Kid Trunks wrote:Yeah. I don't fully understand the logistics of ditching the Ocean cast. Wasn't Funi a relatively small company when the were using the Ocean group? Which is why they had help from Saban. But then Funimation separated itself from Saban, because they had become more "powerful"? But yet they ended up having (overall) a less capable cast.
FUNimation was, indeed, a tiny nobody company. As has been noted in the past, part of the reason they were even able to obtain the DB license in the first place was due to all-too-common corporate nepotism.
FUNimation's deal with Saban up until 1998 gave them the resources necessary in order to dub the show (read: pay for Ocean Studios) and get on TV (read: Saban throws their weight around getting timeslots, like a one-hour block for season two).
Once Saban leaves (note that Saban left
them; if someone can fill in the rest of the story on Saban's role and operations at the time, that would be great)... FUNimation's left as the same company they were before, only with a semi-popular show on their hands and no means to actually continue it. This is why they went the local route with essentially
everything after that (no more flying Barry Watson to Vancouver, no more Shuki Levy music, etc.; ADR goes in-house, voice-over ads go in local newspapers, etc.).
Yes, there is a bit of irony in this little crap company being ditched by one of the biggest names of the time in American syndicated television to a decade later more-or-less owning the domestic anime industry.
Again, I have to continue stressing...
Ocean Studios is just a voice-over company. They don't actually produce any shows on their own. Ocean "did" DBZ just as much as they "did"
Ranma 1/2,
Inu-Yasha,
Gundam Wing, etc. I think the biggest confusion over who "did" the 1996-1998 dub is the fact that FUNimation shifted their voice cast in 1999, and it was made such a big deal of that everything was "them", now... despite them being there the whole time, logo at the end, Fukunaga names plastered all over everything, etc.
It's one thing to just in passing call it something like "the old Ocean dub", but it's another thing to say that Ocean Studios was RESPONSIBLE for the ENTIRETY of it (yes, I'm aware that script adaptations were handled in part by people like Terry Klassen; that's essentially irrelevant for the purpose of this conversation, though). Further complicating matters are the AB Groupe dub produced for Europe and semi-aired in Canada from time to time.
Any "crimes" that were "committed" were done by FUNimation*, themselves (and at least sometimes per the request of Saban when referring to 1996-1998) no matter what point in time you're talking about.
* unless you're referring to the AB Groupe dub, in which case it's... uh... AB Groupe
( but it does sound like they only have about 5 actors)
