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

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:33 pm

C. Smith wrote:
SX10 wrote:(I really, REALLY hope that those negotiations have gone well!)
Everyone's hoping so. The talks from those emails suggest that Toei was honestly trying to get Ocean Kai onto Canadian television but for whatever reason none of the children's networks (mainly YTV) were interested in it. Now that there's someone who is willing to air it, though there's other justifications, such as Wow's lack of first party programming. I can bet that Wow's new channel (at least at the early years) will consist of classic programming from other companies (primarily DHX), maybe that one new show from Rainmaker/Mainframe called The Anybodies, and perhaps some anime (mainly from Aniplex USA and Viz).
I would have to think that Wow are still waiting to hear back regarding acquisitions. Kai could very well be in the bag, but we probably won't hear more until they have a batch of anime to release it alongside. Interestingly the president of Wow Unlimited was interviewed recently, he didn't say anything about the linear channel but he talked about them developing programming for 2019 viewers, that might indicate we won't be seeing the channel until April, although I hope not because the sooner it airs and does well the sooner it can start making money, which can make a Final Chapters dub possible. He also mentioned a lot about getting revenue from streaming platforms, so I'm guessing they are focusing on the 'Collections' for now, i.e. the shows they are providing CraveTV for streaming, and that the linear channel will be used to promote that. Perhaps when Wow have licenced enough anime titles we will hear an announcement for a 'Wow! Anime' collection that will include Kai? Probably best to keep an eye on Bell Media's 'Press Releases' section for now.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:38 pm

It'd be cool if there was an anime dub renaissance in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. They'll likely dub little anime stuff and more pre-lay. I've always considered them great VA's, but the pre-lay material they have to record is often very uninteresting to me. Same with the Toronto VA's. It really seems like America gets the better stuff.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by C. Smith » Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:51 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:It'd be cool if there was an anime dub renaissance in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. They'll likely dub little anime stuff and more pre-lay. I've always considered them great VA's, but the pre-lay material they have to record is often very uninteresting to me. Same with the Toronto VA's. It really seems like America gets the better stuff.
I don't think it will be that huge of a Vancouver dub renaissance but there definitely will be noticeably more Vancouver dubs than right now.
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:Perhaps when Wow have licenced enough anime titles we will hear an announcement for a 'Wow! Anime' collection that will include Kai? Probably best to keep an eye on Bell Media's 'Press Releases' section for now.
Wonder how an anime collection on CraveTV would compete with other anime streaming sites available in Canada? The closest competitor would be Netflix since both are "general purpose"-type streaming services. Not so sure on how it would compete with dedicated sites like Crunchyroll, Funimation and HIDIVE. Maybe Wow can try to woo in Aniplex, Toei, TMS, Sunrise and VIZ for Canadian rights for their dubbed content, including exclusive Canadian "first-dibs" rights for all-new dubs before they go to places like Crunchyroll, HIDIVE and Funimation.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:25 pm

Well, if by some slim chance this show sees the light of day, I'm all for it being streamed. It'd save me the trouble of awkwardly asking--for a friend, of course--where online I, err, I mean my friend would have to go to find where the episodes where uploaded.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:18 am

Honestly, as someone who opposes pirating and illegal streaming sites of any kind, I think if you have supported Kai and would be willing to support the Ocean dub, if at all possible, then doing whatever it takes to see this dub can be justified.

As Ocean Kai will almost certainly never get a home release the only financial loss the producers can face is from those living in Canada who don't stream or watch it live. The rest of us have no legal means of supporting it, so unless potential distributors (Eg MangaUK and Madman, but there would need to be a big push from us trying to convince them) are pushed to make it available the non-Canadian customer base is cut off anyway, at least if we watch it online it gets more exposure, which could lead to more people demanding a home release, again very unlikely, but I urge anyone who wants it to happen to make their voices heard to the aforementioned distributors.

I have personally purchased all of Kai on Blu-Ray, but if this dub ever gets a home release I'd happily repurchase it to do my part in supporting it financially, although, again distributors like MangaUK need to really be told we want it or they won't see the point in releasing the same show (albeit with a different cast and score) again.

