Things the Dubs did better.

[Bansho64]

There isn't anything I think the dub did better. If anything, they made a lot of things worst for me. I love all the voices for each character in the original Japanese version. However, I did prefer Japanese Kai's Babidi over the original. There are things I like in Japanese Kai more than the original Z but nothing in the english dub. For example, I like the new Japanese voice for Tenshinhan more than the original and I like Takeshi Kusao's Kid Trunks voice in the newer material.

[kei17]

Yeah, I too have to respectfully disagree as well. Amazing Japanese performances aside, the music doesn't do it for me at all. I love Kikuchi's music but I personally believe he missed the mark the end.

He did nothing about the music placement when it comes to the TV series. He just composed the music and Shigeru Miyashita placed it.

[ABED]

Regarding that debate about Nozawa above I love all of her roles except for Bardock. It really does not fit with his personality. I'm not going to go through every character she voices but for example, with Goku she manages to capture his naive, childish but friendly nature quite well. Bardock is a stone cold killer and just works better with a macho, manly voice.

I also much prefer the English voices for Babidi, Dabura and all of Majin Buu'a form in the dub, although Kai's Babidi is pretty good imo.

How does a stone cold killer work better with a macho voice? Is being a stone cold killer inherently macho?

And Buu? Martin's obnoxiously high pitched voice is horrible and made worse by his infantile dialog. Then there's Cook, who is a god awful actor who couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.

[MajinMan]

I hate Dende's Japanese voice with a passion. For whatever reason, it just pisses me off. That's the one thing I'll say the English dub handled better than the original. And I'm talking about Buu arc Dende.

[ABED]

I hate Dende's Japanese voice with a passion. For whatever reason, it just pisses me off. That's the one thing I'll say the English dub handled better than the original. And I'm talking about Buu arc Dende.

This falls under the category of Justin Cook is a terrible actor. And your choice of which actor to hate seems really odd. What exactly do you hate about it?

[MajinMan]

I hate Dende's Japanese voice with a passion. For whatever reason, it just pisses me off. That's the one thing I'll say the English dub handled better than the original. And I'm talking about Buu arc Dende.

This falls under the category of Justin Cook is a terrible actor. And your choice of which actor to hate seems really odd. What exactly do you hate about it?

There's this one scene during the Buu arc where he was screaming "Goku-san!!!!!!" and "Vegeta-san!!!!!!" for like 1 minute and it annoyed the hell out of me. It's the only time I can remember that a Japanese voice actor actually got on my nerves with their performance.

[ABED]

I hate Dende's Japanese voice with a passion. For whatever reason, it just pisses me off. That's the one thing I'll say the English dub handled better than the original. And I'm talking about Buu arc Dende.

This falls under the category of Justin Cook is a terrible actor. And your choice of which actor to hate seems really odd. What exactly do you hate about it?

There's this one scene during the Buu arc where he was screaming "Goku-san!!!!!!" and "Vegeta-san!!!!!!" for like 1 minute and it annoyed the hell out of me. It's the only time I can remember that a Japanese voice actor actually got on my nerves with their performance.

For that, you judge his ENTIRE performance? I'll take that over Cook's best acting.

[MajinMan]

For that, you judge his ENTIRE performance? I'll take that over Cook's best acting.

It was so grating to me that I could care less how bad the dub version's acting is. I don't really mind the rest of Japanese Dende's scenes, it's just the times when he yells that are annoying.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Nothing FUNI's DB is an insult to Toriyama's work. The voice acting is beyond terrible,the music is unbearable,the characters for almost the entire series are different characters and what not. I don't enjoy it and there are some other dubs which are better than it.

- Travis

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

I don't know if I'd say if this is better or not, but I like how the dub handled this scene in particular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSAoB_MnTxo

[Kamiccolo9]

They fixed the plothole with Cell's head. That was pretty cool, I guess.

[VegettoEX]

An example I occasionally come back to is in episode 28, which I guess was something like 21 in the original 1996 dub (so yeah, that's "the dub" that I'm referring to here). It's the scene when Goku arrives right back on the scene. I'm doing this from memory, so forgive any discrepancies between memory and reality here!

