Forum - View topicREVIEW: Dragon Ball Z DVD Season 6
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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I do think these sets make the show look pretty good, despite the aspect ratio issues and all of that.
As far as comparisons of DBZ to other long-running Shonen series I think you kind of have to expect lots of similarities since in many ways those are based off DBZ. Now that said, I think DBZ is weaker in many ways than Naruto especially. Naruto's supporting characters get to shine a great deal more than the ones in DBZ. The unique combat styles and skills also make things a bit less predictable. DBZ is a whole lot of fun, but you are hardly surprised at the multiple transformations/etc. after seeing one round of it. That being said I will always love the major scenes in this show. spoiler[(Goku going Super Saiyan for the first time, Gohan going SSJ2, etc.)] And everything looks good even after a lot of time IMO so I find myself still getting fun out of it despite failings. It's certainly not my favorite show but I think it is a good one. |
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Daimao Raki
 Posts: 593 Location: Dark Side of the Moon |
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braves
 Posts: 2309 Location: Puerto Rico (but living in Texas) |
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The actual cropping is on all of the sets, as they're all in 16:9 in contrast to their original 4:3 format. It's the actual quality of the re-mastering in later sets that I'm not sure about. |
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theoriginalbilis
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That's kind of how I feel towards the DBZ dub. Very mixed feelings. I like the majority of the English cast, but the script can be back-ass-wards retarded at times. Hell, I love Sean's Goku voice, but the generic-superhero dialogue he is given makes it too cheesy and out right wrong, especially considering Goku's an uncultured hick, so there's no way he'd be giving wordy morality lessons to a villain right before killing them. The Japanese version is when I first saw the show uncut for the 1st time, so I'll probably be a die-hard fan of the Japanese cast until the day I die. That and the battle screams don't make feel embarrassed to watch it. (As I mentioned before, the dub is guilty of over-acting, especially when it comes to screaming and grunting. It's like the ADR director told the FUNi actors to sound like they're passing a major kidney stone or constipation or something.) At least, the dubs of the various DBZ games are much more accurate to the source material since they have reasonably accurate scripts and the VAs don't overact as much. It's funny how divisive the DBZ dub can be. I watch most of my anime dubbed, but prefer DBZ in Japanese. My friends watch all their anime subbed, but prefer DBZ in English. It's just funny... |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1936 Location: Vegas |
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Dragonball Z was created in 4:3.When Funi boasts that they cleaned it up and took it to the anamorphic,16:9,1080i level,what they did was pull it forward,(upscaling) giving you a great view of the middle of the screen,and of course took out a big chunk of the picture.I didn't realize anything was wrong,until I saw Vegeta's face.(heh,his jaw was off screen.Vegeta's jaw is rarely off screen.) Now,since I've collected Dragonball Z from back in the 90's until now, I got my hands on the Japanese tapes,the French tapes,the Spanish tapes,bootlegs like crazy,the Ocean group Dub,the 1998 Dub,the re-releases of those same Dubs,the edited version VHS set,the uncut versions VHS set,the DVD singles,and now finally the cheap-cut season boxsets. I have yet to throw down that large sum for the real (raw,fully remastered 4:3,uncut) Dragonboxes,but I'm working on that. I had a lot of versions to compare to. I compared three of the sets,side by side on three T'V's.The DVD singles,the Ocean group dub and the new 1080i boxset.Sure enough,the picture was alterted instead of the audio this time.I mean,I was shocked to find that Funi merely threw together upscaled remasters of DBZ,(probably remastered raws,directly from the Dragonboxes) and sold them for cheap. Nice. That and the canadian version loved switching entire scenes around. Good Times.
Are you talking about the original Japanese audio track? Because "Japanese Dub" would imply that such a product does not come from Japan,but was imported in,audio dubbed over,and sent into circulation. I'm a nit-picky m****-****** when it comes to these things. |
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Son-kun
Posts: 345 |
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Well at least Key gave both versions of the series a B, so I'm grateful for that. Nozawa's girlish tendencies towards voicing the Son family hasn't really bothered me at all. I just tend to view Son Goku as a child at heart. While Gohan being the faithless, doubtful son that looks up to his dad's carefree, friendly character as an example to abide by. While they sound similar, I'm impressed by the tones which Nozawa is able to differentiate the characters (Gohan being the weaker character, he sounds weaker. While in comparison, Goku's quite the opposite and more upbeat). Ryo Horikawa's Vegeta is just miles better than the snobbish rendition of Chris Sabat IMHO. He's got that suave conceit about him. He's just more badass all around. I think the only major leads that I find on par with the Japanese seiyuu would Eric Vale's Trunks and Dameon Clark's Cell.
