What would happen if Saban actually owned the rights to DB?

[Kakacarrottop]

As many know, Saban Entertainment were the company who syndicated FUNi's first two English dub seasons of Dragon Ball Z, and are believed to be the ones who demanded the nauseating levels of censorship. Contrary to popular belief, they actually weren't involved at all in a production aspect, outside of providing FUNi with a newly composed replacement soundtrack.

But what would have happened if they actually owned the North American rights to Dragon Ball, instead of just being early distributors? Keep in mind that Saban got purchased by Disney in 2001, before becoming a company again ("Saban Brands") in 2010. How would this all affect the series?

A few possible things i could see happening:

* The show airing on FOX Kids, before moving to ABC due to the Disney takeover
* A voice pool consisting of either the LA-based group that did Digimon, or the Canadian Ocean cast
* The original Dragon Ball anime being skipped
* A more expensive orchestral type soundtrack similar to Spider Man TAS or the Digimon dub, as opposed to the rushed synth-rock soundtrack they gave FUNimation
* Dub only DVDs with no Japanese audio option. After the Disney purchase, some other company buys the Home Video rights and releases bilingual DVDs
* A whole bunch of unfunny jokes added to the scripts
* The Broly (or Cooler) movies chopped up into a single theatrical film (ala the Digimon movie)
* GT ending up dubbed by Disney, using a different voice cast and generic stock music

[Theophrastus]

Clearly they would have done this, but with Dragon Ball/Z characters.

[Nightmare Wheel]

It was Funimation's choice to hire Ocean for the voices, correct? I think if Saban was fully in charge we would have gotten a full Z dub using their usual talent pool for stuff like Digimon. Heck, we might have seen some actors return from Harmony Gold or Final Bout. In the long run i probably would have been bad for the series in America. Most of Saban's old properties seem to have just been left to rot.

[thejeremymenace]

* The original Dragon Ball anime being skipped
* A whole bunch of unfunny jokes added to the scripts

We basically got these at first anyway

[Cure Dragon 255]

As many know, Saban Entertainment were the company who syndicated FUNi's first two English dub seasons of Dragon Ball Z, and are believed to be the ones who demanded the nauseating levels of censorship. Contrary to popular belief, they actually weren't involved at all in a production aspect, outside of providing FUNi with a newly composed replacement soundtrack.

But what would have happened if they actually owned the North American rights to Dragon Ball, instead of just being early distributors? Keep in mind that Saban got purchased by Disney in 2001, before becoming a company again ("Saban Brands") in 2010. How would this all affect the series?

A few possible things i could see happening:

* The show airing on FOX Kids, before moving to ABC due to the Disney takeover
* A voice pool consisting of either the LA-based group that did Digimon, or the Canadian Ocean cast
* The original Dragon Ball anime being skipped
* A more expensive orchestral type soundtrack similar to Spider Man TAS or the Digimon dub, as opposed to the rushed synth-rock soundtrack they gave FUNimation
* Dub only DVDs with no Japanese audio option. After the Disney purchase, some other company buys the Home Video rights and releases bilingual DVDs
* A whole bunch of unfunny jokes added to the scripts
* The Broly (or Cooler) movies chopped up into a single theatrical film (ala the Digimon movie)
* GT ending up dubbed by Disney, using a different voice cast and generic stock music

Dude, they literally just took the soundtrack wholesale from Masked Rider, they literally took it from one shitty show to put it in another.

However, I absolutely adore the Spidey TAS soundtrack. Its THE thing that has kept my interest in that show alive, its the one thing that makes me prefer it to Spectacular Spiderman...And I'm still reluctant to replace the music. Kikuchi, as dated and "Boring" as it is to you is the show.

But boy, would that Spidey TAS Tier music would have been amazing. I dont hate Faulconer but I dont love it either.

[VegettoEX]

Clearly they would have done this, but with Dragon Ball/Z characters.

Popular misconception. That wasn't Saban; it was a Toon Makers pitch to Fox.

