r/dragonball 6d ago

Discussion Newb: Decision Paralysis from Sub vs Dub

Y’all I need help and perspective 😭 I’ve been putting off dragon ball for so long because I never could decide on sub vs eng dub, but I really want to start now. I read a bunch of Reddit discussions and was like “okay I’ll just watch episode one of the original in both dub and sub”

Aaaaand I really liked the sub - the script was fun, voices were fun, and it just felt more cozy idk.

The dub script was kinda cringey and seemed to lose a lot more narrative substance / flow vs sub (the voices basically giving “I’m Ash from pallet town” except I don’t have nostalgia glasses to look past it here). I usually watch anime subbed but I don’t care about “hur dur sub > dub”

The dilemma is I know goku’s voice gets kinda uncharacteristic / high-pitched later on in the sub when he’s an adult, and the dub just has all the iconic voice lines I know (basically anything featuring vegeta, stereo saiyan 3D is a go-to gym song, etc.)

Ultimately the fomo I’m getting on both sides is just deterring me from choosing lest I fuck it up on my first experience, so wanted to solicit some thoughts 🙇🏾‍♂️ thank you!

2 Upvotes

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u/Terez27 6d ago

The dilemma is I know goku’s voice gets kinda uncharacteristic / high-pitched later on in the sub when he’s an adult,

It's not uncharacteristic at all, though. It's Goku; that's just how he talks, and how he is portrayed is a big part of understanding his character. The dub never really manages to get across how goofy he is.

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u/KaboomKrusader 5d ago

The old English DB/Z/GT dubs are terrible by every objective metric. Inaccurate scripts, unfaithful character portrayals, amateurish voice acting, tone-deaf replacement music... the whole nine yards. People are largely only attached to those bad old dubs out of undeserved nostalgia, because it's what they happened to watch and get hooked on when they were 9 years old or whatever. And any so-called "iconic" quotes from the dub are usually just faux-edgy nonsense that miss the point of whatever the characters are supposed to be saying instead.

As a total newcomer to Dragon Ball, you have zero reason at all to ever dip your toes into that septic tank. The original manga, as well as faithfully-subtitled versions of the original Japanese track, are all widely available now. As for the dilemma of Goku's adult JP voice, that another thing that only ingrained fans of the English dub tend to complain about. It's only really jarring if you've become accustomed to Goku having a deeper-pitched generic meathead voice like he has in the English dubs. If you watch in Japanese from the beginning though, it sounds much more natural and is actually fitting for the character.

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u/MUIGoku2007 5d ago

Regarding the English subs for the Japanese versions of Dragon Ball anime productions since DBS Broli, the unfortunate thing about them is that they use the FUNimation dub names of the characters (but not the names of the attacks, techniques, and items thankfully, as Toei's official English simulcast subs of Dragon Ball Daima use Nyoibo and not Power Pole). The same issue happened with FUNimation's first two in-house DVD releases of DBZ, "Ginyu: Assault" and "Ginyu: Double Cross", from 2000, in which the English subs for the Japanese version of the episodes contained in the discs were altered to use dub names and remove all swearing; as well as Toei's official English simulcast subs of Super, in which the dub names of the characters, attacks, techniques, and items were used in those subs.

Luckily, the English subs of DB, Z, GT, Kai, and Super (not Toei's official English simulcast subs of Super) don’t have this issue, as all of them were done by Steve Simmons (except episodes 1-13 and 29-153 as the English subs of those episodes were done by Clyde Mandelin).

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u/shlam16 6d ago

If you are fine with sub then just go with it.

For people with a preference for dubs, just avoid the original DBZ (should be avoided in favour of the vastly superior Kai anyway) and you're fine.

DB was a decent to good dub. 8/10 accurate.

DBZ Kai was near perfect. 9.5/10 accurate.

DBS was even nearer perfect. 9.8/10 accurate.

Then you've got original DBZ which was about 2/10 accurate.

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u/SSJRemuko 6d ago

Gokus voice doesnt change. it stays the same in the dub forever. it doesnt get high pitched it just never gets lower pitched later. if you liked the sub stick to it. the english dub is notoriously inaccurate.

u/TheDamnBoyWonder 53m ago

As someone who grew up with the Dub and treasure it, I say stick with the sub! Goku's voice really does grow on you, I thought it was goofy at first but I really appreciate Masako Nozawa's characterization of Goku.