Assorted Questions (Was: Dub consistency, or no...?)

[Danfun64]

I know many of you prefer to watch everything in japanese. For those who don't, how do you watch the show? Do you prefer watching only the funimation dub for consistent voice acting even if you think other studios do certain portions of the series better, or do you watch a mix with different voices for the characters (let's say someone has a preference for accuracy, but prefers watching in english. He would watch the dbz movies 1-3 with the uncut ocean dub, and a mix of funi and big green of the rest of the dbz movies, depending on which is more accurate[preferring every attack being called kamehameha to having the plot rewritten wholesale. The speedy dub, being worse than the big green dub, would probably be ignored]. He would also watch dbz through kai [with the obvious exception of the buu saga, which he would probably watch with the funi dragon boxes]. As for original DB as well as GT, I'm not sure whether the Funi or Blue Water dub is more accurate, but the BLT dub of first 13 episodes of original db are a no go for him).

Which choice would you prefer? Accuracy or voice consistency?

[Dbzfan94]

I personally prefer consistency with the dub voices. Music consistency isn't a big deal though. I watch DB w/ Kikuchi, DBZ w/ Kikuchi up until ep 68 then switch to Faulconer for the end, and GT w/ Tokunaga

[precita]

When it comes to voices I obviously prefer the actors when they got more experience. Of the DBZ dub, the Buu saga and the redub of Seasons 1 and 2 have the best voice acting by far. The Cell saga was mostly good too but Chris Sabat's Vegeta is still way off in the first half of it.

When it comes to music I like both tracks from the original and Faulconer's, so its either or for me.

[Tatakae!!Ramenman]

Ocean dub on rock the dragon edition, then original funi dub on vhs, then GT with original soundtrack even though I like the japanese soundtrack better, because I want to keep the scores with their original dubs. It just doesn't feel right otherwise. If funimation had brought back Faulconer for the redub of the the first 67 episodes though, that would be my preferred english version for those episodes instead of the ocean dub. The music makes a huge difference for me.

[Gaffer Tape]

If I was to watch the dub, it would be the original dub. For Z, that would be the 276 episode edition, with the Ocean cast for seasons 1 and 2, followed by the original work, voice recordings, and music for the remainder. To me, that is consistency: consistency with the product FUNimation originally made, consistency with the progress they made over the years. Their current version is such a Frankenstein's monster of out-of-order recordings and patchworks of recordings made at different times, so that the quality of performances is jarringly all over the place depending on where you're watching. That's inconsistent as far as I'm concerned. No thanks. Really, no thanks to either, but I'd rather take the honest original attempt over the alternative.

[precita]

The original Season 3 performances were awful, thank god Chris Sabat and Sonny Straight re-did their voices for Vegeta and Krillin. I only wish Sabat re-did his Piccolo too.

The other voices don't sound too off, Goku settled into his voice by the time his fight with Freeza started. Although a lot of others didn't get decent till the Cell arc.

[Valerius Dover]

Consistency is important to me. I would settle for nothing less than watching the dubs on the Season Sets through all 508 episodes and assorted Movies and Specials, with the US soundtracks chosen for the Z and GT series. I prefer to watch the dub in its "final form", so to speak.

[NitroEX]

I don't care for consistency at this point since I basically have no need to marathon the series anymore. I've watched it multiple times growing up and experienced it various different ways so I've come to expect the characters sounding different depending on what I'm watching.

My dub preference for Z is basically Ocean cast whenever possible, this includes the later Westwood dub episodes that I grew up with on UK TV. Overall they're still my ideal English cast and I'm perfectly willing to put up with censorship and other flaws in order to hear the characters the way I think they should sound.

For missing episodes I tend to go with Japanese sub to fill the blanks rather than the Funimation dub. I've been accustomed to the Japanese voices from a young age due to playing the PAL versions of Budokai, Final Bout, and Ultimate Battle 22 (which had no English voice option). Because of this the transition from English to Japanese was never as jarring for me as it was to others, on top of that I'm also just not a fan of Faulconer's music as I find it to be erratic, intrusive and cheap sounding most of the time. This isn't to say I won't (or haven't) watched Funimation's dub, I've actually seen the vast majority of it. I just tend not to favour most of their casting choices and overall direction when it comes to Z.

For DB and GT I don't have a strong preference either way when it comes to the dubs. I do still hold a little nostalgia for the Blue Water cast (GT specifically has some great casting choices for the main trio, especially Pan) but outside of main characters a lot of the performances don't hold up too well so it can be hard to get through at times. Funimation's dub is a bearable alternative in this case but only with the Japanese soundtrack, the Menza option is bad imo and the rap intro was about as low as it gets as far as DB intros go.

When it comes to the movies, Ocean for the first three, Funimation for the rest. I tend to go a little easier on Funi's movie dubs due to the rock soundtrack which I'm partial to. Nostalgia gets the better of me in that regard.

[90sDBZ]

I've watched several versions of the show over the years, including Funimation Z, Ocean/Westwood Z, Remastered Z, Japanese Z, English Kai, Blue Water DB and GT, Funimation DB and GT, Ocean movies, Funi movies and Big Green movies.

Funimation's Z dub with the Faulconer score is still my favourite, although I do love the early Ocean dub with the Levy score too, so I will sometimes go with my RtD Edition for Seasons 1 and 2.

And Kai serves as a great alternative way to watch the show.

