Well, it's a historic day. I actually spent money on a FUNimation product. More so, I actually felt that it was worth it. This is one of those dubs that is neither good nor bad. Enough of this, on with the review.
To start, the original soundtrack is there. That's right, the beautiful original background music is there. Even better, at least in the uncut video, the original japanese SONGS are there. The theme song is the same, as is the ending song, which I really love.("Come on dragon, just for me...")
The voices are a real mixed effort. Goku doesn't quite sound appropriate, (It's Dende's voice.) and Kuririn's is sometimes on the mark, sometimes it sounds just idiotic. General Blue, who for some reason is now a lieutenant, doesn't sound quite as um, delicate as he did in Japan. Tsurusennin sounds decent, and for some reason Taopaipai sounds much better than he does in the television dub. Bora and Upa are pretty good too. However, Lunch's voice seems to have changed, at one point she sounds a bit too much like Rosie O'Donnell for my tastes. Pilaf and henchmen also have declined in quality. And of course, Karin sounds as bad as ever.
Now for the overall translation and changes. To start, even though the opening song scene is no shorter and nothing has been cut, it's been altered. The animation has been slowed down and many parts of animation move bit by bit by way of dissolves and fades now. (Does that make any sense?) There is no mention of Chaozu's country's name Mifan. During the tournament instead of the announcer explaining the rules, he now says some stuff about free hot dogs and nachos, and Chaozu and Tenshinhan's telepathic conversations are gone, so now there's just silence. FUNimation encouraging silent moments? Scary...
There's also some funny screw ups during lines. At one point Goku says that his GRANDMA gave him the four star ball. When Karin asks Goku why he is angry at TaoPaiPai, Goku says "He hurt someone". That someone was Bora, and he was KILLED, not hurt. Of course not all of the new dialogue is bad. Once Tao kills Blue with his tongue for mocking him, he says, "He should have watched his tongue, and mine.", I like that.
Yet despite all of this, it's still a very good dub, at least it's much better than some of FUNimation's other releases. If it's a sign of things to come for the series, I won't be too dissappointed.
