The Trimark (BLT) Dub of Dragon Ball

[Robo4900]

Dont forget this epic opening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqcdFywCRks

It sounds like the kind of opening you would hear on a late '80s/early '90s cartoon.

Well, that is what Dragon Ball is.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Dont forget this epic opening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqcdFywCRks

It sounds like the kind of opening you would hear on a late '80s/early '90s cartoon.

Well, that is what Dragon Ball is.

Yeah i know, i just meant as in the way the song itself sounds.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Yeah, there's been all these various theories from over the years as to why they scrapped production on the dub after Goku's transformation but we have never gotten any official confirmation from FUNimation or any other involved parties as to exactly why they stopped mid way through the run.

Indeed. Just hints, which could mean anything.

For instance, in that interview, Fukunaga says if they hadn't been able to skip to Z, it would have been a real problem, and said that Saban helped them negotiate this, and convince Toei. So... Does that mean the ratings were poor, and they wanted to rebrand with Saban at the helm? Was the BLT deal really bad, and they wanted to cut BLT out of the equation entirely? Did they exit out of the BLT deal for Saban because Saban cut a better deal, then use Saban's clout to try one last ditch effort to skip DB? Or, was this perhaps just him inventing stuff for this interview to make the early dealings of Funimation not seem so nonsensical in hindsight?

We may never know.

But regardless, people who say it had bad ratings always bother me when they say that, because we just don't know what happened. Misinformation -- particularly misinformation regarding dubbing, and especially how the Vancouver dubs were produced -- is so prevalent in this fandom, so I try to stamp that out where possible.

Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored made this page about 20 years ago outlining the history of the franchise in North America, which he claimed was based on years of research and "a wide variety of sources."

I have to assume that these sources would've included things like newspaper/magazine articles, interviews, etc. from the time. While I wish he cited the actual sources at the bottom of the page, I've always taken him at his word that this outline is accurate. Chris Psaros certainly wasn't one to make things up.

Here are the entries that pertain to the 1995 dub:

1995
FUNimation begins production on Dragon Ball. The company itself, however, is only directly involved with the scripting, editing and overall decision making. Voice-over and post production work is farmed out to the Vancouver, Canada-based Ocean Group, and a new musical score is produced by Griffiths and Ramsey.

26 episodes are planned for the first season - 13 are finished, and another 13 are scripted. FUNimation's plan is to show the first half of the season, and complete the production and airing of the remaining episodes only "if the ratings warrant it."

September 1995
FUNimation's English-dubbed version of Dragon Ball premieres in weekly syndication on US television. The show is distributed by Seagull Productions, who demands some censoring and editing, but relatively little compared to what would come later.

Unfortunately, Seagull is unable to secure anything but very poor timeslots. As a result, the ratings are dismal, and production of the remaining 13 episodes of the first season is cancelled.

1996
Based on its poor first-year performance, FUNimation concludes that the original Dragon Ball series is not a "good fit for the US market," and decides that they might have greater success with its more action-packed sequel series, Dragon Ball Z.

This decision leaves 140 Dragon Ball episodes skipped, and FUNimation begins production on Dragon Ball Z. In order to make the first complete story arc fit into a standard 26-episode US television season, FUNimation cuts 9 episodes worth of material.

September 13th, 1996
Dragon Ball Z premieres in US syndication. The voice work is still being done by Ocean Studios, but FUNimation has a new distributor: Saban, who also serves as producer of a new musical score. Saban proves to have quite a bit more muscle behind them than Seagull Productions, and is able to secure much better, while still not ideal, timeslots. As a result, Dragon Ball Z's first season is a moderate success, and FUNimation decides to continue with a second.

However, Saban's censorship standards are quite a bit more demanding than Seagull's. They insist that a great deal of "potentially offensive material" be cut, and that the dialogue be heavily sanitized to remove references to death, spirituality, and sexuality, among other things.

[Robo4900]

[...]

[...]

Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored made this page about 20 years ago outlining the history of the franchise in North America, which he claimed was based on years of research and "a wide variety of sources."

