Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

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Cure Dragon 255
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Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:03 pm

I dont think so. I'm grateful for their hard work and their improvement over the years. But like mr Kunzait said DB was such a mega property it would have eventually found success elsewhere and or with someone else.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Kamiccolo9 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:05 pm

Funimation didn't even get DB until, what, 10 years after it became a thing? Of course it didn't need them. It was already thriving.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:09 pm

Dragon Ball could have been pick up by someone else in the 90's. There was rumors of Pioneer picking up Dragon Ball a couple years before Funimation exist. If we never got the series dubbed, I think one of the movies could have been dubbed on VHS. We got the two YYH movies dubbed on VHS back in 1998 like 4 years before Funimation dubbed it on Adult Swim. So anything is possible.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by precita » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:20 pm

Most likely 4kids would have gotten it if FUNI didn't. It probably would have been edited as bad as the Saban dub if not worse if 4kids got ahold of it.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:23 pm

Oh boy here it comes! The "Be glad 4kids didnt pick it up and shut up" And in the early days 4kids kept the fucking music. LOL.

EDIT:To make this post less angry,whiny and ranty, I will say I was quite happy with the Funimation and 4kids alliance that allowed the show to thrive on Saturday Mornings.
Last edited by Cure Dragon 255 on Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by dario03 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:24 pm

You could say this for a lot of properties. Could somebody else have made a DB dub for the states? Sure. Heck its not even the only English dub. But Funi is who did it, and they did it successfully. You can say right place right time, but whatever the reasons are, they made it work. Having a great product doesn't guarantee success especially if you give up early. For instance they weren't the first company to try and bring it to the states, Harmony Gold tried in the 80's but gave up pretty quick because it didn't look like it was going to work.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by sintzu » Tue Sep 05, 2017 12:52 am

Yes. The cast, music, marketing, timing, etc. were critical in DB's massive success in America. You could say another company could've done it but you could say that about anything so it shouldn't take away from what Funi did for the franchise.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by KBABZ » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:15 am

I think there were still ways to screw it up; it took the OG series three attempts before actually catching on, albiet that was mostly piggy-backing off of Z's popularity at the time. But the fact that the show has been dubbed into numerous other countries by companies other than Funimation clearly demonstrates the transcendent quality of the show.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by ABED » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:19 am

sintzu wrote:Yes. The cast, music, marketing, timing, etc. were critical in DB's massive success in America. You could say another company could've done it but you could say that about anything so it shouldn't take away from what Funi did for the franchise.
Yes about the marketing and timing, but considering how cheap the music and green the cast were, the show was bound to be successful regardless. Hell, the show was popular with two casts, so you can't boil it down to one single cast.

I think it was simply a matter of giving the show a good timeslot on a channel that kids actually watch and DB was always going to be a success.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:29 am

Not really. Dragon Ball could have been a success in America without Funimation.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Lord Beerus » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:13 am

In North America? YES.

Anywhere else in the world? NO.

Dragon Ball was already a cult classic and had gained a huge fan followings in Latin America (Mexico in particular), Spain and France several years before it took off in the US when FUNimation and Toonami got their hands on the show in the late 90s.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by floofychan333 » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:17 pm

Well, somebody needed to get it in North America but I don't see DB being any more accurate if it had been bought by another company. Read my post in the "Unpopular DB Opinions" section for more details on my perspective.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:38 pm

Lord Beerus wrote: it took off in the US when FUNimation and Toonami got their hands on the show in the late 90s.
Dragon Ball didn't need FUNimation to make Dragon Ball popular. Someone else could have dubbed and still put it on TV.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Zephyr » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:42 pm

Dragon Ball thrived in spite of how shitty Funimation treated it.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by MajinMan » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:36 pm

Absolutely not. Like some have already said, all Dragon Ball needed was to be on TV. It didn't matter who dubbed it as long as it got on TV. In fact, Funimation should consider themselves lucky that they got Dragon Ball in the first place.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Tian » Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:13 pm

No. I think it's the other way around, FUNi needed Dragon Ball to thrive.

About other companies who could have gotten Dragon Ball, I can mention ADV Films, Saban Entertainment (yeah, I know they co-produced the first ocean dub but what about a dub fully handled by them using a LA cast?) and DIC.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:20 pm

Or Cloverway themselves!
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by theoriginalbilis » Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:56 am

I'm fairly confident saying that if FUNimation never got the rights to the series in the mid-90's, Viz or Pioneer would've most likely snapped up the rights.

They were pretty much the only US anime distributors releasing longer-running anime on VHS (uncut and dubbed) around that mid/late 90's timeframe.

DiC could've been a contender, having success with Sailor Moon... but who know what kind of product that would've been. Probably similar to the original FUNi/Ocean/Saban production in terms of edits/rewrites.
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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Lord Beerus » Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:05 am

Hellspawn28 wrote:
Lord Beerus wrote: it took off in the US when FUNimation and Toonami got their hands on the show in the late 90s.
Dragon Ball didn't need FUNimation to make Dragon Ball popular. Someone else could have dubbed and still put it on TV.
I'm not so sure. Dragon Ball(Z) was dubbed several times in the past and its previous attempts at finding success on American TV constantly hit brick walls. That's not say FUNimation gave the show proper treatment it did (sub par voice acting, awful music and placement of it, terrible home releases), but Dragon Ball still persevered the success of Dragon Ball Z in North America was really a case being at the right place at the right time and being on a network that pushing heavily for the show to be next big thing.

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Re: Did Dragon Ball REALLY need Funimation to thrive?

Post by Kamiccolo9 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:08 am

Lord Beerus wrote:
Hellspawn28 wrote:
Lord Beerus wrote: it took off in the US when FUNimation and Toonami got their hands on the show in the late 90s.
Dragon Ball didn't need FUNimation to make Dragon Ball popular. Someone else could have dubbed and still put it on TV.
I'm not so sure. Dragon Ball(Z) was dubbed several times in the past and its previous attempts at finding success on American TV constantly hit brick walls. That's not say FUNimation gave the show proper treatment it did (sub par voice acting, awful music and placement of it, terrible home releases), but Dragon Ball still persevered the success of Dragon Ball Z in North America was really a case being at the right place at the right time and being on a network that pushing heavily for the show to be next big thing.
Getting put on a 6 AM weekday timeslot will do that to you.
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