[Mewzard]

Well, Saban sadly doesn't do bilingual or uncut releases, so I imagine that wouldn't change, which is sad. We might get some online sub streaming at the most (like Digimon get), or maybe a DVD release, like Super Sentai's been getting from Shout Factory (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and Gosei Sentai Dairanger are currently out, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger comes out in May).

FUNimation having ended up being one of the better outcomes we could have gotten for Dragon Ball in America.

[Hellspawn28]

I think Toei would have Saban dub Dragon Ball first and not DBZ. Funimation was lucky to skip straight to DBZ. Unless they market the show very well, I don't think they would pull off DB in the US. If they did skip DB and go straight DBZ, it may have been a popular hit. When Saban got bought out by Disney, I would imagine either Disney would give up the rights to it or they would have dub GT and the rest of the DBZ movies.

[Super Sonic]

Well, Saban sadly doesn't do bilingual or uncut releases, so I imagine that wouldn't change, which is sad. We might get some online sub streaming at the most (like Digimon get), or maybe a DVD release, like Super Sentai's been getting from Shout Factory (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and Gosei Sentai Dairanger are currently out, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger comes out in May).

FUNimation having ended up being one of the better outcomes we could have gotten for Dragon Ball in America.

Most of Saban's kids' shows don't have a market for a bilingual release.

[Super Sayian Prime]

I think Toei would have Saban dub Dragon Ball first and not DBZ. Funimation was lucky to skip straight to DBZ. Unless they market the show very well, I don't think they would pull off DB in the US. If they did skip DB and go straight DBZ, it may have been a popular hit. When Saban got bought out by Disney, I would imagine either Disney would give up the rights to it or they would have dub GT and the rest of the DBZ movies.

Funimation didn't "skip straight" to DBZ. They tried their hand at a Dragon Ball dub and it failed to find an audience.

[Hellspawn28]

Yeah, but they decided not to give up and skip stright to DBZ. I think if it was not for Fukunaga's uncle that I doubt any other company would allow them to skip DB and go straight to DBZ. I think Funimation having links with Toei help them get both DB and DBZ better than most companies would have at the time.

[MasenkoHA]

I was about to post a similar thread then found out there was already one albeit it's over two years old. So I'm reviving it out of personal interest.

Funny enough a crapton of Saban's talent pool HAS voiced for Dragon Ball. Mostly in the Harmony Gold dub. It was pretty trippy watching some Harmony Gold clips and hearing Lord Zedd's voice come out of Master Shen about 4 years before Lord Zedd. But also we have Steve Blum, Brianne Siddall, Lex Lang in the GT Final Bout game (though I don't think Saban started using Blum until the turn of the century?) l Say what you want about Saban Entertainment but they had some of the most talented group of voice actors. It would have sounded waaay better than the in-house Funi Z dub at least. Pretending I can see into alternate realities where Saban licence Dragon Ball in say 1995.

It would have aired on Fox Kids with much much better timeslots than what the BLT or original Z dub got. It also probably would have run about 52 episodes or so a year finishing in about 3 years and moving on to Dragon Ball Z by 1998/1999

Obviously all the perversion would have been censored.

A replacement soundtrack


Names may or may not have been changed. They might have just aped the Harmony Gold names like Zero and Bongo and Lena. Then again they might have kept the names? Bulma has her name like everywhere in early Dragon Ball and it's not like the names sounded too eastern.

By the time they got to Z there would still be the empty buildings comments but they would also probably pull a Digimon dub and beat over the audiences head that they're not really dead because the dragon balls will bring them back

[Robo4900]

* The show airing on FOX Kids, before moving to ABC due to the Disney takeover
* A voice pool consisting of either the LA-based group that did Digimon, or the Canadian Ocean cast
* A more expensive orchestral type soundtrack similar to Spider Man TAS or the Digimon dub, as opposed to the rushed synth-rock soundtrack they gave FUNimation

Seems likely, and honestly, that sounds good to me.

