Are There Any Updates On The Harmony Gold Dub Of Dragon Ball?

[Valerius Dover]

^We're still missing Episode 71 from the Blue Water dub, DB Big Green Movies 1-3, and the Big Green GT Special. Apparently there's an Animax dub of DB as well.

[Danfun64]

BW DB's encodes are a mess. Some episodes have audio that reminds me of the optical Japanese audio, some episodes have dynamic range compression... Some episodes, notable for covering all of the King Piccolo saga and all but one episode afterwards, have an issue of studdering and skipping around, to the point of losing a few minutes of audio each. The same issue also happens with ep 5. In my opinion, they're unlistenable, and BW DB really needs a fresh set of transfers for the entire show.

[superrayman3]

Gave episode 1 a check and the quality could be better (it seems be only slightly better than a NGN recording), I wonder if he "baked" the tape before digitizing because that's been known to help in some cases, if the tape hadn't been played for over 30 years that might be something worth looking into, it's still cool to see the 5 episodes be archived and another piece of DB history preserved and being documented.

[Valerius Dover]

BW DB's encodes are a mess. Some episodes have audio that reminds me of the optical Japanese audio, some episodes have dynamic range compression... Some episodes, notable for covering all of the King Piccolo saga and all but one episode afterwards, have an issue of studdering and skipping around, to the point of losing a few minutes of audio each. The same issue also happens with ep 5. In my opinion, they're unlistenable, and BW DB really needs a fresh set of transfers for the entire show.

Whoa, didn't realize it was that bad. Have the episodes but haven't actually sat down and watched them yet. I spot checked every episode, but I guess this is the kind of thing one would miss.

[10gigtriforce]

Aren't some of the recording rips so bad that someone had to rsync the audio to the video if said rips

[Planetnamek]

So glad these are here now, its so fun to watch them and see the first, more than just a movie, attempt at dragon ball dubbing in English.


So now all thats missing that we have confirmation of existing for a very good chance is the frontier airlines dub and the funi pilot dub of movie 1 with the HG names right? or am I forgetting more?

Someone on Youtube actually found the Funi pilot movie with the HG names, so now all that's left as the elusive Frontier dub.

[Zestanor]

As reminder for capturing VHS footage: you need a VCR with S-video output so as not to further compress the video. Capture the video raw to your hard-drive, and then attempt an inverse telecine on the raw video. Make sure the audio tracks with the video. Last of all encode it to your target format for playback.

[MasenkoHA]

Watched the rest of episode 2 and 3 I’m starting to think we got lucky Harmony Gold didn’t keep the show so much of the dialog is “wtf”

I’m kind of surprised they kept Goku’s naked butt at all. I know Funimation’s edited dubs kept it but eh

It’s funny how both Harmony Gold and Funimation both made “lol Shu’s a dog!” jokes but they’re entirely different jokes. Harmony Gold made a “hit your nose with a newspaper” joke and “fetch your slippers” joke and Funimation’s dubs made an “obedience training” joke and “I wanna chew on one of them bones but I’m too scared”

Femina is a really dumb name

Was Goku bringing home and cooking a dead cartoon wolf too objectionable for 1989? Even Saban allowed animal violence. They still mentioned he ate the wolf so...

The work around the titular “No balls!” scene was awkward.

Goku thinking Turtle was a bird was a random change

The cut around the bleeding Bear Thief was a bit awkward

The Toribot actually speaks in this dub instead of making animal noises like the Funi dubs

I was predicting that the magic carpet joke from Funimation was a carry over from the Harmony Gold dub but no he just calls for the nimbus cloud to begin with. I thought it was lame for Funimation to change it from a phoenix to a carpet but at least the idea was kept.

To keep track on the Roshi wants something from Bulma for his dragon ball game

Japanese version and uncut Funi dub: wants to see her underwear sees her privates because Goku took her panties off early in the morning. Turtle is annoyed because it’s perverted and unbecoming.

