Regarding the dubs, Bane, here's what I'd like to say about the whole thing in general which so often comes up with DBZ (and anyone please ignore this whole post if dub-talk bores you):
I personally have zero interest in the japanese dub. Now I've thought about why this is the case, because I'm usually fond of Japanese culture. It's not a matter of what's better, or some moral high ground of original creative vision and it's not some competition to me either, it's the simple fact that japanese (people) is just really really different from English (people). Japanese people sound different, the style and intonation is very different, and that's just a fact. The Dub is just an audible component of two very different cultures and people. One culture of which I share, and the other I don't, or well exceedingly less to the point I'd call one native to me and the other foreign. Neither is worse or better (that'd actually be a weird shade of racism to even say one is better than the other). It's just that one feels like specifically MY culture, and the other doesn't.
DBZ has just become an odd foster child of the west for me because of both the dub and the score, which made me experience it as largely native and I know that might be really annoying or even blatantly wrong to fans of the show in it's japanese glory, maybe one could argue it is wrong, but that won't change things now. It's a historical course of events. I'll never watch Pokemon in Japanese either. I LOVE anime in it's japanese glory, but that's when I actually feel like watching anime, when I feel like taking in the rich and great feel of japanese cultural export, which is a specific mood I have to be in (it's not my baseline mood, I can't help being a white guy from west Europe). Believe it or not, DBZ doesn't fall in that mood-category for me and I actually don't experience it much as anime tbh. Because of history, I don't associate DBZ with 100% japanese culture, there's a percentage of 'westerness' that became inherent to what DBZ is for me. If I'd be ignorant of DBZ's origins, didn't know there was a japanese dub, and somebody told me it was a western show based on the anime style and inspired by Japanese culture, that ignorant version of me would believe it.
So, with respect, trying to convince me of japanese dubs is time wasted, not because I think they're bad or because I'm a xenophobe, at all, but because I specifically want the cultural aspect that I can directly personally relate with present in this show. I understand you made a general remark Bane, not saying you posted it for me, but I just took the occasion to speak my mind, assuming I can just refrain from commenting on it in the future. Probably like you, this type of thing can just intrigue me and I get an urge to fully understand what it is.
So if anybody feels the same way, I hope I articulated it decently. If not, well then as the avatar I sport has put it many times "I should go".
/statement
