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Alright, I must admit that my last essay for this page was extremely repetitive, boring, and, to be frank, completely a piece of crap that took 5 minutes to write. This time I promise you that's not the case, because this time I must talk about something that really pisses me off about FUNimations dub: the music, and the fight censoring. (and I want to see if I can make it past the new essay limitations)
The Music:
I'll start off with the difference in music. Most of you probably think that it's wrong and all for FUNimation to change the music, but I find a huge difference. The major thing about the music is the way it sends you subconscious emotions.
See, in the dub, the music just tells you what kind of atmosphere is going on, whether it is good, bad, sad, or whatever. That's it. But, the music in the OAV is extremely different: It not only tells you the atmosphere, but it lets you feel the atmosphere, something the demo buttons on a keyboard can't do. Sometimes the music is so emotional, when a person dies, it can make feel as though you knew that person all your life, like your best friend just got killed. The dub music is more like a way of saying "this part is supposed to be sad".
That's what makes me flip about it. Why couldn't they just leave the music alone?! It would even be less expensive!! But they insist on taking the time and effort to destroy ever shred of emotion the show has to offer. An otherwise tear jerking scene is turned into a side scene where something just happens.
Then there's the theme difference. Oh, the humanity. When I first heard "Rock the Dragon", I didn't really think that mush of it, but after I heard "Cha-la", it was like comparing a cat on a piano to Beethoven's 5th. There is a HUGE difference. Even if they didn't want to take the time to translate it, they could at least just show it, even if it was in Japanese. It might even be better that way to show people who have only seen the dub that FUNimation did not make it. "Cha-La" is a great song, at least compared to "Rock the Dragon", and deserves it's rightful spot at the beginning of the show.
As for the voices, I for one do not care as much to flip out about the voices, but they could do a lot better with most of them.
The Fight Censoring:
First of all, I am not one of those people who just wants to see blood and wounds just because I want to see it. I'm not one of those kind of punks that watch a person's head be cut off and says "cool!". No, no, no. The thing about the fights is once again, the subconscious emotions of the fight when you see the blood and gaping wounds.
Take for instance when Gokuh and Piccolo were taking on Radtiz. When Piccolo fired through Gokuh and Radtiz, it seemed that Gokuh made much more of a sacrifice when you could see that huge hole in his chest. It just looked like he took a lot more to himself for the good of the Earth. It looked like he took more pain, suffering, and therefore a larger sacrifice than in the dub. In the dub, it just looked like Gokuh took a slap to the face, nothing more. That kills a lot of the emotion and dismisses some of the heroism that Gokuh shows.
And then we get to the point where Piccolo dies in the fight with Nappa. In the OAV, Piccolo is covered in blood and looks as if he really had taken the beating of his life. When you see him die, it's really emotional, especially for Gohan. If you think about it, you would really be pissed (in which Gohan is) when Piccolo dies, if you see him covered in blood, hardly holding on to life, then passing off. But when you just see him laying there like nothing happened, then he just fades away, you take it in like a fact, such as when a wasp in your house dies.
And then comes the other kind of censoring, I'm not sure what to call it, but you'll see what I mean. First let's start with that same battle as stated above. When Chazou dies, originally there is a sequence on which Tien thinks backs about him, and how they were best friends, which is another emotional part which FUNimation thinks the kids can't handle, so away it goes. What the HFIL is with that? Who cares if it fits the American season! Leave in the good parts! (I have the slightest clue why I'm talking like they're reading this...)
Other from the emotional scenes that make you sad are the ones that make you mad. Take for an example when Dodoria is with Freeza on Namek. When they are there, Dodoria proves to be a ruthless killing machine. When he killed Dende's helpless older(?) brother it was so angering that right there you feel as if you could take on the brute, but no, let's not show that, because then Americans would actually learn to get pissed at bad guys. We can't have good beating down evil in the real world, now could we? Instead they make up some stupid thing about how Dodoria missed the old man.
Then there's a scene where Dodoria punches a guy straight through the back. When you just see him punch him in the dub, you think "Oh, it's nothing, he'll be fine, it was just a punch." No, no, no. When you see him kill the old man, it makes you feel a lot better when you see Vegeta burn his fat ass away.
There are countless other emotional scenes cut from the series, but I'm getting a bit pissed at the moment so I won't try to sanely write them. Dragon Ball Z is highly emotional show about the struggle between good and evil, but FUNimation has turned it into their own little money making kiddie cartoon. If they were going to do that, why couldn't they have made their own show and left DBZ to someone who would really bring it to the states in it's true form?
- Todd Carbonara |
   
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