The general American fanbase really annoys me.

[Hellspawn28]

I think the Dragon Ball,Z,GT,KAI page on Facebook is a good example of crazy American fanboys gone wrong. People on that page say that you must be trolling if you say DBZ is for kids.

[Saiga]

I think the Dragon Ball,Z,GT,KAI page on Facebook is a good example of crazy American fanboys gone wrong. People on that page say that you must be trolling if you say DBZ is for kids.

I'll never understand why people get so up in arms about that. I've seen people get angry over Pokemon being called a kids' show, for fuck's sake.

[Cipher]

Niche Internet fandoms* and crazy man-children who comment on Youtube annoy me.

*Except thiiiiiis one. ; )

[Super Sonic]

Unfortunately some fanbases get crazy like that, even in Japan. Heard when the actor who played the lead in Ouran Host Club in Japan announced he was engaged, many of his fangirls in Japan were very angry and upset, in contrast to his American counterpart who when he announced his engagement, his fangirls were very supportive and congratulated him.

[Majin Buu]

To comment on the original post.

For me, it's not the American fanbase being misinformed that annoys me. Like another post said, the average American fan doesn't have access to the kind of info we do, and that's understandable.

What annoys me is when you actually try to inform them and they just dismiss it (IE call you a weeaboo, japanophile, or something dumb like that).

I gotta admit I have a hard time watching Dragonball dubbed now. I don't have any problems with most dubs but since Dragonball is a big deal for me and I like knowing if I watch it, I'll be getting exactly what's being said without any made up stuff they decide to throw in (instant transmission is 186.000 mps, Vegeta is upset that Freeza took him away from his daddy, Ally to good etc)

I'm the same. Nowadays I can watch a good dub just fine, but Dragonball remains the one series that I absolutely cannot watch in English. Maybe that's because for most of the series it just wasn't dubbed/localized properly. If the music had not been changed, dialogue was more faithful to the original, and some characters were better cast and performed (though I've mellowed out enough to admit that some of the dub voices were ok and only needed better dialogue and direction. For example, in retrospect, Dameon Clarke was ok as Perfect Cell. Not as good as Norio Wakamoto by any means, but the voice fit the character better then Freeza's or Fat Buu's dub voices did), then I could watch it dubbed just fine. And I acknowledge that the dub got a little better near the end, but even then, there were still aspects of it that indicate a bad dub/localization job (the music being changed will always be a huge sore point for me). At that point they had simply perfected their bad method of dubbing/localizing the show.

It also comes down to the fact that I've listened to the Japanese voices for so long that they are the characters to me now.

[Nikkolas]

You're gonna find ignorant and unpleasant people in any group. It's a product of their personality and character, not what they like or support.

[ABED]

You're gonna find ignorant and unpleasant people in any group. It's a product of their personality and character, not what they like or support.

True of fandoms such as comic book movies. Comicbookmoive.com is in serious need of a moderator. Their editorials read like they are written by middle schoolers, and their comment section is full of flame wars and dumb kids who I hope would dare say the immature things they've written to the people and companies they criticize. Their treatment of Shailene Woodley who was cast as MJ Watson was particularly disgusting. It really isn't what you say it's how you say something. This is true of anime fandom, and I doubt it's particular to Americans.

[Hellspawn28]

You have US Dragon Ball fans that try too be hard to act Japanese. I see some Dragon Ball fans call the series "Doragon Booru" instead calling it "Dragon Ball".

[Smochi]

You have US Dragon Ball fans that try too be hard to act Japanese. I see some Dragon Ball fans call the series "Doragon Booru" instead calling it "Dragon Ball".

I would kill everything.

[Hellspawn28]

I do like using Japanese names over Funi dub names, but I still use English names like Vegeta over Bejita seeing it's much easier to write and the name translates into Vegeta in English. I can understand Tullece using instead Turles since Turles always sound stupid in my opinion, but names like Cell should always be used in English instead saying "Seru" when we have perfectly valid English translations.

