Opinions on the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball

[Kakarot88]

What are your thoughts on Funimation's dub of the original Dragon Ball anime? I think it was a pretty good dub overall. It wasn't quite as accurate as the Kai dub, but it was still reasonably accurate overall, and although the voice acting wasn't really anything ground breaking, most of them did a pretty good job in my opinion. Oh, and Brice Armstrong was a damn good narrator, it really is a shame that he retired.

Dragon Ball is definitely better on average than Z's dub. I wish this had been the quality level of season 3 and it improved from there. The acting is good, even Vollmer is much better. However, can't stand Nadolny as Goku.

The scripts are good, not great, and they fluctuate. There's the occasional excellent episode and then the terrible one. There are even episodes where it's good, but then inexplicably, one scene will be awful. I recall one or two episodes in the Commander Red "Saga" that are VERY accurate.

I wholeheartedly agree about Brice Armstrong. I wish he was the narrator for all 3 series. He's a solid actor and his voice is amazing. I could listen to that guy say damn near anything. Thankfully the narrations were good, but there were the occasional voice overs where he was required to say way too much, but at least he made it listenable. It would've been far worse had Kelly, Hebert, or GT's narrator been given the script. For example, there's a big monologue as Goku is heading towards the Red Ribbon Army base for the final showdown after he killed Tao Pai Pai.

ABED, You and I don't often agree on Funimation dubs lol but on this one I'm 100% with ya except I don't know if I'd have been on board with the narrator for dragon ball being the one for Z, to me he just had more of a grandfather telling his grandson a story than I would care for in Z.

[ABED]

What are your thoughts on Funimation's dub of the original Dragon Ball anime? I think it was a pretty good dub overall. It wasn't quite as accurate as the Kai dub, but it was still reasonably accurate overall, and although the voice acting wasn't really anything ground breaking, most of them did a pretty good job in my opinion. Oh, and Brice Armstrong was a damn good narrator, it really is a shame that he retired.

Dragon Ball is definitely better on average than Z's dub. I wish this had been the quality level of season 3 and it improved from there. The acting is good, even Vollmer is much better. However, can't stand Nadolny as Goku.

The scripts are good, not great, and they fluctuate. There's the occasional excellent episode and then the terrible one. There are even episodes where it's good, but then inexplicably, one scene will be awful. I recall one or two episodes in the Commander Red "Saga" that are VERY accurate.

I wholeheartedly agree about Brice Armstrong. I wish he was the narrator for all 3 series. He's a solid actor and his voice is amazing. I could listen to that guy say damn near anything. Thankfully the narrations were good, but there were the occasional voice overs where he was required to say way too much, but at least he made it listenable. It would've been far worse had Kelly, Hebert, or GT's narrator been given the script. For example, there's a big monologue as Goku is heading towards the Red Ribbon Army base for the final showdown after he killed Tao Pai Pai.

ABED, You and I don't often agree on Funimation dubs lol but on this one I'm 100% with ya except I don't know if I'd have been on board with the narrator for dragon ball being the one for Z, to me he just had more of a grandfather telling his grandson a story than I would care for in Z.

That's what Dragon Ball is, even into Z. It's not a monster truck show.

[DBZAOTA482]

Again, GT's dub is on par with DB.

Yes, but the swearing was less common and more varied in the original.

You make it sound like it was all the time in Kai. The original wasn't that varied with its cussing.

1. Script-wise and Voice acting-wise, it is on par but the soundtrack easily puts it at a huge disadvantage.

2. Hell yeah, it is.

But on a serious note, it's no Angel Cop but it still has more than is necessary (and repetition doesn't help either) and yes, the swearing in the original isn't that varied but compared to Kai it's pretty varied.

[ABED]

Script-wise and Voice acting-wise, it is on par but the soundtrack easily puts it at a huge disadvantage.

I was only referring to the script and acting. Ever since the season sets, the music is moot point. Even the songs have been dubbed.

[90sDBZ]

... I like how with the DB dub they didn't feel the need to go over the top with big words or add swearing in for the sake of making the show appear more mature or hardcore like in Kai. It was fairly accurate and they didn't try to make it anything more than the kids show it was. Kids have trouble following the dialogue in Kai's dub while I'm sure they have no problem following DB's dialogue. Same with GT actually. That was pretty accurate and didn't go over the top with words either. With DB and GT they found a good balance. With Kai they were overcompensating for the complaints about Z's dub.

Do you have specific examples of Kai using "big words?" That seems pretty subjective to any individual's vocabulary.

