Latin American Spanish dub

The Latin American Spanish dub is a Spanish dub of the Dragon Ball anime series that has been broadcast in several countries such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, South and Central America.

It was based on the Harmony Gold English version for the first Dragon Ball dub; on Japanese version on Fuji TV for the second Dragon Ball dub, as well as the Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT dubs, Funimation's censored version for TV (broadcast on Nicktoons USA) in Dragon Ball Z Kai dub (Until Cell Saga), and international versions (non-Japanese) for Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (Majin Buu Arc) and Japanese version on DVD for Dragon Ball Super.

Licensing

Zero y el Dragón Mágico was the first Dragon Ball meta series to arrive in Latin America. Initially, it was licensed and distributed by Bandai.

This first attempt to commercialize Dragon Ball in Latin America was a failure. Because of this, to not make the same mistake again and to see the work of Saint Seiya dub produced by Cloverway Inc., Bandai decided to transfer license of the Dragon Ball anime series for Cloverway. This meant Cloverway would produce redubbing of Dragon Ball and dubbing the rest of the series, including the dubbing of the following series (Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT).

In 2005, after the arrival of Toei Animation Inc. in the United States, all licenses of series produced by Toei and that Cloverway was responsible for distribution, were transferred to the new subsidiary of Toei Animation for the continent.

Dragon Ball Z Kai was licensed in 2010 by Toei Animation Inc. for Latin America. But instead of using the Japanese version for broadcast on Cartoon Network and Televisa, Toei Animation Inc. used the FUNimation's censored version for dubbing. A reason for lower costs of dubbing, Toei failed economic agreements with the original voices of Dragon Ball Z, which included Mario Castañeda (Goku), Carlos Segundo (Piccolo), René García (Vegeta), Laura Torres (Gohan), and Ricardo Hill (King Kai) and therefore did not reprised their respective roles. This was also true for José Luis Castañeda (Nappa and Dr. Gero), Sergio Bonilla (Future Trunks), Jesús Colín (Master Roshi) (the former two had retired from dubbing (Colín died a month after the series' premiere), and the latter was never able to be contacted), and Gerardo Reyero (Frieza), who claims that he was undergoing personal issues at the time. As a result, most of the cast had to be replaced with a new one to resemble the FUNimation voices (as the dub was based on FUNimation's censored version).

Because of all these factors, Dragon Ball Z Kai received very harsh criticism, widely rejected and boycotted for the fans. Its reception was so negative that Toei ended the distribution on their own accord, and left the Cell Saga unfinished. When it was confirmed that The Final Chapters would be dubbed, they used almost all of the original cast of the Cloverway dub in order to avoid making what they previously had done.

Dub History

Zero y el Dragón Mágico

Zero y el Dragón Mágico was the Dragon Ball first dub. It was dubbed in Video Doblajes. 60 episodes and the first movie were dubbed. It was based on Harmony Gold English Dub.

Just as in the United States, some names were changed. Goku was Zero, Krillin was Cachito, Bulma was Lena, Yamcha was Zedaki, Oolong was Mao Mao and Ten Shin Han was Shinto.

For the first 5 episodes, was used Harmony Gold version (who were heavily censored), but starting episode 6 until episode 60 was used Japanese version and were dubbed uncut.

Casting

• Kid Goku: Elsa Covian 
• Cachito: Ana María Grey
• Bulma: Laura Ayala
• Yamcha: Rafael Rivera
• Oolong: Ricardo Tejedo
• Kame Sennin: Ernesto Casillas
• Ten Shin Han: Armando Coria

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT

Cloverway's logo

A Dragon Ball second dub was originally licensed, produced, and distributed by Cloverway Inc. (A Toei Animation agent in America).

The first 60 episodes were redubbed using the same script as previous dub, but at Televisa petition (first TV network broadcasted Dragon Ball) to Cloverway, some significant dialogues were changed and removing some scenes that weren't censored in Zero y el Dragón Mágico dub, including character names (like Chi-Chi is renamed Milk) Starting episode 61, the dub were uncut.

