Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Kiddington]

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.

You found this to be crap?

[Kiddington]

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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I said "most" of it, not everything. But even so....the SS3 tune sounds cool and all, but its also really shallow and repetitive to the point where when they tried to play it for 6 minutes straight during Goku's power-up, it did get kind of old, IMO. It sounds cool when its used in short bursts, like when they played it during the scene where Goku finally finishes off Kid Buu with the Spirit Bomb. But most of Faulconer's tracks are pretty bland for me, and just as unfitting for the series as Kikuchi's score, IMO. which is to say, a lot of it either sounds like generic electric guitar music (except its so clearly synthesized through a computer), or just generic cartoon music that isn't really memorable. There are some stand-out tracks, but most of it sounds like repetitive beats that are pretty bland to listen to for the most part. Like I said, I found Kai's music to be the perfect fit for the series, but unfortunately that music got cut when it turned out that a portion of it was plagiarized, which IMO is a real shame.

[Kiddington]

Well, at least we can both agree there; Kai's original score was really good. Especially this.

It's a shame things turned out the way they did; would've been nice to see how the original was handled during the Cell arc (seems like an awful lot of dead air with Kikuchi's score, from what I've noticed).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, at least we can both agree there; Kai's original score was really good. Especially this.

It's a shame things turned out the way they did; would've been nice to see how the original was handled during the Cell arc (seems like an awful lot of dead air with Kikuchi's score, from what I've noticed).

Yeah, that was another thing that could have helped the Cell arc along a little more. Not much, mind you, but I would have liked to here Kai's music playing through that arc as well. It certainly would have been a lot more fun to listen to during the numerous power-up scenes than Kikuchi's forgettable music, especially with a track like this.

Also, I just realized that its a damn good thing that we're not posting any of these opinions on Toonzone. I can only imagine  just how much JTP would be bitching right now if we did post there. For what its worth, I liked the original Dragon Ball's music, but in DBZ its like the score retained the same tone but also became extremely bland in the process.

[Kiddington]

He's a loyalist to practically everything about the original version of Z to an extreme degree, right down to the filler. IIRC he didn't like Yamamoto's score either, and hey, that was the quote unquote "original", straight from Japan as well.

...but whatever. That guy... he's more than a few things that are best left unsaid.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I swear, he honestly believes that the original Dragon Ball Z is perfect as long as you watch it in Japanese. Like none of its faults exist, and that the extended power-up scenes and filler are all infallible. That guy just drives me up the wall.

BTW, Here are some more of my favorite Kai tracks while I'm at it:

Heroic Face Off
One Hit To Victory
The Victor's Dance

[Dr. Insomniac]

Guy refused to watch Cowboy Bebop until somebody ponied up a sub version. That's true purism right there.

[Kiddington]

Drinking a little too much of that VegettoEX Kool-Aid.

Really, anyone from Daizenshuu/Kanzenshuu/whatever they call themselves nowadays is basically weeabooism personified.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be fair, though, at least Kanzenshuu can provide us with some useful and interesting information about the Dragon Ball franchise, including translated interviews for the Battle of Gods movie that we won't be getting for a while. That said, Paschal doesn't contribute shit. He just likes to bitch and moan all in the name of him being a "true" Dragon Ball fan.

Also, the Daizenshuu is a collection of official data/guide books about the Dragon Ball Universe. I'm not exactly sure that people behind producing those books could qualify as weaboos, since they were made right in Japan by Japanese people, themselves.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Now let's not be hasty. Also, I remember reading a rather interesting essay on DBAF on Daizenshuu. Quite a lot of information for a show that doesn't even exist.

[Kiddington]

Also, the Daizenshuu is a collection of official data/guide books about the Dragon Ball Universe. I'm not exactly sure that people behind producing those books could qualify as weaboos exactly, since they were made right in Japan by Japanese people, themselves.

Daizenshuu EX is what I meant; IE what Kanzenshuu used to be known as.

I'm not talking about the "official" Daizenshuu.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood. I thought you were referring to the guide books. I never actually realized that Kanzenshuu used to be called something else. As for the DBAF thing, I think that they've probably gotten a lot better about checking their sources since then, though that's not to say that they are infallible. Either way, though, I don't really know anyone from that site, and only occasionally read some of their news articles, so I can't common on that site or its authors, myself.

But, moving the subject away from that person who I shall no longer name on this site, I really can't wait for the Buu arc to get the Kai treatment. It really is a terrific arc in the manga that was just poorly mishandled in the anime. The main draw of it, to me, is how it basically tries to combine the best of both worlds, in that it takes elements that we became familiar with in DBZ, while also tonally bringing the series back to its roots somewhat with tons of humor and gags resembling what we saw in early Dragon Ball stories. Its not absolutely perfect at it (if it were, it could have been my favorite arc), but it is really entertaining, through and through. Unfortunately by the time the original DBZ got to it, tons of mid-arc filler and long-extended power-ups were the norm by that point. How the anime retained its popularity through the Cell and Buu saga completely escapes my comprehension.

[Kiddington]

Last update I seen about Buu was that it was going to be around 66-70 episodes in length. Not sure how verified any of this was, just something I came across.

Still no word on when it'll actually make it over, though. I'm thinking at this point (with the last updates being in November), we might not get it until 2014.

[Foggle]

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.

Dameon Clarke is a master. Handsome Jack baby!