"Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters" FUNimation English Dub Official Announcement and Discussion Thread

[Scsigs]

Anyway, business dictates what they'll do with the show. IMO, there should be "outrage" that Toei doesn't put once cent into non-Japanese versions, rarely if ever supervised them, & more-or-less retains their operation to Japan only...while Bandai Namco can simuldub & release a day before Japanese release. Beyond that, they do not care one iota how little budget is given to the show's localizations, & how awfully the people involved are treated. The Japanese actors deserve priority, sure, but foreign VAs are still VAs & they aren't necessarily bad actors.

Um...that's the thing about dubs. They're done by different companies than the ones in Japan. Do you really think Toei can successfully dub a show, or movie, then release it in another country without another company's help? Even if they could, I'm doubting they'd do the best job. I seem to recall the dub of one of the later classic Megaman games that was done in Japan & it came out...really bad. Yeah, they should maybe have more involvement, but dub companies are essential to anime.

However, the fact of the matter is that those who actually care about an accurate, well-acted dub are quite a small audience. Anime fans would be perfectly happy watching everything subtitled - there are even folks who assume Avatar was an anime & search for Japanese versions of it upon seeing it. OR that No More Heroes is Japanese originally. etc.

Um...no. The only ones who don't care about accurate dubbing are either casuals, kids, or nostalgia brats. I'd say everyone else who likes anime are, generally, in support of accurate dubs. No, I don't believe every person would be happy watching everything subbed. I, personally, love having accurate dubs so I don't have to pay attention to my TV every second of the episodes, or movies when I watch them to understand what the fuck's happening.
People think Avatar is actually anime because of the animation style being heavily anime-esque, one of the most in the history of Western Animation, & the story telling is very anime as well with the season-long story arcs & its respect to Asian cultures. Cowboy Bebop is the exact opposite. It's reverence for American culture is unrivaled in Anime. The writers of that show understood what makes American storytelling work & put it to the test. The dub helped A LOT in making the show even MORE acceptable to Western viewers. I don't know if some people would've checked out the show unless it was dubbed. Hell, it & Outlaw Star were failures in Japan initially, but got the recognition they deserved after being localized & dubbed here in America. As many sub fans as there are, there are a good number of dub fans. Basically, dubs have proven their worth to exist & to say everyone would be happy to watch the sub only is just ludicrous.

[*]The attachment to the existing dub is tied to part of what makes it inaccurate - people want to hear baritone Goku, gravelly Vegeta, & bass/monster-voiced Piccolo. The existing dub is done as it is because of the popularity of the old dub - if the dub had financially failed, then Toei would care - that's what happened to OP, & FUNi only stopped using replacement scores (now that Internet is ubiquitous) because those are pretty jarring & musical replacements are very hard to swallow, & while the entire voice track changing turns off many fans - admins of this site included - nostalgia for those voices is a serious trip.