* GT ending up dubbed by Disney, using a different voice cast and generic stock music
* The original Dragon Ball anime being skipped

Seems unlikely, and honestly a little silly.
DB would have been looked at and dubbed first, just like with Funimation; if they actually found an audience, they'd have a 508-episode run ahead of them, instead of just 355. Sure, it'd probably be cut dubs, so it would be exactly 508 or 355, but dubbing DB first would give them 153 more episodes.
Plus, it's not like DB is an intrinsically un-American show. It's a 25-minute apiece animated action comedy. Aside from the fact it had some raunchy jokes that would likely be cut from the American broadcast, it's not all that different from Ben 10, Digimon, etc. And really, the style of the show by the end of the Piccolo arc is the same as the style of the show at the beginning of the Raditz arc.
Saban may not have chosen to pick up the Dragon Ball franchise if they weren't looking to do the original series, since they'd almost certainly look at it as "This is the show. It has two follow-ups. Do we want this show?" You didn't see them skip the first few seasons of Sailor Moon, or skip the original Digimon series, etc. So believing they'd skip DB is just a bit random.

As for GT, if Z was successful enough, they'd be foolish to say no to 64 more episodes. Again, look at Digimon; they continued to dub the shows after Adventure 1. They didn't just suddenly stop because that's the end of the series they initially set out to dub.

* Dub only DVDs with no Japanese audio option. After the Disney purchase, some other company buys the Home Video rights and releases bilingual DVDs
* The Broly (or Cooler) movies chopped up into a single theatrical film (ala the Digimon movie)

Fair. These are the only downsides I see here that I think would be likely to happen, to be honest.

* A whole bunch of unfunny jokes added to the scripts

This and the original DB series not being dubbed is already what happened. Sure, DB did eventually get dubbed, but arguably, even in Kai and Super, they're still adding dumb extra jokes to their dubs.

Funimation was lucky to skip straight to DBZ. Unless they market the show very well, I don't think they would pull off DB in the US. If they did skip DB and go straight DBZ, it may have been a popular hit. When Saban got bought out by Disney, I would imagine either Disney would give up the rights to it or they would have dub GT and the rest of the DBZ movies.

[...]

Yeah, but they decided not to give up and skip stright to DBZ. I think if it was not for Fukunaga's uncle that I doubt any other company would allow them to skip DB and go straight to DBZ. I think Funimation having links with Toei help them get both DB and DBZ better than most companies would have at the time.

There is no reason to believe that the original Dragon Ball series couldn't have been successful, and that the choice to go all-in with Z was the only reason why the franchise gained traction in the west. The BLT dub of Dragon Ball aired on TV in 1995 at a 5AM timeslot, so I don't think you can blame American sensibilities for it not getting an audience.

When the Saban dub of Z aired, Saban were able to get it proper TV deals, they had them chop the first arc up into a 26-episode TV season, and make Tree Of Might into a 3-part TV special, and as a result... It barely got a second season, then died at 56 episodes.

Sure, Z got a good audience when it was eventually picked up by Toonami, but BLT Dragon Ball didn't get a chance like that(And honestly, a lot of that was probably down to the fact it was only 13 episodes and a movie. Better for Toonami to pick up 53 episodes of a dead show, than only 13). So don't presume Dragon Ball just doesn't work in American culture just because it wasn't given a good chance.

I was about to post a similar thread then found out there was already one albeit it's over two years old. So I'm reviving it out of personal interest.

Funny enough a crapton of Saban's talent pool HAS voiced for Dragon Ball. Mostly in the Harmony Gold dub. It was pretty trippy watching some Harmony Gold clips and hearing Lord Zedd's voice come out of Master Shen about 4 years before Lord Zedd. But also we have Steve Blum, Brianne Siddall, Lex Lang in the GT Final Bout game (though I don't think Saban started using Blum until the turn of the century?) l Say what you want about Saban Entertainment but they had some of the most talented group of voice actors. It would have sounded waaay better than the in-house Funi Z dub at least. Pretending I can see into alternate realities where Saban licence Dragon Ball in say 1995.

It would have aired on Fox Kids with much much better timeslots than what the BLT or original Z dub got. It also probably would have run about 52 episodes or so a year finishing in about 3 years and moving on to Dragon Ball Z by 1998/1999

Obviously all the perversion would have been censored.

