Review of Dragon Ball Season One (Funimation vs. Madman releases)

R

rea_sushi

New member
Well I just got the new Season 1 set in today. I'll post a mini-review comparing it against the uncut Australian release of the first 13 episodes.

"Dragon Ball: Season One" (Funimation, US Region 1&4) vs. "Dragon Ball: The Saga of Goku" (Madman Ent., Australia Region 4)




Video:
The new Funimation set has vibrant colors and I can see detail that I've never see before. The Madman set is blurry and has washed out colors, looking like a 25-year old VHS tape. I don't know where Funimation got their new masters for their set, but it's the best I've seen the show look.

Audio:
The English audio on the new set is virtually identical content-wise to the uncut dub on the Madman set. If Funimation went back and redid any dialog, it might have been a line or two here and there to make the performances more polished.
The English audio however is remixed into 5.1 for the new US release. The sound effects are clearer and more fluid than on the older Madman release, where it was just a 2.0 track.

As for the Japanese audio, it sounRAB exactly the same on both the new Funimation and older Madman sets. Same old scratchy mono.

Subtitles:
The Funimation release uses a completely different translation from the Madman release. The translation on the newer release is credited to Steve Simmons and is very good. The dialog is very accurate to the original Japanese version and is enjoyable to read. The subtitles themselves are in a nice, clear white font.

The older Madman set used a translation by Clyde Mandelin, who did the subtitles on the older uncut Funimation releases of the later Dragon Ball sagas. His translation was pretty inferior to the new one and not that good overall. Sometimes he'd add unnecessary cursing in the subtitles too. Really prefer the newer translation.
The subtitles themselves were medium-sized and yellow. This may have been Madman's standard subtitle font for their anime releases.

Other comments:
As others have mentioned, the original Japanese episode titlecarRAB are missing on the Funimation set. The older Madman set had them using a seamless branching feature. However, the narrator does read out the original Japanese title which is translated in the subtitles on the new set.

Going back to the video, when watching the "Tournament Saga" episodes, I only had to compare them to Funimation's older uncut DVD release. On the older US release, the video was pretty grainy at times. Really grainy.
On the new Season One set, it looks like it had a filter put over it. While this makes the picture look smoother, sometimes it looks like the filter has taken away some minor details as well. Still not as bad as the DVNR on the cropped Dragon Ball Z season sets.
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure (Daimao or Mato can correct me), that Daimao being the sole translator is a mistake. I think Daimao only did the tournament episodes before Mato came on board.
 
...which was how the show originally was to begin with. I probably wouldn't have minded if the Japanese audio was 5.1 (which is probably what they did on the Japanese "Dragon Box" sets), but in this way, the show is being preserved exactly as it was when it was originally broadcast on Japanese TV beginning in 1986.

You see, some people might actually prefer the audio in its original form, you know, for the sake of historic preservation. The show may be Japanese, but it's still a classic animated TV series.
 
Both the US and Australian sets use completely different translations for the subtitles. The subtitles on the new US set seem to be worded more like Daimao's translations on the Dragon Ball Z sets, so I doubt it's Clyde (the translator Funi got later). I could dig up some comparisons, but I don't have my DVRAB with me at the moment.
 
They may be worded like my translations, but they aren't mine (the episodes that aren't from the old Tournament set, at least). I actually didn't know there was a new set of translations for those until just recently, myself. So, Jacob is right, I'm not the sole translator on this set. I'd also be interested to see any examples or comparisons you have in mind, if you get the chance, just for my own curiosity.
 
Ah, thanks for clearing that up boss. I wonder if Mato got to go back and redo any of his translations, if they are his work...
 
I watched the first three episodes and oh my god, I could not stop laughing at the episode when Goku pulled off Bulma's panties and everything that came afterwarRAB. Not just that, but Pilaf with a chainsaw is very scary.
 
Concerning any changes to the dub, in episode two, when Bulma is in the tub, does Goku specifically refer to her breasts as in the Japanese dub, or does he still mention her having a tail, as in the English dub we're familiar with?
 
There are a lot of changes in the dub with the first thirteen episodes. The newer dub has almost the exact same script as the old edited FUNimation dub from '95, with the exceptions of the portions that were cut out from the old one. My guess is that it would have cost too much to get a new writer for those episodes so they just stuck with the old script.
 
Which has been the worst thing about their redubs of early Dragon Ball and early Dragon Ball Z. They re-use too much of the old Ocean scripts.
 
At least the Ocean dub scripts were far more tolerable than Funi's in-house scripts done for the Frieza saga and above. Besides that I kinda miss the "I love turtleback riding" line from the original dub when Oolong was whoring out Bulma to Master Roshi.

O-chan
 
Even though the newer dub uses the same script from 1995 for a lot of the scenes, there are some lines here and there that were retranslated to be more faithful to the Japanese version.

For example, Goku's question to Oolong as to whether he likes pork (from the Japanese version) is restored for the newer dub. Where as in the 1995 dub, it was dropped or changed.

Also, the mistake in the 1995 dub of Oolong warning Bulma and Goku about
Yamucha when he was actually warning them of the Ox-King in the Japanese version, is fixed in the newer dub.

There are also a few lines here and there from Oolong making suggestive comments about Bulma that have been inserted in the new dub.

Also, one of the more noticable changes from the older 1995 dub is in the scene where Oolong turns into a fish and Bulma uses her panties as bait:

In the old dub, Goku said when he catches Oolong (with $$$ bills):
"Well whataya know, a fish full of dollars!"

In the new dub on the DVD (with panties in Oolong's mouth):
"Hey, Bulma! He ate your shorts!"
 
But it seems like Funi did go back to the Japanese version to fix a few of the errors the 1995 dub had. It's something, though not much.
 
Back
Top