You realize that the voices are so well established, & the actors so good in their performances so evolved, that to change them would be a bad decision. As for the voices being "incorrect," how in the hell does THAT make them "incorrect" to not sound EXACTLY like their Japanese counterparts? You know thats, for the most part, physically impossible to have English actors sound like Japanese ones, right? Sure, you get 1 or 2 here & there in dubs that match pretty well with their counterparts, but to expect EVERY voice ever in anime to be 1-to-1, or close enough, to their Japanese counterparts is just having too high of expectations. Dubs should be taken under their own merits for casting without comparison to the original Japanese. That's why I watch dubs before hearing the Japanese voices, if I even look up clips. Besides, it's hard to judge performances in a language you DON'T UNDERSTAND WHATSOEVER, hence the subs. you can notice certain things, obviously but unless you're fluent in a language, it's pretty hard otherwise to judge a vocal performance. The dub actors are JUST FINE & will be attached to the characters for years to come, just like the Japanese ones.
Here's the thing about the initial dub, it did fail. Initially, FUNimation had a really hard time getting it off the ground. So did the other studios that attempted it before them. With the original Dragon Ball series, it didn't get a lot f viewership. Toei didn't care. Z struggled for a good 2 years, at least, before Toonami finally picked it up & gave it good exposure. Toei didn't care, otherwise they would've deemed it a failure & not licensed more episodes to FUNimation, much like Sailor Moon after the horrible 90s dub where it wasn't relicensed to another company until 2013 when they gave them the benefit of the doubt & now it's more popular than ever. I've heard complaints about the new dub, both from people who prefer the 90s dub actors, & people just now judging the show with the dub, with no biases from the original dub, that range from very positive to negative. Now, Toei let's Viz have what they negotiate & it's all good.
There's a success story from years earlier that you touched upon, but didn't elaborate upon. One Piece. For reasons that will baffle us all until the end of time, Toei licensed the show to 4Kids & we all know their evils hold no bounds when dubbing anime. 4Kids, first of all, didn't even want the show whatsoever, so they just dicked around with it for 2 years, then finally dropped it when they got the opportunity. FUNimation then got it & it's been slowly gaining what Toei wanted for it from the beginning. However, Toei had some stipulations even back then, one being Luffy voiced by a female like in Japan, hence why eventually Colleen Clinkenbeard got booked as him. Not only that, but the Strawhat actors in the dub are picked by Oda himself, so they have n problem with the show, or movies, being dubbed in English at all, as long as it gets out there & makes a decent profit. Hell, that's probably more Toei's thing, as Oda clearly enjoys writing & drawing the manga & loves to entertain through his stories. Anyone who hates anything about the main dub actors need to take that up with Toei & Oda because they're approved through them.
I'm pretty sure FUNi stopped using replacement scores because of the way their relationship with Falconer ended up. As Geekdom101 put in his recent video detailing their relationship, by the end of Z, there was some sort of animosity there, as Falconer sued FUNimation for the music's rights, but eventually FUNimation won & got to use the music on future releases for the nostalgia brats who love it more than the Japanese score. The only other things they replaced the scores with new music for were GT, & Z's movies. Pretty sure DB didn't HAVE a score replacement, but I could be mistaken there. Not only that, but they're on par with Viz in terms of licensing where they can easily afford the Japanese music. Not only that, but it's premade & the Japanese studios can just send them audio tracks without the voices for the purposes of the dubs with the rest of the material. It's just easier. Plus, if they continually replaced scores for the anime they dub, that would be a daunting task for longrunners like, say, One Piece, where there's almost 800 episodes, over 10 movies, etc, especially when dubbing it was a huge job, since they had to have multiple translators, script writers, directors, editors, etc, available to put the dub of the first 206 episodes & one of the movies together in a short amount of time to redub what 4Kids had already done the last few years prior, as well as what was left of Skypia. To have replacement music scores on top of that would just be ridiculous.

[*]On the flipside, if the dub had been accurate, many of the fans who dislike the dub as-is...wouldn't have given it any attention today The Naruto, Bleach, Toradora, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, & several other recent-ish dubs, range from decent to pretty good...yet it doesn't matter, because we have subs, & watching dubs over subs is cultural appropriation. The Naruto dub, as good as it is, is pretty much relegated to obscurity considering that it's cheaper to simply stream the show without paying for additional audio tracks, & the dubs come out way, way later. There's no reason this wouldn't happen to Dragon Ball as well - & from FUNi's perspective, there's very little incentive to do a straight dub, & the biggest incentive to continue the dub that they have going.

