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:06 am

Actually, I heard TVB-Pearl airs DBZ subtitled and uncut. Reason being is, that's shown late at night.
I never grew up in Hong Kong so I wouldn't know for sure. But I have some VHS recordings of DBZ aired in Hong Kong when they were airing the Cell Saga episodes.

TVB's Cantonese dub of Bakuman is getting really good, by the way!

Kanzenshuu

A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Kong

A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Kong

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Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

Re: A brief look into the history of DB/DBZ anime in Hong Ko

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