A replacement soundtrack


Names may or may not have been changed. They might have just aped the Harmony Gold names like Zero and Bongo and Lena. Then again they might have kept the names? Bulma has her name like everywhere in early Dragon Ball and it's not like the names sounded too eastern.

By the time they got to Z there would still be the empty buildings comments but they would also probably pull a Digimon dub and beat over the audiences head that they're not really dead because the dragon balls will bring them back

This sounds pretty realisitc.
And yeah, the voice talent pool would probably be pretty great.

[MasenkoHA]

* The show airing on FOX Kids, before moving to ABC due to the Disney takeover

Maybe,but Digimon Frontier went to UPN of all places.

* A voice pool consisting of either the LA-based group that did Digimon, or the Canadian Ocean cast

The group that did Digimon aren't just Digimon actors. A lot of Digimon voice actors were in Power Rangers. Hell MOST of Saban Entertainment's talent pool had a crap ton of talented voice actors with an impressive resume. Calling them the group that did Digimon makes it sound like they weren't doing voice work stuff well before and after Digimon.

* The original Dragon Ball anime being skipped

Doubtful. If anything Saban would have preferred the less violent Dragon Ball. This would have been around 1995/1996 around the height of Power Rangers being too violent media controversy.Fox Kids censorship was being more over sensitive (see Spider-man TAS) Power Rangers was toning its violence down (compare the first two seasons of MMPR where the Rangers did a lot of punching and kicking to the third season where it was mostly "ninja" tricks and they stopped using their weapons at all) and Saban's new Power Rangers-esque shows Beetleborgs and Masked Rider were way more slapsticky cartoonish stuff and way less violent. Saban would have probably found Dragon Ball easier

* A more expensive orchestral type soundtrack similar to Spider Man TAS or the Digimon dub, as opposed to the rushed synth-rock soundtrack they gave FUNimation

Digimon's expensive soundtrack was mostly recycled from their Masked Rider show with a couple of Spider-man TAS pieces and then the rest was instrumental variations of the theme song and then a few new stuff arond the second season/the movie.

* A whole bunch of unfunny jokes added to the scripts

We got that with the actual Funi dub.

* The Broly (or Cooler) movies chopped up into a single theatrical film (ala the Digimon movie)

The Digimon chimera movie happened because Fox Kids wanted a Digimon movie to compete with Pokemon 2000 and neither of the 3 Digimon films were long enough for a theatrical release. I don't think DBZ would be consider a direct competitor to Pokemon. Even if Fox Kids/Saban wanted to release a DBZ movie to theaters, the first Broly movie at 72 minutes is probably just long enough to be consider a full length feature.

* GT ending up dubbed by Disney, using a different voice cast and generic stock music

Digimon Frontier used the same cast as the previous seasons. Even when they dubbed some 02 and Tamers movies years later for Toon Disney they got as many of the old cast members as they could. Power Rangers Wild Force (the first season under Disney) used the same people including voice actors as the previous 9 years and the real change happened when they closed shop in LA and moved to NZ to cut cost. More than likely if GT was dubbed by the time Disney acquired Saban Entertainment it would still use the same voice actors.

[MasenkoHA]

Clearly they would have done this, but with Dragon Ball/Z characters.

Popular misconception. That wasn't Saban; it was a Toon Makers pitch to Fox.

A misconception that never made any sense. I have no clue where the confusion came from. Like anyone with a passing familiarity with Saban as a company besides "the company that did Power Rangers" should know it wasn't their work. Hell, even the weird Power Ranger comparisons doesn't make ANY sense when you consider what Power Rangers actually does in relation to its Japanese source material and what that Sailor Moon thing was...trying to do

Saban may not have chosen to pick up the Dragon Ball franchise if they weren't looking to do the original series, since they'd almost certainly look at it as "This is the show. It has two follow-ups. Do we want this show?" You didn't see them skip the first few seasons of Sailor Moon, or skip the original Digimon series, etc. So believing they'd skip DB is just a bit random.

