Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

[OmegaRockman]

Yu-Gi-Oh and more!"

It's slim pickings, but it's a start? Remember to always specify that we are after the Ocean dub

I would never do this, because it would come across as rude, but man would I love to request the Ocean dub and include with it some ratings comparisons for when Kai was still on Toonzai/Vortexx along with Yu-Gi-Oh...because Kai had consistently higher ratings. So it's like...if they're considering Yu-Gi-Oh, why not Kai?

I mean, I can think of one semi-good reason, which is that Kai is just not a new thing anymore, but...still.

To add to that you could make an argument Yu-Gi-Oh is no longer a "new thing" unless Teletoon is using 5Ds.

Actually, Arc V would be the "new thing" for Yu-Gi-Oh. 5Ds ended in 2011 if I remember right.

[Arian]

Yu-Gi-Oh and more!"

It's slim pickings, but it's a start? Remember to always specify that we are after the Ocean dub

I would never do this, because it would come across as rude, but man would I love to request the Ocean dub and include with it some ratings comparisons for when Kai was still on Toonzai/Vortexx along with Yu-Gi-Oh...because Kai had consistently higher ratings. So it's like...if they're considering Yu-Gi-Oh, why not Kai?

I mean, I can think of one semi-good reason, which is that Kai is just not a new thing anymore, but...still.

To add to that you could make an argument Yu-Gi-Oh is no longer a "new thing" unless Teletoon is using 5Ds.

When they say Yu-Gi-Oh!, they're referring to Arc-V, the newest series in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

[NitroEX]

I was actually asking why they didn't make music for Scan2Go and LBX instead of recycling Megaman music for those shows.

As far as I'm aware there are only a handful of Megaman tracks reused in LBX, most of which were 1-2 second musical cues which only appeared one time each, the majority of that show had original music as far as I can tell. I haven't bothered looking at Scan2Go but literally nobody has mentioned Megaman music being in it so I see no reason to assume there is any.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I would never do this, because it would come across as rude, but man would I love to request the Ocean dub and include with it some ratings comparisons for when Kai was still on Toonzai/Vortexx along with Yu-Gi-Oh...because Kai had consistently higher ratings. So it's like...if they're considering Yu-Gi-Oh, why not Kai?

I mean, I can think of one semi-good reason, which is that Kai is just not a new thing anymore, but...still.

To add to that you could make an argument Yu-Gi-Oh is no longer a "new thing" unless Teletoon is using 5Ds.

Actually, Arc V would be the "new thing" for Yu-Gi-Oh. 5Ds ended in 2011 if I remember right.

Apologies, I meant to say Arc V, just been out of touch with Yu-Gi-Oh since GX but I knew the current series had 5 in the title somewhere.

[Kakacarrottop]

Keep in mind that during the Saban dub they weren't even the one's handling music for the show, that was left to Saban and Shuki Levy. For the Westwood dub they had to cover everything themselves and do it at a rapid pace

Actually it was Ron Wasserman, who wasn't even employed by Saban anymore when Funi outsourced the music to him. I believe Saban/Levy were only involved with the Rock the Dragon theme song. Wasserman claimed he contacted Funi telling them he wanted to keep making music for the upcoming third season, but they turned him down (because they already had discovered the more convenient Dallas-based Bruce Faulconer) and told him they were "changing the sound". If the Westwood dub wasn't so rushed, then Ocean/Westwood Media feasibly could have got in touch with him and hired him to make more kickass music for the show. If that did indeed happen then the whole thing would have been a better, more enjoyable product.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Keep in mind that during the Saban dub they weren't even the one's handling music for the show, that was left to Saban and Shuki Levy. For the Westwood dub they had to cover everything themselves and do it at a rapid pace

Actually it was Ron Wasserman, who wasn't even employed by Saban anymore when Funi outsourced the music to him. I believe Saban/Levy were only involved with the Rock the Dragon theme song. Wasserman claimed he contacted Funi telling them he wanted to keep making music for the upcoming third season, but they turned him down (because they already had discovered the more convenient Dallas-based Bruce Faulconer) and told him they were "changing the sound". If the Westwood dub wasn't so rushed, then Ocean/Westwood Media feasibly could have got in touch with him and hired him to make more kickass music for the show. If that did indeed happen then the whole thing would have been a better, more enjoyable product.

I disagree, I think the replacement score by Tom Keenlyside and John Mitchell was more fitting for Dragon Ball than Faulconer. Placement is debatable though.

