What are Anime with multiple English Dubs and what is considered the better Dub?

I have a lot of knowledge on Dragon Ball's mess of dubs specifically. I will stick only to Z because there is so much to go over.

Dragon Ball Z (the original cut of the show, not Kai) has a 3 main English dubs:

First is the original FUNimation/Ocean dub which was produced by licensed by FUNimation, outsourced to Saban, and recorded by Ocean Productions in Vancouver Canada. This dub lasted until around episode 67 of the original Japanese uncut anime and was heavily edited down into 53 episodes. Blood, references to death, sexual content, and a few bits of filler were trimmed out in this edit of the show. The cast for this version was also very different than the more well known FUNimation in house dub cast. Notable voice actors in this version include Ian James Corlett and Peter Kelamis as Goku, Brian Drummond as Vegeta, Scott McNeil as Piccolo, Terry Klassen as Krillin, Pauline Newstone as Freeza, and Saffron Henderson as Gohan. The voice acting in the Ocean dub is considered one of it's strong points. The voice acting is really done well and for fans who have seen both this dub and the more popular FUNimation dub, there is actually quite a bit of debate over which actors people like better. On the topic of sound design, the biggest thing to note is that the music is swapped in this version. Shunsuke Kikuchi's original kung-fu movie style score was replaced with a more sci-fi sounding soundtrack produced by Ron Wasserman and Shuky Levi which gives the series a much different feel than the original soundtrack does. Hironobu Kageyama's iconic opening "Head Cha-La" was also replaced with the rock track "Rock the Dragon" which used clips from Dragon Ball Z movies 1-3 in the background. This dub's greatest weakness is the script. The script is not very accurate to the original Japanese version at all, which affects all dubs that came after it for the original Z TV series. There are many nonsensical line changes all over the place that hurt the story, and there are multiple points in which censorship affects the tone since characters are not allowed to die. This dub was pretty flawed overall but had its strong points.

Second is the in house FUNimation dub which continued on from where Ocean left off and completed the series. This dub has mutliple revisions to it for better or worse. The 1999 original release of the dub had 2 versions, an uncut version only on DVD and VHS, and an edited for TV release. The TV edits were less intrusive than the prior dub's due to airing on Cartoon Network which was less strict than the standards for the Ocean dub which was syndicated on local stations. Both versions of the show have script issues. Similar levels of nonsensical dialogue changes happen in this dub that happened in the Ocean dub, and it can affect characterization heavily. It gets worse in the updated "Remastered" release though as someone messed up and inserted line flubs into the remaster that weren't in the 1999 original, and sometimes even played the wrong lines of dialogue in the wrong episode. All versions of this dub also have a quirk of characters speaking offscreen to have constant noise. The voice actors in this version are probably the ones are familiar with. Notable actors include Sean Schemmel as Goku, Chris Sabat as Piccolo and Vegeta, Stephanie Nadolny as young Gohan, Kyle Hebert as teenage Gohan, Eric Vale as Trunks, Dameon Clarke as Cell, Linda Young as Freeza, Sonny Strait as Krillin, and Josh martin as Buu. A lot of these voice actors were inexperienced in anime dubbing at the time, and their performances can be rather stiff and awkward, especially towards the beginning of this dub in episode 68. By the Buu saga the actors start to get a lot more into their roles and make them their own. Early on they were trying to imitate their predecessors in order for the transition between dubs to be smoother. The Remastered dub goes back and redubs some of those early scenes to sound more like how these characters sound in later episodes. In 2005, FUNimation went back and dubbed back over those original 67 episodes that Ocean did in an uncut format (although a lot of the script changes still carried over) in order to have a fully consistent dub. The soundtrack is also replaced in some versions of this dub. The modern releases let you change between the original Shunsuke Kikuchi score and the score made for the American TV release and the Ultimate Uncut DVDs made by Falcouner Productions and Nathan Johnson respectively. The replacement scores tend to focus a lot more on synth and guitar giving a bit more of a rock feel to the soundtrack. The replacement scores have an issue where they don't stop, there is music every second of the show. The Remastered versions of the dub also alter music placement in a way that hurts the intended tone as well. Overall though this dub is considered the best.

The last of the 3 dubs is the Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z which was made specifically for the European and Canadian markets. This dub was created to both address criticism of the new voices which some people found jarring, cost of licensing the FUNimation dub, and the Canadian laws that require a certain amount of content produced in Canada to be aired on TV. This dub brought back most of the Ocean Productions cast with a few exceptions. Kirby Morrow took over the role of Goku and Jillian Michales took over the role of Gohan. This dub started up at Edited episode 108 (uncut 123) and continued to the end of the series. The same footage and script as the edited for TV FUNimation dub was used in this dub, the only major differences being the voice acting, the music, and the lack of an uncut version. The music in this version was a bunch of reused music from other shows that Ocean Productions worked on. If you watched stuff like the old Mega Man cartoons you may recognize some music from that in this dub. This dub was considered lost media until a few years ago when fans repieced it together from VHS recordings from Cartoon Network in the UK and retimed the audio to the Dragon Box DVD footage. Most people don't even know this dub exists to be honest.

Outside of the TV series the movies actually have a few alternate dubs. There are 5 well known dubs of these movies, but more do exist:

First is the Funimation/Ocean edited for TV dub of Dragon Ball Z movie movie 3, the Tree of Might. This dub uses the same cast of the TV dub at the time, the same Ron Wasserman/Shuki Levi score, and is heavily censored and the script has the same nonsensical edits to the dialogue that completely change the meaning. The movie was cut into 3 episodes with lots of padding added to fill the runtime. You really can't find this dub anywhere as it only aired on TV and was only ever released on home video in the ROCK THE DRAGON collection DVDs which came out a long time ago. For some reason they decided to air this cut up version of the movie between episodes 45 and 46 of the edited Ocean dub causing a lot of confusion for fans at the time as there was no indication of it being a movie disconnected from the main continuity and suddenly characters were in places they shouldn't have been at the time of the release. It was a confusing mess. This dub partially lives on through the FUNimation redub.

