Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 15; Still Unreleased

[MasenkoHA]

The 2001 Dragon Ball dub was a mess, but it was definitely a step in the right direction, and it's the first time Funimation did a Dragon Ball dub that functions as a perfectly serviceable dub.

I think the Dragon Ball dub at least tried to maintain the spirit of the original and didn't try to make it hardcore. Keeping the Japanese BGM and doing adaptations of the opening and ending songs was a step in the right direction compared to their Z dub and GT.

Let's not bash whole fanbases, though; much as hardcore, diehard, Faulconerite, Funi fanboys who bash Ocean, Kai, and in general anything that isn't Faulconer DBZ(And yet they seem to be fine with Ultimate Uncut Z 1-67, and all the redubs and US soundtrack rearrangements from 68-291...) are some of the worst fans to deal with, not all Funi fans are like that, they're just a loud, annoying minority.
Let's just let that slide; to quote one of my favourite Rush songs, "All that you can do is with them well."

I mean technically if you watch the Dragon Ball Z english dub that wasn't the Ocean dub one rather its Kai or the Z dub with the Japanese music or the Falcouner score you can be consider a Funi fan. My beef is more with the fanbase who legitimately think the Falcouner scored Toonami dub was better with its poor voice acting (that got better!) and had better dialog with lines like YOU DIDN'T SAY PLEASE! THAT'S ONE WHOPPER OF A LIZARD! MONDO COOL! "Ally to good! Nightmare to you!"

And look I'm a fan of the Ocean/Saban/Funi dub but I'm not gonna defend a lot of it's dialog. I enjoy it the same way I enjoy MMPR or Thundercats. A guilty pleasure saturday morning cartoon.

[Robo4900]

I think the Dragon Ball dub at least tried to maintain the spirit of the original and didn't try to make it hardcore. Keeping the Japanese BGM and doing adaptations of the opening and ending songs was a step in the right direction compared to their Z dub and GT.

Definitely; I don't dispute that. It was still a mess, though.

I mean technically if you watch the Dragon Ball Z english dub that wasn't the Ocean dub one rather its Kai or the Z dub with the Japanese music or the Falcouner score you can be consider a Funi fan.

Yeah. Since Funi is the default option at the moment(Though Canada airing Ocean Kai would begin to add an alternative option again. ), anyone who watches dubbed is probably going to watch the Funi dub. And I guess that's fine... Though if they're watching the Z dub, rather than the Kai dub, that's a definite mistake.

My beef is more with the fanbase who legitimately think the Falcouner scored Toonami dub was better with its poor voice acting (that got better!) and had better dialog with lines like YOU DIDN'T SAY PLEASE! THAT'S ONE WHOPPER OF A LIZARD! MONDO COOL! "Ally to good! Nightmare to you!"

The Toonami dub was better than the "Remastered" dub on the modern DVDs, as it was consistent within itself. Still a crap dub that only really works as a kinda crappy saturday morning cartoon best enjoyed through heavy nostalgia goggles, but at least it wasn't a compromised version of that with the huge inconsistency in acting quality that the "Remastered" dub has which still manages to rarely dip above subpar in voice acting, meaning you just notice how bad the acting really is even more.

And look I'm a fan of the Ocean/Saban/Funi dub but I'm not gonna defend a lot of it's dialog. I enjoy it the same way I enjoy MMPR or Thundercats. A guilty pleasure saturday morning cartoon.

Well yeah. I would argue that Ocean's was at least a really good version of that cheesy saturday morning cartoon; the acting and music were so over the top and well-done, you can't help but smile at its goofiness. I'd describe my feelings on Funi's Z dub more as cringing than anything else.

[Scsigs]