[Kakacarrottop]

Keep in mind that during the Saban dub they weren't even the one's handling music for the show, that was left to Saban and Shuki Levy. For the Westwood dub they had to cover everything themselves and do it at a rapid pace

Actually it was Ron Wasserman, who wasn't even employed by Saban anymore when Funi outsourced the music to him. I believe Saban/Levy were only involved with the Rock the Dragon theme song. Wasserman claimed he contacted Funi telling them he wanted to keep making music for the upcoming third season, but they turned him down (because they already had discovered the more convenient Dallas-based Bruce Faulconer) and told him they were "changing the sound". If the Westwood dub wasn't so rushed, then Ocean/Westwood Media feasibly could have got in touch with him and hired him to make more kickass music for the show. If that did indeed happen then the whole thing would have been a better, more enjoyable product.

I disagree, I think the replacement score by Tom Keenlyside and John Mitchell was more fitting for Dragon Ball than Faulconer. Placement is debatable though.

I too prefer their music over Faulconer, but the stuff from the Saban dub will always be my personal favorite. It was just so intense and perfectly fit all the action scenes. My ideal soundtrack for the show would probably be a mixture of the Wasserman music and the Keenylside/Mitchell score.

[90sDBZ]

If the Westwood dub wasn't so rushed, then Ocean/Westwood Media feasibly could have got in touch with him and hired him to make more kickass music for the show. If that did indeed happen then the whole thing would have been a better, more enjoyable product.

This 100%. For me the music in the Westwood dub was the worst thing about it, even more so than the rushed performances. If Ron Wasserman had been hired to make the score it would have been easier to look past the other issues. I didn't find the Westwood dub to really be decent until the Fusion and Kid Buu sagas, which is when they finally introduced lots of new music that actually sounded good and fit the show.

[8000 Saiyan]

I'll give the replacement score a chance if it's done well and the placement of it fits.

If this is true, the biggest thing on my mind now is if FUNi's dominance in the anime market overseas—in the west—is actually a good thing or actually has hurt the anime industry in the long run.

I'm in the camp that Funimation is overused nowadays. Don't get me wrong, I like some of their dubs, but Vancouver and LA are just as good in the dubbing department, and I prefer the latter talent pools to the former.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Funimation is actually why I'm afraid Ocean's Gintama dub will never surface.

For those unaware, 51 episodes of Gintama were discovered on the CRTC's database back in April. That was kind of astonishing for a few reasons: 1) No English version of the Gintama TV anime had been announced, 2) the series isn't new, which means a dub was kind of written off by everyone, 3) the series isn't easy to adapt into English, 4) the last time an English dub for Gintama material came out (a compilation film put out by Sentai), it was dubbed in Texas. A few months later Crunchyroll announced that they would be producing physical releases with English audio, and that Gintama would be one of the series represented. Then a derailment happened. Funimation and Crunchyroll announced a partnership that would see the former assume control of the latter's properties for home video/dubs, while the latter assumes controls of the former's simulcast subbed options. Of the former Crunchyroll home video projects, Funimation only immediately committed themselves to Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

If you're a fan of watching anime in English, that partnership should be concerning. Funimation's dubs (especially their broadcast productions) can be all over the place in voice acting and script adaptation, so giving more work to them will likely worsen that. To top it off, the deal means even more consolidation in the voices you'll hear in anime. Anime pretty much only gets dubbed in Texas and LA now. While I'm sure Crunchyroll were going to dub stuff in LA and Texas too, they obviously weren't against Canadian productions. Outside of small continuations (Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail, InuYasha: TFA) and an extremely low key release of Kingdom, none of the other traditional anime players have done that in years.

Back to Gintama. Despite having 51 English episodes finished, Funimation hasn't announced its home video launch. That can mean a few things: they're waiting for a clear spot in their schedule (hopefully), they're questioning if the show is even viable for home video, or they plan on redubbing it with their own actors. You might think it would be crazy to throw 51 episodes in the trash ... but this thread is living proof that even anime companies have pissed more money into the wind. But why re-dub it? Well, Gintama is a long show (currently sitting at 312 episodes, with more on the way), which means 51 episodes is only a fraction of the overall show. Small enough to where if Funimation believes Gintama could be a hit, it would probably be worth it to redub them so that they wouldn't have to send future episodes to Ocean.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Just to chip in with an "other side of the coin" comment...

I spoke with a dubbing director (not based in Canada) who believes that Ocean technically could get more anime dubs under their wing, but are choosing not to. Ocean doesn't just dub anime, they also serve as the recording studio for lots of pre-lay (North American) animation shows, and money-wise, pre-lay pays way, way, way more. For pretty much everybody involved. So, a possible explanation for the decline of Canada-based dubs is quite possibly that the studios who normally used to do dubbing projects in Canada are just busier with work that, quite frankly, pays more. That's a key difference between those studios, who do different kinds of projects in addition to anime dubs, and a company like FUNimation who is--for the most part--anime-exclusive.

I have nothing against LA or Texas-based dubs, but as an audience member, I miss when dubbing locations were a little more spread out. Vancouver, Toronto, and New York all have some fantastic actors in their talent pool that I'd love to hear more of...but--kind of like the Ocean dub of Kai--one can't always get what they want.

