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

[MasenkoHA]

I thought the same. The Ocean Group alternate English dub was done on the cheap, so they didn't even bother to license the Japanese music for use for their dub, or create an entirely original score, so they just reused music they created for other shows.

Considering how Westwood/Ocean and Funimation are the only companies around the world that didn’t keep the Kikuchi score I have a real hard time buying the music was a separate license they couldn’t afford.

Seems to me they didn’t think kids would respond to the Kikuchi score and being too rushed/cheap to make a brand new score they recycled music from their stock library.

[MasenkoHA]

GOD! This is it guys! The day of DESTINY! Its' comin' in March.

I thought WOW was going to announce their lineup in March (though I could be wrong, as I admittedly don't remember)......?

Could somebody with more optimism refresh me on the date to be watching?

Shame I don’t live in Canada so I’ll just have to find a website that’s streaming it have my nice Canadian friends on here tell me all about it.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Ugh, *facepalm*, sorry, I meant to write, "I thought they were going to announce their lineup in April," not March.

Sooooooo....yeah. What date are we supposed to be watching?

[PremiumSalt]

GOD! This is it guys! The day of DESTINY! Its' comin' in March.

Uhhh....

What?

What's coming? The dub? Do you...have a source?

[MistaL]

This bibba better not have just grasped my willie just to pull it once and run away.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I'm sorry! I meant to say we will, for better or for worse, finally know the fate of the Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub.

[GokuDaimao]

I'm sorry! I meant to say we will, for better or for worse, finally know the fate of the Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub.

But I still don't quite get it. Did they say they'd be announcing their lineup or something in March?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

GOD! This is it guys! The day of DESTINY! Its' comin' in March.

Jesus, don't get our hopes up like that. The anticipation and silence is killing some of us. I too seriously, seriously hope we get some closure in March. Hopefully that closure will be this dub finally airing, but its hard to say one way or the other at this point without further signs as to where things are going.

Considering how Westwood/Ocean and Funimation are the only companies around the world that didn’t keep the Kikuchi score I have a real hard time buying the music was a separate license they couldn’t afford.

Seems to me they didn’t think kids would respond to the Kikuchi score and being too rushed/cheap to make a brand new score they recycled music from their stock library.

Well Funimation, as we all now were just starting out when they got their hands on Dragon Ball and as far as I can tell they are the only company whose success depended on this series. Using replacement scores meant Funimation would have an additional source of revenue to fall back on if Dragon Ball failed to catch on. I'm not justifying replacing the score, but because the Harmony Gold dub, which kept Kikuchi didn't do too well I can understand Funimation wanting to tread carefully, especially because they didn't have a lot of money back then. After all they are now the biggest anime distributor in the English speaking world so they don't need to depend on replacement score royalties anymore.

The Ocean/Westwood dub most likely used a replacement score to save time that would have been required to license the Kikuchi score, because we all know how rushed they were having to skip the Freeza and Garlic Junior sagas to keep up with network demands. As to why this dub is using a replacement score, if not for financial reasons? It's anyone's guess, but as Robo4900 explained with all the problems that plagued both of TOEI's scores Kai could use a fresh start just to see how that goes and for all we know the end could very well justify the means.

[Robo4900]

I thought the same. The Ocean Group alternate English dub was done on the cheap, so they didn't even bother to license the Japanese music for use for their dub, or create an entirely original score, so they just reused music they created for other shows.

Seems to me they didn’t think kids would respond to the Kikuchi score and being too rushed/cheap to make a brand new score they recycled music from their stock library.

More likely, they just didn't have the Kikuchi score.
Remember, they were given Funi's materials to assemble the Z dub; they had their scripts, their video track, and the score used was all library music Ocean had lying around... Given Ocean were doing edits of Funi's episodes to air on YTV at the time (including some rearrangement of the score, adjusted SFX, an alternate take or two of some lines, and the opening theme people now know as the Westwood opening), I think it's fairly reasonable to say that either Funi only gave them the Faulconer score, or Funi's copy of the Kikuchi score was exactly as bad as has been described, so Ocean just went with library music they had lying around, and later on in the run had a brainwave, and brought in the Anitunes guys to do something to liven up the fairly repetitive score.

[8000 Saiyan]

The more I think about it, I think I prefer the Westwood dub music over the Faulconer score even if could get reused a lot of times. The Faulconer score was trying too hard to make DBZ some hardcore show. Hey, kinda like most of the Funimation cast's performances. They were trying too hard.

[MasenkoHA]

The more I think about it, I think I prefer the Westwood dub music over the Faulconer score even if could get reused a lot of times. The Faulconer score was trying too hard to make DBZ some hardcore show. Hey, kinda like most of the Funimation cast's performances. They were trying too hard.

The Megaman/Monster Rancher music is just ...there. I: pretty comparable to the Wasserman score in that regard. The Faulconer music is just distractingly in your face notice me kind of crap

[Danfun64]

One thing you all are forgetting, the Hindi dub, which uses edited Funi as it's base, went from the Levi/Wasserman score to a custom Kikuchi mix which filled in silence (though I think it tried to go with the original placement as much as possible)...did I answer my own question before I asked it?

[Robo4900]

The more I think about it, I think I prefer the Westwood dub music over the Faulconer score even if could get reused a lot of times. The Faulconer score was trying too hard to make DBZ some hardcore show. Hey, kinda like most of the Funimation cast's performances. They were trying too hard.