I really wish that FUNi spent the time to redub Z from the ground up so that the dub track with the Japanese music was more in-line with the sub scripts. I mean, when they released the DVDs uncut, & were doing redubs with several of the actors of the earlier episodes to match consistency with later performances & voice tones, that was the perfect time to do it. Leave the TV dub with the Falconer music for the people who always wear nostalgia goggles, but have a dub that will hold up better both under scrutiny & other observations in the coming years. I mean, the actor's performances had gotten really good by the time the later DVDs were released due to working in other animated stuff, dubs or otherwise, so it'd be better for those who want an accurate dub, even if the acting isn't as pitch-perfect as it is in Kai. I mean, they were giving the games good dubs at the time, so a better dub on the DVDs would've done a lot better. This would be especially for when they released the Dragon Boxes, since they're supposed to be the definitive watching experience for the hardcore fans, since it still has the old bad dub on it.
I mean, even 4Kids tried to get a better Yugioh dub out before they abruptly cancelled those DVDs to satiate the hardcore sub fans who demanded a better dub & that dub was close to perfect outside of a few performances being slightly off compared to the TV dub (Eric Stuart shouting most of the time as Kaiba rather than just talking is the main thing I'm talking about here) & the names being a mix of the American & Japanese names, but it was still good enough for them. I really wish they had continued those DVDs though. There was at least 1 more batch of 3 episodes ready to come out before it was cancelled & that dub was really good. Too bad 4K Media won't pick up the project where their predecessors left off. Hell, they won't even finish the dubs of GX & 5Ds, but I'm getting off track. I just wish we'd get a definitive dub treatment for Z. I mean, even with the bad remasters of the season Blu-Rays, I would've bought them for the better dub.

[Dbzfan94]

Funimation fanboy are the worst. Especially since before Battle of the Gods there was two things Funimation did right. The Dragon Ball dub in 2000 and Dragon Ball Kai. Neither of which gets appreciated by FUNImentalist.

Let's not generalize, because we can easily turn it around to say there are just as many bad Ocean fans.

[Robo4900]

Let's not generalize, because we can easily turn it around to say there are just as many bad Ocean fans.

The Funi ones tend to be a lot more present. Go on a Funi YouTube video, and you'll see people reminiscing and getting all nostalgic; go on an Ocean YouTube video, and all you'll see is people complaining about how much they think the voices suck.
There's bad fans in every fanbase, it's just that in this case, the majority of the loud, obnoxious dub-fans tend to be the Funi ones. Gives Funi fans a bad name, makes Ocean fans bitter, ruins comments sections, etc. It's bad all-round.
But, it is what it is.

I really wish that FUNi spent the time to redub Z from the ground up so that the dub track with the Japanese music was more in-line with the sub scripts. I mean, when they released the DVDs uncut, & were doing redubs with several of the actors of the earlier episodes to match consistency with later performances & voice tones, that was the perfect time to do it. Leave the TV dub with the Falconer music for the people who always wear nostalgia goggles, but have a dub that will hold up better both under scrutiny & other observations in the coming years. I mean, the actor's performances had gotten really good by the time the later DVDs were released due to working in other animated stuff, dubs or otherwise, so it'd be better for those who want an accurate dub, even if the acting isn't as pitch-perfect as it is in Kai. I mean, they were giving the games good dubs at the time, so a better dub on the DVDs would've done a lot better. This would be especially for when they released the Dragon Boxes, since they're supposed to be the definitive watching experience for the hardcore fans, since it still has the old bad dub on it.
I mean, even 4Kids tried to get a better Yugioh dub out before they abruptly cancelled those DVDs to satiate the hardcore sub fans who demanded a better dub & that dub was close to perfect outside of a few performances being slightly off compared to the TV dub (Eric Stuart shouting most of the time as Kaiba rather than just talking is the main thing I'm talking about here) & the names being a mix of the American & Japanese names, but it was still good enough for them. I really wish they had continued those DVDs though. There was at least 1 more batch of 3 episodes ready to come out before it was cancelled & that dub was really good. Too bad 4K Media won't pick up the project where their predecessors left off. Hell, they won't even finish the dubs of GX & 5Ds, but I'm getting off track. I just wish we'd get a definitive dub treatment for Z. I mean, even with the bad remasters of the season Blu-Rays, I would've bought them for the better dub.

Thing is, in both DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh's cases, there's no big section of the fanbase begging for a redub, in fact most fans who are interested in the Funi dub of Z would prefer they just use the old dub, so they'll still make piles of money just reusing the old, crappy dub, so they don't bother spending the money to redo it.

[Cure Dragon 255]

There was and still is a faction that clamors for a Yu Gi Oh uncut dub. There WAS an uncut dub being produced...but it all ended due to 4kids wanted to avoid bringing attention to their illicit DVD deals where they profitted more without telling ADK and TV Tokyo. You can cry out in despair now. I sure did.

Poor Shaman King too. I really hope there's a new anime for it and that it will be licensed to Viz Media or Netflix.

[8000 Saiyan]

From my experience, Funimation fans tend to be worse than Ocean fans. Sure, Ocean fans can be bad, but not to the same extent as Funimation.

