Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:58 am

Yeah, I've been surprised by how many people want the Yu-Gi-Oh sub on an English-friendly home release. I always thought most people who watched Yu-Gi-Oh grew up with the dub and just didn't care for the sub, but having looked into it more it seems that there were people, even in English-speaking countries who saw the sub before the dub (perhaps through tape trading) and we're very displeased with the latter. I still have a lot of fondness for the dub myself, as I loved watching it on Sky One back in the day.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by LostTimeLord » Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:47 am

Adamant wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:02 pm The idea that this somehow wouldn't have happened to One Piece had 4Kids stuck with it is ludicrous. Of course it would have.
At some point when my back was turned, the internet started liking the One Piece rap theme. Almost all online discussion about it was toxic as hell a decade ago, but now that's been outnumbered by nostalgic people who were introduced to OP through 4Kids and then picked up the uncut version. That being said, I think you'd struggle to find anyone arguing that it's better than We Are!.

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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by MasenkoHA » Sun Dec 05, 2021 10:23 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:58 am Yeah, I've been surprised by how many people want the Yu-Gi-Oh sub on an English-friendly home release. I always thought most people who watched Yu-Gi-Oh grew up with the dub and just didn't care for the sub, but having looked into it more it seems that there were people, even in English-speaking countries who saw the sub before the dub (perhaps through tape trading) and we're very displeased with the latter. I still have a lot of fondness for the dub myself, as I loved watching it on Sky One back in the day.
Back in the day almost nobody liked the 4kids dub of Yu-gi-oh, at least online. The ridiculous censorship was well known.

If anything the lack of available Japanese sub probably made fans think the Japanese version was better than it actually was.

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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by JulieYBM » Sun Dec 05, 2021 11:46 am

This is me digging back into the memory banks but yeah, there was a ton of complaining about the Yuugi-Ou! Duel Monsters dub in 2002-2006 (a lot of it was me). I think general nostalgia and the mainstream-esque nature of LittleKuriboh helped lionize the dub over time and, well, frankly, it was twenty years ago we should all have better things to do with our time than stew in our own soiled pants like two year olds.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:13 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:00 am
Adamant wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:34 am
Hellspawn28 wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:37 am Pokemon is a easier anime to edit and localize than Dragon Ball was. That's probably why the dub was consider to be better than what Funimation was doing.
Or maybe it was just because it was pretty well done by that era's standard, while the Dragonball Z dub was utter garbage.
But Hellspawn is right. Pokemon had far less problematic content to edit. That’s not an excuse for how bad Dragon Ball Z’s dub could be but it does make 4Kids job easier.
Also, Pokemon didn't have a huge fanbase before the series was released in the states. Meanwhile, many people had high hopes for a English dub for DBZ and people were mad on how it was handle. The whole 4kids is satan in the anime industry didn't seem to happen until they started to dub Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, and Shaman King.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:10 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:13 pm
MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:00 am
Adamant wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:34 am

Or maybe it was just because it was pretty well done by that era's standard, while the Dragonball Z dub was utter garbage.
But Hellspawn is right. Pokemon had far less problematic content to edit. That’s not an excuse for how bad Dragon Ball Z’s dub could be but it does make 4Kids job easier.
Also, Pokemon didn't have a huge fanbase before the series was released in the states. Meanwhile, many people had high hopes for a English dub for DBZ and people were mad on how it was handle. The whole 4kids is satan in the anime industry didn't seem to happen until they started to dub Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, and Shaman King.
I believe it was when the Pocket Monsters/Pokemon anime premiered in early 1997 that it really started to get popular in Japan, i do know the original two Game Boy games Red and Green initially had so so to lukewarm sales roughly the first half a year or so they were on store shelves but things started climbing upward quickly at that point and then once the series made it's debut here in mid 1998 it only catapulted the hype further. 4Kids definitely had a big thing on their hands with the absolutely massive blitz that went on for a good three or so years and the show was just one part of it.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:10 pm

Dragon Ball succeeded because it's Dragon Ball. Good dub or bad dub, doesn't matter, Dragon Ball will always sell.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by WittyUsername » Sun Dec 05, 2021 10:46 pm

How popular was Dragon Ball in English speaking countries before 1995/1996? I know it had a following, but since that was before the Internet became widespread, it seems like it would’ve been fairly niche in places like the states.

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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by Adamant » Mon Dec 06, 2021 2:58 am

WittyUsername wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 10:46 pm How popular was Dragon Ball in English speaking countries before 1995/1996? I know it had a following, but since that was before the Internet became widespread, it seems like it would’ve been fairly niche in places like the states.
It was one of the most popular anime series and was getting plenty of magazine coverage and imported merch.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Dec 06, 2021 9:52 am

WittyUsername wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 10:46 pm How popular was Dragon Ball in English speaking countries before 1995/1996? I know it had a following, but since that was before the Internet became widespread, it seems like it would’ve been fairly niche in places like the states.
Popular enough that anime magazines talked about its licensing and dubbing before it aired


Popular enough Fukunaga originally said the market is over saturated with fan subs there would be no point in releasing official subs.

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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by VegettoEX » Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:36 am

Reminder that we have a really awesome (if I do say so myself) "Press Archive" with tons of transcriptions/scans/sources of North American media discussing Dragon Ball, with tons of stuff pre-FUNimation. Everything has its date listed.

(And that doesn't include all the general back-of-magazine advertisements from import shops with all the games, Super Battle Collection figures, etc.)

(There's a website design refresh coming at some point that will bring the "Press Archive" functionality in line with that of the "Translations" section.)

Dragon Ball was already popular before it came here.
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 am

It's always marvelous to see just how much information Kanzenshuu has.

I have a question Mr Vegetto EX. I think the earliest non-ANN site fansite to report Toonzai airing DBZKai WAS Kanzenshuu. If so CAN YOU PLEASE point me in the direction of the earliest article you have on the subject?
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by VegettoEX » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:22 pm

Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 am I have a question Mr Vegetto EX. I think the earliest non-ANN site fansite to report Toonzai airing DBZKai WAS Kanzenshuu. If so CAN YOU PLEASE point me in the direction of the earliest article you have on the subject?
Was Toonzai the same as CW4Kids? I don't really remember what companies and names and such changed over time.

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2010/04/26/k ... ds-lineup/
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Re: Why did 4Kids One Piece FAIL while Funimation's Dragon Ball succeeded?

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:50 pm

VegettoEX wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:22 pm
Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 am I have a question Mr Vegetto EX. I think the earliest non-ANN site fansite to report Toonzai airing DBZKai WAS Kanzenshuu. If so CAN YOU PLEASE point me in the direction of the earliest article you have on the subject?
Was Toonzai the same as CW4Kids? I don't really remember what companies and names and such changed over time.

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2010/04/26/k ... ds-lineup/
Yep. Toonzai/CW4Kids/KidsWb/Vortexx its also just different names for the WB/CW’s kids block

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