I also find Bilis's perspective on the anime community humourous. You pretty much have all these purist Naruto, Bleach, or insert shounen anime series here fans who have sort of backwards opinion of the Dragon Ball series regarding any sort of JPN voice. More particularly male leads. Its vexxing considering that most young shounen male leads are voiced by female seiyuu and there's a good chance even when they grow into adulthood, the seiyuu will be the same. I just think that gender is not really much of an issue when picking who's right for the role in Japan. Masako Nozawa will always be Goku, Mayumi Tanaka will always be Luffy, and Junko Takeuchi will always be Naruto. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8486 Location: Penguinopolis |
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It's funny that people still complain about Masako Nozawa as the Japanese voice of Son Goku, because it shows that there are people who still don't even understand such a simple character. Folks, Goku is an adult, but still extremely child-like and naive. Therefore, the same voice he had as a child is still fit for him as an adult, because it shows just how energetic and child-like he can be. It's a perfect voice for the character, as opposed to the Superman-ish English voices he's had over the years. It seems pretty clear they intended Nozawa to continue to voice the character into adulthood for this reason. Most people understood this years ago when anime fans first discussed the series, but I guess the wisdom was never handed down.
I may have grown up mostly on Ian Corlett and Peter Kelamis, but Nozawa is the only real voice for Goku. Don't get me started on Sean Schemmel's awful performance. Anyway, I laugh at people who still feel that, after more than a decade of DBZ fandom, it's necessary to point out the obvious flaws we've all just sort of already acknowledged and accepted as part of the series. It's not new, it's not clever, and it's not funny. I plan to eventually purchase the DBZ boxsets for nostaglia purposes and watch them, then place them away with my Ronin Warriors boxset and watch them every couple of years for some junk viewing. |
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theoriginalbilis
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The DBZ season boxsets are totally worth it, considering it's the cheapest and most efficient way to own the whole series uncut. Hell, these might be some of the most affordable anime boxsets out (Yes, I am aware that most R1 anime is now being released in sets.) You can get Seasons 1 & 2 for around $30 online, that's less than a $1 an episode. Despite what FUNimation has done with the DragonBall franchise over the years (chopping up eps., changing voice casts, replacing entire scores of music, releasing overpriced 3-ep. DVDs, releasing episodes out of order, using Chris Sabat to voice nearly half of the main cast,) I'd say this is a much better release of the franchise. Yes, the video and dub have their issues. But all I want is uncut subtitled DBZ, and that's exactly what I'm getting. |
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Brakus
Posts: 130 Location: Virginia |
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Sadly, I fall firmly in the camp that finds problems with Masako Nozawa's characterization of Goku into adulthood (or in the case of the latter episode of Dragon Ball, late adolescence). It's like Japanese boys don't go through puberty at all in Japan (not that Goku is from Japan and such, but still). Boys' voices are supposed to get lower as they go through puberty. I love Nozawa-sama, but frankly I prefer Mr. Schemmel's rendition of the older Goku.
I think Sabat was just trying to voice-match Brian Drummond's initial interpretation of Vegeta, more than anything, and it stuck. There are times (especially in Season 4) that I actually preferred the Japanese voice of Vegeta in some episodes, simply because he's more "human" and less "entitled". It's not so much more "badass" as it is just "down to earth", especially when he arrives at Bulma's place hoping that Kakkarot (Goku) has returned from battling Frieza.
These shows are going to be shipped around to other countries and dubbed into their respective languages. Surprisingly, with the exception of Goku, both Naruto and Luffy are voiced by women in the English dubs (Maile Flanagan and Colleen Clinkenbeard, respectively). Ultimately, the casting decisions will be approved by the Japanese, and yeah, gender isn't really the issue in casting roles, regardless of the language, for the most part. Oh, and for the guy that took offense when "Japanese dub" was mentioned: just a reminder, ALL ANIMATION IS DUBBED, regardless of the country of origin. |
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LordPrometheus
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As far as I'm concerned, Chris Sabat MAKES Vegeta and Piccolo. I absolutely love his arrogant, brash, snobby Vegeta, and Piccolo is just plain awesome. Then again, I'm kind of a Chris Sabat fanboy and I love pretty much all his performances. 
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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I liked Chris Sabat's Vegeta but disliked his Piccolo. Although Ryo Horikawa's Vegeta is definitely my favorite performance. I just thought Horikawa got Vegeta's pride down better.
