Why Won’t Toei, Bandai, etc. Release the SDBH Anime West, Again?

[jamiljamtheman]

I get that the game is nowhere to be found in the west, save for World Mission on the switch, but what’s their deal with not officially streaming SDBH episodes with officially translated subtitles? Does Funimation not want to? Is there some other weird legal reason? Or they just don’t see it as worth it? Wondering if they’ve ever made a statement on this.

[Aim]

I get that the game is nowhere to be found in the west, save for World Mission on the switch, but what’s their deal with not officially streaming SDBH episodes with officially translated subtitles? Does Funimation not want to? Is there some other weird legal reason? Or they just don’t see it as worth it? Wondering if they’ve ever made a statement on this.

I have no idea. I think it’s because they want something exclusively for Japan.

Also, arcades aren’t popular anymore in the west. So that’s also probably a reason. Though, I imagine they could set up a system where you purchase a bulk of random cards from their website and then use them on your own device

[PremiumSalt]

I mean, the Heroes "anime" is quite literally just an extended commercial. It makes little sense to distribute it in a place where the product being advertised isn't available.

[Adamant]

In general, it's very uncommon for shows that are promoting a specific type of merchandise (video game, tcg, etc) to get a release in a region without said merchandise also being made available.
There's the occasional exception, yes, but when a show has been produced specifically for the purpose of marketing a specific merch line, the producers generally don't WANT it to be seen as "just some show", they want the connection to the merch line to be front and center.

[Shaddy]

Because it sucks

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'd imagine it's to do with the high cost of licensing from these Japanese companies, and international rights holders like Funimation seeing it as not worth the investment for a show that fans generally don't take seriously, especially without the game it's meant to promote.

[MasenkoHA]

Because it sucks

This is the correct answer.

[PurestEvil]

The game would have to be marketed first, or else there is no purpose in selling SDBH to the West. The general contempt for it in the western fandom should be an indication that it can't hold up by itself.

[Hellspawn28]

They won't do well for how short they are. I can't imagine Toonami/Adult Swim would want to air a 5 minute long anime.

[Aim]

They won't do well for how short they are. I can't imagine Toonami/Adult Swim would want to air a 5 minute long anime.

I don’t even think it’s aired in Japan, I think it’s a promo on the website.

[jamiljamtheman]

Oh you’re right that it wouldn’t do well on TV. I will clarify I mean something relatively simpler like region-unlocking the official uploads and providing subtitles for different languages.

I’m rewatching the whole thing for the first time since seeing the episodes month-to-month (I will post my opinions on it soon because why not?), and though seeing it subbed through re-uploads on YouTube is serviceable, I kinda wish I wasn’t forced to deal with variety uploads of varying video quality and hit-or-miss subtitle/translation quality depending on the upload. It doesn’t help that uploads seem to be taken down often and new/re-uploads take their place so you never know what you’re gonna get.

Granted, the show isn’t particularly good and I understand a lot of people don’t like it, and the product it’s selling doesn’t exist outside Japan. But would region-unlocking and subtitling the episodes really make its reputation any worse?

[TheGreatness25]

I think it's too niche of a product, to be honest. I've been telling myself that I'll watch it and haven't watched past episode 3 for the longest time--and I'm not exactly just a casual fan and really like Super. If I can't be bothered with it, I don't think a lot of casual audience members would watch it. I also think that they can't put it on TV due to the run time. I'm not sure it would make sense to put it out on home video because the sales might be weak. So, in the end, the best bet would be to put it on a steaming service. So, if I had to take a stab in the dark, I'd say that it's not worth it for Funimation to license the series and pay their company to translate, write a script, hire the voice actors to dub the thing, then have its engineers put everything together. For what? A steaming video? It would make much more sense to just get the rights to put it on FunimationNow undubbed... even though, I don't think it would justify its cost either way.

I was much more bothered by the fact that Funimation never brought over the "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!" and "Episode of Bardock" specials and didn't dub the "Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans" game(s). Though, I've gotten over that and just watch them in Japanese.

[Alruneia]

I mean, the Heroes "anime" is quite literally just an extended commercial. It makes little sense to distribute it in a place where the product being advertised isn't available.

I'm pretty sure this is what it boils down to in the end. It's not a full anime, it's a promotional anime. The product it's promoting, the SDBH arcade game, isn't available over here, so there's no reason to release the promo anime here.
Additionally, the promotional nature of the anime means that it doesn't tell a complete story. Episodes start in random places that don't really align with the end of the previous episodes, things seem to just happen for no reason, characters appear and disappear randomly... A lot of context is missing, because this is just a promotional production and you're meant to go play the game for the full experience. There's no point in only releasing the half-baked promo anime, because it doesn't really work as a stand-alone product (and isn't meant to). You have to release both or neither, and they've chosen to release neither.