Well I have read a number of comments online about how people have watched Kai with younger siblings/cousins and how they struggled to follow what's being said. And although the dialogue may not seem that heavy from an adults perspective, I do honestly believe that I would have struggled to follow it as a kid. Frieza and Bulma seem to be prime offenders of this. In the DB dub Bulma speaks plain English that anyone can understand. In Kai she regularly goes out of her way to use big words to describe how she is a delicate flower. Frieza barely ever uses plain English. One of his lines that comes to mind is "But its precious core has been utterly desiccated. Need I give you a lesson in Geology?"

[Super Sonic]

Will say like many anime dubs of its time, if you watch it like a US cartoon with your anime senses off, you'll be fine and it's ok.

[DBZAOTA482]

Script-wise and Voice acting-wise, it is on par but the soundtrack easily puts it at a huge disadvantage.

I was only referring to the script and acting. Ever since the season sets, the music is moot point. Even the songs have been dubbed.

I don't care. I'm talking about the original dubs not the remastered dubs.

[ABED]

Nothing stands out as changed, except for the music, so it's not an issue.

... I like how with the DB dub they didn't feel the need to go over the top with big words or add swearing in for the sake of making the show appear more mature or hardcore like in Kai. It was fairly accurate and they didn't try to make it anything more than the kids show it was. Kids have trouble following the dialogue in Kai's dub while I'm sure they have no problem following DB's dialogue. Same with GT actually. That was pretty accurate and didn't go over the top with words either. With DB and GT they found a good balance. With Kai they were overcompensating for the complaints about Z's dub.

Do you have specific examples of Kai using "big words?" That seems pretty subjective to any individual's vocabulary.

Well I have read a number of comments online about how people have watched Kai with younger siblings/cousins and how they struggled to follow what's being said. And although the dialogue may not seem that heavy from an adults perspective, I do honestly believe that I would have struggled to follow it as a kid. Freeza and Bulma seem to be prime offenders of this. In the DB dub Bulma speaks plain English that anyone can understand. In Kai she regularly goes out of her way to use big words to describe how she is a delicate flower. Freeza barely ever uses plain English. One of his lines that comes to mind is "But its precious core has been utterly desiccated. Need I give you a lesson in Geology?"

Why do you automatically assume it's negative. I agree that Bulma and Freeza are given lots of words to chew on and can deliver them pretty fast but kids often like things that aren't aimed at even their age group.

[Thanos]

I have to say, my opinion of the Dragon Ball dub differs greatly from the Z dub. Obviously, it was considerably more accurate... and the music remained intact. And for some reason, I know I'm alone in this (even among dub fans), I have a fondness for Stephanie Nadolny's portrayal of kid Goku.

[Kaboom]

On a dub quality scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a statistically impossible "perfect" dub and 1 being 4Kids' One Piece...

FUNi's old DBZ dub is a 3 only because of some appreciable Boo-saga improvement...
GT's dub is a 4 with the replacement music and a 5 with the original music...
The godsend Kai dub is an 8, but a 9 if Chris Ayres did his Freeza voice for every character...

I'd give Dragon Ball's dub... a solid 6, I think. Maybe a 7. It was much more accurate overall, and FUNimation didn't try to HARDCORE-IZE it like they did with DBZ and to an even messier extent GT, so the music and stuff was preserved, and thus so was the true overall tone of the series along with it. But although the dialogue was "more" accurate, it still suffered from a lot of FUNimation trying to do too much of their "own thing" with it. Plus some too goofy-in-a-bad-way voices and a few other minor issues. Whether it's a 6 or a 7 depends on if I'm forgetting any major standout problems with it or not.

[ABED]

To those that rate GT below DB in terms of the dub, take the quality of the series out of the equation, are you saying that the acting and the scripts aren't as accurate as the DB scripts?

[Fizzer]

To those that rate GT below DB in terms of the dub, take the quality of the series out of the equation, are you saying that the acting and the scripts aren't as accurate as the DB scripts?

I think there were more intentional changes in GT. "You're going to train, aren't you?" is a pretty big one that comes to mind. That line changes the ending of the series completely.

[ABED]

To those that rate GT below DB in terms of the dub, take the quality of the series out of the equation, are you saying that the acting and the scripts aren't as accurate as the DB scripts?

I think there were more intentional changes in GT. "You're going to train, aren't you?" is a pretty big one that comes to mind. That line changes the ending of the series completely.

Does Goku answer?

I don't think the line is that bad, and I'm sure someone can find some line that's worse in DB's dub. It's a single line, and I don't think it shows GT changed things anymore than DB. They are both about equal. I've watched both dubs with the JPN subtitles on.

[Quebaz]

To those that rate GT below DB in terms of the dub, take the quality of the series out of the equation, are you saying that the acting and the scripts aren't as accurate as the DB scripts?

