Dubs you've been actively following

[Tian]

As some of you know, I am fan of dubs. Even though I watched many from this franchise, I actually follow some because well, I can't stay all the day watching 500 dubs.

Oh, and even though it's not dub per se, the original Japanese version also counts for this topic.

Okay, here we go:

* LatAm Spanish dub: This is the one which introduced me to the franchise and grew up with.

* Brazilian Portuguese dub: This was the first dub, aside from the original Japanese version and the LatAm Spanish dub, I got to know. It was the one which inspired me to be a fan of dubs.

* Original Japanese version: Despite I was introduced to it with Final Bout and some videos spread in the net, I didn't actively follow it until Kai premiered.

* FUNimation dub: Well... this was the one set in the games as default and the only English version that is still being produced, so it's that or nothing.

* Basque dub: As someone with Basque roots, I'm trying to learn more about my ancestors' culture and story. Fortunately, there's a Basque dub that I've been watching lately.

* European Portuguese Dub: Well, you can already tell from my "pérolas" thread.

* Russian dub: I'm even re-watching it to identify the voice cast.

* Ocean Dub: I'm still waiting for its Kai dub to be released.

* Polish Dub: Specially Kai's.

* Serbian dub: I even met a fellow fan of dubs from Serbia thanks to it.

EDIT: Fixed typo.

[sangofe]

French dub: I've watched most of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z dubbed in french. And a portion of DBGT, DBZ Kai, and DB Super. I've seen all movies but Super Super Hero dubbed in French.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I keep up with all the news about the various English dubs. As someone who grew up with the Toonami UK broadcasts I'm used to hearing various casts, crazy to think the Ocean, Funimation, Blue Water and Big Green dubs all aired on that channel. I've watched pretty much all the content these various casts have dubbed, with the exception of Ocean Kai of course, although I do hope one day that dub will finally be seen.

Also been rewatching the Japanese version from the beginning with the broadcast audio and am up to the Muscle Tower episodes. So glad all this audio from the original Fuji TV airings was found and preserved, it makes the whole experience so much better.

Although I haven't watched full dubs of the franchise in different languages, but I am interested in learning about them, who the dubbing studios were, what channels they aired on, etc, although I have watched the odd bit like the first 2 episodes of the Chinese dub.

I may check out the Latin American dub in full one day as I've heard it's one of the best Dragon Ball has had. I've also been told the Brazilian Portuguese dub is fantastic. I guess South America just has a knack for quality Dragon Ball dubbing.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The CW4Kids dub. I love it and I will never let MasenkoHa forget this is the one dub where he got his wish of people dying "Going into other world" instead of the more unweildy "Next Dimension".

[Tian]

I may check out the Latin American dub in full one day as I've heard it's one of the best Dragon Ball has had. I've also been told the Brazilian Portuguese dub is fantastic. I guess South America just has a knack for quality Dragon Ball dubbing.

While I may sound a little biased for my own dub, I can confirm that both of them are the most faithful (mostly the Brazilian Portuguese) dubs of the franchise around the world (well, Blue Water dubs are a close second.)

Acting-wise, they're both really good. No wonder that many people fondly remember these dubs, even to quote them in real life.

Casting-wise, the Brazilian Portuguese dub has a more varied cast than the LatAm Spanish dub.

Script-wise, they're tied. Although Brazilian Portuguese uses more original names like Kuririn, Chi-Chi and Freeza instead of Krillin, Milk and Freezer as in the LatAm Spanish dub.

Music-wise, man, you really gotta listen the wonderful dubs of the songs that we and our Brazilian siblings grew up with.

[TheRed259]

Generally all the dubbings but mainly the Latin American, the French, the European Spanish, the Greek and of course the original Japanese version.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

While I may sound a little biased for my own dub, I can confirm that both of them are the most faithful (mostly the Brazilian Portuguese) dubs of the franchise around the world (well, Blue Water dubs are a close second.)

I hear you about being biased, I wish the Blue Water dubs got more love. I know some people find their acting wooden, and I guess it can be at times, but I still have a lot of nostalgia for them. They're the only dubs of original Dragon Ball or GT ever seen on Irish or UK TV. But yes the scripts are the one thing those dubs genuinely deserve credit for, GT for being almost exclusively based off direct Japanese translations and original Dragon Ball for using Funimation's scripts but making corrections based on their Japanese translations, which was quite admirable.

