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

[SX10]

I imagine it's no swearing, no blood and whatever else they limited for TV. As great as it would be, swearing isn't exactly what I think of when I think Dragon Ball so it doesn't bother me too much. The lack of blood gets me though syncing to HD footage should be easy (but time consuming).

When things go quiet I get anxious, especially knowing these communications are going on!

[MistaL]

I'm just really curious about a lot of stuff. Ocean dubs have tended to be incredibly faithful to the Japanese in the past decade and a half or so (Death Note is a prime example). With Drummond using the long-U pronunciation of "Goku" like in Japanese at cons recently, it has me excited. If I hear them say stuff like "Kuririn", "Tenshinhan", "Kame Sen'nin", "Kinto'un", etc., then I'm gonna be incredibly ecstatic. The name I'm most hoping to be kept is Kaiou instead of King Kai. This could be a much more faithful adaptation than Funimation's Kai dub, which is so exciting.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'm just really curious about a lot of stuff. Ocean dubs have tended to be incredibly faithful to the Japanese in the past decade and a half or so (Death Note is a prime example). With Drummond using the long-U pronunciation of "Goku" like in Japanese at cons recently, it has me excited. If I hear them say stuff like "Kuririn", "Tenshinhan", "Kame Sen'nin", "Kinto'un", etc., then I'm gonna be incredibly ecstatic. The name I'm most hoping to be kept is Kaiou instead of King Kai. This could be a much more faithful adaptation than Funimation's Kai dub, which is so exciting.

I really doubt we'll be hearing "Kurinin", "Tenshinhan", "Kaiou" or "Kinto'un". Maybe "Goku" with a long U, and "Kame Sen'nin" but I wouldn't count on either.

At this point I really don't care about this dub being edited. If its censored on the level of Nicktoons Kai that'll be fine, as long as it keeps close to the Japanese version that's all I can ask for. I'm also cautiously optimistic for a competent replacement score.

[SX10]

I've heard the score was reminiscent of DC animated shows, Teen Titans was pointed out ("the good one" was specified). Beach said there was one track he would have loved on his ipod.

I am still worried about it, but less worried since hearing his praise. I'll let you guys decide what it means for yourselves though haha. Couldn't judge the opening from the small snippet Super Saiyan Prime shared with us, but we'll never have another Rock the Dragon.

Maybe DB is too recognised to go changing the names to their original Japanese ones. The pronunciations are enough for me.

[linkdude20002001]

I'm just really curious about a lot of stuff. Ocean dubs have tended to be incredibly faithful to the Japanese in the past decade and a half or so (Death Note is a prime example). With Drummond using the long-U pronunciation of "Goku" like in Japanese at cons recently, it has me excited. If I hear them say stuff like "Kuririn", "Tenshinhan", "Kame Sen'nin", "Kinto'un", etc., then I'm gonna be incredibly ecstatic. The name I'm most hoping to be kept is Kaiou instead of King Kai. This could be a much more faithful adaptation than Funimation's Kai dub, which is so exciting.

I'd be hoping for Kulilin like Toriyama writes on his hat, but otherwise, I agree. We did have Gokuh pronounced correctly by one character back in the 90s (God). It's be nice if they made it a consistently correct pronunciation. I think it's possible nowadays. Like you said, look at Death Note. We're far from the days of Inuyasha, I think (and hope), where every actor had their own unguided pronunciation of each name in the show. It was a mess.

You know, I'd like to assume they kept 'Kaioh' (or Kaio) as-is, since the attack he teaches Gokuh is calld the "Kaio-ken" in the English dub. And "Tenshinhan" is barely different from "Tien Shinhan", so I doubt the non-hardcore fans would even notice if they fixt his name. Same with "Shenlong" being close enuf to "Shenron". The real pipe-dream would be for them to keep the names of the Dragon Balls in Chinese, keep "God" as "God", and most of all, to keep "Son Gokuh" and "Son Gokuh"; and I don't mean just a single name-drop during the Super Saiyan transformation scene. I'd like to hear Piccolo and Bulma call him "Son" for the first time in an English dub.