1995 Funimation dub. Wants Bulma to set him on a date with an older lady who is pretty like her but gives her the dragon ball anyways. Turtle is annoyed because he’s not suppose to be dating or something

2001 edited Funimation dub. Wants to see Bulma’s belly button, Goku never took her panties off so presumably he got a good look at those too

Harmony Gold dub. Roshi wants to give her a magic wand just because and Turtle is annoyed because he doesn’t own one he gives Lena the dragon ball because she whines for it loud enough


And of course the “Bulma finds her panties, figures out what Goku did and shoots at him” scene is completely removed. I think the 1995 (and probably edited 2001 dub) kept some of the footage and had her annoyed he put some ants in her drawers to save for later.

[10gigtriforce]

So glad these are here now, its so fun to watch them and see the first, more than just a movie, attempt at dragon ball dubbing in English.


So now all thats missing that we have confirmation of existing for a very good chance is the frontier airlines dub and the funi pilot dub of movie 1 with the HG names right? or am I forgetting more?

Someone on Youtube actually found the Funi pilot movie with the HG names, so now all that's left as the elusive Frontier dub.

Did they upload it anywhere? If not it's still lost to me.

[KBABZ]

Did they upload it anywhere? If not it's still lost to me.

Search for it on The Internet Archive and then sort by upload date.

[MasenkoHA]

Watched Mao Mao the terrible

On the plus side that whole stupid nonsensical "legend of the boy who can dance on the clouds will liberate the village from the monster Oolong" in the Funi dub wasn't a carry over from the Harmony Gold dub.

On the negative side good god was the script way off. I mean all these episodes have been but this one in particular stands out. The majority of the time the characters aren't even remotely saying the same thing they're saying in the Japanese version. The Funimation dubs for this episode kept the general gist of what the characters were saying the same but added some stupid crap on top of it. I always hated the Funimation dub of this episode and I hated the Harmony Gold version even more.

Isn't it funny that Zero insults Old Lady Paozu by calling her wrinkly and she's suppose to be offended but she's clearly flattered? The same thing happened in the 1995 dub (and maybe the edited 2001 dub?) I kind of gotta give the uncut Funi dub points for the "you're a randy boy" line one of the rare times the English dub is naughtier than the Japanese dialog

I was curious how Harmony Gold was going to handle the "Goku is exposed when Oolong sees his dick" bit. I was honestly surprised when the 1995 dub kept it in and wasn't sure what Harmony Gold dub would do. To be honest I have no clue what is even going on in the Harmony Gold version. He has a panic attack because of two pretty girls and turns into a bull...I think? Are we sure Harmony Gold cancelled this project on the basis of low ratings from a very limited test market or because they realized it would be impossible to keep dubbing Dragon Ball the way they were and have it make any sense?

On that plus side/negative side thing the narrator explains Oolong's transformation like the Japanese version (the Funi dubs had Oolong explain it) but they fuck up by treating the 5 minute thing as a standard rule of transformation and not a limitation of Oolong's personally. Oops.

Harmony Gold logic. Oolong kidnapping young girls to be his brides and cook and clean for him? Okay! Oolong getting rich by ripping people off? Bad bad change it to the inherited the place from his dead grandpa.

[KBABZ]

I'm nearing the end of episode 5: did we always know Zero's grandfather was called Tendor the Great or was that never mentioned in the Movie 1/3 dub?? It's also HEAVILY implied that Goku's power comes from the Power Pole, hence the name I guess.

A few more notes from my watching:

= Episode 2 =
- "You must never enter the royal dining chamber without knocking or I'll hit your nose with a newspaper!"
- Shu sounds like a Looney Toons character more than the saber tooth tiger looked it when he fell down the cliff. And he takes interest in Pilaf's discarded bone.
- And Shu described Pilaf as a mutant?
- And Pilaf is upset that Shu is fishing for compliments? Good grief this scene is so weird now. When will that russian ceiling lady drop in to end it all??
- Is... is Shu named Naughty Chao??
- "One more mention of that tail and I'm gonna SMACK you!" Jesus Lena it's 2020 for Christ's sake!
- "IF YOU MENTION A BATH OR A TAIL I'M GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE-!"
- "Would you like some coffee?" "It's too civilized for a country bumpkin like me!"
- In the morning Bulma here wishes Goku would become more civilized, and later Goku says he wants to see the world. Great additions IMO for later arcs, as well as this one.
- "Join us next time!"

