Sub vs Dub: Did FUNimation screw up DBZ?

[Asilynne]

FUNimation:
-added different music to scenes that otherwise didn't have music.
-colored any reference to alcohol blue to show it's 'water'
-changed HELL to HFIL or else it wouldve 'offended people'
-changed SATAN to HERCULE for the above reason
-changed the original diologue of DBZ to edit out cusswords, and to make it easier to understand for little kids ex: "You killed Gohan! DARN you!"-Trunks
-Never said the word 'love' ex:Gohan:"I LIKE you dad." Goku: "I LIKE you too, son." (One exception, Videl says she loves Gohan in the Buu Saga, thats the first time ANYBODY said love in DBZ)
-cut out most of the really violent scenes in DBZ Ex: Trunks slicing Friesa in half, Friesa clenching its fist so hard blood drips down, Vegeta getting shot RIGHT IN THE HEART and 'spit' coming out of his mouth
-cut out scenes that had anything to do with couple relationships

Theres probably more, but these stand out. I personally think that Japanese DBZ is best. What do you guys think?:confused:

[RedStarWarrior]

In the latter episodes of DBZ the blood is there and you can get uncensored dubs....so Funimation didn't screw it up that much but the censors did. BTW, I thought that the alcohol in DB was colored blue....not in DBZ. Anyway, Funimation did a great job with DBZ considering it was made for network television and that they could have done a whole hell of a lot worse. The taking out of cussing and nudity was understandable considering it is not as accepted in a show for the younger audiance that Funi was aiming for. Personally, I would just go buy the unedited versions or buy the dubs....it doesn't matter either way to me.

[DarkTemplarZero]

there is no way Funi could have made DBZ any worse, I rarely even watch the dubs anymore

Another few things they did:

- Cut out/editted all scenes that show guts or a major amount of blood (ex: when Krillin blasts Vegeta in the chest during the Freiza Saga)

- Cut out the word god (in subs, Kami is sometimes called God of Earth, instead of the dubbed Guardian of Earth)

- Changed anytime somebody says demon to ogre (like the gay little HFIL crap where Mez and the other demon call themselves ogres o.O)

- took out most of the 'violent' language (in dubbed version, they rarely even say kill, it's mostly beat or defeat)

[Asilynne]

Yes ill have to agree...funimation sucks! but unfortunately thats all i can really see without barrowing tapes from friends.() Like for example (i know this is pretty old but..) When Nappa was shooting down helicopters yamcha or was it tien? oh well...the helicopter was shot down & one of them said "its ok. I can see their parachutes!" I mean come on!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

[Shaka]

so sorry the post above is really mine! I was on my sisters acount

[pokemasterfrank]

Yup, I have to admit that Funimation could have done a lot more, but thankfully, they didn't. But they have done some bizzare things, like digital editing out Gohan's tears in one of the Raditz episodes...

[Umbreon88]

I despise FUNi, but at least they can say 'die' ::coughSABANSUCKScough::

FUNi did a really crappy job transing it. they changed the demographic from 14-17 (roughly) to 7-12. And when Trunks killed Furieza is one of my favorite scenes.

[Asilynne]

Yeah, but back in the day (Frieza saga on down) they never let ANYONE die, like my sister said up there (next time she should sign out of mine first;o ) it was always like "Oh that was our unmanned helicoptor" or (and this is what gets me) Vegeta saying "Oh, too bad its Sunday or all those buildings [they just blew up] would have been full of people"
*twitch twitch*
Oh and they colored the beer in DBZ too, in the episode Raditz came Master Roshi was drinking the worlds first tall frosty mug of blue beer. ........Its kinda funny actually.
And I see that whole thing about the 'making it kosher for little kids' , but that doesn't explain why they went and changed the music.

I will say this for FUNimation though, the voice actors they hired are pretty good.

[DarkTemplarZero]

yea, the voice actors are pretty good, except for Krillin's voice early on, he sounds like such a weak little peice of **** (well he is, but at least he doesn't sound like it during the Freiza saga and up)

[Cammy White]

Yeah, although I've never seen any DB, I read the manga where Muten Roshi asks to see Bulma's pants(I think, or was it her breasts?) and in the dub they changed it to her belly button! I mean, did Muten Roshi have some kind of weird belly button fetish? lol!

[Asilynne]

lol Yeah and Bulma started blushing like crazy when Roshi wanted to 'take a walk with her on the beach'. If theyre gonna cut DB and DBZ, they could at least come up with believable LIES!
I feel REALLY sorry for Akira Toriyama, if he saw what the dubbers did to his work, he'd probably be really ticked.

[Camus Aquarius]

Wow!!! I can't believe that

I'm lucky for living in México, 'cause I watched all Dragon Ball Series (DB/DBZ/DBGT) and I saw all the things that you said Funimation cut. It's crazy and weird to do that to a great anime like Dragon Ball, but sadly nothing can be done.

See you!!!

