Which English dub terms are legit translations and not just Funi shit

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

But, Funimation wasn't exactly known for taking direction from Japanese merchandise. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a "Frieza."

"Freeza" is better suited to the pun on freezer than "Frieza". There is no real logic to the added "i" I can think of, and I don't see why it had to be thrown in there, but at least nothing was lost. The biggest problem I can see with it is people are not familiar with Dragon Ball might assume an incorrect pronunciation, which they would not be likely to do with Freeza because of the emphasis on the "Ee" sound.

[DanielSSJ]

I have kind of a weird example. The Kikōhō being translated as "Tri-Beam" is dumb and wrong for a whole host of reasons, but Funimation kinda sorta corrected themselves when they went on to dub the original series. The Kikōhō was first used in the anime series in Dragon Ball Episode 100: Life or Death?! A Last Resort, which in Funimation's dub was called "The Spirit Cannon". It's not a perfect translation, but it's a hell of a lot closer to Kikōhō than "Tri-Beam" ever was.

(Can't give them too much credit though, considering it was misspelled as "The Spirit Canon" in the title card. Oops.)

[MasenkoHA]

I have kind of a weird example. The Kikōhō being translated as "Tri-Beam" is dumb and wrong for a whole host of reasons, but Funimation kinda sorta corrected themselves when they went on to dub the original series. The Kikōhō was first used in the anime series in Dragon Ball Episode 100: Life or Death?! A Last Resort, which in Funimation's dub was called "The Spirit Cannon". It's not a perfect translation, but it's a hell of a lot closer to Kikōhō than "Tri-Beam" ever was.

(Can't give them too much credit though, considering it was misspelled as "The Spirit Canon" in the title card. Oops.)

They still referred to it as Tri-Beam in the actual episode unfortunately. Not sure if it was a case of the writer forgetting what they called Kikoho and the script editor "fixing" it but forgot to change the episode title or what.

Funimation will do those odd references to the Japanese version from time to time like episode 27 being titled Number One Under The Moon? in reference to the tournament being Number One Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament even though they always went with "World Martial Arts Tournament" or when Cell said "Kienzan" before using Frieza's attack that is similar to but not quite the Kienzan

[DanielSSJ]

They still referred to it as Tri-Beam in the actual episode unfortunately. Not sure if it was a case of the writer forgetting what they called Kikoho and the script editor "fixing" it but forgot to change the episode title or what.

Funimation will do those odd references to the Japanese version from time to time like episode 27 being titled Number One Under The Moon? in reference to the tournament being Number One Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament even though they always went with "World Martial Arts Tournament" or when Cell said "Kienzan" before using Frieza's attack that is similar to but not quite the Kienzan

Yeah, that's why I said "kinda sorta". They use a decent translation for the title card, but not in the episode itself. My fault for not being clearer. In regards to the Cell thing, the Daizenshuu 7 Special Attack Dictionary categorizes Freeza's attack as a type of Kienzan, and states that he copied the move after Kuririn used it on him. So it's not entirely wrong.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I regret starting this thread because now I see a thread with more potential would be "Changes and or terms that made better sense on the Funimation dub" because "Strongest Guy In The World" is a shitty title.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I regret starting this thread because now I see a thread with more potential would be "Changes and or terms that made better sense on the Funimation dub" because "Strongest Guy In The World" is a shitty title.

That was Big Green's title. Funimation's title was The World's Strongest, which is perfect, as it just drops the word "Guy", which is not needed.

For some reason a lot Big Green's titles are jarringly mundane. Another example is Z movie 3 A Super Decisive Battle for Earth, which they named Super Battle in the World or the Bojack movie being Super Guy in the Galaxy (TOEI title is The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy).

Ideally dub titles should sound natural in the intended language, so you could say for the purpose of reading and speaking anything that isn't clunky or awkward-sounding makes more sense in English. Its also a recurring problem with the Big Green dub that effort isn't put in where it's needed, although the cast had talent and did their best with what they were given.

[GhostEmperorX]

For some reason a lot Big Green's titles are jarringly mundane. Another example is Z movie 3 A Super Decisive Battle for Earth, which they named Super Battle in the World or the Bojack movie being Super Guy in the Galaxy (TOEI title is The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy).