[8000 Saiyan]

Just to chip in with an "other side of the coin" comment...

I spoke with a dubbing director (not based in Canada) who believes that Ocean technically could get more anime dubs under their wing, but are choosing not to. Ocean doesn't just dub anime, they also serve as the recording studio for lots of pre-lay (North American) animation shows, and money-wise, pre-lay pays way, way, way more. For pretty much everybody involved. So, a possible explanation for the decline of Canada-based dubs is quite possibly that the studios who normally used to do dubbing projects in Canada are just busier with work that, quite frankly, pays more. That's a key difference between those studios, who do different kinds of projects in addition to anime dubs, and a company like FUNimation who is--for the most part--anime-exclusive.

I have nothing against LA or Texas-based dubs, but as an audience member, I miss when dubbing locations were a little more spread out. Vancouver, Toronto, and New York all have some fantastic actors in their talent pool that I'd love to hear more of...but--kind of like the Ocean dub of Kai--one can't always get what they want.

Cathy Weseluck said in an interview with Trevor Devall that she thought that Vancouver wasn't getting more anime work because of economy reasons.

The Toronto and New York talent pools will always be given slack because of their infamous DiC and 4Kids dubs. The New York talent pool has dubbed Gundam Unicorn though, and that dub was one of the best Gundam dubs along with Gundam 00's dub (I don't think it was bad, unpopular opinion). The Toronto talent pool unfortunately has never made a great dub IMO, although they did a good job with Medabots. Perhaps they need better voice directors and more voice actors.

[Dbzfan94]

To me it's like losing a relative.

That's actually a really insensitive comparison to make.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I was actually asking why they didn't make music for Scan2Go and LBX instead of recycling Megaman music for those shows. But my best guess is because of money reasons.

I guess we'll have to endure another edited Ocean DBZ dub again. And Drummond said that he wanted to dub Kai uncut...pity we'll never see a full uncut version of Kai with some of the finest Canadian voice actors.

I think if we're very lucky (and I mean very lucky) this dub could at least have uncut dialogue. Although I wouldn't count on it.

[Arian]

I was actually asking why they didn't make music for Scan2Go and LBX instead of recycling Megaman music for those shows. But my best guess is because of money reasons.

I guess we'll have to endure another edited Ocean DBZ dub again. And Drummond said that he wanted to dub Kai uncut...pity we'll never see a full uncut version of Kai with some of the finest Canadian voice actors.

I think if we're very lucky (and I mean very lucky) this dub could at least have uncut dialogue. Although I wouldn't count on it.

There will be no curse words, that's guaranteed.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I was actually asking why they didn't make music for Scan2Go and LBX instead of recycling Megaman music for those shows. But my best guess is because of money reasons.

I guess we'll have to endure another edited Ocean DBZ dub again. And Drummond said that he wanted to dub Kai uncut...pity we'll never see a full uncut version of Kai with some of the finest Canadian voice actors.

I think if we're very lucky (and I mean very lucky) this dub could at least have uncut dialogue. Although I wouldn't count on it.

There will be no curse words, that's guaranteed.

I'll tolerate there being no profanity as long as the dialogue isn't dumbed down to the point of "next dimension" garbage or whatever intellectually insulting censorship the Canadian networks demand.

Even something like Freeza's speech before his last attack on Goku would be fine in my books.

[NitroEX]

There will be no curse words, that's guaranteed.

I'll tolerate there being no profanity as long as the dialogue isn't dumbed down to the point of "next dimension" garbage or whatever intellectually insulting censorship the Canadian networks demand.

Even something like Freeza's speech before his last attack on Goku would be fine in my books.

The Westwood and Blue Water dubs had no "next dimension" in them, that was only something enforced by Saban & Funimation.

I don't know about you but I got kinda tired of hearing all the "damn" & damnits used throughout the Funimation dub. It just starts to lose it's impact after a while and made me yearn for something more creative. I think the only word I'll truly miss from uncut dialogue is "hell".

[8000 Saiyan]

What characters do you guys think should be recasted?

[Arian]

There are very few voices in the Ocean cast I actually took issue with, but I wouldn't mind hearing a new Krillin.

Chi-Chi and Bulma are two other characters I'd like to hear new voices for.

[Bansho64]

There are very few voices in the Ocean cast I actually took issue with, but I wouldn't mind hearing a new Krillin.

This might sound weird, but I'd actually like to hear an awesome English Kuririn that has a high pitched voice. I think it could work well in English with a talented actress playing him. Something like this or this

Chi-Chi and Bulma are two other characters I'd like to hear new voices for.

I wouldn't mind newer voices for those specific characters but I wouldn't mind it if they had their old ones either. One thing I'd really like to hear if is a good, mature, powerful, English Kamesennin. He can be goofy sometimes though because he does have his antics but I still wanna hear the occasional wise and mature grandfatherly tone from him.