Watching the Buu arc

[Valerius Dover]

Just finished the World Tournament Saga. A few more notes.

-Forgot to mention this before, but Piccolo's voice has improved considerably since the Cell Arc, as he has lost almost all the gravel in his voice by this point, making his performance much more like in the Vegeta and Namek Sagas
-Vegeta, likewise sounds like he did in the Frieza Arc, with a noticeably deeper voice
-The Narrator has gone back to sounding right again, as he picked up pretty quickly

The scene where Spopovich beats Videl is brutal, but it's really not as bad as people make it out to be. It's not really worse than Frieza beating the tar out of Vegeta. Up until the end, that is, when she has tears in her eyes and her screaming gets more intense. I should point out that the Super Saiyan leitmotif playing early sort of spoiled Gohan's tranformation, though.

[Gaffer Tape]

-Piccolo goes by the name MaJunior, similar to the name he went by in the 23rd Tournament, where he was simply Junior

Ehhh... yes and no. When season 5 (which is what this episode is part of) was originally airing, I'd pretty much all but given up on watching the dub, but I do recall catching this and being extraordinarily and pleasantly surprised that they actually kept the name Ma Junior here. But then a few years later, when they dubbed the 23rd Budoukai of Dragon Ball, they fucked it up and just called him Junior for some reason. But suffice it to say, he's consistently called Ma Junior both times, and this is just a dub mistake. Come to think of it, though, even though it's been 13 years since I saw this dubbed, I seem to remember he just gave a straight up romanized "Majunia" here, so chances are FUNimation just stupidly never realized what it was he was even saying.

Then again, I've always thought it was pretty damned stupid that Piccolo would go "incognito" because he feared "Piccolo" would cause a panic, only to use the same name he'd already used and revealed as Piccolo. But on the other hand, given how stupid the populace is at this point in the series, he probably could have used the name Piccolo, and no one would have remembered that anyway.

[Valerius Dover]

^Ok, that's interesting to know. I'm pretty sure they do say "MaJunior" but they put the emphasis on Ma, making it sound like one word.

Another thing, they just dumped a bunch of plot in the last few minutes of Episode 219.
Also, this hierarchy keeps getting weirder and weirder.

First, Korin is the big thing in the Commander Red Saga. Then there's Kami in the Piccolo Jr. Saga. The Vegeta Saga brings us King Yemma and then King Kai, who then turns out to be North Kai much later in the Great Saiyaman Saga. Come World Tournament Saga, there's a Supreme Kai running around telling us there were 5 Grand Kais before. What's next...?

Oh, yeah, then there's Shenron. I guess he'd go between Korin and Kami.

[SSJ Electric Fury]

Come World Tournament Saga, there's a Supreme Kai running around telling us there were 5 Grand Kais before.

That's a dub error. There were five Kaioshins / Supreme Kais previously. The position of Grand Kaio / Kai is something different.

[Valerius Dover]

^Oh, I take it Shin's been dipping in the eggnog then.

I kind of took it as there being only one the Grand Kai left, but it would seem he meant that HE'S the last of the SUPREME Kais.
Also, another note, I'm a little disappointed at how the tournament turned out. I know it's not really over, but almost all the major fighters have left. "My beautiful tournament!" indeed.....

[Fionordequester]

So have you ever watched the Subbed version, or are you being introduced via the dub?

On original Z however, the english script is almost always completely different than the japanese one. Not always, but many times it is. For example, just last night I watched the episode where Piccolo and Krillin go to Kami's Lookout after Majin Buu revived from Vegeta's blast attack. On the way there they passed by Karin's and Yajirobe. On the japanese version, Yajirobe says he'll be on guard in case Buu goes to Karin's Tower, and Krillin tells Yajirobe that he's useless and no good to anyone then leaves. In the english version, Yajirobe says he wishes he could order pizza from up there, and Krillin tells him maybe he should learn how to fly and get the pizza himself, then tells Piccolo "cmon Piccolo, lets vamoose".

...Yeah, I really have to disagree with you here, at least on this one instance. I mean hey, both versions have Yajirobe saying something idiotic, and both of them have Krillin being condescending towards him, so in this case, I still consider this a good translation, even if him talking about pizza is a little out-of-place considering the seriousness of the situation...

That being said though, Krillin seriously says "you're useless and no good to anyone"? Because WOW, that's probably like, the most mean-spirited thing ever said from anyone not named Vegeta . And if that's the case...yikes, I'm honestly kind of glad they changed Krillin's response, because that really doesn't seem like something he'd say, and in fact, it makes me wonder if Steve Simmons translated that dialogue too literally (as he sometimes does. Like with how he translates Majin Buu's dialogue. He makes it seem like Majin Buu's talks normally, when in fact, he's actually supposed to use broken language like he does in the English dub).

[Valerius Dover]

Yes, I have not seen the original, so my introduction is the dub. As I said, saw DB on the Blue Bricks, then saw the 4 Movies on the white box, and I am using the Orange Bricks for DBZ, with the American score.

For future reference, I have the few anime I have seen listed in my signature. I account for different versions, too.

[Valerius Dover]

Here I am again, having started the Babidi Saga. A few more notes.