[MasenkoHA]

Funimation fanboy are the worst. Especially since before Battle of the Gods there was two things Funimation did right. The Dragon Ball dub in 2000 and Dragon Ball Kai. Neither of which gets appreciated by FUNImentalist.

Let's not generalize, because we can easily turn it around to say there are just as many bad Ocean fans.

It also wouldn't be really true. Like watch any Youtube video that shows clips from the Ocean dub and take a nice good look at the comments. You may catch the odd the Ocean dub was so much better but its mostly comments comparing it disfavorably to the Funi dub.

Like again I'm not here to defend the Ocean dub. What little I've seen of clips from the Westwood era doesn't impress me and the Saban era had it's merits with mostly excellent voice performances and a score that may not be correct but works for whatever version Funimation/Ocean/Saban turned it into. (Honestly the Levy score is just sort of there it doesn't excel in the places the Falconer score does like Ginyu transform and Super Buu but it also doesn't have anything that sounds like Optimus Prime getting violated) but with Funi Toonami era fans every other voice is wrong, only Falconer's music is DBZ, the original Funi Z had the best dialog (mondo cool!) Kai is the dumb kid version because my entire basis is watching it on a 4KIDS runned network etc etc etc

[90sDBZ]

Funimation fanboy are the worst. Especially since before Battle of the Gods there was two things Funimation did right. The Dragon Ball dub in 2000 and Dragon Ball Kai. Neither of which gets appreciated by FUNImentalist.

Let's not generalize, because we can easily turn it around to say there are just as many bad Ocean fans.

It also wouldn't be really true. Like watch any Youtube video that shows clips from the Ocean dub and take a nice good look at the comments. You may catch the odd the Ocean dub was so much better but its mostly comments comparing it disfavorably to the Funi dub.

I don't know. I've seen some pretty toxic comments coming from both sides over the years. There was this one Youtuber who dedicated most of his channel to bashing Funimation in favor of Ocean, and would also go out of his way to start trouble on Funimation video comment sections and brag about it. He even had something of a following among Ocean fans. Aside from that I've seen comments like "Drummond is way better than baldheaded Sabat" and even a video titled "Proof that Ocean is better than Funigaymation".

[MasenkoHA]

Let's not generalize, because we can easily turn it around to say there are just as many bad Ocean fans.

It also wouldn't be really true. Like watch any Youtube video that shows clips from the Ocean dub and take a nice good look at the comments. You may catch the odd the Ocean dub was so much better but its mostly comments comparing it disfavorably to the Funi dub.

I don't know. I've seen some pretty toxic comments coming from both sides over the years. There was this one Youtuber who dedicated most of his channel to bashing Funimation in favor of Ocean, and would also go out of his way to start trouble on Funimation video comment sections and brag about it. He even had something of a following among Ocean fans. Aside from that I've seen comments like "Drummond is way better than baldheaded Sabat" and even a video titled "Proof that Ocean is better than Funigaymation".

I'm not saying they don't exist but they''re significantly smaller in numbers. Granted I think a lot of that has to do with the Westwood Ocean dub never getting a home video release (as far as I am aware) and Funimation playing reversionist by redubbing the first two seasons uncut with their own cast and rerecording a lot of season 3 for the remastered dvds (finding Sabat back when he was doing a poor Drummond impersonation is a lot harder to find) there's a lot of Funi fans who think the in-house dub was always the original dub calling Sabat and Schemmel the original voices

[8000 Saiyan]

Also Funimation wrote the scripts. Like if you watch their uncut dub and then watch the edited dub a lot of the lines are line for line the same. Barry Watson in some old interview that got reprinted in DBZ Uncensored referred to them as their writers. Any dialog you don't like from the Rock the Dragon era is Funimation. Pretty much everything good about the old dub was either Ocean cast (the voice acting) or Wasserman (the music). You can blame heavy censorship on Saban entertainment (which in turn was at least partially because of all the backlash MMPR got from moral guardians to the point of getting outright banned in some countries) and the dialog of Funimation.

They actually had Ocean voice actors like Ian Corlett, Ward Perry, Terry Klassen and Michael Donovan write the scripts actually, only by following their deadlines. But this idiot acted as if Ocean intentionally butchered the scripts.

I'll never be not amazed by this guy's hypocrisy. I really wonder if he has a problem with Canadians since he said once that he had a problem with the Ocean dub having cartoony voices and didn't mind the Funimation dub for having them.

But then again, the guy's weird since he actually liked their work on Ed Edd'n Eddy.

