Throwback Thursdays- Dragonball Z in Mexico, my interview from DBZ Uncensored

By Mark Rodriguez

This is an old interview I had with a website called DBZ Uncensored, which dealt with the censorship differences between the original DBZ and the American dub. It might sound like a distant memory now but back in the infancy of Funimation, Dragonball Z's violent nature and adult humor was heavily censored down for American kids. Not to mention the fact that they skipped the entire first part of the series (Dragonball) and expected kids to be able to randomly jump into the later adventures of Goku and his friends.

Of course nowadays anime like Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, One Punch Man and My Hero Academia are dubbed as close to the original dialogue as possible and nothing is censored. In fact nowadays Dragonball Super airs Saturday nights on Toonami with a pretty good dub.

However, Mexico took a different, and in my opinion, better route. Instead of worrying about making an anime cool and hip for the kids, they used the shocking technique of airing the series as is, with as close of a translation as possible and not censoring the violence. Not only that, but they aired Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT in order. Anyways here is the interview, and I do have to say that at the time of this interview, I was still living in Mexico and we have seen the end of Dragonball GT while the American dub was still in the Cell saga. Of course Dragonball Super didn't exist back then.

The History of Dragon Ball in Mexico: Interview with a Mexican Dub Otaku

By: The Great Saiyaman

The following is based on an e-mail interview with a friend who goes by the handle Coola Yagami. The idea for this interview was very much inspired for me by Chris Psaros' Opinions Page which is one my favorite parts on his site since it reveals a lot of behind the scenes info on Dragon Ball. I was also inspired to do this by conversations I had with Coola. A lot of what he said about Dragon Ball in Mexico surprised me and I thought it'd make a great topic for an interview.

First of all I'd like to thank you for agreeing to this interview. Anyway, I'm hoping to learn as much about what it was like for Dragon Ball in Mexico as possible so please feel free to be as thorough as you like.

1. Now then, when and how were you first introduced to Dragon Ball?

A. I read about DBZ Super Butoden 3 in an EGM mag. Checking my tv guide, I noticed Dragonball was on so I decided to check out. This was in 1995.

2. When did Dragon Ball first begin in Mexico? Also, what channel and time slot did it appear in?

A. Probably the middle of 1995, channel 5 (XHGC) regular 2:30 or so cartoon timeslot, weekly.

3. When DB first came out in America it was only 13 episodes worth of content. However, they got a crappy early time slot (plus they censored a great deal of the funny stuff and added cheesy music) and it flopped. They then decided to just move on to the "more action-oriented" DBZ since they figured people would really eat that up. Did anything similar to that ever happen in Mexico?

A. Naw, DB caught on fast. It was the only show of its kind that mixed the humor with perversions and martial arts action. There was a similar show at the time (at least similar cause the star looked like Goku) named Dragon Quest, but it was deeper and more serious. Perhaps the comedic feel of DB made it even more popular than Dragon Quest.

4. Gen Fukunaga got hooked on anime by living in Japan and was most influenced by "Battleship Yamato." He later got his uncle who's an executive at Toei to hook him up with the rights to DB-Z (and now GT) in America, Canada, Australia and the U.K. Who's Gen Fukunaga's Mexican equivalent and what's his story behind how he got DB on tv?

A. I really wouldn't know. They probably decided that DB was a cool show and decided to bring it. All I know is that they brought the anime Saint Seiya quite some time before DB and it was BIG hit in Mexico as well as Captain Tsubasa. DB, Dragon Quest and Sailor Moon all popped up around the same time.

5. What countries besides Mexico did he get the rights to DB for?

A. Wouldn't know.

6. What is the name of the company that did DB in Mexico?

A. Intertrack

7. Canada has weird "Canadians in Canada have to make some of the stuff for shows and songs" "cultural laws" to avoid American tv and music swamping tv and music development in their country. Thus, the Ocean Group is now back to dubbing episodes down there (with their own "original" scripts. It's a pretty dumb since DBZ is really Japanese, but they've got some good VA's) even though Funi fired em and went with VA's from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area partly because Barry Watson was sick of making plane trips. Did DB in Mexico ever experience VA replacements for major characters or did they ever have VA's in other Spanish-speaking countries provide their own "domestic" talent?