I have to assume that these sources would've included things like newspaper/magazine articles, interviews, etc. from the time. While I wish he cited the actual sources at the bottom of the page, I've always taken him at his word that this outline is accurate. Chris Psaros certainly wasn't one to make things up.

Here are the entries that pertain to the 1995 dub:
[...]

Ah! Thanks. Glad to have that cleared up. I always kinda knew that Saban gave them much better distribution. It's a shame they couldn't have gone with Saban from the beginning.

Still, there does then remain the mystery of why the plug was pulled after DBZ's second season; it was apparently a pretty big hit in syndication by the time its second season was airing. Only explanations I've been able to find with any plausibility involve Saban restructuring their programming, and deciding to cut DBZ because it's not an in-house Saban show.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

[...]

Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored made this page about 20 years ago outlining the history of the franchise in North America, which he claimed was based on years of research and "a wide variety of sources."

I have to assume that these sources would've included things like newspaper/magazine articles, interviews, etc. from the time. While I wish he cited the actual sources at the bottom of the page, I've always taken him at his word that this outline is accurate. Chris Psaros certainly wasn't one to make things up.

Here are the entries that pertain to the 1995 dub:
[...]

Ah! Thanks. Glad to have that cleared up. I always kinda knew that Saban gave them much better distribution. It's a shame they couldn't have gone with Saban from the beginning.

Still, there does then remain the mystery of why the plug was pulled after DBZ's second season; it was apparently a pretty big hit in syndication by the time its second season was airing. Only explanations I've been able to find with any plausibility involve Saban restructuring their programming, and deciding to cut DBZ because it's not an in-house Saban show.

I had thought another reason why they shifted to dubbing in house after parting ways with Saban was to cut expenses of Watson and co flying to Vancouver to record the Ocean cast for the dub episodes, and so they decided later once the show got on Toonami and there was a demand for more they decided to go it themselves.

[Robo4900]

Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored made this page about 20 years ago outlining the history of the franchise in North America, which he claimed was based on years of research and "a wide variety of sources."

I have to assume that these sources would've included things like newspaper/magazine articles, interviews, etc. from the time. While I wish he cited the actual sources at the bottom of the page, I've always taken him at his word that this outline is accurate. Chris Psaros certainly wasn't one to make things up.

Here are the entries that pertain to the 1995 dub:
[...]

Ah! Thanks. Glad to have that cleared up. I always kinda knew that Saban gave them much better distribution. It's a shame they couldn't have gone with Saban from the beginning.

Still, there does then remain the mystery of why the plug was pulled after DBZ's second season; it was apparently a pretty big hit in syndication by the time its second season was airing. Only explanations I've been able to find with any plausibility involve Saban restructuring their programming, and deciding to cut DBZ because it's not an in-house Saban show.

I had thought another reason why they shifted to dubbing in house after parting ways with Saban was to cut expenses of Watson and co flying to Vancouver to record the Ocean cast for the dub episodes, and so they decided later once the show got on Toonami and there was a demand for more they decided to go it themselves.

There was really no need for Watson and co to fly to Vancouver, though. If that was seriously a problem, there's no reason they couldn't have just trusted Karl Willems et al. to take on slightly greater duties to fill in for Watson's absence.

And remember, there has been at least one case of an actor (I think it might have even been Schemmel, though I think it was actually on Ocean's side) who said one reason for the kerfuffle was the dispute over being paid for screams; Ocean's cast wanted to be paid for screams, and Funi didn't want to pay them for screams.

(Also, there was always demand for more; the move to Toonami only made a difference insofar as Toonami being the ones to order more episodes for airing on there, rather than Saban having to be the ones to order more episodes for syndication, which they ultimately didn't do after season 2, despite the rather excellent ratings)

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Ah! Thanks. Glad to have that cleared up. I always kinda knew that Saban gave them much better distribution. It's a shame they couldn't have gone with Saban from the beginning.

