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In Dragonball Z Kai there are two different English dubs: the TV version and the DVD version. They handle the famous "what is his power level" scene differently.

TV version

Nappa: Vegeta. Vegeta! What's wrong with you?! Tell me what his power level is!

Vegeta: It's over nine thousaaand!!!

Nappa: What?!! Nine thousand?!!

DVD version

Nappa: Vegeta! What does the scouter say about his power level?

Vegeta: It's over eight thousand!

Nappa: Eight thousand?!!

While I presume that Nappa's first line was just a result of a different take or a slightly different wording, I'm confused especially about how the TV version (and all previous English dubs of Dragon Ball Z, shown earlier in the video) gives Goku's power level as "over nine thousand", while the DVD release of Kai changes it to "over eight thousand".

The two numbers have the same number of syllables, so it doesn't seem like something that would have changed to accommodate lip flaps or anything. So why the numerical change from 9000 to 8000?

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Thunderforge
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1 Answers1

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Quoting wikipedia

In the original Japanese and English-translated mangas as well as the original Japanese anime series, Goku's power level is actually read as "over 8000!" (8000以上だ…! Hassen ijō da…!)."

In most versions of the scene dubbed in other languages, Vegeta actually says "It's over 8000!". However, even in the Remastered Uncut Funimation English dub, Vegeta still says "It's over 9000!", now performed by Christopher Sabat. This change was made due to inconsistencies with the dubbing process; the production team claimed that "9000" fit the mouth flaps of the animation better.

So it's originally 8000, but it was dubbed as 9000 to fit the mouth flaps.

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Abel
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  • So what does that have to do with Dragonball Z Kai's changes? Are you saying they wanted to be more faithful to the original or something? The quote talks about the Funimation dub of regular Z, not of Z Kai. – Thunderforge Sep 17 '19 at 15:01