Dragon Ball Super Dub Translation Debacle Causes Goku, Gohan Rift

Dragon Ball Super's English dub is nearing the final episodes of the Tournament of Power on [...]

By Nick Valdez

Dragon Ball Super's English dub is nearing the final episodes of the Tournament of Power on Toonami, and while it's been a huge hit for Toonami fans, some of the choices Funimation has made when translating the series have spurned a few controversies among fans. One of the major recent ones was the unveiling of Autonomous Ultra Instinct, and the dub has garnered criticism once again for the most recent episode of the series.

Episode 120 of the series features a scene where Goku comes to Gohan's aid, but the English dub translation of the scene shifts the characters to the point where Gohan and Goku have a noticeable rift between the two of them.

In this comparison clip shared by @ErrenVanDuine on Twitter, the Japanese language version of the Episode 120 scene sees Goku apologizing to Gohan for barging into the fight while he's doing his best and thanks him for giving him time to recover his stamina. He then proceeds to say that he won't let Universe 3's fighters hit Gohan and get away with it. Gohan then responds that he understands, and says "let's fight together."

In the English dubbed version of the scene, Gohan seems a bit annoyed with Goku's interference and says, "Seriously?!" Goku apologizes for barging in on the fight and thanks Gohan for giving him the time to recover his energy. But the major difference here is that Goku claims that he couldn't "just stand around on the sidelines without getting [his] licks in too." Gohan agrees to fight together in the same way as the original translation.

The English and Japanese dubs of the series have their own sets of fans, and this franchise in particular has been pretty divisive in terms of which one fans usually prefer. The English dub of the Dragon Ball franchise have always had a bit of notoriety for making changes to the tone and personality of the characters, and that has changed with newer dubs as Funimation and the cast of the series came to better understand the franchise and anime dubbing production and distribution improved in the United States.

So while this change is notable, it is just another example of the many smaller changes in between each of the two releases. But which one do you prefer? Do you like the English or Japanese releases? Do you enjoy both? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super's big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

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