As an example of the faithfulness of Blue Water's scripts I'll use some of RazorX's comparisons from Dragon Ball episode 102:

Spoiler:

Japanese version
Yamcha: "So something like that happened? I had no idea"
Tien: "Neither did I. Crane Hermit-sama never really spoke to us about such things.
Chioutzu: "Nope."
Roshi: "I didn't want to remember what happened back then...It was then that the Crane guy set foot down the path of evil... With an unbelievable level of strength before his very eyes, he must have recognised the futility of what we call righteousness..."
Oolong: "So what happened after your Master left?"
Roshi: "The blood-lusting Piccolo Daimao continued to kill innocent people day after day...There was nothing we humans could do any longer. I fled deep into the mountains, held faith in Mutaito-sama's words 'I will return without fail' and continued to train even more, day after day.
Then it happened one day several years later... "
Bulma: "He appeared, didn't he? Mutaito-sama, that is!"

Blue Water dub
Yamcha: I had no idea! You never mentioned Piccolo to us before, Master Roshi."
Tien: "Master Crane never told me either, I wonder why he chose to keep it a secret from us!"
Chioutzu: "Yeah..."
Roshi: "Because he doesn't wish to remember. It was this brush with the dark world that enticed Crane into a life of wickedness. I thought long and hard about this and the only thing that makes any sense is that Crane must've been devastated by the futility of good against the incredible power of evil."
Oolong: "Wait, I don't get it, what happened after Master Mutaito left?"
Roshi: "Piccolo's thirst for blood terrorised the planet. He snuffed out life at every turn. There was nothing any of us could do but watch in horror.
I hid in the mountains and tried to keep my mind off things by training hard each day, but I never gave up hope; hope that Master Mutaito would return and put an end to Piccolo's reign of terror....And then, one day after a few years had passed..."
Bulma: "He came back, didn't he?"

Funimation dub
Yamcha: "It's strange picturing you and the Crane Hermit as friends. What you went through I had no idea."
Tien: "Neither did I. Crane Hermit never spoke of his past. Not to us."
Chioutzu: "Yeah."
Roshi: "Something changed in Shen that day. I could see it in his eyes. It was as if goodness itself had betrayed him. Whether it was our Master's leaving or just the alluring power of evil, who knows. He snapped. The man I knew, my friend, was gone. Another casualty."
Oolong: "Gee, that's too bad. So what happened next? How did you defeat King Piccolo?!"
Roshi: "I didn't. King Piccolo continued his rampage, covering the land in a sea of fire and ash. Unable to defeat him, I fled."
Oolong: "You ran? I would've stood my ground."
Roshi: "Obviously you've never fought a titan! If flesh and blood were as strong as pride, we would all be invincible.
Fortunately, I found refuge in the mountains, where I continued my training as best I could. But as the years passed, I lost hope and began to feel the weight of my solitude."

The Japanese version and Blue Water dubs both show Roshi talk about his training and not giving up hope, Funimation's scripts while Roshi is explaining Oolong interrupts and after an argument Roshi talks about giving up hope. So the original intent of the line is reversed. Blue Water's dub also doesn't have the implied good friendship between Roshi and Master Crane. Its far more accurate and nothing is being made up on the fly.

[Rafa Fast]

Since the last time I watched Dragon Ball in the Brazilian Portuguese dub, it's been about 6 years almost (gosh, how time flies)
I remember the dub of Pre-Z, Z and the movies being really good and Brazilian fans always praised it a lot.

However, I saw a lot of these same people criticizing the Brazilian dub of Super, saying that the voices of some characters sound very forced, and mainly that they inserted Brazilian memes into the dub, I saw people saying that Muten Roshi even mentions Broly when he's talking about Kale, I don't know if it's true, I can't say anything, I only watched the Brazilian dub of Super once and it was just until ep 67, and I don't remember anything. (I heard the Brazilian version of Ultimate Battle though, and it sounds good for me.)
I even saw people saying that the original broadcast of the dub of ToP on cartoon network brazil went through several errors, yeah, weird, the same must've happened in the entirety of LATAM, I guess.

