Is there a Dragon Ball Z thread? If not

General Discussion
81

Re: Japanese Voices

The thing is, America started with DBZ, with all of the characters already grown up. DB was an afterthought, like “Hey, see how it all started!” But in Japan, everything started with Dragon Ball.

Goku, of course was a little kid. He was given a voice appropriate for a little boy. Yes, he was voiced by a woman, but hell, that’s an industry norm for any country (Kid Gohan’s VA’s have been female in the English dubs…). Through the course of the series, Goku aged. There was one episode in DB where, literally, they skip 3 years, and Goku goes from being a little boy to the grown man we know him as. I suppose they could have switched out the VA for Goku to a guy, but believe me when I say that this would have gone over HORRIBLY. The VA for Kid Goku, Masako Nozawa, defined the role. She WAS Goku. Anything else would not have been acceptible. If you watch the show from the beginning of DB, as Japanese people did, it’s just the most natural, most expected thing.

It also represents a side of Goku that was lost in the dubbing. Even though he gets bigger and stronger throughout the series, in many ways he doesn’t change a whole lot from the time he was introduced in DB - he’s still just a big, innocent, country-bumpkin kid at heart. Again, if you’ve watched the show from DB, it all makes sense.

I started on the dub myself, then switched to the Japanese version when I found Psaros’s Uncensored site and saw just how much the show had been changed. At first, Goku’s voice didn’t quite sit right with me either. But eventually, I got used to it. And when I did watch DB from the start, that voice just became Goku - I can’t imagine any other voice for the character.

Unlike many otaku, I don’t think that the English dub should have tried to copy the voice Nozawa provided for the character. I can understand why they would move away from that, especially considering that American audiences hadn’t been following the story from the start. And I don’t want people to prefer or even like the Japanese VA’s over the American ones. I just hate it when people say “The Japanese VA’s suck, why does Goku sound like a girl!” without knowing the whole story.

82

Akira wanted DBZ to end after the Freeza saga.

83

Toriyama wanted to end DB with the destruction of Namek. That’s why most of the main characters were dead and Gohan was the Z-Warrior left to defend Earth. However, he was persuaded ($$$) to stay on, so he cooked up some technicalities to keep the series going. Then he wanted to keep Gohan as the main character and retire Goku, hence the end of the Cell saga. But once again, he was persuaded ($$$) to bring Goku back for the Buu saga. Finally, Toriyama insisted on ending the series once that was over.

Then, of course, Toei decided they wanted to do more episodes of the show–which Toriyama agreed to, though he didn’t want to do anymore issues of the comic and would only do character designs for the show. It turned out VERY awful, and they rightly ended the series in 1997.

Perhaps that’s why the Freeza saga is my favorite. It’s the last one that really gelled with the series, and wasn’t just tacked on to make more money. And I really can’t see the wisdom in pushing the series even further at this point.

84

I only saw one, but it was great. Voice acting was good, and it was basically the uncensored Japanese version with the OG music- but in Spanish.

85

I saw that too. It was on channel 57 here in Tampa (Telemundo). And they didn’t cut whole eps out either. Reception was ultra-shitty (I had to watch each ep standing and holding the antenna in my hand…Fox viewing position).

86

that’s incorrect, dragon ball came to american shores before dbz but it was never finished, also at really weird hours.

87

I know. The Harmony Gold dub. They only did one season (I think), and you’re right, it used to air like Saturdays at 5AM.

They only did the one season, and then Funimation picked up DBZ and under the Pioneer’s supervision, dubbed it up to halfway through the Freeza Saga. Much like the Harmony Gold dub, it was plagued with horrible/inconsistant airtimes. Not to mention that the show would frequently re-start from “The Arrival of Raditz” whenever Funi ran out of dubbed episodes. Pretty much, the only people who watched were the people who already knew about the show. And all these people hated it for the vast changes it made from the original Japanese version.

DBZ didn’t catch on until CN picked it up and gave it a GREAT timeslot, everyday weekday at 5. This is where the show finally picked up steam, and attracted new viewers in America. However, as I said before, these people all came into the show on DBZ - they’d never seen, much less heard of, Dragon Ball. Funi went back and dubbed DB (didn’t they?) but it was more of an afterthought. In America, Dragon Ball IS DBZ.

I personally like DB > DBZ. The fights were a lot better - less “I need to over-power you!” and more emphasis on actual fighting/techniques.

88

Az, you forgot about FUNi’s original DB dub (Summer 1995-96), which was done years after Harmony Gold. It was distributed by Seagull Entertainment. Yes, the same company that previously helped DiC put Sailor Moon on the air in the states.

They only did one season of that. Unfortunately, this was because anime was originally looked at as mere filler for syndicated cartoon lineups, thus it was canned after the first 13 episodes (Krillin was supposed to show up in the very next ep)! FUNi decided to bring DBZ over early, banking on it as a sure-fire hit.

The rest is history.

[media=youtube]kZzz6bEGZeA"[/media]

EDIT I’d like to add that the manga is better overall. If only the anime was paced as well as it was…

EDIT I wonder if FUNi ever released those first 13 eps uncut and uncensored? That’s all depending on whether or not Vidmark’s family entertainment label, Kidmark ever lost the video distribution rights to those eps.

89

that songs kinda hot…i forgot about that version of theme song.

the first tournament with goku and krillin in db was too beastly. Some guy would use his bad smell against krillin then half way through the fight krillin remembered he had no nose lol. :rofl::rofl:

90

I always loved the english version of Romantic Ageru Yo…didn’t they use that for an rpg?

Be as free as you can be, a childlike love of fantasy,
The world is a mystery for you and me.
A miracle, an adventure too, a single wish waits for you,
The beating of your heart will see you through.

When you think you can?t go on, give it another try,
The power of your youth is strong, and as big as the sky.
Search all over the valley, the mountains and you?ll see
believing in yourself sets you free!

Come on, I?ll give you romance!
Come on, I?ll give you paradise!
Liberate the ?you? that you keep inside.
Come on, I?ll give you romance!
Come on, I?ll give you paradise!
Make your dreams come true; you?ll see fantasy
magic can happen to youuuu

91

Speaking of that song, I saw randomly on MTV Japan some pop singer had done a re-make of the song…and she even re-created the scenes from the DB ending animation in her video! They had her with the Bulma hairtsyles, looking out the rainy window, riding the motorcycle, in the Capsule House…she even had a dragon radar.

It was…surreal.

92

That dub of DB was actually sorta good. It was clearly censored beyond belief, though they did manage to keep in a few good jokes…like Oolong discovering that Goku in drag wasn’t a girl by watching him pee etc, but I liked the music and the voices and the presentation. I was one of relatively few who watched that first dub season of DB before seeing DBZ, and I though Dragon Ball was the shit.

Edit: also, that intro will always be tight.

Edit2: Az, REMEMBER THE NAME. I need to see that shit.

93

db dubs any carnation are watchable…the same cant be said about dbz.

94

Anybody ever see this? It’s DB fanart by many famous manga creators!

95

alot of those pics are very boring…i liked Eichiro Oda’s perspective.

96

[media=youtube]JOBNgskZ0Fk[/media]

97

^LOL, I was just coming to post that.

98

I like Tite’s rendition…Zaraki Piccolo!

99

very cute…but why is she driving a bus lol.

100

I was wondering why Trunks looked similar to Ichigo.

Wasn’t really paying attention,but those are all nice pictures.At least they are showing respect.