[Insertclevername]

You have US Dragon Ball fans that try too be hard to act Japanese. I see some Dragon Ball fans call the series "Doragon Booru" instead calling it "Dragon Ball".

I've only experienced the complete opposite. Most U.S fans I see try to hide or ignore the fact that the series is Japanese.

[Smochi]

I notice the whole "trying to be Japanese" thing with a lot of anime fans in general. I'm not really sure why. There's no points or karma for being Asian AND watching anime. You can enjoy it and still be true to your nationality!

[dbzfan7]

You have US Dragon Ball fans that try too be hard to act Japanese. I see some Dragon Ball fans call the series "Doragon Booru" instead calling it "Dragon Ball".

I've only experienced the complete opposite. Most U.S fans I see try to hide or ignore the fact that the series is Japanese.

I know right.

I hate the stupid Goku should sound manly crap. Goku is bad ass when he is angry, but he is far from manly with his normal personality. I think of Goku as the guy who has the voice and spirit that always makes you smile when your down, and Nozwawa has that Goku voice that really brings out that feeling. I ain't a fan of all of her screams, but I still respect her as the best Goku voice.

[Bussani]

I notice the whole "trying to be Japanese" thing with a lot of anime fans in general. I'm not really sure why. There's no points or karma for being Asian AND watching anime. You can enjoy it and still be true to your nationality!

Well, if it gets them to take an interest in another culture, maybe that isn't a completely negative thing.

[Smochi]

I notice the whole "trying to be Japanese" thing with a lot of anime fans in general. I'm not really sure why. There's no points or karma for being Asian AND watching anime. You can enjoy it and still be true to your nationality!

Well, if it gets them to take an interest in another culture, maybe that isn't a completely negative thing.

Why do you need to spurn your own culture to take an interest in another? I mean that I think you can appreciate anime and Japanese culture AND your own.

[Bussani]

I agree. I'm not saying it's all good--just that it's not all bad...or something like that. I mean, maybe they'll grow out of it, but come away from it with an appreciation for a culture other than their own.

[dbzfan7]

We need someone like extra credits to make videos highlighting comparisons between Japanese and english releases.

[DBZ Mick]

I'll go out and say I don't like aspects of all fandoms I'm a part of. Lately it's been that whole couple shipping stuff which I could not care less about.

I don't like the power level discussions and vs topics in the Dragonball fandom, back at the brief time I was at Atari I also didn't like how the older posters bascially manipulated the younger posters. Apart from here I also liked the IMDB Dragonball forum when it was on topic but a lot of the topics just boiled down to who would win Goku vs Luffy kind of material. I was also part of the site of mainly dub fans but we all got along and I informed them of certain changes and whatnot from the original which they seemed to appreciate.

But what I don't like most is off-topic discussions, they honestly kill forums and their reason/purpose for being. When I go to a message board, I want to discuss the show or whatnot at hand. I also find that general hate discussions also kill discussions (I'm also for constructive criticism topics though). I hugely appreciate that Mike has made it so that this site and forum is 'Anything and Everything Dragonball' and no off-topic discussions. This is the most active forum I've probably been apart of (apart from SpielbergFilms in it's prime) and I like that I can come here and actually discuss Dragonball. Also the mods here are pretty understanding, I left a forum recently because I was losing interest (barely any discussions about the show) and IMO bad moderation was the final tip that led to me deleting my account.

I'm only part of three communities now and it's pretty nice. I also have a Tumblr with quite a lot of followers where I post a large range of material including Dragonball that people seem to like.

[Mewzard]

It been like this for years. Most American fans of popular Japanese franchises tend to come off super annoying like Naruto, Bleach and Godzilla for example. I personally would not listen to Youtube comments since Youtube is a total hellhole next to Yahoo Answers in my opinion.