Why does Funimation's dub have to be the basis for a dub that's trying to be closer to the source material? In fact, why does Funimation's dub have to be the basis for anything other than the Funimation dub? Cuz at that point, why even make an alternate dub if what people want is the Funimation dub? I know the DBZ dub in Canada was using Funmation's scripts, but they didn't for DB or DBGT.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I've heard the score was reminiscent of DC animated shows, Teen Titans was pointed out ("the good one" was specified). Beach said there was one track he would have loved on his ipod.

I do wish I remembered more about Teen Titans. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't a particularly big fan so the score didn't stand out in my mind. Although, I'm sure if I hear a similar score in Kai during important moments and its well placed it will be different because Dragon Ball is much more sentimental to me. I do hope we'll hear 'The Army Awakens' at least once as nice little callbacks are never a bad thing as long as its in moderation.

[WittyUsername]

Where did this idea that this dub is aiming to be more faithful than FUNimation’s dub come from? I’m not saying it’ll be like a 4Kids dub, but the impression I had was that they’d more or less be doing their own thing, especially given that they apparently planned on using a replacement score even before the Yamamoto scandal came to light.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Where did this idea that this dub is aiming to be more faithful than FUNimation’s dub come from?

It's not so much that it's "aiming" to be more faithful than the FUNimation dub so much as it's that there have been some early, encouraging signs that the producers--whoever they are--seem to know the source material pretty well. Kirby Morrow said in an interview that, when he re-auditioned for Goku, the verdict was that he sounded "too cool," and that the producers kept encouraging him during the audition to sound "more child-like." In addition, some voice actors have said that the producers asked them to change the pronounciations of certain words that they were used to, with Scott McNeil noting that the producers asked him to pronounce "Namek" as "Naw-mek" instead of "Nam-ik."*

*Although, personally, I don't blame anybody for pronouncing it "Nam-ik," because I would argue that the correct spelling of that word doesn't lend itself to the correct pronunciation.

[WittyUsername]

Where did this idea that this dub is aiming to be more faithful than FUNimation’s dub come from?

It's not so much that it's "aiming" to be more faithful than the FUNimation dub so much as it's that there have been some early, encouraging signs that the producers--whoever they are--seem to know the source material pretty well. Kirby Morrow said in an interview that, when he re-auditioned for Goku, the verdict was that he sounded "too cool," and that the producers kept encouraging him during the audition to sound "more child-like." In addition, some voice actors have said that the producers asked them to change the pronounciations of certain words that they were used to, with Scott McNeil noting that the producers asked him to pronounce "Namek" as "Naw-mek" instead of "Nam-ik."*

*Although, personally, I don't blame anybody for pronouncing it "Nam-ik," because I would argue that the correct spelling of that word doesn't lend itself to the correct pronunciation.

Since they were supposedly planning on using a replacement score even before the Yamamoto scandal came to light, the impression I’ve been getting has been that they must’ve taken some liberties of their own.

[MistaL]

Ocean has just been incredibly faithful in general for a long time now, and if Karl Willems directed the dub like I've heard people say, then at the very least we can be sure pronunciations will be on-point.
Plus, Ocean started dubbing Kai before Funimation did, so they may have taken it as an opportunity to start everything from scratch and possibly become the template for future Dragon Ball dubs like Funimation did. That's just speculation though, but Ocean really had no reason or pressure to follow Funimation's dubbing practice with Kai since they took Kai on first, and the only reason they had any of the name changes in their original Z dub was because Funimation requested them.

[SX10]

Okay - I personally am revoking the MVP status others bestowed upon me. Marni got in touch:

"Thank you Sam.
I know you had good intentions. But, these types of negotiations take time. There is a deliberate strategy behind every discussion including who we speak to, when we speak to them and what is said. Unfortunately, involving Lisa will likely only muddy the waters and unnecessarily complicate the conversation.

Please Sam, don’t do anything like this again in the future. Ok? I assure you and the other fans, my team is on top of this.

Thank you
Marni"


I responded:


"Marni,

Thank you so much for your reply. Again, I can only apologise! I'm kicking myself. I never dreamed Lisa would get in touch with me at all. Rest assured, this is the last time I do anything like this and I'll let it be known to other fans. I hope Lisa will understand the flow of things. I wish you the best of luck and please know how much we appreciate your work and your dedication. You are truly awesome!

