I suppose some of you are curious about who exactly I am and are wondering why I've decided to create Dragon Ball Z Uncensored 2. But before I begin I guess I should explain how I was first introduced to Dragon Ball.

I first encountered Dragon Ball during the Christmas of 88' or 89' when I first played the game "Dragon Power" for the NES. It was a fun game, although I always got stuck on the level where you fight Yamcha. Pretty damn tough level, even to this day. Later when I got a game genie I went back and won the game. Years later today my brother downloaded a fan-translated rom of the Japanese original version and I'm quite surprised at the differences between the two games. In fact, it's almost as if FUNimation made Dragon Power themselves! The script is badly mistranslated, there are a lot of pointless name changes and anything remotely objectionable (ie, Bulma and the Turtle Elder or talking about Oolong kidnapping girls) is censored. Hell, they even went to the trouble of changing Goku's appearance and gave him a lame-ass bowl hair cut and took away his tail, in addition to putting in some crappy-sounding "new" music throughout the game.

Moving onward, my next encounter with Dragon Ball was in an anime shop at some point in the 90's. I think I was watching the early Funimation dub. All I remember from then was hearing that it was, "a very famous anime from Japan that has recently been brought over to America and it has a lot of episodes in it" from some Japanese store owner guy. "Hmmm," I thought. "This looks cool, but I don't have time to spend on this. Sure, I'd probably really like it but it'd probably just eat up too much of my time." Heh. Little did I realize just how ironic that little thought in my mind would one day prove.

My 3rd encounter with Dragon Ball was with DBZ early some Saturday or Sunday, maybe before I was to leave for church. It was a FUNi/Ocean episode near the end of season 1 where Goku and his friends team up against Vegeta- the one where Vegeta loses his tial. I remember that I thought that it was really funny, interesting, well-drawn and that I liked it. (Though my brother wasn't really into it.) However, I lost of track of what time it came on and eventually forgot about it.

Years later during Christmas break I caught the beginning of DBZ late one night on Cartoon Network. It was the episode where Goku faced off against Jeice and Burter. Again, I thought it was really funny, interesting, cool, etc. A few months after that during my "5th encounter with DBZ" I finally got hooked. A friend kept turning on DBZ every day between 4-5, back when it played 2 episodes in a row, and would sit there like a zombie mesmerized. It was the beginning of Goku vs. Freeza and there was about 3 weeks worth of ass-kicking to be watched. Eventually I sat on the couch with him and, well- I became a zombie too. Wherever you are, dude who I haven't seen in years and whose name I don't even remember- thank you.

Anyway, the next approximate 2 years for me were probably about what they were for the typical fan- I'd watch episodes on tv, chill at message boards infrequently and talk to people about it and buy the occasional movie. I also liked the show so much that I tried to get pretty much everyone I talked to interested in it as well. I even thought about one day buying all of the "Uncut" VHS'es so that I'd be a "true fan" and "know what real 100% DBZ was all about."

As for "anti-FUNimation/pro-Japanese version stuff"- I read very little except for DBZUncensored which pretty much everyone into DBZ whoever came within a mile of a DBZ message board read. However, I only read part of it. Being the dumb, arrogant guy I was back then I thought, "Why read the Japanese episode comparisons? Why, it'll SPOIL stuff for me for when I buy the Japanese episodes someday." By "someday" I meant "years from now" (still haven't purchased em yet) and while I did read enough to dislike Gen Fukunaga and "the next dimension" lines, that was about it for me and DBZU back then.

However, during the Christmas of 2001 and something happened that changed everything- I visited a fansub store. "HOLY SHIT," I thought. "THE MAJIN BUU SAGA! AND DBGT! AND ALL THE MOVIES!" Naturally I had to buy something. GT, of course, could wait till after I'd seen Z. The episodes? "Please," I thought. "Why buy and waste my money on those? After all, FUNimation's going to be putting out dubbed versions of those eventually... so why bother? Sides, their version will be the EXACT SAME except that it'll be very, very, very slightly censored and will be in ENGLISH. IN ENGLISH. Why bother watching it in crappy Japanese? God, that'd just be soooo lame. But the movies- hmm. It'll be years before they come out so I guess I'll just pick up a few of these. Maybe once I 'watch up' to where the Z episodes are movie-wise, and am unable to control my curiousity, I might buy a few... But only then."

Eventually I bought movies 7-11 and watched em. They were great and I really liked them- especially 7 and 9. However, a few months later I returned to the store. And my curiousity, after just watching Buu attack a train with Babidi on his shoulders in a "last episode update," was too much. I spent about $100 and bought some more fansub episodes (240-25?). That's when I began to change my mind about the Japanese version.

