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

[Tian]

It comes to my attention that they decided to cast Bulma's new voice actress in Calgary rather than Vancouver.

I guess the proportion between Calgary and Vancouver in the cast is more varied than I thought. Maybe we can also expect the new Krillin being from Calgary... well, when this dub gets released...

[sangofe]

Now where I'm at is, where they serious about a Kickstarter? Because of the proposal was a limited edition blue ray release, you'd probably only have to cover the license fee and/or production costs, maybe factor In distribution; people could reach out to smaller companies that maybe specialise in limited edition releases looking for advice; a cast list from Karl, the names that would be on there would catch the attention of even the average fan and collectors would take notice too.

It's probably then just as available or known as the pioneer uncut dubs, etc.

Kickstarter? Where was that mentioned? I couldn't listen to the whole interview...

Kirbopher: try not evaluate feedback instead of getting angry. I'm grateful that you arranged to speak to him but to me this didn't sound like an interview or even a conversation.

Giving people room and space to think and talk is usually the basics of conversations. Interviews included. This looked to me as a lecture and lots of interruption when the person who was supposed to be interviewed wanted to speak. If I was on the other end talking to you, I would have told you to let me speak or left the conversation. It's nice to be enthusiastic for sure but don't interrupt people. You can add information if they ask you.

However it would have been different if this would have been presented as something else than an interview.

What's this about kickstarter? Is it a real possibility?

[SX10]

Now where I'm at is, where they serious about a Kickstarter? Because of the proposal was a limited edition blue ray release, you'd probably only have to cover the license fee and/or production costs, maybe factor In distribution; people could reach out to smaller companies that maybe specialise in limited edition releases looking for advice; a cast list from Karl, the names that would be on there would catch the attention of even the average fan and collectors would take notice too.

It's probably then just as available or known as the pioneer uncut dubs, etc.

Kickstarter? Where was that mentioned? I couldn't listen to the whole interview...

Kirbopher: try not evaluate feedback instead of getting angry. I'm grateful that you arranged to speak to him but to me this didn't sound like an interview or even a conversation.

Giving people room and space to think and talk is usually the basics of conversations. Interviews included. This looked to me as a lecture and lots of interruption when the person who was supposed to be interviewed wanted to speak. If I was on the other end talking to you, I would have told you to let me speak or left the conversation. It's nice to be enthusiastic for sure but don't interrupt people. You can add information if they ask you.

However it would have been different if this would have been presented as something else than an interview.

What's this about kickstarter? Is it a real possibility?

Oh yeah, sorry I should have elaborated on this. Brian Drummond threw it out there during the Anime Time Machine livestream on IG. Saffron Henderson seemed very enthusiastic about it too, who knows if they would seriously get it going, but the idea was a kickstarter to get a limited edition blu ray release of Ocean Kai out there.

[sangofe]

Now where I'm at is, where they serious about a Kickstarter? Because of the proposal was a limited edition blue ray release, you'd probably only have to cover the license fee and/or production costs, maybe factor In distribution; people could reach out to smaller companies that maybe specialise in limited edition releases looking for advice; a cast list from Karl, the names that would be on there would catch the attention of even the average fan and collectors would take notice too.

It's probably then just as available or known as the pioneer uncut dubs, etc.

Kickstarter? Where was that mentioned? I couldn't listen to the whole interview...

Kirbopher: try not evaluate feedback instead of getting angry. I'm grateful that you arranged to speak to him but to me this didn't sound like an interview or even a conversation.

Giving people room and space to think and talk is usually the basics of conversations. Interviews included. This looked to me as a lecture and lots of interruption when the person who was supposed to be interviewed wanted to speak. If I was on the other end talking to you, I would have told you to let me speak or left the conversation. It's nice to be enthusiastic for sure but don't interrupt people. You can add information if they ask you.

However it would have been different if this would have been presented as something else than an interview.

What's this about kickstarter? Is it a real possibility?

Oh yeah, sorry I should have elaborated on this. Brian Drummond threw it out there during the Anime Time Machine livestream on IG. Saffron Henderson seemed very enthusiastic about it too, who knows if they would seriously get it going, but the idea was a kickstarter to get a limited edition blu ray release of Ocean Kai out there.

I would definetely join that kickstarter.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I DO NOT appreciate being insulted and trashed when literally I'm trying to get information for you guys specifically.

