Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

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MasenkoHA
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Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:57 pm

I just find this odd. The rest of the series are on FunimationNow. Dragon Ball and GT subbed and Super dubbed are available on Hulu but not Kai?

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by OmegaRockman » Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:51 pm

I know, it's aggravating. They have a listing for Kai on FuniNow, but all you get are trailers and clips. The only place you can stream Kai is Amazon, and you have to buy it. Plus it's only the first three seasons. Plus it's dub only. Of course, dub only isn't a deal breaker since the dub is good, but I also like Kai in Japanese so it's unfortunate. Of course, me being the Kai-obsessed loon that I am, I bought those three seasons. As a bonus, though, a small handful of the early Season 3 episodes actually have Yamamoto for some reason. I prefer Kikuchi even in Kai, but having a rare thing like that pop up on the streaming version is a nice treat.

Update: I just looked and HOLY CRAP Amazon has Season 4!!! Excuse me while I waste another $35 on a show I already own.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Raki » Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:54 pm

That is extremely odd. Another reason I prefer to buy whenever possible. Is it a rights issue?
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by OmegaRockman » Sun Jun 20, 2021 9:26 am

Raki wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:54 pm That is extremely odd. Another reason I prefer to buy whenever possible. Is it a rights issue?
That's literally the only reason I can think of. Maybe Toei was more selective about streaming rights back when Kai's contract was made. Some have theorized that it may have to do with Adult Swim having On Demand streaming after the broadcast, but that clearly didn't affect Super. Plus, those rights are probably beyond expired at this point. If Funi's just sitting on it, though, I'd be a little peeved as the self-proclaimed world's biggest Kai fan.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:51 am

It's very strange because TOEI are luddites that hate streaming or any kind of post-TV methods of distribution but they couldn't stop the other series and movies getting released that way.

If Kai is ever to be streamed, especially in the UK or Canada, there should be a huge push from us to get the Ocean dub released. Funimation can't lock down streaming like they can with home video.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:40 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:51 am It's very strange because TOEI are luddites that hate streaming or any kind of post-TV methods of distribution but they couldn't stop the other series and movies getting released that way.
Are they though? It doesn’t seem like there’s been any recent problem with Toei’s shows streaming. I’m not seeing this evidence they’re against it. Maybe dragging
their feet in some ways but that’s about it.
There are crapton of Toei shows available on multiple streaming platforms.

If Kai is ever to be streamed, especially in the UK or Canada, there should be a huge push from us to get the Ocean dub released. Funimation can't lock down streaming like they can with home video.
I’m sure there’s contracts and licensing agreements in place for that sort of thing.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:00 am

I found it really odd as well. I thought it might be some sort of agreement that they came to while it was airing "new episodes" on Adult Swim, but that's been over. I've emailed them about it; nothing to really report. They just... don't have it "at this time."

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by NitroEX » Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:06 pm

There's evidence to suggest Funimation did grab the NA streaming rights for the earlier series, which they've exploited in various ways over the years. But I suspect those agreements were made while Toei didn't fully grasp the importance of streaming in the coming years and didn't see any reason to withhold them. By the time of Kai they had more of an international presence in overseeing their brands and were probably even more paranoid about online piracy, or maybe they just wanted to avoid having a middle man be in charge of streaming this time.

If they've allowed other countries to stream Kai then that would likely provide some clues to answering this question. I really think it's a Toei issue because Funimation would definitely have tried to make money off of that if there were no barriers, but they obviously don't want to piss off Toei.

Super is a mystery though. I personally think by that point they had no reason to fear streaming and were probably forced to finally embrace it, but were able to do it on their terms. Why they didn't go back and make Kai available as well is anyone's guess.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by precita » Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:27 pm

Well it's times like this be glad DVDs still exist.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by MasenkoHA » Wed Jun 30, 2021 9:53 am

precita wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:27 pm Well it's times like this be glad DVDs still exist.
I’m not really concerned with owning Kai especially since the international release sucks for a few reasons. I just find it odd that Kai still isn’t available on FunimationNow when the streaming agreement with Adult Swim seemed to have expired a while ago.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Kuwabara » Fri Aug 19, 2022 2:08 am

