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I am going to keep this short, and sweet.
First of all, I saw Chris’s site, which is doing a fine job I might add, and I saw a number of DBZ fans giving their views on how Funimation, Saban, and others are doing in showing DBZ in America, so I want to give mine as well since I have seen 3 versions of DBZ.
The music (Brrrrrr....)
"Rock the dragon".”. I would’ve liked it if it wasn’t for the lyrics. The lyrics to "RTD" are just too 80’s for me. Now as for "Head-Cha-La", it sounds great. It matches well with the show, but I heard both English version of Head-Cha-La and frankly, I kind of found it annoying to listen too. Playing the Japanese version would just make it worse, because most American do not know Japanese. I think Funimation should either try to come up with a brand new US theme song, or don’t use any Theme song at all. As for the background music, I prefer the Japanese version better, because it goes along with the drama, humor, etc. of DBZ way better than the US version.
The voices (I got no beef..)
I don’t have much against the American actors portraying the DBZ characters. It’s just that when I was watching the French version of DBZ movie #8 (Brolly), I noticed that most of the voices, especially Kuririn, Kamesemin, Gohan, and Trunks, sounded identically like the Japanese voices. Now I guess that Funimation wanted to make the voices very different from the rest. Ian Corlett did a kick ass job as Goku, so I was sad when he left. Peter Kelamis just makes Goku seem like a surfer dude, but he’s trying. Now, a woman for Gohan? It may have worked for Bart Simpson, but not for Gohan. Do like Dende and get a kid to voice him. Scott McNiel kicks ass as Piccolo, so does Ted Cole as Yamcha. That is why I like Yamcha so much. I especially like that part in US ep. #41(?) after Yamcha was done eating he said "Now that I’m full, you’re in big trouble Ape Face!" As for Vegeta, I feel like I am the only fan that likes the guy who does Vegeta! The voice fits Vegeta so well. Other than that, the rest don’t bother me.
The names
Now this is something few people touched on. All I have to say is that Funimation’s pronunciation and spelling for the characters’ names are basically because Americans will pronounce it like that even if their names were shown the Japanese way because Americans pronounce thing a bit faster.
The editing (What are we, stupid?)
Now, probably the worst thing Funimation does to DBZ is editing it, and it’s not just the editing of the violence in the show, but important thing the never should’ve been messed with at all. I understood about the blood and the small nudity, but the flashing stars in the punches and kicks, Dr. Briefs with no cigar, the removal of Lunch, "HFIL", that damn "next dimension" crap, gravity enhacers that look like halos, that scene where Krillen is about to kill Vegeta, but Goku and King Kai are telling him not to, even looking at the new action figures and seeing that Mr. Satan’s name was changed to Hercule (ugh). I could go on all day. What were Funimation thinking. Just look at shows like Batman/Superman Adventures, which show fists connecting to faces, and blood too. Even some Disney movies like "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" used words like hell, die, and damn. Isn’t that a sad shame. DBZ was made to target young adults in Japan, and all over the world because young adults such as I know the difference between life and death, good and bad, and such. Now Funimation is making a terrific anime like DBZ into a sissy show like Hysteria! To me that makes US fans of DBZ look stupid.
The future
As for the future of DBZ in America, Funimation needs to think about what they are gonna do to make this thing last, because rumor has it that Funimation will stop at ep. 53 and show the 3 movies as episodes, but I doubt that will happen. Since looking at the opening theme song of the US DBZ, I noticed that Funimation used some clips containing Trunks, and since he’s in group shot at the end of the song, and there is a SSJ goku in it too. It sounds like DBZ is not finished in the US.
- Sokidan (my real name is just too hard to pronounce, trust me!) |
   
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