FUNimation Screwed up DB...

[Lord Ryu Li Ri Tzu]

That's right... FUNimation did a poor job dubbing the Dragonball trilogy... they completely rewrote the scripts, had poor editing in spots...

Anybody else think FUNimation did a poor job with the DB series?

[Starwolf]

No need to offend any Dragon ball (Z/GT/Cash cow etc) but sholudn't we adress the wider issue. Maybe it already is screwed up. Something which takes 10 episodes for anything to heppen is screwed up in my mind. I have only watched a few epoisodes but it could be a lot more to the point.

Were the Japanese episodes/sagas/slideshows shorter or something?

[Adilink]

I have to agree there. DBZ is really effing stupid. I mean, at one point, Frieza is like, "The planet will blow up in five minutes!" And after fifteen episodes, it's only been one minute. And don't get me started on constipation... And a ton of other things.

[Gunlord100]

First things first, the Japanese version is WAAAAAAAAY better than the American version. Funimation censored the living crap out of DBZ, which is one reason for its crappiness, although the slow pace is present in both the Japanese and American versions of the show. Still, while DBZ isn't the greatest anime every, it does have a few moments of poignancy here and there, for instance, when Piccolo sacrifices his life to save Gohan. Obviously, much of the poignancy has been lost with the English dub ( No, Piccolo! You can't pass on to the next dimension!) Overall, the Japanese DBZ is an average series, whose English dub is God-awful. I'd rank DBZ on the same level as Sailor Moon-where Moon is an estrogen-filled girly show of mediocre quality, and although there are a few moments of honest drama, it's mainly a cash cow targeted at young girls. Similary, DBZ is a testerone-filled boy show of mediocre quality, and although there are some moments of honest drama, for the most part, it's mainly a cash cow directed to satiate the human male's insatiable lust for violence and explosions. Thus, people like Iris, for instance, derive some pleasure from the girly, sparkly Sailor Moon due to its innate appeal to the female nature,, and men like me get a kick of watching the mindless violence of DBZ due to the primal satisfaction of watching limbs fly and stuff blow up, although both shows are empiracally quite vapid and pale in comparison to fare such as Neon Genesis Evangelion or Grave of the Fireflies. Anyway, please forgive my pretentious wordiness-I vote for "DBZ was waaaaaay better in Japanese!!!"

[Lord Ryu Li Ri Tzu]

Yeah, there are some slow-paced parts to DBZ... but I still think it's an awesome anime! I don't give a damn how stupid everyone else thinks it is... it's the first anime I actually liked! And don't reccomend other animes to me... I most likely won't find them. Yes, there are parts in DBZ that I can't stand (*cough* Cell Saga *cough*... from the beginning of DB to the Frieza battle in DBZ was the best), but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

If you've only seen American DBZ, and hate it... then maybe you should see the Japanese version before you criticize it...

And what's this about it being a "cash cow?" In America perhaps... but in Japan?

I don't know why people hate the show so much... I mean, there's gotta be animes that are MUCH WORSE than DBZ!

[Gunlord100]

DBZ is a decent enough show. In fact, I believe that its importance in introducing many young people to anime when otherwise, they would have been totally ignorant of the wonders of anime, outweighs its cons. After all, many people, after saying, "hey, DBZ is cool!" go on to say, "hey, maybe I'll check out some of that other anime stuff!" which will eventually lead them to such great works such as the dystopian masterpiece of Akira or the cyberpunk thrills of Ghost in the Shell. I wouldn't say DBZ is a great anime, just an average one with a lot of important influence. I'd not say it's much better or worse than Sailor Moon.

[kanzakii]

In DBZ, I don't like anything after perfect cell.
Also, I prefer the manga over anime.

And I never bother watching any American version anime...I just watch Jap version with Chinese sub. Yeah, I don't even watch English sub. (Or Cantonese with sub or no sub...)

[InsaneZero]

I have to say, the original Dragonball is SO MUCH BETTER.

But that's not saying much.

[Flame Police]

The people running F***imation are idiots. Freeza saying "This cun't be"? What moronicness, considering they change "HELL" to "HFIL" just to avoid parent controvers- *gets slapped silly by girls* Ouch.

*looks at Kanzakii's signature* How'd you do that?

[kanzakii]

It generates the info out of your server logs.

I don't know how exactly the creator did that, though. I'm not too familiar with the coding...yet. I took it from a site...

[Unbrokin Silence]

it does look kind of different, i mean you know how in dragon ball when you would see goku or bulma from the side veiw, and their mout looked sort of like a monkey, funimation doesnt do that anymore..

[AceNoctali]

Two things :

1) The manga version Dragonball is WAY better than the animé one (that's also the case for nearly all animé which is the adaptation of a manga, except Inuyasha where both are great),

2) Dragonball is really fun until Raditz's arrival (vol. 18 of the manga). After that, peh.
Reason : I don't like the fact that fights took over the comic part of the manga (and the animé for that matter), after this point of the series.

[Iris]

Dude, Funimation screws up everything. Look at Yu Yu Hakusho. (If I hear Kuwabara's HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DBZ villain voice one more time, I'll kill something. That is not how he was originally portrayed.)

I'd rank DBZ on the same level as Sailor Moon-where Moon is an estrogen-filled girly show of mediocre quality, and although there are a few moments of honest drama, it's mainly a cash cow targeted at young girls.

Question: Which version are you referring to? American TV = as you said. Japanese TV = better. Manga = nothing like what you said.

Honestly, I think if you want to make a judgment on the quality of Sailor Moon's plot, you should first disregard filler episodes. Most long-running shows have them; it's not just SM and DBZ. Sailor Moon is much better without the filler episodes...to use the example of the second season, it's just okay during fifty gazillion attempts by the Black Moon family to steal energy/power up dark crystals/et cetera, but once you get down to the time warping, Sapphire's betrayal of his family, Wiseman's betrayal of everybody, the truth about why the people of Nemesis are attacking, and so forth, it's five hundred percent better.

I will, however, concede that the deaths start to mean less when you realize that the ginzuishou always ends up bringing everyone back to life. (Same deal with DBZ and the Dragon Balls. Death doesn't mean crap anymore, because everyone comes back. Sigh.)

Thus, people like Iris, for instance, derive some pleasure from the girly, sparkly Sailor Moon due to its innate appeal to the female nature,

But female nature doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching some buttkicking YYH action, too. ^_~

although both shows are empiracally quite vapid and pale in comparison to fare such as Neon Genesis Evangelion or Grave of the Fireflies

It's not really a fair comparison. Long running series, as I said above, all have filler episodes, and when you take those into account, the quality goes down because it doesn't have to be so damned long. And the TV format and the movie format both have different plusses and minuses, so you can't really compare a show with Grave of the Fireflies. TV shows can present much longer plots, but every plot element has to be broken up in a way that fits into 22-minute episodes, which can mess things up. Movies can flow however best fits the story, but have more limited running time. Apples and oranges.

[NoBaka]

. . . yup.

::nods::

Mmmhm.

::nods again::

Right.

::noddles::

Someone off screen: He's spamming! Get him!

Me: Eep!

[InsaneZero]

DragonBall Z anime was screwed up anyway.

Stupid Toei.

Go get the manga.