[The Muffin Man]

erm...Actually, they've gotten less uptight about the censorship just to the point where it's just less gory. They can't really go from calling him 'Hercule' to 'Mr.Satan' randomly. but Bulma, I believe, is shocked that Vegeta 'Killed all those innocent people' in the Buu saga. Also, it's really unneccasary to see Frieza in tiny little bits and pieces. It also goes against how Trunks seems through the rest. It makes him look more horribly cruel then Majin Vegeta was.

[Asilynne]

"Unnessicary" or not, what theyre doing is messing around with somebodys art. I know If I made an anime (which I plan on doing *kisses her future major in art & animation*) I wouldnt want someone chopping it up, taking parts out they deem 'unnessicary'. Obviously if they were put in there it was for a reason. If Akira Toriyama wrote the story and had the animation set up so certain things were in there, then they should be kept in there.
Also, just because Mirai Trunks normally is a genle person, he is still a person, and people DO get ticked off every once in a while. And he cut him up like that because Goku 'killed' him once before, he knew that chopping him in half wasn't gonna keep him dead. So Trunks was being cautious and made sure Friesa couldn't survive. Hey, its either Friesa or the planet, what would you do.
I do admit that FUNimation is less of a tight@$$ in the Buu saga, but they still cut out a lot of the really funny parts, and they still messed with the music. So FUNimation still sucks.

[The Muffin Man]

Frieza or the planet? How is it 'Frieza or the planet' when Trunks could have easily taken on King Cold and Frieza at once and won easily?

[Asilynne]

Yeah, and he did that, BY CUTTING HIM UP. Trunks wasn't taking any chances.

[DrakeRunner]

Of bloody course! We need blood, guts, and booze! Its not entertaining obviously then! We need them to fight *bleeping* naked, since everyone knows that anime is only good if its bloody, gorey, sexual, and roaring drunk off its ascii!

To be honest, dying isn't that big a deal in DBZ, its more like painful relocation. It doesn't stop them from doing anything, in fact, it ADDS to them, giving them a nice spiffy little halo.

The SHOW ITSELF doesn't care if they have a hole blasted in them or not. How about when Yamcha had a hole in his chest in the begining of the Androids saga? They CURED it. With a BEAN. He didn't have a freaking stomach left, the bean would have just gone down his esophagus into Krillin's lap! But no, a BEAN CURED A HOLE IN HIS CHEST.

And as for Hercule and Mr Satan... It only makes sense. Hercules was a hero, and incredibly strong, both what Hercule prides himself on. But come on, Mr Satan? You don't make a hero character and name him KillsInnocentsAndKittens. C'mon, let the pressure out of your subbie noggin and think!

And no, its not funny. Its as funny as going into a chatroom, typing /me rapes etc and then telling everyone its entertaining.

And same thing with Kami and God. Kami is not God. He's not omnipotent, omnipowerful, or even in control. Hell, he's a wrinkly old man who has problems with everyday thugs. Saying he's god is like saying Roshi is god, since he's a wrinkly old man who's got a smidgen of power and lives away from everyone. I have a RASH with more reason to call itself God, I feel its precense at all times and it influences my actions. It doesn't sit up in a flying gazebo letting people collect it's balls and make wishes, which it's own self cannot do, even though they're supposed to be as powerful as the creator, not even being able to do things like wish them out of existance or wish them stupid, but being able to pierce the barrier between life and death like a freaking taxi!!

*counts to 10*

I'm satisfied with the dub. Its not like anyone watches DBZ for the charming reparte anyway.

[Asilynne]

First Id like to wonder why the heck I didnt see this before, because if I HAD I wouldnt have hesitated to point out how, for someone that seems to hate DBZ so much they know so much about it. Second, Id like to point out something:
This topic was created not to defend blood, gore and the like, it was to defend the total Unalteration of art. The people (like FUNi) who cut things out of an anime, or even out of a piece of artwork are committing a crime against the arts everytime they do because a persons art is an expression of their soul, whether you believe in a soul or not. It reflects on their inner self and anyone who changes something about a piece of art are violating that persons inner self. Its like putting boxers on the Statue of David, so, hes naked, so what?! The person made it that way!! They poured their heart and soul into creating that statue and its just not right for someone to come along later and change it because they dont like it. Its the same with anime. Everyone has different tastes thats why theres so many different kinds of anime. If Akira Toriyama created Dragonball Z to have blood, guts, booze, a bean curing people, a so-called 'hero' being called MR *DAMN* SATAN, then it should damn well be kept in there, because it was his vision and if you dont like it thats your problem. But thats no reason for someone to think they could just chop it up and alter it so its more acceptable to them.

And as for the whole 'god' thing, No, hes not trying to be God from Christian religion, the Japanese word Kami is translated god but probably more accurately 'spirit'. Japanese mythology holds that everything has a spirit, and Kami is just the 'Spirit' of Earth. Sort of like Gaia on Captain Planet, and how people say 'Mother Earth' even if theyre not worshipping Earth.

I welcome discussions about censorship and dubbing but lets not turn this into a personal attack people.

[User-Name]

*Agrees with DrakeRunner*
Prehaps that you should be thankful that you even GOT the chance to see any dubbed version of Dragonball/Z at all.