[xmysticgohanx]

If I was to watch the dub, I'd watch Kai (Kai >>> Z anyway, even the Boo arc)

Try sub out tho. Once you get used to it, it's bae

[Thouser]

My preferred way of viewing the series is in Japanese, but I also enjoy watching various dubs because I enjoy having a variety of ways to experience the same stories, although I have my preferences.

For the first 60 or so episodes (Japanese ep count), I prefer the first Funi dub with the Ocean actors to the 2005 redub, since the higher amount of changes makes it more interesting to watch. The same applies to season 3. Although the season 3 redub performances are definitely performed better, I prefer hearing the original, amateurish season 3 dub, with all those dumb lines like "Planet Namek - where BALLS are born!" If I'm watching the rest of the series, I guess I have a preference for the Funi dub over the Ocean one because of nostalgia, although I enjoy watching the Ocean dub occassionally as well.

If I was to watch the dub, it would be the original dub. For Z, that would be the 276 episode edition, with the Ocean cast for seasons 1 and 2, followed by the original work, voice recordings, and music for the remainder. To me, that is consistency: consistency with the product FUNimation originally made, consistency with the progress they made over the years. Their current version is such a Frankenstein's monster of out-of-order recordings and patchworks of recordings made at different times, so that the quality of performances is jarringly all over the place depending on where you're watching. That's inconsistent as far as I'm concerned. No thanks. Really, no thanks to either, but I'd rather take the honest original attempt over the alternative.

I agree with this. If I'm watching the Funi dubs, I prefer the originals. Since I prefer the Japanese version, I usually only watch the Funi dubs to re-experience the series the way I was originally exposed to it. That means the original dubs, warts and all.

I saw a few episodes of the Kai dub years ago when it was on Nicktoons, and it was legitimately good. I consider it the best Funi dub because of the accuracy to the original, but this paradoxically means I don't watch it much compared to the less accurate dubs. When I want to watch "accurate" Dragon Ball I just watch it in Japanese. I'm glad the Kai dub exists though.

As for the original 13 Z movies, I don't really like watching any of the Funi dubs for them, except out of curiosity. I do genuinely enjoy the Ocean dubs of the first three movies, and the Big Green and Speedy dubs make anything more fun.

For foreign language dubs, I haven't seen much, although I like seeing how different the Castillian dub is from the Mexican dub by Intertrack (measuring Power Levels in "megatons," "super guerreros" instead of "saiyajins", etc.).

[theoriginalbilis]

The FUNI dubs weren't even consistent with themselves... which makes this question an interesting one.

Even Kai and the new movies have small inconsistencies and flip-flopping cast members (Different narrators, 18 and Oolong voices b/w Kai and BoG)

If I ever cared to re-watch the original shows in English, I'd go with the "original run", so to speak, as it aired on TV, since I like watching entertainingly bad things.

[ABED]

The FUNI dubs weren't even consistent with themselves... which makes this question an interesting one.

Even Kai and the new movies have small inconsistencies and flip-flopping cast members (Different narrators, 18 and Oolong voices b/w Kai and BoG)

If I ever cared to re-watch the original shows in English, I'd go with the "original run", so to speak, as it aired on TV, since I like watching entertainingly bad things.

Kai is considered a different property than Z and for better or worse, Hebert is Z's narrator.

[Man-Child]

I like to mix and match when it comes to watching the dub. Nostalgia is where my love for it comes from anyway, so I choose to watch the series in the order I did as a kid. Ocean, then original Funi. On ocassion, I watch Funimation's redubs of the first two seasons and Ocean's later seasons, but I'm not the biggest fan of either. One for average music and reused scripts, and the other for a general rushed production that shows in the final product.

[Lord Beerus]

I certainly prefer consistency with dubbing, hence why I prefer the English dub of Kai because it's consistently great and there aren't obvious peaks and troughs in terms of the voice acting that plagued several English dubs of DBZ and GT.

[MajinMan]

If I were to watch the dub, I would watch Kai. It's a shame that almost every single dub has an inconsistency, except for maybe the Dragon Ball dub. Whether it's the music, voice acting, or voices, it's almost always inconsistent.

[Danfun64]

I know there are changes to the Orange Brick/Dragon Box Z/Level Blu-Ray/Season Blu-Ray dub compared to the original. I also know that the Green Bricks and the Double Features have the japanese soundtrack in addition to the american one. Are there any changes voice acting wise in the Green Bricks, Blue Bricks, or Double Features, like the inconsistent ones done with the Orange Brick/Dragon Box Z/Level Blu-Ray/Season Blu-Ray dub?

[TKA]

Ideally, 100% Funimation. I feel like they do the best job of it and I dislike the Japanese voices (probably because I don't speak Japanese).

I'd prefer the iconic Faulconer score in the Funi version I'm watching, but not having his music is in no way a deal-breaker for me since I really don't care much about the music.

[Soppa Saia People]

Ideally, 100% Funimation. I feel like they do the best job of it and I dislike the Japanese voices (probably because I don't speak Japanese).

I'd prefer the iconic Faulconer score in the Funi version I'm watching, but not having his music is in no way a deal-breaker for me since I really don't care much about the music.

I think you overselling that.

[TKA]

Ideally, 100% Funimation. I feel like they do the best job of it and I dislike the Japanese voices (probably because I don't speak Japanese).

I'd prefer the iconic Faulconer score in the Funi version I'm watching, but not having his music is in no way a deal-breaker for me since I really don't care much about the music.

I think you overselling that.

Nah, if you don't like it, more power to you.

I'm just saying Funimation is the ideal dragonball for me and that Faulconer's standout tracks are cool.