The dubbing was done in Producciones Salgado for first 60 episodes, and moved to Intertrack, starting episode 61.

Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, the Dragon Ball/Z movies (except Battle of Gods), two Dragon Ball Z TV specials and the Dragon Ball GT TV special were also dubbed on Intertrack.

This is some on the main cast of Cloverway dubbing:

• Kid Goku/Kid Gohan/Teen Gohan/Kid Goten/Goku Jr: Laura Torres
• Goku/Bardock: Mario Castañeda
• Gohan: Luis Alfonso Mendoza
• Bulma: Rocío Garcel (Dragon Ball/Early DBZ)/Mónica Manjarrez/Laura Ayala (briefly during the Buu Saga) 
• Chi-Chi (Milk): Patricia Acevado 
• Kame Sennin (Maestro Roshi): Jesús Colín
• Kaio-Sama/Dr. Briefs: Ricardo Hill
• Krillin: Rossy Aguirre (kid and adult in Dragon Ball; DBZ until somewhere in Frieza Saga)/Eduardo Garza/Luis Daniel Ramírez (Buu Saga)
• Ten Shin Han: Ismael Larumbe
• Yamcha: Ricardo Mendoza
• Oolong: Ernesto Lamaza/Arturo Mercado (only in Buu Saga)
• King Demon Piccolo/Piccolo/Mr. Popo/Kami-sama (Piccolo Daimakú/Piccolo/Señor Popó/Kamisama): Carlos Segundo
• Dende: Irwin Daayán
• Yajirobe: Rossy Aguirre/Luis Daniel Ramírez
• Vegeta: René García
• Frieza (Freezer): Gerardo Reyero
• Cell: Ricardo Burst
• Future Trunks/EoZ Trunks/Trunks (GT) (Trunks del Futuro Alterntaivo): Sergio Bonilla
• Majin Boo/Reecome/Dodoria (Majin Buu): Mario Sauret
• Pilaf: Yamil Atala
• Videl/Mai: Carola Vázques
• Kid Trunks (Niño Trunks): Gaby Willer
• Goten: Victor Ugarte
• Oob: Luis Daniel Ramírez
• Pan: Circe Luna
• Shen Long: Abel Rocha
• Bra: Isabel Martiñon

Dragon Ball Z Kai

Dragon Ball Z Kai was dubbed on Candiani Dubbing Studios. Some actors redubbed their characters, however, new actors dubbed some main characters as Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo, but some V.A.'s who didn't return as characters for the original Buu Saga came back, like Eduardo Garza as Krillin and Rocío Garcel as Bulma, but Yajirobe is later voiced by Luis Daniel Ramírez. The dub was based on Funimation's censored version for TV instead of Japanese version. 

Recast

• Goku (Gokú): Edson Matus
• Piccolo: Idzi Dutkiewicz
• Gohan: Karina Altamirano
• Vegeta: Andrés Gutiérrez Coto
• Trunks: Luis Fernando Orozco
• Master Roshi: Jorge Roig
• Uranai Baba: Magda Giner
• Nappa: Héctor Reynoso
• Kaiosama: Leonardo García
• Bubbles: Javier Olguín
• Kamisama: César Arias
• Mr. Popo: Jorge Palafox
• Frieza (Freezer): Dafnis Fernández
• Puar: Karen Vallejo
• Yajirobe (until Frieza Saga): Mariana Ortiz
• Bardock/Ginyu: Octavio Rojas
• Burter: José Gilberto Vilchis
• Reecome/Cell: Salvador Reyes
• Gurdo: Ricardo Mendoza
• Jeece: José Luis Reza
• Dodoria: Armando Coria
• Nail/Androide 19: Roberto Mendiola
• Porunga: Rubén Moya
• Dr. Gero: Guillermo Coria
• Android 16 (Androide Número 16): Marco Guerrero
• Android 17 (Androide Número 17): Rolando de la Fuente
• Android 18 (Androide Número 18): Jocelyn Robles
• Mr. Satán: Bardo Miranda

Dragon Ball Z Kai was a failure, because the change of voices of new characters and the censorship of Funimation's censored version for TV. In May 19, 2014, Majin Boo Saga was confirmed by Toei Animation.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (Dragon Ball Z: La Batalla de Los Dioses)

Only a few months after the Japanese release, Battle of Gods was screening on theaters across Latin America. Most of Cloverway cast returned in this film, including Eduardo Garza (Krilin) and Rocío Garcel (Bulma) except Kame Sennin voice who died in 2011, and Laura Torres who was replaced with an unknown actress. The dub was done in New Art Dub and the movie was licensed to Diamond Films. The insert song and ending was left in English.

