Did we ever even lose it?

By: Andy Diehl andy@pojo.com

Change is the only thing that can truly make us appreciate what we have. What do I mean by this? Well, read this editorial and you will find out.

As of recently there have been a lot of editorials flying around talking about how they fell that the state of dragonball is in ruins, but is it truly? Let me go off for a minute to state a fact. The commercial side of Dragonball is booming beyond belief, it is the spiritual side of dragonball, which is in ruins. How so? Let’s find out.

Now I may be wrong, but this is how I look at it.

In the beginning there was Dragonball and when the people saw this they rejoiced. We had an anime that was created for the love of it. There was always the commercial aspect of the show, but it started off being about the show and not what went along with it. Where did all of the commercialism come from? Was it really FUNi that brought out this side of DB? No, in my opinion it was Toei and Dragonball GT. It is a known fact that GT being made and then later kept alive was for the sole reason of revenue. Toei though had already made a mark of excellence though with DB and DBZ, so really DBGT didn’t tarnish the company. When we think of Toei, we think of the company that produced that great Anime known as Dragonball.

FUNi though has a whole different story. FUNimation will always be known as many different things. The company that could never seem to get it all together, the company that butchered a great, the company that didn’t care, etc…

A small Canadian company picks up the series dragonball and dubs two seasons and a company known as Saban over saw these two seasons. Saban demanded great edits to the show and this doomed FUNi from the start.

When season 3 was finally coming along Funi is finally independent of Saban. Most people expect an awesome season, but season 3 is probably the biggest disappointment of any of the series. Bad voices, bad dialogue, bad edits, bad music, etc… the list goes on forever. Real quick I will mention that season 4 was dubbed pretty well and shows that FUNi is capable of quality.

The topic I am about to voice my opinions relates to this common situation.

We have a mom, dad, and a single child. That child is the center of the parent’s world. Mom gets pregnant and has another child. Now all of a sudden that child is the center of attention and the oldest child is upset.

WTF does that have to do with anything. Well, I’ll tell you. We have the old school fans (child 1) who had dragonball (mom and dad) and loved it. In America DB was their show, it wasn’t mainstream and that is how a lot liked it. Dragonball goes mainstream and now millions of 8-10 year olds (child 2) fall in love with the show and now the old school fans feel that their show is being taken away from them.

Is this really their show though, the db that they grew on and fell in love with, no, it’s not. The old school fans still have their dragonball, the original dragonball. These newbies/dubbies have FUNiball, a new version, which was cut down and when everything was ok, FUNi went back and cut even more. FUNi is no longer trying to duplicate DB, they are trying to create a new show and that show has turned out to be a monster. Welcome to FUNiball.

FUNi it appears that they have no confidence in the American fanbase to love a show that may display non American customs, ideas, and ways of life. FUNi went and “Americanized” the show, why is Americanized in parenthesis? The reason for that is because I can’t call what they did American. Mondo Cool….need I say more. FUNi took a show and tried to change it into something that it could not be changed into. I will explain it like this.

You have a man who is a scientist and he creates a robot, which is an exact duplicate of him in appearance. Really though, these are two totally different things. The robot does not have the heart, soul, mind, or inner structure that the man does. They may look a like, but they are totally different.

The show you see on cartoon network may look like your Dragonball, but the hear, soul, and mind behind the show is no longer there. Cartoon Network gives us FUNiball. The hacked up Anime.

How can you truly take a Japanese show and try to Americanize it. That is above all things one of the stupidest ideas I have ever hear, but you wanna know what, it sells. These dubbies don’t realize the changes, all they see is an American show that has always been American, and they do not realize the changes. And with that the fanbase just keeps growing, and growing, and growing.

I have no need to get into my opinions on dubbies/newbies because for one it would defeat the whole purpose of this editorial and I really don’t feel like making this like every other editorial you see on the Internet. If you don’t already know how I feel on newbies/dubbies you can go read one of my past editorials.

Can everyone truly be happy, I doubt it, but as of now FUNi has a majority pleased. FUNi gets their money, so of course they are happy. Dubbie/Newbies get a Mondo Cool series, so they are happy, and here we are, the people who got the short end of the stick. We are the kids who didn’t get picked in gym class and now get to sit on the side and watch. But does it have to be this way? No, because we have something that they don’t have and that something is Dragonball.

Sure, people may say that when DB finally is all dubbed and people in the U.S. get sick of it we will then have our show back. By then though will we even want it back, or in fact did we ever even lose it in the first place? I’ll leave that one up to you.

Like I said, change is the only thing that can truly make us appreciate what we have.

(It is now about 1 a.m. when this was finished. I put off studying for a math, religion, European history, and chemistry to write this. Either, I really love you guys or I just hate studying…. It must be that I hate studying…yes defiantly)