Best English Release of the Manga?

[LordCrumb]

As per the title.. interested in getting the Manga of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z if its still in print.

What's the best English version available?

[Aerosol]

I don't know if you prefer black-and-white or not, but the full colors are being released in English, starting late february, which look pretty good. (check out the other topic for some previews)

Though, as it isn't released yet, no one really knows how accurate the translations are, and how badly they will be censored.
You could wait untill that release it is reviewed by someone, before making a decision.

Edit: I think they are starting the full color release at the Saiyan arc though.

[Mystic Buu]

I don't know,but check [link removed by moderator]. It has all chapters,but in black-white.I hope you like it.

[Fizzer]

The Viz Bigs have high quality paper, three volumes in one, some colour pages and cover the whole series, but are censored.

The original tankobons are pretty good, they're smaller than the Viz bigs and all in black-and-white, with hit-and-miss censorship, covering the whole series.

The 3-in-1s are tankobon-sized, greyscale, on thin paper, but completely uncensored (at least, they will be when volume 1 gets its promised reprint), and they're switching back to the "Dragon Ball" branding for the whole series. They aren't going to be finished for quite some time though.

I believe the full colour comics are the largest print version ever, in terms of height and width. They are, as he name says, entirely in colour and should be fully uncensored. We have no idea if Viz are planning to release the entire series or just Z, or even just the Saiyan-Freeza arc, though.

[AgitoZ]

If the chapters available through Viz's Shonen Jump are anything to go by, the Full Color's translation will be no different than before.

So be prepared for old timey Piccolo, light of deaths, Pocus, Vegerot, etc.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

The Viz Bigs have high quality paper, three volumes in one, some colour pages and cover the whole series, but are censored.

The original tankobons are pretty good, they're smaller than the Viz bigs and all in black-and-white, with hit-and-miss censorship, covering the whole series.

The 3-in-1s are tankobon-sized, greyscale, on thin paper, but completely uncensored (at least, they will be when volume 1 gets its promised reprint), and they're switching back to the "Dragon Ball" branding for the whole series. They aren't going to be finished for quite some time though.

I believe the full colour comics are the largest print version ever, in terms of height and width. They are, as he name says, entirely in colour and should be fully uncensored. We have no idea if Viz are planning to release the entire series or just Z, or even just the Saiyan-Freeza arc, though.

Something tells me vol.1 won't get that reprint anytime soon which sucks as it would have been a decent release.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Piccolo, light of deaths, Pocus, Vegerot, etc.

I only know Vegerot. What's wrong with Piccolo? And what are light of deaths and Pocus?

[VegettoEX]

Probably referring to Piccolo's "Olde English" way of speaking for a while, which most people noticed at the beginning of the "DBZ" portion of Viz's release.

"Light of Death" is Viz's "translation" of Makankousappou and "Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

[doomydoomydoom]

"Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

...The Hell?

Anyhow, what I believe to be the "best English release" is "grey-area" in legality (although I purchased some of the English volumes and will be purchasing Japanese kanzenbans so I can at least defend myself), but they're not those toilet-bowl ones that everyone propagates like a horrible flu virus.

Putting that aside, in the interest of not promoting an unofficial bootleg no matter how much I prefer it, I'd say that despite no re-translation, very little reversal of censorship and no color pages, the 3-in-1 Kanzenban lookalikes are my favorite official English release so far. I believe that Bulma's breastses appear untampered-with for the first time or close to it in the newest book. But if you MUST have big, high-quality paper and color pages, and if you want Z ASAP, then welcome to VizBigs.

[KentalSSJ6]

Probably referring to Piccolo's "Olde English" way of speaking for a while, which most people noticed at the beginning of the "DBZ" portion of Viz's release.

"Light of Death" is Viz's "translation" of Makankousappou and "Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

Exactly the reason I dont own the manga. The translation, much like Uchiyama's work, never ceases to make me cringe.

[Super Sonic]

"Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

...The Hell?

