Dragon Ball Harmony Gold Dub Episode 4
Watch Dragon Ball Harmony Gold dub Episode 4, and see this never-before-seen dub!
Did you know the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon Ball is a rare English dub of the series and was thought to be lost for over 30 years?
Watch Episode 1 of the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon Ball and learn more about its history and how we found these missing episodes.
Short version: Myself and a few other dragon ball fans invested 10 years into finding them.
If you missed them, here’s Harmony Gold Dub Episode 2 and Harmony Gold Dub Episode 3.
Enjoy Episode 4!
Watch Dragon Ball Harmony Gold Dub Episode 4
In this episode, Bulma (Lena) and Goku (Zero) travel to a village that contains a dragon ball.
But they discover that it is being terrorized by a shape-changing monster named Oolong!
Or rather, in the Harmony Gold Dub: “Mao-Mao the Terrible!!”
Why is his name Mao-Mao? I suspect it’s because the real source of the shape-changing monster is a pig-man connected to Chinese culture.
You see, this pig-man is inspired by a similar shape-changing pig-man in Journey to the West, named Zhū Bājiè. And of course, Journey to the West is the ancient Chinese legend that inspired Dragon Ball.
But Akira Toriyama is a contrarian. So instead of depicting this traditional Chinese character in classical Chinese robes, he depicts him in a modern Chinese suit.
And at the time that this chapter of Dragon Ball was written, in 1985, the most iconic suit associated with China was the Mao suit, as made into mandatory fashion by Mào Zédōng, the Communist ruler of China who rose to power in the 1940s.
So Toriyama has Oolong wear a Mao suit.
In addition, this clothing choice makes it easy for Toriyama’s young Japanese readers to understand that the pig-man is connected to ‘China.’
Therefore, I suspect that when the Harmony Gold localizers saw this pig-man wearing a Mao suit, they decided to call him Mao-Mao.
Oolong is a fine name if you ask me. But alas, here we are.
You can learn more about Oolong’s culture and history in my book, Dragon Ball Culture Volume 2.
Enjoy Episode 4 of the Dragon Ball Harmony Gold Dub!