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.