Recently it's been announced that FUNimation is working on (or is close to working on) a redub of DBZ Seasons 1 and 2. Originally they sold all the rights of the first 2 seasons (and later, or earlier, the first 3 DBZ movies) to Pioneer back when they were short on funds around 1998/1999, and the temporary license was to extend until August 31, 2003. However- when they got the rights, Pioneer didn't release an uncut redub of the first 2 seasons (which were heavily censored and had about 13 episodes worth of stuff cut out). Why? As Sonny Strait phrased it, "Pioneer's making so much money off those episodes that I don't think they're really interesting in redubbing them.

However... the treatment of those two seasons is something that fans have complained about to FUNimation for years upon years. And as the rights return to them, sales for the first 2 seasons (which were VERY QUICKLY released on well-priced DVD/VHS boxed sets, with original cover art and inserts, by Pioneer, btw. The episodes may not be great, but the sales of them to fans have been treated fabulously)... are pretty much now dry.

So, the idea has come into mind- why not redub them? After all, FUNimation can simply pass the buck to Saban and again blame them for 100% of all the problems and say that it's their fault that a redub is necessary. (Saban is very responsible, but FUNimation did a lot themselves to ruin those seasons as well, and both parties are guilty in terms of ruining the first two seasons.) And what DBZ fan wouldn't want to see 13 episodes of "mysterious uncut, lost DBZ episodes" stuff? And by releasing them ONLY on DVD and VHS and never showing them on tv... fans will have to buy them to see them. There's a lot of profits potential in this project.

When I heard that Chuck Huber was to be the director of the project, I was pleasantly surprised. Although I have no idea what kind of directing skills he might possess, he has done a lot of consistently good work and may have the potential to do a really good job. And he's friends with director Justin Cook, right? But- he's never directed before... So will he really be able to get everything 100% right? So, I decided to send him a letter offering him my advice and criticisms- no harm done in doing that I suppose. In fact, there'd technically be more harm in me simply not attempting to do anything then at least trying something. The letter wound up becoming massively long so I figured- why not preserve it here for others to see? So, here's my letter to everyone's favorite multiple-eyed, short spectral monster with a sharp blade, Chuck Huber.

*******

Dear Mr. Chuck Huber,



Hello, allow me to introduce myself. My name is GreatSaiyaman777 and I run DBZUncensored 2 over at dbzoa.net. You've... probably heard of me before. In any case, allow me to explain myself.


I strongly dislike FUNimation. I disagree with many of their methods and opinions. I cannot stand the greedy executives and the "watering down animes makes them more mondo profitable! BRUCE FAULCONER- fire up your Casio you Mr. Mozart, you! We need more of your INGENIUS MUSIC!" tap and dance routine that they've been doing for almost a full decade now. And I myself do what I do because I really would like to see FUNimation clean up their act and start treating DBZ with the respect it truly deserves. However, I do not hate -every- single person at FUNimation or all of their anime dubs. There are many people there I actually like and whose works I am a fan of. (say, John Burgmeir, Eric Vale and Kyle Hebert, just to name only a handful. And man, you guys got some fiiiiine voice actresses working for ya, heh heh.) For instance, I really like the Yu Yu Hakusho dub and I think you do a terrific job with Hiei, even better than what the original Japanese voice actor did with him. That being said, why am I here talking to you?

Well for starters, I'd like to congratulate you on getting the directing job of the redub of DBZ Seasons 1 and 2. If you can handle the DBZ re-dub the same way you handle Heie, I think I'll be very happy with the results. Or, if you can handle the dub the same way Justin Cook handles Yu Yu Hakusho, I think I'll also be very happy with the results. And that's why I'm here- just to try and help you out. Whether you agree with me wholeheartedly and want to present DBZ in the fashion Akira Toriyama and Toei intended and in the manner the majority of all fans across the globe have seen and loved it, or completely disagree with every word I have to say, I'd just like to try and help you do the best directing job humanly possible by offering you some friendly advice.

For starters, there are certain things that need to be done to ensure that the DBZ redub is at it's maximum quality level for enjoyment by the fans. First of all....



1. LET THERE BE CURSING.

No seriously, let there be cursing. I understand that FUNimation sometimes adds more curse words to Yu Yu Hakusho than are actually there. I'm not complaining, it's not like Anime Labs style cursing where they might say, "GO F*** YOURSELF TOGURO! I'M GOING TO GO KILL YOUR SORRY B**** ASS YOU G******** MOTHER F*****!"


