Censorship of the Dub

Censorship on the dub.

I'm sure all you DBZ fans have seen the dub. Most of the people who swear by the original version started off, at one point, with it. Let's face it, without that sad excuse for anime (if you can even call it that) we would probably never have gotten a single taste of DragonBall, and wouldn't be in the insane little world of our mind that we're in now. This little section is devoted to listing and pointing out the most outrageouse of edits in the little episodes we have of DragonBall Z. This list is by no means done. I'll add more and more to this list, so keep coming back. Other edits will be mentioned, once I find the time to do so. Keep in mind that this list applies only to the old dub, not the new one.

If there is anything you want to add, please feel free to e-mail me at LadyCrys@hotmail.com

1. Alcohol.

Did you ever notice the strange liquid that Muten Roshi drinks? What would you say that is? Foamy, has bubbles swimming around in it, blue. Roshi is a drinker, a heavy alcoholic who is hardly ever seen without his usually tall, frothy mug of beer or a porno magazine. (which I'll get to in a moment) Apparently, FUNimation didn't want to promote the drinking of alcoholic beverages, but c'mon, who here will NOT come in contact with any type of alcoholic beverage of any type? Course, they never SAY it's beer, they didn't have to paint it over. They're just making it more harder on themselves. Maybe it was apple cider or something. Maybe he was drinking rusty water, but above all, WHO CARES?? When people watch a show, they don't look at what the guy is drinking (although I did to list all the edits), they look and listen to HIM!

It's not just Roshi they pick on, Freeza is also seen at times drinking a substance that looks like red wine. (or blood maybe) This was painted over in green an it looks really silly to sit there watching as he continually spins his little spiked cup of god knows what.

2. Smoking.

There are quite a number of people who smoke in this country. Stick your head out of any window and you can see at least one person light up on the side walk. There is also one character in the series whoe DOES smoke, Dr.Briefs, Bulma's father. Smoking is another evil of mankind that FUNimation has also decided not to promote. In every scene, in every shot of Dr.Briefs, his cigarett has been painted out. He looks kind of sick, sitting there, with his mouth hanging slightly open. It's just plain weird.

3. Bodily Fluids and Mutilated Figures.

Body Fluid #1 : Tears

-- Gohan cries. A lot during the first few episodes. Can anyone tell me why they bothered to paint away his tears in some scenes? C'mon, he looks like he's just barking because he swallowed something sour. It's ridiculouse! They just make it even harder on themselves.

Body fluid #2 : Blood.

I guess this is an acceptable censor, but they never show so much blood that it would be utterly grotesque. In The Simpsons you can see blood spurting everywhere, yet it's still allowed on public television. I guess here, cuts and scratches and dripping wounds are really not acceptable. I know Raditz had a pretty gory death, (Blood went everywhere on the original...straight out his mouth and more) but scenes like that weren't shown very often. (I could be wrong, I haven't seen the whole series yet. There's a lot of stuff I'm missing)

Body Fluid #3 : Pee (Or urine, for the more learned) and other fecal matters.)

You can't show this because you can't show nudity on American TV, I guess. People going to the bathroom is simply unacceptable because the characters are superheroes who never have to go relieve themselves in the potty. Only old men like Muten Roshi need take a trip to the lavatories to read dirty magazines. We only go 'cause we're real people. Either that, or we want our kids to realize that they're too busy to go to the bathroom 'cause they're out saving the world and stuff. Either that, or everyone is simply constipated.

Every scene in which Gohan decides to go has been cut. Why? I'm sure you know.

Body Fluid #4 : Sweat.

Amazingly, this is the only body fluid that FUNimation has not tampered with. It's always right where it belongs, hanging on the side of someone's forehead, just like the drop of snot that they don't touch on people's noses. They paint out blood and tears but they leave in this??!!! Talk about no set guidelines! Are these censors just completely random?

