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

[8000 Saiyan]

Huh, so Richard Newman isn't reprising Ginyu? That sucks. I loved his Ginyu.

But if this dub ever comes out, then it'll be interesting to see what he can do with Ginyu. Something much closer to the Japanese voice actors who sound younger than the English Ginyus.

[8000 Saiyan]

Here's an interview with Lalainia Lindbjerg, in case any of you are interested of what she thinks of her experiences of voicing Bulma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69zArGhKfc&t=766s

She also looks very good for 48 years old.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Link for livestream today.

Last week's stream was postponed because Karl's car was frozen over.

Andrew Francis is guesting, maybe we can ask did he reprise his role as Dende?

[Kirbopher]

He didn't; as Karl pointed out, he would've been too old by then. No answer on who took over for Dende after him in original DBZ or who did him in Kai.

[SX10]

Ah! I had to miss this livestream out. It's so nice to see them get together frequently for these steams, you can tell they enjoy hanging out together for these.

[MistaL]

Do we know how "Saiyan" was pronounced in this dub, or if they used Kuririn and Tenshinhan vs Krillin and Tien Shinhan? We have Brian Drummond saying Goku like "Gokuu" a few times in recent years, and the "Tenkaichi Budoukai" visual edit that ended up in Funi's NickToons broadcast, so it seems like there was an effort to translate and pronounce things closer to the Japanese, so I'm curious about confirming how other names and stuff are handled.

[NitroEX]

Do we know how "Saiyan" was pronounced in this dub, or if they used Kuririn and Tenshinhan vs Krillin and Tien Shinhan? We have Brian Drummond saying Goku like "Gokuu" a few times in recent years,

It's pretty much confirmed that Saiyan wasn't changed as Saffron recalls Namek being different yet didn't recall any other changes. Karl Willems has also said during a live stream that he would have fought against changing Saiyan if it had been asked and he was directing the dub so it's a given that it remained.

The only other documented change is "Over 8000" instead of 9000, which Drummond voiced his disapproval of and even Karl remembered.

The Goku pronunciation was heard as far back as the Westwood dub but it varied between actors. It's not really known if it was something they tried to fix.

We don't know if Tenshinhan was used.

Kuririn wouldn't be used in an English dub, that would only be reserved for subtitles.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

They're never going to correct the pronunciation of Saiyan in a dub made by people whose first language is English, its too iconic.

The only cases I know of where we have a Cy-An pronunciation are the Creative Corp Product dub of Dragon Ball Z from the Philippines and the Big Green dub of the GT special. The former happened because it was pre-Funimation, and the latter was likely a case of Pan's voice actor or whoever directed her not being a native English speaker and (correctly) guessing the pronunciation.

I would be surprised if we heard Tenshinhan, but I'd be shocked if we heard Kuririn. If I was a betting man my money would be on neither.

[8000 Saiyan]

Recently, Kelly Sheridan was on the Anime Time Machine. When she was asked if she appeared in the Kai dub, she couldn't remember anything.

[8000 Saiyan]

The next Anime Time Machine is on May 7.

Can someone here ask if Janyse Jaud was in the Kai dub? Because I remember a friend of mine on Twitter saying that there were rumors of her being in the dub. Also ask Karl what's like working with her and Willow Johnson, who played Android 18 in the Ocean dub of the Buu arc.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The next Anime Time Machine is on May 7.

Can someone here ask if Janyse Jaud was in the Kai dub? Because I remember a friend of mine on Twitter saying that there were rumors of her being in the dub. Also ask Karl what's like working with her and Willow Johnson, who played Android 18 in the Ocean dub of the Buu arc.

I asked in the stream. Karl said both were great to work with, but nothing specific other than he remembers them from doing Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2. As regards Janyse Jaud, Karl said he didn't remember whether or not she was in Kai but didn't think so (same response he gave to whether or not Kirby Morrow played Bardock in an earlier stream).

