Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Wishful thinking here but anyone else holding out for the Funimation dub ending on Toonami for this dub to air on Canadian TV? I know at this point we'd like to just see the damn thing and not wait until next year at earliest, but it's just a thought keeping in mind TOEI's love of TV deals and the theory many of us have had that Funimation's dub had preference from the get-go.

I doubt that this dub will air on Canadian TV because another dub ends its airing on Toonami. I'd rather have them air it already. Canadian television networks should realize that Canadians love the Dragon Ball franchise, but apparently they're too thickheaded to realize that.

Is this dub even happening, or are we all still speculating?

This dub almost certainly exists, too much evidence has come to light to suggest otherwise.

Whether or not it will be released in some capacity is another story. It seems highly unlikely after all this time when there's been so many missed opportunities. One can hope though. I've said nothing will ever compare to my excitement for The Force Awakens when that was being released, but this dub seeing the light of day would come very close. I want to see it more than anything else pertaining to the entertainment industry.

Hopefully there will come a day Canadian TV will be more open minded to anime, I would like to think we could help the cause by reaching out to broadcasters but it might take a lot more voices than we have here on the forum.

[SX10]

All eyes on that new channel from WOW! That's thee best chance we have. We should keep e-mailing them.

[sangofe]

All eyes on that new channel from WOW! That's thee best chance we have. We should keep e-mailing them.

E-mail adress?

[TheGreatness25]

You know, though, when I think about it, how much could Ocean have possibly recorded? I sincerely doubt that they did the whole series only to have it sitting on the shelves. Even if Canadian TV doesn't want to air it, the studio itself could have pushed for a release, right? That would be independent of the stations.

While there's so much evidence that Ocean Kai exists, I feel that maybe it was done as a "pilot," where they might have recorded a couple of episodes. I sincerely don't see the logic in recording so much content and paying the actors and staff, without even having secured a deal that would satisfy them (whether TV deal or release deal). I think if anything, they might have just recorded a minimal amount of content to be honest.

[8000 Saiyan]

You know, though, when I think about it, how much could Ocean have possibly recorded? I sincerely doubt that they did the whole series only to have it sitting on the shelves. Even if Canadian TV doesn't want to air it, the studio itself could have pushed for a release, right? That would be independent of the stations.

While there's so much evidence that Ocean Kai exists, I feel that maybe it was done as a "pilot," where they might have recorded a couple of episodes. I sincerely don't see the logic in recording so much content and paying the actors and staff, without even having secured a deal that would satisfy them (whether TV deal or release deal). I think if anything, they might have just recorded a minimal amount of content to be honest.

They dubbed all 98 episodes, with the exception of the Buu Saga.

[NitroEX]

I sincerely doubt that they did the whole series only to have it sitting on the shelves.

That's what happened.

Even if Canadian TV doesn't want to air it, the studio itself could have pushed for a release, right?

No, they can't. Only Funimation have the distribution rights to release or stream Dragon Ball in North America, Ocean Media aren't anime distributors, they handle sound and video. This dub was made for TV so it's unlikely to even sync with the uncut footage anyway.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

You know, though, when I think about it, how much could Ocean have possibly recorded? I sincerely doubt that they did the whole series only to have it sitting on the shelves. Even if Canadian TV doesn't want to air it, the studio itself could have pushed for a release, right? That would be independent of the stations.

While there's so much evidence that Ocean Kai exists, I feel that maybe it was done as a "pilot," where they might have recorded a couple of episodes. I sincerely don't see the logic in recording so much content and paying the actors and staff, without even having secured a deal that would satisfy them (whether TV deal or release deal). I think if anything, they might have just recorded a minimal amount of content to be honest.

Ocean did dub the whole show pre-Buu. The CRTC lists 98 episodes of Kai as approved Canadian content, meaning that's how much was completed:

https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/CanrecL ... 4-04-01&C=

Unfortunately Ocean can't do anything if the TV stations aren't interested. They don't own the rights to Dragon Ball or any other property they've dubbed, they are hired by other companies (in this case the mystery license holder who commissioned Ocean Kai) to create the voice and music tracks.

Also, even if Ocean owned some Dragon Ball rights there is still not much more, if anything they could do because Funimation has the home video and streaming rights to Canada, and the UK already sells Funi Kai on DVD/Blu-Ray.

This dub was made for TV so it's unlikely to even sync with the uncut footage anyway.

It is almost certainly based on the Nicktoons cut, meaning unless Ocean also produced an uncut dub track the only way this dub could get released on home video is if the set used both this dub and the edited Funi dub as audio options, which is unlikely to happen.

[TheGreatness25]

It's just such a dumb decision to pay all that money for a team to work on it... only to not even have a plan for it going forward.

And I understand that Ocean is just a dubbing company and doesn't have distribution rights on its own, but wouldn't these episodes be ordered by someone? I find it highly unlikely that the head of Ocean decided, "You know what, let's just do it and see what happens!" Wouldn't somebody have hired them to do the project?

This whole thing is baffling, to be honest.

[Super Sayian Prime]

You know, though, when I think about it, how much could Ocean have possibly recorded? I sincerely doubt that they did the whole series only to have it sitting on the shelves. Even if Canadian TV doesn't want to air it, the studio itself could have pushed for a release, right? That would be independent of the stations.