Why would they bother? The truth is that Kai is an obscure footnote in the franchise's history. For all of its positive attributes, it's poorly received by most of the western fandom and would likely just confuse anyone streaming the various Dragon Ball series for the first time. I've heard Kai was better received in other regions, but at least in North America, I'm sure Toei and Funimation both don't see a point in offering it via streaming.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Aug 22, 2022 5:07 am

Image

Kai was meant to be coming to HBO Max in Latin America at the end of July, but from what I gather it hasn't hit the service yet, so it seems there may still be some technical or legal issues preventing it being streamed.

I do hope it will be streamed eventually, especially because it will mean more opportunities for the Ocean Kai dub to finally be seen.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by wjbraden » Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:01 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Mon Aug 22, 2022 5:07 am Image

Kai was meant to be coming to HBO Max in Latin America at the end of July, but from what I gather it hasn't hit the service yet, so it seems there may still be some technical or legal issues preventing it being streamed.

I do hope it will be streamed eventually, especially because it will mean more opportunities for the Ocean Kai dub to finally be seen.
I wouldn't be at all be surprised if it has to do with all the programming shakeups going on at Warner Discovery with HBO Max (also the general manager who was overseeing the Latin American division was let go a while back who'd placed an emphasis on licensing a lot of anime there).

As for why it's never streamed in the US and elsewhere... chalk it up to Toei nonsense probably.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Wrigglything » Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:03 pm

You know what's funny? In some Asian territories (at least Malaysia and Indonesia), Dragon Ball Z Kai and the Final Chapters are currently streaming in WeTV (you probably do need a VPN for SEA regions to see this though). This is from the Indonesia Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/wetvindonesia/ ... 400754210/

How they of all people could get the rights and have them like this? Why are the subs so bad? We may never know. I'm just happy there is at least some places where a legal option of Kai exists somewhere, though I wish the subtitle translation were much better.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by OmegaRockman » Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:14 am

Wrigglything wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:03 pm You know what's funny? In some Asian territories (at least Malaysia and Indonesia), Dragon Ball Z Kai and the Final Chapters are currently streaming in WeTV (you probably do need a VPN for SEA regions to see this though). This is from the Indonesia Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/wetvindonesia/ ... 400754210/

How they of all people could get the rights and have them like this? Why are the subs so bad? We may never know. I'm just happy there is at least some places where a legal option of Kai exists somewhere, though I wish the subtitle translation were much better.
I checked it out with a VPN (I apologize if this is against the rules, I assume it's fine to discuss since it's still a legal stream) and it looks like The Final Chapters' audio is slightly pitched up like the French release. Also, Episodes 159 (TFC 60) and 167 (TFC 69) have the Japanese Cut music placements instead of the insert songs, also like the French release.
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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by MuscleRobo » Wed Sep 07, 2022 11:19 am

I was curious about another "revised" anime and saw that FMA '03 is not streaming anywhere, the blu-rays and DVDs are long out of print, and you can only buy it from google play digitally? I know a lot of people view Brotherhood as the definitive version but it's kind of lame when this decision is being taken from the consumer to compare for themselves like it is with Kai.

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Wrigglything » Wed Sep 07, 2022 12:13 pm

Funny you mention that, because in SEA regions the original FMA is also streaming, this time on iQiyi:

https://www.facebook.com/iQIYI/posts/fm ... 787233626/

That leaves me with a question about the mindset that are in these international releases. Is the western side of things preventing certain parts of the franchise to be legally streamed whereas in others is a green light? Not saying that the option isn't appreciated, I do appreciate it. But it just seems a little odd they'd do this, you know? Ah, curse you international licensing!

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sun Sep 11, 2022 4:46 am

Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

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Re: Dragon Ball Kai not streaming anywhere?

Post by M16U3L2015 » Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:43 pm

So far it is only known that HBO Max in Latin America is the only one that has Kai in streaming. Unfortunately, for episodes 1-98 it is the censored version of Nicktoons in both Spanish and English while The Final Chapters is only with audio in Spanish and Japanese with Spanish subtitles.

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