However.... in DBZ... there is far LESS cursing in the uncut dub than is present in the original version. For example, all 7 DBZ FUNimation movies have had over 50 watered-down pseudo swear words (ex.- "gosh", "heck", "darn") and only- ONLY- 3 "real" swear words. And Movie 8, the latest DBZ release by FUNimation to date, doesn't have any... and Pioneer's 3 movie dubs all had about the same number of swear words as there were in the original. (With some even added in. Like ChiChi saying, "What the HELL do you want?" Man, that was so awesome to hear her say that.)

I know what the deal is and truthfully, it sickens me. HFIL, it even unanimously sickens all the "dubbies" I've mentioned this to so far, as what it is is a complete butchering, censoring and insult to the version they prefer. You probably know it but, Gen Fukunaga ordered all the DBZ dubbed script writers to intentionally include virtually no swear words throughout any of the cut and UNCUT episodes.... and the movies. (And Movie 7 was apparently just an "accident" that slipped by... but he made sure there was no "repeat" for Movie 8) Why?


"Well, we don't want parents or kids or anyone to be too offended by the uncut version we present." You have shown us Bulma's boobies... and her ass... and the graphic chopping up and empalement of Freeza and Kuririn. Hell, you even showed us Vegeta's and Goku's asses. So, in comparison to these graphics shots which are made available on your uncut tapes for anyone who purchases them to see them without any censorship, why would adding (or rather, keeping) a few swear words be all that bad?

DBZ actually does have quite a few, but not an extreme amount, but- that doesn't give FUNimation ANY right to cut them out in the tapes which they label and falsely promise to be "Uncut." Besides, "Uncut" tapes include disclaimers as warnings- so why go to the length of adding censorship to something whose main marketing advertisement to begin with is, "Here is the dirty, crazy stuff we had to censor. Buy this and you can see what real DBZ is that those network censors won't let us show you!" And besides that, if pretty much EVERY OTHER SINGLE ONE of FUNimation's other anime dubs can all have cursing, then why can't DBZ's? If DBZ is FUNimation's "crown jewel" of anime properties so to speak, then why is it being singled out for censorship in it's uncut format and being treated the worst in terms of censorship?

You like Yu Yu Hakusho and are a big fan of that series... so just imagine this-

In another time, an anime company besides FUNimation grabs the rights to Yu Yu Hakusho. They replace all of the music with cheap "hip, totally in, modernized" techno with no moments of silence, (which the CEO of that company privately admits to not even considering to be "decent" music while stating he himself actually considers the original score to be of superior quality- much like Gen once did while talking about DBZ) they mistranslate about 60 episodes (or rather, based "dub scripts" off of cheaply and heavily mistranslated ones- and had someone like [shudder] Neel Bligh "work" on them), AND THEN go out of their way to wash out everybody's mouths with soap and water, even in the supposedly "uncut" version they promise doesn't have any censorship. You are a hardcore fan of the original who knows what the original version is all about and is like and you see what is happening to your favorite anime. How would you feel?


You'd be very angry and feel extremely insulted. It'd be like the anime company was raping you and then demanding that you "just like back and enjoy it." And to top it off, they're just ignoring EVERY complaint you and other fans have about the way they handle things... And because that dub might happen to be successful on tv anyway, the people in the company then insist to themselves, "WHEE, look at all this success! Yeah, like we'd actually make MORE money if we treated this anime with more respect! Sorry anime snobs, but we're making things more appealing to little kids this way and thus, are making MORE money. We... MIGHT make more by being as true to the original Yu Yu Hakusho anime as humanly possible and showing it the respect 'hardcore fans' keep claiming it actually deserves... but I digress. Besides, quite frankly we don't care about complaints at all! We hate them and we despise every single person that isn't perfectly happy with us! After all, there is no arguing with success so what's the point in even bothering to attempt to argue with our amazing success? Now please, stop your complaining and just buy our nice DVD's and shut up like good little anime snobs, okay?"


As you can see, making changes this drastic to a show someone loves can be something that hurts them very personally. In any case, if the Soccer Moms of America aren't marching on Washington DC to protest FUNimation's showcasing of teenage female, topless, bare-breasted cartoon nudity in an uncensored version of a show mainly being targeted towards our "innocent youth," then why would they organize over Goku and the Z team letting loose with a few swears? The nudity in DB is what drew the wrath of that religious conservative in Dallas to kick the DB/Z Viz comics out of Toys R' US and to temporarily get Viz to censor their work... do you think he'd have reacted just as crazily if there had been NO nudity but only cursing?