[MasenkoHA]

I was much more bothered by the fact that Funimation never brought over the "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!" and "Episode of Bardock" specials and didn't dub the "Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans" game(s). Though, I've gotten over that and just watch them in Japanese.

It’s more than likely they can’t rather than they won’t.

[TheGreatness25]

I was much more bothered by the fact that Funimation never brought over the "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!" and "Episode of Bardock" specials and didn't dub the "Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans" game(s). Though, I've gotten over that and just watch them in Japanese.

It’s more than likely they can’t rather than they won’t.

I mean, they got all of the specials including GT's. I don't see why the Jump special or Episode of Bardock are any different. The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was featured on a video game. I think where there's a will, there's a way. But in any event, I really don't care at this point.

[jjgp1112]

I was much more bothered by the fact that Funimation never brought over the "Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!" and "Episode of Bardock" specials and didn't dub the "Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans" game(s). Though, I've gotten over that and just watch them in Japanese.

It’s more than likely they can’t rather than they won’t.

I mean, they got all of the specials including GT's. I don't see why the Jump special or Episode of Bardock are any different. The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was featured on a video game. I think where there's a will, there's a way. But in any event, I really don't care at this point.

I could be wrong but the Jump Special, Episode of Bardock, and Plan To Eradicate the Saiyans aren't Toei properties, but Shuiesha. You'd have a better chance of Viz releasing them than FUNimation.

And sure, you could say, "Well then why not just go to Shueisha directly?" but I'm sure there's some legal wrangling with Toei, probably of the "Don't make money off of Dragon Ball stuff we can't make money off of!" variety.

[TheGreatness25]

It’s more than likely they can’t rather than they won’t.

I mean, they got all of the specials including GT's. I don't see why the Jump special or Episode of Bardock are any different. The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans was featured on a video game. I think where there's a will, there's a way. But in any event, I really don't care at this point.

I could be wrong but the Jump Special, Episode of Bardock, and Plan To Eradicate the Saiyans aren't Toei properties, but Shuiesha. You'd have a better chance of Viz releasing them than FUNimation.

And sure, you could say, "Well then why not just go to Shueisha directly?" but I'm sure there's some legal wrangling with Toei, probably of the "Don't make money off of Dragon Ball stuff we can't make money off of!" variety.

Ah. I guess that makes sense.

[Skar]

It's surprising how many people watch it fansubbed on YouTube. It makes sense what others were saying that it was meant to promote a game which is only available in Japan so probably no reason to release the anime in countries that don't have the game. It's released for free in Japan online so it also might not be worth the effort to dub it when any interested western fans are already viewing it for free.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's surprising how many people watch it fansubbed on YouTube. It makes sense what others were saying that it was meant to promote a game which is only available in Japan so probably no reason to release the anime in countries that don't have the game. It's released for free in Japan online so it also might not be worth the effort to dub it when any interested western fans are already viewing it for free.

I wonder if Super Dragon Ball Heroes was released before Dragon Ball Super would there have been more interest in a dub. I remember for some time there was a cohort of fans that refused to watch any new material unless there was a dub, but that sentiment seems to have died down now that a lot of those fans who really wanted to see Super decided to just watch it in Japanese, got used to it, and by extension are now fine with only watching Super Dragon Ball Heroes in Japanese.

[MrSatan2099]

It's surprising how many people watch it fansubbed on YouTube. It makes sense what others were saying that it was meant to promote a game which is only available in Japan so probably no reason to release the anime in countries that don't have the game. It's released for free in Japan online so it also might not be worth the effort to dub it when any interested western fans are already viewing it for free.

I wonder if Super Dragon Ball Heroes was released before Dragon Ball Super would there have been more interest in a dub. I remember for some time there was a cohort of fans that refused to watch any new material unless there was a dub, but that sentiment seems to have died down now that a lot of those fans who really wanted to see Super decided to just watch it in Japanese, got used to it, and by extension are now fine with only watching Super Dragon Ball Heroes in Japanese.

Yes I think if we had been in more of a dry spell Funimation might have tried harder to get their hands on it, squeeze a little more blood out, but considering we had new movies and Super it was probably very low on their priorities list. That is of course provided it could even be done licensing wise, as many people have pointed out.