Home


 Dragon Ball in the United States: The Full Disclosure
"FUNimation's not responsible for the dub sucking! Pioneer did those episodes!"
"I don't know why you're complaining about FUNimation, Saban is the REAL culprit!"
"Hey, how come Terry Klassen is still in the credits, but he's not doing Kuririn's voice anymore?"
"I can't believe what DIC did to Dragon Ball Z!"

You know, I see stuff like this far too often, and it's getting a bit tiresome. Especially when it shows up in my e-mail. It seems that there is quite a bit of misunderstanding out there as to the whos, whats, wheres, whys, and whens of Dragon Ball's strange and convoluted "journey to the west", and to be honest, I don't blame the fans for being confused. And I know of a lot of arguments that could have been easily settled if people simply had the correct facts. Hopefully, this handy little guide will change all of that.

I have gathered the following information from almost five years of observing, reading, and just basically keeping track of everything related to the Americanization of Dragon Ball, and all of the various entities involved. I've had my eye on FUNimation's dub since the very first day that the very first episode of Dragon Ball aired, and I've had "problems" with it since, oh, well, about 20 seconds into that first airing. Nah, make that 5 seconds. In any case, it was important to me from the very beginning to know where (and where not) to place both the blame for the bad things and the praise for the good things, and my goal here is to ensure that all of you know as well.

My facts have been gathered from a wide variety of sources, and I assure you that all of the following can be backed up with proof. For now though, just pay close attention, because this may get a bit confusing!

 Chronology


February 26, 1986

Dragon Ball premieres on Fuji TV, taking over the timeslot just vacated following the final episode of Dr. Slump. The "Wednesday at 7 pm" slot would be held by DB, DBZ, and DBGT for over a decade.


Late 1980's

Harmony Gold, fresh off of the success of Robotech, purchases the US broadcast rights to Dragon Ball.


1989

In order to test market their new acquisition, Harmony Gold dubs the first and third Dragon Ball movies into a TV special. In this version, nearly all of the names are changed. Goku is called "Zero," Buruma is "Leena," Yamucha is "Zadaki," Tenshinhan is "Shinto," etc. Many of the voices are the same as those from Robotech. Surprisingly , the original Japanese theme song (albeit with very different lyrics) and music track are both preserved.

The special is aired in a handful of US cities, and is (apparently) a complete failure. Harmony Gold decides not to continue with the series, and the US broadcast rights revert back to Toei.


1994

Daniel Cocanougher of Decatur Texas, while looking for "investments" with his family, purchases the US broadcast rights to Dragon Ball on the advice of his former co-worker Gen Fukunaga. Fukunaga, a Silicon Valley software product manager, (and the nephew of an executive at Toei), collaborates with Cocanougher and they form FUNimation Productions. The company is to be headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.


1995

FUNimation begins production on Dragon Ball. The company itself, however, is only directly involved with the scripting, editing and overall decision making. Voice-over and post production work is farmed out to the Vancouver, Canada-based Ocean Group, and a new musical score is produced by Griffiths and Ramsey.

26 episodes are planned for the first season - 13 are finished, and another 13 are scripted. FUNimation's plan is to show the first half of the season, and complete the production and airing of the remaining episodes only "if the ratings warrant it."


September 1995

FUNimation's English-dubbed version of Dragon Ball premieres in weekly syndication on US television. The show is distributed by Seagull Productions, who demands some censoring and editing, but relatively little compared to what would come later.

Unfortunately, Seagull is unable to secure anything but very poor timeslots. As a result, the ratings are dismal, and production of the remaining 13 episodes of the first season is cancelled.


1996

Based on its poor first-year performance, FUNimation concludes that the original Dragon Ball series is not a "good fit for the US market," and decides that they might have greater success with its more action-packed sequel series, Dragon Ball Z.

This decision leaves 140 Dragon Ball episodes skipped, and FUNimation begins production on Dragon Ball Z. In order to make the first complete story arc fit into a standard 26-episode US television season, FUNimation cuts 9 episodes worth of material.


January 31st, 1996

The final episode of Dragon Ball Z airs in Japan.


September 13th, 1996

Dragon Ball Z premieres in US syndication. The voice work is still being done by Ocean Studios, but FUNimation has a new distributor: Saban, who also serves as producer of a new musical score. Saban proves to have quite a bit more muscle behind them than Seagull Productions, and is able to secure much better, while still not ideal, timeslots. As a result, Dragon Ball Z's first season is a moderate success, and FUNimation decides to continue with a second.

However, Saban's censorship standards are quite a bit more demanding than Seagull's. They insist that a great deal of "potentially offensive material" be cut, and that the dialogue be heavily sanitized to remove references to death, spirituality, and sexuality, among other things.




 The Guilty Parties
FUNIMATION

With only a few exceptions in the following list, FUNimation is the company that all Dragon Ball-related activity in the US revolves around. They are the primary rights ownder, and they have the most influence by far in what you see on the show. All other companies on this list are either producing merchandise under FUNimation's license, or are working in collaboration with them somehow. Some companies (i.e. Saban) do exert control over FUNimation in certain ways, but it is important to remember that it is still their choice to work with those companies. Therefore, they are ultimately responsible for the results.

YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

  • First and foremost, the presence of Dragon Ball in the US. Whatever you consider it a good thing or a bad thing, the series might never have returned to the US (see Harmony Gold) if it wasn't for their purchase of it.
  • Some other company NOT picking up DB at a later time. We can get as speculative as we want here, but FUNimation buying the rights prevented any other company from doing so. Would that company have done better? Worse? We'd have to visit an alternate universe to know for sure.
  • The writing
  • The "translation"
  • The decision to change the music. It is important to remember that this was based on FUNimation's own judgment, and not dictated by any outside authority. As for the music itself, what you hear in season 3 and beyond is done in-house, and FUNimation is responsible for its quality (or lack thereof). Prior to that, the music was handled by outside companies (Griffith and Ramsey for DB, and Saban for DBZ seasons 1 and 2). But again, regardless of who produced it, the decision to toss the Japanese score was FUNimation's from the very beginning.

    SABAN

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

    SEAGULL PRODUCTIONS

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

    CARTOON NETWORK

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

    THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, AND VARIOUS INDEPENDENT TELEVISION STATIONS

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR... The basic "overall" censorship standards on US television. This is the one and only entity whose effect on the show is completely beyond FUNimation's power. They are also the only entity that FUNi does NOT "choose" to work with, but rather MUST work with. In reality, though, the only absolute rule that FUNimation is thing that you cannot swear on television. Of course, there is pressure from the stations to make nor can you, but everything else that appears in Dragon Ball is perfectly acceptable by barebones FCC standards. The mere presence of a completely unedited version on the Internation Channel is proof of this.

    PIONEER ENTERTAINMENT

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

    VIZ COMMUNICATIONS

    Produces the English translation of the Dragon Ball manga in the US. Viz' comic is, I believe, the only official Dragon Ball-related merchandise that is NOT being produced under FUNimation's license. They obtained the rights to the manga independently of FUNimation, and the production of the dub is in no way related to the production of the comic.

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

  • Anything and everything you do (or do not) see in the US comic. Unlike TV, they do not have to answer to or collaborate with anyone else, save the comic distributors and shops.
  • Not taking a stand against FUNimation's dub.
  • DEFENDING FUNimation's dub.

    HARMONY GOLD

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...

    IRWIN TOYS

    YOU MAY BLAME OR PRAISE THEM FOR...