"Breaking Through the Shining Clouds:" Using the original DBZ Theme Songs
by "Peregrine"

Originally Posted: 20 March 2000

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Today, I paid a visit to my local anime store. After months of waiting, they'd finally managed to get a copy of Hironobu Kageyama's CD, "Mixture." He is, of course, the one who sang three of the DragonBall Z opening and ending songs, namely "Cha-La Head-Cha-La," "We Gotta Power," and "Bokutachi wa Tenshi Datta" (We Used to be Angels). I bought the CD mostly to have the original version of "Hikari no Will Power," but that's beside the point. To my amazement, the CD included ENGLISH versions of these three songs, and they were GOOD. They are well written (with a couple of excusable grammatical errors) and are very good even compared to the Japanese versions. "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" is even pretty close to the translated lyrics that we see so often. My point is: If there is an English version of these songs available, why shouldn't we try to use them? I am aware that there are several issues to work with first, however. First of all, the songs are the long versions, but it should prove relatively easy to edit them back to how they were sung in the TV versions. Secondly, despite his talent, Hironobu Kageyama is still Japanese and his accent sometimes makes the lyrics difficult to understand. I played them for my little brother and said to him, "Listen, it's the DBZ songs in English." Upon first listen, he said, "No it isn't," but I showed him the lyrics, and he could eventually put the lyrics together. FUNimation might consider the accent an obstacle, but I think it returns some of the Japanese flavor to the show, which it is certainly lacking these days. Also, the lyrics could be easily subtitled on the screen, as is done with most Japanese shows. Of course, some new viewers might consider it dorky, but I think DBZ could only stand to benefit. Other issues would probably include getting the rights to the songs and possibly the right to use the original openings from Toei. If the original openings are used, there might be another problem with the Japanese credits and subtitles. I really don't know how this might be worked out, but I think it was done well in the first three movies released in the US. I think if FUNimation worked at it, they could have really great openings (and perhaps Toonami would even use them...). Even the new Season Three openings, which still aren't that good (just more keyboard music), pale in comparison to these songs. So, in closing, I'd like to quote from the English version of "Bokutachi wa Tenshi Datta:" "To my friends, if we believe in tomorrow and what it may bring, we can change this planet back into paradise..."

Contact: Peregrine@softhome.net