How in the HELL is watching dubs cultural appropriation? When you have the companies willingly admit the shows are from Japan, the animation is of Japan, the animation is untouched, the script is accurate, & the Japanese audio is there for all to listen to if they prefer that version. I'm not going to sit here & debate a topic that's become bullshit SJW rhetoric, but I AM going to say this...
Cultural Appropriation is defined as, "adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture." How in the HELL is dubbing anime anywhere near that? They just translate, script, & record the voice acting for a language track in another language for those who want to have the information in the things given to them in their native tongue, as well as make the show accessible.
As for Naruto, the dub is readily available on DVD, Blu-Ray, as well as streaming. When it was on Netflix, which I don't believe they are anymore, the episodes had both the dub & the sub. Not only that, but they have the episodes available through things like Hulu, iTunes, etc, in both dub & sub format, so saying it's "relegated to obscurity" is just absurd.
There's plenty of reason for FUNi to keep dubbing the series. For one, as you say, nostalgia. Many people grew/grow up with the English voices. that's what they here, that's what they like, & that's what they want to hear. For another, the dub actors are so well established by now, so to dub the franchise with any other cast would be jarring, stupid, & disrespectful to them, especially when they're still working for the company in many other dubs. They're talents would go to waste if not utilized while they're still young enough & able to voice act. Then, there's the company itself & the public. Dubs have existed for a long time. Not just anime dubs either. Not only that, but other countries receive dubs of shows & movies in their respective languages & they have the choice through the home media releases to either watch it in their native language's dub, or in the original language with subtitles. Plus, what if someone's blind & wants to hear what's happening? They'd either have to be fluent in multiple languages, or have the script translated into braile for them to read. you're not thinking of them. If there wasn't a market for dubs, they wouldn't do it. There's no reason to stop.
As for them stopping the dubbing they do now, it's never going to happen. The dubs are already underway. Dubs have a good number of fans & supporters, so to not have shows & movies dubbed would actually LOSE them money. I've actually seen videos where, literally, one of the biggest selling points of DBZ'S orange bricks & Blu-Rays is because of the audio options having the English dub with the broadcast music. Had they not had those options on the discs, i'm doubting a lot of English-speaking DB fans would've picked them up. Some fans can't stand to hear Nozawa as Goku, Gohan, & Goten instead of Shemmel, Hebert, & Edwards because of her voice tone for each of them. Same for a lot of the Japanese voices VS the English ones. That's how they feel & they deserve to have another option, just as much as sub fans deserve to have THEIR option for watching the show.
What do you mean by a "straight dub"? Do you mean one where everything's essentially a 1 too 1 translation, including character voice castings? Um, news flash, man. We ARE getting essentially that nowadays ever since 2010 with the Kai dub. Yeah, terminologies can get mixed around, but the translation is as perfect as it can get. It's as close as it could ever get nowadays & this is what we're going to get. It's not a bad thing that they're keeping the voice actors for the dub from years ago either. All of them have improved & the ones they've had to have as replacements are good in their own rights as well. No one, or at least not many people, really has a big problem with the dub actors. It was the shit scripting of Z's dub that kept it from being truly great. Now, we have Kai's dub replacing it for future generations & the nostalgia brats are just becoming aging hipsters to many of us newer fans. You have NOTHING to be mad about anymore with the new dub material.

[*]Now, as someone who is generally in support of dubs, I have created a thread or two on how I'd like my dub, & I do lean softer for adult Gohan. He's not childish, but he's meek & I think that, out of established voices, Brad Swaile comes closest to what I imagine Gohan sounding like.

I agree that Hebert made Gohan's voice maybe a tad bit deep in the only clip FUNi's uploaded so far, but that's just 1 clip out of 69 episodes worth of material, plus he just had t have a conversation with Bulma as Gohan. I'm expecting him to pull of Gohan wonderfully, as always. Not only that, but the Super dub needs a kind of deeper-sounding Gohan, don't you think? Gohan's a family man in it & he needs kind of a deeper voice to sound a bit more of a father figure type.

Ok, it's 3 AM where I am, I'm tired, & I need to sleep. Hope you take this well.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'm alright with Hebert's Gohan. It is a bit deep, but I'm okay as long as the dialogue is performed awesomely.

But, I do think a higher pitched one can work in a dub. The Catalan voice for him as an adult is a pretty good example of that. It'd cause outrage, but I could honestly care less. It doesn't have to sound like Nozawa, but a youthful-ish voice can work imo.

A dub or different language doesnt magically change timbre - there are all kinds of voices amongst all races. The reasons behind dramatically different voices are due to Toei's lack of care, for the most part. There's the business & cultural thing of retaining women's child voices as adults, but that's a smaller thing.

Anyway, business dictates what they'll do with the show. IMO, there should be "outrage" that Toei doesnt put once cent into non-Japanese versions, rarely if ever supervised them, & more-or-less retains their operation to Japan only...while Bandai Namco can simuldub & release a day before Japanese release. Beyond that, they do not care one iota how little budget is given to the show's localizations, & how awfully the people involved are treated. The Japanese actors deserve priority, sure, but foreign VAs are still VAs & they arent necessarily bad actors.

