I was e-mailed by someone from FUNimation recently who was nice enough to speak with me. We spoke a bit and in response to dbzoa.net's criticisms that person responded,

"....there are certain elements to the way a business has to run that you may not understand. It's not as black as white as you may think it is. FUNimation spends a lot of money to assure that that the mass audience is happy with Dragon Ball Z in America and that it meets the standards set by the television stations. It is their right and privilege to do it the way they want and there are perfectly good reasons for the way they have done it. Obviously, it works. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't have an opinion on the matter or that FUNimation doesn't care about your opinion, but there is a large factor that you are leaving out of your perfect equation and that is -- the fact that the majority of the United States loves DBZ the way they've seen it and that you, my friends, no matter how passionate you may be, are a minority."

You know, this person does make a very good point- we "otakus" are the minority. For each of us who prefer the original version there are dozens who watch the dub on television daily very contentedly. For every one of our complaints, there are endless profitable sales and positive remarks. So... does that mean that we're wrong? Are we just telling FUNimation to make the show less appealing and to make it more like the original just to appease us at the expense of DBZ's mass market success in America? Not by a long shot. I'm not trying to attack this person nor am I addressing this person's response in the Opinions page just because the response is from someone from FUNimation. (Believe me, this person is nowhere near the first from FUNimation to e-mail me, heh heh) However, this person makes a very good point and I have a point I'd like to make as well.

For as long as I've been writing here I've always acknowledged FUNimation's enormous success. On the other hand, I've always viewed it as what it is- a very powerful anime franchise in America.... that is not at it's maximum potential, quality-wise or profit-wise. I covered this in my "There is no arguing with success... or stupidity" editorial rather thoroughly, addressing the changes that were made that have made the show inferior in quality, enjoyability, marketability, and the bottom line for everything- profitability. But who am I to argue against FUNimation's massive success? The... number one anime in America, mind you. How on earth would someone like ME know what would be best for DBZ if I'm not the one making a large fortune on earth off of it?

If you've read my "From Hardcore Dubbie to DBZUncensored 2" editorial then you know my story. I was- THE dubbie. I watched DBZ everyday, and would have taped all the episodes if I hadn't pondered buying all the "uncut" versions of them. I thought it was the best show ever made. I knew virtually nothing about the original version and cared even less about learning anything about it- for me the dub on tv was just a-okay. I pestered people who didn't even like it to like it since, hey, everybody should just enjoy this damn good show. Short of being the son of Bill Gates, I was FUNimation's ideal type of fan. I had almost no problems with them- I thoroughly admired them. I loved them and their stuff. Had I met them at a convention I probably would have been like a starstruck, speechless fanboy honored to be in their presence. I was a part of FUNimation's much vaunted majority, and one of their most loyal fans no less.

But then I changed and of course, you know that happened. But look at it this way- FUNimation says that they do what they do because, "We are a business, and businesses are supposed to make the most money they can. We do- what we do- because we want this show to appeal to as many people as possible and we want to make the most money possible. Look at our success- I think we know what we're doing." I do believe that FUNimation sincerely believes this when they say this. However, when I learned the truth... I wasn't happy at all. If they really "improved" stuff that much then why did I consider the original version so infinitely better when I did see it for myself?

I didn't watch DBZ when I was a dubbie because I hated musical moments of silence- I just didn't realize that DBZ was actually supposed to have some. I didn't watch DBZ because of Bruce Faulconer- like I said, his stuff was at best just "average" and now that I think about it, it hardly ever really did a good job of powerfully conveying the emotional moments in the show. (cough, cough, SSJ2) I didn't watch DBZ because Kurilin said, "Hey bro!" or "Mondo cool!" all the time- I accepted the "Americanized" dialogue because, at the time, I didn't know how inappropriate it was for it to be there in an anime being said by a Japanese guy in a martial arts ki in his 20's-30's, and because I was used to it from watching other American shows. I watched the dub of DBZ because... it was different. It was a style of animation completely foreign and very intriguing to me. The overall story (Goku goes SSJ, crazy fights) based off of Toriyama's manga and the action were what also got me. And yes- it had some very strong character developments, even in the dub. I knew what I like, and I liked the dub of DBZ as shown to me.

However, after watching both versions and knowing the truth, look what happened to me. I pretty much reacted in the most extremist way possible in which any DBZ fan possibly could have done- I "revived" DBZUncensored with my own DBZUncensored 2 on dbzoa.net to voice my criticisms against FUNimation and to help other fans learn the truth as I did. Why did I react so strongly and harshly? If FUNimation's version was so much "better" then why did I feel so betrayed? Why did I feel like they were ruining a piece of art and then simply not caring at all? Because, that was exactly what they were doing. All my friends I've shown my fansubs to have all been converted away from the dub. Obviously there's something about the differences between the two versions which makes the Japanese version much better.

And I have another story- one day while talking to a friend I showed him a link to dbzoa.net. And I then told him about FUNimation skipping 16 episodes, 25%, of all of GT and not wanting to show it till after the rest of the show is finished. "Why on earth are they doing that," he asked. I responded, "Well... you'd have to ask FUNimation that." This person is now making the transition from dub to DVD and sub, and is realizing what real DBZ is all about.

In America, dubs almost always outsell and are prefered to over their original versions, although lots of them (Yu-gi-oh, and especially ANYTHING by "4Kids" in particular) really get screwed over in the dubbing and so-called "Americanization" process. In fact, only 2 dubs in the history of anime in America have ever been numericaly considered by the majority of all fans in America inferior to their original counterparts- Robotech and Card Captors. Robotech combined 3 animes series into one, and immensely pissed off those who saw it and were deceived. People even sent Carl Macek death threats, and insulted and heckled him in public in front of his friends and family for what he did. (I wonder what'll happen to Gen when he shows the first 16 GT episodes after GT's final episode as "flashback episodes"...) Card Captors replaced the music, skipped tons of episodes, rewrote/changed a lot to make the show look more "action-oriented" than it really is and showed past skipped episodes at bizarre points as "flashback episodes." The Japanese version with subtitles on DVD ultimately outsold the English "Americanized" version on DVD, and the English dubbing company were besieged with enormous amounts of criticism.

Yes, the majority of all fans in America do prefer the dub over the original and probably always will- and that isn't an unusual pattern, even for the worst of dubs. Why is that? Is it because the dubbed version better and more appealing to a wider audience? That's not why. The reason they don't like the original version more is for no reason other than the fact... that the majority of all fans in America don't understand the true differences between the dub they're watching and the original version they know little to nothing of. Most fans don't know the difference between "dub and sub" and thus, will always go with dub because it's in their language.

Am I saying that "all subs are inferior to any of their dubbed counterparts?" No, I don't think all "subs" are "the superior version." I actually think certain dubs, even some of FUNimation's dubs, are better than their original counterparts- but that's a whole nother topic for another day. My point in stating this is that since most fans don't realize that "dub vs. sub" can be and is an issue for certain animes, it is a complete non-issue for most fans. And has every DBZ fan seen both versions in depth and studied or read enough about FUNimation to know what's really going on or why they do the things that they do? Of course not, and sadly they probably never will. If every fan in America understood and were to see for themselves the differences between the two versions and understand what FUNimation's done and why they've done it to DBZ... then us otaku wouldn't be the minority, we would be the majority. Bear this in mind when considering the fact that the dubbed, "Americanized" version is more popular than the original version.

- GreatSaiyaman777