Does Funimation really treat Dragonball that bad?

[omegacwa]

To be honest, my biggest gripe with funimation was them putting "Real Bands" into the movies. I know they stopped after movie 8 I think, but still, was it necessary to put songs that didn't match the scene at all just to have a "Real" band in there. Some times there were a few good choices, LIke I don't mind some of the stuff in The History of Trunks, but that was probably the best movie with real bands, I actually can't watch them in english because of this.

I know everyone hates the re-mastering and what not, but I would definitely buy a box set of all the movies with the original Japanese Music with English Voices, even though I already have every movie.

[Daizensushi-x]

To be honest, my biggest gripe with funimation was them putting "Real Bands" into the movies. I know they stopped after movie 8 I think, but still, was it necessary to put songs that didn't match the scene at all just to have a "Real" band in there. Some times there were a few good choices, LIke I don't mind some of the stuff in The History of Trunks, but that was probably the best movie with real bands, I actually can't watch them in english because of this.

I know everyone hates the re-mastering and what not, but I would definitely buy a box set of all the movies with the original Japanese Music with English Voices, even though I already have every movie.

Well said. Agreed.

[Onikage725]

Well, weren't we all weird kids at one time or another? Yay for the old school grain-fest of Zyurangers' digi-beta quality. [sarcasm]Hey FUNi, wide-screen and blurrify that bloody sum bitch; we need Mighty Morphin' in your hell of an HD format![/sarcasm]

Haha I used to love it when the picture grain would go down, the suits would get shiny and less "Party City-esque" and Trini would lose what little chest she had and grow some bulge. That's when you knew it was party time.

[Rocketman]

Haha I used to love it when the picture grain would go down, the suits would get shiny and less "Party City-esque" and Trini would lose what little chest she had and grow some bulge. That's when you knew it was party time.

Maybe I was just dense as a kid, but I never noticed any of that.

[Tsukento]

Ugh, I remember catching a bit of the first Brolli movie dubbed and thought I was watching a really poorly made AMV.

[Duo]

Haha I used to love it when the picture grain would go down, the suits would get shiny and less "Party City-esque" and Trini would lose what little chest she had and grow some bulge. That's when you knew it was party time.

Maybe I was just dense as a kid, but I never noticed any of that.

Same...but in retrospect, the American actress probably took a hell of a lot of jokes because of it.

[Onikage725]

Haha I used to love it when the picture grain would go down, the suits would get shiny and less "Party City-esque" and Trini would lose what little chest she had and grow some bulge. That's when you knew it was party time.

Maybe I was just dense as a kid, but I never noticed any of that.

It was subtle early on, because almost all of the footage was from ZyuRanger (at least 90%). The main times they would produce US footage in costume was for Command Center scenes (or any scene taking place in a US-only location), or when a villain was used outside of its ZyuRanger footage (I dunno if the Rangers themselves were in these scenes, but an example of a reproduced monster is the Porky Pig's rampage in Angel Grove High). Oh, and any morphed fight agains Lord Zedd's Putty Patrol. And when they ran out of footage, they commissioned footage (known as Zyu2 footage). This stuff is basically Japanese-produced Power Rangers footage that was never aired in Japan. You can tell in scenes that still look high-quality (as it was newer, and Saban's original suits were at the time pretty crappy) but there would be stuff like the Green and Pink Ranger behaving in a close manner (Saban had stipulated that the footage reflect certain things set in PR, like the relationship between Tommy and Kimberly).

After a time, the divide grew sharply. Having run almost entirely out of ZyuRanger footage, they had been takingg zords and monsters from DaiRanger. But they were only using footage of one DaiRanger (Tommy/White Ranger/KibaRanger). Eventually the Zyu2 footage started to run out as well. They were also holding on to ZyuRanger villains, and Zedd (a MMPR original). So a good chunk of the shows were completely made of American footage.

And it shows. Their costumes were produced from lesser quality cloth, with a more pronounced turtleneck. Stuff like the Green Ranger's shield and White Ranger's chest armor looked sort of realistic in the original footage and like foam in US footage. The fights also tended to devolve into long strings of roundhouse kicks that never connected, while other combatants hopped in the background.