However, the fact of the matter is that those who actually care about an accurate, well-acted dub are quite a small audience. Anime fans would be perfectly happy watching everything subtitled - there are even folks who assume Avatar was an anime & search for Japanese versions of it upon seeing it. OR that No More Heroes is Japanese originally. etc.

[*]The attachment to the existing dub is tied to part of what makes it inaccurate - people want to hear baritone Goku, gravelly Vegeta, & bass/monster-voiced Piccolo. The existing dub is done as it is because of the popularity of the old dub - if the dub had financially failed, then Toei would care - that's what happened to OP, & FUNi only stopped using replacement scores (now that Internet is ubiquitous) because those are pretty jarring & musical replacements are very hard to swallow, & while the entire voice track changing turns off many fans - admins of this site included - nostalgia for those voices is a serious trip.

[*]On the flipside, if the dub had been accurate, many of the fans who dislike the dub as-is...wouldnt have given it any attention today The Naruto, Bleach, Toradora, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, & several other recent-ish dubs, range from decent to pretty good...yet it doesnt matter, because we have subs, & watching dubs over subs is cultural appropriation. The Naruto dub, as good as it is, is pretty much relegated to obscurity considering that it's cheaper to simply stream the show without paying for additional audio tracks, & the dubs come out way, way later. There's no reason this wouldnt happen to Dragon Ball as well - & from FUNi's perspective, there's very little incentive to do a straight dub, & the biggest incentive to continue the dub that they have going.

[*]Now, as someone who is generally in support of dubs, I have created a thread or two on how I'd like my dub, & I do lean softer for adult Gohan. He's not childish, but he's meek & I think that, out of established voices, Brad Swaile comes closest to what I imagine Gohan sounding like.

I am not going to refute your arguments point-by-point, Scsigs and 8000 Saiyan have already done that, but you are not showing much respect for the dub actors (who work their asses of and rightly have a strong following) or dub fans (many of whom are respectable fans of this franchise and anime in general) and are seemingly just forcing your anti-dubs opinion on anyone who doesn't think likewise. Also, if you were "in support of dubs" I don't understand why you would create a thread saying the Funimation voice cast since Kai is not a "proper" cast or say Anime fans are perfectly happy to watch everything subtitled (a minority are sure but the majority appreciate good dubs). I suggest if you can't contribute to this thread without dismissing any more contary views (which may actually be useful constructive criticism for you) then don't.

[Cure Dragon 255]

You know huzaifa ahmed, I'm sick of your ableism. Yes, if you can accuse fans of cultural appropiation (When as Sgigs said, everything is credited and paid towards the japanese) I can DEFINITELY accuse you of ableism. How THE FUCK are people with Dyslexia or that are blind watch and enjoy the show? You are so selfish.

I'm sorry but I'm really passionate about this. Because I have 2 friends who are blind and cant watch the show without dubs.

Now, A Battle Of The Planets style dub would indeed be cultural appropiation. But those kinds of dubs are dead...

[NintendoBlaze53]

Before this turns into a Sub VS Dub debate, Kai is one of the most accurate dubs in recent times. But sometimes creative freedome can further a world, like Steins;Gate's tech talk and internet humor in the dub. But then there's adding cultural references to fit the times. Dubs are never easy to make and no dub will ever please everyone, except maybe Cowboy Bebop.

Back on topic any word on if we're gonna be getting Fight it Out or Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go for the OP? Probably Fight it Out. I'd much prefer Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go.

EDIT: Just found out Fight it Out is sung by Masatoshi Ono of HunterXHunter's Departure and Hunting for your Dream. Now I am so torn. I love those songs, yet both are just better songs then Fight it Out and makes me wonder why Fight it Out is so meh compared to those. Especially Departure which is one of the best Shonen OP's along with Cha-La and Smile Bomb.

[8000 Saiyan]

I don't understand why you would create a thread saying the Funimation voice cast since Kai is not a "proper" cast or say Anime fans are perfectly happy to watch everything subtitled (a minority are sure but the majority appreciate good dubs).

Let's just say that ahmed thinks he's some kind of expert on the subject. He loves to say nonsense about Funimation.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

You know huzaifa ahmed, I'm sick of your ableism. Yes, if you can accuse fans of cultural appropiation (When as Sgigs said, everything is credited and paid towards the japanese) I can DEFINITELY accuse you of ableism. How THE FUCK are people with Dyslexia or that are blind watch and enjoy the show? You are so selfish.