I do want to be cautiously optimistic that Ocean Kai's broadcast is just around the corner. If TOEI were willing to air it and Ken Morrison has made them aware of Wow Unlimited! (Which Lisa's email certainly does suggest) I hope that nothing else can go wrong at this point. Maybe if the heads at Bell Media or other higher ups at Wow for whatever reason don't want Dragon Ball, maybe that could pose a problem, but I don't think so, as why would Marni be appointed as head of programming if they didn't trust her to make the right decisions?
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by NitroEX » Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:10 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:As Ocean Kai will almost certainly never get a home release the only financial loss the producers can face is from those living in Canada who don't stream or watch it live. The rest of us have no legal means of supporting it, so unless potential distributors (Eg MangaUK and Madman, but there would need to be a big push from us trying to convince them) are pushed to make it available the non-Canadian customer base is cut off anyway, at least if we watch it online it gets more exposure, which could lead to more people demanding a home release, again very unlikely, but I urge anyone who wants it to happen to make their voices heard to the aforementioned distributors.

I have personally purchased all of Kai on Blu-Ray, but if this dub ever gets a home release I'd happily repurchase it to do my part in supporting it financially, although, again distributors like MangaUK need to really be told we want it or they won't see the point in releasing the same show (albeit with a different cast and score) again.
I don't think it has any realistic chance of working - At least not with these distrobutors. MangaUK have yet to even release the RTD DVD set in the UK - and this was after people directly requested it from Jerome Mazandarani on Twitter. Bear in mind, this was the same guy who flat out said "no" to a question regarding any future Ocean dub releases of Dragon Ball (which would have include Kai). Granted it was prior to him finding out about the RTD, but he ultimately did nothing with that despite Funimation themselves owning it.

From my perspective it's quite clear where his loyalty lies, and that's firmly with Funimation's dubs. He realistically won't give anything else the time of day, even when it's uncut, like the Pioneer movie dubs. If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.

On a semi related note; I've just noticed that Jerome appears to have deleted his Twitter account. Was there drama that I missed?

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by C. Smith » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:50 pm

NitroEX wrote:I don't think it has any realistic chance of working - At least not with these distrobutors. 
And the main issue is that Toei works exclusively with Manga UK. It's probably why the new VIZ dub of Sailor Moon hasn't arrived in the UK.
NitroEX wrote:On a semi related note; I've just noticed that Jerome appears to have deleted his Twitter account. Was there drama that I missed?
DK but I guess he deleted his account because he was getting harped on for his toxic attitude, mainly when it comes with streaming (still sees it as piracy, which is ironic because he left Manga UK to form Animatsu precisely because Anchor Bay US was manhandling Manga UK's streaming rights), which has caused his company to burn bridges with Sentai Filmworks (which is why they're sticking exclusively with MVM).

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Robo4900 » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:12 pm

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:[snip]
Agreed. If there's no official way for someone to support Ocean Kai, there's nothing wrong with them pirating it to see it. Just be sure you do support it if and when the opportunity arises for you to do so.
NitroEX wrote:I don't think it has any realistic chance of working - At least not with these distrobutors. MangaUK have yet to even release the RTD DVD set in the UK - and this was after people directly requested it from Jerome Mazandarani on Twitter. Bear in mind, this was the same guy who flat out said "no" to a question regarding any future Ocean dub releases of Dragon Ball (which would have include Kai). Granted it was prior to him finding out about the RTD, but he ultimately did nothing with that despite Funimation themselves owning it.

From my perspective it's quite clear where his loyalty lies, and that's firmly with Funimation's dubs. He realistically won't give anything else the time of day, even when it's uncut, like the Pioneer movie dubs. If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.

On a semi related note; I've just noticed that Jerome appears to have deleted his Twitter account. Was there drama that I missed?
I think you're being just a little over-dramatic there... It's not about dubbing loyalty or anything like that; the problem is that MangaUK is pretty much purely an import company. They import Funimation releases, do it cheaply, and do very little else. RTD was an idea that was floated, but assuming there's some bias against the Ocean dub here is rather foolish; MangaUK have shown repeatedly that they import whatever Funimation does, but only at such a time and in such a way that it makes as much money as possible for as little money as possible. It's more likely than not that either there's a hold-up and it's going to be released soon, or RTD would just be too expensive to a release for MangaUK to put out for what it is, at least right now.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by NitroEX » Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:54 am

Robo4900 wrote: I think you're being just a little over-dramatic there... It's not about dubbing loyalty or anything like that; the problem is that MangaUK is pretty much purely an import company. They import Funimation releases, do it cheaply, and do very little else. RTD was an idea that was floated, but assuming there's some bias against the Ocean dub here is rather foolish; MangaUK have shown repeatedly that they import whatever Funimation does, but only at such a time and in such a way that it makes as much money as possible for as little money as possible. It's more likely than not that either there's a hold-up and it's going to be released soon, or RTD would just be too expensive to a release for MangaUK to put out for what it is, at least right now.