Please... I know that this might be beyond your control as this order came came directly from FUNimation CEO Gen Fukunaga, but I encourage you and others at FUNimation to fight it and show that traitor to his race what a fool he is and what a worthless simpleton's idea censoring the "uncut" tapes is. After all, when DBZ subbed first came out on DVD- and Gen Fukunaga personally ordered Steve Simmons to include not one single "real" curse word- fans complained and FUNimation responded to them, and Steve was then allowed to really let the curse words be translated the way they should be.... so what's the deal, does this mean that FUNimation cares more about subbed fans than dubbed fans?


Just remember this- dubbed fans haven't bitched as much about the "'uncut' curse words censoring" because they have been UNAWARE of it for such a long time. If someone were to make them completely aware, they would bitch heavily and angrily at FUNimation. Fans were made aware of the sub cursing by Chris Psaros and also gave you guys holy hell till you stopped. Am I going to have to go to the length of reviewing about 200 dubbed episodes while pointing out the 1,000+ instances of Gen Fukunaga-ordered "uncut" censorship while getting fans to give you guys holy hell before you'll let the cursing in the dubbed version be 100% uncut?

Gen Fukunaga's an idiot anyway. If you really, and I mean REALLY consider it an HONOR to work on DBZ then you need to step up to him and tell him you won't stand for his foolish double standards and backstabbing of dub fans. He's a completely spineless coward anyway, so I'm sure it won't take much to convince him otherwise. Besides... if you and others at FUNimation aren't willing to stand up to him, then what real right would any of you have to call yourselves DBZ fans? Or to think that you deserve to be allowed to work on an anime as great, world-famous and well-liked as DBZ? Please, the censoring madness has been going on long enough, just get that overgrown twinkie to stop it.




2. The Casio Keyboard Music to an Americanized DBZ episode ran through my mind."

Ah, the music. There's a lot I could say...
http://dbzoa.net/dbzuncensored/opinions/cpsaros.html
But I'll just let my good buddy Chris Psaros handle this one. Also, I'd like to add that:

ALMOST EVERY OTHER NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY OUTSIDE OF AMERICA HAS HAD DBZ WITH THE ORIGINAL MUSIC. AND IT'S BEEN SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONALLY IN SPITE OF IT. HELL, IT WAS MORE POPULAR IN MEXICO THAN IN AMERICA. PERHAPS WE HAVE 3X AS MANY PEOPLE AND WAY MORE MONEY, BUT IT MEANT MORE TO A MUCH LARGER PERCENTAGE OF THAT COUNTRY THAN DUBBED DBZ HAS TO AMERICANS HERE. AND GERMANY HAS DOZENS OF CD'S THAT HAVE SOLD MUCH BETTER THAN THE AMERICAN ONES. WHAT EXACTLY DO THESE FACTS AND FIGURES SAY?

Besides, the "no silence, because kiddies and Americans will flip the remote otherwise and NEVER look back!" rule is simply an outdated stupidity that mice and men like Barry Watson and Gen Fukunaga have been clinging to for far, far, far too long. Check out Japanese DBZ episode 98 to see what I mean.

When Freeza murders Goku's friends one by one, and everything goes quite except for the wind... you can really feel what just happened... and how Son Goku must truly feel, and what a terrible loss has just occured. You can almost feel your heart stopping at the horrible things that have just happened and at what a vicious and heartless creature Freeza truly is. In the dub, it sounds like it was intentionally "de-dramatized musically" (ie, like when CN exec's told Faulconer to put in "happy, light music" when Gohan's teacher Mr. Sho beat him since they considered that scene "too sensitive") and there is absolutely no silence... and the bland music just DOESN'T STOP. It's lacking in emotion, and it makes the viewers feel very emotionally disconnected from what just happened. In fact, it's actually quite boring and repetitive. Rather then making the viewer feel like they're connected to the events that just happened- and are right there beside Goku and everyone else- they do the exact opposite and make them feel disconnected. Which of the two feelings do you think fans would really like to experience when watching this fine series?


Besides that, wasn't Yu Yu Hakusho just declared one of the "Top 5 Best Picks" by TV Guide or some other prestigious magazine? And didn't Yu Yu Hakusho... compete with DBZ for ratings in Japan and get just, JUST one million less than DBZ? (23,000,000) DBZ still did better... so that means that slightly more fans liked it for certain reasons...

