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Ok, well i guess i'm a total Dragonball newbie..I didn't start watching the
show or any of the series until August 31, 1998 when it (DragonballZ) came on
Cartoon Network. Well, I had seen one episode before, but it was that
"wonderful" episode of Bulma and the Dragon Ball on Namek..yuck!..but anywho,
it took a little while, but soon i was hooked on dbz..and couldn't get enough.
Then, as I am anxiously awaiting what Gokou will do to the rest of the Ginyu
Force, I am rudely interrupted by the first episode of the series. Crap.
Damn. (Insert your favorite expletive here). I had gone online a bit and
seen some stuff, but I didn't wanna spoil any of the season. After a month or
so of suffering wondering what would happen, I stumbled across an anime
specialty store in a mall somewhat near me. when I looked at the dbz section,
first I saw those blasted FUNimation tapes..and then I saw tapes with no
cover, labeled by part of saga or whatever. Trying to judge from the pictures
on each box (and failing) I decided to pick out 2 movies, "Freezer's army 1" &
"Freezer's army 2". The second one had pictures of Gohan and Kuririn in
Saiyan armor on it, and since I had never seen this before, I decided it could
be interesting. When I rented these tapes, I assumed they would be subtitled,
and have some order. I was completely wrong, they were randomly recorded off
of some Japanese television station, cut in the middle of episodes, and of
crappy quality..and there were no subtitles. From watching and listening
closely, I was able to pick up that "Krillen" was being referred to as
"Kuririn/Kulilin", and Bulma was Buluma/Buruma(argh..hard to decide on the
spellings..I like the r's better..but Krillen's hat said Kulilin on the
show..so..) Anyways, I saw a few random episodes. The first, and absolute
first thing I noticed was the music. Well, first off, noticing the music in a
show at all is odd for me, I usually don't listen to things in the
background..but this was great, relevant, and just a cool effect. The voices
were beyond amazing..I had been calmed by the voices of FUNimation, and had
actually taken a liking to some of them. Then, I heard the Japanese voices
the whole way through..not just in small sound files gathered from the 'net.
innncredible! These voices were perfect, they had inflections, they actually
expressed their feelings, and overall, they didn't suck! I still like some of
the US dub's voices (for some reason King Kai(or Kaio-sama or whatever the hell his name is) sounds better with his stupid American voice, because, well, he is an utter idiot. An excellent teacher, but a moron at the same time. he
sounded too serious in the Japanese version, but then again, I suppose if I
could have picked out a word he was saying I may have liked it
better...but..oh well.) as I was saying, I like some of the US voices, but
it's just NO comparison. Oddly enough, even though I had seen all of the
episodes, I saw most of the major cuts on Namek. Like Dodoria's pure evilness
and stuff (Dende's little brother's death bothered me..and I didn't remember
Dodoria snapping the elders neck..), Zarbon's persistent headbutting, and of
course (I love the simile you used here) Vegita punching into the stomach of
Zarbon (literally) and blasting thorugh his torso like a paper bag. And that
er..interesting Bulma bathtub scene..er..I guess I can see why that never made
it here, but it is an important plot point..so..oh well. One day I stumbled
across your page and thought it sounded interesting. So I went in and checked
stuff out, etc etc and was truly amazed. you've put a lot of work into
this..it's very well done. I think everyone who's ever watched dbz should at
least take a look at this page. Anyways..now to my point..if there is one.
First- Why in the red hell would FUNimation change the wonderful music of the
original to this *Awful* filler crap that we have to suffer with? The opening
theme is ok if you ignore the words, and I suppose at times the music isn't
utterly lame, but for the other 90% of the time..what the hell!
Second- Were ALL of those cuts neccesary? Oh no..hits to the face..god knows
people should never see those..ARGH!! I think anyone in America who has cable
and can see Dragonball Z has seen worse on television...I can understand the
language cuts i guess, growing up in a somewhat strict Christian household..I
know how all those soccer moms can get. I've never understood why we even
made words that people aren't supposed to say..if you aren't supposed to say
them, why don't we take the temptation out and just elimate them! argh!
Dodoria was plain disturbing..that needed to be cut, Zarbon's insistent
headbutting, well..didn't help the story along, and I suppose if you need to
make cuts, might as well cut something like that.
Third- I think some other cable channel should pick dbz up, like, eh..er..the
Sci-Fi channel or something, so we could have as little edited as possible.
with a prime-time spot and a tvma thingy, we could keep almost everything.
But what are the chances..siiigh.
Fourth- Along with the music..some of the statement changes are also beyond
terrible. Krillen's ..well..almost everything is just plain annoying..and alot of the changes just suck as well. I think they should have kept more of the original attack names..I don't recall Gohan yelling "Masenko"..er..ever. I think most of the times Kamehameha slipped through Goku's mouth it was some
accident..yuck. Kienzan or destructo-disc.. DD is somewhat, er..ok I guess
for the target audience of 7 year olds..but Kienzan doesn't do much for me
either.
Fifth- It should be interesting to see what FUNimation will do with the
movies..I was luckily able to acquire the uncut movie trilogy(dubbed in
English..albeit terribly..but that's not the point) and saw some things that
should prove interesting to see. First, in the movies Dead Zone and The
World's Strongest, Gohan has songs in Japanese. They were subtitled on my
tape, luckily, because I would have beaten the person who decided to choose
English singing over the Japanese.. but still.. will FUNimation just cut these songs out because they aren't neccesarily relevant, and aren't in English? Will they do something intelligent for once and keep them in there, subtitled? Or will they do the worst thing possible, and change the singing to English. Oh god..i can just hear it now. In Dead Zone, a point comes up where Gohan eats some fruit that he isn't supposed to, and essentially gets drunk. Surely we can't allow our children to see someone get drunk from eating a fruit (which is impossible mind you), that would be wrong. That could also be a reason to cut the entire sequence, song included. Also, when Gohan is seen next..he is..erm..leaking on Krillin's head. I seriously doubt this will make it..most likely be completely cut. And there is nudity in all three movies( i think..) which will be covered up somehow. (can't blame 'em i guess..) I plan to watch the tapes alongside the made for tv ones and record any changes..just to see how ruined it is. (If it ever comes up, I will take no credit for the idea..I owe all the credit to you for giving me the idea)
Oh well..guess i'm done.
- David Goodell |
   
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