FUNIMATION'S ANDROID ATROCITIES

I’m sure most of you remember the first couple of episodes of the Android saga, fresh, new, hyped, crap. Yes, I am writing to report on the relative laziness that these episodes have been made with. There are many inconsistencies which stop it from reaching much of an enjoyment level, such as the atrocious voice acting, and the brand new voices, which were a complete waste of time. They shouldn’t have been introduced for a few filler episodes, then taken out afterwards. It is a pathetic effort on behalf of FUNimation.

Vegeta’s voice sounds remarkably like it did when he came in the Saiyan saga, which suited his appearance and personality back then, with his completely evil ways, and his villain look. Giving it him now is stupid, as we have all gotten used to the old one, the one which sounds so cool, the one which perfectly compliments Vegeta’s personality and appearance. Why mess with a perfect formula? An act of idiocy if you ask me.

Vegeta wasn’t the only one affected by this horrific change though. Gohan’s voice sounds remarkably like a 4-year-old girl on helium, which doesn’t suit him at all, and merely makes him sound like a complete weakling. His best friend Piccolo’s voice has also been butchered, with him now sounding like a Gundam Wing dropout, with hints of Duo and Heero about the tone and accent of his voice, as well as very little of the traditional gruff, hardman growl that we are all used to.

The rest of the voices are acceptable, mainly because they aren’t used much, such as the Yamcha and Tien ones. The Trunks one was awful, and was used during a flashback to when he arrived in his time machine. Why couldn’t they have just used clips from the episode starring Eric Johnson? This signifies laziness and incompetence to me. In fact, the only voice that was anywhere near good was Goku’s, but that’s only because it is the same as it was in Movie 2- The World’s Strongest – so I am used to it. Damn those fools at FUNi, why can’t they just bring back the old voice actors.

Another complaint that I have is that the filler episodes are a waste of time, no one even enjoys them, so therefore they’re completely dumb. I don’t think even the most avid dubbies would have enjoyed the episode that I was unfortunate to witness on Monday. The only thing that happened was that Goku showed his instant transmission, something that was cool for 5 minutes, then got immensely boring as he continued to tell everyone about it, and then said the time to meet for about the third episode in a row. The only highlight of the whole thing was when Goku mocked Vegeta’s pink shirt, a humorous addition.    

Ok, so now that I’ve got those points out of the way, it’s time to move onto the new start scene. This was appalling, utterly and totally appalling, not even providing brief amusement as we hope that the nightmare will soon end, and the episode will begin. Yes, I just said that the episode was better than this tripe, which really isn’t complimenting the quality of the show, but more like criticising the outrageously dull starting scene.

The song is one of the worse that I’ve ever heard, and really does annoy more than entertain. If you put the TV on mute, then you will see some pretty cool scenes, with clips from the old one taken out, and new ones added. Naturally, the music doesn’t fit in with the random clips at all, and wouldn’t even pass off as a Music Video on a third rate DBZ site. FUNimation do quite simply suck.

I have been trying to think of something that they have done well, but my mind is blank, filled only with harsh hatred towards the atrocious viewing that we have been subjected to. I would pity the person who would produce such a lowly fandub, let alone broadcast it on British TV.

Imagine what episodes of this quality are doing to the ratings, making more and more people change channels and switch off, and ultimately not watch the show anymore. Surely this isn’t good publicity, and will lose FUNi money, so it is in their best interest to do something about it before they lose me too.

FUNimation has destroyed the first few episodes of something that had the potential to be an incredible saga, using amateur voices, bad story lines, and pathetic stalling techniques to gain more out of the show. Admittedly this isn’t entirely FUNi’s fault, as they don’t draw the animation and episodes, only dub them, but they do decide what to cut out and what to add, if anything, so they could have easily done something about it. Even the Garlic JR. saga filler episode where Krillen gets the pearl is better than the filth that we are being fed right now.

If Britain is anything like America, then I know that the voices gradually get better and return to good old Chris Sabat and company, but if it isn’t then we’re doomed. Think of how we will have to cope with something that sounds so bad, I hope it never comes to me having to stop watching it. FUNi really needs to get their act together.