I'm sorry but I'm really passionate about this. Because I have 2 friends who are blind and cant watch the show without dubs.

Now, A Battle Of The Planets style dub would indeed be cultural appropiation. But those kinds of dubs are dead...

I can completely sympathise with you here and agree100%. One of my best mates is a huge DB fan like me and he was unable to watch Super due to dyslexia (took him a few days to finish BoG that was first time he saw an anime subbed and he gave up subbed watching since) now that FUNi announced the license he was over joyed!

If dubs were niche then FUNi's broadcast dub initiative wouldn't have been as successful nor would have Toonami it pulls very good numbers for the times it airs all that wouldn't happen if people are content with subtitle streaming.

[Scsigs]

Just posting this here to correct errors I made unintentionally because I don't have the option to edit my posts for some reason. If someone can help me figure out why that is, it'd be much appreciated.

Anyway, business dictates what they'll do with the show. IMO, there should be "outrage" that Toei doesn't put one cent into non-Japanese versions, rarely if ever supervised them, & more-or-less retains their operation to Japan only...while Bandai Namco can simuldub & release a day before Japanese release. Beyond that, they do not care one iota how little budget is given to the show's localizations, & how awfully the people involved are treated. The Japanese actors deserve priority, sure, but foreign VAs are still VAs & they aren't necessarily bad actors.

Um...that's the thing about dubs. They're done by different companies than the ones in Japan. Do you really think Toei can successfully dub a show, or movie, then release it in another country without another company's help? Even if they could, I'm doubting they'd do the best job. I seem to recall the dub of one of the later classic Megaman games that was done in Japan & it came out...really bad. Yeah, they should maybe have more involvement, but dub companies are essential to anime.

However, the fact of the matter is that those who actually care about an accurate, well-acted dub are quite a small audience. Anime fans would be perfectly happy watching everything subtitled - there are even folks who assume Avatar was an anime & search for Japanese versions of it upon seeing it. OR that No More Heroes is Japanese originally. etc.

Um...no. The only ones who don't care about accurate dubbing are either casuals, kids, or nostalgia brats. I'd say everyone else who likes anime are, generally, in support of accurate dubs. No, I don't believe every person would be happy watching everything subbed. I, personally, love having accurate dubs so I don't have to pay attention to my TV every second of the episodes, or movies when I watch them to understand what the fuck's happening.
People think Avatar is actually anime because of the animation style being heavily anime-esque, one of the most in the history of Western Animation, & the storytelling is very anime as well with the season-long story arcs & its respect to Asian cultures. Cowboy Bebop is the exact opposite. It's reverence for American culture is unrivaled in Anime. The writers of that show understood what makes American storytelling work & put it to the test. The dub helped A LOT in making the show even MORE acceptable to Western viewers. I don't know if some people would've checked out the show unless it was dubbed. Hell, it & Outlaw Star were failures in Japan initially, but got the recognition they deserved after being localized & dubbed here in America. As many sub fans as there are, there are a good number of dub fans. Basically, dubs have proven their worth to exist & to say everyone would be happy to watch the sub only is just ludicrous.

[*]The attachment to the existing dub is tied to part of what makes it inaccurate - people want to hear baritone Goku, gravelly Vegeta, & bass/monster-voiced Piccolo. The existing dub is done as it is because of the popularity of the old dub - if the dub had financially failed, then Toei would care - that's what happened to OP, & FUNi only stopped using replacement scores (now that Internet is ubiquitous) because those are pretty jarring & musical replacements are very hard to swallow, & while the entire voice track changing turns off many fans - admins of this site included - nostalgia for those voices is a serious trip.