A. I wouldn't know about other Latin American countries. Some VAs did change probably cause they moved on to dub other shows. Luckily some characters like Goku, Freeza and Cell kept their voices throughout the entire DB/DBZ/GT series.

8. Americans have the perception that anything done in animation is automatically for kids, despite cartoons like Bugs Bunny, The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Futurama which appeal to people of all ages. Was there a similar stereotype in Mexico before DB came along?

A. I think so, but it didn't affect the shows. Everyone considered DB kiddy even with all the Roshi humor and stuff. Goku was pretty much loved by all because he was so damned adorable so it kinda appealed to all ages.

9. Fukunaga himself has complained about the misperception of animation in America and YET, from the very get-go he altered DBZ to appeal to 6-11 year old males "for Nielsons ratings purposes." When DB first came out in Mexico was it censored and re-written for the sole purpose of capturing young audiences?

A. The first eps of DB were censored a bit, some of Roshi's antics were covered up, some dialogue was 'Mexican-ized', and some techniques were translated into Spanish, but as DB moved along, the moves got their Japanese names back, Roshi was perverted as ever, and by the time they got to dub the second half of DB and all of DBZ, it practically 95% like the original only in Spanish. In the first DB eps, the dialogue and stuff was just changed in favor of removing Roshi's antics and Goku patting everyone's crotch, to shield them from that sorta thing, though they had weird standards since they kept the Bulma shower scene. I guess later they thought it wasn't such a big deal and kept all the Roshi stuff just the same.

10. If you type in "Funimation sucks" on Google you get links to 1,070 sites. If you type in "Intertrack sucks" in Spanish how many links do you get?

A. I wouldn't know. I don't think many would complain about Intertrack because their work on DB/DBZ/GT was excellent and their work on Sakura Card Captors was even better.

11. When DBZ first came out in America it was pretty much just people who'd seen it in Japan and fansub who watched it mainly to nitpick it. When DB first came out in Mexico was there a similar starting audience who watched it mainly for those reasons?

A. Well, we saw all of DB, and DBZ meant the further adventures of Goku. All us eager Goku fans were eagerly anticipating DBZ since we've heard of rumors of DBZ and GT for a long time and wanted to find out just what happened to Goku after he married Chi-Chi. Pretty much all of Mexico was waiting for DBZ the day a tv ad announced it coming to Mexico.

12. Aside from Gen Fukunaga's Mexican counterpart, who were other key players for the company?

A. I wouldn't know. Probably just the translators and dub guys. I don't think Intertrack had anything to do with DBZ merchandise.

13. What city did Intertrack operate in?

A. Probably somewhere in Mexico DF. Everything major takes place there.

14. Was there ever a "Chris Sabat Mexican counterpart", a single person who was assigned a greater number of voices to do than is appropriate for any single Voice Actor?

A. Yeah...the guy that voiced Nappa also voiced Dr. Gero, Borter, Dr. Myuu and random extras. At least he portrayed the characters excellently. He also did Piccolo's voice in the Brolli and Taurus movies (maybe the normal Piccolo couldn't make it?) and also voiced Principal Skinner in some Simpsons eps. I wish I knew his name...

15. Now for the one question I've been dying to ask....does Intertrack ever censor anything else throughout any of the DB series?

A. They censored a lot of the nudity in Dragonball. Also, Mr. Satan kept his name but Chi-Chi was changed to Milk because Chi-Chi literally means the swear word version of breasts, which is why it can't be said on Mexican TV.

16. Interesting...Japanese Episode 80 (which has no English episode number. It's the "English episode" between "English episodes" 64 and 65. I guess you could call it "English episode 64.5") is arguably the most violent episode in DBZ history. Funimation certainly thought so because they refused to even release a cut version of it on tv. So even this episode was shown in Mexico uncut?

