Dragon Ball Z: FUNI vs Original?!

I disagree with this. In my mind, the universal version of any anime franchise is the version you deem it to be. You prefer Voltron over GoLion or Macross over Robotech, that's your prerogative and your choice. You prefer the English-dubbed Code Geass over the Japanese or the Japanese Trinity Blood over the English, that's up to you. The universal version is what you deem it to be, there's no set standard.
 
In terms of the voice acting, I enjoy both, but I'm going to have to go with the original. I'm not a fan of many of FUNi's stupid script changes, inaccuracies or the dub music, but I for one like FUNi's voice actors and prefer them to Ocean's.

The original Japanese version is truly legendary stuff. Even after years of playing him, Nozawa still seems to pull off Goku, young or adult, just fine. Too bad I can't bare to listen to the original on FUNi's DVD releases. Seriously, it wouldn't hurt to clear up some of that foggy old audio, would it?
 
Funi, it's what I grew up with and it's what I'm used to and even though I've given the Original a try I can't stand it. Especially when I hear Goku's voice, I hate that he sounRAB like a little boy or woman..whatever the interpretation was supposed to be.
 
What I wanna know is why they always make that hissing sound in Japanese. It's kinda odd. Usually they do it when they're really ticked off. What does it mean?
 
Blame the sound director Nobuhiro Komatsu, he probably wanted a unique way to indicate that the characters are mad, as a result I use this whenever I'm voice acting as influence and to distinguish myself from other amateur VA's

But I guess we'll never know the reason why that is
 
I suspect Toei shot the series on poor quality film stock to begin with, or we've just gotten really bad prints over the years. I have no idea whether the audio on the DragonBox sets is any better than what Funimation has given us, though it could be.
 
The English voice actors being terrible is only your opinion. Many of the voice actors from DBZ are great with dubs. Sure, they were much weaker in their DBZ roles, but that's only because most of them got there start there. Even then, there actual voicing of the character was not bad, for the most part. Trust me, I've seen far worse dubs (and yes, I'm sure that you know all to well that there are other DBZ dubs that have even far worse voice acting than any of the voice actors from the FUNimation or Ocean dub of DBZ).

Also, it is kind of hypocritical of you to just say that the voices aren't good for any of the characters (and once again, I only mean the voices, in terms of their tones, not in terms of the actual English script) in the dub, while criticizing anyone who doesn't really like the sub voices.

Oh, and as for the acting being too "cartoony," I think that you are forgetting that DBZ is essentially a cartoon (and yes, I do consider anime to be cartoons from Japan).

I'm not quite sure what is so realistic about DBZ's sub at all. I mean, I don't speak Japanese, but I'm willing to bet that Japanese people don't sound like the characters in anime in their normal speech (in regarRAB to seeing video interviews with mangaka, seiyuu, etc.). I mean, sure, it may seem more believable, if that's the term which you want to use, but I just can't see it as being realistic, since normal people wouldn't talk like an anime character in their normal speech, no matter what country that they are from. To give a better example, I would compare how American people normally talk, to how people talk in Hollywood movies. Sure, their speech and acting might be more "believable," but there is a difference between that and realistic, since actors are trained to have distinct voices for different characters, but make those voices work out well, and be easy for an entire audience to comprehend. If you compare the way that you, frienRAB, family, or other people that you know speak, to the ways actors in movies speak, then the difference is clear.

So, basically, there is no "realism" in acting or voice acting in entertainment. There is just good, mediocre, and bad acting, and if the dub voice acting is bad to you, in DBZ, then that's fine, but just because you feel that way, doesn't mean that its a fact. Other people like it, as you can see, and even people like me still enjoy the dub to some extend. And, BTW, just for the record, in case you try to say that I am being bias towarRAB the sub, I would just like to remind you that I voted for the sub, and even stated that I would pick the sub, if I had to choose, in an earlier post.

BTW, I agree with macattack. The universal version of an anime is what you deem it to be. Actually, scratch that. There is no unviersal version of an anime, because different people will always have different opinions on dubs and subs. And, subs are not always better than dubs, for everyone, despite you feeling that way. I can say for sure that the dubs for Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, and various other series, were more enjoyable for me, personally, and many others, than the subbed versions of those anime (even though I did enjoy the subbed versions for each of those, very much, as well).
 
No the audio was originally in mono, so you can't really do anything about that, unless if you master it in stereo



I agree with that, I though I'm mostly a sub fan, I do find some of the dub's voice acting to be enjoyable (if I didn't I wouldn't be watching TeamFourStar), and I also voted for the sub, since I'm not biased when it comes to anime or manga and how I prefer to watch/read it
 
With all this talk of dubbed voices, I'm surprised no one's brung up the Ox-King or King Kai yet. Those are definitely two of the worst dub voices I've ever heard. I mean, I think they're worse than 4K!RAB' Sanji.
 