Perhaps it's because DBZ's original score is at least slightly better than the Yu Yu Hakusho's original score, which is already being well received by the mass American viewing audience? Perhaps the inaccurate DBZ dub has gotten popular enough to inspire companies to make new games, but the good and accurate Yu Yu Hakusho dub has gotten popular enough too to inspire companies to make new games. Perhaps accurate and good anime dubs really do have the potential to do well in America without any "Americanizing, beefing up, hipping up, de-silencifying"?

But I digress. If you haven't already seen the first 67 original episodes and compared them to their dubbed counterparts, then you need to... and I think you'll be pleasantly suprised by what a great score DBZ has. If not- well, Justin Cook watched all 100+ Yu Yu episodes OVER SIX TIMES to prepare himself for directing, and look what a great job he's done! If you have not already done so, then I encourage you to follow Mr. Cook's excellent and highly professional example and familiarize yourself totally with what you're about to do. If you do not do this, then... well, let's look at how things first went:

When FUNimation first dubbed DBZ, Barry Watson and nobody else at FUNimation (including even a certain you-know-who who actually knew the language) even BOTHERED TO GO TO THE EFFORT of watching fansubs or seriously familiarizing themselves with the series. Barry, I know for a fact, doesn't give a shit about production... Well, he might for GT, (I doubt it though, that rap shit was partly his idea) but I know he never really gave one about DBZ. DBZ was just a good 9/5er to put food on his table and keep him employed, not much more beyond that. Mr. Cook... well, lots of fans think the Yu Yu Hakusho dub is really good- and he definitely gave much, much more than a simple "shit" about the Yu Yu Hakusho dub, unlike our friend Barry. Follow his example (and watch the first 2 seasons in their original, uncensored format AT LEAST TWO TIMES. And if you're really desperate to find fansubs.... e-mail me, and I'll be happy to help you out.) and you should do fine.

Also, make sure in particular that ALL of the script writers familiarize themselves too, as well as all of your main voice actors. If everybody at FUNimation could set aside time for 10 episodes a day (about 4 hours, or just 1/4th of the daily time that isn't spent sleeping an 8 hours average amount) then they could all watch the first two, uncut and uncensored seasons in just about ONE SINGLE WEEK. Thus, there is really no excuse for anyone at FUNimation not to be able to do this... unless they just don't care enough to go the extra effort of being able to do the best job humanly possible.


3. ALL YOUR BASE- ARE BELONG TO US. MOVE ZIG, MOVE ZIG, MOVE ZIG, MOVIE ZIG, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DOING, TAKE OFF EVERY ZIG.


Tenshinhan- "You just wait... UNTIL IT GROWS BACK!"

Son Goku- "Vegeta... he must have turned into an ape and CRUSHED MY GRANDFATHER! Okay, grandfather- this next attack is in your honor for Vegeta killing you!"

Goku- "This is my son, Gohan. He's 5 and a half years old."

Raditz- "Your planet, Kakarrot, blew up THREE YEARS AGO SHORTLY AFTER YOU WERE TAKEN AWAY AS A NEWBORN BABY!"

Vegeta- "Don't you try to sneak up on me- or you just might find yourself in another dimension!"

"'The series' storyline is already set up, but the finer touches of the characters are often lost in translation,' says Burgmeier, who majored in English at UNT. 'The translations are really rudimentary.'"

Barry Watson- "We get translated scripts from Japan, from the original Dragon Ball show, but a lot of the time it's very difficult--the English is sketchy at best, the character names will be very inconsistent, things of that nature. So our writers will go through and write a legitimate English script that's recordable."

Reporter Jimmy Fowler- "Along with the master Dragonball Z tapes from Toei, Ltd. come direct, often bizarrely obtuse English translations of the Japanese dialogue, which are turned into rhythmic English dialogue by script writers and veteran voice actors in Austin and Canada."

