Mere days after Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo)’s cryptic tweets about finishing up a mysterious recording session, Mayumi Tanaka (Kuririn) has let slip via her blog just what exactly it was: a continuation of Dragon Ball Kai… with a hitch.
日本ではオンエアされないけど、
海外で続いてるドラゴンボール改
今、天下一武道会、悟天とトランクスが肩車で、
大人の部に混ざる辺りを収録しています。
やはり前より画像が綺麗です。
日本でもオンエアして欲しいなあ～～～と話しました。
真弓より
It won’t be aired in Japan, but overseas, Dragon Ball Kai is continuing.
Right now, we are recording the part at the Tenka’ichi Budōkai, where Goten and Trunks infiltrate the adults’ division by one standing on the other’s shoulders.
The image is definitely clearer than before.
We talked about how we want it to air in Japan, too.
— Mayumi
This is yet another twist in the Kai saga, which saw the show conclude after only the Cell arc, a scandal that resulted in the replacement of nearly the entire score, and a natural disaster that prevented its final episode from being broadcast. And with partial foreign funding of the upcoming Dragon Ball Z movie, there is the tantalizing possibility that overseas rights-holders wanted the Boo arc badly enough to help finance it. In the absence of an official statement from any of the relevant entities, however, we can merely speculate.
The only question that remains is, why record the dialogue in Japanese if the show will not be broadcast in Japan? It seems like a great deal of trouble to go to simply to maintain consistency in home releases abroad, so perhaps the show may eventually see daylight in Japan, in one form or another. Only time will tell.
11 Comments
Well with the upcoming movie taking place after Buu… It would be a lot better to finish Kai and then have the movie (maybe even make it a Dragon Ball Kai movie? I wouldn’t mind, just a name).
But foremost that means that I can eventually watch Dragon Ball Kai in english (uncut Funi dub) all the way through! Which is really awesome, because I LOVE the new dub so much 😀
Who gave you the idea it’s Funimation?
It may be, after all they play a big role in this too. I can see them funding this for more money in the future. Dragonball Z is what made them what they are today.not to menction Nickelodeon wants their newly-owned franchise to make money for them too.
Anywyas, I can’t believe there pulling a Sonic X! this is soo cool, 2 great happening soo far today. DBZKAI is set to return and Halo 4 is coming out. my day is bliss…
I had proposed the idea too funimation to continue Kai themselves a while ago because it would seriously get them money so maybe they had listened.
This is rare indeed, but not unheard of. “Sonic X” was also continued strictly for the purposes of overseas business. Although the original Japanese dialogue was shown in a Chinese broadcast.
😯 Well, put this in the ever growing “news I really did not think I’d here these past few weeks” category. I’m not particularly fond of Kai myself, but this is cool for the Kai fans out there. Enjoy.
This is great for a number of reasons.
First, anything that will extend the lifespan of the franchise is just fantastic. With more Kai and the new movie and continued games, that’s what’s happening. I remember recently being in Walmart and hearing a little girl tell her mom, “I want Dragon Ball Z Kai!” I remember feeling that way, and it has been very successful on Nicktoons.
Having a whole, accurate representation of the manga? Yes, please. Because of the steep price of the Dragon Boxes, I wanted to simply get the entire Kai series on DVD with the Buu era, now this can happen. 😀
OMFG!! Hopefully this means all of Kai dubbed in French, too!
Holy crap! I am going to be so delighted if this is true, especially if there’s an English dub to go with it.
Don’t some markets get DBZ and Kai in Japanese with local subtitles? Maybe this is for those markets.
Well, France and Portugal have broadcasted it subtitled.