Overall I did prefer the Japanese track of DBZ but I didn't think the dub was bad. Actually I take that back I thought it was bad when Funi first took over in the Frieza arc but by the time the Majin Buu arc came around the dub improved tremendously and I really enjoyed it. I just wish they didn't get rid of the Japanese music in the dub. After reading this review and watching the recent special it makes me want to pull out my old DBZ DVDs and watch some episodes again. I haven't watched the show in years. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18346 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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It's just semantics. Since, as Miyazaki himself once put it, "all animation is dubbed," when I refer to a "Japanese dub," I'm always referring to the original Japanese voice audio track. And I side with LordPrometheus on Vegeta's voicing. Vegeta always gave me a "self-centered arrogant prick" vibe, and Chris Sabat's vocal performance brings that out perfectly. Concerning Nozawa's performance of Goku being critical to portraying him as a big child even when he's still an adult, that's baloney. 99% of my viewing of DBZ over the years has been English-dubbed, and in less intense moments I have always had that exact impression about adult Goku just from the English dub. I will agree that Funimation's English dub was not as strong in the early going as it is in the series' later stages, however. |
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Raven Shinobi
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The entire Trunks/Cell is my favorite of the DBZ arcs, besides the tournament/Gokuu vs. Bejiita/SSJ3 Gokuu vs. Buu parts of the Buu arc. Gohan's SSJ2 transformation is still one of my favorite scenes in anime, unfortunately, that was the last time that he looked like a badass.
As for audio track, I've always preferred the JP version, even Nozawa's rendition of Gokuu and his sons. I don't have a problem with the dub voices, especially since I loved Laura Bailey's rendition of chibi Trunks. Chibi Goten, Piccolo and Mr. Satan also sounded quite decent to me. Too bad though that FUNi had decided to alter more than 50% of the script, to the point of making the characters sound, well, out of character compared to their JP counterparts. A good review overall. I share the same sentiment that this is one of the few professional reviews of the series that acknowledged Dragon Balls place and influence on the entire Shounen fandom. |
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LeoKnight25
 Posts: 319 Location: Puyallup, WA |
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For the record, I'd say Dragon Ball Z is more a result of what Tomorrow's Joe, Kinnikuman, Fist of the North Star and Saint Seiya brought forth for Shonen action series. If you think about it, Saint Seiya was one of the first shows to use the formula for long drawn out battles that seemed to take place over the course of weeks, for it to actually only be just a few hours. Comparing the Sanctuary Arc to any arc in Dragon Ball Z, you can clearly see (especially in the end of Saint Seiya's Sanctuary arc during the battle with the Gold Saints) that the formula seemed to start there. Ashita no Joe and Saint Seiya both utilize very Japanese themes of "Ganbare!" or hangin' tough just enough to succeed, perseverance can overcome anything, etc. Also, both use intense training scenes, showing the characters building up to their higher power levels, albeit Seiya and his companions' training is shown more retroactively through flashbacks and kinda on-the-job-training as they get their asses handed to them time and again. Kinnikuman follows a similar story formula...training, fighting, getting stronger and ultimately succeeding based on almost sheer will-power and the kinda "Ganbare!" attitude that the Japanese have. Fist of the North Star follows up on the "super-beings" formula, with each character being distinctive in look, power, demeanor, etc. and having them duke it out for control of the world, universe...whatever. While FotNS doesn't seem to really follow the tournament formula like a lot of Shonen action shows, it does have the long, drawn out quests and small fights leading up to the big one that takes several episodes to complete. So, in all fairness, these guys are the ones who are mainly responsible for the current Shonen model. DBZ's perfection of that formula and influence is definitely felt in later shows, but to only credit DBZ with this would be pretty unfair to these other great shows and the mark that they've left on Shonen stories for many years to come.
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belvadeer
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In regards to voice acting, I guess most people seem to forget that girls are cast as boys because once we guys hit 13, we really don't sound so high pitched anymore. And while I still have mixed feelings regarding Nozawa as Goku (keeping in mind she's retired now, so no one will have to worry about her voicing another boy again) I won't deny she was good as him when he was a kid. As an adult, Goku tends to sound like an old woman in the Japanese version (not surprising Nozawa is in her 70s now) and Nozawa was 53 when DBZ was airing in Japan.
I shuddered when I heard Guilmon in Japanese. I'm sorry but compared to Blum, she just didn't capture Guilmon's cuteness at all. She didn't even try to make him sound like a cute little reptile. |
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