Dragon Ball

In the frosty North, near Yunzabit Heights, lies a mystical, magical land called Vancouver, where exists a studio called Ocean Productions where they localize foreign cartoons. Once upon a time, these wooly Canucks lumbered into the studio to produce an English-language dub for a show called Dragon Ball Z.  The dub was contracted to them by licensor Funimation in the big American state called Texas, where the steaks are so big, they block out the sun. They dubbed the first two "seasons" of the show under Funimation's guidance, and miscelleneous later episodes on their own.

As the Nicktoons digital cable channel continues airing Dragon Ball (Z) Kai, I continue watching. It certainly doesn't hurt that several episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender come on after. (I've become a huge fan of that show... Toph is my favorite character!) Now, as last time, I have to put into consideration the edits made for TV broadcast, and I do. Other than the most obvious edits and rewrites for TV broadcast, the script remains mostly accurate, and is still scores better than the dub script for Dragon Ball Z. But, also important, the voice acting is better in places, too.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to comment on a Dragon Ball-related dub, I thought I'd give a few thoughts on the newest one, the one for Dragon Ball (Z) Kai. I've mostly been watching this on Nicktoons, but I'm aware of the differences in the presentations between the TV version and the DVD and Blu-Rays, and have seen bits of that, too. I mostly wanted to comment on the voice acting, though I have to say, the script this time around is so much more accurate than any previous Dragon Ball-related dub, it's a real shame they couldn't have been doing this the whole time, because now it actually watches like just an English version of the Japanese show in most ways. I'd give them kudos for this, but like I said, this is what they should have been doing for years. You don't get extra points for failing for a decade and then finally doing it right.