You know what's really annoying? When non-American fans of Japanese franchises insult us and lump all of us in with Youtube commenters and forum trolls. Yeah, it's rather disrespectful to the good fans in America who have done nothing wrong to be stereotyped in with a large group. Honestly, it's just a vocal minority. I'm pretty sure a lot of fans of those series don't do stuff like that, but you don't hear about it because either they don't post stuff online that much or they're just mellow about it.

And because of this, objectively speaking, I think on average people that like the Funi dub might just be less intelligent and less ready to find out answers on their own.

I have to make a disclaimer for this though, because it might feel to some people like I'm insulting them personally. I've tried to write this as delicately and as objectively as I can, and to me the conclusion is that on average, fans of the Funi dub are just less intelligent. If you're fan of the Funi dub, that's fine, at its core its still Dragon Ball, but please try to imagine that the American version has been changed to better suit the American audience. That's not always a good thing, because the original creators didn't intend for his manga and the show to be shown in such a way. If you change the intent and story with the visuals you've got, there is a huge chance that the original intent is lost or watered down and in that way making the product inferior to the original. So please, try to understand that when people who like the Japanese version of Dragon Ball are defending their show, they are defending the original intent of the author and the producers of the show's intent. You are protecting something that is BASED of the original with a different intent. After reading all this, you must be able to see that you now have a divide between something that is pure and original and something that's derived and watered down for your enjoyment. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't like the Funi dub more than the original version, but you should understand that the original version is more pure Dragon Ball.

Also another disclaimer, in no way have I taken Dragon Ball Kai into account, so if you like the better scripts and are a fan of that version, good on you! And props to Funi for redoing the script so well.

Yeah, no level of disclamer and noting "average" makes this any less offensive for a dub fan like myself. I do, in fact, prefer Kai for the dub, and I enjoy my subs from the Dragon Boxes. My preference is in Kai's Dub over the original, but not by an extreme margin; it's just a matter of taste.

You don't have to insult a group of fan's intelligence due to differing tastes in how they enjoy medium/their region of birth. I enjoy subs, via several anime, Tokusatsu, Godzilla, etc. I also enjoy dubs, and changes can, at times, be for the better. Look at Engine Sentai Go-Onger vs Power Rangers RPM. While I like both about equally, the general Toku fanbase prefers the vastly changed RPM over the source material. Changed? Yes, but it was solid material in the end.

This doesn't apply to the original dub as things were changed for the worse in several respects, but Kai works out quite good with solid acting, well written scripts (which importantly convey enough of the meaning of the dialog, while also sounding good in English; one of the reasons I can't stand TVN is their tendencies to leave in random Japanese in their subs and for most characters to sound like they speak the same).

I think Sean Schemmel has grown A LOT since doing those first episodes of Dragon Ball Z and that he's become very good as a voice actor. He was in one of the Pokémon movies which I watched when I was bored (yeah, more fan of the games than of the series :p) and I only noticed at the end that he was doing the bad guy. Unfortunately Sean Schemmel isn't the best Goku. Goku is someone who grew up in the wilderness and has a wilderness type accent in Japanese. So the thing is, he's just miscast, even though he's a good voice actor, especially now. I think Funimation changed how Goku originally was (with the "hope of the universe" speech and everything) and made him more into an American hero without the accent and kind of ignoring his backstory as someone who grew up in the wild. However now that Sean Schemmel is THE voice for Goku and nobody will accept a new Goku with a different accent... yeah, that kind of sucks a bit, but there's nothing we can do about this. In short: Sean Schemmel does a Goku that I like and he's pretty good (the screaming example isn't even one of his best works I think :p he's done even better) but he's just not how Goku should be (according to the original version) which is why Japanese version only fans just can't completely accept him.

I disagree in this regard man. I think he's a fantastic Goku who fits the character wonderfully now. With his acting improved, the direction being done right, and the scripts quite accurate and well written, I think he's certainly got the role down well. Heck, I would go so far as to say (like Solid Snake being David Hayter for me *bring him back Kojima!*), Schemmel and Nozawa are Goku for me now. They share a chunk of Goku in my heart (also MasakoX, but I'm sticking with official channels here). I honestly don't need, nor wish to hear, a new English Goku. We've got Goku, it's fine (which is why Fox having a say in DBZ movies frightens me now...I hope they don't try to celebrity it up).