In Japanese, there's a lot of silence and a "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" jingle as Goku lands. It works, but in some ways it's very anticlimactic. At the same time, it NEEDS to be anticlimactic because so many people are dead. It's not a homecoming. It's... in many ways, not a happy scene at all.

In the 1996 dub, there's a somewhat triumphant but low-key tune that builds and builds until we finally see Goku's face. It works with the response that Kuririn and Gohan have, but in the total OPPOSITE way of how it is in Japanese. Somehow, it still fits. It's actually rather impressive. At the same time, I feel like it's one of those early moments that starts to define "Jesus Goku", though, and on principle I have to protest there. So I think it nails the scene in one way, but it's the wrong way. Of course, that personal example of liking something in spite of itself is helpful in understanding how people like the rest of FUNimation's dub!

[Cure Dragon 255]

Its REALLY sad that this topic is nothing but "I dislike Nozawa, Hiro Yuuki (Dende had two voices by the way, he played him when he's an adult, so his voice is only bad for the Buu Arc) DUBS 4 LYFE" instead of GENUINE praise for something they felt the Dub version did better. You guys are selling dubs short!

Like Toshio Furukawa is an amazing actor, but many of his dub actors have that demonic quality that he lacks. Back when he was first cast he even said "Look if my voice doesnt really fit him, why do you want me to do it?" to be then told. "We trust you. We dont have anyone in mind but you" Like Carlos Segundo in the Latin American dub and Scott Mc Neil. Its not that he is bad, but he is a pretty gentle hearted and christian person and thus is hard for him to pull off a demon well.

I love Toshio Furukawa-san. So Amazing, his Ace and Piccolo are amazing...And Ace suffers from the inverse in the Funimation dub. TOO OLD AND GRAVELY.

[Dbzfan94]

Yeah, I too have to respectfully disagree as well. Amazing Japanese performances aside, the music doesn't do it for me at all. I love Kikuchi's music but I personally believe he missed the mark the end.

He did nothing about the music placement when it comes to the TV series. He just composed the music and Shigeru Miyashita placed it.

Ok then the placement was off. I didn't know, sorry.

[Dbzfan94]

Nothing FUNI's DB is an insult to Toriyama's work. The voice acting is beyond terrible,the music is unbearable,the characters for almost the entire series are different characters and what not. I don't enjoy it and there are some other dubs which are better than it.

- Travis

Why come on to a pro dub thread like this just to spout hate? I never understood this mentality. It's like going to see a movie you think is bad and then saying THIS MOVIE SUCKS the whole time in the theater.
The dub has its issues yes but it's not nearly as terrible as you say. Besides Freeza, they got everyone's personality pretty much the same save for some OOC lines.

[Nejishiki]

I think the dub did well in "adapting" Cell's various leitmotifs with even more unique pieces for the Artificial Human. Whenever Cell is on the screen, both Kikuchi and Faulconer's compositions hit the mark with that character, in my opinion.

[ryou766]

Since Kai, FUNi has been receiving nothing but nods on my end. Someone on either this thread or another made a good point; FUNi is far from what it used to be in the 90s.

[Hellspawn28]

The dubs of the older movies did give characters like Coola, Bojack and #13 some level of personality when they originally just boring dull villains in the Japanese versions of the films.

[Dbzfan94]

I think the dub did well in "adapting" Cell's various leitmotifs with even more unique pieces for the Artificial Human. Whenever Cell is on the screen, both Kikuchi and Faulconer's compositions hit the mark with that character, in my opinion.

My personal favorite of all the Cell themes / lemotif is the Cell Returns from Team Faulconer. It's a more climatic version of his theme that perfectly captured the desperation and hopelessness after Cell killed Trunks and Gohan basically give up while Cell prepared his Solar Kamehameha

[LuckyCat]

I hate Dende's Japanese voice with a passion. For whatever reason, it just pisses me off.

Which one? Tomiko Suzuki voiced Dende originally, Hiro Yuki did GT, but Kai and beyond use Aya Hirano. Personally, I think Hirano does an excellent job.