Editorials "Will Dragonball Z Ever Get the Original Music Score? I Think Not..." Written: September 22, 2000 After reading Daizenshuu EX's features, I have come up with a logical explanation as to why FUNi does what they do with their dubs. First off, I highly recommend that you read Daizenshuu EX's features. ALL of them, preferrably, so that you can understand where I'm coming from. In case you haven't noticed, the VA's interviewed seem to not like the Japanese music. From the questions that they were asked, you can tell that they have some prejudiced view points. No, not racial prejudice, but view points that they are determined to be kept and possibly persuaded into taking in the first place. I believe that you will not find a FUNi employee who likes the Japanese music a great deal. They all seem to believe that the American TV audience will not accept the Japanese music. Therefore, I believe that FUNimation has decided to only use the Japanese music in something that they know a primarily otaku audience will buy. Most of us already know that the Bardock Special has American music and Dragonball Movie 3 has the original score. So, why is this? The answer is quite simple really. We all know that FUNi started off with DBZ because they knew that it would receive a higher rating and would rake in more dough than Dragonball would. So, FUNi assumes that most of the people who buy their Dragonball (not Dragonball Z) tapes would be in the hardcore fan genre. So, they know that most of the people in this category prefer or take a liking to the original score. Therefore, they'd have nothing to worry about. The choice was different for the Dragonball Z TV Specials. FUNi knew that DBZ is popular, and will most likely have a majority of the people who they believe won't like the original score. They don't know this for sure, but don't want to take chances with their money. They figure the hardcore fans will be happy with the DVD's, so they don't include the original score. Not only that, but they Americanize it further with rock and rap music. Okay, now I am going to further elaborate on a topic I was starting to get into earlier. The VA's seem to be influenced by the higher ups at FUNimation into believing what they believe. That is why they seem to prefer FUNi's opinions more than ours. Not only that, but they don't want to defer with the higher up's opinions in public. But I know that few consequences would follow if they did, because I know FUNi wouldn't fire a VA... Come on, we all know that they wouldn't. Anyway, Sean and Sonny made similiar comments on using the original score in the dub. They both seem to believe that doing so would alienate would-be fans and that since we are not Japanese, we need to make the series for Americans (Sean Schemmel especially believes this). I don't believe this is true. I think adjusting to the change would be fairly easy for the non hardcore audience. People seem to handle Tenchi and Gundam fairly well, so they would be able to handle this too. Little kids are NOT going to get distracted and turn the channel if the original score was left in and there was silence every once in the while. I believe that little kids are going to like DBZ regardless. Oh, and I found Sonny's relating Japanese DBZ Music to Speed Racer music to be very insulting. I was sooo insulted when I read that. To make such a comparison is just... wrong. Now, I'll end this editorial with one last, sad point. As much as I want them to, I don't believe that the DBZ dub will EVER have the original score put into it (other than maybe the rest of the movies). FUNimation, as sad as it is, is in it for the money, folks. As much as they'd say they weren't, we all know it's true. They have obviously had enough money to pay for the original score for a long time (anyone remember Gen's statement that they had so much money that they didn't know what to do with it?). There are less than 100 episodes left for FUNi to dub, their ratings are constantly getting higher, and their profit is raising exponentially. Not only that, but they seem to believe that the only people who want and would accept the original score are the hard-core fans. As long as their audience and profit grows, FUNi will only continue to go in the wrong path, which they believe is the right one to take. Farewell Solid State Scouter... We Gotta Power... Unmei no Hi ~Tamashii tai Tama~... -Sir Viktor- Back to Editorials Site design and content ©1999-2007 by James Walker (Sir Viktor) The Next Dimension is a non-profit fansite. Any copyright violations are completely unintentional. I highly recommend viewing this website with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Javascript enabled.