You realize that the voices are so well established, & the actors so good in their performances so evolved, that to change them would be a bad decision. As for the voices being "incorrect," how in the hell does THAT make them "incorrect" to not sound EXACTLY like their Japanese counterparts? You know thats, for the most part, physically impossible to have English actors sound like Japanese ones, right? Sure, you get 1 or 2 here & there in dubs that match pretty well with their counterparts, but to expect EVERY voice ever in anime to be 1-to-1, or close enough, to their Japanese counterparts is just having too high of expectations. Dubs should be taken under their own merits for casting without comparison to the original Japanese. That's why I watch dubs before hearing the Japanese voices, if I even look up clips. Besides, it's hard to judge performances in a language you DON'T UNDERSTAND WHATSOEVER, hence the subs. you can notice certain things, obviously but unless you're fluent in a language, it's pretty hard otherwise to judge a vocal performance. The dub actors are JUST FINE & will be attached to the characters for years to come, just like the Japanese ones.
Here's the thing about the initial dub, it did fail. Initially, FUNimation had a really hard time getting it off the ground. So did the other studios that attempted it before them. With the original Dragon Ball series, it didn't get a lot of viewership. Toei didn't care. Z struggled for a good 2 years, at least, before Toonami finally picked it up & gave it good exposure. Toei didn't care, otherwise they would've deemed it a failure & not licensed more episodes to FUNimation, much like Sailor Moon after the horrible 90s dub where it wasn't relicensed to another company until 2013 when they gave them the benefit of the doubt & now it's more popular than ever. I've heard complaints about the new dub, both from people who prefer the 90s dub actors, & people just now judging the show with the dub, with no biases from the original dub, that range from very positive to negative. Now, Toei lets Viz have what they negotiate & it's all good.
There's a success story from years earlier that you touched upon, but didn't elaborate upon. One Piece. For reasons that will baffle us all until the end of time, Toei licensed the show to 4Kids & we all know their evils hold no bounds when dubbing anime. 4Kids, first of all, didn't even want the show whatsoever, so they just dicked around with it for 2 years, then finally dropped it when they got the opportunity. FUNimation then got it & it's been slowly gaining what Toei wanted for it from the beginning. However, Toei had some stipulations even back then, one being Luffy voiced by a female like in Japan, hence why eventually Colleen Clinkenbeard got booked as him. Not only that, but the Strawhat actors in the dub are picked by Oda himself, so they have n problem with the show, or movies, being dubbed in English at all, as long as it gets out there & makes a decent profit. Hell, that's probably more Toei's thing, as Oda clearly enjoys writing & drawing the manga & loves to entertain through his stories. Anyone who hates anything about the main dub actors need to take that up with Toei & Oda because they're approved through them.
I'm pretty sure FUNi stopped using replacement scores because of the way their relationship with Falconer ended up. As Geekdom101 put in his recent video detailing their relationship, by the end of Z, there was some sort of animosity there, as Falconer sued FUNimation for the music's rights, but eventually FUNimation won & got to use the music on future releases for the nostalgia brats who love it more than the Japanese score. The only other things they replaced the scores with new music for were GT, & Z's movies. Pretty sure DB didn't HAVE a score replacement, but I could be mistaken there. Not only that, but they're on par with Viz in terms of licensing where they can easily afford the Japanese music. Not only that, but it's premade & the Japanese studios can just send them audio tracks without the voices for the purposes of the dubs with the rest of the material. It's just easier. Plus, if they continually replaced scores for the anime they dub, that would be a daunting task for long runners like, say, One Piece, where there's almost 800 episodes, over 10 movies, etc, especially when dubbing it was a huge job, since they had to have multiple translators, script writers, directors, editors, etc, available to put the dub of the first 206 episodes & one of the movies together in a short amount of time to redub what 4Kids had already done the last few years prior, as well as what was left of Skypiea. To have replacement music scores on top of that would just be ridiculous.

[*]On the flipside, if the dub had been accurate, many of the fans who dislike the dub as-is...wouldn't have given it any attention today The Naruto, Bleach, Toradora, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, & several other recent-ish dubs, range from decent to pretty good...yet it doesn't matter, because we have subs, & watching dubs over subs is cultural appropriation. The Naruto dub, as good as it is, is pretty much relegated to obscurity considering that it's cheaper to simply stream the show without paying for additional audio tracks, & the dubs come out way, way later. There's no reason this wouldn't happen to Dragon Ball as well - & from FUNi's perspective, there's very little incentive to do a straight dub, & the biggest incentive to continue the dub that they have going.