They solved the problem by bringing in the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers (KakuRanger), leading into the Power Rangers Zeo (OhRanger) series. From then on, to prevent running out of footage, they just changed suits/mecha to stay with the Japanese shows. They 100% follow the Japanese format now (new cast/show each year, with a crossover at some point with the previous years show) and it works pretty well. They're also really good at reproducing the style now. Anubis "Doggie" Kruger is arguably better looking in Power Rangers SPD than DekaRanger's equivolent Doggy "Boss" Kruger. Also, SPD's A Squad (A US original) was made from old "In Space" costumes, modified with Swat gear, and their fights were pretty cool. And there were two times in japan (at least) where the traditional crossover was skipped in favor of a broader special. One was Super Sentai World, and its series in US (I forget witch, might have been Time Force) had an original standard crossover produced that wasn't bad. Then when Japan did GaoRanger vs. Super Sentai, America put out the ridiculously awsome (but continuity-defying) Forever Red. The action and style in that is so spot on that I was surprised it didn't have a Japanese equivolent.

yeah...sorry...I'm a dork.

[Vekurotto]

I thought SPD was one of the few PR series, along with, In Space, Lost Galaxy, and Time Force, that mirrored Super Sentai outside of them using the same costumes and footage. The storytelling was very similar to something that would've been seen in an average Sentai series and things got pretty "dark" for a kid's show. I mean they'd put the Rangers in situations where they could die and it was mentioned. And, PR In Space, Andross killed his sister, onscreen, a rarity for a company like Saban. Whenever those three series come on PR generations I can't help but watch because of if you want to see an English equivalent to a Sentai series you should watch those.

I think it's funny too that Zyuranger is actually considered to be a lesser Sentai series, but since it has a connection with the MMPR it's seen as a better series.

[John Pannozzi]

And Haim Saban, raving conservative psycho though he is,

Actually, Saban gave money to the Democrats recently, according to Variety.

[Kula]

...I don't mind some of the stuff in The History of Trunks, but that was probably the best movie with real bands...

That's because Dream Theater actually make good music. Although I do like the Cooler's Revenge dub as well.

[Kunzait_83]

b

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Also, I believe it was Rach who brought this up before regarding the eventual release of the first thirteen episodes of Dragon Ball and the first movie. I can honestly say I don't see this happening. It's far too late to release these by now as the other sets have been discontinued, with only the movie box set and 10th anniversary movie being the only piece of original Dragon Ball DVDs being sold.

Have those rights honestly not come up yet? Pioneers' were long gone. Hell, ADV can put out Macross now without being tied up by Robotech. Who is this non-entity desperately grasping at the Pilaf Saga, despite not having any aspirations to do anything with it?

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, it was Kidmark/Trimark, currently known as (or more likely, absorbed by) Lion's Gate. The last news I recall hearing from FUNimation about it was roughly a year and a half ago, where one of their reps at a con mentioned trying to work out a deal, since the sub-license apparently lasts until the end of time.

I actually emailed Lion's Gate about it back in 2001 or 2002, and explained the fandom predicament about how the content of their release was edited and all, and the rep replied to me with something along the lines of, "Oh, we plan on holding onto that for a very long time." Sadly enough, the Saga of Goku set (the North American one) seems like it's still in print, even now, while FUNi's sets are just dwindling away as overstock.

I find that incredibly funny.

[Super Sonic]

Interesting thing, in the ranger fandom, there's a big debate over whether it's better to have more original things or just be like sentai. And which franchise is better makes dub/sub anime arguments look like civilized debates. Like I said, can't really compare as there are guys who died on PR who didn't die on Sentai.

Digimon Tamers was also pretty much uncut except for buildings blowing up.

Back on topic of DBZ, us North Americans have to admit, if not for Funimation, it wouldn't have been as big as it was in the States.

[Chuquita]

Interesting thing, in the ranger fandom, there's a big debate over whether it's better to have more original things or just be like sentai. And which franchise is better makes dub/sub anime arguments look like civilized debates. Like I said, can't really compare as there are guys who died on PR who didn't die on Sentai.

Digimon Tamers was also pretty much uncut except for buildings blowing up.

Back on topic of DBZ, us North Americans have to admit, if not for Funimation, it wouldn't have been as big as it was in the States.

True. If it died/stopped being dubbed altogether after the first two seasons, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the show after that. I wasn't one to go online and seek out episodes back then. (Plus I had a computer with a 5GB hard drive and a phone modem back then in 2000. Couldn't have downloaded stuff easily if I wanted to. )

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Interesting thing, in the ranger fandom, there's a big debate over whether it's better to have more original things or just be like sentai. And which franchise is better makes dub/sub anime arguments look like civilized debates. Like I said, can't really compare as there are guys who died on PR who didn't die on Sentai.

Digimon Tamers was also pretty much uncut except for buildings blowing up.

Back on topic of DBZ, us North Americans have to admit, if not for Funimation, it wouldn't have been as big as it was in the States.