Still, there does then remain the mystery of why the plug was pulled after DBZ's second season; it was apparently a pretty big hit in syndication by the time its second season was airing. Only explanations I've been able to find with any plausibility involve Saban restructuring their programming, and deciding to cut DBZ because it's not an in-house Saban show.

I had thought another reason why they shifted to dubbing in house after parting ways with Saban was to cut expenses of Watson and co flying to Vancouver to record the Ocean cast for the dub episodes, and so they decided later once the show got on Toonami and there was a demand for more they decided to go it themselves.

There was really no need for Watson and co to fly to Vancouver, though. If that was seriously a problem, there's no reason they couldn't have just trusted Karl Willems et al. to take on slightly greater duties to fill in for Watson's absence.

And remember, there has been at least one case of an actor (I think it might have even been Schemmel, though I think it was actually on Ocean's side) who said one reason for the kerfuffle was the dispute over being paid for screams; Ocean's cast wanted to be paid for screams, and Funi didn't want to pay them for screams.

(Also, there was always demand for more; the move to Toonami only made a difference insofar as Toonami being the ones to order more episodes for airing on there, rather than Saban having to be the ones to order more episodes for syndication, which they ultimately didn't do after season 2, despite the rather excellent ratings)

Barry Watson was the voice director, and he probably insisted that he remain in that role during those first two seasons despite having to fly back and forth constantly. No, it obviously wasn't necessary, but businesses do these types of things all the time (moreso at a time before the internet became what it is today). This suggests that FUNimation, despite having been a new company that made deals with other parties like Saban and Ocean Studios to assist them in taking off, always wanted a very hands-on approach to the franchise. This meant that one (or more) of their people would be flying from Dallas to Vancouver constantly to oversee everything.

It turns out there was an article published in the Dallas Observer on January 20th, 2000 that actually addressed this. It's an in-depth report of FUNimation's day-to-day operations at the time, with some retrospective material regarding how they began a few years earlier. Ian Corlett's assertion that "Barry must've gotten tired of the flights" was pretty spot on. It also turns out that we have Chris Sabat to thank for being "instrumental" in convincing Barry that Dallas/Forth Worth-area locals could do the job rather than continuing on in Vancouver. With this in mind, the fact that he single-handedly ended up voicing a ton of characters in season 3 is...amusing, to say the least.

Although FUNimation was incorporated in Fort Worth, the company has been using area voice talent for only a year. Prior to that, producer and voice director Barry Watson would fly to Canada to supervise loops at a Vancouver studio that handled some 300 animated shows a year. With executive offices in California and licensing headquarters in Alabama, Watson and crew began to feel as though they were being jerked all over the North American map. Shipping delays began to affect the rate at which Americanized versions of Dragonball Z could be recorded and mixed.

The decision was made to consolidate in Fort Worth (although licenses are still sold out of Alabama). Initially, Watson says, there was some trepidation. "There were a shaky few weeks here while we surveyed the scene," he notes.

The new vocal talent are stage actors, standup comics, singers, librarians, even mothers from Denton, Fort Worth, and Dallas whom FUNimation casting director Chris Sabat enlists for characters both major and minor. He actually does about 20 different characters and is the only on-staff voice talent for the show. He insists he was instrumental in convincing Barry Watson and FUNimation that all the vocal chops they required could be found in the surrounding area. They began recording Texas voices in February 1999, and those shows, Dragonball Z's third season and its first post-Saban episodes with the Cartoon Network, began airing last September.

"The fans are just beginning to get over the shock of the voices being changed," Sabat says. "I think you'll find the e-mail starting to shift in the positive direction. I mean, in some ways, I can sympathize with the fans. When they changed actors on The Dukes of Hazzard because Tom Wopat -- God bless him -- thought he was going to start a singing career, I was pissed."

[Robo4900]

Barry Watson was the voice director,

I'm not sure he was the sole voice director, especially given how poor the direction was across the Funi Z era.