Conversation between Kaio of Planet Namek and head translator Steven J. Simmons-
"Kaio: Just out of curiousty, how do you think he judged your scripts?
Kaio: By using what translations had already been made by the studio, and comparing?
Daimao: If I remember correctly, they (the brass and the DVD crew) found the episode I had translated, and with the volume down, read the script out loud to each part.
Kaio: Wow.
Kaio: I can definitely see how your translations would work for that.
Daimao: They do have some rather haggard translations available to them.
Kaio: Well, obviously if they're dubbing the show.
Kaio: Those translations probaly cause some of the problems with the dub. :)
Daimao: Yeah, undoubtedly.
Daimao: So they may have compared them. Not sure how they could have judged the accuracy that way though. "

Chris Psaros- "Do you ever listen to the Japanese performances or try to emulate them?"
Ian Corlett- "Occasionally, but only when a translation isn't working out. "


You know the drill- EVERY SINGLE DBZ dubbed episode of Seasons 1 and 2 were based off of heavily mistranslated scripts... why? Well... for one (and, perhaps most importantly to FUNimation) they were FREE. 2nd... egh, who cares if we mistranslate this stuff, does it really matter? It's just a lame little Jap cartoon, it's not like the "finer points" are actually important or anybody would really care about them, right? And 3rd... hey, I just had a BRILLIANT idea- if we use these... WE CAN SAVE THE WAGES OF HAVING TO HIRE ONE WHOLE EXTRA EMPLOYEE! THAT'S MORE PROFITS FOR OURSELVES SINCE IT'S LESS PEOPLE TO SHARE IT WITH!

Besides, Christopher Neel Bligh was one of the main script writer and- well... if you've seen my latest editorial, you'll see. And in addition, the original dubbed scripts were "Sabanized" and made so squeaky clean that even the most conservative of bible-thumping soccer moms would have great difficulty being offended by them. And, of course, also to adjust to the 13 cut-out episodes being taken away partly in order to save costs because FUNimation wanted to try and reduce costs. (less episodes having to be dubbed = less costs.)

To summarize things, the dubbed scripts for Seasons 1 and 2 are basically garbage and are all based off garbage and incredibly inconsistent translations. So don't try to be "consistent" with them. They're so messed-up to begin with that that just wouldn't work out.

As for who should write them, I personally recommend either- John Burgmeier, Chris Sabat, Eric Vale, Andrew Rye and/or Jared Hedges. That's not to say that every other one of your script writers are bad- they're just the ones I'm most familiar with, and I'd trust every one of them to work on the redub. Byron Watson... I dunno... he worked on Movie 7 with Neel Bligh as a cowriter, so it's hard to tell if he'd actually be good or bad... As for Neel Bligh, again, KEEP THAT MAN AWAY FROM THE REDUB SCRIPTS AS MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. AVOID HIM LIKE THE SARS VIRUS. Right now that moron is STILL a "temporary worker" for FUNimation. Do us all a favor and make him a permanent non-worker for FUNimation.




4. Royalties for every second it's heard- are they really worth it?

FUNimation can't earn any royalties for every second yet another dubbed soundtrack would be heard on tv... since FUNimation doesn't plan on showing it on tv. Besides, even if the redub is destined to be shown on the airwaves, Gen once complained in an interview that he couldn't make money just from the royalties tv stations pay him to show the episodes on tv. Besides that, contrary to what propaganda FUNimation might try and get others and even their ownselves to believe, BUYING THE ORIGINAL SCORE WOULD BE INFINITELY BETTER THAN SIMPLY FINANCING THE CREATION OF YET ANOTHER INFERIOR-QUALITY REPLACEMENT SOUNDTRACK.

But of course, I'm sure FUNimation's latest round of psychologists testing 2-11 year old male children (their, gasp- CORE AUDIENCE!) for field results on how to handle things will contradict what I just told you. But before you they do, let me give you a little story...

When I first saw Movie 7 I was pissed. Why? Because the music was too Japanese. "God, that SUCKED! What... WAS that awful stuff! It needs more rock, more techno, more American stuff! This Japanese stuff is just awful." The 2nd time I saw it? "Hmm... well- it is different. Maybe it's not that bad..." The 3rd time? "Hey- this really does ROCK! Just because it's different doesn't mean it sucks- hell, it's 'difference' to mainstream stuff actually is pretty cool! I think I can definitely learn to like the Japanese music as well as the American music." Eventually, I'd learn to like it more than the dubbed American music I had loyally been listening to for 2 years. So to sum up what I just said- first time reactions mean jack. Give the original score a chance and the fans can (and WILL) learn to like it. If it's already happened like that elsewhere around the world, then there's no reason why it shouldn't be able to happen in America.

