What have the American/UK Dubs... DONE RIGHT?

[Lunaar]

Before everyone says it, yes. I am a newbie. To post. I've actually been stalking the entire board for years until now, so... *ahem*

Can we collectively agree on something as a whole? Probably not, as it is a wonderfully diverse message board...but, maybe a good chunk could agree? 80%? 90%?

The topic I bring to the table is, have the American/UK Dubs (FUNimation and the Ocean Group, respectively) done anything correct in your opinion? And not only in your opinion, but could you consider it a universal agreement that it was handled correctly? In regards as to how you think it should've been handled? This could range from voice actor role choices to small details such as the title cards. Just about anything. As long as it has an original japanese comparison.

Some examples from my side being...

>Dub covers of theme songs, ie Romantikku Ageru yo and Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku. While some may agree that they weren't exactly amazing, I pooped everywhere when I popped in the DBGT vomit green brick set disc set and that little number played on my television. And yes, I love it. As well as the DB ending theme dub.
>A small number of corrections done to both the original ocean dub AND the japanese version through FUNI's redub, ie Son Gohan's "Kamehameha" being redubbed into a more fittingly "Masenko" during the battle with Vegeta. Whether this was Toei's fault or Son Gohan just being a five year old , I thought this was a strange thing to hear come out of Son Gohan's mouth originally. When I heard FUNI's redub of the attack, I just sort of grinned uncontrollably. I felt that FUNi was being unexpectedly smart on this case.

Don't worry if some of your ideas may seem a tad on the controversial side, we may actually agree with you.

[linkdude20002001]

I thought it was kinda neat to hear Majin-Boo say "Saiya-jin?". It didn't really make any sense, but it was still cool.
And I love getting English versions of the openings and endings. Though, I really wish they'd stop making their own music to go along with it.

And although this isn't the FUNimation dub or Westwood Media dub, I think AB Groupe's dub was good in that it was the only English dub to have such a great voice for Kame-Sen'nin (he sounded like a perverted old man! :O )

And Geneon (Pioneer) did amazingly well; I love how Gokuh says "Kaio-ken" instead of "Keio-ken", and they even pronounce Gokuh correctly sometimes (Go-KUH).

[Kiyza]

Well, arguably, they did introduce Dragon Ball to a wide audience, despite having been awful dubs. I mean, without Funimation and their dubbing, most people wouldn't know that Dragon Ball exists.

[Adamant]

Yeah, there's only one country in the world.

(also, it's Dragon Ball. It's printed money all over the world. Someone would've picked it up eventually had Funi not done so)

[Lunaar]

I thought it was kinda neat to hear Majin-Boo say "Saiya-jin?". It didn't really make any sense, but it was still cool.
And I love getting English versions of the openings and endings. Though, I really wish they'd stop making their own music to go along with it.

And although this isn't the FUNimation dub or Westwood Media dub, I think AB Groupe's dub was good in that it was the only English dub to have such a great voice for Kame-Sen'nin (he sounded like a perverted old man! :O )

And Geneon (Pioneer) did amazingly well; I love how Gokuh says "Kaio-ken" instead of "Keio-ken", and they even pronounce Gokuh correctly sometimes (Go-KUH).

I remember that! I thought I was losing my mind when it occured, but I played it back and sure enough... About the themes, I'm pretty sure kareoke versions don't exist (correct me if I'm wrong). Not only that, but translating into english lyrics from japanese never turns out quite as rhythmically correct as you'd like it to be. I would assume the natural option would be just to compose their own in-house music. Either way, it sounds great.

Son Goku's "Kaio-ken" outcry in Pioneer's dub of Movie 2 satisfied me immensely. Just putting that out there.

Well, arguably, they did introduce Dragon Ball to a wide audience, despite having been awful dubs. I mean, without Funimation and their dubbing, most people wouldn't know that Dragon Ball exists.

*nods* I can see what you mean. :/ While there is a very LARGE number of issues I have with the dubs, I cannot ignore that they've in one way or another escalated DB's stature in pop culture. Win juice.

[Kunzait_83]

b

[fig404]

Getting back on topic...

I remember an episode in the Overworld Tournament Filler-Arc, where Toei screwed-up and forgot which fighter was trained by which Kai. I don't know the fighter's name, but he was one of West Kai's, which is why it was odd for South Kai to be cheering for him in his fight against Goku. Funimation tried to correct this; South Kai's dialogue at the beginning of the fight was replaced with something like, "I know you're not from my quadrant , but beat that rookie!"
Later, when the fight was over, North Kai was bragging about Goku to West Kai. (In the dub, he was also mocking him.) West Kai's dialogue was also changed to something like, "I told him to throw the fight, because I didn't think it was fair to have two of my fighters in the final round."

[LeprikanGT]

They have sold like a zillion dollars in DB/Z/GT VHS, DVD, and Bluray in the US and other English speaking countries.

Thats something.

[penguintruth]

I love how people think it was the English dub that sold Dragon Ball Z so much, and not the show itself. They could have done a better dub and would have gotten just as many sales, and probably more.

Fact was, when it aired on American television, DBZ was one of the edgier action cartoons on television, period.

[B]

They pronunced a decent handful of characters' names right. Yamcha, Oolong, Red, Blue, Cell, Buu, Pilaf...

[Super Sonic]

Yeah, there's only one country in the world.