= Episode 3 =
- HOLY COW THE TORI-BOT IS VOICED!
- Wait, ROSH-I?? Instead of Row-shi?? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!?
- Now the ENTIRE "oh the first thing you wanted is dead/at the cleaners, try the Nimbus instead" is replaced with "Roshi tries the Nimbus straight away but is then reminded that he only has one, so calling it again works for some reason".
- Huh, Roshi is called the tortoise hermit here. Get one accuracy exchanged for an inaccuracy I guess.
- Shu says that the girl Roshi mentions to him "sound familiar", despite not having met her before! This is meant to be an allusion to the filler from Episode 2, but it's an inaccurate one!
- "Yeah yeah I'll give ya a push, anything to get ya off my island you blue-faced dwarf!"
- "Now that's what I call house cleaning! It surprised me the first time I saw it too!" I like this little line because it means Bulma is relating to Goku somewhat, increasing their bond of friendship. And while Harmony Gold never got that far, it implies that Dr. Briefs invented the Hoi Poi, er, I mean Eclipsals, during Bulma's lifetime, at an age where she would remember it.
- I like Bulma's kinder character in this dub, but it does undermine why she can't ride the Nimbus; in the Funi dub, her irritating and self-centered moments were enough to justify why she couldn't ride it. Now she's only justifiably irritated, which doesn't really work.
- After finishing that episode, Roshi's Funi voice may be kooky, but in the context of Episode 2, it really works. Roshi is the showcase character of Episode 3, but in the Harmony Gold dub it doesn't work because nothing else happens and Roshi's voice just isn't interesting enough to make him the justified side-character.

= Episode 4 =
- "YOU MADE ME SPILL MY SOUP!!" "So big deal, you can't eat soup with chopsticks anyway!"
- Apparently Gohan taught Goku kung-fu? Didn't know that!

= Episode 5 =
- When Zedaki meets Zero and Mao-Mao, he demands the Dragon Balls OR the Eclipsals! He knows what Dragon Balls are BEFORE Episode 7! Guess they would have re-written that dialogue to be about something else.
- Mao-Mao also criticizes Sqeaker's terrible donkey impression, saying he always flunked voice training.
- "The extending Power Pole! I've only seen one other like it!" Looks like Harmony Gold didn't get THAT far when looking through the anime...
- Ha! No Wolf Fang Fist! Instead Zedaki simply says "Power! ...and now you shall die!!"
- Again Zedaki emphasizes that he wants the Dragon Balls to cure his shyness around girls BEFORE he learns about them in Episode 7.

[KBABZ]

And now that I'm done, here are my FULL edit notes! As mentioned earlier, all the Harmony Gold edits are purely edit cuts: there's no visual trickery going on such as painting boxers onto Goku or swapping out panties for a fishful of dollars. This ultimately results in much more content being removed, usually about a minute and a half to two minutes being cut.

The timecodes are taken from the original files, except for Episode 1, which are taken from the original upload of Episode one earlier in the week.

Spoiler:

Episode 1: Secret of the Dragon Ball
5 edits are made to this episode, removing 1 minute and 39 seconds of footage.

• 5:57: The scene where Zero fishes with his tail in the nude has been cut. After he pops his head out of the water, Zero says "Well now to find a fish!" before cutting to him dragging the fish along the ground. 41 seconds removed.
• 6:47: The moment where Lena shoots Zero with her pistol like a US police officer has been cut. After raising his Power Pole in the air with both hands, we cut to Goku about to attack with the red streaky background behind him. 31 seconds removed.
• 6:50: The shot of Lena holding her hands up has been shortened to remove her dropping her pistol, so that it isn't visible to the audience. 2 seconds removed.
• 7:52: The moment where Zero lifts up Lena's skirt to reveal her panties has been removed. To help with this transition, Zero says "But some boys do have tails, don't they?". 8 seconds removed.
• 14:01: The moment where Lena tries to have Zero touch her butt in exchange for the Four-Star Ball has been cut. After the sly-looking shot of Lena, we cut to Lena saying "I got an idea!". 15 seconds removed.



Episode 2: The Emperor's Quest
8 edits are made to this episode, removing 1 minute and 42 seconds of footage.