Second is the Pioneer/Ocean DVD and VHS releases of Dragon Ball Z movies 1-3 (Dead Zone, World's Strongest, and Tree of Might). This dub is a real treat for Dragon Ball fans as it is basically an uncut Ocean dub of these movies with the original Kikuchi music intact, and with the most accurate script of any release of these movies. These movies actually did air on Cartoon Network surprisingly enough and are held in high regard with those who are aware of them. If you love Dragon Ball, do yourself a favor and track these down. They were only ever released on DVD and VHS in the late 90's so they may be hard to get but it is sooooo worth it. For movies 1-3 these are the best available dub and are considered so by the hardcore Dragon Ball fans who are aware of them.

Third is the FUNimation dubs of all the Dragon Ball Z movies. FUNimation has dubbed all 15 Dragon Ball Z movies from Dead Zone all the way up to Resurrection 'F'. For some of the earlier movies they did produce an edited version, but they stopped. The first 13 movies have similar issues to the TV series in regard to nonsensical script changes being present, with the script of Tree of Might being the most egregious being almost word for word with the TV Ocean dub version. Movies 1-13 also have the option to watch with a replacement score by Nathan Johnson or the original Kikuchi music in most releases. The replacement score also has some licensed rock music from Western rock bands such as Disturbed. Overall, this is the only fully complete dub when it comes to all the movies. To my knowledge there is no Ocean/Westwood dub of movies 4-13, and by the time of movies 14 and 15, FUNimation was the only studio dubbing Dragon Ball. If you want a complete experience, this is your only option, and for movies 4-11 this is the best dub available.

Fourth is the infamous AB Groupe dubs of movies 1-11. These dubs are known by fans as the "Big Green" dub and are an oddity. The titles are horribly mangled being direct translations of other language versions of the film, the script is very stilted and has many mistakes, character names are mangled, and the voice acting is horrible. I think the script was double translated, being translated into French before being translated into English. These are fun to watch if you want a laugh but are horrible if you seriously want to watch the movies.

Fifth is the worst with the Speedy Video dubs. These are Malaysian English dubs with actors with so heavy accents that nothing they say is comprehensible. The audio and video quality are also so bad that it is funny. Don't watch this unless you find a clips compilation because they're kinda funny but are a horrible experience.


Overall with all of Dragon Ball's dubs, FUNimation generally tends to come out on top usually do to consistency, but there's some decent alternate dubs and some funny ones.

@LSSJ_Gaming

This is exactly why being a DBZ fan can be so frustrating if you want a certain dub. If you're someone who just wants to watch the original JP version, then you'll be okay, but if you want to get into some of those specific English dubs you mentioned then it can be a lot of work to find. In general, if you're from the U.S. and grew up watching DBZ, then in all likelihood you grew up with Cartoon Network version that had the Bruce Faulconer OST. Even when pirating, that version is nearly impossible to get unless you own the old VHS tapes. The next best thing is the remastered version of that dub, but as you said some of the dialogue is different as well as the music. I remember on my original Kid Buu DVD, Goku didn't have a monologue before launching his Spirit Bomb and the scene simply let the montage and music speak for itself. Not a fan of the Goku monologue in the remastered version, but it isn't terrible. I think most old DBZ fans would be fine with this version, however you still can't legally stream this version anymore and it is only available on the orange brick DVDs.

I can still watch enjoy the JP version of DBZ, but man scenes feel so silent after watching the Funimation version for so long. You have so many "Where is the music?" moments. Some people think music plays too much, but for me the music brings way more tone and personality to the series. I don't know, it would just be nice to have all the different dubs available on like CrunchyRoll and not have to pirate every single episode.

Evangelion: the original ADV dub and the Netflix dub

ADV is a million times better

I believe that Vinland Saga got 2 dubs (a Sentai Filmworks dub and a Netflix dub), but I haven't listened to either of them, so I don't know which one is better. Though if I had to guess, I'd guess it's the Netflix one, since Sentai Filmworks' localization team is kind of dogshit.

@ShatteredSans
It’s a real depends kind of situation
While I prefer the sentai dub as it feels more lively and the script is more upbeat; the Netflix dub voices are a lot more realist and faithful and have a darker tone. Honestly watching the show in each dub changes the vibe of the characters. Especially thorkell who goes from a big lovable goofy murderer to a psychopathic murderer who enjoys killing.

Why an anime needs more than one official eng dub though? Was it necessary?

@velveteenvamp

Hard disagree, this is nostalgia talk for sure.

I watched the netflix dub, and then went back to watch the original, 1 episode in and it was comically dog shit.

not bad, straight up terrible. I was straight up laughing.

the netflix one is also far from perfect, but at least it wasn't show ruining.

now, i know the og one gets better as it goes.

but if you show it to someone who is just getting into eva (like i was) it will instantly make them run.

@APolygons2 why are you assuming that I have nostalgia for it? I watched Eva for the first time this year and I watched it on Netflix first. after completing it, I then watched the ADV dub and was astonished by how much better it is: there’s so much more passion and life in it. it was particularly evident for me during the more emotionally intense scenes. watching The End of Evangelion with the Netflix dub VS the ADV dub is like watching a different movie. you can think it’s “comically dog shit” if you want, but it obviously wasn’t “show ruining” because it was pretty well-received on average and people were very upset when the redub happened.