The voices were astounding and so much more appropriate for the characters. The script was incredible and was far better than anything I'd heard before in the English version. The "We Gotta Power" introduction was incredible and the "We Were Angels" ending sequence was very touching and emotional. I was also impressed by the fact that everything was uncensored and that I could watch in peace without having to worry about that at all. And I thought that the SSJ 3 transformation, which came as a complete and total surprise for me, was the coolest thing I'd ever watched. Finally, the Japanese commercials were funny and very amusing "extras" that I greatly appreciated and they helped accentuate the "ghetto/taped straight from a Japanese broadcast" "flavah" of the fansubs.

By May 2002 I had purchased all of the Majin Buu saga of Seasons 6 and 7 on fansub and watched every episode. I enjoyed watching those episodes more than the previous 200+ FUNimation cut dubbed ones I'd seen on tv. I had also shown my tapes to several other people. Their completely unanimous reaction? The Japanese version was way better and cooler than the American version. One of them, who actually helped me buy one of the tapes, recently wrote to me, and I quote, "I hope you've been watching, I know i have. Whenever I have time, I've been an avid watcher, and I do love the Jap versions better, you were right! THey are totally more authentic. WEll, I wish I had more time to chat, but I Have to go to bed. Talk to you soon D." Another said, "Man, I wanna see more of the Japanese version! It think it's way better than the English version!"

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Anyway, even after watching the amazing, original Majin Buu saga I still had a high opinion of FUNimation. "They're not that bad," I thought. "Sure, sure- maybe they did change SOME music. But this music is sooo great that they would NEVER change it, they'd be fools to do that. And the script- it's spectacular! They'd have to be retards to actually try and change the original script to the amazing Majin Buu saga! No way, FUNimation's going to put out a GREAT dub! I know that they've learned their lesson from all their complaints and that they won't let us down! If they can just get the Majin Buu saga right- which I know they will- then I'll forgive them for everything!" I had supported them for years and been a huge fan of their work and I still had a lot fo loyalty towards them. I had very high expectations for them and was hoping and expecting that they would do some amazing and impressive stuff and stay true to the original. They didn't.

As FUNimation did their "super-duper-awesome early episode preleased available NOW at ALL stores" thing to grab some ka-ching I began hearing about just how badly dubbed this season was. I decide to buy a cut VHS tape of Japanese episodes approx. 257-259 to see the truth with my own true eyes. What I saw... was so nauseating that it floored me.

First off Gotenks sounded HORRIBLE. HE sounded like a little tom girl or an extremely effeminate little boy, which isn't surprising at all considering that he's voiced by two girls trying their very hardest to sound like 6-7 year old male children. Next up- the incredibly stupid attack name changes.

Gotenks- "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! (was originaly "Wild Boar Charge")" "SUPER MAJESTIC HALO ATTACK (is there something wrong about calling it "Galactic Donuts"?)! "Yo, ah'm just making up moves on the spot like a REAL warrior ta make things look cew." Gotenks was prolonging the fight to make it look badass and to impress Piccolo, not that "I came in unprepared like a blittering idiot" crap. They made Gotenks stupid.

Piccolo- "My cape's soggy." "Blah, blah, blah, eat healthy, sleep well, drink fluids, do some stretching exercises, yada yada yada (dumb dialogue added so there won't be any silence- you know how impatient Americans all are!)." "Oh yes, we're gonna be trapped in here... FOREVER! (no.... you'll die of dehydration or be killed by Buu, baka.)"

Watching this was the final straw- "The music's gone, the voices are terrible (Super Buu doesn't have his 'insane voice' anymore- now his voice is just 'Mr. American Badass'- yes, I'll be getting into that very soon) and they change the lines for no reason whatsover and put in stupid crap instead. Why? FUNimation should only change what they absolutely have to censor to put it on tv, they shouldn't make up shit because their idiot script writers think it's "cool.'" God I was pissed. All these years of raving about FUNimation's dub work and supporting them and contributing to their, "We have more money than we know what to do with! I'd rather not discuss how much" profits they cherish oh-so-much. All this time watching and loyally handing my money over to them I was being lied to and cheated. The real story- gone. Even the music's gone. And the intro and ending- gone. And the "episode updates" and "last episode" were changed to make it sound like every episode is a damn Monster Truck ralley (no offense to MTR's since they're actually kinda cool). And to think, had I not purchased those Majin Buu fansubs I'd probably have wound up buying every single "uncut" VHS with the misbelief that I'd now be "getting to see everything" and I might possibly have become the ultimate FUNi Ball Z fanboy. I'm glad I didn't but to to tell you truth- what FUNimation did really made me feel like a good friend had taken a knife and stabbed me in the back with it... and that just sickened me.