A. Um...I can't tell...if you mean the ep Freeza impaled Kuririn, then yeah, that was kept uncut. Real bloody too.

17. Did Intertrack stay true to the script and not make up any major plot holes like Raditz "moving faster than the speed of light" or Goku's "Instantaneous Transmission" "moving at the speed of light" or whatever?

A. Naw, they stayed true to the script to avoid any plotholes. Freeza did once mention a line 'Do you think 3 ants like you can defeat a dinosaur like me' but it seems the manga has that one too.

18. Were any characters significantly changed like Krillin becoming a "fast-talkin, joke-crackin hipster down with all tha latest mondo cool lingo?"

A. Nope, since they stayed with the script they didn't have any room for character changes. Everyone acted like they should have.

19. So they never made Krillin crack any jokes about burritos giving him gas or anything along those lines?

A. LMAO no. There was that one time where Vegeta told the others to go home and drink their milk, but I found out it was in the manga too, with Vegeta implying Kuririn and the rest were useless babies compared to him. Only Mexican-ish lines was in DB when Jackie Chun (22nd budokai his fight with the wolf man) said he saw Brooke Shields and Julia Roberts in the crowd, and in Uulong's premiere episode in Dragonball they had Uulong whistle 'la cucaracha', a Mexican song most everyone knows. If you want to see mexican-ized anime...oh God...watch how they did Pokemon...

20. Speaking of which, are there any infamous "look, I can see their parachutes" type lines in the Mexican dub?

A. Nope when people die, they die. They use words like kill, die, assassinate, murder, hell, etc. They sometimes use 'send you to the other world' 'or send you to paradise' but that literally means sending you to heaven in Mexican terms, which of course means death.

21. How about the music? Did they stick entirely with the original music and not put in any mainstream Mexican music?

A. Nope, 100% original Japanese music. Though they skipped most of the songs in the cartoon though so there was some dead silence. I didn't even know there was a song played during the Goku vs Jackie Chun match until someone mentioned Funi skipped it out. The famous Gohan SSJ2 scene was dead silence, and IMO I thought it was cool with only the sounds of Gohan's SSJ2 aura and rocks falling in the background, but now I'm damn curious as to how it woulda been if they kept Spirit vs Spirit...In DBZ they only kept the song played when Trunks was walking down the streets of his horrible future in flashbacks. DB had songs during when Goku flew off to fight the RR (RR song), a song played when Goku and Upa were flying back to revive Bora, a song played when they basically summarized DB for Grandpa Gohan, a song played while Yamcha and Ten fought, a song played near the end of DB with another DB resume flashback scene for Kami Sama. Sadly, GT skipped out all the songs and only dubbed the first ending theme. I guess GT was so short that they were too lazy to dub the other 3 closing themes...

22. What was the overall reaction to this strange music which was very foreign to what Mexicans were used to listening to?

A. I dunno. Some people might think some of the tracks were kinda weird, but for the most part they thought it was cool and fit the mood. But remember, they were used to the BGM of other anime like Dragon Quest and Saint Seiya, so DBZ's music wasn't all that 'foreign' in comparison.

23. In what month and year did DB, DBZ and DBGT premier in Mexico? Also, how many DBZGT seasons total were there?

A. Let me see, DB was 1995, 2 seasons...the first was until Goku was defeated by Tao Pai Pai and had to scale the Karin Tower, and then the second season was the rest of it. DBZ was in Sept. 1997. Let me see, the first season ended an episode before the Gi Nyu arrived. the 2nd season started with the Gi Nyu and ended when Trunks killed Freeza. The 3rd season continued from there and ended with the first episode of the Buu saga. The 4th season the whole Buu saga till DBZ ended. GT was in 1999 or 2000 I think, and well, it's so short (64 eps) it was all shown in one season.