Dude, look back over the responses you got here. No one insulted you or trashed you as a person, we are merely giving you feedback for your approach to interviewing, which everyone is entitled to say if there is room for improvement because its art and is subjective. That has NOTHING to do with you as a person, try to see it from our perspective. I'm sure you've heard interviews with people you admit you were grateful to others for organising but felt it could have been handled better. Are you saying constructive criticisms of your own interviews are not equally valid?

If you guys would rather I not bother with this anymore, then I won't. I've seriously tried my ABSOLUTE best and I think I'm in my right to be hurt by some of what you guys are saying here.

No one is saying you stop doing interviews altogether, all we ask is that you TAKE OUR ADVICE and IMPROVE YOUR EXISTING SKILLS, that's all.

It's no different from any other piece of media you've ever consumed, be it a dub, an anime, film, music album, whatever that you enjoyed but felt certain aspects could have been better, which I'd be quite amazed if was never the case for you. Everyone feels this way about something, and it's by no means an attack on anyone as a person, including YOU.

[quuote=Robo4900 post_id=1781030 time=1712521843 user_id=118876]
It seems clear to me that it's most likely Kai and the Westwood dubs existed for one reason alone: Ocean's production arm (Westwood back in 2001-2003, IPP in 2011-2014) bought a license from Toei.
[/quote]

I believe Ocean are the ultimate producer of all these things. In one interview Brian Drummond said Ocean and Westwood were effectively one company, and Ian James Corlett's comments about "recording rights" specify "Ocean/IPP" and date back to 2000.

Also, correct me if I'm mistaken SX10 but Diana Gage confirmed to you IPP are the casting agency and Ocean produce the dubs themselves? I also emailed Rob Bakewell, who was the talent co-ordinator at Westwood Media and from what he's said they appear to have operated similar to IPP with Ocean handling all the actual pre-production, post-production and everything in between.

And yes, it does seem the cast are fully on board with some sort of kickstarter, so I'd suggest reaching out to more Canadian cast members and big names in the Dragon Ball community like Geekdom and Ajay. If there's a big enough push there's no reason to suspect this couldn't work out.

[SX10]

I would have to add that the only way to find out if this is viable is by researching companies like Scream Factory, for instance or others like them who specialise in high quality releases of obscure titles etc.

Someone would ideally need to know of it legally could be licensed by such a project. I still have Lisa Yamatoya's e-mail, but it is not for me to contact her again, it wouldn't be right. Then I suppose it would need to be understood and approved by Ocean themselves?

Edit - in response to Dragon Ball Ireland - you have a good memory, yes that's what o was told at the time and it was such a good clarification, so would that be Blue Water basically confirming it too?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I guess the proportion between Calgary and Vancouver in the cast is more varied than I thought. Maybe we can also expect the new Krillin being from Calgary... well, when this dub gets released...

I think the majority of the cast is from Vancouver because this Kai dub is primarily a production of Ocean Studios. Apparently some Blue Water dubs also use Vancouver talent, despite the bulk of their dubs featuring Calgary actors. I suspect casting decisions are made based on who is best suited to the role rather than any sort of bias for one pool or the other. Brendan Hunter is reprising his role as Tien/Tenshinhan too, likely because he was better suited to the role than whoever auditioned in Vancouver.

I would have to add that the only way to find out if this is viable is by researching companies like Scream Factory, for instance or others like them who specialise in high quality releases of obscure titles etc.

What about Anime Limited/All The Anime in the UK? They've built up a good relationship with TOEI and even been able to license some of Funimation/Crunchyroll's titles like the recent One Piece: Film Red. They've also built up a loyal following as they've released all kinds of Collector's Editions since their inception in 2013. Andy Hanley is the guy to ask about this, he's a regular on the UK Anime News Discord server and the company's marketing manager.

Edit - in response to Dragon Ball Ireland - you have a good memory, yes that's what o was told at the time and it was such a good clarification, so would that be Blue Water basically confirming it too?

Ocean is the head company so I'd guess they produce everything themselves. Blue Water is an additional recording studio originally established for lower budget productions, but I'd guess they are just used as a recording facility for these projects or for Calgary cast members in cases like this Kai dub where the dubbing largely takes place in Vancouver but Blue Water is more local to them than Ocean.

The Blue Water dubs of GT and original Dragon Ball were credited as being recorded in-house "In Association with the Ocean Group, Canada" so for those dubs at least this would seem to confirm my suspicions. I could be wrong of course but it would make sense.

[Tian]

I guess the proportion between Calgary and Vancouver in the cast is more varied than I thought. Maybe we can also expect the new Krillin being from Calgary... well, when this dub gets released...