It's not about dubbing loyalty or anything like that; the problem is that MangaUK is pretty much purely an import company. They import Funimation releases, do it cheaply, and do very little else.
Which means they have an invested interest in shilling for whatever Funimation puts out - which is where my loyalty comment comes from. I can obviously see that the Funimation dub is the cheaper and more viable option from a business perspective, but I still think their approach stinks of partiality, especially when they pretend the UK's history with the alternate cast never happened or outright dismiss the possibility of any releases featuring said cast - the latter of which is simply not a smart business move, especially given that the UK is one of the few feasible territories left where an Ocean dubbed release other than RTD could have made logical sense. Just the fact that he said no to the idea initially says a lot to me, there was no effort on his part to even gauging interest to see if there's market potential there or even just a playful "maybe" to give people hope for this stuff.

The idea that his change of response to the RTD should somehow give anyone more hope is foolish from my perspective, this would only further limit the Ocean releases to Funimation owned material - you'd have better luck begging Funimation to acquire and release the rest of the Ocean dub material (which is a nice way of saying you have no chance at all of getting it).

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:21 am

NitroEX wrote:If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.
I am well aware that Manga UK are no heroes, I appreciate that they have made the Dragon Ball series available here, but I also know they have their flaws.

Are they cheap? - Yes
Should they take the time to distinguish their releases from Funimation and Madman? - Hell yes
Was Jerome unfairly dismissive towards fan requests on Twitter? - Most definitely yes

I do remember before Jerome deactivated his Twitter, when asked to explain why Ocean dub releases wouldn't be possible, he said it was due to "rights complications" (which funny enough was their same response to why the orange bricks had no booklets, that tells me whenever they say its to do with rights or licencing its just a nice way of Manga saying they wanted to cut costs for themselves).

Jerome is still on Facebook, so people can message him there. Last time I asked him (a few months ago) about Rock the Dragon he said "Maybe" and that they had many more things to announce, so one possibility is that they want to prioritize the movies and Final Chapters first to see how they do. I'm not holding out hope for Rock the Dragon, and I wouldn't be surprised if Manga aren't willing to pay what Funi will charge them for it, but if a few months into 2019 we still hear nothing I'm going to be leaning towards believing it won't happen (which is likely but no one can blame me for not giving Manga a chance when I'm letting them put out the rest of Funi's in print releases first).

My point was not that we should have faith in Manga UK to cater to Ocean fans, my point was that in relation to Ocean Kai (because this is a thread for that subject after all) the only reason we would pirate is that even if it airs on Wow, its audience outside Canada will most likely have no legal way of watching it, and thus unless distributors are put under immense pressure by us to release this dub we won't be able to support it financially, even if we wanted to.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 90sDBZ » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:11 am

I think Jerome deactivating his Twitter may have been to do with his political views which he was incredibly vocal about to the point where his page was more politics than anime.
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:
NitroEX wrote:If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.
I do remember before Jerome deactivated his Twitter, when asked to explain why Ocean dub releases wouldn't be possible, he said it was due to "rights complications" (which funny enough was their same response to why the orange bricks had no booklets, that tells me whenever they say its to do with rights or licencing its just a nice way of Manga saying they wanted to cut costs for themselves).

Jerome is still on Facebook, so people can message him there. Last time I asked him (a few months ago) about Rock the Dragon he said "Maybe" and that they had many more things to announce, so one possibility is that they want to prioritize the movies and Final Chapters first to see how they do. I'm not holding out hope for Rock the Dragon, and I wouldn't be surprised if Manga aren't willing to pay what Funi will charge them for it, but if a few months into 2019 we still hear nothing I'm going to be leaning towards believing it won't happen (which is likely but no one can blame me for not giving Manga a chance when I'm letting them put out the rest of Funi's in print releases first).