How in the HELL is watching dubs cultural appropriation? When you have the companies willingly admit the shows are from Japan, the animation is of Japan, the animation is untouched, the script is accurate, & the Japanese audio is there for all to listen to if they prefer that version. I'm not going to sit here & debate a topic that's become bullshit SJW rhetoric, but I AM going to say this...
Cultural Appropriation is defined as, "Adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture." How in the HELL is dubbing anime anywhere near that? They just translate, script, & record the voice acting for a language track in another language for those who want to have the information in the things given to them in their native tongue, as well as make the show accessible.
As for Naruto, the dub is readily available on DVD, Blu-Ray, as well as streaming. When it was on Netflix, which I don't believe they are anymore, the episodes had both the dub & the sub. Not only that, but they have the episodes available through things like Hulu, iTunes, etc, in both dub & sub format, so saying it's "relegated to obscurity" is just absurd.
There's plenty of reason for FUNi to keep dubbing the series. For one, as you say, nostalgia. Many people grew/grow up with the English voices. That's what they here, that's what they like, & that's what they want to hear. For another, the dub actors are so well established by now, so to dub the franchise with any other cast would be jarring, stupid, & disrespectful to them, especially when they're still working for the company in many other dubs. They're talents would go to waste if not utilized while they're still young enough & able to voice act. Then, there's the company itself & the public. Dubs have existed for a long time. Not just anime dubs either. Not only that, but other countries receive dubs of shows & movies in their respective languages & they have the choice through the home media releases to either watch it in their native language's dub, or in the original language with subtitles. Plus, what if someone's blind & wants to hear what's happening? They'd either have to be fluent in multiple languages, or have the script translated into braille for them to read. You're not thinking of them. If there wasn't a market for dubs, they wouldn't do it. There's no reason to stop.
As for them stopping the dubbing they do now, it's never going to happen. The dubs are already underway. Dubs have a good number of fans & supporters, so to not have shows & movies dubbed would actually LOSE them money. I've actually seen videos where, literally, one of the biggest selling points of DBZ'S orange bricks & Blu-Rays is because of the audio options having the English dub with the broadcast music. Had they not had those options on the discs, i'm doubting a lot of English-speaking DB fans would've picked them up. Some fans can't stand to hear Nozawa as Goku, Gohan, & Goten instead of Schemmel, Hebert, & Edwards because of her voice tone for each of them. Same for a lot of the Japanese voices VS the English ones. That's how they feel & they deserve to have another option, just as much as sub fans deserve to have THEIR option for watching the show.
What do you mean by a "straight dub"? Do you mean one where everything's essentially a 1 to 1 translation, including character voice castings? Um, news flash, man. We ARE getting essentially that nowadays ever since 2010 with the Kai dub. Yeah, terminologies can get mixed around, but the translation is as perfect as it can get. It's as close as it could ever get nowadays & this is what we're going to get. It's not a bad thing that they're keeping the voice actors for the dub from years ago either. All of them have improved & the ones they've had to have as replacements are good in their own rights as well. No one, or at least not many people, really has a big problem with the dub actors. It was the shit scripting of Z's dub that kept it from being truly great. Now, we have Kai's dub replacing it for future generations & the nostalgia brats are just becoming aging hipsters to many of us newer fans. You have NOTHING to be mad about anymore with the new dub material.

[*]Now, as someone who is generally in support of dubs, I have created a thread or two on how I'd like my dub, & I do lean softer for adult Gohan. He's not childish, but he's meek & I think that, out of established voices, Brad Swaile comes closest to what I imagine Gohan sounding like.

I agree that Hebert made Gohan's voice maybe a tad bit deep in the only clip FUNi's uploaded so far, but that's just 1 clip out of 69 episodes worth of material, plus he just had to have a conversation with Bulma as Gohan. I'm expecting him to pull of Gohan wonderfully, as always. Not only that, but the Super dub needs a kind of deeper-sounding Gohan, don't you think? Gohan's a family man in it & he needs kind of a deeper voice to sound a bit more of a father figure type.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Just posting this here to correct errors I made unintentionally because I don't have the option to edit my posts for some reason. If someone can help me figure out why that is, it'd be much appreciated.

The forum settings were updated...I think a few months ago...so that people can't edit their posts after a certain amount of time has passed. I want to say one hour, but I could be wrong. The only exception is if you started a thread, in which case you are allowed to edit your opening post of your thread as many times as you wish.