I think the majority of the cast is from Vancouver because this Kai dub is primarily a production of Ocean Studios. Apparently some Blue Water dubs also use Vancouver talent, despite the bulk of their dubs featuring Calgary actors. I suspect casting decisions are made based on who is best suited to the role rather than any sort of bias for one pool or the other. Brendan Hunter is reprising his role as Tien/Tenshinhan too, likely because he was better suited to the role than whoever auditioned in Vancouver.

To be honest, before the reveal of Carol Anne as Bulma, I used to think that Blue Water was mostly relegated to supporting characters like Tien's case and recently revealed cases of Yajirobe and F. Teller Baba and minor roles in order to ease the workload of Ocean's main recording.

Yeah, it didn't help that the only available info about Blue Water's involvement before Kirbo's video was this:

• Brendan Hunter (as Tien)
• Tim Hamaguchi (Character unknown, credited under James Beach)
• Steve Olson (Incidentals)

But now that we know that Bulma was recorded from Calgary, it makes this Blue Water-Ocean cast mix more interesting.

Now I just can hope that if Cell happened to be recasted from Calgary, they didn't call Ben Jeffrey. Don't hate the guy but his performance in Blue Water GT was really flat.

I wasn't expecting something like Dameon Clarke but something that reminded me of Wakamoto.

It's a pity that Dale Wilson was unable to reprise Cell but well, I hope whoever recorded as Cell (again, hope it's not Ben) is a good successor just as Travis Willingham was for Dameon Clarke when the latter wasn't available.

[dbzforeverUK]

I would also support of limited physical release and I think with enough support from the DragonBall community we could make it happen. Similar to how Shenmue 3 got released, there was a massive community drive to get it off the ground, and they had to wait for 18 years to get there game.So it can happen,Doesn’t matter how it done but using contacts like Lisa Yamamoto to confirm what fans would need to do to get Toei’s attention or Andy Hanley to see if he could push for it on our behalf. Alternatively a kickstarter would work but would require a lot of work to get off the ground.

[MistaL]

I would also support of limited physical release and I think with enough support from the DragonBall community we could make it happen. Similar to how Shenmue 3 got released, there was a massive community drive to get it off the ground, and they had to wait for 18 years to get there game.So it can happen,Doesn’t matter how it done but using contacts like Lisa Yamamoto to confirm what fans would need to do to get Toei’s attention or Andy Hanley to see if he could push for it on our behalf. Alternatively a kickstarter would work but would require a lot of work to get off the ground.

Shenmue III is a very different situation though. Yu Suzuki was actively trying to get Shenmue III into development for years and had permission from Sega to freely use the IP as he pleases. It'd be a bit more comparable if Toei was actively searching for a distributor specifically for Ocean Kai, but that's not happening.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Doesn’t matter how it done but using contacts like Lisa Yamamoto to confirm what fans would need to do to get Toei’s attention or Andy Hanley to see if he could push for it on our behalf.

Regarding Andy Hanley, for those of you that don't know he's the marketing guy at the UK's largest boutique anime distributor (ironically biggest UK anime distributor in general now as Crunchyroll barely releases anything here now) Anime Limited, he said it would be possible for them to release Kai with an alternate dub, provided Crunchyroll lost the UK rights, which doesn't seem likely, but worth keeping in mind.

I still think if enough people are interested a kickstarter or some sort of campaign to get this dub out would be worthwhile.

Shenmue III is a very different situation though. Yu Suzuki was actively trying to get Shenmue III into development for years and had permission from Sega to freely use the IP as he pleases. It'd be a bit more comparable if Toei was actively searching for a distributor specifically for Ocean Kai, but that's not happening.

But we know Ocean have been actively shopping Kai around, and probably still are, albeit less frequently for obvious reasons. Its not really TOEI's job at the end of the day, they got paid for a company to create an English dub of Kai, but after that it's up to said company to find a way of getting it released.

[dbzforeverUK]

Doesn’t matter how it done but using contacts like Lisa Yamamoto to confirm what fans would need to do to get Toei’s attention or Andy Hanley to see if he could push for it on our behalf.

Regarding Andy Hanley, for those of you that don't know he's the marketing guy at the UK's largest boutique anime distributor (ironically biggest UK anime distributor in general now as Crunchyroll barely releases anything here now) Anime Limited, he said it would be possible for them to release Kai with an alternate dub, provided Crunchyroll lost the UK rights, which doesn't seem likely, but worth keeping in mind.

