Dragon Ball Z Kai is coming to the Netherlands

[TheRed259]

Yesterday, during Heroes Dutch Comic Con: (edit) URL signature expired. But I can't find anything related to that on their social media yet.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If it is, we need to do everything in our power to get the Ocean dub of Kai released. Remember Westwood Z and Blue Water GT aired in the Netherlands.

[Tian]

If it is, we need to do everything in our power to get the Ocean dub of Kai released. Remember Westwood Z and Blue Water GT aired in the Netherlands.

This is our god damn opportunity.

Given that Dutch platform already has DBS Broly on it, they probably have plans to premiere Kai too.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If it is, we need to do everything in our power to get the Ocean dub of Kai released. Remember Westwood Z and Blue Water GT aired in the Netherlands.

This is our god damn opportunity.

Given that Dutch platform already has DBS Broly on it, they probably have plans to premiere Kai too.

Oh, it's a release on a streaming platform being teased? I just clicked on the social link, seen it was Periscoop, who released a Super Broly Blu-Ray with an English audio track and guessed it would be a new Dutch home release but maybe they're affiliated with GoAnime somehow.

Actually, a few years ago it seemed like Dragon Ball Z was coming to Netflix in the Netherlands with their equivalent of the BBFC indicating it would be the edited dub, although I don't think that ever came to pass sadly.

I guess it also makes sense to test the waters before doing another physical release as I wondered why Periscoop didn't follow up Broly with a Super Hero release.

In any case the Netherlands is the third largest territory the Westwood dub aired in behind Canada (although they didn't get the first 60 episodes) and the UK so it's an ideal candidate for Ocean Kai to get exposure, as well as being the first country the Westwood dub ever aired in.

[dbzforeverUK]

I saw your post on Facebook and had to see if this is being discussed yet. The fact it’s a streaming service in a region that aired the Westwood dub is a good indicator but we need to find out more about this streaming service are they a branch of abgroupe or funimation/Crunchyroll as I feel that will be the determining factor.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

As far as I can tell GoAnime (which sounds like a pirate site, although since they had a panel at a convention I think it's safe to assume they are not) is just the streaming arm of Periscoop as they share a Facebook. The fact the one Dragon Ball property GoAnime streams (Super Broly) was an acquisition by Periscoop also supports this.

Periscoop was formed through the collaboration of two independent Dutch production and distribution companies - Fu Works and Submarine. I doubt they have any connection to AB Groupe or Crunchyroll.

AB don't have any rights in territories outside France anymore and even then its limited to home video and whatever channels they own and if Crunchyroll/Funimation owned Periscoop they likely would have suffered the rebranding fate of Manga UK.

I fear Crunchyroll may eventually do that if they continue to have more success though, and I've expressed many times over their monopoly is a real threat to smaller businesses and the preservation of anime history.

[dbzforeverUK]

The fact they are independent from Crunchyroll and funimation means there is a chance they could opt for the ocean dub. Just like how kix could have opted for it and I stress back then fans didn’t make themselves heard and this along with other factors meant we ended up with funimations dub. A serious fan effort is needed now to try and convince them to stream oceans dub, again this has been the most encouraging news in a very long time and could very well be our last shot at getting ocean kai.

[dbzforeverUK]

Quick update kai will stream on goanime on September 6th

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Just like how kix could have opted for it and I stress back then fans didn’t make themselves heard and this along with other factors meant we ended up with funimations dub. A serious fan effort is needed now to try and convince them to stream oceans dub, again this has been the most encouraging news in a very long time and could very well be our last shot at getting ocean kai.

It's never been known why Kix went with the Funimation dub of Kai, from what I recall, other than Ken Morrison saying Ocean sold their dub to an unnamed UK TV station, all the articles before the promo made no mention of which English dub, and I think the first time Kix said anything one way or the other was about a week before the preview, but I've never seen anyone from Kix, or even Pop, as they became under Sony talking about it after that. Apparently Kix did know about the Ocean dub though.

Rumours have been that TOEI only gave them the option of Funimation's dub, although other sources have said Funimation pulled some strings, so I hope this won't be the case here and Periscoop/GoAnime took the initiative to explore all their options or like how we know WOW and Toon-A-Vision negotiated with Ocean and then moved up to the next stage with TOEI, with the latter at least, but likely both reaching the final stage with the head office in Japan.

I agree that there should have been a greater push for Kix to air the Ocean dub, a lot of fans just assumed they would given the UK's history with the Canadian dubs.

Quick update kai will stream on goanime on September 6th

That's great, do you have a source for that? If its true that means there is time to make some noise that we want Ocean Kai.

[dbzforeverUK]

I’ve posted a screenshot on your Facebook page, I contacted them through instagram as they look a lot more active on that page and was told they would look into which dub it is and they will get back to me, was also told it would be streamed on another Dutch site called “video land”. I responded to this message by stressing the fact that the ocean dub of kai is known by the fandom and is very much wanted despite the fact its never been aired and that it would generate a lot of buzz for there streaming service as compared to the widely available funimation dub which has been out there now for well over 10 years. Streaming the ocean dub at this point makes more sense and given the Netherlands history with Dragonball adds to that aswell. If there has ever been a time for a fan campaign to let this company know how much fans want to see the ocean dub of kai , it’s now! We don’t want another kid situation where people assumed it would be ocean.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Thanks, it's great if Periscoop/GoAnime are making enquiries and will let you know when they can. If anyone else wants to make their voices heard about them streaming Ocean Kai their details can be found on their site if you scroll to the bottom.

I just looked up Videoland and have contacted them, likewise stressing the need for the Ocean dub. If anyone else wants to do so they can be reached here through a variety of methods from text to socials and emails.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Just got an update myself, it looks like Videoland misunderstood my request and unfortunately they may not feel they are at liberty to tell us which Kai dub they decide on, if they are even given the option to begin with, but I've stressed that it would be a massive missed opportunity for the service if its not the Ocean dub.

