Exclusive! First Review of FUNi Trunks Special
by "ANT Link"

Originally Posted: 18 October 2000

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Hello all. None of you AFD regulars will recognize me, since this is my first time posting here, but for once I've got something worth talking about, and I figure anyone who's interested can read and respond as they like. Anyways, like the subject line says, this is (at least one of) the first review of the FUNimation version of the Trunks Special, which they have called The History of Trunks. If you're wondering how I managed to watch it before it's available in stores, it's because the Electronics Boutique I work at happened to get in a few copies a week before we can sell them, as they're street-dated for the 24th. Fortunately, even if we can't sell them one of my bosses, who's also a DBZ fan (a dubbie, but that's not his fault) said I could borrow it and bring it home to watch. So that's what I did.

Now, before I get into my opinion of the dubbed TS, I'd like to tell you just a little bit about what kind of DBZ fan I am, since there are so many obvious different ones who frequent this newsgroup; pure dubbies who've never seen anything but the FUNi versions, the hardcore fans who love the original japanese DBZ and despise what FUNi has done to it, and those who have seen both versions and happen to prefer one or the other, for whatever reasons. So where do I fit in? Well, I definitely love japanese DBZ, especially the voice acting (Nozaka-san is a goddess!) and can't stand most of what they've done to it in the dub (what IS that awful syntho-crap that's supposed to be music? bleah). However, this was not always so. Sadly, my first experience with DBZ was watching it on Toonami, and thus I discovered it through the far inferior dub. So for a while, I'm sad to say that I was a dubbie. However, since then I'm proud to say that I was introduced to TRUE DBZ (well, fansubs, but even so...) and there was no turning back. It's almost painful for me to watch the dub sometimes when I'm forced to hear the pitiful excuses for music, the decidedly constipated grunts the voice actors feel compelled to do for every single hit, ki blast, or power up, and the voices that just DO NOT fit the characters. So why do I still watch the dub, even after I've been shown the light that is Masako Nozawa and Cha-La Head Cha-la?. . .Well, I guess it's because I know that this is how a lot of people know DBZ, and there's always some glimmer of hope within me that things will improve, and FUNi will realize what a disservice they're doing to ever fan of DBZ by not being faithful to the original. It is with that glimmer of hope that I decided to see what FUNi had done to the Trunks Special, and whether or not things were improving as I hoped and knew that they could.

Okay, enough autobiographical babbling, time for the point of this post. First off, my opinion of this special was formed by specifically comparing it to it's japanese original, which is part of the DBZ saga that I have fansubbed. I watched the fansub first, and then the FUNi version second. And then I came up here to write this review. So let's begin.

The Opening: Good news and bad news. Bad news: FUNi is still playing that stupid "Get ready for Dragon, Ball, Z!" with the seven CGI Dragon balls with clips playing on them before they get to the REAL opening. The Good news: The real opening is Cha-La Head Cha-la! The whole thing! Instead of that god-awful montage of clips set to some of the worst theme music ever to come from a Casio keyboard, it was the entire opening to japanese DBZ. However, I'm afraid there's still more bad news: The opening is Cha-La Head Cha-La, without actually PLAYING Cha-La Head Cha-La! The visuals are all there, but they replaced the music with a brand new theme, something like hard rock with a guy simply saying "Dragon Ball Z" sometimes. At least it wasn't as bad as the Casio theme or Rock the Dragon, but it was still not close to Head Cha-La. It was cool SEEING the japanese intro on an american tape, but I REALLY wish I could have heard it too.
Rating: C-

The Voices: Better than I expected. None of FUNi's voice actors can compare to Nozawa-san and the rest of the japanese cast, but what was here was pretty tolerable, which is better than I can say for most of the dub. Trunks voice was probably the best, which is obviously good since it IS his special. They didn't have Bulma's VA try and sound like an older version of herself, which is good since it means we only have to deal with one bad Bulma voice instead of two. The Androids sound the same as they do in the dub, which in my opinion is better than average but not by much. At least they actually get to say kill, die, and dead more than they do in the dub, so they sound a little more threatening because of that. And yes, I know they're not the same killers in the TV series that they are in this special. The only big disappointment I have with the voices is Adult Gohan's, which I'm guessing is Sean Schemmel doing a damn good Freddie Prinze Jr impression mixed in with a bit of his Goku. For a while I seriously wondered if it WAS Freddie they had voicing, like the rumors said a while ago; fortunately I checked the VA credits and there was no Freddie in sight.
Rating: B-

The Music: Now THIS is kind of interesting. My first giveaway that FUNi was doing something a little different from their crappy synthesized noise-trying-to-pass-for-music was a sticker on the plastic wrap that said "Featuring Music by Dream Theater, Bootsy Collins & Buckhead, Slaughter, and more". While this dashed any hopes I had that maybe, just maybe, the japanese score had snuck it's way onto an american tape, it also prompted the question "Since when does FUNi feature songs by actual artists?" The answer after watching the tape is, obviously, since now. I guess that, in a way to differentiate the specials from the regular series dub, FUNi is hiring a bunch of little-known artists to either make songs for the dub or license some songs they've already made. The result is intriguing; some songs actually have vocals, a first for the dub in any form, and some of them even have a hint of emotion during some scenes. The best example I can think of is the very last scene where Trunks is saying goodbye to Bulma before leaving in his time machine; the song played there is probably the closest the dub has EVER come to showing some of the emotion of the original. However, it's not all good news: even if it is new music and actual songs, it's still all hard rock/grunge/rap stuff that just doesn't fit the world of DBZ. While definitely an improvement over the dub's excuse for music, it still cannot compare to the original score, and so it is still a disappointment.
Rating: B

Overall: I guess, in their own slow, dimwitted way, FUNi is improving. The voices still aren't great, but they're better than the dub. The music's not great, but it's better than the dub. That's really how the whole special stacks up when compared to both its original japanese version and the dub currently being shown on TV: Better than the dub, but not as good as the japanese original. Still, this won't be a surprise for anyone who's seen both the dub and the original and appreciated the original for the classic that it is. The DVD might be worth picking up if you really like this special or if you're a hardcore Trunks fan, but I wouldn't recommend buying the dubbed tape. It may be "uncut" and uncensored, but it's still not DBZ the way it was meant to be seen. And that's my final opinion.
Rating: B-/C+

Contact: antlink15@aol.com