What is your opinion on the FUNI DBZ dub?

DUDE! Don't diss the boo or he will eat you up! LULZ Seriously I love Majin Buu & Love his english voice, its so childish & Funny! The japanese VA for Fat buu is good to though.

But yea when it comes down to it its all openion, some like English DBZ, Some don't either way we can all agree its a fun series to watch!
 
They're good and bad. I find Schemmel neither remarkable nor detestable - same with Nadolny as the young Sons. Sabat is badly miscast as Vegeta, alright as Yamcha, and a great Piccolo. I'm a big fan of Sonny Strait's Krillin - but I always love Sonny Strait - and Burgmeier's Tien. Eric Vale's Trunks is good, as is Hebert as Adult Gohan, though both are somewhat out of place. Clarke as Cell is a standout, and Linda Young is great as Freeza, though ENTIRELY wrong for the part.

Some characters, though... I VASTLY prefer the English voices. As good a VA as Shigeru Chiba is, Chuck Huber's Pilaf has me rolling with every line and I can't picture him with any other voice. Hercule - err, Mr. Satan, that's one name I'll never reconcile - is perfectly paired with Chris Rager.

That's all I can really remark on. It's not bad by any means, though for a truly accurate dub, you'd need to nix a good chunk of them, I think.
 
I think the one voice that they got that was spot on was Mr. Satan. He's such an over the top character that he demanRAB that sort of voice.
 
If Funimation eventually dubs Kai, they really should start from scratch with a fresh translation. None of this "Vegeta exploded 3 years ago" nonsense.
 
It launched the careers of many of the current best anime dub VAs, as well as the best American anime company. Now it just neeRAB a major update for Kai.
 
Yes, when it comes to this kind of stuff it's just best to agree to disagree and let people just watch the show, any show the way it works for them. And with most shows, most of the time it's a case of what you hear first. That being the common problem with Ocean DBZ fans and FUNi DBZ fans.

In the end as long as you enjoyed what you watched and had been entertained that is really all that matters.

Personally I don't like the original Japanese dub, I don't like the voices, and I think the English ones are better! That's me, its just what I prefer. You can disagree with me and that's alright! It's all personal preference.
 
Well yes, I'd have liked to give you my opinion that you'd like to know...but that's hard when I don't know if you are asking for it.


The cast as it is now? It's still plagued with over-acting and I can't take 98% of the villains seriously. Sabat's gotten to a good place with his Piccolo in recent games, but all of the cast is rooted in miscasting from ten years ago. Justin Cook's screaming is painful to listen to as Raditz and his Super Boo lacks any finese for the Piccolo-absorbed forms. Nappa's just a bad copy of the Ocean actor and really hasn't left me with any good impressions. I won't even touch the Giny
 
Well let's go through a few choice characters

Goku-As time has gone on, I realize what FUNi (or more like ocean) was trying to do with Goku and that is, somehow keep him as the strong, lovable idiot that he is but give him more of a superhero edge during the fights, as opposed to Norozawa who does the role as 100% strong, lovable idiot all the time (except for maybe the first time he went Super Saiyan). And if we look at it from that note, Sean actually does pull it off well. The funny thing is, when Goku is doing comedy scenes like, let's say, the Broly movie. "This has some pretty good acoustics in here" and has his voice go into a bit higher, more [strike]Spongebob-ish[/strike] comedic tangent. It can be jarring. Heck it was jarring when I saw my first few episodes on Toonami. But for what it's worth, it's not like Schemmel portrays him as over-the-top to the point that the role becomes annoying like, oh let's just say, 4KiRAB Luffy. Now that's how not to do a role if anything. But does Sean compare to the original. Honestly, if you've understood how Goku sounRAB, no, not really but was he correct for the role...yeah, he was. And if I may, I think he must have destroyed his vocal corRAB a little bit more times than Nozawa did. Nozawa's yelling is hoarse and strong but Schemmel's is deep and full of awesome. Like when FUNi would add effects to his voice like this one

(can I just say, I laughed really hard when Cell goes "nnnnOOOOOO!")

