Cure Dragon 255 wrote:...By denying it airtime in Canada. If that is indeed true, then I'm REALLY dissapointed in them.
Indeed I think this is the case.
NitroEX wrote:See... At one point I originally thought this might be the case but, with the Bang Zoom dub being a thing that exists at all I'm not so sure anymore. If Funimation and Toei are in bed with eachother then why bother commissioning another English dub in the first place?
Like Super Saiyan Prime said, "it seems like there was a deliberate attempt to try to do soundalikes." I think that for foreign markets that don't speak English and casual fans that do who catch it on TV will notice the differences in the cast less when exposed to both Funimation and BZ voices. Considering that DB video games usually come along with Funimation's voice cast, there won't be such a jarring difference for those casuals or non-English speaking people who play those games or obtain other merchandise.
It's kind of similar to how Funimation attempted to imitate the Ocean cast (for the most part). The Ocean cast, however, has voice work that is extremely hard to imitate, even today I haven't seen people successfully doing Ocean Dragon Ball voices nearly 1:1. However, as we see officially now with Bang Zoom and with fan content, Funimation voices are easier to imitate.
Super Saiyan Prime wrote:I get the sense [Ocean] weren't gunning for 1:1 clones of the people who cloned them.
Exactly. Hence, I still do think it is a conspiracy between Toei and Funimation. Toei gets talent that sounds like Funi's so Funi's products are still marketable for those who don't obsess over small details like slight voice differences. Most people probably wouldn't notice a difference (between Bang Zoom and Funi) outside a hardcore audience. Thus, Funimation remains highly marketable. For example, the UK's market has been a major opposition to Funimation and their work, with many UK fans clamouring for the Canadian cast in broadcasts and in merchandise like video games. Getting the UK normalized to Funimation voices will help sell future merch that contains Funimation voice work on it.
Think about how casual fans on the internet, not exposed to the Canadian cast, react to the Ocean dub. Imagine Toei sees this but in reverse. If Asia, or even Europe, got the Ocean cast their audiences would be normalized to those voices. The reaction people would have to merchandise-spin offs from the anime could potentially have a similar backlash effect. Since Toei realized Funi is seriously slow, they needed a dub while Super is still fresh that is nearly identical to what will be available on DVD and audio-video merchandise in the future (which would be the Funi cast).
It actually kinda sucks that Funi has such rights on DB audio because, even in countries that don't have English actors or the Ocean dub, Funimation is able to get their talent on games and stuff like that in those places. Like Mexico, who had major talent, for some reason has Funimation's voice work on it and the original Japanese, but no Mexican voice work on video games in Spanish! Same scenario plays out in Europe!
My favourite art style (and animation) outside Toriyama who worked on Dragon Ball: Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Masaki Satō, Minoru Maeda, Takeo Ide, Hisashi Eguchi, Katsumi Aoshima, Tomekichi Takeuchi, Masahiro Shimanuki, Kazuya Hisada