Rest of your post was enlightening as always, even if this one point is something I'm a little hung up/confused on.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I had thought another reason why they shifted to dubbing in house after parting ways with Saban was to cut expenses of Watson and co flying to Vancouver to record the Ocean cast for the dub episodes, and so they decided later once the show got on Toonami and there was a demand for more they decided to go it themselves.

There was really no need for Watson and co to fly to Vancouver, though. If that was seriously a problem, there's no reason they couldn't have just trusted Karl Willems et al. to take on slightly greater duties to fill in for Watson's absence.

And remember, there has been at least one case of an actor (I think it might have even been Schemmel, though I think it was actually on Ocean's side) who said one reason for the kerfuffle was the dispute over being paid for screams; Ocean's cast wanted to be paid for screams, and Funi didn't want to pay them for screams.

(Also, there was always demand for more; the move to Toonami only made a difference insofar as Toonami being the ones to order more episodes for airing on there, rather than Saban having to be the ones to order more episodes for syndication, which they ultimately didn't do after season 2, despite the rather excellent ratings)

Barry Watson was the voice director, and he probably insisted that he remain in that role during those first two seasons despite having to fly back and forth constantly. No, it obviously wasn't necessary, but businesses do these types of things all the time (moreso at a time before the internet became what it is today). This suggests that FUNimation, despite having been a new company that made deals with other parties like Saban and Ocean Studios to assist them in taking off, always wanted a very hands-on approach to the franchise. This meant that one (or more) of their people would be flying from Dallas to Vancouver constantly to oversee everything.

It turns out there was an article published in the Dallas Observer on January 20th, 2000 that actually addressed this. It's an in-depth report of FUNimation's day-to-day operations at the time, with some retrospective material regarding how they began a few years earlier. Ian Corlett's assertion that "Barry must've gotten tired of the flights" was pretty spot on. It also turns out that we have Chris Sabat to thank for being "instrumental" in convincing Barry that Dallas/Forth Worth-area locals could do the job rather than continuing on in Vancouver. With this in mind, the fact that he single-handedly ended up voicing a ton of characters in season 3 is...amusing, to say the least.

Although FUNimation was incorporated in Fort Worth, the company has been using area voice talent for only a year. Prior to that, producer and voice director Barry Watson would fly to Canada to supervise loops at a Vancouver studio that handled some 300 animated shows a year. With executive offices in California and licensing headquarters in Alabama, Watson and crew began to feel as though they were being jerked all over the North American map. Shipping delays began to affect the rate at which Americanized versions of Dragonball Z could be recorded and mixed.

The decision was made to consolidate in Fort Worth (although licenses are still sold out of Alabama). Initially, Watson says, there was some trepidation. "There were a shaky few weeks here while we surveyed the scene," he notes.

The new vocal talent are stage actors, standup comics, singers, librarians, even mothers from Denton, Fort Worth, and Dallas whom FUNimation casting director Chris Sabat enlists for characters both major and minor. He actually does about 20 different characters and is the only on-staff voice talent for the show. He insists he was instrumental in convincing Barry Watson and FUNimation that all the vocal chops they required could be found in the surrounding area. They began recording Texas voices in February 1999, and those shows, Dragonball Z's third season and its first post-Saban episodes with the Cartoon Network, began airing last September.

"The fans are just beginning to get over the shock of the voices being changed," Sabat says. "I think you'll find the e-mail starting to shift in the positive direction. I mean, in some ways, I can sympathize with the fans. When they changed actors on The Dukes of Hazzard because Tom Wopat -- God bless him -- thought he was going to start a singing career, I was pissed."

Wow those are some interesting bits of info, it really shows just how limited FUNi was back in 1999 at the start of them moving over to dubbing the series themselves once they had parted with Saban and stopped using the Ocean cast after Season 2's run of the early Namek arc in syndication had come to a close with edited episode 53.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Barry Watson was the voice director,

I'm not sure he was the sole voice director, especially given how poor the direction was across the Funi Z era.

Rest of your post was enlightening as always, even if this one point is something I'm a little hung up/confused on.

From what I know, Barry Watson was the voice director for the first two seasons specifically, and his involvement diminished once season three started. He left FUNimation sometime after that. By 2002-2003, he was actually a difficult man to find any information on. Online fandom tried, but he kind of disappeared.

I recall instances in which Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, and Don Brown have all stated that Barry Watson directed them during the first two seasons. While I'm sure Barry wouldn't have just been flying to Vancouver on his own each and every single time, I am unaware of anyone else having directed the voice work for those first two seasons.

When FUNimation switched to their own in-house cast, however, things changed.

Chris Sabat became a voice director for season three. The fact that he was "instrumental" in convincing Barry to relocate the voice work to Texas, and then ended up becoming a voice director and casting himself in about 20 roles (as stated in the article), speaks volumes about what an amateur move that was for the company after the success they had with seasoned voice acting veterans in Canada. While I can't blame Sabat for having wanting to advance his career at the time (and I get that he's apparently really awesome to the DBZ fandom nowadays), he essentially took over Barry's job and cast himself in tons of roles. That was very self-serving on his part, but it's also very eye-opening that Gen Fukunaga would've allowed it to happen. Season three was not a quality product, and the poor direction you mention was a big part of that.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Barry Watson was the voice director,

I'm not sure he was the sole voice director, especially given how poor the direction was across the Funi Z era.

Rest of your post was enlightening as always, even if this one point is something I'm a little hung up/confused on.

From what I know, Barry Watson was the voice director for the first two seasons specifically, and his involvement diminished once season three started. He left FUNimation sometime after that. By 2002-2003, he was actually a difficult man to find any information on. Online fandom tried, but he kind of disappeared.

I recall instances in which Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, and Don Brown have all stated that Barry Watson directed them during the first two seasons. While I'm sure Barry wouldn't have just been flying to Vancouver on his own each and every single time, I am unaware of anyone else having directed the voice work for those first two seasons.

When FUNimation switched to their own in-house cast, however, things changed.

Chris Sabat became a voice director for season three. The fact that he was "instrumental" in convincing Barry to relocate the voice work to Texas, and then ended up becoming a voice director and casting himself in about 20 roles (as stated in the article), speaks volumes about what an amateur move that was for the company after the success they had with seasoned voice acting veterans in Canada. While I can't blame Sabat for having wanting to advance his career at the time (and I get that he's apparently really awesome to the DBZ fandom nowadays), he essentially took over Barry's job and cast himself in tons of roles. That was very self-serving on his part, but it's also very eye-opening that Gen Fukunaga would've allowed it to happen. Season three was not a quality product, and the poor direction you mention was a big part of that.

While i assume his role did reduce over time, i had heard that he was in fact still there at FUNi in some capacity right up through GT's dub and maybe some of the Ultimate Uncut re dub so it was sometime around 2004/2005 when he finally departed from the company and was among one of the first people from the early days to leave. Though yeah, it seems after a certain point he really wasn't that prominent there anymore in terms of the dubbing operations.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

I'm not sure he was the sole voice director, especially given how poor the direction was across the Funi Z era.

Rest of your post was enlightening as always, even if this one point is something I'm a little hung up/confused on.

From what I know, Barry Watson was the voice director for the first two seasons specifically, and his involvement diminished once season three started. He left FUNimation sometime after that. By 2002-2003, he was actually a difficult man to find any information on. Online fandom tried, but he kind of disappeared.

I recall instances in which Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, and Don Brown have all stated that Barry Watson directed them during the first two seasons. While I'm sure Barry wouldn't have just been flying to Vancouver on his own each and every single time, I am unaware of anyone else having directed the voice work for those first two seasons.

When FUNimation switched to their own in-house cast, however, things changed.

Chris Sabat became a voice director for season three. The fact that he was "instrumental" in convincing Barry to relocate the voice work to Texas, and then ended up becoming a voice director and casting himself in about 20 roles (as stated in the article), speaks volumes about what an amateur move that was for the company after the success they had with seasoned voice acting veterans in Canada. While I can't blame Sabat for having wanting to advance his career at the time (and I get that he's apparently really awesome to the DBZ fandom nowadays), he essentially took over Barry's job and cast himself in tons of roles. That was very self-serving on his part, but it's also very eye-opening that Gen Fukunaga would've allowed it to happen. Season three was not a quality product, and the poor direction you mention was a big part of that.

While i assume his role did reduce over time, i had heard that he was in fact still there at FUNi in some capacity right up through GT's dub and maybe some of the Ultimate Uncut re dub so it was sometime around 2004/2005 when he finally departed from the company and was among one of the first people from the early days to leave. Though yeah, it seems after a certain point he really wasn't that prominent there anymore in terms of the dubbing operations.

Yes, that's right. The way I wrote it before, I made it sound like he left after season three or four.

For clarification, you have it spot on. He didn't "officially" leave the company until the mid-2000s, but his presence was significantly less after 2000 than it had been prior. He was the most involved during the Saban/Ocean era, and once season three was underway, he gradually became less involved before eventually leaving the company for good in the mid-2000s. I do recall people online (the same bunch who were able to find so much information on the Westwood dub) trying to find contact information for Barry Watson in 2002-2003, but he was already a tough guy to find by that point. He did, very gradually, disappear from public view as far as FUNi's DBZ dub was concerned.

That said, I'm of the mind that even those later works that credit him in 2004/2005 and up until 2006 were more of an honorary title than anything else. Sort of like when a director of a major movie franchise is fired or decides to move on of their own accord, but they're still given a producer credit in the next sequel(s).

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

From what I know, Barry Watson was the voice director for the first two seasons specifically, and his involvement diminished once season three started. He left FUNimation sometime after that. By 2002-2003, he was actually a difficult man to find any information on. Online fandom tried, but he kind of disappeared.

I recall instances in which Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, and Don Brown have all stated that Barry Watson directed them during the first two seasons. While I'm sure Barry wouldn't have just been flying to Vancouver on his own each and every single time, I am unaware of anyone else having directed the voice work for those first two seasons.

When FUNimation switched to their own in-house cast, however, things changed.

Chris Sabat became a voice director for season three. The fact that he was "instrumental" in convincing Barry to relocate the voice work to Texas, and then ended up becoming a voice director and casting himself in about 20 roles (as stated in the article), speaks volumes about what an amateur move that was for the company after the success they had with seasoned voice acting veterans in Canada. While I can't blame Sabat for having wanting to advance his career at the time (and I get that he's apparently really awesome to the DBZ fandom nowadays), he essentially took over Barry's job and cast himself in tons of roles. That was very self-serving on his part, but it's also very eye-opening that Gen Fukunaga would've allowed it to happen. Season three was not a quality product, and the poor direction you mention was a big part of that.

While i assume his role did reduce over time, i had heard that he was in fact still there at FUNi in some capacity right up through GT's dub and maybe some of the Ultimate Uncut re dub so it was sometime around 2004/2005 when he finally departed from the company and was among one of the first people from the early days to leave. Though yeah, it seems after a certain point he really wasn't that prominent there anymore in terms of the dubbing operations.

Yes, that's right. The way I wrote it before, I made it sound like he left after season three or four.

For clarification, you have it spot on. He didn't "officially" leave the company until the mid-2000s, but his presence was significantly less after 2000 than it had been prior. He was the most involved during the Saban/Ocean era, and once season three was underway, he gradually became less involved before eventually leaving the company for good in the mid-2000s. I do recall people online (the same bunch who were able to find so much information on the Westwood dub) trying to find contact information for Barry Watson in 2002-2003, but he was already a tough guy to find by that point. He did, very gradually, disappear from public view as far as FUNi's DBZ dub was concerned.

That said, I'm of the mind that even those later works that credit him in 2004/2005 and up until 2006 were more of an honorary title than anything else. Sort of like when a director of a major movie franchise is fired or decides to move on of their own accord, but they're still given a producer credit in the next sequel(s).