Embrace DBZ's difference, don't change everything to make it "more mainstream." Give it chance- millions are already hooked up superpowerful Japanese people beating the crap out of everybody- so why would accepting Japanese music be such a big stretch from that? (And isn't the Yu Yu Hakusho fanbase of the extremely successful Yu Yu Hakusho dub mainly made up of fans from the DBZ crowd who are enjoying Yu Yu Hakusho's JAPANESE music?) Besides, who watches dubbed animes and then says, "Man, that was just like every other cookie-cutter cartoon on tv... THAT'S WHY I LIKE WATCHING THIS JAPANESE ANIME SO MUCH- BECAUSE IT'S JUST SO MUCH LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE OUT THERE!" To answer my question- nobody.




5. The Voices.

Wow, your voice actors have definitely improved dramatically over the years. But the Ocean actors are still as good (actually probably even better now that they've garnered even more experience) as when they were first hired. You don't need to fire all of your new cast and I'm certainly not suggesting that, but why not bring back some of the Ocean cast?

Specifically, the entire Ginyu Force? In DBZ Budokai, Brice Armstrong was better as Ginyu than Dale Kelly was... but not quite as good as Richard Newman. Chris Sabat can do a nice Vegeta, Dodoria, Mr. Popo, Kami, but he got way too many assigned roles in Season 3... what about Piccolo? Everybody loved Scott McNeil and he was perfect as Piccolo- why not bring back the Great Demon King of earth to handle everybody's favorite former Devil? Drummond... eh, I've heard only a few clips, I think he gets slightly better than Sabat during the last 2-3 seasons but... as much as I hate to ignite the wrath of ocean-db.net, I guess Chris will do fine here.

Goku... look, Ian Corlett has always been the BEST Son Goku. Sean Schemmel started out sounding like Ian Corlett then stopped caring as much later on and, as Goku was "now his," took him into some new and exciting directions- Goku sounds less human, charming and "regular dude-like" and more "superheroic" like Superman's latest addition to the Super Friends. It's... not an improvement. Sure, most people are content with his Goku but I used to be like more people- and now I like Ian better after having really familiarizing myself with the intricacies of the DBZ dubs. Either have him be equally or superiorly good as he was in Movie 6 and go back to voicing Goku the way FUNimation originally intended Son Goku to be and the fans first saw Goku, or please have Ian come back to the role he originally breathed life into.

Same goes for Don Brown and Kaioh- Don Brown even commented in a radio interview that he was offended by the enormous lisp that Sabat/Schemmel/Watson bestowed upon Kaioh in Season 3. And in some of his latest work Sean had Kaioh say, "Ah, Goku. Such a care...FWEEEEE spiwrit!" He's supposed to be a GOD OF THE AFTERLIFE WHO IS EXTREMELY WISE BEYOND MORTAL WISDOM, and he can't even pronounce his r's correctly half the time?

Yamucha... man, could you please bring back Ted Cole? Remember, he's still a badass during DBZ Seasons 1 and 2 so that voice was just perfect for him. The "gnarly surfer dude" voice just isn't him.

The Narrator... ugh. I really don't like Dale Kelly's work in general, but Kyle Hebert's is fine. However, Kyle's voice is just a slightly improved imititation of the "new" Narrator voice that was created in DBZ Season 3- and it still sucks. Even in the DBZ Budokai dub, with great scripts and the original music the "Monster Truck Announcer" voice still didn't really fit in. Have Kyle change it to something like Doc Harris or something new, or bring back Doc Harris, or get something like the DB Narrator's voice. (Brice Armstrong's Narrator voice rocks).

Raditz? Well, Justin Cook did an impressive job as him in the DBZ Budokai dub- I didn't even know it was him, I thought it was the original guy Jason Gray-Stanford. Still, Jason originally gave Raditz his voice (okay, it "technically" wasn't him it was some other guy that originally came before Jason but was replaced due to financial reasons... What was that story again D?) so it'd be cool to have the original Raditz back just for the sheer novelty of it. (But man oh man oh man, Phil Parsons really, really, really SUCKED as Nappa in DBZ Budokai. DO NOT REUSE HIM, go with Michael Dobson again. Michael was pretty much perfect as Nappa to begin with, so why throw away and replace a performance as great as that?)