But what could I, one single fan, possibly ever do to convince FUNimation to stop butchering this amazing anime in their neverending quest to make it "more appealing" to 2-11 year olds? (since Kami know those are "exactly" the audience Toriyama specificially wrote to and for nonstop during his decade's worth of manga work- despite the fact that his "youngest audience" would have been 12-22 year olds by that time.) Or how could I ever get unknowing dub-lovers like I once was, satisified and even delighted with whatever kuso free appears on their television, to open their eyes and learn the truth about Dragon Ball Z and the mis-dubbing of it as I once did? After a while I came up with an idea. At one point almost a year ago later I forced myself to watch the dub of Movie 4 and- ah hell, you already know what I thought about that pile of kuso or you can just click 3 links and look it up right now. To make a long story short- it came, it was dubbed, and it sucked a whole lot of ass.

Anyway, upon viewing it I decided to make a review of it. Not just any review but a DBZUncensored-style review that would point out the brainless changes made by FUNimation. After making my brief review I was actually pretty impressed by my work. "Not bad, not bad. Hmm... DBZU at dbzoa.net has a blank section for this movie. Why don't I submit it to them? It'd make more sense than just letting it sit here where it'd slip into oblivion." I then figured that by writing for DBZU I could reach more people then I had previously been able to and could help them learn the truth about DBZ as I once learned. It made perfect sense for me to do this- I enjoyed writing, I was a huge DBZ fan, I wanted to get the word out and Chris Psaros's DBZUncensored always was (and still is) my number one favorite DBZ website. I later created DBZ Uncensored 2 and the rest, of course, is history.

As for my goals- well, these aren't the "dark ages" anymore of no subtitled DVD's being available and now anyone who wants to access them has access to the Japanese episodes. However, from first-hand experience I can definitely tell you that most people usually DO NOT choose to view the Japanese episodes/movies on their DVD's and are almost completely unaware that they're even on them and give very little thought to their existence or to even bothering to watch them. If anything, for now I just want more people to understand the differences between what they see on tv and the original version since that's what I think is most important. Though it is pretty late in the game my second goal is to try and convince FUNimation to put out Pioneer-quality DVD's of the movies and to dub what remains of DBZ and DBGT correctly.

So... what did I think about the dub back when I was a dubbie? I'll tell you. I once asked myself why I liked DBZ so much though I said to myself, "I guess I like it because it's... just so different to everything else on tv out there. I like the animation and there's just nothing else out there like it. Besides, it's got great action and a very interesting and compelling story. And a bit of humor mixed in. As for the music... it's okay I guess, but not great. I guess it's about average to everything else out there." It's interesting to note that there were only 5 things in particular about English DBZ that bugged me prior to my "conversion". First and foremost was the rap music in History of Trunks. Ugh, how I hated so much to hear it in DBZ. It felt like a defilement. Second I disliked the redundant amount of pseudo-swearing in the History of Trunks dub. The box said "uncut" so it made no sense to me that Trunks kept on saying "darn" so much throughout the movie.

Third I disliked a line by Krillin during the Cell saga... before blowing up the lab he picked up Gero's plans for the Artificial Humans and said, "Huh? Plans to build a toaster?" I thought it was a really bad attempt at humor and figured that some unfunny English script "writer" added that in to "punch things up." (I was right.) Fourth I disliked Krillin's "Holy Cow!" line in Movie 4- after watching the non-curse-filled rap-happy History of Trunks dub I was suspicious about how they were handling the movies and hearing this simply confirmed to me that the rest of the movie was probably purified crap. (I was right.) Last but not least, I didn't like Sean Schemmel's performance as Goku near the end of the Cell saga. I won't spoil it but suffice to say, the bad mistranslations were what primarily made his performance seem so lame.

As for who I am- I'm a 20 year old guy in school who lives somewhere in the southwest of America. As for my name... I'm going to be keeping that private for a good long while. Chris Psaros talked about how he got harassed in real life for the work he did and commented that he'd usually try to avoid discussing DBZU with friends or anyone he knew. I'd rather not have to deal with anything like that and be able to just write and have fun doing what I'm doing. After all, why do you think I picked GreatSaiyaman as my screen name? Well, that's about it for why I'm doing this. Oh, and I hope you all enjoy Dragon Ball Z Uncensored 2.

- GreatSaiyaman777