Which do I prefer; Japanese or English? Let me put it this way. If there was no English dub included on a FUNimation release of DragonBall, I probably wouldn't even notice. The first thing I do when I pop in a DVD is switch all the language settings. Although, once I go to change the settings, I'd probably notice then, but you know what I mean.
Until the Dragon Boxes and (Z) Kai came out, it had been quite some time since I had watched anything with the English dub. If other people like it themselves, that's fine by me. I just have no interest in it, nor will I probably ever. But when those people are so misinformed by the dub that I can't even have a conversation with them about simple aspects of the series, that's where I draw the line.
One of the most horrifying things I ever did with the Dragon Boxes was turn on the subtitles while listening to the English dub. If you're looking for accuracy, don't do this. Some things will just blow your mind. And it's sad, really. It's just sad...
So, Dragon Boxes or Orange Bricks? Umm... I'd love to just convince you to get the Dragon Boxes, but it really comes down to how much you care, and I'm not implying that you don't care about DragonBall. What I mean is, do you care if the show is cropped? Do you care if it isn't true to the original? Do you care about having correct dialogue? If you care about those things, then you want the Dragon Boxes. If you don't care about those things, and there's nothing wrong if you don't (they're so damn cheap), then the Orange Bricks are for you.
Warning, you may be educated by this part:
Would I personally recommend to anyone to buy the Orange Bricks? Absolutely not! But I can understand why someone might really like them. Unfortunately, the reason most fans do like them is because they haven't educated themselves about the release. That, or like I said, they know about the flaws, but it doesn't bother them because they're so damn cheap. Is that wrong? Well, it depends on who you ask. It's the same reason why most people in the U.S. have no idea how our government works, or how a car works, or for that matter, how DVDs work.
The issue is, consumers, for the most part, are very trusting with the products they're buying. Most will buy anything you put in front of them without putting much thought into it, simply because it's there and they like it. They trust that whoever manufactured or produced it did everything in their power to make that the best possible product. And if it's fairly inexpensive, compared to other similar products, they'll buy it. It's only the few minority that actually research everything they possibly can about such products, and base their decision to purchase said product by educating themselves about what's good and what's bad. Unfortunately, most companies are
well aware that this is the case, so they will often not put as much time and money into something as they could (i.e. the Orange Bricks and the original English dub). And more often than not, it isn't that they're trying to be deceitful, but more so that they're trying to save money.
It isn't until something drastic happens (i.e. when it affects the majority of non-educated consumers), that companies will really try to do anything about such flaws or issues. It's why products are recalled, or why there was such a backlash with the Toyota car accelerators recently. So, while some fans complained about the Orange Bricks, most people just went out and bought millions of them because they didn't educate themselves about them. So in a way, it's because most people don't care about educating themselves. And honestly, you can't blame them half the time, because that takes a lot of time and effort. That's why we go to people that have specialized jobs, like a car mechanic, a electrician, or a plumber. It's the same reason why you should read a couple "good" reviews before you buy things. Just think of the reviewer as the specialist in this case.
It's actually one main reason why much of our government even exists; to protect the consumer and the general populous. They don't always do the best job, but that's why everyone should at least try to educate themselves about certain things. Now, I realize we're just talking about DVDs here, but if you care about your money, it's still worth researching. Especially since there are so many releases available.
-- RANT ENDS --
OK, so I went a little overboard with all that, but as you can see, more often than not it's just about being education. Of course, having the money to actually buy something helps. But when it's about purchasing something like a DVD boxset, it should be really easy to do some research about it on the internet.
EDIT:
jjgp1112 wrote:Japanese:
Krillin: Now that an enemy even more incredible than frieza has appeared, are you scared? Or instead, are you excited?
Goku: Both
That can't be exactly what the subtitles say. Steve never uses "Fr
ieza" in the subtitles.