The Megaman/Monster Rancher music is just ...there. I: pretty comparable to the Wasserman score in that regard. The Faulconer music is just distractingly in your face notice me kind of crap

The Anitunes library score very much is just creating an atmosphere by grooving on in the background as stuff is happening. Meanwhile, the Faulconer score is screaming in your face "NOTICE ME NOTICE ME NOTICE ME NOTICE ME".

[Super Sayian Prime]

The fact that we're a month away from launch and Wow hasn't even issued a press release is concerning. They haven't even properly announced the channel's name or initial marquee lineup. Gives me the "afterthought" vibe.

[SX10]

As a kid I remember channels getting minimal advertising and then just showing up. But tbh, maybe they just get the license on April 1st and still have a lot of work to get done?

[Super Sayian Prime]

As a kid I remember channels getting minimal advertising and then just showing up. But tbh, maybe they just get the license on April 1st and still have a lot of work to get done?

They don't have to roll out the red carpet, but not even a press release a month before is odd.

[C. Smith]

As a kid I remember channels getting minimal advertising and then just showing up. But tbh, maybe they just get the license on April 1st and still have a lot of work to get done?

They don't have to roll out the red carpet, but not even a press release a month before is odd.

They're probably gonna pull an April Fool's stunt to surprise us. That's why they're keeping it so under wraps. They want to pull off a Toonami 2012. Perhaps that way they can rock the boat. And speaking of that, Adult Swim Canada's gonna cease broadcasting by March 4. I have a feeling that Adult Swim's gonna go the Viceland route, where after a few years of sagging viewership and low profitability in Canafs, Adult Swim discontinues their Canadian counterpart and migrates to Bell Media (just like Viceland). Williams Street then inks a deal with Bell to have its content aired on its channels, such as Much, MTV2, Comedy, HBO Canada and CraveTV. Of course Wow TV would make a natural home for its Toonami-aired shows.
Maybe this boat-rocking could convince Corus to revive Bionix and have it on Teletoon (YTV's done with anime completely)

[Super Sayian Prime]

As a kid I remember channels getting minimal advertising and then just showing up. But tbh, maybe they just get the license on April 1st and still have a lot of work to get done?

They don't have to roll out the red carpet, but not even a press release a month before is odd.

They're probably gonna pull an April Fool's stunt to surprise us. That's why they're keeping it so under wraps. They want to pull off a Toonami 2012. Perhaps that way they can rock the boat. And speaking of that, Adult Swim Canada's gonna cease broadcasting by March 4. I have a feeling that Adult Swim's gonna go the Viceland route, where after a few years of sagging viewership and low profitability in Canafs, Adult Swim discontinues their Canadian counterpart and migrates to Bell Media (just like Viceland). Williams Street then inks a deal with Bell to have its content aired on its channels, such as Much, MTV2, Comedy, HBO Canada and CraveTV. Of course Wow TV would make a natural home for its Toonami-aired shows.
Maybe this boat-rocking could convince Corus to revive Bionix and have it on Teletoon (YTV's done with anime completely)

I don't think a Canadian deep cable channel is going to be rocking the boat much in 2019, hah. The stuff they've been uploading onto Crave hasn't been very attention grabbing either. Their most recent additions (CTRL+F "WOW! High School Hall Pass") seem especially dire, consisting of movies produced for YouTube ...

The Adult Swim programming is staying with Corus. They wouldn't be putting up billboards or teasing bumpers if they were going to lose it to someone else. YTV has also slowly started to air anime again. The channel is home to Bakugan Battle Planet reruns and brought back Pokemon for a special event this week (which I suspect might be a prelude to it returning full-time).

[GokuDaimao]

The Adult Swim programming is staying with Corus. They wouldn't be putting up billboards or teasing bumpers if they were going to lose it to someone else. YTV has also slowly started to air anime again. The channel is home to Bakugan Battle Planet reruns and brought back Pokemon for a special event this week (which I suspect might be a prelude to it returning full-time).

Sorry to deviate from the topic, but the bumpers for the new [adult swim] may have been a mandate from Time Warner. As for Pokémon, I believe that was just a publicity ploy to put the program on basic cable for a day so that families interested would subscribe to Teletoon. Otherwise the new season would be on YTV as well.

[Super Sayian Prime]

The Adult Swim programming is staying with Corus. They wouldn't be putting up billboards or teasing bumpers if they were going to lose it to someone else. YTV has also slowly started to air anime again. The channel is home to Bakugan Battle Planet reruns and brought back Pokemon for a special event this week (which I suspect might be a prelude to it returning full-time).

Sorry to deviate from the topic, but the bumpers for the new [adult swim] may have been a mandate from Time Warner. As for Pokémon, I believe that was just a publicity ploy to put the program on basic cable for a day so that families interested would subscribe to Teletoon. Otherwise the new season would be on YTV as well.

I find it hard to believe Turner would force Corus to buy billboards and promote a competitor's offering. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC Adult Swim Canada never ran ads for the Adult Swim App that was made exclusively for Canada by Turner.

As for Pokemon, I'm aware that it was a stunt broadcast to tie-in with Pokemon Day. However, given YTV actually promoted that, I suspect it may have been a trial run. Teletoon airing the series doesn't mean it can't show up on other Corus channels. YTV has second window runs for Bakugan, Ninjago and Transformers Cyberverse (well, had, in that specific case) with new episodes airing first on Teletoon.