My point was not that we should have faith in Manga UK to cater to Ocean fans, my point was that in relation to Ocean Kai (because this is a thread for that subject after all) the only reason we would pirate is that even if it airs on Wow, its audience outside Canada will most likely have no legal way of watching it, and thus unless distributors are put under immense pressure by us to release this dub we won't be able to support it financially, even if we wanted to.
I think you're right that RtD may still happen. It contains movies 1-3 which might affect their recent release of those movies, so it might just be a timing thing.

Manga UK releasing Ocean Kai I wouldn't be as sure about though considering Kai 1.0 didn't do that well for them the first time around. And I don't see how they'd ever be able to market the Westwood Z dub when it doesn't cover the entire series. If they released it in one set with RtD there would either be an awkward jump from episode 53 to 108, or they'd need to include the edited Funimation dub for them episodes. The average consumer would get pretty confused by this either way. I guess they could just call it Dragonball Z: Toonami UK Edition and make it a very limited release.

But then they'd still be sublicensing from both Funimation and AB Groupe and there's no telling how much that would cost them. I remember AB Groupe charging a ridiculous amount just for Kikuchi to be kept in the BT games, which ended up not happening as a result.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:10 am

This is probably all crazy complicated but hopefully it is far simpler to get Ocean Kai out there. Mainly because I still suspect Toei did actually produce it themselves. But that is still unknown. I say simpler cause it then cuts out one more person to deal with. I think.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Robo4900 » Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:50 am

SX10 wrote:This is probably all crazy complicated but hopefully it is far simpler to get Ocean Kai out there. Mainly because I still suspect Toei did actually produce it themselves. But that is still unknown. I say simpler cause it then cuts out one more person to deal with. I think.
Well, indeed. If Toei produced Ocean's Kai dub themselves, then Funimation could very easily acquire and release it in some kind of boxset. In fact, if Toei did produce Ocean Kai, I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen down the road... The Funimation guys really have nothing against the existence of an Ocean dub, or a second cast, it's just that they want their thing to succeed in the biggest way possible, so naturally that's the focus. But they could very well put out an Ocean Kai boxset sometime in the future if it's a Toei production. In fact, given Funi's edited master used Ocean's video master except with different title cards, they could put their edited dub on there too, and make it a multipurpose edited Kai boxset.

I wouldn't count on this happening, but if Ocean's Kai dub was produced by Toei, I could see Chris Sabat being willing to vouch for such a release being a good thing for the fans.
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:
NitroEX wrote:If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.
I do remember before Jerome deactivated his Twitter, when asked to explain why Ocean dub releases wouldn't be possible, he said it was due to "rights complications" (which funny enough was their same response to why the orange bricks had no booklets, that tells me whenever they say its to do with rights or licencing its just a nice way of Manga saying they wanted to cut costs for themselves).
Here's the thing to note...

What he actually said in the Twitter thread everyone refers back to when talking about this was along the lines of "If and when Funimation put out a release, then we can talk."

There was no anti-Ocean sentiment, no real rights issues stuff, just yet more confirmation that yes, MangaUK are an import company and nothing more. If the rights are anything other than "We can license it from Funimation and/or Madman through Toei", MangaUK simply aren't interested.
NitroEX wrote:The idea that his change of response to the RTD should somehow give anyone more hope is foolish from my perspective, this would only further limit the Ocean releases to Funimation owned material - you'd have better luck begging Funimation to acquire and release the rest of the Ocean dub material (which is a nice way of saying you have no chance at all of getting it).
Yes, obviously. MangaUK are, and have always been, very obviously an import company. Convincing ourselves that MangaUK will put out a DVD of Ocean Kai or something is a foolish thing to get stuck into. Funimation may very well be able to negotiate something to put out a proper Ocean dub boxset someday. They did RTD, so it is possible they could negotiate to get the other dubs' rights from Toei. Not saying this will happen, but it could.
MangaUK would only ever do a release like this if Funimation had already put it out. I imagine RTD could come out someday in the UK, it's all a matter of when it makes sense for MangaUK to put it out, and how the licensing and such goes.

The idea of "Loyalty" you were talking about earlier in your post, I would say only goes as far as MangaUK continuing to import Funi and Madman releases, which has always been what they do anyway. And there is pretty much zero chance of that changing. If we want any kind of Ocean DVD release, the ball is in Funimation's court.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Tue Sep 25, 2018 5:49 pm

Nitro really should stop acting as if there's a huge anti-Ocean sentiment behavior from MangaUK. :lol:
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by JohnnyCashKami » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:07 am

Robo4900 wrote:MangaUK are an import company and nothing more.
That you're right. Manga UK re-publishes Madman's Dragon Ball releases as their own with a slightly modified cover and takes credit for it, but on the discs themselves it's Madman who are credited for authoring it.

