How accurate is the original "Dragon Ball" English dub?

[OWmyDragonBallz]

We already know that FUNimation's olden days dub from Dragon Ball Z was all over the place and butchered the series in every way a show can be butchered, but was the original Dragon Ball just as bad?

[TheBlackPaladin]

It's not as bad, no. It's all right. It's still not quite up to the level of Kai's dub in terms of accuracy though. It seems like the parts of the script that they were most nervous about adapting faithfully were some of the moments with more risque humor. They were also airing it on Toonami at the time, so that probably fueled their concerns about going too far with the humorous parts that parents might find objectionable .

[DBZAOTA482]

It's not as blatantly inaccurate as the dub for DBZ but still clearly a product of it's time.

Not bad overall in terms of accuracy though.

[DoomieDoomie911]

I certainly think it was more accurate than the original. Probably not to the standards of Kai, though, as TheBlackPaladin said.

I think I can personally handle the actual voices better than the original dub, too. Does anyone else agree?

[DBZAOTA482]

I agree with you.

[Ajay]

It's bad, but it's not Z bad. Plenty of moments are ruined by silly dialogue changes that do serve as a bleak reminder of how awful FUNi once treated the series. I can watch Kai's dub just fine, but you won't find me sitting through their Dragon Ball efforts. Too many annoyances. That said, I'm not gonna get in a huff over someone choosing to watch it like I would with Z's dub.

[MagicBox]

Ignoring aspects like the quality of the voice acting (which is subjective) and solely focusing on the facts, it is undeniable that FUNimation's dub scripts for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT all differ vastly from the original version. People like to point to DBZ's dub because it's the earliest, the worst, and easiest to make fun of. But don't think for a second that DB or GT are significantly better.

Dragon Ball's dub and GT's dub suffer from the same flaws as DBZ's. Added dialogue. Completely different conversations between characters. Change for the sake of change. Quality varies depending on whichever scriptwriter was working on a particular episode (If Christopher Neel or Sean Teague wrote it, steer clear!). You'll find a good episode every now and then (I seem to recall the dub script for episode 22 of GT being extremely faithful, for example). Only rarely does an episode come along that retains semi-accurate dialogue.

I honestly, truly recommend that you stay away from all three dubs. I'm not entirely satisfied with Kai's dub, but it's the best one we've gotten by far.

[AscendedSuperSaiyan]

There are some things that just cannot be dubbed. For example, if it's a phrase or proverb that only makes sense in Japanese culture.

It just doesn't make sense to translate japanese phrases/proverbs word for word.

I'm watching dragon ball now subbed, just to see the difference; but I loved db, dbz dubbed so I'm not questioning the accuracy.

[Kakacarrottop]

The FUNimation dub for DB was generally more accurate than FUNi's work on Z or GT, although the acting is average at best (remember this was from the early 2000s) and as usual it has all the lame dub names.

This is not counting their original 1995 dub of Dragon Ball, which was just as butchered as the first two broadcast seasons of Dragon Ball Z.

Blue Water's English Dragon Ball dub - despite the horrible acting - was more accurate overall. On that dub stuff like "Tri-Beam" and "Flying Nimbus" are substituted with less cringeworthy terms which resemble the Japanese ones.

[Kamiccolo9]

Can somebody list a few examples of problems with the DB dub? I was of the impression that it was generally accurate.

[OWmyDragonBallz]

Ignoring aspects like the quality of the voice acting (which is subjective) and solely focusing on the facts, it is undeniable that FUNimation's dub scripts for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT all differ vastly from the original version. People like to point to DBZ's dub because it's the earliest, the worst, and easiest to make fun of. But don't think for a second that DB or GT are significantly better.

Dragon Ball's dub and GT's dub suffer from the same flaws as DBZ's. Added dialogue. Completely different conversations between characters. Change for the sake of change. Quality varies depending on whichever scriptwriter was working on a particular episode (If Christopher Neel or Sean Teague wrote it, steer clear!). You'll find a good episode every now and then (I seem to recall the dub script for episode 22 of GT being extremely faithful, for example). Only rarely does an episode come along that retains semi-accurate dialogue.

