making sense of best version of (sigh) Dragonball / Z

Deusfaux

Dad's... (stepson?) is into that kind of stuff and I'm trying to figure out what'd the definitive versions of the series; Dragonball, Z, AND GT.

You can probably understand my confusion because there's like 5 sets of voice actors (4 english and 1 Japanese) for the first series, for example.

Do purists consider Japanese voices with english subs the best? Or is the english voice acting good enough to give it a pass? (which english?!)

In that case, which production run?

Then there seems to be major issues with cuts and editing and censorship, as well as issues with licensing on certain episodes and conflicting dubs.

Kyougu

I'm personally partial to the Ultimate Uncut Special Editions because they have the spanish track, which I thought was the best dubbing for the show. Though that point is null is the stepson doesn't understand spanish. They're also pricey.
The current Season Sets are you're best bet. Affordable with the price to episode ration being good, and it has redone dubbing and even allows you to have the english voices with the original japanese soundtrack, which was a blessing.

An-D

I couldn't stand the Japanese voice actors for DBZ. The American/English ones do a pretty decent job and unless you think he would prefer reading subs, I'd stick to English dubbing. The actors change, but its mostly based on the season/saga its in. So, they don't switch out mid-saga with new voices.

I'm pretty sure a bunch of 'uncensored' DVDs have been released for the entire series. If he's really into it, I'd just start off from the beginning. Its good stuff.

Deusfaux

for Z, the current season sets are uncut? and there does appear to be decent voice acting choices...

is the only downside to those the controversial cropping to 16:9?

edit: apparently detail is lost too...

Zephonate

If you're a fan, you can't go wrong with the season sets. Uncut, widescreen, surround sound, lots of episodes, DVD quality, and the optional Japanese music. Very well put-together packages.

I hear other fans' gripes about these sets, but I ask them: do you truly believe Funimation would give us better than this? This is as definitive as it's going to get.

I've heard that similar box sets are also in the works for Dragon Ball and GT, but no idea when they're coming out.

Scott_Cameron

Deusfaux wrote: »

Dad's... (stepson?) is into that kind of stuff and I'm trying to figure out what'd the definitive versions of the series; Dragonball, Z, AND GT.

You can probably understand my confusion because there's like 5 sets of voice actors (4 english and 1 Japanese) for the first series, for example.

Do purists consider Japanese voices with english subs the best? Or is the english voice acting good enough to give it a pass? (which english?!)

In that case, which production run?

Then there seems to be major issues with cuts and editing and censorship, as well as issues with licensing on certain episodes and conflicting dubs.

I know An-D said he couldn't stand the Japanese voice actors, but most Dragonball (and notice I didn't just say DBZ; I mean both the original Dragonball series and Z) purists can't watch anything but the Japanese original. The English music, which varies in quality by whichever run you're talking about, pales in comparison to the atmosphere/OTT-ness the Japanese music provides. And while some of the English voice actors do a decent job, they mostly sound awkward against the Japanese score.

I have heard the Spanish voice dub and it is good, however.

Unfortunately, there is an issue with which set is definitive...

Zephonate wrote:

If you're a fan, you can't go wrong with the season sets. Uncut, widescreen, surround sound, lots of episodes, DVD quality, and the optional Japanese music. Very well put-together packages.

I hear other fans' gripes about these sets, but I ask them: do you truly believe Funimation would give us better than this? This is as definitive as it's going to get.

I've heard that similar box sets are also in the works for Dragon Ball and GT, but no idea when they're coming out.

These boxsets sound great in theory, and you're right they're the best thing available now. You have English the dub, the English dub with the Japanese music, or the original Japanese music and voice actors. I happen to have the same gripes as other fans, though. One gripe, really. Yes, they've given us the uncut video masters of the show (I don't so mind the cleaning up of the video, although they're a little blurry). But then (and I'm sure you've heard this a zillion times, Zeph, so forgive me), they didn't just stretch the video to 16:9; they zoomed in and cropped it by about 20%. That's... a fair portion of the video. But I'd still take these boxsets over not having the show in Japanese.

The purists really just want the Dragonbox with English subtitles. Nothing else.

The reason all of this annoys me, though, relates to something else you brought up: Funimation did release Dragonball completely unedited with both the English/Japanese language tracks and English subtitles on DVD (bar the first 15 episodes; legal issues), with no crazy cropping, in 4:3 as the purists wanted. Why won't Funimation do this for Z? I (being clearly crazy) would buy that instantly.

Deusfaux

what are those Dragonball DVDs called (the ones just referenced?)

Is the FUNimation dub always the best of the english dubs (for Dragonball and Dragonball Z?)