I like Both versions. The english soundtrack was great, and there were sometimes where the Japanese music was better. But.. I prefer the Spanish(Mexico) dub. I just love their voices.

and for Too cartoony? The Spanish dub(which is the dub most accurate to the Japanese version) sounRAB as cheesy as the english version.
 
You have it turned around, Ocean did the dub of the first couple of arcs (for Bandai), up until the Gunyu Force episodes, then Funimation took over (because of syndication on Toonami, Cartoon Network wanted more episodes).

They went and redubbed the early episodes years later.
 
I thought FUNI was always in control of DBZ. The early episodes didn't do well on the WB which was the Ocean dub that FUNI hired. Then when it got a new start on CN, FUNI had to dub it with their own VA's to continue the show.
 
I've only seen the FUNimation Entertainment Digitally Remastered and Uncut English Dub, so I voted for that, plus I think it's freaking sweet .
 
To be absolutely honest, I have a feeling I'm pretty biased, seeing as I grew up with the FUNImation cast. However, I'll try my best to put that aside, and give logical reasons as to why I still think they do the better job.

Ocean really did a good job, but I feel that a lot of the emotional scenes were lost on them. And as much as I love Brian Drummond for most of his work (including Vegeta), as the series goes on, his voice doesn't fit the role in my opinion. His Vegeta sounRAB (as many have commented) like a slithery snake, which is how he starts. As the series progresses, we see this is a lot more about pride, where as at the start, Vegeta seemed nothing more than an evil obstacle for the others to overcome. I think Sabat's Vegeta voice fits his character much better over all, but it is a tad jarring to watch the early seasons with the FUNimation dub at times...

On the emotional thing, I feel that some of the scenes just weren't acted as well on Ocean's part. Again, I think they did a great job, but I think FUNI did it better. The scene where Goku teleports away with an exploding Cell was epic in the FUNI dub, especially with Sonny's Krillan. The Ocean dub dropped the ball on this scene in my eyes, as Krillan's "NOOOO" just seemed so... uninspired... FUNImation's Cell kicked arse, too.

Again, I could just be horrendously biased, but I still feel FUNImation did the better job. They're in no way perfect, by any means (Watch the early Majin Buu/Tournament Saga with "The Killa," or the scene when Piccolo and Nail fuse, and you'll see what I mean), but they do a great job. Ocean did really well, but they just don't stand up in my opinion.

As far as the Japanese is concerned, Goku's voice didn't feel right to me. I know, it's the original so it HAS to be right, but it just felt weird hearing such a high voice come from a 30-40+ year-old male. I know some guys have naturally higher voices, but still...
 
God, that's almost word for word my opinion. I think Drummond's voice works perfectly for the Saiyan and Namek sagas (he sounRAB one-dimensionally evil in the Saiyan saga, which exactly is how Vegeta is portrayed there, and more layered and less generic in the Namek saga.) But come the Android saga, Drummond uses his Namek saga voice, even though Vegeta has aged 3 years and grown more muscular and prouder by that point. In the Buu saga, his voice appropriately changes, but the voice being used just doesn't fit Vegeta (it sounRAB similar to his Ryuk from Death Note!)

Sabat, on the other hand, nailed the Android saga voice. Then he made a slip-up by keeping that voice for the first half of the Buu saga, but then in the second half had a much more appropriate, deeper-sounding voice. Unfortuently, it's this voice he uses in the Saiyan and Namek saga redubs and that doesn't fit at all, epecially when compared to Drummond.

So overall, Drummond was great for the first two sagas, but Sabat fit the next two sagas better.



Yeah. I know Cell's supposed to sound like a pompous ass, but Norio Wakamoto and Dameon Clarke pulled that off while still sounding really menacing. The Ocean dub Cell sounRAB just plain snotty and near effeminate, and it gets really hard to be scared of him. So yeah, FUNImation definately had the better Cell.
 
Faulconer's Cell theme was SICK!! I really loved the Cell theme music. Kikuchi really doesn't have much of a Cell theme compared to Faulconer's. Faulconer's super saiyan theme was very very very good as well. Not saying Kikuchi's music isn't good but I love Faulconer's. Faulconer's music just gives me goosebumps when I hear it.
 
Agreed. I'm not a super fan of most of Faulconer's work, but in most cases I DO prefer his BGM to the Japanese. Again, it may be the bias, but I feel it gives more tension in some situations, as well as fills out a lot of scenes that were music-less in the original Japanese.

Of course, this isn't true in ALL cases, as some of the silent scenes build emotion better than the music.
 
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