(also, it's Dragon Ball. It's printed money all over the world. Someone would've picked it up eventually had Funi not done so)

If FUNi didn't do it, somebody else inevitably would have, guaranteed. Hell, it almost WASN'T FUNi who had the honor, there were any number of U.S. anime distributors eyeing the property for years until Fukanaga has it handed over to him cause he has a relative at Toei.

Not necessarily. Three words: Age of Apocalypse.

[Dr. Casey]

Hmm... things the dub did right...

- Far as I know, the dubs didn't attempt to hide Dragon Ball's Japanese origins. Names were usually retained, for example; Goku was Goku and Bulma was Bulma, they weren't Kyle and Jessica (Yes, I know some names were mispronounced like Kaioken, but that's not what I mean and I don't care about that stuff to begin with; innocent mispronunciations are completely different from shamefully hiding away traces of another culture). Japanese foods weren't changed to an American equivalent, and kanji and hiragana weren't covered up or erased. I could always be mistaken, of course, but terrible as the dub might have been, I think it lacked the blatant xenophobia that commonly infects 4Kids dubs (Hollywood Mew Mew, anyone? Good thing Dragon Ball Z's a name that was already marketable to American audiences, I can't be sure that 1996 Funi wouldn't have changed the name if it weren't already hip and cool enough). The only possible exception I can think of would be the insert songs being drowned out by dialogue and ridiculously corny speeches in the first Dragon Ball series, and since this practice only applies to some of the songs (At the very least, I know the insert song focusing on Goku and Upa before Bora's revival is preserved), I'll just shake my head in confusion and give them the benefit of the doubt that they weren't trying to cover up that unsightly Japanese singing.

- Episode 10 of the original Dragon Ball is supposed to be translated perfectly sans for one dirty joke. Props to Funi for getting one home run, even if they struck out the other 507 times.

- I haven't heard the English version of Dan Dan, but Funi does a great job with GT's closing songs. I probably like the English versions better (Sans Closing 4 which is dull either way).

[B]

Oh, of course, "You Are Not Alone" "Dont you see!" and "Blue Velvet". How could I forget?

[Kunzait_83]

b

[A-dono]

Two lines of dialogue:

Goku: "Hey Vegeta, look! People-popcorn!"
Vegeta: *sigh* "What is he on?"

Absolutely priceless. Gotta give the dub props for that classic exchange.

[Super Sonic]

What I mean is like in that storyline, just because someone could've done something in the past, doesn't necessarily mean that they would have. For anyone not knowing what I'm talking about, in that storyline, Xavier's illegitimate son went to the past to assassinate Magneto, but accidentally took out his father when he tried to shield Magnus. He poofed out of existance since it was due to his conception and the X-Men weren't founded. And without any X-Men around to stop him, Apocalypse takes over most of the Western world. Now it's been awhile since I've read the storyline, so don't know/remember if they explained why the FF or Avengers who are able to go toe to toe with the X-Men, didn't stop him, but still the fact was they didn't. DC's got a few stories similar where Bruce and Kal-El don't become Batman or Superman and it resulting in Earth getting conquered by Ra'as or Darkseid, despite other heroes' prescence who could've done something to keep them in line.

[DemonRin]

Mr. Satan's voice.

That's... Pretty much it...

If you wana count video games, the script writing in most of them is pretty good. Son actually called himself "Son Goku" in Burst Limit.

[Chuquita]

Hmm... things the dub did right...

- Far as I know, the dubs didn't attempt to hide Dragon Ball's Japanese origins. Names were usually retained, for example; Goku was Goku and Bulma was Bulma, they weren't Kyle and Jessica (Yes, I know some names were mispronounced like Kaioken, but that's not what I mean and I don't care about that stuff to begin with; innocent mispronunciations are completely different from shamefully hiding away traces of another culture). Japanese foods weren't changed to an American equivalent, and kanji and hiragana weren't covered up or erased. I could always be mistaken, of course, but terrible as the dub might have been, I think it lacked the blatant xenophobia that commonly infects 4Kids dubs (Hollywood Mew Mew, anyone? Good thing Dragon Ball Z's a name that was already marketable to American audiences, I can't be sure that 1996 Funi wouldn't have changed the name if it weren't already hip and cool enough).

That's true, I know Harmony Gold's short-lived dub changed their names and we had stuff like Zero, Bongo, and Whiskers the Wonder Cat, so I am glad that Funi didn't follow that trend. (And I understand why Funi changed Mark's name on him in the edited versions.)


Freeza and Fri-eza is one thing, imagine how conversations on daizex would go if Funi had a full, cast-wide renaming of everyone in the show! Half the board would be refering to Goku as Zero and Bulma as Lena. I can only imagine what it's like for fans of shows where the dub was rename crazy like Sailor Moon.

[Velasa]

The original dubs of the first three Z movies are magnificent. The translation, the original music being kept, the strength of the VAs, all wonderful. I like to think about what things would have been like if the whole series had been done like this.

Like Dr. Casey said earlier, FUNi was always fairly accurate with names. Few were changed and most of those had understandable reasons behind them ("I guess you're the world's true savior Satan!"). Compare that treatment to a lot of other shows back in the day... and it was one of their more progressive moves back then.

Though in response to the first post- I really never got the point of dubbing songs. Either you do the tempo right or the lyrics right, it's just not possible to do both.

[bkev]

I can't be sure that 1996 Funi wouldn't have changed the name if it weren't already hip and cool enough).

But... they didn't... '95 with the KidMark dub had most if not all the original names (well, except "Pokawantha" or whatever ridiculous thing it was for the village girl). And then the Z dub started in what, '96 '97?