And Gohan. I still miss Saffron Henderson's Gohan- but I guess she probably won't be coming back, huh? And the voice will probably still be the same as when it was altered in Season 3, huh? That sucks. :(

As for Freeza... Lynda Chambers just sucks. The "grandmotherly" voice for Freeza has never worked out for him. (Nor, ESPECIALLY, have any of the homosexually flirtacious and effeminate lines the male alien has been given) Sure, she bake you guys lots of cookies and is friends with many of you and may be related to Burgmeier, but this is about making the best dub possible, not getting jobs for friends just to be nice. Please, just bring back the original Pauline Newstone or have Lynda sound like her instead.


But, basically though, the vast majority of the new DBZ character cast has improved dramatically and is just fine- and I don't have too many complaints about the rest of the cast beyond this. But you really should combine the best talents of FUNimation and Ocean Studios (or at least just some of them- there were about 30 total, and FUNimation's easily got more than enough time and money to gather together as many of them back as they would want) together in order to give the DBZ redub the best voice acting it can possibly get.


6. Read DBZUncensored!

The most famous DBZ web page of all time- DBZUncensored.
The most well-respected webmaster of all time- Chris Psaros.
The most talked about DBZ web page of all time- DBZUncensored.
The most talked about webmaster of all time- Chris Psaros.

Notice a pattern. :) Chris has even inspired at LEAST a dozen other anime Uncensored sites based directly and indirectly off of his work. He spent over a year talking about and dissecting the dub of the first 2 seasons... quite impressive. And having worked on DBZU2 for almost a full year now, I can vouch that that guy worked very hard and passionately to produce the stuff he did. I encourage you to explore EVERY LAST INCH of that site to know what Season 1 and 2's harshest critic of all time (who at least tens of thousands of DBZ fans have found themselves in complete agreement with over the years...) thought and had to say. Hey, at the very least you'll know what the biggest problems were, and how to avoid repeating them.




7. Let the episodes ALL be 100% uncut. And follow the DVD examples of Pioneer.

As of the Buu saga, all DBZ DVD's are 100% uncut as humanly possible- all that's missing are the Japanese previews, the Japanese ending kanji credits, and all but the last of each DVD's English preview. Yes, Toei didn't give you guys the J. previews of credits, BUT- the first 1/2 of DBZ has finally been released for sale in Japan. Thus, the right to use all of the previews and show all of the ending kanji credits for the first two seasons has been given back to you.

Show them all. Also, could you do an "alternate angle" for the DBZ DVD Japanese credits (ala GT) where English translations are provided for the kanji-impaired? Also... FOR THE LOVE OF THE DEAR, SWEET GUARDIAN OF THE EARTH, JUST TRANSLATE THE KANJI WRITING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN FOR BOTH THE ENGLISH AND JAPANESE VERSIONS! Seriously, Movie 8 didn't have any kanji translations- and Yu Yu has almost ALL of it's kanji translating- so why treat the "crown jewel" property completely inferior in this aspect? It makes absolutely no sense. Pioneer's VHS Ranma tapes from the 1980'S had translations for ALL kanji writing back then. It's 2003 now for FUNimation... and you guys want everyone to consider FUNimation to be as professional an anime dubbing company as humanly possible... and it's not like people don't know that that's Japanese foreign writing that's being left untranslated- and aren't curious about what the writing really says.

Also, be sure to follow another example of the GT DVD's (and Pioneer DBZ ones) and include original cover art for each DVD, along with inserts. As for extras... if you want to include some (say, the kanji translations like Yu Yu Hakusho has) then that'd be GREAT. If you don't want to include any... then please don't list the FUNimation trailers as "extras." When FUNimation put down "extras" on 70+ DBZ DVD's without absolutely any, they led many fans to expect and demand extras from you. Sure, maybe Pioneer doesn't get bitched at when it doesn't include extras, but Pioneer doesn't try to pass off all of it's pro-Pioneer advertisements as "extras" to the fans. If they did that all the time, then they would be leading their fans and customers to always expect real extras when they purchase DVD's.




Well, that's my two cents Mr. Huber. Toss them back- invest them wisely- do with them what you will. But, as long as the DBZ redub is just as good as the DB or Yu Yu Hakusho dubs, then I think I'll be happy. Good luck, and I hope you do a great job directing the redub of DBZ Seasons 1 and 2.

Sincerely,

The GreatSaiyaman777
*******


And, there ya go. (Crosses his fingers.) Well, here's hoping against hope that FUNimation gets the redub right. Movie 8 was pretty much fine except for the music. As long as they don't insist on butchering that yet again, the redub should turn out just fine...

- GreatSaiyaman777