No, seriously, you don't know that. It would've eventually been picked up by someone else, and as has been said in this thread already, the show would be popular in any incarnation, no matter what you do with it. It would've just become popular later than it did. It's a timeless series that has achieved popularity on an international scale. Almost any other anime dubbing company would've done a significantly better job than FUNimation as well.

I really wish that Pioneer had picked it up instead, that way we would've gotten something along the lines of the first 3 movies, except for, you know, the entire series.

[Toniofalcon]

In sum, Saban is a genius.

Yeah. DB is a hot IP. Anybody could have picked that up and got huge and it just so happens the nephew did. It probably still would've been on Toonami, only difference is that maybe DB would've aired first .

DBZ was first put on Toonami in 98. Sure, it's the longest running anime on there, but what if they started with DB and went all through with that until Z? Then we'd have DBZ in about 01, which would probably end this year in NA. That'd been weird.

[Kunzait_83]

b

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

In sum, Saban is a genius.

I will argue to the death that dub-wise (excluding the excessive editing) seasons 1 and 2 were much better than anything that came after it in terms of DBZ.

[Onikage725]

And if I recall correctly, when "fixing" the first Bardock mistake, didn't they still have Vegeta say he picked it up from him? They took out the scientist thing, but still had to have that little bit of fanon in there.

Actually, FUNi correctly fixed the mistake and made sure there was no mention of Bardock, picking up the technique from a scientist, or anything regarding that jazz on Rigul 7. He merely explained to Kakarrot the concept of the "Blutz Waves" and how the fake moon can stimulate a Saiyan's tail to activate the transformation. All that wasn't really translated from the Japanese version in this moment was Goku's realizing that Vegeta's Ki dropped significantly after creating the moon ball, which since he wasn't fully aware of the Great Ape transformation, didn't make sense to himself that Vegeta would do this.

You're absolutely right. I dunno why I had that notion. I saw the ep during the uncut run on Cartoon Network, but I just put in the ep from the box set and that scene is very well handled in the dub. Maybe i was part-way confused with the random Saibaimen thing. Again, unless I'm just confused like before, I thought when watching Ultimate Uncut Nappa still had this random crazy fanfic story about some majorly epic battle his batch of Saibaimen had been through on some planet (Tradic or something like that?).

I think it's funny too that Zyuranger is actually considered to be a lesser Sentai series, but since it has a connection with the MMPR it's seen as a better series.

Eh, I'd personally disagree; I hold Zyuranger in fairly high regard on it's own merits even wholly divorced from the whole Power Rangers thing. It's by no means the all time greatest Sentai series (that honor would go to either Jetman or Dai Ranger), but it's by no means "lesser". You could do PLENTY worse (*ahem* Carranger for instance).

You know me, I'm partial to Abaranger. Bakuryuu Change!

They solved the problem by bringing in the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers (KakuRanger), leading into the Power Rangers Zeo (OhRanger) series.

Ugh... don't even get me started on what those bastards at Saban did to Kakuranger.

Yeah I know; I just went on a whole tangent about how Saban "wasn't trying to straight up 'adapt' these various Sentai series per se...". But Kakuranger... that one in particular hurt, as it was (and remains) a personal, sentimental favorite of mine.

Haha let me clarify that I was speaking in terms of how they took steps to solve the footage problem. The Alien Rangers/MMPR as kids arc of HELL was what I consider to be the MMPR equivolent of Fake Namek. For those of you who don't know me, I won't even watch a disc with Fake Namek episodes on it. Fake Namek is forbidden in my home. Forever. Failure to observe this rule is punishable by death. This holds true to for the whole search for the Zeo Crystal/Alien Rangers MMPR arc as well.

And as you said, it's a shame because Kakuranger is badass.

PS- I just heard about this Operation overdrive special crossover "Once a Ranger." Has anybody seen that? Is it any good?

Mother of Chirst, FUNimation actually used motherfucking DREAM THEATRE for the Trunks special?!

No seriously... THAT Dream Theatre?!

I may actually have to hear this for myself to believe it, as Dream Theatre is a fucking class act of a band, far too "high brow" for FUNimation's normally tacky and style-free artistic choices in DBZ matters.

Hey, I'm not condoning the music shift, but an OST for the movie 5 dub would be pretty kickass (like, "if you liked the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, you'll like ours!").

[Toniofalcon]

In sum, Saban is a genius.

I will argue to the death that dub-wise (excluding the excessive editing) seasons 1 and 2 were much better than anything that came after it in terms of DBZ.

I was referring to the fact that he made a ton of money off of minimal work. But sure, lets go with that.