This is because they took the approach of mostly literally translating the original JP titles, but in a way that's almost as broken as their actual dubbing (and resembling of even other bootleg material like the Speedy dubs of the movies).

[Cure Dragon 255]

I regret starting this thread because now I see a thread with more potential would be "Changes and or terms that made better sense on the Funimation dub" because "Strongest Guy In The World" is a shitty title.

That was Big Green's title. Funimation's title was The World's Strongest, which is perfect, as it just drops the word "Guy", which is not needed.

For some reason a lot Big Green's titles are jarringly mundane. Another example is Z movie 3 A Super Decisive Battle for Earth, which they named Super Battle in the World or the Bojack movie being Super Guy in the Galaxy (TOEI title is The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy).

Ideally dub titles should sound natural in the intended language, so you could say for the purpose of reading and speaking anything that isn't clunky or awkward-sounding makes more sense in English. Its also a recurring problem with the Big Green dub that effort isn't put in where it's needed, although the cast had talent and did their best with what they were given.

You got me wrong. I know that's the Big Green title, but the Big Green Title Is also an acceptable way to translate the Japanese title. As in the most basic google translate name possible. Funimation KNEW this sounded moronic and just put "World's Strongest".

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I regret starting this thread because now I see a thread with more potential would be "Changes and or terms that made better sense on the Funimation dub" because "Strongest Guy In The World" is a shitty title.

That was Big Green's title. Funimation's title was The World's Strongest, which is perfect, as it just drops the word "Guy", which is not needed.

For some reason a lot Big Green's titles are jarringly mundane. Another example is Z movie 3 A Super Decisive Battle for Earth, which they named Super Battle in the World or the Bojack movie being Super Guy in the Galaxy (TOEI title is The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy).

Ideally dub titles should sound natural in the intended language, so you could say for the purpose of reading and speaking anything that isn't clunky or awkward-sounding makes more sense in English. Its also a recurring problem with the Big Green dub that effort isn't put in where it's needed, although the cast had talent and did their best with what they were given.

You got me wrong. I know that's the Big Green title, but the Big Green Title Is also an acceptable way to translate the Japanese title. As in the most basic google translate name possible. Funimation KNEW this sounded moronic and just put "World's Strongest".

Fair enough, and my apologies for misunderstanding, but yes even Funimation aren't that sloppy. Most of the movie titles are very well adapted.

Conversely, the Big Green dubs likely had no quality control because they were just a rushed attempt to get English dubbed movies out for the European market that would be cheaper to license.

[MasenkoHA]

The problem I have with Funimation's title for Z movie 2 is it's so vague. World's Strongest could very well be referring to the Z Warriors as a whole (or in this case Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, and Krillin as they appear in this movie). Strongest Guy in the World is clunky from an English perspective but at least I know the movie is specifically talking about Goku.

The World's Strongest Man would have been fine.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The problem I have with Funimation's title for Z movie 2 is it's so vague. World's Strongest could very well be referring to the Z Warriors as a whole (or in this case Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, and Krillin as they appear in this movie). Strongest Guy in the World is clunky from an English perspective but at least I know the movie is specifically talking about Goku.

The World's Strongest Man would have been fine.

Yeah No, I disagree, We REALLY dont need THIS MUCH hand holding. We dont need to be TOLD Goku is the strongest, bestest guy to ever be, I like the elegant ambiguity of World's Strongest. This is the probably the one time Funimation had the right call.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I also prefer World's Strongest, it's short and sweet. World's Strongest Man doesn't roll off the tongue as well and has the same issue as the other titles with going out of it's way to specify a detail that's not super important.

[Tian]

Strongest Guy in the World is clunky from an English perspective but at least I know the movie is specifically talking about Goku.

Yeah, that doesn't sound epic in Spanish either. In Spanish, that would be "El tipo (or El sujeto) más fuerte del mundo."

The World's Strongest Man would have been fine.

Ironically, that's the title that ended up being used in the LatAm Spanish dub: "El hombre más fuerte de este mundo" (It can also be literally translated as "The strongest man of this world)

[Cure Dragon 255]

Also wanted to bring that up. Latin America is so close to the Japanese most of the lame titles of the original movies were kept. Sure, in fan speak we just say "The Tarles Movie" or "The Broly Movie" and or "The Cooler Movie" but fasten your seatbelts LatAm fans because you are in for a wild ride watching such exciting sounding movies like "Return My Gohan" "Super Saiyajin Goku" "The Battle Between Three Saiyajin". Wow. Waku Waku.