• 4:55: Zero standing around nude not understanding bathtime procedures has been cut. After Lena says “I guess I gotta show ya!”, we cut to her holding Zero’s tail in her hands. 40 seconds removed.
• 5:24: The wide shot of Zero drying his hair while Lena sits on her bed in shock has been cut for nudity. After the close-up of Zero’s wiggling tail with the white background, we cut to Lena’s shocked face. 10 seconds removed.
• 5:38: A nearly identical wide shot to the one above has been removed. After the shot of Lena in a “spotlight of revelation”, we cut to the close-up of Zero where he says “I figured you’d come around to believing that!”. 6 seconds removed.
• 6:06: The shot of Lena diving into the bathwater has been shortened at the start by twelve frames to remove her “top of the dive” animation frame where her Barbie-like breasts are almost fully exposed. Half a second removed.
• 8:41: The moment where Oculi farts has been cut. The dialogue has now been re-written so that Oculi is upset at Naughty Chao over not returning with a Dragon Ball. 8 seconds removed.
• 14:44: The shot of Zero cooking the cartoon wolf has been cut, probably because Zero is cooking a cartoon wolf. After Lena runs inside, we cut to the shot of the moon. 9 seconds removed.
• 14:46: Similar to the above, the shot panning from the capsule house to the smouldering spit with the cartoon wolf skeleton has been cut. After the shot of the moon, we cut to Zero bouncing on the bed. 7 seconds removed.
• 16:07: Surprisingly, the sequence where Zero slips off Lena’s panties has been removed. After Zero stands up and yawns, we cut to the panning shot of the mountains where, instead of yelling, Zero now shouts “Sure could use breakfast!”. Lena’s terrified check on the Dragon Balls is re-contextualized as her being afraid that a kid who’d eat centipedes would eat anything. 22 seconds removed.



Episode 3: The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi
7 edits were made to this episode, removing 1 minutes and 53 seconds of footage.

• 4:43: The shot from behind the Bear Thief as he falls over, as well as the following shot where Zero falls to a landing, has been shortened to conceal the blood from the Bear Thief’s nose. While the final frame of the first shot does have blood in the Dragon Box footage, it’s masked away when viewed on a CRT. The second shot meanwhile had the blood painted out on the first frame. 2 seconds removed.
• 10:18: The shot of Roshi and co standing on the beach waiting for the Flying Nimbus to show up has been shortened at the end so that the Japanese “dead air” text doesn’t appear. 4 seconds removed.
• 15:12: The shots where Roshi lewdly asks if he can look at Lena’s panties, including the dramatic shot of the big wave behind him, have been cut. Now we jump from the close-up of his glasses to Tortoise being annoyed, with the new context that Roshi doesn’t have a magic wand to give Lena. 13 seconds removed.
• 15:26: And of course, the sequence where Lena does lift her skirt to reveal her bare half has been cut. We now cut from Roshi yelling at Tortoise while he eyerolls to the shot where Bulma looks away embarrassed, just after Roshi regains his normal eyes and talks to Tortoise, to continue their argument. 17 seconds removed.
• 16:53: The moment where Lena flashes Roshi to convince him to let her keep the Dragon Ball has been cut. 8 seconds removed.
• 17:32: The scene where Lena shrieks and Zero tells her he removed her panties earlier has been cut. 49 seconds removed.
• 17:57: The moment where Oculi runs outside and threatens the crocodile with the knife has been cut. Strangely, the earlier shot of the crocodile sunbathing has been kept! 20 seconds removed.



Episode 4: Mao-Mao the Terrible
5 edits have been made to this episode, removing 37 seconds of footage (the least of any Harmony Gold episode).

• 5:39: Zero’s pat-pat on Pocawatha has been removed. Now he makes a crass remark that happens to insult Lena. 2 seconds removed.
• 8:10: Zero’s pat-pat on the old lady has been removed, again replaced with a crass remark. Oddly, the old lady reacts as if insulted despite the clearly smitten expression. 4 seconds removed.
• 11:50: The sequence where Mao-Mao imagines him puff-puffing breasts has been cut. 16 seconds removed.
• 12:08: The sequence where Mao-Mao catches Zero peeing, thus discovering his gender, has been cut. I’d love to tell you why Mao-Mao gets enraged and changes into a bull, but the audio is so garbled I can’t understand a bloody word he’s saying! 12 seconds removed.
• 15:11: The title card to Mao-Mao’s shape-changing exposition has been cut to remove the instance of Japanese text. 3 seconds removed.