But a question is...do you want him to sound like a hillbilly from the South? I don't. I've heard enough of Southern accents to last me a lifetime. It just wouldn't sound good in English. At all. You can play with the dialog a bit to use simpler words, throw in some "ain'ts" and such, but not that accent. The Japanese, you won't notice the accent like you would a southern accent. If Goku sounded like Jeff Foxworthy, Paula Deen, or one of the characters from Deliverance...that'd be way too distracting.

Ugh. I hate the word weeaboo. Besides the reasons that I already talked about in this thread, it is just SO dehumanizing. Why call someone something that invalidates them just for preferring subs? It's just as bad as people being rude to other for preferring dubs!

To me, a weeaboo is someone who likes their subs to be like "O-baka-chan-tachi! (Translator's Note: O-baka-chan-tachi means fools)" and who throws in random "Desu"s and "Kawaii" when talking about their "Torankusu" that we "Baka Gaijin" can't understand.

There's nothing wrong with liking Subs. That certainly doesn't make you a weeaboo.

"Rocks and waves" isn't funny because the real joke comes from it being the thing you see in front of a lot of the DBZ movies. Saying what it is just makes it too on the nose.

I enjoy the english dub, and even think Kai's dub is better than the japanese version.

Let's not get carried away. Some of the English cast is fine now, but Nozawa is still Nozawa, Tanaka is still Tanaka, and Wakamoto is... still better than Clarke, at least, even if he is too exaggerated in his performances now.

"Waves and Rocks" is a jab at the Toei logo, which you see on their movies (Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Anime, etc).

As for the dub...I agree with ABED. Nozawa is Nozawa, Tanaka is Tanaka, and Wakamoto is the God of Cocaine that Snowflame referred to in the New Guardians (and I mean that with great love), but I happen to think Schemmel, Strait, and Clarke are all amazing at their roles, and up there with those three. Just because he has a differing opinion than you doesn't make the man wrong.

I only have a problem with those sort of people who look down on those preferring the original.

So do I, but I also have a problem with those who look down on those who prefer the dub/Kai. Taste difference or not, accuracy or not, they're allowed to like things like that. I've gone down on the original dub over the years, but I wouldn't look down on fans of it. I just see it as a difference of opinion.

I know Kanzenshuu is primarily a "Original language" haven...but I like to think there's room for guys like me who also enjoy an accurate English rendition.

The super extreme hardcore Japanese anime fans that hate every aspect of dubs simply because it's "not the original".

That's how fans of Japanese franchises are often like. I seen Super Sentai fans that hate Power Rangers for not being faithful to the Sentai shows.

As a part of that fandom, I find that ridiculous. Each has their own merits, and some seasons are just better than others for the comparisons.

Show them Power Rangers Samurai (it sticks to Shinkenger but not in a good way). Plus, I find the deviations in PR from SS to be interesting like with RPM and Go-onger.

Exactly, Samurai was rather inferior despite its accuracy, yet RPM was amazing despite being almost the polar opposite of Go-Onger.

I gotta admit I have a hard time watching Dragonball dubbed now. I don't have any problems with most dubs but since Dragonball is a big deal for me and I like knowing if I watch it, I'll be getting exactly what's being said without any made up stuff they decide to throw in (instant transmission is 186.000 mps, Vegeta is upset that Freeza took him away from his daddy, Ally to good etc)

But what about Kai with a more accurate dub? Or did you not count it for your post?

[Smochi]

I think the only time a dub fan really annoyede was when he commented on a video of me "talking" in my Frieza costume about how my impression was "ok, but I had the laugh wrong."


Chris Ayres was doing the voice behind me. :/

Sometimes I think people just like to complain.