24. DB and DBZ were the top-rated shows in Mexico of their time, right?

A. Yeah. Not sure about DB, but DBZ was THE show to watch at the time.

25. Earlier when we spoke you mentioned that Dragon Ball Z movies 3 and 8 were actually shown in Mexican theaters. When they made their red cart debut did they have any of the Japanese cast like Akira Toriyama and the original director there to celebrate it? Also, have any of the Japanese cast ever gone down to Mexico in conjunction with any DB-related events?

A. No. They were probably treated like any other animated movie, mostly a big thing for all the millions of DBZ fans.

26. So how well did those 2 movies do in theaters?

A. I guess they did great. Honestly...movie 3 wasn't that cool IMO, but it must have done very well if they showed another one in theaters.

27. Was there much controversy when Movie 8 made it to theaters like picketing or a boycott?

A. No. The movie wasn't boycotted or affected at all. Some small town newspapers with some dumb critics complained such a violent movie shouldn't be classified for all audiences, and that the movie had some plot but then the second half was basically non stop violence as Brolli beat the crap out of the heroes. On a similar note, during the Buu saga and GT some small town newspapers also complained about DBZ (among other anime), saying stuff like how it gives girls the bad impression of how they can do anything as long as they get they want (based on Bulma's earlier antics for the sake of the Dragonballs), and how sick the villains are, where they don't just kill you. They torture you, laughing at your pain...before they finally decide to kill you. This is of course referring  to Piccolo, Raditz, Vegeta, Nappa and Freeza. Again these articles really had nothing to do with the show itself and nothing was ever cut or censored because of them. I must add that DBZ is now being shown in Mexican CN where they do cut out Roshi's antics and characters flipping people off. Channel 5 is currently rerunning DBZ like for the 10th time, and is still uncut.

28. Only 4 DB games out of dozens have been released in America--Dragon Power (which censored Roshi's antics, changed Goku's and Roshi's appearance and had tons of name changes) for NES, GT Final Bout for PS plus Legacy of Goku and DBZ Collectible Card Game for Gameboy Advance. Which DB games have been released in Mexico?

A. Well, we only got the GT Final Bout the US released, and Legacy of Goku. You know, legally. They also sell all the Japanese PS DBZ games for Japanese Playstations, and they sell all the Japanese Super Famicom games in SNES format (pirated). Some Mexican fans made a very crappy pirated game named simply 'Dragonball Z' which ripped sprites out of DBZ Butoden 2, 3 and Hyper and changed Goten's hair black to try and pass him off as Chibi GT Goku...the game played awful and had SF2 music in it. Basically they were TRYING to make a SNES version of the GT Final Bout game...

29. Assuming that they have done so, when did Intertrack first release episodes on VHS and DVD? Also, how expensive were they at first and has their price gone down since GT finished in Mexico?

A. Um... they only sold the movies released in theaters on tape, and they cost what any other animated movie would cost (less than 10 bucks, 100 pesos). They also sold a special 3 box set of all 3 DB movies, or separately if you preffered, and they also sold 3 tapes of the first 9 eps of GT, 3 eps each a few months before GT hit tv. I doubt the prices dropped cause they're so cheap, but it would probably be hard to find them now since the DB fever had passed.

30. So the Japanese sub isn't available on DVD in Mexico?

A. Don't think so.

31. While visiting a China town in California I saw a lot of cheaply-made bootleg DBZGT figures (like Goten with a sword) which were there pretty much just for gullible tourists. Were there very many bootleg figures and stuff in Mexico?

A. Hell yeah. A LOT of pirated DBZ t-shirts, bookbags and the like. They also sold tons of bootleg figures based on the original Japanese ones made by Bandai. And like I said, they made their own bootleg videogame, LOL. Last year they did come out with the original Bandai figures though. I bought me an Uub, Gohan and Freeza figure. :)

32. So I take it it's safe to assume that there aren't any sites in Mexico dedicated to being anti-Intertrack?

A. Yep.

33. Even now DBZ VHS fansubs are still pretty popular in America since Funi's DVD's censor cursing, don't bother to include any previews (except for one English preview) and are overpriced. Has there ever been a large fansub biz down in Mexico?