[8000 Saiyan]

Vincent Tong's gonna show up on today's Anime Time Machine livestream.

Somebody ask him if he was on Ocean Kai.

Also, other questions I'd like to someone to ask for me are if Brian remembers working on Human Crossing, which I thought had an amazing dub and Karl if he remembers working on Exosquad as a voice recording engineer.

[Kakkaroto735]

It's been a while. Any big news on this dub? Is a release even possible?

[MistaL]

It's been a while. Any big news on this dub? Is a release even possible?

Not much has changed. As far as we know, a release is technically possible, as we saw in those emails a few years back. The hurdle is having a network go for it

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's been a while. Any big news on this dub? Is a release even possible?

Sadly, I never heard back from the head of Toon-A-Vision, so I'm worried they may not be willing to pay what TOEI was asking for this dub to air. Alternatively, I can suggest that anyone who hasn't done so, reach out to RTÉ on info@rte.ie about Kai possibly airing in Ireland, emphasizing they should contact Ocean Studios in Vancouver and not Crunchyroll. As an Irish citizen myself I can promise to record every episode should Ocean Kai air here.

Recap on the message I received back from the company:

Hi,

Many thanks for getting in touch with RTÉ and for your suggestion that we consider acquiring Dragon Ball Z Kai. We'll certainly take a look at the show and will ascertain who has the rights, as very often content is not available to RTÉ as it has been licensed by a competitor, which is often a UK or Global player.

Kind regards

And yes, as far as we're aware there's no reason to doubt a release of this dub is possible, unless Ocean write it off or destroy the masters, neither of which seems likely as they have confirmed to a fan privately they still have all the old Canadian dubs in their archives should any distributor wish to release them on home video. If true, it stands to reason Ocean would also hold on to a dormant asset like Kai.

[Hellspawn28]

It's been a while. Any big news on this dub? Is a release even possible?

We will probably never see it unless someone finds it and leaks the entire thing on the internet.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

We will probably never see it unless someone finds it and leaks the entire thing on the internet.

I know the idea has been entertained a few times here, but that's never going to happen. Saffron Henderson, Karl Willems and Brian Dobson were asked about this in a livestream last December. They said Ocean would never allow it because they take the legality of such things very seriously. In other words because Dragon Ball is TOEI's property, nothing Ocean do will see the light of day unless they get approval from Japan.

For the time being I urge everyone to email RTÉ, although there's no anime on either of their TV channels, RTÉ2 has a history with the medium. Seasons 3-5 of the original Yu-Gi-Oh concluded on that channel before any other English-speaking territories, and the Capsule Monsters mini-series debuted and ran in full on that channel right under the noses of UK and US fans. The person in charge of acquisitions, as my email above indicates is open to the idea of Kai airing. The more he's reminded to look into it and to ensure he talks to Ocean, not Crunchyroll the better our chances.

Kai is seeing a resurgence with the Polish dub that was recently produced and currently airing as well as new dubs in India, not to forget now is the ideal time to suggest new programming for September. We can still get this Canadian dub released if we show the demand is there.

[JustAlex1997]

For the time being I urge everyone to email RTÉ [...]

Kai is seeing a resurgence with the Polish dub that was recently produced and currently airing as well as new dubs in India, not to forget now is the ideal time to suggest new programming for September. We can still get this Canadian dub released if we show the demand is there.

I'd be interested in a coordinated effort to help this see the light of day. Perhaps we could create a formal template for fans to use? I feel like our voices would be more likely to be heard that way.

[8000 Saiyan]

Looks like the next Anime Time Machine is tomorrow.

Can someone ask Karl Willems if he remembers working on Exosquad as an audio engineer and give a shout out to Teryl Rothery's performance as Agent Mai, who was also in Exosquad?

[NitroEX]

Somewhat relevant. https://twitter.com/leetockar/status/16 ... 0175836161