This C-level anime distro company is only interested in releases that can be definitely profitable otherwise they won't take a gamble at it. You think Manga UK would bother releasing Kai TFC if it wasn't already transferred to R2 (DVD) | B (Blu-ray)? Yeah, right. I'd guess the Kai TFC sales are going to be worse than Kai were because of the prices they're selling it for and the issues behind the product (green tint, unsuitable music, cropping, etc).

Not sure why you guys are always so fixated on them considering they don't do any of the work, besides some minor Photoshop.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:14 am

My biggest issue with an Ocean Kai home release is just the limitations of broadcast if there are any. Like lack of HD footage etc.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:47 am

Robo4900 wrote:Well, indeed. If Toei produced Ocean's Kai dub themselves, then Funimation could very easily acquire and release it in some kind of boxset. In fact, if Toei did produce Ocean Kai, I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen down the road... The Funimation guys really have nothing against the existence of an Ocean dub, or a second cast, it's just that they want their thing to succeed in the biggest way possible, so naturally that's the focus. But they could very well put out an Ocean Kai boxset sometime in the future if it's a Toei production. In fact, given Funi's edited master used Ocean's video master except with different title cards, they could put their edited dub on there too, and make it a multipurpose edited Kai boxset.

I wouldn't count on this happening, but if Ocean's Kai dub was produced by Toei, I could see Chris Sabat being willing to vouch for such a release being a good thing for the fans.
It may be cautiously optimistic on my part because I'd love an Ocean Kai boxset, but considering the listing on Crystal Acids and Creative BC websites I think there's a good chance TOEI produced this dub. Whenever this dub airs and this theory turns out to be correct we should email Lisa back, and reach out to Sabat to enquire about a home release.
Robo4900 wrote:
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:
NitroEX wrote:If you're looking to MangaUK to be your hero I think you'll only be disappointed in the end.
I do remember before Jerome deactivated his Twitter, when asked to explain why Ocean dub releases wouldn't be possible, he said it was due to "rights complications" (which funny enough was their same response to why the orange bricks had no booklets, that tells me whenever they say its to do with rights or licencing its just a nice way of Manga saying they wanted to cut costs for themselves).
What he actually said in the Twitter thread everyone refers back to when talking about this was along the lines of "If and when Funimation put out a release, then we can talk."
Fair enough. The fact an original authorized by Manga UK release is unprecedented is certainly not promising when it comes to things like this.
SX10 wrote:My biggest issue with an Ocean Kai home release is just the limitations of broadcast if there are any. Like lack of HD footage etc.
Honestly while I'd prefer there to be a HD version of Ocean Kai for a Blu-Ray release I'll be over the moon with any sort of home release it can get, SD and DVD would be better than nothing.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Robo4900 » Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:28 pm

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:It may be cautiously optimistic on my part because I'd love an Ocean Kai boxset, but considering the listing on Crystal Acids and Creative BC websites I think there's a good chance TOEI produced this dub. Whenever this dub airs and this theory turns out to be correct we should email Lisa back, and reach out to Sabat to enquire about a home release.
If and when the time comes, I do have a line of contact to Sabat, since I've helped out in the broadcast audio recovery effort over the past couple of years, so I can certainly try passing the idea along. I wouldn't get your hopes up, but it's possible. Sabat is the best, and if he thought it could happen and would make the fans happy, I'm sure he'd give it a shot.
Not doing anything until/unless it reaches broadcast, though. If it's on-air and doing well in Canada, it wouldn't be that hard to pitch the idea of a somewhat low-budget release mainly targetted at Canada, and parents seeking a release safe for younger children(No idea if they'd do it, but it'd at least be a simple concept to get across and explore the entirety of), meanwhile if it's not airing on TV, Toei likely would refuse to hear anything on the subject of home video.
SX10 wrote:My biggest issue with an Ocean Kai home release is just the limitations of broadcast if there are any. Like lack of HD footage etc.
That could work to our favour. If it's SD-only, then it would only have to be a DVD boxset, meaning the expense of HD authoring and such would be negated.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Attitudefan » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:23 pm