As for the dubbing, censorship varies from time to time. Wasn't the first 3 Sagas of DBZ dubbed during the early 90's when censorship allowed you to do almost nothing?
Look at the new dubs by FUNi, the Buu Saga has some of the best translating yet. They did an excellent job, I enjoyed the translating very much.

Also, should DB have one showing of a private part or excess blood, guess what will happen in Amercia? Soccer moms breathing down FUNi's necks. Frankly, I would try to steer far away from any sort of problems and they seem to be intelligent enough to try to avoid it, also.

As for editting someone else's work, replacing the Japanese voice cast is editting a person's work.
Anime is also directed at a larger age group in Japan. In Amercia is classified as a cartoon and targeted at a younger age group.

If you don't like the dub, don't watch it. Go finds subs on the net, there are a ton. One less veiwer want make FUNi lose any sleep.

That's my 2 cents.

[Laz-E-Boy]

Yeah, you've gotta think about this for a second. If DBZ were left completely uncut, it would have most likely been booted off Cartoon Network. You know, the mother protests, the concerns growing stronger, and the decision to take the show off. AMERICAN CULTURE brought this on to DBZ. Funi is not to blame, they were just following orders and using common sense.

Let's not forget, DBZ is the only series where Funi changed he original music. I guess they felt like the general audience had identified DBZ with heavy metal or whatever (Saban most likely forced them), and if they had gone back, the audience wouldn't feel like the music fit the hardcore action. All other series Funi has dubbed (Dragonball, Yu Yu Hakusho) they kept the original music, because they DO realize that fans what everything to be as close to the original as possible.

[Totodilemew]

Thats why they make uncut DVD CD's and VHS tapes. The DVD's have the subtitled version in japanese too. And most of you are talking about the old Funi that worked with Saban. Back in 1995, DBZ first aired, and for the first few episodes with Raditz, they edited out blood and stuff, but not as bad as the whole Vegeta saga. They erased all of the dead bodies, changed some of the blood on their faces black, so it looked like hair, changed Piccolo's blood green from red(but now its purple?) and were able to combine 3 episodes into 30 minutes. They did that with a lot of episodes. The new dub, which aired around 3 years later, incuded blood and even made uncut tapes.

[dr._samurai]

i think a part of dbz is dead when they censor it. whats an action anime without blood and gore. no im no fan of extremely bloody violence but i guess they have to censor it. they should show uncensored when they have midnight run on cartoon network. or whatever they call it where everyone else lives. (if they even have that)

[Asilynne]

Some DVDs advertised as 'uncut' still dont allow for some of the blood and diologue. Things that are not uncut shouldnt be advertised as being uncut.
Going along the same lines as Censorship in DBZ is what FUNi has done to Dragonball GT. Has anyone seen the dub GT yet? I know its kinda new so some people might not have but once you do, any diehard DBZ fan would wanna kill FUNi for the opening song ALONE! Also for the fact that they crammed the first 17 Japanese episodes into a 'flashback' scene involving Goku saying 'You must be wondering how I got here...'
*shakes her head* FUNi's mailbox is going to be overflowing once Im done with them ^-~

[Master Rudy]

To an extent I think I can understand the reason for cramming the first 17 episodes of GT into one flashback. In case some people didn't know GT marked a return to a more humor oriented series in the style of the early DB. DB may have had it's serious moments but anyone could see that it wasn't as serious as DBZ. Anyway the fans in Japan didn't care for that and after awhile they went back to the fighting. The episodes Funi skipped were the ones the Japanese fans didn't care for. They must have figured that they might lose some fans if they bought GT expecting some huge fights only to get something they did not expect at all. Even so I believe they should have left it untouched. As for the theme music don't even get me started on how bad the English GT theme is. I was hoping that perhaps they would leave the original music like they did with DB. I guess I was wrong about that.

As far as DBZ goes I've always had no perference. Sometimes I'll watch it in English and other times I'll watch it subbed. For a long time now Funi has done great with the dub and except for one big slip up that was made on one of the Kid Buu DVD's it's been great. However if we're talking about the Saiyan Saga and early Namek you can forget about it. You couldn't pay me to watch the horror that was Saban. Once CN started from the beginning last year I decided to check out the early episodes. I think at the most I saw only two. Hopefully the rumor about Funi redubbing it uncut and with the current actors is true. It'd be great to go back and see the old episodes with the current cast.

[The Muffin Man]

they have let alot more slip the second/third time through...Dende DID say "Hey!! Don't piss off the Eternal Dragon!!"

[Master Rudy]

Originally posted by The Muffin Man
they have let alot more slip the second/third time through...Dende DID say "Hey!! Don't piss off the Eternal Dragon!!"

I've heard about that one but haven't actually seen it myself. Even so it's one rare case out of many. I for one believe that if the Saiyan Saga does get redubbed and uncut that the language in it should fit with the older audience. If Funi is worried about the soccer moms then they could slap on some kind of warning.

Of course as we all know that will never happen ~_~;