Some questions about the dub answered

[Bejiita]

Searching on the internet I found a link to an old DBZ site which featured just interviews with other DBZ webmasters and Funimation officials, the link was dead, so the good old archives revived the page for me, the Funi Interview is what caught my eye, and it had 30 questions that I really would have asked this guy (CEO of Funimation) myself.

He starts off by asking about what kind of action is being taken to major fan subbing groups, and that they have sued about 3 or 4 groups, and then goes straight to the ponit for the 3rd question, which asked why the first 2 seasons were so extremely edited and censored, and it(was) all down to them idiots at Saban, apparently Funi had arguments with them, telling them they had gone too far with the censoring, but they'd refuse to air anything unless it was cut to their liking, one episode which was not edited enought didn't even get aired at first, which was the orphan episode, and Funi thought that's when they crossed the line.

Also dialogue editing, like the choppers getting blown up by Nappa and the famous 'It's okay, I can see their parachutes!' sentence. When obviously there wasn't any, Saban wanted the whole scene cut, Funi came with the alternative potion of dialogue editing, better than nothing I'd say, and only the little kids may not have the mentality to realise that the cartoon is a translation of a Japanese cartoon and that everything that is said is true...

Ah, the question I longed to hear, why was the original soundtrack not used, this, was Funi's decision. Of course, with they're own music, they could charge royalties every second it's heard. Although the music itself was Saban's creations. Rock the Dragon is used obviously because American viewers don't want to hear Japanese lyrics, and because the intro was too long to just play an instrumental of the opening. Also kids have short attention spans and would simlply flip channels if uninterested.

The BGM, well, he said that American viewers prefered a continious BG track being played, so it always seems like something is happening (there is a lot of talking in DBZ).

This is taken from the interview: 'A big complaint a lot of people had with the Japanese music was that it took too many pauses. We used the judgement of our consultants, to make the show conform better to American music.'

So who made the complaints??? A few of the people who dubbed the show? Since the show hadn't been aired at the time, how would they know if the original BGM wasn't preffered by the aidience? Even Pokemon keeps some original BGM tracks for crying out loud, they wanted money for the music, plain and simple, they could have kept original tracks and added they're own music bits for the silent parts if they really wanted to (which is also what Pokemon does), but they completely trashed the sounds, well for the first two seasons. They would have been better off trying the original music.

Anyway, Funi wern't pleased with the first two seasons music and they changed composers.

Just read all of it.

http://web.archive.org/web/199910130820 ... s/gen.html

[Vaeran]

So who made the complaints??? A few of the people who dubbed the show? Since the show hadn't been aired at the time, how would they know if the original BGM wasn't preffered by the aidience?

Focus groups, most likely. Many companies, before releasing a new product, whether it be potato chips or a television show, will hire a sample of their target audience to "beta-test" the product beforehand and give their opinions on it. This way they can see what people like and don't like, and adjust the product accordingly before the actual release.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

That interview is like 4 years old, with questions like...

"Are you guys trying to get DBGT and the rest of DB?"

"So there's no chance of seeing commercially subbed DBZ on VHS? "

"What about the possibility of a video-game release here in the US? Would FUNimation liscence the property to game developer/publisher?"


If you didn't already know the answer to those questions, you should not be on this forum.

P.S this should be locked! All that info (and a lot more about American DBZ) can be found in the Newbie Guide at: http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~vegex/guides/newbie/ Its a great site, dispite not being updated in 2 weeks *cough* *cough*

[Bejiita]

4 years? Damn, this should be closed then, my mistake, I could've sworn I've read that before too.


Anyway, sorry for that, I didn't realise.

[omae no kaasan]

Wow! I remember being interviewed there! I wonder if it's still there. I must have said a lot of stupid crap!

[VegettoEX]

Wow! I remember being interviewed there! I wonder if it's still there. I must have said a lot of stupid crap!

Same goes...