Also, answering the thread's question, only the Japanese dub, after I dropped the Brazilian dub right after the LATAM release of Super Broly in early 2019, I rewatched the first 2 entire TV series in Japanese for the first time, and since then I only watch General Dragon Ball related stuff in Japanese / subbed, watching it in a different dub sounds too weird to me, incluiding my native dub. The absence of stuff as the insert songs in Classic and Z also contributes to me avoiding the dubs, unfortunately.

[Tian]

However, I saw a lot of these same people criticizing the Brazilian dub of Super, saying that the voices of some characters sound very forced, and mainly that they inserted Brazilian memes into the dub, I saw people saying that Muten Roshi even mentions Broly when he's talking about Kale, I don't know if it's true, I can't say anything, I only watched the Brazilian dub of Super once and it was just until ep 67, and I don't remember anything. (I heard the Brazilian version of Ultimate Battle though, and it sounds good for me.)
I even saw people saying that the original broadcast of the dub of ToP on cartoon network brazil went through several errors, yeah, weird, the same must've happened in the entirety of LATAM, I guess.

The Broly reference is true, even Marcelo del Greco (the Brazilian dub's translator) apologized for that.

And yes, I can confirm that those happened in the rest of LatAm as well. Episode 103 was aired with just the M&E track (no voices) and episodes 109 and 110 were aired with several video glitches.

[Rafa Fast]

However, I saw a lot of these same people criticizing the Brazilian dub of Super, saying that the voices of some characters sound very forced, and mainly that they inserted Brazilian memes into the dub, I saw people saying that Muten Roshi even mentions Broly when he's talking about Kale, I don't know if it's true, I can't say anything, I only watched the Brazilian dub of Super once and it was just until ep 67, and I don't remember anything. (I heard the Brazilian version of Ultimate Battle though, and it sounds good for me.)
I even saw people saying that the original broadcast of the dub of ToP on cartoon network brazil went through several errors, yeah, weird, the same must've happened in the entirety of LATAM, I guess.

The Broly reference is true, even Marcelo del Greco (the Brazilian dub's translator) apologized for that.

And yes, I can confirm that those happened in the rest of LatAm as well. Episode 103 was aired with just the M&E track (no voices) and episodes 109 and 110 were aired with several video glitches.

Wow that's really not good, my bad, also, there's one thing I actually remember from the Black saga's original run on CN LATAM in 2017, I think it was episode 53, when the episode premiered, only the first half of it was broadcasted, after the commercial break, they repeated the first half, so the second half of the episode was simply not shown that day, so to this day I only watched half of the dub of that episode.

Again, I only watched that dub once and I barely can remember a thing from it, in case there's no proof for what I said, you will have to choose between trusting my words or not

[Tian]

Wow that's really not good, my bad, also, there's one thing I actually remember from the Black saga's original run on CN LATAM in 2017, I think it was episode 53, when the episode premiered, only the first half of it was broadcasted, after the commercial break, they repeated the first half, so the second half of the episode was simply not shown that day, so to this day I only watched half of the dub of that episode.

Again, I only watched that dub once and I barely can remember a thing from it, in case there's no proof for what I said, you will have to choose between trusting my words or not

Hmm... if I recall correctly, that episode was aired normally. At least, in my feed.

But you basically described there what happened with episode 103 in LATAM.

Some countries aired it completely despite the state it was and other countries aired it until the commercial break and when they were back from it, they replaced it with an episode of Classic Ben 10.

https://youtu.be/U_x5qD6QHJQ?si=jbfhJxJ7l24b9Z1j
What happened with that episode was awkward at worst and it was free M&E for fandubs at best.

[Rafa Fast]

My mistake, it wasn't episode 53, but 54, I'm now sure about it because I clearly remember that after the episode returned from the commercial break, the opening and the recap repeated, and the recap was telling about ep 53, so it was definitely 54.
Now if there's still nothing about this happening with this episode's premiere in LATAM then maybe I didn't watch the premiere, but a reprise, all I can tell is that I'm strongly sure that this happened to me with this single episode in a single day.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think it was episode 53, when the episode premiered, only the first half of it was broadcasted, after the commercial break, they repeated the first half

Oddly enough the same thing happened when Super aired in the UK on Pop back in 2019. The first halves of episodes 54 and 55 were played twice, so neither episode premiered in full the first day they aired. I didn't watch Pop that day but I can only imagine how jarring it must have been for people who did, even moreso than when Kix aired episode 1 of Kai rather than 54.

