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The
truth about our petition
by "SSJ Leia"
Originally Posted: 24 September 2000
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This
editorial is LONG overdue. In fact, it should probably have
been written a month ago, when Greg Werner was kind enough
to link to our petition and the signatures started coming
in. If you haven’t seen our petition yet, you’ve probably
heard about it. Although we have over 3000 signatures, and
some nice websites supporting us, we’ve gained a bit of
a shaky image due to some comments made by webmasters and
several editorials by fans (I’m thinking of a couple I’ve
seen at Kienzan’s Edge, and the recent one at DaizenshuuEX).
As one of the authors of the petition, I’d like to address
some of these negative comments, and try to clear things
up a little. We should have done this long ago, and I regret
we never took the time to explain ourselves to everyone.
A
repeated comment we’ve been hearing is that the petition
asks for too much. To summarize our demands, we ask for
improvements in the current dub and whatever might come
next (GT or DB), and yes, we ask for a redub of at least
season 3. (Pioneer owns Seasons 1 and 2, so they most likely
are not a possibility.) Improvements would include more
direct translations with fewer jokes and less Americanization,
the original music if at all possible, and some improvements
in voices. We included a number of demands in the petition
because, frankly, we didn’t want to leave anything out.
Our aim was an inclusive statement of what the fans want…and
I think we accomplished that. I believe one of the strong
points of our petition is this detail. We ask for several
changes, but we also explain WHY these changes would help
both the fans and FUNimation. Regarding the plausibility
of the redub, I don’t think that anyone outside of FUNimation
can really make a concrete assessment of it. The truth of
the matter is that a redub WOULD bring an end to most complaints
from fans, and many people agree that season 3 needs it
most. I’m sure most of us would be more than eager to buy
redubbed videos or DVDs…I know I would. This is what the
fans want…we shouldn’t be afraid to try for it. There is
nothing wrong with trying, and we hope readers will not
dismiss us as a lost cause by assuming that such a request
is unreasonable. We can’t know that. We can’t read minds.
For all we know, FUNimation may already be considering a
redub. Unlikely it seems, but not impossible. In any case,
let me make this very clear: ASKING FOR A REDUB WILL NOT
RUIN OUR CREDIBILITY. Even if it is absolutely impossible
for FUNi to do the redub, that does not imply they will
reject our other goals as well. The same goes for any demand
that turns out to be impossible. FUNi wouldn’t reject an
entire petition on the basis of one demand…that wouldn’t
be wise and it’s not the way a professional company works
when responding to any petition. I seriously doubt Gen will
laugh in our faces.
Our
petition has been called a “fuming tirade.” This is the
last image we’d ever want to convey…and in fact while writing
the petition we tried to be painstakingly sure we sounded
polite enough. We’re not trying to represent the rabid,
hardcore fans; we’re not a minority; we’re not a cult. Rather,
like the majority of fans, we are level headed and have
open minds. The truth is, we’ve tried to be as polite as
possible and to see things from FUNimation’s point of view.
We have respect for the company and an appreciation for
the hard work they do. I think the best way to say it is
this: this is not a petition AGAINST, it’s a petition FOR.
For DBZ, for the fans, and for FUNimation’s image and success.
We care about the show and want to make it better. We don’t
blame anyone, and we don’t threaten. Reread it to see what
I mean before you make any judgments. Regarding Sean Schemmel’s
reaction, we regret that he was insulted, and we do admit
that the paragraph he was referring to (regarding VA’s)
sounded harsh and should have been worded differently. We’ve
apologized, and we will fix that part before sending it
in.
A
third comment we’ve heard is this one: FUNimation is already
improving, so why are we wasting our time? I want to make
it clear now, and maybe this needed to be more clear in
the petition itself: we know they’re improving, and we appreciate
it. Season 4, although not nearly perfect, is ahead of season
3 as far as dialogue is concerned. There are less kid-aimed
jokes, and the translation is much closer to exact. We’re
happy about this, and we want to encourage FUNi to continue
to make these kinds of improvements. We can’t make a judgment
about the rest of season 4 yet, because we haven’t seen
it…and FUNi knows this. Thus, they aren’t going to get mad
or discouraged if they’ve already made some of the changes
we’re requesting. They’ll only be reassured that they’re
on the right track.
Lastly,
another recurring comment is this one: petitions don’t work.
I think this is an awfully big assumption. We can’t make
such concrete judgments about how a company will react to
us, or the impact we’ll make, unless we’re running that
company itself. In the end, it’s up to Mr. Fukunaga to decide
whether our petition succeeds or fails. We shouldn’t assume
anything. There’s one thing I’m certain of: if we don’t
have faith and try, we’ll never even have a chance. Here
we have a petition with more than 3000 signatures. Who knows
how many more we might get if the big sites (you know who
you are) were to support us? We have a petition with thousands
of signatures, asking for what everyone wants-a better dub.
Please don’t dismiss it all on the basis of one demand you
deem far-fetched, or because you think we’re certain to
fail. This petition could be a great opportunity for us
to once and for all, officially tell FUNimation what we
want. Please support us. It’s up to the fans, as well as
FUNimation, to determine whether this potential will be
actualized.
Thanks
to the webmasters who did link to us, and to everyone who
has signed so far. Also, thanks to everyone who has shared
their opinions with us. And to everyone else, before you
form an opinion about all this, please, please read it yourselves:
http://members.aol.com/rogosworld/dbzpetition.htm
Contact:
Cport7@aol.com
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