I still think if enough people are interested a kickstarter or some sort of campaign to get this dub out would be worthwhile.

Shenmue III is a very different situation though. Yu Suzuki was actively trying to get Shenmue III into development for years and had permission from Sega to freely use the IP as he pleases. It'd be a bit more comparable if Toei was actively searching for a distributor specifically for Ocean Kai, but that's not happening.

But we know Ocean have been actively shopping Kai around, and probably still are, albeit less frequently for obvious reasons. Its not really TOEI's job at the end of the day, they got paid for a company to create an English dub of Kai, but after that it's up to said company to find a way of getting it released.

I see so it would have to be Ocean who would need to make the deal to get it aired on a network and not toei? Also another option could be getting Crunchyroll to stream it as they host alternative dubs for the same show so it could be option to explore?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yes, the Dragon Ball anime is ultimately TOEI's property but this Kai dub belongs to Ocean, they are the ones who produced it, its up to them to get it out (which sadly hasn't been the case yet).

I don't see why Crunchyroll should be against getting this dub released, they created a separate English dub of Fire Force for India even though their own dub existed. There's no reason acquiring a second dub should be any more of an issue, if anything it should be less so because its a dub that already exists in full.

Sadly its probably still a lot of the Funimation crew that were reluctant to release any of the Canadian dubs all these years at Crunchyroll. Hell Funimation never even re-released those damn near perfect uncut Pioneer movie dubs, which was a shame. Its a different cast but they still had the rights to it and there would be no sync issues.

[dbzforeverUK]

Yes, the Dragon Ball anime is ultimately TOEI's property but this Kai dub belongs to Ocean, they are the ones who produced it, its up to them to get it out (which sadly hasn't been the case yet).

I don't see why Crunchyroll should be against getting this dub released, they created a separate English dub of Fire Force for India even though their own dub existed. There's no reason acquiring a second dub should be any more of an issue, if anything it should be less so because its a dub that already exists in full.

Sadly its probably still a lot of the Funimation crew that were reluctant to release any of the Canadian dubs all these years at Crunchyroll. Hell Funimation never even re-released those damn near perfect uncut Pioneer movie dubs, which was a shame. Its a different cast but they still had the rights to it and there would be no sync issues.

After 14 years you would think there would be a plan or some sort of path to getting it released, this thread is evidence that there is still an interest in it . If any Canadian members on this thread would be willing to reach out to Ocean or Ken Morrison that would be great.

[MistaL]

Yes, the Dragon Ball anime is ultimately TOEI's property but this Kai dub belongs to Ocean, they are the ones who produced it, its up to them to get it out (which sadly hasn't been the case yet).

I don't see why Crunchyroll should be against getting this dub released, they created a separate English dub of Fire Force for India even though their own dub existed. There's no reason acquiring a second dub should be any more of an issue, if anything it should be less so because its a dub that already exists in full.

Sadly its probably still a lot of the Funimation crew that were reluctant to release any of the Canadian dubs all these years at Crunchyroll. Hell Funimation never even re-released those damn near perfect uncut Pioneer movie dubs, which was a shame. Its a different cast but they still had the rights to it and there would be no sync issues.

From my experience in localization and people I know who work on anime licensing, I don't think it quite works that way. Whatever license Ocean had would have lapsed by now, and any supplementary works made for the license (ie. dubs, subtitles, etc.) belong to the original license holder, Toei. Ocean may have produced it but they wouldn't really own it other than being credited and of course having the original materials on-hand; Toei or some third party who is given the rights to distribute the show would have to release it. Crunchyroll could request/purchase the dub from Toei at any time and release it themselves, but they seem insistent on treating only the Funimation dub as a primary way of watching Dragon Ball (and, sadly, Toei USA don't seem interested in anything outside the Funimation dub either, even forcing Funi's hand in using dub naming conventions for their later Super subtitle tracks).

I wonder if Discotek might be an option though. They do a lot of blu-rays for very specific versions of shows all the time, so I could see them doing a release just for the Kai Ocean dub if there was demand for it and the license was within their budget.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I thought of Discotek as an option too, but Arian got in contact with Justin Sevakis some time ago and was told more or less what Andy Hanley of Anime Limited told me.

No home video distributor can put out DVDs or Blu-Rays of Kai in any given region where Crunchyroll has the license. Crunchyroll now have the home video rights for North America and the UK, so Discotek and Anime Limited can't do anything.

