16 Dec

Original artist: yam
The「Powerpuff Girls Z」English dub is currently being shown on Boomerang (Australia). As far as we know, the main girls are always known throughout the program as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup — even in their civilian forms. The soundtrack, some dialogue, and few character names have all been altered from the original Japanese release…
*special thanks to “TotheZ” member GarySpotter for providing the following clips and info…
So of course I start off my thoughts with a Princess clip — if you had followed my review and coverage of the entire series last year, you’d understand why~… Anyway, as I was viewing the clip, my first reaction was, “ah okay, her voice is not all that bad.” It almost sounded like the Himeko that’s in this fandub. That’s actually a good thing! Personally, I was so impressed by that fandub that I wished Himeko’s official dub voice would sound something similar. Lucky for me it kinda does. (If you had heard how she sounded like in other language dubs, you’d be horrified.) Now, I can’t say the same about the tone, as how the dialogue in the offical dub was changed to make her appear more like the annoyingly spoiled brat she was in the original Powerpuff cartoon. But it’s still kinda cute in its own weird way I guess. Which reminds me, I cannot wait to watch the 16th episode of the dub, where we get to learn more about her family and why she acts the way she does — simply misunderstood. I’m quite interested in how the dub will handle it and if can do some justice to the original. It would be best however if my expectations were low considering how the rest of the clips are.
Another thing is, she’s known as Princess Morbucks, like in the original cartoon. Shouldn’t come as a surprise really. However attempting to make the dub characters sound and act like their American counterpart is a bit strange, seeing as how that wasn’t the case in the original Japanese version. That was like the biggest complaint from fans who didn’t like the anime. They expected their favorite characters to be just how they remembered them in the cartoon, but instead discovered they were a far cry from their original incarnation. Now it seems the complete opposite is occurring in the the dub, which is a bit amusing to say the least.
This next clip introduces the dub adaptation’s portrayal of the Gangreen Gang. You may have noticed that the producers decided to change the sex of Snake, where he/she is now known as “Ivy.” It may have something to do with Snake’s massaging skills that calms his opponents. Guess a shoulder/leg message from a male on a female opponent just wouldn’t look right for a young American audience.
Finally we have Mojo, Professor, Ken, and Poochie — originally known as Peach. Cute scene, can’t say the same about Poochie’s voice however. Have you forgotten how adorable Kaneda Tomoko sounded as the voice of Peach in the original… wan?
[OP] ← that’s the actual opening to the dub — not sure what’s up with the music…
[ED] ← ah yes, let’s take the original Japanese opening from Kitade Nana and use it as the ending for the dub — makes perfect sense…
[Amoeba Boys Clip] ← seeing the girls interact with each other here gives a pretty good impression of just how the dub may be…
[Princess Clip] ← Added 12/16. Duchess Morbucks?!
Well to be honest, I do really miss seeing this show. There are no official American or European broadcast dates out for the dub, so the rest of us out here will just simply have to wait. My guess is something will be announced when the 10th anniversary PPG special premieres January 19th — which I’ve already seen and enjoyed even though it was a cam rip with horrible sound quality. Anyway I am looking forward to seeing the dub to the anime. There are several reasons as to why, but only one stands out the most :3
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*The Dub Cast: