The "Team Four Star" actors were blacklisted by Funi and Toei rumor

[Peach]

Can't say I blame Toei or Funimation if true. They've profitted immensely from this "non-profit" fan based parody. Convention appearances, patreon, merchandise, so on and so forth.

It literally became an unlicensed dub of the series following the Frieza saga. More faithful than Blue Ocean and Funimation's earlier dubs in some respects too. All released online for free without Toei's say, all composed of footage from the show. Their Let's Plays and MasokoX's What If shows are better examples of fair use.

[Kataphrut]

So recently Megami33 was cast as Momonosuke on One Piece. I want to examine just how much truth this rumor has if any.

She's been in a bunch of anime dub roles at Funimation. As have other actors associated with TFS- Justin Briner, Chris Guerrero, Howard Wang, Amber Lee Connors are all prolific actors at Funimation and TFS. They even had roles in Dragon Ball Super.

I think the blacklist only covered the ones who appeared in the Kai ep- KaiserNeko, Lanipator, MasakoX and Takahata101, who are also the four biggest names on DBZA (and two of them aren't even in America fwiw). If everyone involved with TFS had been blacklisted then a lot more people like the ones I mentioned would have had to cut ties with them for the sake of their career.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Just being in a parody of something is not in and of itself a guarantee that you will get blacklisted. Sarah Anne Williams and Kira Buckland played Tifa and Aerith, respectively, in Final Fantasy VII Machinebridged (coincidentally, also produced by TFS) and yet they were both cast as additional voices in the recently-released Final Fantasy VII Remake. It's also worth pointing out that, for all this talk of blacklisting, we don't even necessarily know that anybody was blacklisted when it comes to TFS to begin with. We do know there was some friction between them and the companies involved, and we know this because Scott Ferichs/KaiserNeko said so, but I don't believe any "blacklisting" has been officially confirmed.

One other thing that's worth pointing out, and this is not a defense of--or attack on--TFS: at some point in time (I wanna say it was around episode 44-46, somewhere in there), TFS dropped the use of the phrase "non-profit" from their pre-episode disclaimers. To quote TFS member hbi2k from this reddit thread:

We dropped the "non-profit" bit from the disclaimer years ago, because it would be disingenuous to pretend that we're not profiting in any way from DBZA. Of course we are. It's built us an audience, which has in turn built us a business. That hasn't always been the case-- it started off as a truly non-profit hobby-- but it's been the case for kind of a while now.

That said, yes, when a company like Toei puts in a copyright claim on a video, they have the option to monetize it themselves rather than have it taken down outright, and we have chosen not to contest it when they do so.

So, take from that what you will.

[WittyUsername]

As far as I can tell, being involved with DBZA hasn’t really hurt too many aspiring voice actor’s careers. It seems like as long as they don’t mention it in their resume, they’re fine.

[The Monkey King]

If this is the case that's pretty messed up for these corporations to do.

Whether you like it or not, Team Four Star was a BIG PLAYER in keeping the Dragon Ball in western public consciousness prior to the release of Battle of Gods in 2013 and up to the release of Super in 2015.

There's no doubt in my mind that their abridged series helped smooth over the Dragon Ball revival and got people even more excited for brand new official Dragon Ball content.

In an ideal world Funi/Toei and TFS would be able to openly appreciate their mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. But we live in the real world with copyrights, contracts, legal issues etc

[MasenkoHA]

Whether you like it or not, Team Four Star was a BIG PLAYER in keeping the Dragon Ball in western public consciousness prior to the release of Battle of Gods in 2013 and up to the release of Super in 2015.

There's no doubt in my mind that their abridged series helped smooth over the Dragon Ball revival and got people even more excited for brand new official Dragon Ball content.

Not really no. Between the season sets being released (which sold incredibly well despite the lack of quality) and Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Evolution, Dragon Ball hardly went anywhere.

[Cure Dragon 255]

If this is the case that's pretty messed up for these corporations to do.

Whether you like it or not, Team Four Star was a BIG PLAYER in keeping the Dragon Ball in western public consciousness prior to the release of Battle of Gods in 2013 and up to the release of Super in 2015.

There's no doubt in my mind that their abridged series helped smooth over the Dragon Ball revival and got people even more excited for brand new official Dragon Ball content.

In an ideal world Funi/Toei and TFS would be able to openly appreciate their mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. But we live in the real world with copyrights, contracts, legal issues etc

If TFS is needed to keep Dragon Ball relevant (It isnt by the way) then Dragon Ball's fanbase is pathetic.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t know if I’d say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to be kept relevant, but they certainly had a pretty big influence on the fanbase back in the day. There was once a time when every other Dragon Ball video on YouTube had quotes from DBZA in the comments section.

[ABED]

I don’t know if I’d say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to be kept relevant, but they certainly had a pretty big influence on the fanbase back in the day. There was once a time when every other Dragon Ball video on YouTube had quotes from DBZA in the comments section.

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t know if I’d say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to be kept relevant, but they certainly had a pretty big influence on the fanbase back in the day. There was once a time when every other Dragon Ball video on YouTube had quotes from DBZA in the comments section.

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

I don’t know how anyone can argue that DBZA wasn’t a success.

[MasenkoHA]

I don’t know if I’d say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to be kept relevant, but they certainly had a pretty big influence on the fanbase back in the day. There was once a time when every other Dragon Ball video on YouTube had quotes from DBZA in the comments section.

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

I don’t know how anyone can argue that DBZA wasn’t a success.

DBZA was a successful Youtube fan series =/= Heavily influential on the fandom

[jjgp1112]

A lot of you guys get on here too "old man" ish with stuff like this and consistently downplay the influence it has on the fandom. Specifically, the negative influence.

That being said, the season sets and video games kept DB relevant in the late 00s before Battle of Gods.

[ABED]

I don’t know if I’d say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to be kept relevant, but they certainly had a pretty big influence on the fanbase back in the day. There was once a time when every other Dragon Ball video on YouTube had quotes from DBZA in the comments section.

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

I don’t know how anyone can argue that DBZA wasn’t a success.

How does me saying it wasn't that influential in keeping DB popular equate to me saying it wasn't a success? Also, success is a vague term.

Fandoms tend to take a sense of ownership on their favorite shows and it is unhealthy. They want to be catered to at the expense of the general audience. The fandom =/= the audience.

[WittyUsername]

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

I don’t know how anyone can argue that DBZA wasn’t a success.

How does me saying it wasn't that influential in keeping DB popular equate to me saying it wasn't a success? Also, success is a vague term.

Fandoms tend to take a sense of ownership on their favorite shows and it is unhealthy. They want to be catered to at the expense of the general audience. The fandom =/= the audience.

I didn’t say it kept Dragon Ball popular. In fact, I specifically said that I don’t know if you can say that it kept Dragon Ball relevant. All I said was that it had a big influence on the fandom, as in, it shaped many people’s perception on the series. For example, it was a major reason why the “Goku is a bad father/Piccolo is Gohan’s real dad” meme became so widespread. I don’t understand why that should be a controversial thing to point out.

[Melee_Sovereign]

If TFS is needed to keep Dragon Ball relevant (It isnt by the way) then Dragon Ball's fanbase is pathetic.

Jesus Christ, you people are so negative!

[Melee_Sovereign]

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

Its a pretty good gauge seeing that youtube is one of the biggest and most viewed media platforms. Its no different than looking at viewership on a particular TV channel.

[ABED]

I think you overestimate its influence. A Youtube comment section is hardly a good gauge of success.

Its a pretty good gauge seeing that youtube is one of the biggest and most viewed media platforms. Its no different than looking at viewership on a particular TV channel.

Viewership is a number of how many people watched. It's an actual metric that says how many eyeballs were watching. NCIS is still one of the most popular shows on TV. Do you think its viewership is reflected in Youtube comment sections?

And while the videos are huge, that doesn't follow that the comment section is a good sample of feedback.

it shaped many people’s perception on the series. For example, it was a major reason why the “Goku is a bad father/Piccolo is Gohan’s real dad” meme became so widespread. I don’t understand why that should be a controversial thing to point out.

Your comments about "many" and "widespread" are vague approximations. I don't think that sort of popularity holds any sort of weight among the audience. Some fans, maybe, but not the overall viewership. You aren't pointing something out. That implies that's a fact, not just conjecture.

[WittyUsername]

Your comments about "many" and "widespread" are vague approximations. I don't think that sort of popularity holds any sort of weight among the audience. Some fans, maybe, but not the overall viewership. You aren't pointing something out. That implies that's a fact, not just conjecture.

I was making an observation on how the fandom responded to the series. That’s all. Saying that DBZA was a big hit with the fandom that inspired a bunch of memes is not conjecture. Again, I think it’s a stretch to say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to stay relevant, but that doesn’t mean it had no bearing on the fanbase.

[Adamant]

In an ideal world Funi/Toei and TFS would be able to openly appreciate their mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. But we live in the real world with copyrights, contracts, legal issues etc

In an ideal world Funi would've also never gone anywhere near the franchise to begin with. But thems the breaks.

[ABED]

Your comments about "many" and "widespread" are vague approximations. I don't think that sort of popularity holds any sort of weight among the audience. Some fans, maybe, but not the overall viewership. You aren't pointing something out. That implies that's a fact, not just conjecture.

I was making an observation on how the fandom responded to the series. That’s all. Saying that DBZA was a big hit with the fandom that inspired a bunch of memes is not conjecture. Again, I think it’s a stretch to say that Dragon Ball needed TFS to stay relevant, but that doesn’t mean it had no bearing on the fanbase.

You're saying it had a significant impact, but memes are hardly an impact in the scheme of things. I think it has some bearing on the fanbase, but it's smaller than you are claiming and fans are not the audience. It shouldn't be a controversial point to say the fans and the audience aren't the same thing. Looking at how fandoms react to things on the internet is not the best measure of how the overall audience views a show or film.