Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Goldstar]

That's funny, because it's true! 

[LumRanmaYasha]

While they did get married, how do we know for sure that Gohan was her first time...

[Kiddington]

Just finished up the Cell saga on Kai.

Sooooooooooooo much better. Just... literally everything (except maybe the score). No more powering up for 10 episodes on end (seriously, Cell was even worse than Namek when it came to that), voice acting and writing that isn't comically bad all around... good work FUNi. I tip my hat to you for making what was probably my least favorite portion of the original series not only watchable, but dare I say enjoyable. I especially love some of the lines they gave Mr. Satan this time around. Seriously, he made a POKEMON reference. Too perfect.

Now let's get to Buu one of these days kthx.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just finished up the Cell saga on Kai.

Sooooooooooooo much better. Just... literally everything (except maybe the score). No more powering up for 10 episodes on end (seriously, Cell was even worse than Namek when it came to that), voice acting and writing that isn't comically bad all around... good work FUNi. I tip my hat to you for making what was probably my least favorite portion of the original series not only watchable, but dare I say enjoyable. I especially love some of the lines they gave Mr. Satan this time around. Seriously, he made a POKEMON reference. Too perfect.

I agree that the Cell arc was better in this iteration of the anime....but its still by far the weakest arc in the series, IMO. The power-ups were still pretty long-winded and plentiful, and there were still so many long and drawn-out moments despite Toei cutting out so much other stuff. If even the Kai version was this slow-paced, I shudder to wonder how I even managed to tolerate watching through that entire arc back when DBZ aired on Toonami in the first place.

[Nel_Annette]

I watched a clip of it on YouTube... did they change Cell's voice? It sounds more generic. I liked the ham-tasticness of the original.

And I still can't stand the original music. 

[Kiddington]

Just finished up the Cell saga on Kai.

Sooooooooooooo much better. Just... literally everything (except maybe the score). No more powering up for 10 episodes on end (seriously, Cell was even worse than Namek when it came to that), voice acting and writing that isn't comically bad all around... good work FUNi. I tip my hat to you for making what was probably my least favorite portion of the original series not only watchable, but dare I say enjoyable. I especially love some of the lines they gave Mr. Satan this time around. Seriously, he made a POKEMON reference. Too perfect.

I agree that the Cell arc was better in this iteration of the anime....but its still by far the weakest arc in the series, IMO. The power-ups were still pretty long-winded and plentiful, and there were still so many long and drawn-out moments despite Toei cutting out so much other stuff. If even the Kai version was this slow-paced, I shudder to wonder how I even managed to tolerate watching through that entire arc back when DBZ aired on Toonami in the first place.

Yeah, it's still my least favorite era of the series, but at least it's watchable now.

Cell is still a generally uninteresting villain for the most part (his first two forms are just fucking weird and literally nothing else stands out), but Perfect Cell actually has some pretty good one-liners, and thankfully FUNi did away with all of that creepy, awkward sexual tension between him and Android 16. Just amazes me how much better the dub is this time around.

Looking at it now, I don't even think I could stomach the original version of Z. There's just... so much crap to siphon through. Buu filler was never really that bad thankfully, so I can still watch it without or without Kai, but the first three major sagas (Saiyan, and especially Namek and Cell)... ugh.

[Kiddington]

I watched a clip of it on YouTube... did they change Cell's voice? It sounds more generic. I liked the ham-tasticness of the original.

Nope, still voiced by Dameon Clarke. It's just that he, along with essentially everyone else at FUNi, actually sounds like they know what they're doing now, and aren't rookies to voice acting anymore.

And I still can't stand the original music. 

Now this, I can agree with. Kikuchi's stuff just doesn't stack up in Z. Definitely in the original series, but does nothing for me here.

Just imagine how great this would be - better voice acting, no filler - but with Faulconer's score (or hell, even Yamamoto's; some of those ripped off pieces aren't half bad). Only a perfect world.

[Nel_Annette]

It is still Clarke, eh? Alright. The clip I watched just made him sound less boisterous in his speech.

"Chanting a little prayer before you DIIIIEEE?" God, I loved how over the top some of his lines were when I was a kid.

[Dr. Insomniac]

At least Ocean Cell is a thing of the past.

[Kiddington]

"Thank you Goku I will TAKE THIS BEAN WITHOUT HESSSSSITATION!"

Eh, it's so campy.

[Kiddington]

At least Ocean Cell is a thing of the past.

I hate the Ocean Dub so much.

The appeal, the fanbase, the fact that it's getting a fucking DVD release in 2013... all of it is just completely lost on me.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Only the PRINCE OF SAIYAAAAANS can achieve true camp!!!

[Kiddington]

Only the PRINCE OF SAIYAAAAANS can achieve true camp!!!

...and yet, oddly... this only makes me want to see the movie that much more.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm not a fan of the original music, myself (I didn't hate it, I was just kind of indifferent to it), however I can say that I personally found most of Faulconer's music to be crap, if I were to be completely honest. The few tracks that were really good were also usually really badly misused in the old English dub, anyways.

Now, I did actually really like Kai's music, but then that turned out to be plagiarized and they went back to Kikuchi's score for most of the Cell saga, which was pretty bland sounding and it was really jarring to transition from Kai's score directly to the old-school soundtrack so abruptly, though its not like I would have liked Faulconer's soundtrack any better, so yeah, it was unfortunately a necessary evil.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Seriously, the Ocean Dub is one of the most hilarious translations this side of Guin Saga.