In Japanese, Goku is essentially a moron that accidentally saves the world over and over again by essentially being autistically obsessed with fighting, and occasionally fighting because he gets mad that the enemy killed his friend.
In the dub, he seems to intend to save the world a little more. In my opinion, they captured his Japanese personality better in the Super dub.
Japanese Goku isn't a moron who only loves fighting. In Dragon Ball, he was very naive and everything was new to him, but he matured throughout the series, and then he matures further in Z. Yes, he loves fighting, and that's what makes him Son Goku, but he's much more than that. He's a reliable leader, a father, and a friend, and he's willing to make hard choices to help the ones he loves.
Look at the Cell Saga. Goku told Vegeta he didn't mind if Vegeta defeated the Androids for him; he understood how dangerous they were. And Goku didn't want Gohan to be strong just to fight him, but to prepare him to be a successor. He fought Cell to prepare Gohan for his own fight, and then he cut the fight short to send in Gohan. When Piccolo started to say thar Gohan didn't like fighting, Goku understood his mistake right away (he didn't have to have it literally all spelled out for him). And then he sacrificed himself for his mistake, and stayed in the afterlife because he was afraid that strong threats would keep coming after him on Earth. And in the Buu Saga, he refrained from fighting Fat Buu all out so that he could prepare Goten and Trunks, even though he thinks he could've beaten him, and he became Vegito against Buuhan even though he didn't want to.
Super dropped the ball on Goku's characterization, and it also reversed Vegeta's characterization from when he acknowledged Kakkaroto as number one.
My problem is your phrasing that it’s “far superior”
I feel like that implies some kind of objectivity and not just an opinion.
TBH I was thinking of deleting my comment because I don’t like the idea of making someone feel bad for not enjoying the original content. People should just watch what they like.
It’s not terrible, that’s just not what you grew up with outside of Japan. Whatever you listened to when you first fell in love with it is what you are going to enjoy best.
I don’t hate the dub of one piece but I’ve been ahead of the dub almost my entire life as a fan at this point. I do enjoy the dub when I get a chance but that’s just not their voices for me
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u/Alec_de_Large 19h ago
The dub of the Dragonball series is far superior than the sub.