I honestly, truly recommend that you stay away from all three dubs. I'm not entirely satisfied with Kai's dub, but it's the best one we've gotten by far.

Why not entirely satisfied with the Kai dub? What are things you don't like about it?

[Daisetsu]

Can somebody list a few examples of problems with the DB dub? I was of the impression that it was generally accurate.

"My brain may not remember the promise, but my heart does." - Goku, during the 25th tournament (26th?) where he asks Chi Chi to marry him.

I'm sure there's other examples, but having not watched the dub in years, that's the only one that immediately pops to my head.

[SaintEvolution]

Ignoring aspects like the quality of the voice acting (which is subjective) and solely focusing on the facts, it is undeniable that FUNimation's dub scripts for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT all differ vastly from the original version. People like to point to DBZ's dub because it's the earliest, the worst, and easiest to make fun of. But don't think for a second that DB or GT are significantly better.

Dragon Ball's dub and GT's dub suffer from the same flaws as DBZ's. Added dialogue. Completely different conversations between characters. Change for the sake of change. Quality varies depending on whichever scriptwriter was working on a particular episode (If Christopher Neel or Sean Teague wrote it, steer clear!). You'll find a good episode every now and then (I seem to recall the dub script for episode 22 of GT being extremely faithful, for example). Only rarely does an episode come along that retains semi-accurate dialogue.

I honestly, truly recommend that you stay away from all three dubs. I'm not entirely satisfied with Kai's dub, but it's the best one we've gotten by far.

Well, voice acting it's not that subjective...

A good voice acting have to follow the original tons of the original version and/or tons that are accurate to the scene(for example, an action scene cannot be dubbed with a cute and peaceful voice tone from the actor, but with a tense/heavy one).


But about the rest, I agree with some things.

[ABED]

Only rarely does an episode come along that retains semi-accurate dialogue.

There are a few scripts that have dialog that's very close, and while it's true that few if any are word for word, I can assure you as someone who has watched the entire dub with JPN subs on, DB and GT are big improvements over DBZ. The dialog is better and closer in spirit to the original. I would say that on average, DB is about C+ to B- in terms of accuracy.

[sintzu]

It's not as good as Kai but no where near as bad as Z so If Kai's an 8 and Z's a 4 then DB would be a 6.

[ABED]

It's not as good as Kai but no where near as bad as Z so If Kai's an 8 and Z's a 4 then DB would be a 6.

I think Kai warrants a 9 for its scripts. I don't recall anything that's too bad.

[thomas1up]

Blue Water's English Dragon Ball dub - despite the horrible acting - was more accurate overall. On that dub stuff like "Tri-Beam" and "Flying Nimbus" are substituted with less cringeworthy terms which resemble the Japanese ones.

It's true that the Blue Water dub does use more Japanese terms such as Nyoibou for example, however 'Flying Nimbus' is a phrase still used in that dub.

[OWmyDragonBallz]

It's not as good as Kai but no where near as bad as Z so If Kai's an 8 and Z's a 4 then DB would be a 6.

I think Kai warrants a 9 for its scripts. I don't recall anything that's too bad.

Yeah, the Kai dub is accurate to the point where it at least gets the message across. It's impressive how much effort FUNi put into it. I'm so excited to see them succeed once more with Boo saga.

[Lord Beerus]

The original dub of DB was more accurate than the Z dub but that's not saying much. The DB dub still had many of the problems that were prominent in the Z dub; unnecessary added dialogue, lame puns/names, below average acting, errors in translation etc.

[OWmyDragonBallz]

The original dub of DB was more accurate than the Z dub but that's not saying much. The DB dub still had many of the problems that were prominent in the Z dub; unnecessary added dialogue, lam puns/names, below average acting, errors in translation etc.

I really hope that TOEI does a Kai for the original series. Nothing is stopping them.