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German dub

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This article is about the
real world.

Akira Toriyama with his pet cat, Koge (1987)

The German dub of the Dragon Ball anime started airing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Dragon Ball[]

German RTL II television station began broadcasting the series based on the French dub, from August 30, 1999, to August 23, 2000. The broadcast ended on August 23, 2000. The German version of the series was produced by Splendid Synchron GmbH under the direction of Cay-Michael Wolf and Charlotte Luise Brings. Both versions of Makafushigi Adobenchā! were replaced with the title Das Geheimnis der Dragon Balls (The Secret of the Dragon Balls) sung by Renate Haßlberger. A three-minute music video with the singer for the German-language title song was also produced.[1]

From episodes 1 to 53, numerous terms were Germanized. At the beginning of the anime series, the Kamehameha fighting technique was called the "Schockwelle der alten Ahnen" (Shock Wave of Old Ancestors), Jindujun was called "Überschallwolke" (Supersonic Cloud). From episode 54, they started using original terms. Due to a fact that manga was sold in Germany from 1997, translators changed French names to be more accurate and to not disappoint fans. For example, Goku is always referred to as his full name Son Goku, and Yamcha is named "Yamchu". However, there are a few remnants of the French version, such as Senzu Beans called Magischen Bohnen (Magic Beans) and Power Pole called Zauberstab (Magic Stick). In the German version, the turtle has a voice actress, while in the Japanese and French versions a man.

The series was broadcast again on Animax from June 2007, until episode 109. In April 2023, RTL II began airing the series again, along with Attack No. 1 and Sailor Moon celebrating the network's 30th anniversary. Despite initial good ratings of 6,5% viewers, over the following months, the viewership dropped to 1% and at the end of September 2023, further broadcast was canceled. The broadcast aired until episode 83 and rebooted many times from the first episodes.[2]

Dragon Ball was very unsuccessful in other German-speaking countries. In Austria, anime was broadcast by ORF1, but scenes from first few episodes caused a protest from parents and eventually end of broadcasting. In Switzerland, series was aired by TV3, although channel was very short lived (from 1999 to 2001).

Voice Actors

Censorship[]

  • Oolong says that he wishes for "a hat with 2 holes for my ears" in the German dub, but in the Japanese version he says that he wishes for some hot chick's panties.
  • In addition to the censorship that was already in the French version, RTL2 also made some of its own in episodes 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Dragon Ball Z[]

The basis for the German-language adaptation was a remastered French version, which differs only in the opening and ending (they were Japanese, but creditless). The translation, was like the previous series, based the German manga series. The German dialogue book comes from Thomas Maria Lehmann, the dialogue director was Wolfgang Nummer. The German dubbing was implemented by the dubbing studio of the Berlin MME Studios and took place in consultation with the French AB Groupe. Among other things, Santiago Ziesmer was initially cast as voice actor for the role of Vegeta, since he sounded most similar to the French speaker. Due to protests from fan circles, the role was newly cast with Oliver Siebeck episodes later.

One of the more noteworthy items about the German dub is that it cast actual kids for the child roles, a rarity in dubbing as most child actors do not possess adequate lip-syncing ability. Unlike the Dragon Ball series (excluding the movies), Cha-La Head-Cha-La and We Gotta Power were translated into German and produced under the direction of Andy Knote. The ending song, We Were Angels was translated as well.

Dragon Ball Z was broadcast from August 27, 2001, on RTL II. During the first airings of the series, the shooting in Erfurt took place. As a result, the station's management decided not to air episode 253 and 254 (in the Buu saga), because in these episodes there was an attempted assassination of Mr. Satan. Instead, the following episodes were broadcast directly.

This dub was re-aired a couple of times through the years – four times on RTL II and once on Tele 5 – and eventually saw a home video release on DVD by distributor Kazé. Said home video release restored much of the cut content that were done to the German TV broadcast versions by RTL II after episode 164, but with all of the edits from the French source material intact. Additionally, due to storage limitations, Kazé forwent licensing the original Japanese language track. As noted, on by the editors of Schnittberichte.com: "With a series as long as DBZ (291 episodes), the costs of subsequently patching the episodes—or even re-dubbing them—would drive the costs of a home video release to heights that would be deemed unacceptable to modern audiences."[3]

Voice Actors
  • Goku - Tommy Morgenstern
  • Vegeta - Santiago Ziesmer (episodes 5-35), Oliver Siebeck (rest of the series)
  • Vegetto (Vegito) - Viktor Neumann
  • Chi-Chi - Julia ZIffer
  • Bulma - Claudia Urbschat-Mingues
  • Gohan - Sandro Blümel (kid), Robin Kahnmeyer (teen/adult)
  • Goten - Ricardo Richter (kid), Marcel Clarén (teen)
  • Trunks - Sebastian Schulz (Future, EoZ), Arda Vural (kid)
  • Gotenks - Tobias Müller
  • Piccolo - David Nathan
  • Krillin - Wanja Gerick
  • Yamchu (Yamcha) - Karlo Hackenberger
  • Tenshinhan (Tien Shinhan) - Julien Haggége
  • Frieza - Thomas-Nero Wolff
  • Cell - Stefan Gossler
  • Boo - Uwe Büschken
  • Meister Kaio (King Kai) - Rüdiger Evers
  • Dende - Raúl Richter
  • C17 (Android 17) - Timm Neu
  • C18 (Android 18) - Diana Borgwardt
  • Videl - Anna Carlsson
  • Mr. Satan - Elmar Gutmann
  • Muten-Roshi (Master Roshi) - Karl Schulz
  • Shenlong - Wolfgang Ziffer
  • Polunga (Porunga) - Raimund Krone