It would definitely be a dream come true if we could get an official release, even if it is just a limited one (ala Rock the Dragon set). This community is awesome!
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by NitroEX » Thu Sep 27, 2018 1:37 am

Robo4900 wrote:
SX10 wrote:This is probably all crazy complicated but hopefully it is far simpler to get Ocean Kai out there. Mainly because I still suspect Toei did actually produce it themselves. But that is still unknown. I say simpler cause it then cuts out one more person to deal with. I think.
Well, indeed. If Toei produced Ocean's Kai dub themselves, then Funimation could very easily acquire and release it in some kind of boxset. In fact, if Toei did produce Ocean Kai, I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen down the road... The Funimation guys really have nothing against the existence of an Ocean dub, or a second cast, it's just that they want their thing to succeed in the biggest way possible, so naturally that's the focus. But they could very well put out an Ocean Kai boxset sometime in the future if it's a Toei production. In fact, given Funi's edited master used Ocean's video master except with different title cards, they could put their edited dub on there too, and make it a multipurpose edited Kai boxset.

I wouldn't count on this happening, but if Ocean's Kai dub was produced by Toei, I could see Chris Sabat being willing to vouch for such a release being a good thing for the fans.
I personally still doubt Toei were the ones who commissioned this themselves - mainly due to the fact that they don't have a HD version of it. This is very suspect to me and leads me to believe it's a situation where Toei is entitled to copies of dubs (HD or otherwise) produced outside of Japan simply by virtue of being the licensor, I think Toei use those rights in order to sell Funi's in-house English dub of Z to Turner for the South East Asian broadcast on Toonami Asia, and most likely also providing footage for MangaUK as well back in 2012 - since they've gone on record saying they negotiated with Toei to get the deal going for the UK orange bricks. It could easily be something they write it into their contract when negotiating, and it means they have the rights to resell whatever assets are produced from the partnership currently or after the partnership folds.

The main problem with Funimation acquiring and selling Ocean Kai is that their priority will always be the American market first and foremost. From their standpoint, an English dub that didn't air in the US (Ocean Kai, Westwood, Blue Water, Bang Zoom etc) is something I don't think they'd give second thought as they'd struggle to market it. Releasing the RTD set changes very little in regards to this as they obviously owned and produced all that material themselves, plus it was a dub that had strong nostalgic value for the US market and they wanted to make one last quick profit from it without any middleman being attached this time (the previous US home video distributor being Pioneer). I can't see them ever finding any value in negotiating a deal with any other company behind Ocean Kai or AB Groupe for DB/Z/GT dubs, for Funi that seems to be too big of a barrier to entry as they'd instantly be gambling money or at the very least, losing a share of the profits.

I also suspect that Funimation has some incentive to distance themselves from any potential bad PR surrounding an edited release, especially nowadays as they seem to try and sell themselves as a company that's the opposite of 4Kids (which is a long way from the Saban-lite they started out as, but anyway). The DB fanbase isn't a very understanding one and if Funi try to market and sell a dub which has little to no nostalgic value to American viewers and it contains edits to dialogue and content, the US fans might not be too thrilled. They were able to get away with the RTD set blaming 1996 for content censorship and generally using the shield of nostalgia but none of that carries over to selling Ocean Kai or any of the other material. The only option they've got at that point is to bank on the idea that they're selling "lost episodes" loosely tied to some of those voice actors who voiced the other thing you liked from 1996... There's just too many barriers there for it to truly work in my view, least of all...

The issue of the oversaturation in the US market, both when it comes to Z and Kai. Funi only have themselves to blame for this but it's still a very real factor that will inevitably hurt the earning potential of any future Z/Kai releases.
JohnnyCashKami wrote: Not sure why you guys are always so fixated on them considering they don't do any of the work, besides some minor Photoshop.
Pretty much this, and honestly, they're pretty incompetent and lazy when it comes to their own releases too - see their abysmal handling of the Pokemon classics on BR. They would most likely botch or at least make a very half-hearted attempt at an Ocean dubbed release of Dragon Ball if they tried.
8000 Saiyan wrote:Nitro really should stop acting as if there's a huge anti-Ocean sentiment behavior from MangaUK. :lol:
Misunderstands me and contributes nothing to the discussion. Nice one :thumbup:

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