-People seem to be forgetting the fact that Goku is dead. Vegeta even mentions him supposedly being "eaten alive" by Yakkon. More like "eaten dead".

-Videl was shoved aside pretty quickly. It almost seems as if Toriyama randomly changed his mind on her role. It seems she's been shoved to the sidelines already. I should point out that I haven't yet seen any signs of anything between them, so to speak. Aside from Mr. Satan's paranoia, of course.

-I've heard people praise Duncan Brannan and Rick Robertson as Babidi and Dabura, and I certainly agree! I hope they stick around for The Final Chapters.

[DarkPrince_92]

Videl, like a lot of non-Saiyan characters, got the Toriyama treatment. They're fun at first until he realizes, they can't do much because they're not Saiyan so time to leave them in the background. She played he supporting character role in the Saiyaman Arc, so I can understand. When you say "haven't seen anything between them", who is them? Do you mean Videl and Satan or Videl and Gohan?

Brannan makes a great Babidi (not so much in the video games later on). The Japanese Kai Babidi reminded me of him. Hopefully he takes the same approach in Kai. Same could be said with Dabura. Can't see his voice changing.

[Valerius Dover]

Oops, sorry I meant Gohan and Videl there. Kind of stinks that she got this treatment so early.

[DarkPrince_92]

Oops, sorry I meant Gohan and Videl there.

Oh okay. Hard to say. Videl looks like a girl that's hard to impress. Then Gohan came around. Made her life much more interesting. I don't know how you guys feel about women, but to me, they love not being bored. They'll pick something that's "new" to them whatever new is to them. Then there's the shallow ones, like Krillin's ex, that like good looking guys regardless of what they do.

Videl slowly uncovering Gohan's secrets led to her vast interest in his world.

[RandomGuy96]

Well, she does get one kinda important scene later, so it's not like she was completely forgotten. Let's be honest, there was really no way she could have contributed when the super villains got involved.

I love Babidi's and Dabra's voices in the dub. They were some of the few actors from the non-Kai Funi dub that were genuinely good. Dabra sounds like a refined, cocky, evil badass, while Babidi sounds just like a little bastard like him should sound (also, he's pretty funny). I also like the voice actor for a later villain (in case you don't know who that is yet).

[Valerius Dover]

"Why did Yakkon go boom......? Why did my Yakkon go boom...?"

[RandomGuy96]

I like how Babidi brings henchmen (Yamu/Spopovich, those nameless troops, Pui Pui, Yakon, Dabra, some other fighters we never got to see) and they're all just instantly and effortlessly slaughtered for the most part despite Pui Pui and Yakon (at least) being ridiculously strong by space warrior standards. Maybe it's because I really disliked how dragged out things were with Freeza's worthless jobbers. Or maybe I just disliked how much stronger Freeza was than them, and how strong everyone got, which made the henchmen a complete waste...

I also like how the same thing basically happens with the heroes, with Dabra swooping in and quickly one-shotting Krillin, Kibito, and Piccolo before they even get in the ship.

[ImmaDeker]

On the other hand, dedicating what's essentially an entire half hour to a complete lack of tension is kind of DBZ's decompressed storytelling at its worst.

[Kid Buu]

Yeah, FUNimation certainly improved by the time of the Buu Arc.

On the other hand, dedicating what's essentially an entire half hour to a complete lack of tension is kind of DBZ's decompressed storytelling at its worst.

Sounds like YYH.

[Valerius Dover]

Ok, I have now finished the Babidi Saga. Yet another saga to end in a cliffhangar. Just like the Commander Red, Tien Shinhan, Namek, Androids, Imperfect Cell, and World Tournament Sagas.

Krillin and Piccolo have been out of commission for almost the entire saga. Yep. Kibito was killed rather unceremoniously. The narrator is the only person to mention his death at all.

Vegeta's become quite the asshole indeed, not caring for his family at all.

Seeing flashbacks to pre-Faulconer with Faulconer music feels odd for some reason. The Johnson score was used in those earlier episodes. I got the same feeling whenever A DB flashback popped up using Johnson or Faulconer music.

[RandomGuy96]

That's because there's not really a "Babidi Saga" or "Imperfect Cell Saga".

On the other hand, dedicating what's essentially an entire half hour to a complete lack of tension is kind of DBZ's decompressed storytelling at its worst.

The Buu arc was pretty much a self-parody, so I'm fine with that.

[DarkPrince_92]

Kibito was killed rather unceremoniously. The narrator is the only person to mention his death at all.

That's hilarious. No one noticed. In fact Supreme Kai wasn't as shocked about it as one would think.

Vegeta's become quite the asshole indeed, not caring for his family at all.

Or so he claims. Seems like he had to convince himself of that.

[RandomGuy96]

Actually, now that I think about it, it's kind of funny that Kibito possessed teleportation and healing magic while Kaioshin didn't. Those proved to be extremely useful non combat powers, and would've come in handy more than once if Kaioshin had them. It's similarly silly that Kaioshin had that haxxed paralysis technique, while the other, older, stronger Kaioshin didn't, or else Buu could have used it. He could spawn Potara earrings out of nowhere whenever he wanted, too.