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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 |
   
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