To be fair DiC owned the license to Sailor Moon (and it funny enough has a similar ish history in the US as DBZ) and it would have been impossible to skip Digimon's first season because the dub starting airing 6 months into it. Like Japan hadn't finished airing Adventure or even gotten to the halfway point when the dub premiered on Fox Kids (which might explain why that dub has soooo many errors)

As for GT, if Z was successful enough, they'd be foolish to say no to 64 more episodes. Again, look at Digimon; they continued to dub the shows after Adventure 1. They didn't just suddenly stop because that's the end of the series they initially set out to dub.

Or how they kept adapting Sentai after Sentai and didn't stop at Zyuranger.

[Robo4900]

Fox Kids censorship was being more over sensitive (see Spider-man TAS)

Another common misconception.
The reason Spidey never punched anyone in that show was because the showrunner declared that would be the case, forcing more interesting fights. If you watch Spider-Man Homecoming, you'll see that he barely punches anyone there too; it's just more interesting to do more creative stuff with the webbing rather than having him punch people (Sources: 1, 2)
Granted, there was still the weirdness of the futuristic weaponry, and sure, that is probably mostly just an odd censorship thing, though I don't think that makes it particularly stand-out as a massively-censored show.

To be fair DiC owned the license to Sailor Moon (and it funny enough has a similar ish history in the US as DBZ)

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Still...

and it would have been impossible to skip Digimon's first season because the dub starting airing 6 months into it. Like Japan hadn't finished airing Adventure or even gotten to the halfway point when the dub premiered on Fox Kids (which might explain why that dub has soooo many errors)

A show being right out of the gate isn't an excuse for poor dubbing.
Though I would argue Digimon's dub wasn't actually that bad tbh...

Anyway, I do still stand by that Saban wouldn't have skipped Z; it's a really stupid decision to do that.

Or how they kept adapting Sentai after Sentai and didn't stop at Zyuranger.

[MasenkoHA]

Fox Kids censorship was being more over sensitive (see Spider-man TAS)

Another common misconception.
The reason Spidey never punched anyone in that show was because the showrunner declared that would be the case, forcing more interesting fights. If you watch Spider-Man Homecoming, you'll see that he barely punches anyone there too; it's just more interesting to do more creative stuff with the webbing rather than having him punch people (Sources: 1, 2)
Granted, there was still the weirdness of the futuristic weaponry, and sure, that is probably mostly just an odd censorship thing, though I don't think that makes it particularly stand-out as a massively-censored show.

How, interesting. Now that you mention it aside from the no punching thing (which turns out was a creative decision) most of Spider-man TAS's "censorship" wasn't any different from most shows of its era. laser guns, never saying the word die or kill, etc

Though I would argue Digimon's dub wasn't actually that bad tbh...

Its more a lot of things they had the characters saying was probably from not knowing what direction the show would be going (which granted would have been avoided if they didn't just make stuff off) so things like non-existent baby brothers, confusion of the living situation between the two brothers, non-existent puppies and etc etc were probably because Saban assumed the cast would stay in the Digital World for the entire series (since the 8th child arc hadn't even started in Japan yet) and they figured they could make up whatever they want about the kids home lives.

I mean I like the English dub and prefer it over the rather dull Japanese version. And honestly from what I've seen its not that unfaithful. There's the added jokes but a lot of the dialog is pretty close.

Anyway, I do still stand by that Saban wouldn't have skipped Z; it's a really stupid decision to do that.

I don't think they would either. That was a decision made by a rather inexperience company going "Her dur dur Dragon Ball isnt doing well I'm sure its because there isn't enough action and nothing to do with its horrid time slots lets go ahead to Dragon Ball Z" I'm sure Saban would have at least been able to get Dragon Ball a better deal on Fox Kids.

[Cure Dragon 255]

God I know its just an opinion. BUT GOD does it get to me when people say the Japanese version of Digimon is dull.

[MasenkoHA]

God I know its just an opinion. BUT GOD does it get to me when people say the Japanese version of Digimon is dull.

I adore the BGM and wish we had gotten that instead of the recycled Masked Rider score, if that means anything

[Cure Dragon 255]

I love you. You are forgiven.

Ok, I'm just kidding. I wasnt mad at you, just really sad because I love the Japanese score to Digimon. Its extremely dear to my heart. I'm glad you like it