DBZ fans have to be the most whiniest people I have ever heard of in my life. Most of you have recieved the third season tapes and go absolutely insane just because they're not perfect. Here's what I say: the third season tapes are perfectly fine (besides one thing; I'll get to that later). People are complaining about the voices, and the dialouge re-write, etc, etc, etc. First of all, with the exception of Krillin (or Klylin or Kururin or Steve or however you want to write his name) and Kaiou, the voices all sound fine, and some sound even better. Goku's voice is almost up to Ian Corlett's standards, although the screaming was silly at times. I actually thought that Captain Ginyu's voice was better, and Bulma's voice was definitely better. I mean, what is Bulma besides a Japanese valley girl? My point, though, is that the voice acting in the third season is not nearly enough to take my copy of the tape and hurl off the tenth floor. I never understood why people didn't like the Americanized versions of the Japanese voices. Everybody flipped out when they heard Frieza's voice...but why? Just because it sounds different? The voice really does suit the character, but still people complained. They say, "He sounds like a 40 year old chain smoking lady!" That may be true, but they forget that Goku was voiced by a girl in the Japanese version. People wanted exact recreations of the Japanese voices, which is absolutely hypocritical. When the third season came out, people started complaining that Funimation was trying to recreate the English voices! Funimation must be dizzy in the head trying to figure out why the hell everybody is complaining! I started watching Dragon Ball Z when it came out on Cartoon Network, and I have known nothing else besides the American version. I have downloaded some Japanese episodes, but guess what? I don't speak Japanese! I can't tell that Masoku Nowza is an absolutely brilliant voice actor. I think the Dave Ward version of Kaiou is twenty times better than the James Earl Jones style of him. The people who have seen Japanese DBZ don't like the English voices simply because they are different. Think about it. If they started showing The Simpsons with completely different voices, I'm sure nobody would like the new version. But someone seeing it for the first time will notice nothing, and still think it's hilarious. Just face it, the voices in the third season are not bad, merely different, and any sort of argument in the DBZ world is likely to turn into a Picard vs Kirk argument. Even Steve's (Krillin's) voice in here is tolerable in the third season... you really feel sympathy for Vegeta having to deal with that annoying bastard. Which brings us to the topic of censoring and dialouge change. Guess what? Now they're talking about dying, and showing dead bodies, and people's throats being crushed, etc. Isn't that what you wanted? But still, people complain. I don't have to hear Vegeta say "fucking genius," I can live with "friggin genius." I'm not sure what Baata said in the Japanese version, but I thought "Bite me!" was friggin hilarious! Why do we need to hear people curse? If anything, you're saying that Dragon Ball sucks without cussing. I assume that would be very insulting to Akira Toyirama. Even if they change silly things like "I eat a wholesome diet," I can live with that. If you look at the overall episode, about 1% has really changed. That's an incredible amount up from Saban's treatment (I'm not sure what they are changing in the script, maybe DBZ Uncensored can provide stuff like that). Another thing that really gets me is that the guy in charge of DBZ Uncensored is complaining that they aren't cutting out the Garlic Jr. saga. How ironic it is that DBZ Uncensored is angry for FUNimation for leaving something in. People do not realize that FUNimation cannot please everybody!

There is one thing I am mad at FUNimation about, however. The music. Yes, the music is absolute crap. There's no way that FUNimation can get away with this. The music is not intrusive, thank Kami, and you can watch an episode without really getting bothered by it. But it does take away the Japanese score, which really can add to an episode. Unfortunately, this is a problem that everyone was complaining about earlier, and it still has not been resolved.

As a conclusion: If you have not bought the third season videos, because you've read the editorials, or for whatever reason, go out and buy them. Unless you speak Japanese, this is your best bet to see DBZ. If you're like me, and you got your start on American DBZ, you will not be dissapointed, I guarantee. I don't want to have to deal with fansubs to see the rest of DBZ, which is something I will do. I for one, will enjoy seeing the end of the Freeza saga in bloody English.

- Stephen Dranger
<illuminatedwax@hotmail.com>