Dragon Ball GT[]

Dragon Ball GT was broadcast in double episodes on RTL II from October 30 to December 5, 2006. RTL II significantly shortened episodes with German dubbing and omitted episodes 29, 38, 46, 47, 54 to 57 and 59 to 63, which means that only 51 of 64 episodes exist in the German dubbed version. Animax repeated the series from August 28, 2012, but also in the heavily RTL II censored version. The recordings were carried out in the Berlin dubbing studio of MME Studios GmbH. GT probably use French video tapes. This is because the last clip in the ending outro has the film copyright text (which is re-used in the Blue Water dub).

Kazé announced the release of the German Dragon Ball GT on DVD in spring 2013. The missing episodes are only included in the original version with German subtitles, and the other episodes are only included in the heavily censored German version.

Dragon Ball Z Kai[]

The German dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai, which also eventually included "The Final Chapters," saw all of the characters except for the narrator and Roshi re-cast (and Roshi's actor eventually had to leave partway through production due to health issues). It was never explicitly stated why this was the case, but according to comments posted by distributor Kazé Deutschland on their cast announcement video[4], the original cast members of the German dub of Dragon Ball Z were all contacted and offered "the standard market rate" for dubbing. They also noted that the time commitment needed to dub an entire series was too incompatible with some of their schedules.

Unlike the dubs for Z and GT, female adult actresses were used to dub the child roles rather than actual male children.

Interestingly, the voice actor for Goku, Amadeus Strobl, had actually already played Goku before in the German dub of Dragon Ball GT as a child.

Dragon Ball Super[]

In Germany, the first 52 episodes of the series were broadcast on ProSieben Maxx between September 4, and November 16, 2017. From June 11, 2019, the first broadcast from episode 53 will continue after the 2-year hiatus. The German dubbed version was created by TV + Synchron and directed by Sabine Winterfeldt, Felix Spieß and Fabian Kluckert. The dialog was written by Michael Herrmann. The dubbed version was commissioned by Toei Animation Europe for the broadcaster ProSieben Maxx.

With the notable exception of the voice of Goku (now portrayed by Stefan Bräuler), the cast remains consistent with the previous dub for Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Movies[]

The German dub for the movies were based on French dub, and physical releases are licensed by AB Groupe. The main difference is that names of characters were left as they were in German anime version. As for the intros, Dragon Ball movies uses a remixed and dubbed version of Makafushigi Adobenchā. Dragon Ball Z movie 1 uses the French movie intro but the music was replaced with instrumental remix of Cha-la-head-cha-la, movies from 2 to 9 uses Japanese intro also with the same instrumental remix, movie 10 uses unknown instrumental song, and movie 11 and 12 uses We Gotta Power translated into German.

The first three Dragon Ball films were released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Polyband with German dubbing. On September 30, 2011, anime label Kazé Deutschland released the first three films with German dubbing and the previously unpublished fourth film as an original version with German subtitles in a complete box on DVD.

The Dragon Ball Z films and TV specials were released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Polyband on DVD. Kazé has renewed the movie license and released it in three complete DVD boxes since October 2011 and a complete box with TV specials on DVD in early 2012.

The movies 12 and 13 were released in cinemas as Dragon Ball Z – Der Film in Germany (February 13, 2003), Austria (March 28, 2003) and Switzerland. They were later released by Polyband (August 25, 2003) and Kaze (2012) on DVD.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly were dubbed in German and released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on January 29, 2019. KAZÉ Anime released the film's DVD and Blu-ray in Germany on December 5, 2019.[5][6]

Dragonball Evolution hit German theaters on June 11, 2009. It was released on DVD on October 16, 2009.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was released on August 30, 2022.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The scenes with The Dictator were completely removed in the German dub of Fusion Reborn due to strict laws in Germany about references to the Nazi regime.
  • Serbian dub, Croatian dub and Finnish version used German dub of Dragon Ball Z.
    • Finnish version used this dub only in the last episodes.
    • Croatian dub uses translated American English script instead.

References[]

  1. ↑ Dragonball - Das Geheimnis der Dragonballs. Youtube. Retrieved on August 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ RTL ZWEI setzt »Sailor Moon« und »Dragon Ball« ab (German). anime2you. Retrieved on September 18, 2023.
  3. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=179896
  4. ↑ Dragon Ball Kai German Dub Cast announcement video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RghlctoXNQ8
  5. ↑ https://www.kaze-online.de/Programm/Anime/Dragonball-Super-Broly-DVD.html
  6. ↑ https://www.kaze-online.de/Programm/Anime/Dragonball-Super-Broly-Blu-ray.html
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