Anyhow, what I believe to be the "best English release" is "grey-area" in legality (although I purchased some of the English volumes and will be purchasing Japanese kanzenbans so I can at least defend myself), but they're not those toilet-bowl ones that everyone propagates like a horrible flu virus.

Putting that aside, in the interest of not promoting an unofficial bootleg no matter how much I prefer it, I'd say that despite no re-translation, very little reversal of censorship and no color pages, the 3-in-1 Kanzenban lookalikes are my favorite official English release so far. I believe that Bulma's breastses appear untampered-with for the first time or close to it in the newest book. But if you MUST have big, high-quality paper and color pages, and if you want Z ASAP, then welcome to VizBigs.

They were untampered in the old bigger releases as well. Though why making a fuss over a 16 year-old's bosoms, makes me wonder... (J/K)

[Herms]

"Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

...The Hell?

Pui-Pui is a pun on the Japanese magical phrase chichin-puipui, in keeping with Babidi and co.'s "magic word" theme. An English-speaking audience isn't going to be familiar with that word, so they changed it to being a pun on a magic word they would be familiar with, "hocus-pocus".

Honestly, it's a perfectly straightforward and logical way to adapt the character's name. The only thing odd about it is them leaving "Yakon" as-is, despite it coming from another bit of Japanese culture that's equally obscure for an English-speaking audience.

[doomydoomydoom]

Ah OK. After writing that I remembered the "magic" connections that the Buu arc villains had, and the whole "bibbidibobbidiboo" thing, so I thought "Pui-Pui" might have been a Japanese magic trick pun or something.

They were untampered in the old bigger releases as well. Though why making a fuss over a 16 year-old's bosoms, makes me wonder... (J/K)

LOL yeah, that's why I put the "or close to it" part, cause I couldn't remember if they had been censored or not in the VBigs. I remembered a comparison from the 3-in-1 thread which must have been from the "graphic novel" then.

[Attitudefan]

Probably referring to Piccolo's "Olde English" way of speaking for a while, which most people noticed at the beginning of the "DBZ" portion of Viz's release.

"Light of Death" is Viz's "translation" of Makankousappou and "Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

Exactly the reason I dont own the manga. The translation, much like Uchiyama's work, never ceases to make me cringe.

Yeah, I like this comparison.

Honestly, I hate the censorship plaguing the English releases of DB which mostly affects the Z portion. Swears are all censored such as "DAMN YOU" to "BLAST/DARN IT/YOU". Sucks. This happens in the Vizbigs mostly while the individual volumes that one can buy do not have as prevalent censors done to the language... however, concerning nudity, I am not sure how the individual volumes handle that. No tits, no buy. Haha, kidding!!

[KentalSSJ6]

Probably referring to Piccolo's "Olde English" way of speaking for a while, which most people noticed at the beginning of the "DBZ" portion of Viz's release.

"Light of Death" is Viz's "translation" of Makankousappou and "Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

Exactly the reason I dont own the manga. The translation, much like Uchiyama's work, never ceases to make me cringe.

Yeah, I like this comparison.

Honestly, I hate the censorship plaguing the English releases of DB which mostly affects the Z portion. Swears are all censored such as "DAMN YOU" to "BLAST/DARN IT/YOU". Sucks. This happens in the Vizbigs mostly while the individual volumes that one can buy do not have as prevalent censors done to the language... however, concerning nudity, I am not sure how the individual volumes handle that. No tits, no buy. Haha, kidding!!

Ehh..well I'm not really hating them because breasts arent being shown.

I'm a purist when it comes to content. Any and all censorship I completely despise. For me, its show me it how it was intended to be shown (Kanzenban) or its a no buy.

What further annoys me is that other mangas under VIZ have been left untouched. Have you seen some of the stuff in Bleach and Rurouni Kenshin? It makes the violence in DBZ pale in comparison.

So let me get this straight. This is ok -

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

But stuff like this is a no-no?

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Cultural differences aside, I still think its a load of total crap.

