The Dubbing Database
Advertisement

Dragon Ball Z is the French dub of ドラゴンボールZ. It has previously aired on TF1, TMC, AB1, NT1, Game One, Mangas and Club RTL.

Cast[]

Character Actor
孫悟空 (ドラゴンボールZ)
孫悟空 (ドラゴンボールZ) - young
Sangoku
Thierry Redler (episodes 1-10)
Patrick Borg (episodes 11-164, 168-291)
Alain Flick (episodes 165-167)
Brigitte Lecordier (Young)
孫悟飯 (ドラゴンボールZ)
孫悟飯 (ドラゴンボールZ) - older
Sangohan
Brigitte Lecordier
Jackie Berger (Substitute)
Mark Lesser (Adult)
孫悟天 (ドラゴンボールZ)
孫悟天 (ドラゴンボールZ) - older
Sangoten
Brigitte Lecordier
David Lesser (Adult)
トランクス (ドラゴンボールZ)
トランクス (ドラゴンボールZ) - older
Trunks
Brigitte Lecordier
Mark Lesser (Adult)
ベジータ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Vegeta
Eric Legrand
ヤムチャ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Yamcha
グレゴリー (ドラゴンボールZ)
Grégory
File:ガーリックJr (ドラゴンボールZ).png
File:ガーリックJr (ドラゴンボールZ) - transformed.png
Garlic Jr.
未来のトランクス (ドラゴンボールZ)
Trunks du futur
Mark Lesser
ピッコロ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Satan Petit-Cœur
Philippe Ariotti
ヤジロベー (ドラゴンボールZ)
Yajirobé
File:バビディ (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Babidi
ラディッツ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Raditz
Gérard Surugue
クリリン (ドラゴンボールZ)
Krillin
Claude Chantal
亀仙人 (ドラゴンボールZ)
Tortue Géniale
Pierre Trabaud
チチ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Chi-Chi
Celine Monsorrat
ブルマ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Bulma
餃子 (ドラゴンボールZ)
Chaos
天津飯 (ドラゴンボールZ)
Tienshinhan
Georges Lycan
File:ウミガメ (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Tortue
File:ビネガー (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Vinegar
ナッパ (ドラゴンボールZ)
Nappa
Georges Atlas
ミスターサタン (ドラゴンボールZ)
Hercule
Frederic Bouraly
ビーデル (ドラゴンボールZ)
Videl
Brigitte Lecordier
Annabelle Roux (episodes 203–213)
File:界王神 (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Kaio Shin
Brigitte Lecordier
File:キビト界王神 (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Kibitoshin
File:パン (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Pan
Julie Turin
File:ボラ (ドラゴンボールZ).png
Bola
Raoul Delfosse

Notes[]

  • Most of the European dubs were based on this dub, due to AB Groupe acquired the license of the anime in Europe during the 90's.

Adaptation and censorship[]

This section comes from the article about the French dub, on Dragon Ball Wiki

S.O.F.I. dubbing studio was licensed by AB Groupe for making the French dubs, using "Rythmo Band" technique. The studio was notorious for childish script adaptation choices, sub-par translations, frequent censorship, and cost-cutting tactics, seen in other animes translated by them. This was partly necessary due to the fact that the animes were shown on public television, where any stronger scene could result in outrage from parents or authorities and, in the worst case scenario, the program could be removed from the schedule. AB Groupe bought the animations in large quantities without knowing what they were, because the Japanese sold them at very low prices due to small intrest in serious distribution anywhere outside Asia. Also the dub was not translated directly from the original Japanese script, but was translated using Toei's "Engrish" scripts and translated by several translators. Later the audio, visual, and script materials were received in other European countries for their dubs of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT.