Yeah, i figured that they credited him for those or perhaps he had some at least small but not overly important role with them. Overall though it was really mostly only Z and maybe the OG Dragon Ball dub that he had the most involvement in during the time in which he was actively working on productions there at FUNi before he basically fell off the radar as you mention.

[MasenkoHA]

Still, there does then remain the mystery of why the plug was pulled after DBZ's second season; it was apparently a pretty big hit in syndication by the time its second season was airing. Only explanations I've been able to find with any plausibility involve Saban restructuring their programming, and deciding to cut DBZ because it's not an in-house Saban show.

I was under the impression it was never cancelled , Funimation simply cut ties with Saban Entertainment because they found them too difficult to work with due to Saban’s demands.

The last syndicated episode aired May 23rd, 1998. The show made the move to Toonami on August 31st 1998. The first set of in-house dubbed episodes (uncut) came to the home video market in April 1999 and made their televised debut on Toonami in September 1999. The gaps are pretty small all things considered.

And I know the Saban era actually finished production in 1997 but compounded with their “test dub” of Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle it just seemed like Funimation was moving independently away from Saban and Ocean.

[ABED]

It kinda amazes me how all this happened in a handful of years. Even the switch between syndication and airing on Toonami felt longer than it actually was.

[eledoremassis02]

It kinda amazes me how all this happened in a handful of years. Even the switch between syndication and airing on Toonami felt longer than it actually was.

The gap from ocean to inhouse felt like forever i felt like I was forever stuck on Namek

[Robo4900]

It kinda amazes me how all this happened in a handful of years. Even the switch between syndication and airing on Toonami felt longer than it actually was.

The gap from ocean to inhouse felt like forever i felt like I was forever stuck on Namek

Timescales of stuff in general always feel way, way longer when you're a kid.

I remember tons of 20-minute episodes, or stories over 2-3 20-minute episodes of several shows, not just Dragon Ball, that felt like grand, hours-long epics, meanwhile as an adult, it flies by in an instant.

I think if you want to really get into it, there's an explanation of this along the lines of as you get older, any given span of time is a much smaller fraction of your life than it would be when you were younger. It's a rather interesting facet of perception.

[Kakacarrottop]

And I know the Saban era actually finished production in 1997 but compounded with their “test dub” of Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle it just seemed like Funimation was moving independently away from Saban and Ocean.

I always suspected this. If you check the credits of the episodes that aired in 1998, you'll see they still have a 1997 copyright date. Likewise, the Saiyan Saga episodes that aired in 1997 still had a 1996 copyright date, meaning that the entire first season was probably already recorded before it even began airing. Movie 2 and movie 3 uncut are the only pre in-house era things which have uncertainty as to when they were recorded.

[MasenkoHA]

And I know the Saban era actually finished production in 1997 but compounded with their “test dub” of Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle it just seemed like Funimation was moving independently away from Saban and Ocean.

I always suspected this. If you check the credits of the episodes that aired in 1998, you'll see they still have a 1997 copyright date. Likewise, the Saiyan Saga episodes that aired in 1997 still had a 1996 copyright date, meaning that the entire first season was probably already recorded before it even began airing. Movie 2 and movie 3 uncut are the only pre in-house era things which have uncertainty as to when they were recorded.

Iirc Chris Sabat said somewhere he was hired in 1997. Supposedly DB movie 2 and 3 was done as a test dub to see if they could dub the show themselves to save cost.

Given the quality of the Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle and Mystical Adventure dub and subsequently season 3 I’m not sure what gave them the impression they were capable...


I’m also not convinced Toonami “saved the show” given the relatively quick turn around between the show premiering on Toonami and new episodes coming to Home Video (less than 8 months) and the hiring of a local in-house cast before they were probably going to continue dubbing the show cheaply for the the home video market if they couldn’t find a broadcaster to run more episodes.

[ABED]

I think it was only Movie 2. Movie 3's sound and performance quality was better.