[Robo4900]

I'll never be not amazed by this guy's hypocrisy. I really wonder if he has a problem with Canadians since he said once that he had a problem with the Ocean dub having cartoony voices and didn't mind the Funimation dub for having them.

But then again, the guy's weird since he actually liked their work on Ed Edd'n Eddy.

Hey now, let's try not to bash one guy too much. It's one thing to disagree with someone, but let's not put such a fine point on this; ends up coming off a bit mean.
The high road, and all that.

[8000 Saiyan]

I'll never be not amazed by this guy's hypocrisy. I really wonder if he has a problem with Canadians since he said once that he had a problem with the Ocean dub having cartoony voices and didn't mind the Funimation dub for having them.

But then again, the guy's weird since he actually liked their work on Ed Edd'n Eddy.

Hey now, let's try not to bash one guy too much. It's one thing to disagree with someone, but let's not put such a fine point on this; ends up coming off a bit mean.
The high road, and all that.

Fine by me.

[Scsigs]

I'll never be not amazed by this guy's hypocrisy. I really wonder if he has a problem with Canadians since he said once that he had a problem with the Ocean dub having cartoony voices and didn't mind the Funimation dub for having them.

But then again, the guy's weird since he actually liked their work on Ed Edd'n Eddy.

Hey now, let's try not to bash one guy too much. It's one thing to disagree with someone, but let's not put such a fine point on this; ends up coming off a bit mean.
The high road, and all that.

Fine by me.

Hey, Ed, Edd, N Eddy was a great cartoon. I don't think there were really cartoony voices in that show, though. If anything, the voices were the LEAST cartoony thing about that show.

[8000 Saiyan]

Hey now, let's try not to bash one guy too much. It's one thing to disagree with someone, but let's not put such a fine point on this; ends up coming off a bit mean.
The high road, and all that.

Fine by me.

Hey, Ed, Edd, N Eddy was a great cartoon. I don't think there were really cartoony voices in that show, though. If anything, the voices were the LEAST cartoony thing about that show.

You really think Rolf's voice wasn't cartoony?

[Scsigs]

Fine by me.

Hey, Ed, Edd, N Eddy was a great cartoon. I don't think there were really cartoony voices in that show, though. If anything, the voices were the LEAST cartoony thing about that show.

You really think Rolf's voice wasn't cartoony?

I said that the voices were the LEAST cartoony things about the show. Even then, there are live action shows & more realistic cartoons that use general East European accents for foreign characters of a general area of the world. Hell, Fez from That 70s Show had a generalized Hispanic accent to go with his unexplained backstory of where he's from. Ed, Edd, N Eddy was a cartoon's cartoon, y'know? It ran on that stuff. The voices weren't that cartoony by comparison is mostly what I'm saying here.

[SX10]

Wait a minute, what is all this about with Ed, Edd & Eddy? That show is a genuine classic if it sounds cartoony, well, I suppose that's because it is a cartoon? What an odd criticism to make.

Anyhoo, we know that CRTC take up to 6 months to license a channel, but when did the process start?

[Robo4900]

I don't think there were really cartoony voices in that show, though.

... What.

The three lead characters?
Sarah? Jimmy? Rolf? Kevin?

You think Scott McNeil's Piccolo is more cartoony than the Ed Edd n' Eddy ones I mentioned? Really?

I mean, "Cartoony" is a wishy-washy term with no actual characteristics particular to it when it applies to voices, but... Like... If the Ocean crew are cartoony, but the Ed Edd & Eddy cast aren't... I mean, that just doesn't make sense.

Like, you're entitled to your opinion, but, just... What?

Wait a minute, what is all this about with Ed, Edd & Eddy? That show is a genuine classic if it sounds cartoony, well, I suppose that's because it is a cartoon? What an odd criticism to make.

It's a great show.
Honestly, I don't get the "Cartoony voices" criticism at all. Even if the given thing was a serious audio drama; long as the acting is good, and the voice fits the character, calling a voice cartoony as a criticism is just... Weird. Hell, even as an observation it's a pretty vague and useless thing to point out.

Anyhoo, we know that CRTC take up to 6 months to license a channel, but when did the process start?

No clue. I imagine nearly 6 months ago. I would guess we'll hear some news in April, maybe May.

[8000 Saiyan]

Yeah, I don't see how anyone could say that Rolf's voice is not cartoony.

[Tian]

Yeah, I don't see how anyone could say that Rolf's voice is not cartoony.

You dare mock the voice of the son of a shepard?

Nah, just kidding