The dub is known for its infamous changes (which the AB Groupe dub, or the "Big Green" dub, heavily draws from), such as Goku always being called Sangoku/Songoku. Likewise, Gohan and Goten are called Sangohan/Songohan and Sangoten/Songoten, the Saiyans are renamed to Guerriers de l'espace (Space Warriors) and then Super Guerrier (Super Warriors) once they go Super Saiyan (but in DBGT dub they returned to Saiyan name instead of Space Warriors), King Piccolo is renamed Satan Petit Cœur (Satan Small Heart), Piccolo is renamed Petit Cœur (Small Heart), Kami is renamed Tout Puissant or Dieu (God, the meaning of "Kami") and although Vegeta's name is the same, it's spelled Végéta and pronounced differently (Ve-ji-tuh), hence why the "Big Green" dub decided to name Vegeta that. Goku is never called "Kakarot" but Sangoku or Cachalot (which means "Whale"), as a result, Vegito is called Vegeku. The Androids are accurately called Cyborg, but just with C's (i.e. C-18). Turles is called Thales and is now Goku's second brother, Trunks' name is pronounced as "Trunk", and Marron is called Maron (Maron herself is named Marlene). Additionally, Frieza is localized as Freezer, Majin Buu as Boubou, Shin as Neptune, Dabura as Dabla, Master Roshi as Tortue Géniale, Master Shen as Corbeau Géniale, Gotenks as Gotrunks, Mr. Satan as Hercule, Mr. Popo as Momo, Pikkon as Paul Kuhan and Ginyu Force as Les Forces Spéciales (The Special Forces). In their presentation, the Ginyu Force's members does not say their names and instead they say a different type of force: Recoome says Force absolue (Absolute force), Burter says Force infernale (Infernal force), Jeice says Force pur (Pure force), Guldo says Force animale (Animal force), Ginyu says Force du mal (Force of Evil) and in later episodes they introduce themselves with original names. Some of the characters doesn't even had names right away, but after few episodes or use name occasionally so many of them were called simply "This guy", "This one", "You" etc. Also, the Dragon Balls were called the Boules de Cristal (Crystal Balls), Power Pole was called Bâton Magique (Magic Stick), Senzu Beans were called Haricots Magiques (Magic Beans) and Flying Nimbus was called Nuage Magique (Magic Cloud). The same happened with the names of the attacks and most of them were renamed, some to the childish ones, for example Masenko to Magic Beam or Special Beam Cannon to Magic Needle Attack. The translation was not continuous, so names were changed from time to time, for example Tri-Beam had five different names in the series. Other attacks were completely replaced with normal lines like "Out of my Way", "Take that" and others. Only in a rare cases name was the same as in the original. For some reason, scouters are called "Detectors" (or "Portable computers", as seen in The Tree of Might), something that would carry over through the other European dubs. Also, since French dubbing rates are calculated according to how many lines of dialogue an actor records--and screams/vocal efforts are counted as lines--the French dub would save money by occasionally not dubbing several of the screams of the characters (in effect allowing people who have never watched the Japanese version to hear the voices).

This version is also more emotional than the original Japanese version, as Goku/Bardock calls their sons "son" and Android 16's dying speech before he's killed by Cell is also more sorrowful. Other than that, some lines, such as Goku's "Super Saiyan" speech, make no sense (Goku is even more ruthless in this version, stating that he's a heartless man who only cares about his friends. He also adds "I summon the power of Kaio! Transformation!" during the "I am the Super Saiyan, Son Goku!" portion).

Interestingly, although in the original version of the show, Vegito and Gotenks had two voices, in the French dub, they are both played by one actor. (It made sense for Gotenks, as Goten and Trunks themselves were played by the same actress around this time)

This is also where Cui's infamous "look behind you!" remark to Vegeta originates from.

The first half of the Dragon Ball Z was subjected to major and very inconsistent censorship. Many violent scenes got removed altogether, thus messing up the pacing and leading to plot holes. The death of several characters got cut either partially or entirely, though on numerous occasions, episode recaps and flashbacks still showed these scenes unedited. However, none of Gohan's nudity or any references to Hell, religious figures, and talk of death got removed, because these were still seen as suitable for young children, the target audience of the French version. After the Frieza Saga, the censorship radically decreased, and no material was cut from the entirety of the Buu Saga, including gore, sexual references and character's flipping off others. Instead, the dialogue was rewritten to sound more childish and easier to understand, and in particular, Master Roshi's lines were changed to remove all sexual references (even when the animation clearly showed what he was really talking about).

References[]

Advertisement