[Attitudefan]

That's the thing: DB gets this weird treatment that it gets heavily censored unlike other things released by the same publisher such as what you have shown.

I have also notices that DB has been placed in the kids sections at some book stores I have been to unlike all the other manga which is under MANGA! Yeah...

I mean, the DB portion is rated Teen while the Z portion is rated All Ages. I have no idea why it gets this treatment other than my speculation that Viz worries that a larger demographic of children are more likely to pick up Dragonball (by their parents perhaps) unlike, for example, Bleach. Therefore, Viz pretends Dragonball is not a manga due to the demographic that is likely to buy it; thus, it's treatment is that of a children's book instead of what it is supposed to be.

[Fizzer]

By analogy to what Viz seems to believe, lots of parents are likely to pick up Grand Theft Auto V for their children, not understanding that it contains things that they don't want their children exposed to, therefore, Rockstar should remove all of violence, swearing, sexual themes and so on, to protect the people who ignore the age rating from their own ignorance.

[KentalSSJ6]

By analogy to what Viz seems to believe, lots of parents are likely to pick up Grand Theft Auto V for their children, not understanding that it contains things that they don't want their children exposed to, therefore, Rockstar should remove all of violence, swearing, sexual themes and so on, to protect the people who ignore the age rating from their own ignorance.

Stupid parents who think they can do no wrong and want everything to conform to them so their job is easier is also a issue, and a big one at that. If someone can link that one big debate we had a while ago about parenting and DBZ, you can read what ties into a lot of the censorship issue.

[Super Sonic]

What further annoys me is that other mangas under VIZ have been left untouched. Have you seen some of the stuff in Bleach and Rurouni Kenshin? It makes the violence in DBZ pale in comparison.

So let me get this straight. This is ok -

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

But stuff like this is a no-no?

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Cultural differences aside, I still think its a load of total crap.

Kenshin had a T+ rating unlike DB's T and DBZ's A. Also it being a period piece, it got away with some things that other series weren't able to, like underage drinking.

Probably referring to Piccolo's "Olde English" way of speaking for a while, which most people noticed at the beginning of the "DBZ" portion of Viz's release.

"Light of Death" is Viz's "translation" of Makankousappou and "Pocus" is their renaming of Pui-Pui.

Exactly the reason I dont own the manga. The translation, much like Uchiyama's work, never ceases to make me cringe.

Yeah, I like this comparison.

Honestly, I hate the censorship plaguing the English releases of DB which mostly affects the Z portion. Swears are all censored such as "DAMN YOU" to "BLAST/DARN IT/YOU". Sucks. This happens in the Vizbigs mostly while the individual volumes that one can buy do not have as prevalent censors done to the language... however, concerning nudity, I am not sure how the individual volumes handle that. No tits, no buy. Haha, kidding!!

It's not just DB that had swears changed. In re-releases of the early Naruto and One Piece volumes, some characters' mouths have been cleaned up a bit. My copies of the first few issues of US Jump, Sasuke and Sakura tended to call Naruto a "dick" and an "ass" many times. Re-releases of those volumes they don't call him that. Heck, Naruto said he wanted to be Hokage so the village would have to kiss his ass. Will say changing it to wanting to respect him kinda seems more in character while the early version makes him sound more not having issues. Though will say those re-releases did fix the typos that had occured in those issues, similar to the Kenshin Vizbigs fixing the typos of the original volumes.

[Attitudefan]

Is it possible that earlier released translations had more prevalent swears to make manga seem more "edgy" and "mature" compared to the domestic comic book market? I am not too familiar with Naruto or One Piece but knowing what dubbing companies did throughout the 1980's and 1990's anime, they either dumbed them down for children or made them seem more mature and edgy by adding curse words in places that didn't have them, or the dubbing changed sentences such as "X should respect me," to "X should kiss my ass (and then I'll rape her)!"

Seriously. That happened.

So, it is possible that some of the censors are not censors at all and are actually more faithful to the original... however, that isn't the case with Dragonball.