Apologies,
Sam Love"

Guys. I am so sorry. I don't think my actions have stopped anything from happening, but you know they'll be careful to not insult Lisa by trying to proceed the way they want to

[MistaL]

Big Roblox oof.

I guess Marni was trying to avoid contact with Lisa for now. This isn't sounding too good but let's just hope everything goes well anyway.

[SX10]

Big Roblox oof.

I guess Marni was trying to avoid contact with Lisa for now. This isn't sounding too good but let's just hope everything goes well anyway.

It sounds more like an inconvenience than a deal breaker... but my self loathing just increased 10 fold so there's that

[Super Sayian Prime]

Ocean has just been incredibly faithful in general for a long time now, and if Karl Willems directed the dub like I've heard people say, then at the very least we can be sure pronunciations will be on-point.
Plus, Ocean started dubbing Kai before Funimation did, so they may have taken it as an opportunity to start everything from scratch and possibly become the template for future Dragon Ball dubs like Funimation did. That's just speculation though, but Ocean really had no reason or pressure to follow Funimation's dubbing practice with Kai since they took Kai on first, and the only reason they had any of the name changes in their original Z dub was because Funimation requested them.

Ocean will do whatever is asked of them. LBX is one of the few modern hack dubs.

This dub also began production after Funimation's. Kirby Morrow spilt the beans in September 2010 about the auditions. Unless Trevor Devall had been sitting on that episode for months, that would've been well after the Funimation dub debuted in May 2010.

[linkdude20002001]

Although, personally, I don't blame anybody for pronouncing it "Nam-ik," because I would argue that the correct spelling of that word doesn't lend itself to the correct pronunciation.

I do believe it's pronunciation should be more like [nuh-MEK] rather than [NAH-mek], tho. There is a slight emphasis on the "ME" in "namekuji", and the way it became "Namekku", not "Nameku" kinda points toward an emphasis on the second syllable. As such, I pronounce it [nuh-MEK] (I guess you could go with [nah-MEK], but I feel like that kinda goes against the way English usually works). As for the spelling, I go with Namekk. Not only does it make an English speaker want to emphasize the second syllable, but it's also closer to the Japanese spelling (for those who care about that).

[Cure Dragon 255]

I really hate to say this but I told you so. All these being buddy buddy with Lisa did prove dangerous after all. And I'm not saying this in a smug way. I really dont blame you SX10, after 10 fucking years one does get a bit too willing to throw caution to the wind. You are still awesome and I thank you for your effort and enthusiasm.

[MistaL]

Big Roblox oof.

I guess Marni was trying to avoid contact with Lisa for now. This isn't sounding too good but let's just hope everything goes well anyway.

It sounds more like an inconvenience than a deal breaker... but my self loathing just increased 10 fold so there's that

I didn't mean it that way, my dude. And tbh I was thinking of contacting Toei too before you did, and I'm sure others here were thinking about it too. It's not your fault, it's our fault, and I'm sure it'll blow over and everything will be fine.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Yeah. If anything you confirmed Marni indeed does want DBZKai! We can only, no, we MUST keep calm and hope FOR THE BEST. If anything, we waited THIS LONG!

[jochs]

Okay - I personally am revoking the MVP status others bestowed upon me.

Stop.. It's now certain that the they are in talks, and I think it's clear Marni knows what fans want at this point. We'd have no idea what the hell is going on right now otherwise. Maybe reaching out to Marni for an update would have been a safer bet, but IMO her response to you makes it pretty clear she wants this as well.. perhaps as much as we do. As someone stated before, the CRTC is tough with its regulations with how much Canadian-content must be aired, and it'd look good on Wow Unlimited Media's part if Kai Ocean Dub has a successful run. Don't you find it strange how she took interest in this and went out of her way to make phone calls long before the channel even got approved?

As I said, we'd know NOTHING right now...MVP? As far I'm concerned you're in the damn hall of fame.

[SX10]

You guys are the best thanks for the kind words. Yeah, at least we know more than we did before. I don't think it's going to stop Marni and her team, but I was convinced I was helping, that's what got to me the most. Let's not worry too much, keep faith in Marni and kick back, she is awesome and she's got this.