Why is the Canadian/UK Blue Water dub of DBGT so hated?

[TVfan721]

Here's something that is never talked about much on this forum, the Blue Water dub of DBGT that was used for here in Canada and in the UK. It's 100% faithful to the original Japanese version unlike the Funimation version. It had all of the original music, used an English translated version of Dan Dan, and kept the ending completely untouched (Japanese Dan Dan and all) Also, there was almost no censorship at all. Yet, this dub gets completely trashed. I don't get it, I loved it and I was VERY grateful that we got this dub here in Canada.

The voices could be better but all of the acting is still done very well and most of the voices fit no problem. Only Vegeta was in need of a different voice actor but even that wasn't too bad. Overall, the trashing that this dub gets just comes across as being REALLY ungrateful. It's evident that the company behind this dub had a lot of good intentions and it's really well done.

[sangofe]

As far as I know, this dub was censored, and the dialogue was far from being 100% faithful.

[TVfan721]

It wasn't censored here in Canada besides the obvious stuff, maybe the UK version was.

[UltimateHammerBro]

I think I've read that the DBGT dub wasn't censored, and only DB's first episodes were censored.

[SSJ God Gogeta]

Bad voice acting, Just re-watched some of it. Now I remember why I ran to the Funi dub with open arms.

[eledoremassis02]

I like the Blue water GT dub I don't really care anymore about whats accurate and whats not cause I'll just watch the subtitled version then

[Ajay]

I have it all backed up. Both Canadian and UK broadcasts. What exactly do you remember being uncensored?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, there are some things that are perhaps worth mentioning:

-It wasn't 100% uncensored. A lot of it was, but there were some scenes dealing with nudity (and I believe some overly violent stuff) that was cut or digitally modified (bathing suits, etc.).
-Their dub of "Dan Dan" was shortened from the original version, and the lyrics bore no resemblance to the original. FUNimation's dub of the song that they would make many years later had lyrics that were infinitely closer to the original.
-The scripts, while generally more faithful than FUNimation's, also took their fair share of liberties and changes.

I once read something that summed up the two English dubs of GT perfectly: "Neither comapny really created a dub of the original Japanese show. FUNimation created a dub that was aimed at older kid/teen audiences, and Blue Water created a dub that was meant to feel like a Saturday morning cartoon."

Now, having said all that, I did enjoy aspects of the Blue Water dub. I liked the voice actor for Bebi, and in particular, I thought it was a great idea to cast an actual kid as Pan. Kids are very rarely cast in anime dubs, so it brought a refreshing sense of authenticity to the role. I also liked that they used the original music, although that's not such a big deal now that FUNimation's DVDs have the option of Japanese music with English voices.

And I can't help but notice that Dan Gascon's Krillin sounds somewhat similar to TFS Krillin...

[90sDBZ]

The only things I liked about this dub were the catchy intro song and Zoe Sulsar's Kid Goku. Trunks and Pan sounded decent too I guess. And I do kind of like the Japanese GT score.

Most of the cast sounded terrible. Adult Goku's actor was just a poor Kirby Morrow sound-alike that didn't suit the character at all, Vegeta's was a much worse imitation of Drummond than Sabat was in Season 3 of Z, Gohan sounded laughably monotone (especially during Piccolo's death), and Piccolo sounded awful too.

I've always wondered why they didn't continue using the actual Ocean cast from Z. The Westwood dub had started to actually become watchable during the late Buu saga, but instead of continuing to run with that they ditch the Ocean cast in favor of less experienced actors. What's interesting is that Blue Water were dubbing GT at the same time Ocean were finishing off Z, and GT aired in the UK immediately after Z ended, so maybe it was a timing issue or something.

I will say that Blue Water did a much better job on DB than they did on GT.

As far as uncensored is concerned I know for a fact Blue Water left in Vegeta's armed being impaled by Syn Shenron in full, and also showed all of Goku vs Piccolo Jr uncut in DB.

[TheBlackPaladin]

From what I heard, there were plans to use the Ocean cast for GT, and one voice actor (I think one of the Dobson brothers?) said that they had been cast in a few roles. Ultimately, it never came to pass. I'm not as familiar with the Canadian voice acting industry, but from what I understand, the Ocean cast was more expensive than the Blue Water cast. Couple that with GT often being called the weakest of the three animes, and I suppose it's not so far-fetched to imagine that the producers just didn't feel like spending the money. We'll never know for sure, though.

[Ajay]

Blue Water GT had the best jokes.

On a serious note though, there's actually a few elements among the crap that I really enjoy in their dub. Zoe Sulsar is a pretty solid Goku and, as TheBlackPaladin said, having an actual kid play Pan was great.

Overall though, it's pretty poor.

[90sDBZ]

Another thing I remembered about the dub was some randomly strange errors in the dialogue like Goku saying he was born on earth and also saying that it was Vegeta's Final Explosion that defeated Majin Buu. And there was a part on the final episode were he remembers returning to earth from otherworld for the 25th Tournament and instead of saying "Hey!" to his friends he says "See ya!".

[DBGod]

The Dan Dan montage scene in episode 64 was actually completely edited out in the UK broadcast because of GT airing prior to the original Dragonball. It was supposedly edited out due to "preventing spoilers" though I have yet to see proof of this ending airing in any of the re-runs. Until someone provides a recording from Toonami (or even the Dutch YOR channel would be fascinating to see) to debunk this, I suppose it will remain so.

Here in Canada though Dragonball aired first, YTV got the full ending and I have it recorded in excellent quality It's unfortunate Toonami made quite a few actually, pointless edits to both the Blue Water and Ocean dub, not to mention the airing sequence being completely skewed.

