If Z had English version of OP and ED on Funimation DVD, what would have been like?

[PowerPhantom245]

The Funimation DVD for OG (Blue Brick) and GT (Green Brick) had option for English version of OP and ED, which were pretty good.
I'm curious what Z English OP and ED would have been like and who would have been singer?

The English version (not English version by Kageyama) does exist in Pilipino release; I don't think they did "We Were Angels" (ED2), as far as I'm aware. I'm curious if Funimation did English version, if it would have been similar to it.

Chala Head Chala English (Philippine-Movie Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fRQBBfjC8

Chala Head Chala English (Philippine-Age of Wonder Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVYrHgmaUlU

Zenkai Power (Age of Wonder version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ8S3-2 ... 01&index=5

If Z ever gets a re-release on Blu-ray, with English version of OP and ED (which seems very unlikely), I wouldn't mind getting one... even though most people are already tired of owning same series over and over on various formats.

[Metalwario64]

It would be cool but... unless paired with them taking all the Kai dialog files they have and finishing the rest of Z (I mean why not? It wouldn't be a complete redub.. you have over half of the lines needed) I just wouldn't really bother, especially since with CR and Toei's track record (ANOTHER shitty upscale Toei? Seriously?) I would expect it to still be the same shitty optical Japanese audio, still no actual dub broadcast audio and some massive video issues.

[MasenkoHA]

The English version of the original Dragon Ball opening and ending themes existed before the Blue Bricks and were produced for the original release back in 2001

I’d imagine they would have Dick Lasagna sing Head Cha La, We Gotta Power, and We Were Angels since he seemed to be Funimation’s go to male vocalist around the time the Orange Bricks were released .

Stephanie Nadolny I assume would have been the vocalist for Zenkai Power.

[TheGreatness25]

I’m surprised they didn’t do it for the orange bricks since they were were going for the whole “we gave you Japanese BGM!” thing and they did it for Dragon Ball. I actually remember being disappointed that they went with the generic opening that didn’t sound like their main DBZ dub theme, didn’t sound like Cha-La. It was just a generic theme. I’m sure it comes from one of the movies or something, but it just didn’t fit. And now that’s essentially become the theme of DBZ (all releases and streaming platforms have it). I’ll be honest: Cha-La never really did anything for me. To this day, it’s my least favorite opening for the entire franchise (not counting any dub openers). But still, an odd choice. And jarring too. You get that synth guitar sound that goes into the Kikuchi score. Even if you watch the dub, the opening doesn’t fit with the Johnson score.

[MasenkoHA]

I’m surprised they didn’t do it for the orange bricks since they were were going for the whole “we gave you Japanese BGM!” thing and they did it for Dragon Ball. I actually remember being disappointed that they went with the generic opening that didn’t sound like their main DBZ dub theme, didn’t sound like Cha-La. It was just a generic theme. I’m sure it comes from one of the movies or something, but it just didn’t fit. And now that’s essentially become the theme of DBZ (all releases and streaming platforms have it). I’ll be honest: Cha-La never really did anything for me. To this day, it’s my least favorite opening for the entire franchise (not counting any dub openers). But still, an odd choice. And jarring too. You get that synth guitar sound that goes into the Kikuchi score. Even if you watch the dub, the opening doesn’t fit with the Johnson score.

Yeah it was originally created for Movie 6 and used for most of the following movies except 8 which was an extended cover of Faulconer’s theme by Tendril.


Honestly the decision to use Menza’s Movie Theme instead of pulling a Mystical Adventure and Bit by Bit I’m Falling Under Your Spell was probably laziness and convenience. “Well we already have a theme Mark Menza composed back in 2002 that was scored to the Head Cha La animation let’s just use that” had they only had Rock the Dragon as their only existing theme we probably would gotten a Head Cha La and We Gotta Power English covers for the Orange Bricks.

Just remember it could have been worse:

https://youtu.be/aWuptyoPlj0?si=cM7jteXXf8GKQ9pA


So so much worse.

[TheGreatness25]

I’m surprised they didn’t do it for the orange bricks since they were were going for the whole “we gave you Japanese BGM!” thing and they did it for Dragon Ball. I actually remember being disappointed that they went with the generic opening that didn’t sound like their main DBZ dub theme, didn’t sound like Cha-La. It was just a generic theme. I’m sure it comes from one of the movies or something, but it just didn’t fit. And now that’s essentially become the theme of DBZ (all releases and streaming platforms have it). I’ll be honest: Cha-La never really did anything for me. To this day, it’s my least favorite opening for the entire franchise (not counting any dub openers). But still, an odd choice. And jarring too. You get that synth guitar sound that goes into the Kikuchi score. Even if you watch the dub, the opening doesn’t fit with the Johnson score.