As has been said, Ocean isn't a distributor. They're a production company. Ocean gets paid the same even if it never gets released. The only difference is that actually seeing a release could encourage future work.

[TheGreatness25]

I get it. I understand that. But somebody paid them to do it and I'm just curious as to why since nothing was secure to actually make any sort of profit off of it.

[Kirbopher]

The person in question, apparently, didn't. The whole thing exists and it's never coming out. S'a real shame.

P.S. Ian Corlett said if he knew about this, he would've considered actually reprising Goku. Not sure if he'd felt that back at the time this was being recorded, but it's an interesting notion to see how his thoughts have changed over time.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Kirbopher can you give us more information on what "The person in question" said if your allowed? I don't ask you to name anyone because I understand you can't do that but I'm curious what you mean by he/she "apparently, didn't". I appreciate your input, I just think for the sake of clarity, especially in a fandom like Dragon Ball which has so much misinformation it is important things of this nature, if possible, are not left vague. What didn't they do? We know this dub was paid for because 98 episodes were completed. Do you mean "the person in question" rejected the request for this dub to have a TV deal?

[TheGreatness25]

I think that Kirbopher was responding to me saying that I find it hard to believe that somebody paid Ocean to dub Kai without solidifying a way for it to be released. I think that Kirbopher was responding to me and saying that the person (who paid Ocean to dub Kai) apparently did (paid Ocean to release Kai without solidifying a way for it to be released).

It's so crazy...

And in reality, how could the fans change this anyway? Writing to Ocean wouldn't do anything because they wouldn't distribute it themselves. So how would this process work anyway? It's like the company who has distribution rights in Canada would have to be contacted to buy them and release them.

Then again, in today's day and age, with enough curiosity, I wouldn't be surprised if these episodes pop up on some of these rogue DBZ streaming/downloading sites. I think it's just a matter of time. It would be hard, but somebody, somewhere has access to these.

[ButtfaceKalinski]

Nobody's stupid enough to leak anything, that's a shortcut to never working again. I'm not sure what the broadcast rights situation is these days so I'm not sure if it's useful to talk to TV people, but it feels like the most you could ever get out of this at this point is answers about who was producing, and checking Linkedin for people with tertiary involvement is probably the best bet there.

[8000 Saiyan]

Nobody's stupid enough to leak anything, that's a shortcut to never working again. I'm not sure what the broadcast rights situation is these days so I'm not sure if it's useful to talk to TV people, but it feels like the most you could ever get out of this at this point is answers about who was producing, and checking Linkedin for people with tertiary involvement is probably the best bet there.

Do you really think they'll be willing to talk about it?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Then again, in today's day and age, with enough curiosity, I wouldn't be surprised if these episodes pop up on some of these rogue DBZ streaming/downloading sites. I think it's just a matter of time. It would be hard, but somebody, somewhere has access to these.

As has been said no dub is worth getting a person fired, especially when he/she most likely worked exceptionally hard to get their position.

Nobody's stupid enough to leak anything, that's a shortcut to never working again. I'm not sure what the broadcast rights situation is these days so I'm not sure if it's useful to talk to TV people, but it feels like the most you could ever get out of this at this point is answers about who was producing, and checking Linkedin for people with tertiary involvement is probably the best bet there.

Do you really think they'll be willing to talk about it?

Unless we find out who commissioned this dub and talk to them (although that still may not work since legally this dub's existence shouldn't even be known) I don't think anyone in the TV industry would be willing to listen. They've been approached about this dub, they've made up their mind.

All we can really do now is contact WOW, let them know how much the actors also want to see this dub and hope they will be swayed.

[ButtfaceKalinski]

Nobody's stupid enough to leak anything, that's a shortcut to never working again. I'm not sure what the broadcast rights situation is these days so I'm not sure if it's useful to talk to TV people, but it feels like the most you could ever get out of this at this point is answers about who was producing, and checking Linkedin for people with tertiary involvement is probably the best bet there.

Do you really think they'll be willing to talk about it?

Depends on the nature of their NDA, if the actors are allowed to say they worked on it then I'm sure there's video and sound editors or whoever else out there. Just having a name for the producer would answer a lot of questions, and those are the kinds of questions that were never asked about the last Canadian Dragonball stuff prior to this.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm sure that it would be hard to track who would leak it. I doubt there's one person that has access to it. It's like anything else. If top secret government intel can get out, I'm pretty sure that releasing some video footage is nothing by comparison. But that's a pretty extreme comparison. How about things like company news, etc.? If that can happen, so can this. I feel like it would be so easy to leak it -- or even reproduce it. And I have a feeling that there are ways to not have it be traced back.

[Super Sayian Prime]

The problem with contacting video editors is this:

Ocean did the video editing for the Nicktoons run of Kai. That began in May 2010, months before Kirby Morrow let this dub's casting news slip. The video editors likely know nothing and will probably say Funimation or Nicktoons was the client.

The audio engineers and directors probably know more, but good luck getting them to talk. They're as private as Ken Morrison, Dennis Hrehoriac and Diana Gage.

[SX10]

I went so far as to find Ocean a productions Inc address from google (like Canadian yellow pages or something) and had written a letter addressed to Diana Gage there. I got nothing back