[NeoKING]

Now, having said all that, I did enjoy aspects of the Blue Water dub. I liked the voice actor for Bebi, and in particular, I thought it was a great idea to cast an actual kid as Pan. Kids are very rarely cast in anime dubs, so it brought a refreshing sense of authenticity to the role. I also liked that they used the original music, although that's not such a big deal now that FUNimation's DVDs have the option of Japanese music with English voices.

And I can't help but notice that Dan Gascon's Krillin sounds somewhat similar to TFS Krillin...

I'm not usually one of the opinion that the dub voice should sound like the original, but Mike McFarland's Baby sounds so identical to the original JP voice actor that he probably had the best performance in GT. Blue Water's Baby voice sounded horrendous. Baby was supposed to a sneaky, cunning little bastard. The BW dub gave him a voice that sounded like he was an alien being possessed by Satan.

Also, Pan's VA was a kid not only because it was a smart casting choice, but because acting in Canada is different from acting in the U.S. It's very easy for child actors to get on over there, not only in voice acting but actual live roles too (Ie. Degrassi) Live action series are tremendously popular on Canadian television.

In any case, BW's dub shouldn't be hated. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't as great as the Pioneer dub of the first three Ocean movies, or anything (although BW did do the same thing Pioneer did in putting in sound effects that wasn't in the original). I saw every episode of the BW GT dub and there were some questionable changes:

- changing Hell to "Hades;"
- giving SSJ4 Gogeta a completely brand new voice;
- re-naming General Rild to "General Lock;"
- "Giru" to "Gill"
- Ledgic to "Lezick;"
- "Dragon Fist" became "Ultimate Dragon Fist;"
- They kept the term "Ohzaru" but pronounced it "Uzaru;"
- "Tsufuru-jin" / "Tuffles" became "Tsufulls;"
- Yi Xing Long to "Li Shenron"
- Randomly giving one of Li Shenron's attacks a name (I think they called it Blazing Sunfire attack, or something -- he used it against Gogeta);
- Goku calling Vegeta a mama's boy before he fires his Gallick Gun (???)
- Having Goku tell Li Shenron that the reason he's still alive is because he does push ups;

And who could forget Zoe Slusar's sexual performance during Goku's transformation to a Golden Ohzaru for the first time.

Another thing is that BW's GT looks very ... "washed out." That is to say, it's like the footage they used came from bootleg tapes or something.

[Ajay]

The Dan Dan montage scene in episode 64 was actually completely edited out in the UK broadcast because of GT airing prior to the original Dragonball. It was supposedly edited out due to "preventing spoilers" though I have yet to see proof of this ending airing in any of the re-runs. Until someone provides a recording from Toonami (or even the Dutch YOR channel would be fascinating to see) to debunk this, I suppose it will remain so.

It was edited out though I have no idea whether that was the specific reasoning behind it. Sure makes sense though!

Here's proof from Toonami: http://webmup.com/Wd570/

[DBGod]

The Dan Dan montage scene in episode 64 was actually completely edited out in the UK broadcast because of GT airing prior to the original Dragonball. It was supposedly edited out due to "preventing spoilers" though I have yet to see proof of this ending airing in any of the re-runs. Until someone provides a recording from Toonami (or even the Dutch YOR channel would be fascinating to see) to debunk this, I suppose it will remain so.

It was edited out though I have no idea whether that was the specific reasoning behind it. Sure makes sense though!

Here's proof from Toonami: http://webmup.com/Wd570/

Actually, that's the edited version from the UK broadcast. It was slowed down to prevent the Japanese text scroll from appearing on screen, and the entire sequence was edited out.

I uploaded this in the past and it proved to come in use! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZNi8LelUA4

[Ajay]

Actually, that's the edited version from the UK broadcast. It was slowed down to prevent the Japanese text scroll from appearing on screen, and the entire sequence was edited out.

I uploaded this in the past and it proved to come in use! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZNi8LelUA4

Ah, damn. Well that throws off all the beliefs I had about my sources. That's what I get for believing strangers on forums many, many years ago.

This also likely answers the question you PM'd me about. Chances are, there isn't any YTV about and I'm misinformed.

[DBGod]

Actually, that's the edited version from the UK broadcast. It was slowed down to prevent the Japanese text scroll from appearing on screen, and the entire sequence was edited out.

I uploaded this in the past and it proved to come in use! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZNi8LelUA4

Ah, damn. Well that throws off all the beliefs I had about my sources. That's what I get for believing strangers on forums many, many years ago.

This also likely answers the question you PM'd me about. Chances are, there isn't any YTV about and I'm misinformed.

Well, I'm glad I was able to confirm this for you

[The Iron Fjord]

I grew up watching the Blue Water versions (what is it with Canada and dubbing companies with names based around water?) of DB and GT, and I loved the shit out of them, especially GT.

- Pan sounded qt as fuck (I had a crush on her at the time)
- Original music
- The voices were shit for the most part (barring Pan, who actually sounds like a little girl)
- Closer to Japanese (using words like ki, calling the Tuffles "Tsuffles").

Watching the Funi dub of GT a few years later was weird. It had all the voices I remember, but it felt off with that silly soundtrack, and that pronunciation of Tuffles, which sounded retarded in my opinion.

Granted, I was like 13 when I watched Blue Water GT, so I may just be looking at it with rose-tinted glasses, but it was the version that made me love GT.

[Super Sayian Prime]

The Blue Water dubs of both Dragon Ball and GT have some issues, primarily with the ability to emote and act. I feel like Dragon Ball made out better than GT though.

The more modern Blue Water dubs like Pretty Cure and the stuff done with casts partially from Vancouver are solid efforts. It'll be interesting to see how much some of the returning talent has improved if that vapordub of Kai ever rears its head.