Yeah it was originally created for Movie 6 and used for most of the following movies except 8 which was an extended cover of Faulconer’s theme by Tendril.


Honestly the decision to use Menza’s Movie Theme instead of pulling a Mystical Adventure and Bit by Bit I’m Falling Under Your Spell was probably laziness and convenience. “Well we already have a theme Mark Menza composed back in 2002 that was scored to the Head Cha La animation let’s just use that” had they only had Rock the Dragon as their only existing theme we probably would gotten a Head Cha La and We Gotta Power English covers for the Orange Bricks.

Just remember it could have been worse:

https://youtu.be/aWuptyoPlj0?si=cM7jteXXf8GKQ9pA


So so much worse.

It’s just another example of Z getting the short end of the stick. They did Mystical Adventure and I’ll Give You Romance for Dragon Ball, said, “We’re just going to stick in this generic synth guitar thing here” for Z, then not only did Bit By Bit, but did all four of GT’s ending themes. Even the Blue Water dub only did one GT ending (I believe).

And that video you linked me to is absolutely, hands down the worst. It doesn’t fit the tone for any version of the series. At least the Menza movie opening fits the Faulconer sound, but this is just awful. Was there anybody in Funimation that even previewed these things? I think that theme of universally, unanimously hated. How could it have been put on an official release in the first place? How did anyone go, “Yeah, that’s the one”?

[MasenkoHA]

I’m surprised they didn’t do it for the orange bricks since they were were going for the whole “we gave you Japanese BGM!” thing and they did it for Dragon Ball. I actually remember being disappointed that they went with the generic opening that didn’t sound like their main DBZ dub theme, didn’t sound like Cha-La. It was just a generic theme. I’m sure it comes from one of the movies or something, but it just didn’t fit. And now that’s essentially become the theme of DBZ (all releases and streaming platforms have it). I’ll be honest: Cha-La never really did anything for me. To this day, it’s my least favorite opening for the entire franchise (not counting any dub openers). But still, an odd choice. And jarring too. You get that synth guitar sound that goes into the Kikuchi score. Even if you watch the dub, the opening doesn’t fit with the Johnson score.

Yeah it was originally created for Movie 6 and used for most of the following movies except 8 which was an extended cover of Faulconer’s theme by Tendril.


Honestly the decision to use Menza’s Movie Theme instead of pulling a Mystical Adventure and Bit by Bit I’m Falling Under Your Spell was probably laziness and convenience. “Well we already have a theme Mark Menza composed back in 2002 that was scored to the Head Cha La animation let’s just use that” had they only had Rock the Dragon as their only existing theme we probably would gotten a Head Cha La and We Gotta Power English covers for the Orange Bricks.

Just remember it could have been worse:

https://youtu.be/aWuptyoPlj0?si=cM7jteXXf8GKQ9pA


So so much worse.

It’s just another example of Z getting the short end of the stick. They did Mystical Adventure and I’ll Give You Romance for Dragon Ball, said, “We’re just going to stick in this generic synth guitar thing here” for Z, then not only did Bit By Bit, but did all four of GT’s ending themes. Even the Blue Water dub only did one GT ending (I believe).

And that video you linked me to is absolutely, hands down the worst. It doesn’t fit the tone for any version of the series. At least the Menza movie opening fits the Faulconer sound, but this is just awful. Was there anybody in Funimation that even previewed these things? I think that theme of universally, unanimously hated. How could it have been put on an official release in the first place? How did anyone go, “Yeah, that’s the one”?

With Dragon Ball at least Funimation approached it as “let’s listen to the criticism from the fans that hate what we did with Z and meet them halfway with what we think needs to be done to make a Japanese cartoon successful in America” it was a Funimation willing to grow but not yet willing to let go.

GT, we purely lucked out that Step Into The Grand Tour was the only theme they had and it was too short and didn’t go with the unaltered OP and ED footage. They had to create new themes so might as well do faithful covers of the Japanese themes to put it in line with the rest of the dubs they were doing at the times even if the actual content of the dub still had Barry Watson’s fingerprints all over it. Z’s dub had like 4 different themes that fit the length of Head Cha La and they just went the one that sounded “close enough” to Head Cha La in their minds.


It’s still wild the franchise’s most iconic and prolific song just doesn’t exist in the actual tv series of the English version unless you own the Dragon Boxes. You’ll hear it in most of the movies and it’s cover in some Super movies but not in any readily available version of the series itself