And this is me trying to desperately dig clawing dirt to find something GOOD to say about Funimation. Funimation is shit.

[MasenkoHA]

Return my Gohan isn't the official title anyways, but I prefer it over Dead Zone by a country mile. The latter just brings to mind the Stephen King book. The former is fun to say in Nozawa's Goku voice.

Super Saiyan Son Goku made sense in 1991 when Goku hadn't become a Super Saiyan yet in the manga or anime, but it was being telegraphed that Goku was going to become one. Imagine being a kid in Japan in 1991, and you saw that the newest Dragon Ball Z movie coming out a few weeks before your Spring Break was titled Super Saiya-Jin Son Goku. You would probably be hyped to see it...and then subsequently disappointed when it last for 5 seconds. Now it just doesn't hold the same marketing pull all these years later and seems way more banal these days. I understand why Funimation didn't use it, by the time they released the movie in 2001, Goku, Trunks, Vegeta, and Gohan had all already become Super Saiyans so it didn't mean anything anymore. That said, just calling it Lord Slug is pretty lame too.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Return my Gohan isn't the official title anyways but I prefer it over Dead Zone by a country mile. The latter just brings to mind the Stephen King book. The former is fun to say in Nozawa's Goku voice.

That is swell and all. But Nozawa DOESNT SAY "Return My Gohan" and THAT sounds cool. The Japanese raw title is "Ora no Gohan o Kaese!!" AND THAT is a cool Nozawa-Ism that is fun to say. But "Return My Gohan" is just lame-o mumbo jumbo generic phrase in english.

Look I am trying to give some credit to the notoriously awful Funimation. OF COURSE if I watch any sort of DB movie it will be the Latin American dub. Oh and the Broly Super Argentina Redub. Lame titles be damned. Heck I dont think I will ever sit down and watch a DB movie even dubbed, I just watch DB on TV because coincidentally I live in a region that has NEVER stopped aired Dragon Ball on TV.

[TechExpert2021]

That is swell and all. But Nozawa DOESNT SAY "Return My Gohan" and THAT sounds cool. The Japanese raw title is "Ora no Gohan o Kaese!!" AND THAT is a cool Nozawa-Ism that is fun to say. But "Return My Gohan" is just lame-o mumbo jumbo generic phrase in english.

I'll never stick to the idea that English sounds generic and Japanese sounds cooler than English.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Dead Zone is fine, its just hilarious that Funimation likely went with the name because they thought it would sound cool and badass to kids but then for their inhouse "Ultimate Uncut" dub they were so afraid of saying "Hell" like the Pioneer dub did

[Thanos]

Not sure what makes something "legit." "Frieza" is not technically wrong, just looks silly. Same goes for "Vegito."

I don't care that official Japanese merchandise has officially sanctioned these silly spellings (a tragedy in its own right; there was a certain charm to random variations of character names on toys... RIP Son Gokou), I will always and forever use "Freeza" and "Vegetto". Where in the hell is "Vegito" even coming from? There is no "i" in Vegeta, Son Goku or Kakarot(to). The only thing I can think of is taking the ジ from "Vejitto" and preserving the "i", but the whole idea is to combine the names. Or maybe to not be too similar to Vegeta with "Vege" there, but the solution has been there all along with Vegetto. Sure, it doesn't necessarily work with "Kakarot", but "Vegito" is actually a further deviation from anything--at the very least, "Vegetto" it could have been a nod to the original Japanese. But still, even if you use "Vegito", that "to" is still there, so their solution was to just come up with a dumb random spelling. "Vegetto" just looks way cooler.

The dub spellings should have been Sparking! Zero'd and consolidated to the Japanese spellings.

It's the exact same word.

I don't recall, but does Freeza call them "saru" in Japanese in a derogatory way?

[Cure Dragon 255]

Yeah he is CONSTANTLY calling the Saiyans Monkeys, especially Goku in Japanese. If anything that's something Funimation REMOVED rather than added.