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Families
Watch Dragon Ball Z!?
by "Ryoga"
Originally Posted: 11 May 2000
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This
is my first attempt at an editorial of any type, so cut
me some slack. Everything I say in this article is completely
true. I think it's an interesting concept. Thank you for
taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoy it.
Who
watches Dragon Ball Z? I'd say mostly boys, between 12-25.
I know girls and people of different ages watch it too,
but I'm generalizing. Do you ever think of parents, siblings,
and grandparents watching this show? Probably not. I talked
to my family about the show and edits and this is what I
found.
I'll
start with me. My name's Tom, and I'm 14. I first got into
Dragon Ball in the early 90s. I woke up early, turned on
the WB and Dragon Ball was on. Oolong was saying how the
Ox King's daughter was going to be ugly. I fell in love
with the show, but it was cancelled shortly after that.
A few years later, Dragon Ball Z was on a Sunday morning
on the same channel and I became hooked. I eventually found
out about the edits of the dub, and got a hold of some fansubs.
I realized how the dub is worse, and rely on fansubs and
the Internet for Japanese episode information. I'm eagerly
waiting for the bilingual DVDs that come out.
My
mom's in her early 40s (she doesn't want her real age here...whatever).
She really doesn't like Dragon Ball Z too much. She enjoyed
the original Dragon Ball series, and likes the Ranma 1/2
and Slayers tapes I have. She's not against anime at all.
She even took me out of school to see Princess Mononoke!
She really enjoyed that, and I did too. Go see that movie
if you ever get the chance. I told her about how Dragon
Ball Z was cut. She agreed it was stupid of the dubbers
(Funimation or Saban, I don't know who to blame) to edit
it, but she didn't really seemed to care that much. Unfortunately,
she watched the episode of Dragon Ball Z where Kururin is
impaled by Freeza and bounced up and down. She thought it
was incredibly disgusting and won't watch and Dragon Ball
Z anymore. So don't show that episode to people who haven't
seen the series too much. Oops.
My
dad's 38, and really doesn't like anime at all. He finds
most of it boring, and thinks the plots make no sense. He
does hate Dragon Ball Z the least, so I guess that's good.
He is very interested in seeing Princess Mononoke. He says
that the editing doesn't bother him at all. "You [the fans]
still watch the dub and buy the tapes, so you guys don't
mind too much either. If you wanna get it uncut, don't support
the edited version." He watches DBZ occasionally, but really
won't watch anime with me. But I still get forced to watch
Buffy. Not fair!
Mary,
my sister, is 7. She doesn't like anime that much, and just
watches Pokemon and My Neighbor Totoro. She isn't allowed
to watch that much, Mom doesn't want me to traumatize her.
Mom must still have that impaling the midget scene stuck
in her head...
This
is the one person who you would never, ever, under any circumstance
expect this person to watch anime, especially one like Dragon
Ball Z. Grandma. That's right. She watches Dragon Ball Z,
Ranma 1/2 and Gundam Wing with me whenever she comes over.
She borrowed a Slayers movie from me and thinks it's hilarious.
Grandma's really into anime. One thing she likes the most
about anime over American animation are the characters.
Today at dinner she told me that she felt that the characters
and plots in anime are much more intelligent and realistic
than in shows such as Batman. Dragon Ball Z and other animes
have a more intense story, she says, and watching the story
unfold is more fun that having a set format, like in most
American half hour shows. She still prefers Dragon Ball
over Dragon Ball Z, she says the comedy is better than the
fighting.
I
told her how the series was edited, and she got annoyed.
I was surprised how much it bothered her. We are both baffled
at why the series was butchered, and why they hire such
bad voices. My grandma is positive that the voices are simply
because Funimation doesn't wanna pay better voice actors
more money. One character specifically annoys her. Freeza.
Not only does she think the Funimation spelling (Frieza)
is stupid, but the voice sucks. I was afraid she had a heart
attack when I said Freeza was a boy. She constantly urges
me to speak out to Funimation and write letters to them.
I really want to say thank you to her for encouraging me
to write editorials and letters to those who edit the show.
This
article was just showing how anime, specifically DBZ, is
thought of in my family. This is just my family, yours may
hate it. I do agree with my dad when he says that we won't
get uncut Dragon Ball unless we stop sponsoring the dub.
So no matter how much you want to see Dragon Ball Z, buy
the DVDs when they come out or the subtitled tapes. Write
letters with good grammar, punctuation, and a minimum of
cursing, and you'll be taken seriously. Sending messages
to them like "FRIEZA IS A RETARD AND U SHOULD B CALLEED
FUCKIMATION." only make the fans seem to be illiterate fools.
It's only hurting us. Thank you very much for reading this,
I hope you liked it.
Contact:
Ryoga95@aol.com
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