[MasenkoHA]

The CW4Kids dub. I love it and I will never let MasenkoHa forget this is the one dub where he got his wish of people dying "Going into other world" instead of the more unweildy "Next Dimension".

They made up for having a better dance around death by being more ridiculous in censorship than the Saban era dub in every other aspect.

Goku can't have a halo over his head, it's a ball of light

Vegeta and Nappa can't even eat the cricket aliens of the planet they just conquered they have to eat.. ...blue mushrooms?

Shenron is too scary to show in the opening

[Cure Dragon 255]

Ironically I went straight to the CW4Kids version and not the version I not only grew up with but is the version that I watch most constantly. If its a dub I seek out it is the CW4Kids Kai dub, but if it is the one I consume the most its the LATIN AMERICAN ONE.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The real irony about the Toonzai/Vortexx airings (which I believe the Kanzenshuu staff pointed out in a podcast) was the break for new episodes after Kai episode 52 when they were rerunning the earlier episodes for months. Fans at the time were joking that Saban can't count past 53 .

There was also apparently ocassions on the channel where they aired episodes with the Yamamoto score. Not sure if those were slipups or a case of the Kikuchi-scored dubbed episodes not being available at the time, or they were available but not yet edited.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The real irony about the Toonzai/Vortexx airings (which I believe the Kanzenshuu staff pointed out in a podcast) was the break for new episodes after Kai episode 52 when they were rerunning the earlier episodes for months. Fans at the time were joking that Saban can't count past 53 .

There was also apparently ocassions on the channel where they aired episodes with the Yamamoto score. Not sure if those were slipups or a case of the Kikuchi-scored dubbed episodes not being available at the time, or they were available but not yet edited.

Saban didnt own the block when Toonzai still reran the first 52 episodes. That came later with Vortexx, and Vortexx never reaired the earlier episodes.

[Tian]

The CW4Kids dub. I love it and I will never let MasenkoHa forget this is the one dub where he got his wish of people dying "Going into other world" instead of the more unweildy "Next Dimension".

They made up for having a better dance around death by being more ridiculous in censorship than the Saban era dub in every other aspect.

Goku can't have a halo over his head, it's a ball of light

Vegeta and Nappa can't even eat the cricket aliens of the planet they just conquered they have to eat.. ...blue mushrooms?

Shenron is too scary to show in the opening

Let's not forget the time they accidentally left the time code on when Freeza was fooling around with his discs.

Or when Trunks blasted Freeza after slicing him up in pieces, they added god damn glitter. If I recall correctly, this was the last edit they've done and from there, they just aired it as it was on Nicktoons.

EDIT: Fixed typo.

[MasenkoHA]

The CW4Kids dub. I love it and I will never let MasenkoHa forget this is the one dub where he got his wish of people dying "Going into other world" instead of the more unweildy "Next Dimension".

They made up for having a better dance around death by being more ridiculous in censorship than the Saban era dub in every other aspect.

Goku can't have a halo over his head, it's a ball of light

Vegeta and Nappa can't even eat the cricket aliens of the planet they just conquered they have to eat.. ...blue mushrooms?

Shenron is too scary to show in the opening

Let's not forget the time they accidently left the time code on when Freeza was fooling around with his discs.

Holy shit.

Dragon Ball in America is always doing the most to reach unheard of levels of incompetence

Or when Trunks blasted Freeza after slicing him up in pieces, they added god damn glitter. If I recall correctly, this was the last edit they've done and from there, they just aired it as it was on Nicktoons.

Cell infamously had his crotch colored green.

Which is wild since back in 2000 Saban and Fox Kids had no issue with a crotch monster coming out of a kaiju in Digimon

[nineko]

I watched all episodes of classic Dragon Ball (1/Z/GT) in Italian at least two or three times, back in the day, because the internet wasn't really a thing yet, and I defaulted to what my local tv network provided.

I completely switched to Japanese, nowadays. There is an Italian dub of DBS, but I actively avoided it, also because they had to recast Goku (the iconic Paolo Torrisi died).