Episode 5: Zedaki the Warrior
7 edits have been made to this episode, removing 2 minutes and 17 seconds of footage (the most of any Harmony Gold episode).

• 3:00: Zero no longer pat pats Mao-Mao. Once again this is replaced with a crass comment. 5 seconds removed.
• 4:42: The sequence where Mao-Mao tries to flee as a fish, Zero dives after him in the nude, and Lena catches Mao-Mao with her panties, has been cut. After Mao-Mao says “Exactly, he radically unhappy!”, the shot ends before he jumps into the air and transforms, and we cut to the waterfall rainbow, making this the single largest edit in the Harmony Gold dub. The narrator has some new dialogue here to reflect the passage of time. 1 minute 9 seconds removed.
• 6:20: Zero peeing in the river has been cut. Now Zero says that he’ll go off exploring, and the shot where he runs to the river’s edge is shorter to remove Zero dropping his pants (although we still see his hands reaching for his belt). After this we jump to Mao-Mao’s expression as Lena realizes her Eclipsals are missing. 14 seconds removed.
• 8:04: Mao-Mao’s Piggy Pill is now changed so that his ears are hyper-sensitive when Lena shouts Piggy in a high-pitched voice. After the close-up on his ears, we cut past Mao-Mao having a rectal emergency and cut to Lena calling piggy some more. 12 seconds removed.
• 8:45: Mao-Mao emerging from the bushes clutching a roll of toilet paper has been cut. As Lena is explaining to Zero how the Piggy Pill works, we cut to Mao-Mao chastising her for talking behind his back. A sound effect of rustling bushes has been moved here to make it seem like Mao-Mao has just emerged from the bushes. 10 seconds removed.
• 9:04: Mao-Mao’s second rectal emergency induced by Zero has been reworked. The flushing toilet sound effects have been muted, and after the wide shot of the mountains we cut past Mao-Mao shitting in the bushes asking what motormike Mao-Mao can turn into. 4 seconds removed.
• 9:39: The scene where Mao-Mao turns into a pair of Lena’s panties has been removed. After Mao-Mao elaborates on how hard it is to keep his shape, we cut straight to the eyecatches. 23 seconds removed.

[MasenkoHA]

And now I finished “Zedaki the Warrior”

*Funimation must have liked this one. They kept about half the dialog. Compared to episode 2-4 there’s a few bit here and there the same but Funimation mostly rewrote from the ground up

*As I expected at this point; Oolong turning into a fish to escape, Goku going skinny dipping after him, and Bulma luring him with freshly removed panties is removed entirely rather than the white undies and fishful of dollars maneuver the edited Funimation dubs pulled

*Less expected but still expected the vitamin Lena gives Mao Mao doesn’t give him the shits at the trigger word it just paralyzes him and hurts his ears. Weird how a year or two later Rugrats will come out and live off toilet humor. Also changing pee pee to piggy as the trigger word is something I figured would come from Harmony Gold

*Tendor? Are you fucking kidding me?

*As dumb as some of the Funimation names are for attacks like Destructo Disk and Tri Beam at least the idea is there. Here it’s crap like “Magic Power!” And “Power!” The later episodes would have gotten really annoying


Zedaki already knowing about the dragon balls is...interesting I guess? It’s not like the dialog has been all that faithful anyways.


Yeaaah I’m pretty much convinced that Harmony Gold saw Bulma in the Playboy Bunny outfit and decided to tap out.



So these episodes....it was interesting to see them but we did not lose out on anything when Harmony Gold gave up. It could have been a lot better than Funimation but it could have been a lot worse.

[DrBriefsCat]

It seems like they’re not doing any paint edits and merely content to cut the objectionable stuff out entirely?

The tech of 1989 was not to the point of where they could do those kinds of things until much later, at least i don't think it was quite there yet. They certainly had the means to digitally edit by the time FUNi started in '94 and the BLT dub entered production soon after.

Did Robotech never have paint edits? Haven't seen it myself, but I would think three shows that were altered that much would've required it.