[Scsigs]

Just posting this here to correct errors I made unintentionally because I don't have the option to edit my posts for some reason. If someone can help me figure out why that is, it'd be much appreciated.

The forum settings were updated...I think a few months ago...so that people can't edit their posts after a certain amount of time has passed. I want to say one hour, but I could be wrong. The only exception is if you started a thread, in which case you are allowed to edit your opening post of your thread as many times as you wish.

Well, THAT'S just stupid.

[Anime Kitten]

I don't have the option to edit my posts for some reason. If someone can help me figure out why that is, it'd be much appreciated.

There's a two-hour time limit on every post excluding opening posts (except in Website & Community Discussion, where opening posts are limited as well).

Well, THAT'S just stupid.

I believe this should address this perfectly:

Kanzenshuu is about documenting history, and specifically that history as it originally happened and was originally stated. While we of course think people should have a little bit to reflect on what they post, part of being a responsible Internet citizen is understanding that what you say remains online forever. You are creating history as you leave your comments; that is something "awesome" in the actual sense of that word, and should be treated with respect and care as your contributions become part of a greater whole.

But let's not go off-topic.

[Scsigs]

Well, THAT'S just stupid.

I believe this should address this perfectly:

Kanzenshuu is about documenting history, and specifically that history as it originally happened and was originally stated. While we of course think people should have a little bit to reflect on what they post, part of being a responsible Internet citizen is understanding that what you say remains online forever. You are creating history as you leave your comments; that is something "awesome" in the actual sense of that word, and should be treated with respect and care as your contributions become part of a greater whole.

But let's not go off-topic. [/quote]

I get it, I just wish they'd add a grammar/spell check to this thing because it would really be helpful in the long run.

[8000 Saiyan]

So, what's the biggest thing everyone's looking forward to for Funi's Final Chapters dub?

For me personally, it'll be Vegeta's sacrifice.

I'm looking forward to hear Duncan Brannan's Babidi and Rick Robertson's Dabura again.

[sintzu]

So, what's the biggest thing everyone's looking forward to for Funi's Final Chapters dub?

For me personally, it'll be Vegeta's sacrifice.

There are 3 things I want to see.

Vegeta's sacrifice, Goku going Ssj3 & Vegeta's #1 speach.

[Scsigs]

I'm looking forward to Vegito. Not just here, Super too, especially since I got proof he's still voiced by BOTH Schemmel & Sabat.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I'm looking forward to Vegito. Not just here, Super too, especially since I got proof he's still voiced by BTH Schemmel & Sabat.

Honestly, I've never been a fan of any Vegetto other than the jp version. Nozawa and Horikawa compliment each other so well that no one else has been able to live up.

[Scsigs]

I'm looking forward to Vegito. Not just here, Super too, especially since I got proof he's still voiced by BOTH Schemmel & Sabat.

Honestly, I've never been a fan of any Vegetto other than the jp version. Nozawa and Horikawa compliment each other so well that no one else has been able to live up.

Well, in your opinion. Personally, I like the way they record the voices, then seeing it in action. Especially since there's a WAY better script now.

[sintzu]

I'm looking forward to Vegito. Not just here, Super too, especially since I got proof he's still voiced by BOTH Schemmel & Sabat.

Someone said Schemmel copied Sabat's voice for it (was it you ?) so are you sure they both did it ?

[Scsigs]

I'm looking forward to Vegito. Not just here, Super too, especially since I got proof he's still voiced by BOTH Schemmel & Sabat.

Someone said Schemmel copied Sabat's voice for it (was it you ?) so are you sure they both did it ?

No, he doesn't copy Sabat's voice. Sabat records Vegito's lines first, then Schemmel matches his delivery when he records in his Goku voice. The opposite happens when they record for Gogeta.

[sintzu]

No, he doesn't copy Sabat's voice. Sabat records Vegito's lines first, then Schemmel matches his delivery when he records in his Goku voice. The opposite happens when they record for Gogeta.

Their both at their best and this will be the last dub we get for Z so this is really good news.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Someone said Schemmel copied Sabat's voice for it (was it you ?) so are you sure they both did it ?

That's what the Ocean Dub did. Are you thinking of that?