New Characters Voices

• Beerus (Bills): Jose Luis Orozco
• Whis (Wiss): Arturo Castañeda
• Kid Mai: Susana Moreno
• Kid Shu: Miguel Angel Leal
• Oracle Fish: Alondra Hidalgo

Recast

• Kibito Kai: José Gilberto Vilchis
• Old Kai: Ernesto Lezama
• Master Roshi (Maestro Roshi): Miguel Ángel Sanromán
• King Kai (Kaiosama): Héctor Lee
• Dende: Javier Olguín
• King Vegeta (Rey Vegeta): Arturo Casanova
• Goten: Unknown actress

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (Dragon Ball Z: La Resurrección de Freezer)

2 months after its launch in Japan, this movie is released in Latin America and like the previous film had the most original voices, the dub was done in Laboprime Dubbing Producers and the movie was licensed to 20th Century Fox, The insert song and ending was left in Japanese unlike the previous film.

New Characters Voices

• Jaco: Bruno Coronel
• Sorbet: Pedro D'Aguillón Jr
• Tagoma: Ricardo Tejedo
• Shisami: Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza

Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters

In October 2015, it was confirmed that a dub was being produced by Candiani Dubbing Studios, unlike previous episodes this arc brought back most of the original voices to avoid repeating another failure, also return Laura Torres (Goten), Irwin Daayán (Dende), Ricardo Hill (King Kai and Dr. Briefs) and Genaro Vásquez (Supreme Kai, Kibito Kai and Android 17) but some characters voices changed since their original actor was not available at that time.

Recast

• Android 18: Mónica Villaseñor
• Kibito: Humberto Solórzano
• Majin Buu: Marcos Patiño
• Ox King: Enrique Cervantes
• World Tournament Announcer: Pedro D'Aguillón Jr

Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super's dub started on February 23, 2017 with the most original voices and broadcasted by Cartoon Network. Unlike others dub in Latin America the opening was dubbed however it was criticized by many fans because they didn't like the way that it was sung and even the singer was attacked by fans on his YouTube channel and Twitter account. The same happened to the second opening with a different performer; in this case, the singer stated that the lack of time and staff were the cause of the low quality the song ended up having.

Trivia

• Son Goku is named Goku, similar to how his name sounded in the English dubs. In Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods dubbing, Whis refers to him by his full name: Son Goku and Dragon Ball Super sometimes Goku and others Son Goku.
• Chi-Chi was changed to Milk. This was because "chichi" is a vulgar term for "breasts" in Mexico.
• Some characters retain their Japanese spellings: Pikoro/Ma Junia, Paikuhan, Bills, Wiss, etc.
• In some episodes, Dr. Gero's full name was supposed as Dr. Maki Gero; because at the beginning Gloria Rocha (the ex-director of the dub) didn't like "Gero" that's why she changed to Maki however Cloverway got angry for that and Gloria decided to change "Maki Gero" to unify.
• The Dragon Balls were literally translated as "Dragon Spheres" (Esferas del Dragón), probably to avoid vulgarity towards the word "balls".
• Cartoon Network is the only to broadcast Dragon Ball Z Kai on two language tracks through SAP. Spanish (audio 1) and English (audio 2) FUNimation dub.
  • Despite Toei Animation Inc. (helped by FUNimation) replacing the Kenji Yamamoto score from episode 18 and previous episodes to both language tracks, between 55-65 episodes in the English track is still used Yamamoto score despite constant reruns of the series on Cartoon Network.