No, I don't believe Robotech had any paint edits. Carl Macek just cleverly recut and retimed the footage. The first anime to have paint edits may have been the BLT dub of Dragon Ball in 1995.

Really happy the episodes are available period, so I can deal with the quality not being top-notch. Handbrake can be a useful tool and it does not always make things look bad, i've used it myself with pretty good success to rip Knights of the Zodiac episodes onto the Internet Archive from the DVDs and it looks pretty good IMO.

It may have something to do with the quality of the source. A recording of a 30 year old TV broadcast, possibly done in EP/SLP speed, is not going to encode as well as something off a commercial release.

[MasenkoHA]

The first anime to have paint edits may have been the BLT dub of Dragon Ball in 1995.

The Dic dub of Sailor Moon that came out around the same time as the BLT dub of Dragon Ball made use of airbrushing, digital cgi scene swipes being added in, and colorful border frames being added and some other added things here and there. And I doubt either dub was the first to do so

And one of the Gatchaman dubs (the 70s one Battle of the Planets?) added some crappy animation of a R2D2 esque robot to fill in loss time.

[KBABZ]

*Tendor? Are you fucking kidding me?

Tendor the GREAT, sonny!

[DrBriefsCat]

The first anime to have paint edits may have been the BLT dub of Dragon Ball in 1995.

The Dic dub of Sailor Moon that came out around the same time as the BLT dub of Dragon Ball made use of airbrushing, digital cgi scene swipes being added in, and colorful border frames being added and some other added things here and there. And I doubt either dub was the first to do so

I'd be curious to see evidence of an earlier dub where digital paint was applied on top of moving animation footage. I know Samurai Pizza Cats had Japanese signage edited using paintshop-like tools (1991), but nothing was done to the animation itself for that one.

And one of the Gatchaman dubs (the 70s one Battle of the Planets?) added some crappy animation of a R2D2 esque robot to fill in loss time.

I thought we were talking about digital paint.

[DrBriefsCat]

And of course the “Bulma finds her panties, figures out what Goku did and shoots at him” scene is completely removed. I think the 1995 (and probably edited 2001 dub) kept some of the footage and had her annoyed he put some ants in her drawers to save for later.

The Toonami airing in 2001 cut the scene entirely. I remember people commenting that Goku mysteriously appeared with bullet holes in the next shot.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Spoiler:

And now I finished “Zedaki the Warrior”

*Funimation must have liked this one. They kept about half the dialog. Compared to episode 2-4 there’s a few bit here and there the same but Funimation mostly rewrote from the ground up

*As I expected at this point; Oolong turning into a fish to escape, Goku going skinny dipping after him, and Bulma luring him with freshly removed panties is removed entirely rather than the white undies and fishful of dollars maneuver the edited Funimation dubs pulled

*Less expected but still expected the vitamin Lena gives Mao Mao doesn’t give him the shits at the trigger word it just paralyzes him and hurts his ears. Weird how a year or two later Rugrats will come out and live off toilet humor. Also changing pee pee to piggy as the trigger word is something I figured would come from Harmony Gold

*Tendor? Are you fucking kidding me?

*As dumb as some of the Funimation names are for attacks like Destructo Disk and Tri Beam at least the idea is there. Here it’s crap like “Magic Power!” And “Power!” The later episodes would have gotten really annoying


Zedaki already knowing about the dragon balls is...interesting I guess? It’s not like the dialog has been all that faithful anyways.


Yeaaah I’m pretty much convinced that Harmony Gold saw Bulma in the Playboy Bunny outfit and decided to tap out.



So these episodes....it was interesting to see them but we did not lose out on anything when Harmony Gold gave up. It could have been a lot better than Funimation but it could have been a lot worse.

Also, i looked and Yamcha/Zedaki clawing Goku/Zero with the Roga Fu Fu Ken (Wolf Fang Fist) and him getting eye poked by Goku's Jan Ken Pon attack a bit later was left intact unlike the BLT dub and maybe the edited version of the 2001 dub where those scenes were cut out. On another note, i just can't get over Squeaker's (Puar/Pu'erh) voice having been done by Cheryl Chase the voice of Angelica Pickles, which at of the time of the HG dub's production was a good two or so years before Rugrats premiered on Nickelodeon.