A. Not sure. They'll probably always be people selling fansubs cause it's cool to see Japanese stuff...but here they were mostly sold before DBZ ever came out, to get the scoop on Goku and stuff before anyone else. Now that it's on tv and nothing's cut or anything, and the DBZ fever died down a bit, people would probably buy fansubs of other anime series or something.

34. Backtracking to an earlier question, when DB first came out in Mexico was it's main audience, at first, people who had seen the Japanese version and wanted to compare and contrast differences between the two versions?

A. I don't think anyone ever seen or heard of DB before it came out. I suppose the main audience were people that liked action and comedy. Since everything in Mexico is dubbed from either the US, Japan and sometimes other countries, we don't make that big of a deal if it's all foreign.

35. When did the first Spanish DB manga come out?

A. Hmmm I think sometime around 1999-2000.

36. In America we're always groaning "Ergh, damn soccer moms always keep ruining DB for everyone." If you talk about "soccer moms" in Mexico does it mean the same as it does up here?

A. I don't think the term exists here. I'm not sure if there's a Mexican equivalent.

37. After how DB has been handled in America by Funi we must look like a bunch of idiots in comparison to the mature way DB was handled in Mexico. Has this made America or the Funi the butt of many jokes down there or given Mexico the impression that Americans are all a bunch of religiously-fanatical, hyper-sensitive, immature hypocrites?

A. I don't think anyone really cares about the Funi version. Most people's impressions are either a 'wtf? why was this and that changed???' and 'man, they're STILL in the *insert saga here*'.

38. Is "the Spanish dub vs. the Japanese sub" a very big deal in Mexico?

A. Not really. 

39. DBZ music cd's did great in Japan. Were they ever released in Mexico and did they do well there?

A. Nope. There were some illegal bootlegs of them though, but you know that stuff is always kinda underground so it's hard to know if they did great. Mexico did pull out a DB/DBZ CD but I don't know if what songs it had or how well they did but I do know it was all in Spanish. They also sold an anime CD a while back which is basically the opening and ending songs of Pokemon, Digimon, Sailor Moon and of course, DB, DBZ, and GT. Dunno how well that one did.

40. What kinds of DBZ-related products have been designed specifically for Mexican markets?

A. The action figures from Bandai, manga, coloring activity books, they used to sell stickers along with so and so cookies. I think that's about the only legal DBZ stuff they had here. I already told you about the videotapes. There are also anime magazines where occasionally DBZ is mentioned.

41. Just out of curiousity, which Coola movie is your favorite?

A. The second. The Metal Coola movie had cooler action scenes, Piccolo got some action, even Kuririn did fairly well against the robots. My fave scene was when Goku and Vegeta thought they won and then they saw an entire army of Metal Coolas after them.

42. Well, it's about to time to wrap this up. Any final comments you'd like to make?

A. Hmm, well DBZ rules no matter what version it is, but if you think you love Funi's version, then wait till you check out the original. It's leagues better.

Once again Coola, thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Hmm...for years I'd always wondered why Planet Namek and other sites bragged about how good the Mexican dub was. Now I finally understand why. Whether you're learning Spanish, already know it but have been stuck with the English version or are just looking for a good foreign dub, then the Mexican dub is definitely worth checking out.

Man, this sure brought back memories. I've even forgotten that Channel 5 in Mexico was station XHGC. I'm adding the link to the original interview which is still up. I was very detailed on the scenes that were cut out of Dragonball, so that interview has the whole story. Also as far as I know thanks to Youtube, Mexico still aired Battle of Gods, Resurrection F and Dragonball Super with most of the same voice cast still around. 

Man, we're about to hit 2019 and Dragonball is still going strong with a new movie and more manga arcs. What a time to be alive. I remember there was some controversy when Dragonball Z Kai was to be dubbed in Spanish where for some reason some of the OG voice actors were either not coming back or not allowed to come back, but they worked it out.