Kid/Teen Gohan-Well, I think that I can say that FUNi has always had the best track record when it comes to kid's voices as I don't find myself instantly switching to the Japanese track for voices like Czeslaw in Baccano or Chopper in One Piece or Nina from FMA. And Gohan isn't really that much of an exception. Next to Piccolo, Perfect Cell and Kid Buu, Stephanie Nadolny's Kid/Teen Gohan is one of my favorites since he's actually pretty good. I mean, I know I'm going from the fact that she did Kid Goku too so obviously if you liked that, this would be good too. (If I may, that was a very cool job of FUNi to rotate VA's like that to keep consistency) I guess I can't really compare it to Nozowa completely since she's, you know, Goku, but they both pull of kiRAB well and I also like how Teen Gohan's voice got a bit lower as the Cell saga went on.

Adult Gohan-Huh. Well, you know, I don't have a lot on this one. Hebert did okay but that's just it. He did okay. It wasn't anything spectacular that I'd seen and I liked Nozawa's more....Hm, guess that's it then.

Kuririn-Oh boy, this is gonna be hard. Mayumi Tanaka is...just so amazing at what she does. I don't even think nostalgic memories of Strait can compare to....freaking Monkey D. Luffy being Kuririn's voice. But I'll try. So what does Strait bring to the table that Tanaka doesn't? Well, if anything, he was definitely the right role for Usopp as his voice gives off that distinct "coward" voice. Kind of like Greg Ayers' Shinji (or anybody else Greg Ayers does, I notice he's typecasted a lot) That aspect of the voice does apply very well to Kuririn at least during the dialogue bits. But, it's just so hard to compare to someone as so naturally talented as Tanaka.

Piccolo-My favorite role ever from Sabat (though Zoro is catching up). One of the very few roles that I will completely and proudly say, "Yes, I loved this even more than the original Japanese voice." Why? Well it's not that Furukawa's bad at all. It's not because it's great but I just felt Sabat's is better because I really get that wise warrior/mentor feeling that the character grows into later. (And can I just say, I'm so glad that FUNi did not attempt to copy the earlier dub for Piccolo because that was awful!) I listen to Sabat's Piccolo during serious moments and I really hear the knowledge in his voice. Sure, Sabat's definitely one of those guys who you can tell who he plays in other anime but when it comes to Piccolo, I'd pick him any day.

Vegeta-Okay, here we go. Let's do this.

First, I'm going to say, that I despise how Sabat did Vegeta when FUNi started doing Z. It sounded so gruff and just not right at all. Sure, back then I didn't know how the original sounded or that Horikawa is like a vocal god. (Funny thing, I thought that Vegeta was Nobuyuki Hiyama at one point ) So, let me just say that I'm glad FUNi grew into Z as well as they did because when I have to watch clips like this one that show really bad acting on Vegeta's part, well, I think you can guess the annoyance running through my head

"You're so weak, I won't even have to break a sweat.....I'M ACTING!" or

Now, let's see when we get into the Buu saga and Sabat stops sounding so stilted and cliche, that's when I can tolerate him the most. Funny thing is, I feel he sounded the best in (ugh....) GT of all things like when he threw that FINAL SHINE...ATTACK at Super 17. I guess all that's said has already been said. Sabat's Vegeta is completely a love it or hate it voice but if I had to pick, I'd say "switch the voice actors and keep him as Piccolo." Maybe get Johnny Yong Bosch. Yeah, that would be cool.

EDIT: I will add that yes, this all just opinion and that "It's just a TV show, I should really learn to relax"
EDIT2: I love Dub Android 18's voice.
 
Personally, I'd say that Jeice HAS to have a fake British rocker voice. It's ridiculous, it makes no sense, and it's hilarious. I mean, it just works so well. I can't even explain why.
 
Except...none of that is present in the original. The dub is basically fabricating its own humor in place of the content of the original...which I don't like, as a fan of the series and the color red.


Besides, Scott McNeil was doing an Aussie Jheese, I believe (as...he's Aussie).
 
Having never seen the original, all I can say is that I like all the voices, and the only flaw I see is with the anime itself, although unnecessary gags are always unwelcomed.
 
That's the type of thing I really don't mind, though. Funny accents in minor characters should be welcomed. Like, in 4KiRAB One Piece, they gave a ridiculous Russian accent to Wapol and I absolutely loved it - probably one of the best voices from that dub, if you ask me. It fits him as a character, kinda, and it's just plain funny. Same thing with Jeice - he looks like a girly rock'n'roller, only as a space alien, and the idea of an Aussie idol space mercenary is just really, really funny.

But I'm a big proponent of dubs adding their own flavor to a work, rather than simply translating the Japanese version, so I can see why others would disapprove.



See, I always assume an accent is Australian at first, then I second guess myself and go with British...
 
I'm all for actors doing their own thing (one who plays Romeo in a Seattle production will not give the exact same performance as a performer in Miami), but adding accents and characteristics (espicially ones done as poorly as they are in the Dragon Ball dubs) is not being faithful to the the material at all, it's straight making things up (as the casting choice approved by the producers at the time did all of the time) and doesn't really pass in todays expectations, many if not all of which have been set by FUNimation's dubs.
 
I like the Dub, I think it is good, I mean in the origional japanese Adult goku was voiced by & sounded like a chick...thats not right. I think funi did a fine job on the series, is it perfect, well no, far from it, but Ive seen many many Dubs & DBZ is Average, nothing extremly good or extremly bad about it.

(But the Dragonball Dub is Great!)
 
i am fully relaxed but i'm always amazed to hear some opinions. Sabat's voices are HORRIBLE. He's a terrible actor, and the voices are forced. There is no wise mentor coming from him that i can hear as all i hear is a guy in a booth doing a performance. I don't hear a character. Furukawa's Piccolo is first and then Scott McNeal. They blow sabat out of the water.

Sean grew on me. He's not anywhere near as good as Nozawa or Corlette but he's better than Peter Kelamis

that raspy gohan sounRAB weird.

18's dub voice is oh so sexy.

The voices for Chibi Trunks and Goten are just SO annoying. I'm not the biggest fan of the goten/trunks vs. Buu fight, but it's somewhat enjoyable in the sub as they come off as funny and cute. The dub makes them sound like grown women trying to sound like young boys.
 
The crew and Toriyama felt it was right for their show, that's good enough for every fan of the performance worldwide...



Whee. Opinions.
 
Adding new characteristics to established characters, in most cases, is bad - I agree. Like, giving Freeza a feminine, flaraboyant, almost-suggestive tone of voice not only alters the perception of characters, but all of the events that go along with them. But for minor characters without much depth, I have no problem with it. What is Jeice's personality in the original? What is his motivation, his pattern of speech? The main thing - does it matter? No. He's a grunt beneath a grunt beneath one of many villains from one third of a series.

Now, I'm all for retaining the core of the work, and the details, as well - but does giving a silly character a silly accent harm things as a whole? Not at all. In some cases, I think, it improves things - I was very disappointed when, in One Piece, Hawkeye Mihawk lacked a Spanish accent. For background details, like I said, I'm a major proponent of dub alterations. So long as the cores of the story remain, the window dressing can - and should - be played around with a bit.

I think that Yu Yu Hakusho is among the best dubs of all time, and it most definitely played fast and loose with dialogue, added accents, changed around character roles a bit. The directors and producers and such in the Japanese version make their own creative decisions - simply copying and pasting those choices gives a dub a soulless quality. So English directors, producers, and actors should put their own spin on things, so long as - and I stress this - the core remains the same.

Of course, the "core" of a show is nigh impossible to pin down, so... again, it really comes down to the individual.
 
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