Another Uninformed Comes Out of the Woodwork

By Jat

Ah, well I figure that I can add my two bits into this. The problems seem to be revolving around attitude, more than anything, as far as the dubbie vs. subbie debate. Arrogance can be had on either side. People do not respond well to snide commentary on how ignorant they are of something. In any event, stereotyping a group because they've only seen the dubs is bad form, at least. The boasting of some "subbies" about being able to rattle off the how many people were changed into chocolate as opposed to candies by Buu tends to annoy the dubbies as well. It is not a question of knowledge versus ignorance, so much as ego versus ego. People like to consider
themselves the end-all be-all of something, and for dubbie and subbie alike, in this case, they don’t like their cages rattled. Personally, I think that they need to relax. Anyway, onward I go.

After hearing all of the talk about the "butchering" of DBZ, I feel the need to point out that there is something key that must be remembered. FUNimation did not bring Dragonball Z over the America for the sake of those who were already interested in it, or to pay homage to Akira Toriyama. They brought it over as a cartoon to be watched and consumed by American children. In the grand tradition of many other violent head-kicking American animated series, they are trying to cater to their audience, in spite of what the "older" fans may wish. This is the reason that they dubbed it, censored it, and whittled it down to what you see today. They had no desire to treat this as some sort of art form, to them it is a cartoon. They altered things to suit their audience and make it more palatable to them. Judging from the increasing popularity of the series, they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, wouldn't you say? If it weren’t for FUNimation, I doubt that half of the self-proclaimed otaku watching now would have a clue as to what Dragonball was.

The song and voice acting debates are purely based upon personal opinion. The "subbed" crew believes in the sanctity of the old voices, largely (I would think), either because of their own hearing preference, or because the original voices were the first ones that they were exposed to. I like vanilla ice cream, that doesn't mean that Breyer's "butchered" it to make Fudge Ripple. It's all a matter of perspective and personal preference.

It was argued that you are “told,” via the boxes and the introduction to the show, what would happen, and thus, everyone knows how it will end. I disagree. The Toonami version of Dragonball Z which is shown during the afternoons and Saturday late night has it's own original opening sequence, which has nothing to do with tape boxes or images of Goku going Super Saiyan. Along that line, the average dubbie would, indeed, have no clue about what would really happen. Of course, once a person comes to after being involved in a show, they know that the good guys are going to win, but the question remains of "HOW?!" Krillin just exploded, Piccolo's been perforated... what now?! The person who doesn't know the ending of the story, generally, enjoys the story more and gets more emotionally involved in the story than the person who already knows the ending. Some people can get involved again and again, but most folk find themselves detached. The same reason that you're not usually scared by the same horror movie twice.

I’m gonna get a bit nitpicky on a few other things too… I don’t claim to know everything, but some things I do know.


“Vegeta goes Super Saiya-Jin, but doesn't have a pure heart. He once
said, "Its pure...PURE EVIL!" Does that apply? Does the person have to be
pure good? Can they be pure evil and go SSJ? ARGH!" Who said you have to
have a pure heart? A boastful dubbie I bet. I sure haven't found a record of
Toriyama saying that.

- It was written in the manga as one of those generally accepted ideas. Toriyama probably didn't hold a press conference about it, but he had his characters believe it until it no longer suited his purpose, at which point the idea of having a pure heart was cast off. Convenient, no?

"Why doesn't Raditz get the accolades he deserves? He is a person in DBZ
that beat the living hell out of BOTH Piccolo and Goku, then ends up
(inadvertently) killing Goku! Freiza couldn't kill Goku. Cell kills Goku,
but only because Goku wants it that way (And I still believe he could have
teleported out of there in time) and Gohan has to save Goku's bacon...again!
I mean, can he get a little bit more respect? He is called a weakling and
a coward. Not so. He took on Piccolo and Goku head on and almost won if
Gohan hadn't saved them." He's an intro character. He's just there to show
how evil and nasty the saiyans are. He serves no other purpose other than to
inform. Once he has done so, there's no need of him.

- In spite of his "purpose," he still accomplished the feats that other DBZ villains were unable to. That alone, one would think, should earn him at least a second thought beyond "Oh that dead guy with the big hair."

"Why wasn't Raditz ever wished back to life? I'm sure if Vegeta could
reform than Raditz could too. Also, why does Raditz lie to Goku by saying
Planet Vegeta was hit by a comet, rather than say Freiza blew it up? He
knew about it- Vegeta told him and Nappa!" It was impossible to wish Raditz
back to life. He had one shot at life before the 1 year time limit ran out.
The same time Goku was wished back to life. But he couldn't then. The Z gang
didn't need another evil saiyan running around causing trouble when they had
Vegeta and Nappa to deal with. After that the time limit was up. And Raditz
told Goku that the planet Vegeta was hit by a comet because he thought that.
Vegeta didn't learn the truth until Dadoria told him on Namek.

- Actually this was more of a plot hole than anything. Near the end of the Freiza saga, Vegeta flashes back to Nappa telling him and Raditz both about the destruction of their homeworld. This was in the television series, though, I’m not sure about the manga off the top of my head.

“What the hell is up with Ultra Super Saiya-Jin? This is supposedly a
form between SSJ and SSJ 2 that only Miari Trunks and Brolly achieve.
Wouldn't it stand to reason since it is a new form that it should be
classified as SSJ 2, bringing the count of SSJ forms to 5? And its a form
that increases your power but decreases your speed...whatever. I didn't see
Brolly's speed decrease when he was beating the hell out of every DBZ
character.* Mirai Trunks and Vegeta and maybe a couple other people go
Ultra, Ultimate, whatever. It's considered a half form because it's not
really a complete transformation I believe. Like when Frieza first
"transforms" by growing taller and getting rid of the armor. That's not
counted as a transformation. Brolly is a movie character.

- Since it didn't really seem to pan out for Mirai Trunks, that's probably why it got short shrift. Why bother giving the form a step in the chain if every Saiyan (except the aforementioned) skips over it as useless? Besides, it wasn’t used to defeat anybody, I don’t believe, in any form. When Mirai Trunks used it, Cell had little trouble with him. SSJ was used to defeat and later kill Frieza, SSJ 2 vaporized Cell, and SSJ 3 was doing pretty well against Buu. USSJ did nada.

"Gohan is rumored to be the most powerful person in DBZ..that lasts until
he hits SSJ 2. Why? This is the kid that had a powerlevel that nearly
quadrupled his dad's power when he got mad! But he can't be bothered to go
SSJ 3? School ain't that important. Is Goten and Trunks as powerful as he
is? They hit SSJ at an early age." SSJ3 isn't all it's cracked up to be. In
the manga you can only power up in SSJ3 if your dead. Otherwise trying to
power up just knocks you back regular. Non-powered SSJ3 is only a little
more powerful than SSJ2.

- After Gohan's power-up, he was more powerful than Gotenks SSJ 3, hence why Buu absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo to boot so that he could tangle with Gohan.