I think for a physical release we should look to Dutch distributors because the Westwood and Blue Water dubs aired there, so there would be a market for it. I know Periscoop Film released Super Broly so maybe they could be an option?

[MistaL]

I thought of Discotek as an option too, but Arian got in contact with Justin Sevakis some time ago and was told more or less what Andy Hanley of Anime Limited told me.

No home video distributor can put out DVDs or Blu-Rays of Kai in any given region where Crunchyroll has the license. Crunchyroll now have the home video rights for North America and the UK, so Discotek and Anime Limited can't do anything.

I think for a physical release we should look to Dutch distributors because the Westwood and Blue Water dubs aired there, so there would be a market for it. I know Periscoop Film released Super Broly so maybe they could be an option?

Fuck, that sucks. I thought that because CR was sublicensing it through Toei USA it would be a matter of going through Toei, but I guess Crunchyroll just have Dragon Ball locked down after all this years.

Sadly I think Dutch distributors are also a pretty slim chance. It really might have to just air somewhere or some miracle could happen where Crunchyroll actually give a shit about Dragon Ball beyond Z being a money printer and they put out.

[SX10]

I can't speak for home video release much outside of the hope that a kickstarter or a concentrated drive would push Crunchyroll to do it.

However, I do know that all it requires is an interested Canadian broadcaster, committed to acquiring the dub.

Marni Shulman was in talks with Ken Morrison for a while with an eye to move onto talks with Lisa Yamatoya. There was an enthusiastic response from Ms. Yamatoya when she believed that I myself was proposing a meeting for broadcast and that enthusiasm continued in the initial email exchanges between relevant parties.

Clearly there were some conrtacts to be ironed out, but it was utterly possible. So someone with the cash and rep needs to step up to the plate and make it right (regarding broadcast release and if you ask me, I'd rather they went directly to Toei first).

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I do wonder if the voice actors could do anything to help.

I was watching this video with Ankur Javeri, the Hindi voice actor for Goku. Some of you may know within the last two years India got a whole load of new Kai dubs as it premiered in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Hindi may have been a redub or a rerun of an existing dub, Indian fans seem to have conflicting memories about whether or not Kai aired in 2012/2013, some also say it aired in Pakistan at the time but not India. There's also only a few clips of the Hindi dub that reportedly aired back then that I don't think anyone has compared with the recent Hindi airings to see if they were the same dub.

Suffice to say that was 4 or 5 Kai dubs that were dubbed and aired within the space of a few months that all became possible through the work of Ankur Javeri and several other actors. As Ankur sir says in that video he did lots of activism promoting anime in India by sending mailers with anime wishlists, talking to industry reps and producers who advised him on budgets for what they could acquire but his efforts along with various other actors led to a resurgence in Indian anime dubbing. Pretty cool he did that for the fans.

It may be a long shot to say if any of the Canadian cast did something similar we could see anime getting dubbed there again, and for older complete unreleased dubs like this one to get out. It was probably easier for Ankur sir to pull off leading an anime revival in India, which has a population of 1.4 billion, Canada has 41 million, which is a shockingly low number given its geographical size.

Still nice to see actors can do when they put their minds to it nonetheless.

[dbzforeverUK]

I can't speak for home video release much outside of the hope that a kickstarter or a concentrated drive would push Crunchyroll to do it.

However, I do know that all it requires is an interested Canadian broadcaster, committed to acquiring the dub.

Marni Shulman was in talks with Ken Morrison for a while with an eye to move onto talks with Lisa Yamatoya. There was an enthusiastic response from Ms. Yamatoya when she believed that I myself was proposing a meeting for broadcast and that enthusiasm continued in the initial email exchanges between relevant parties.

Clearly there were some conrtacts to be ironed out, but it was utterly possible. So someone with the cash and rep needs to step up to the plate and make it right (regarding broadcast release and if you ask me, I'd rather they went directly to Toei first).

Okay so as far as a home video(kickstarter)release is concerned we would need to get Crunchyroll on board in acquiring the dub off toei,and that could include streaming it? I’m not sure about other regions but in the UK Dragon Ball Kai isn’t on Crunchyroll and they have recently uploaded Dragon ball , Z and GT on there albeit the Funimation dub. So the next step would be trying to get hold of someone on there for us to express our interest in seeing it released. A Canadian broadcast would probably be our other option. Can anyone confirm if Crunchyroll has released anything Dragonball related in Canada because if not it might be able to be distributed there if I’ve read everything else right?