Body Parts:

Many, many decapitated arms and heads and stuff. Most of them done by Vegeta.

-- Guldo's head was actually sliced off with Vegeta's blue beam. There was purple blood spatter everywhere and his body is left unattended for a long period of time. Several of shots of it can be seen with thick purple blood trailing from the stub of a neck. His head actually states cursing at him, though. After that, Veggie simply makes his head explode.

-- When Vegeta puched Zarbon in their final fight, his fist went INTO Zarbon's stomach. After that, he blows him away from the inside out into the water. ZARBON DID NOT DROWN AS IT SO SEEMS IN THE DUB. It's not that he coudn't swim, he had no more guts to do so. Lots of blood could be seen dripping from Vegeta's glove.

-- Vegeta's tail. IT GOT CUT OFF! IT GOT CUT OFF!!! WAAAAA!!! (okay, so this isn't a censor. It makes me sad, just the same)

--Heh, well, this one is a bit odd, since nothing was mutilated... that is, until FUNimation's painters got a hold of it. In the movie Tree of Might, Tales' fingers are painted away while he was holding Gohan's face to the moon. THis is probably one of the most obvious censors, as well as one of the most stupid ones. Gohan's face looks incredibly distorted and is one of th emost funniest things to look at. Heehee, I couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire movie. FUNimation also made a pathetic attempt at redrawing Gohan's face, and of course, utterly failed. I'm sure you people who've seen it know what I'm talking about.

-- During the fight between Dodoria and one of the Nameks, the pink glob visciously drove his hand straight through the back and out the stomach of the Namek. An undersandable censor, but a very odd paint job yet again. Heehee, the Namek's torso quivers insanely and is fun to look at. Heehee, poke at it! Poke it and see what will happen!!

4. Nudity.

-- In the Vegeta Saga, right after Gohan transformed and was laying on Vegeta's unconscience body, Gohan's butt was showing. FUNimation covered that up by painting a ripped part of Vegeta's spandex over that tiny little part.

--Another time, in the third movie, "The Tree of Might," when Goku was holding a naked Gohan in his arms after being blasted at. Gohan's hand was covering his "balls." At first, I didn't even notice it with my Japanese video, but when I saw the dub version, I was looking at it and wondering What is that? O.K, that just makes it look a lot worse.....

5. DEATH Never say 'die'....

This is probably one of the most biggest disgraces I have seen in the series. I'm sure everyone's noticed it. "I'll send you into another dimension" if you don't. What is wrong with this? The words 'die' and 'kill' aren't at all the least bit offensive. If anything, we are corrupting the minds of today's children by not making them aware of the tragedy and loss of death. What if, people went around killing other people because they believed that the people they killed weren't really dead. They'll think there's no problem! They're just sitting somewhere in another dimension fine and happy as a daisy. The death scenes are just so....bland. It's supposed to be tragic and dramatic, full of loss and sadness. The full experience can be witnessed on the true DBZ, but can be found nowhere in the dub. Wonderful, tearjerking music really sets the scene in the original. But noooo, in the dub, they simply blast away with their tiresome, recycled crap that they play over and over again in every scene no matter what. There simply can't be a moment of silence for those who have given their life for the Earth.

--Bodies also seem to be able to disappear when the person gets sent to 'another dimension.' In the original, bodies stay where they are, when nobody touches them, they simply stay... on the ground.... bleeding....like when Nappa killed Yamcha......you can see his dead body, with all this blood everywhere, in a crater.

A Confesion--

Okay, I admit it, now that I have seen the new season of English DBZ. I like the old dub, and I could actually stand it because they had pretty much excellent voices, even though Vegeta's sounds kinda funny...^_^ But doesn't Brian Drummond sound SO HOT as ZECHS?? Ahhhhh!!! I love them! I love them all!! Oh, you know who I mean. :P

Questions? Comments?? Suggestions???

Send them to: LadyCrys@hotmail.com

LadyCrysania