How accurately do FUNimation's dubs portray Dragon Ball?

[jcogginsa]

I've heard the Viz manga changes a lot of things. But I guess it's just names of things? So the overall tone, story, and characterizations are faithful?

Yeah, they change a few things, but overall it's much more faithful than most of the Funi dub (overall it's probably about the same level of faithfulness as the BoG dub). I think it preserves the tone and characterization of the original very well. By far the biggest nuisance is that they censor stuff like middle fingers and boobs and whatnot; the level of censorship varies depending on the exact edition, but there's no edition that's 100% uncensored all the way through. As far as names go, they wimp out and go with "Her'cule", but other than that they're pretty good. Even the names they change are typically changed in order to convey the same meaning for an English audience (which of course is supposed to be the entire idea behind localization, but with Funi a lot of the name changes were done for strange or nonsensical reasons). So for instance, the Saibaimen are called the "Cultivars", because saibai is simply the Japanese for "cultivation". "Cultivated Men" would be more literal, but it's the same underlying idea, and how many people who only watch the dub understand what "Saibamen" is supposed to mean? (And don't ask me why Funi leaves off the last "i" in Saibai)

In that same vein, Pui-Pui is changed to "Pocus" because the name Pui-Pui is a reference to a Japanese generic magic word that's equivalent to saying "hocus-pocus" in English. Majin Boo becomes "Djinn Boo" because majin is a Japanese word for a magical creature, commonly translated as "genie" or "djinn" in English. But this decision of Viz proved controversial, mainly because a lot of English DB fans were simply used to "Majin" being left untranslated like it was in the Funi dub, and didn't understand what the word meant. Likewise, Vegetto got changed to "Vegerot" in order to try and maintain the idea that his name is a combination of "Vegeta" and "Kakarot". The problem is that "Vegeta+Kakarot=Vegetto" is something that makes sense in the Japanese katakana alphabet but not the English alphabet, so Viz went with "Vegerot" as a solution. Fans used to Vegetto/Vegito didn't like it (and even having had all these years to get used to it, I personally still think "Vegerot" sounds dumb), but arguably it gets the point of the original name across better in English than a simple direct romanization does. At any rate, Viz certainly wasn't just changing the name for the sake of it.

Viz!Piccolo's pseudo-medieval speaking style still bugs the crap out of me, though.

Worth Noting that "Her'cule" would fall into the same logic as Cultivar. The character wasn't named with a demonic theme in mind, his name is supposed to just sound like a tough guy's name. As a riff on Hercules, it serves that purpose quite well.

[Mewzard]

They do reference Mr. Satan in his first appearance in the manga though, as a former stage name...which it turns out is kinda true. Yeah, his real name turned out to be Mark, but still.

Mr. Satan totally sounds like a wrestling name, so it's appropriate.

Also, one of these days, you guys gotta remove this word filter. It's amazing trying to actually discuss Hercule as a name, only for the filter to say "No, you can't talk about the Hercule name, and you definitely can't talk about Hercule Poirot, we only talk about Sherlock Holmes in this forum...and the Hardy Boys after a few drinks."

[SSJGFrieza]

They do reference Mr. Satan in his first appearance in the manga though, as a former stage name...which it turns out is kinda true. Yeah, his real name turned out to be Mark, but still.

Mr. Satan totally sounds like a wrestling name, so it's appropriate.

Also, one of these days, you guys gotta remove this word filter. It's amazing trying to actually discuss (the H-word) as a name, only for the filter to say "No, you can't talk about the (the H-word) name, and you definitely can't talk about (the H-word) Poirot, we only talk about Sherlock Holmes in this forum...and the Hardy Boys after a few drinks."

Hercule.

Oh my god they do! How ridiculous.

[jcogginsa]

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... =1&t=29669

This thread is probably more apropriate for discussing the filter

[Cure Dragon 255]

Mr Satan, WAS intended to make reference to Satan. Videl is an anagram of Devil. However, Toriyama did not meant for this character to be evil or allude to the evil one at all. Its just one of many themed names. And I do buy that Mr Satan was also to be seen as a major badass name so to speak, like Akuma in the English Version of Street Fighter.He was Gouki in the original.

[jcogginsa]

Mr Satan, WAS intended to make reference to Satan. Videl is an anagram of Devil. However, Toriyama did not meant for this character to be evil or allude to the evil one at all. Its just one of many themed names. And I do buy that Mr Satan was also to be seen as a major badass name so to speak, like Akuma in the English Version of Street Fighter.He was Gouki in the original.

No, he was intended to have a name that sounded tough. The Devil theme only became a theme when it came time to name Videl

[Herms]

Worth Noting that "Her'cule" would fall into the same logic as Cultivar. The character wasn't named with a demonic theme in mind, his name is supposed to just sound like a tough guy's name. As a riff on Hercules, it serves that purpose quite well.