I think there were more intentional changes in GT. "You're going to train, aren't you?" is a pretty big one that comes to mind. That line changes the ending of the series completely.

I'm curious, as I know the Portuguese and Spanish dubs had that line as well, what did Vegeta say in the Japanese version?

[UltimateHammerBro]

To those that rate GT below DB in terms of the dub, take the quality of the series out of the equation, are you saying that the acting and the scripts aren't as accurate as the DB scripts?

I think there were more intentional changes in GT. "You're going to train, aren't you?" is a pretty big one that comes to mind. That line changes the ending of the series completely.

I'm curious, as I know the Portuguese and Spanish dubs had that line as well, what did Vegeta say in the Japanese version?

If I remember well, he asks him where he is going, then he gasps and says "Are you...?" and Goku tells him to stop.

By the way, the Spanish line is "Hold on! I hate to say this, but... good luck, Goku." And curiously, the "but" is synchronized with Vegeta's surprised face, where he originally gasped.

[90sDBZ]

Why do you automatically assume it's negative. I agree that Bulma and Freeza are given lots of words to chew on and can deliver them pretty fast but kids often like things that aren't aimed at even their age group.

It's negative because not being able to understand what's being said can take lead to boredom and take you out of the show. There's no need for them to be speaking like that when the original target audience for the show won't understand it a lot of the time. I feel like Kai in Japan was still made primarily for kids but the English Kai dub was made more specifically for the older purists and anime fans who complained about the Z dub over the years.

[ABED]

Why do you automatically assume it's negative. I agree that Bulma and Freeza are given lots of words to chew on and can deliver them pretty fast but kids often like things that aren't aimed at even their age group.

It's negative because not being able to understand what's being said can take lead to boredom and take you out of the show. There's no need for them to be speaking like that when the original target audience for the show won't understand it a lot of the time. I feel like Kai in Japan was still made primarily for kids but the English Kai dub was made more specifically for the older purists and anime fans who complained about the Z dub over the years.

Being talked down to also leads to boredom. I think you underestimate kids' ability to comprehend things. Even if you don't get every single word, it's not like kids can't understand what's going on.

I can't help but feel there's a negative connotation to your last sentence.

[Quebaz]

If I remember well, he asks him where he is going, then he gasps and says "Are you...?" and Goku tells him to stop.

By the way, the Spanish line is "Hold on! I hate to say this, but... good luck, Goku." And curiously, the "but" is synchronized with Vegeta's surprised face, where he originally gasped.

Had a feeling I was wrong, but i really recall seeing that line somewhere else, oh well.

[90sDBZ]

Why do you automatically assume it's negative. I agree that Bulma and Freeza are given lots of words to chew on and can deliver them pretty fast but kids often like things that aren't aimed at even their age group.

It's negative because not being able to understand what's being said can take lead to boredom and take you out of the show. There's no need for them to be speaking like that when the original target audience for the show won't understand it a lot of the time. I feel like Kai in Japan was still made primarily for kids but the English Kai dub was made more specifically for the older purists and anime fans who complained about the Z dub over the years.

Being talked down to also leads to boredom. I think you underestimate kids' ability to comprehend things. Even if you don't get every single word, it's not like kids can't understand what's going on.

I can't help but feel there's a negative connotation to your last sentence.

Well I can't speak for everyone but not that long ago someone on this site mentioned their little cousin watches Kai on TV but prefers to watch Z because they find the dialogue easier to follow. And I never felt like the old dub was talking down to me and neither did the many others who watched for that matter. I've always just thought of it as a dub that doesn't take itself overly seriously and has a corny sense of humour at times.

Yes maybe you can still get what's going on with the plot but I stand by my opinion of that kind of dialogue being unnecessary.

As for my last sentence I was just pointing out the fact that the Funi cast were bothered for a long time by the criticism they got over the years and that's what ultimately lead to Kai being how it is. The kids who watch Kai on TV probably wouldn't have cared less if the dub hadn't been accurate or intelligent sounding.

[dbboxkaifan]

Kid Goku isn't voiced by Colleen so that's a huge advantage and the dub itself is pretty decent so if I were to watch it in English I'd enjoy it but unfortunately by the end it'd change back to Schemmel. Oh god the frustration.

My score's 1-10 of FUNi's dubs.

DB - 7.0/10
DBZ - 4.5/10 (only by Cell Games and Buu's arc the dub becomes somewhat watchable)
DBGT - 6.0/10
DBK - 7.5/10 (would've been scored higher if Schemmel and Colleen were replaced)

As for FUNimation's Kai dub people give way too much credit for it to be accurate, it's the best English dub of Dragon Ball that FUNimation's done but it's due to being a modern dub. Still, in terms of voices it's flawed.