Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

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coola
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Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by coola » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:28 pm

Dragon Ball Kai was much more popular outside of Japan, to the point Buu Saga aired in Japan only because Toriko was such a flop, but, when i look at it, it seems ike it was made with US viewers in mind right from beginning, soundtrack was similar to Faulconer, and thanks to music placement, there was very rare moments of silence.
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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by VegettoEX » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:41 pm

Not initially, no. Kazuhiko Torishima has gone on record saying the reason they came up with Kai was to get something "new" on the air when it became apparent they weren't going to get enough support for actual "new" material back then in 2009. Were they thinking internationally? Sure, but likely no more or less than they were with anything else Dragon Ball at the time before or after.

The only real example of "specifically thinking about the western world" was the Boo arc, which we ALSO have direct comments on stating it initially wasn't even going to air in Japan in the first place. And THAT was a result of the initial run of Kai being so successful internationally.
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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by mute_proxy » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:44 pm

No, not everything on this earth revolves around America.

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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:46 pm

Excluding The Final Chapters, no. The international market was a consideration for sure but that was an after-effect of the franchise being so successful globally. Kai was created to bring Dragon Ball into the 21st century, and naturally because Japan is its country of origin and where it all started back in 1984 that's the reasonable place to start.
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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Thu Jul 13, 2017 8:57 pm

mute_proxy wrote:No, not everything on this earth revolves around America.
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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by dragondyle » Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:34 pm

I don't think Kai was made for US viewers, per say. However, Kai really revitalized Dragon Ball in the states much more than how Toei wanted it to be in Japan. A new generation of kids in US were introduced to Dragon Ball in this way. The US really benefitted from Kai in terms of home video as it gave Funimation the prime opportunity to give fans a relatively accurate dub, correct opening and closing animations and credits, and NEPs, all of which Z never really had here.
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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by SpiritBombTriumphant » Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:57 am

dragondyle wrote:I don't think Kai was made for US viewers, per say. However, Kai really revitalized Dragon Ball in the states much more than how Toei wanted it to be in Japan. A new generation of kids in US were introduced to Dragon Ball in this way. The US really benefitted from Kai in terms of home video as it gave Funimation the prime opportunity to give fans a relatively accurate dub, correct opening and closing animations and credits, and NEPs, all of which Z never really had here.
I think a part of the reason Kai did so well is that a lot of American cartoons just suck nowadays. I always hear people my age say how bad the cartoons get, and how we had the golden age of television. We had Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls (to each his own), Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sonic X, Megaman NT Warrior, Ed Edd n Eddy, and tons more. The new generation of kids have... Spongebob? Which came out over a decade ago and is still airing, so it's not like we can say it's "theirs." Having Kai come out means that kids of this generation get to see an awesome show and get a great introduction to anime as well. Honestly, Ben10, that Yokai Watch thing (I don't know what it is), and every one of these other shows can suck it. I've heard Steven Universe is good along with Total Drama Island and Adventure time, but that's it.

Maybe everyone I talk with is just doing their "Uuuuurgh, you kids these days and your shows! Back in *my* day we had quality!" Perhaps we're just old. But perhaps at least some of the new cartoons just plain suck. This is also why Kai wasn't as well received in Japan. Japan has constant new anime coming out and some of it is good. They have other shows to fall back on. But the days of 90s Cartoon Network, Kids WB!, Nickelodeon not sucking, and decent Disney channel shows are gone. Remember that we're starting to see the emergence of legacy-quels for some shows: Girl Meets World, Samurai Jack (finally ended after 13 years), Fuller House, Raven's Home, and a long rumored sequel to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (never confirmed anywhere). There are other reasons that these are being made (smaller marketing, huge audience of old and new fans, etc.), but I think it partially has to do with the networks saying, "Well everyone tried making something good but failed. Let's just do some sequels to these old classics and wrap it up."

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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by LuckyCat » Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:28 pm

coola wrote: soundtrack was similar to Faulconer
Wow, I mean I've heard that Yamamoto's tracks sound similar to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Journey, James Horner, Danny Elfman, and others but never Faulcouner. The only similarity I can think of is they both used a lot of computer-synthesized music, which is pretty common even for modern pop music these days.
coola wrote:there was very rare moments of silence.
That's because they cut the silent moments down a ton to help the pacing. It's interesting to look at comparisons of JP DBZ and Kai, to see how much silence changes the mood. Sometimes though, the silences were overbearing and unnecessarily long in the Japanese version (likely a technique to keep episodes lower budget and/or stall for the manga to catch up).

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Re: Was Kai made for US viewers in mind?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:44 pm

No since Dragon Ball is a Japanese franchise and anime is always made for the Japanese market expect for a few titles.
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