Notably, the French DBZ dub was actually the first one to change Mister Satan's name to "Her'cule" (it's simply French for Hercules). The kicker though is that they didn't rename Satan because they thought people would get offended or anything...rather, they did it because they'd been calling Piccolo "Satan" all along, as their way of translating Piccolo's title of Dai-Maou/"Great Demon King".

[Zephyr]

Worth Noting that "Her'cule" would fall into the same logic as Cultivar. The character wasn't named with a demonic theme in mind, his name is supposed to just sound like a tough guy's name. As a riff on Hercules, it serves that purpose quite well.

Mr. Satan is still far more consistent with his family's collection of name puns. Mark, Videl, Pan, Miguel, etc. all center around "Mr. Satan" being 'demonic'. "Toughness" being the initial deciding factor or not, the names of several other characters stem from the fact that it was also 'demonic'.

[jcogginsa]

Worth Noting that "Her'cule" would fall into the same logic as Cultivar. The character wasn't named with a demonic theme in mind, his name is supposed to just sound like a tough guy's name. As a riff on Hercules, it serves that purpose quite well.

Mr. Satan is still far more consistent with his family's collection of name puns. Mark, Videl, Pan, Miguel, etc. all center around "Mr. Satan" being 'demonic'. "Toughness" being the initial deciding factor or not, the names of several other characters stem from the fact that it was also 'demonic'.

Miguel?

Mark's alias isn't a family name, it's just an alias. It makes sense that it wouldn't fit with the devil theme, cause it's not a real name

[Zephyr]

Miguel?

Mark's alias isn't a family name, it's just an alias. It makes sense that it wouldn't fit with the devil theme, cause it's not a real name

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... uu-arc-06/
Miguel is supposed to be a different form of the name "Michael", one of the archangels. Was his wife's name.

In the context of the story by itself (which would also exclude Mark and Miguel), there's no indication that it is a stage name/alias. That aside though, it not being his real name doesn't mean there needs to be an inconsistency with the naming patterns. His actual name being Mark only makes sense and works because he was called Mr. Satan. Videl is only named as such because he was called Mr. Satan.

[jcogginsa]

fair point there.

[WittyUsername]

Accurate tier:
- Kai dub
- FUNi/Pioneer/Ocean collaboration on M1-M3
- BOG dub

Middle of the road accuracy tier:
- DB dub
- Redub of 1-67 and M1-M3
- M4-M13 dubs

Inaccurate tier:
- FUNi/Saban/Ocean collaboration on 1-67
- FUNi/BLT/Ocean collaboration on DB 1-13 and M1
- 68-291 DBZ dub
- GT dub

I'd put the movie 8 dub in the 'accuracy tier' category. That dub was actually pretty faithful for the most part. I also think the Buu saga portion of the Funimation dub should probably be placed in the 'middle of the road' category.

[baneofdemon22]

I agree with that. Movie 8 had a great dub, and the Boo arc's dub was pretty accurate as well. Personally, I think Funimation's dub of the Boo arc was more entertaining than the Japanese since that arc was more comedic. Especially the Old Kai!

[Mewzard]

The Cell Games Reenactment was the best part of the Buu Saga dub. Seriously, it's done just perfectly for what it is...XD

[Lord Beerus]

The Cell Games Reenactment was the best part of the Buu Saga dub. Seriously, it's done just perfectly for what it is...XD

Yes!!

I've finally found somebody that thinks that it's funny!

That Cell Games Reenactment is pure awesome!!

[Dbzfan94]

The Cell Games Reenactment was the best part of the Buu Saga dub. Seriously, it's done just perfectly for what it is...XD

Yes!!

I've finally found somebody that thinks that it's funny!

That Cell Games Reenactment is pure awesome!!

I've always thought it was hilarious!

"Mr. Satan is so great." "I wish I were him!"
"Ah i'm losing!"

And the best one...
"I am beaten! ....ah."

[NitroEX]

The Cell Games Reenactment was the best part of the Buu Saga dub. Seriously, it's done just perfectly for what it is...XD

Yes!!

I've finally found somebody that thinks that it's funny!

That Cell Games Reenactment is pure awesome!!

That scene was always funny to me especially the way it parodies Super sentai/Power rangers cliches, was it in the manga or just a filler scene? (I never read that far)

For laughs here's the ocean version

[Singh is King]

The Cell Games Reenactment was the best part of the Buu Saga dub. Seriously, it's done just perfectly for what it is...XD

Yes!!

I've finally found somebody that thinks that it's funny!

That Cell Games Reenactment is pure awesome!!

That scene was always funny to me especially the way it parodies Super sentai/Power rangers cliches, was it in the manga or just a filler scene? (I never read that far)

For laughs here's the ocean version

"I am beaten...NARF"

[Lord Beerus]

That scene was always funny to me especially the way it parodies Super sentai/Power rangers cliches, was it in the manga or just a filler scene? (I never read that far)

It was pure filler unfortunately. But my God, it was some of the funniest filler ever in the franchise. It's up there with the driving episode.

[Vegitofaxx]

Okay guys, i need you to answer a question.
Why did the dub change Tenshinhan to Tien Shinhan? I don't get it.