As it stands heres my exchange with them following my initial email:

Videoland's Response in Dutch

Spoiler:

Hoi ,
Dank voor je bericht over de ondertiteling van Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Helaas is de ondertiteling die er bij komt niet aan ons, dit krijgen wij aangeleverd.

Welke ondertiteling dit gaat zijn kan ik helaas niet inzien.

Klantenservice van Videoland

www.videoland.com

Videoland's Response in English

Spoiler:

Hi ,

Thanks for posting about Dragon Ball Z Kai subtitles.

Unfortunately, the subtitles that come with it are not ours, they are provided to us.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell which subtitle this will be.

Videoland Customer Service

www.videoland.com

My response in Dutch

Spoiler:

Hallo,

Bedankt voor het reageren op mijn vraag, maar begrijp alsjeblieft dat ik niet vraag naar de ondertitels. Ik vraag naar de Engelse kopie.

Ik wil Videoland erop wijzen dat het een grote vergissing zou zijn als de Engelse dub van Funimation/Crunchyroll wordt gestreamd, omdat veel Dragon Ball-fans graag de dub van Dragon Ball Kai van Ocean Studios willen zien en teleurgesteld zullen zijn als de dub die je wordt aangeboden iets anders dan de Ocean Studios-versie.

Overweeg alstublieft mijn verzoek, aangezien dit veel meer hype voor uw streamingdienst zou genereren dan de andere optie.

Eerlijk

My response in English

Spoiler:

Hello,

Thanks for responding to my question, but please understand that I am not asking about the subtitles. I am enquiring about the English dub.

I wish to advise Videoland that it would be a huge mistake to stream the English dub from Funimation/Crunchyroll, as many Dragon Ball fans are eager to see the Ocean Studios English dub of Dragon Ball Kai and will be disappointed if the dub offered is anything other than the Ocean version.

Please consider my request as this would generate much more hype for your streaming service than the other option.

Sincerely

Hopefully more people reach out to them, because as we've seen with WOW and Toon-A-Vision companies do listen if enough people make the same enquiry.

Otherwise, hopefully we've convinced them thus far.

[Tian]

I'd say we should try to get Dutch fans to join the Ocean Kai dub cause.

I am gonna check if there are some Dutch fans out there who are interested in an English dub and in case they are, if they're still interested in the Canadian cast.

Hopefully, at least one of them would be willing to help to write a mail to Periscoop demanding the Ocean Kai dub.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'd say we should try to get Dutch fans to join the Ocean Kai dub cause.

I am gonna check if there are some Dutch fans out there who are interested in an English dub and in case they are, if they're still interested in the Canadian cast.

Hopefully, at least one of them would be willing to help to write a mail to Periscoop demanding the Ocean Kai dub.

That's a great idea, the Westwood dub did air on Yorkiddin back in 2001-2004 so I'm sure there's plenty of Dutch fans out there familiar with the Ocean cast.

Anyway, thanks to dbzforeverUK for sharing this response GoAnime gave. There's two things to note about what they said:

• Kai will be streamed with a Dutch dub
• If people are interested they will look into adding an English dubbed option

Full response is as follows:

GoAnime wrote:

I checked with the material manager and our distributor contract includes Japanese and Dutch dubs with English and Dutch subtitles. So that means we won't have any English dub for this title. We are looking into including ENG in the future if there are enough potential viewers interested in it

So for the first time ever we are getting a Dutch dub of Dragon Ball, meaning GoAnime will be kicking things off on a high. If they are willing to listen to fans about adding an English dub I say why would they be against suggestions.

This is the time to strike while the iron is hot, as us Ocean fans did when Wow Unlimited announced plans for a linear channel and through fan responses on Twitter they took the initiative to talk with Ocean.

It would also mean GoAnime can keep the momentum going by offering not one, but two never-before-seen Kai dubs, and by extension that means catering to a wider variety of fans.

I see it as a win-win if a big push is made for GoAnime to know there is another dub they can capitalize on.

[Tian]

GoAnime wrote:
I checked with the material manager and our distributor contract includes Japanese and Dutch dubs with English and Dutch subtitles. So that means we won't have any English dub for this title. We are looking into including ENG in the future if there are enough potential viewers interested in it

Wonderful! Not only because the things are on our favour for getting Ocean Kai pitched to them but there will be a Dutch dub as well.

If they are willing to listen to fans about adding an English dub I say why would they be against suggestions.

This is the time to strike while the iron is hot, as us Ocean fans did when Wow Unlimited announced plans for a linear channel and through fan responses on Twitter they took the initiative to talk with Ocean.

We've gotta get enough Dutch fans asking for it then. Since Netherlands isn't a big country, then the company may consider adding an English track after a dozen of mails.

I see it as a win-win if a big push is made for GoAnime to know there is another dub they can capitalize on.

That's right. If the Dutches end up not liking their local dub, they will still have another option in English and with a familiar cast.

[TheRed259]

Don't expect them to know on their own exactly what the Ocean dub of Kai is. If you know the name of the studio that made the Ocean dub of Kai, let that Dutch company know so that they can get in touch in case they are interested.

[Tian]

Don't expect them to know on their own exactly what the Ocean dub of Kai is. If you know the name of the studio that made the Ocean dub of Kai, let that Dutch company know so that they can get in touch in case they are interested.

Count on it. We'll be telling those fans about who they must refer exactly to, in case they decide to send mails.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Don't expect them to know on their own exactly what the Ocean dub of Kai is. If you know the name of the studio that made the Ocean dub of Kai, let that Dutch company know so that they can get in touch in case they are interested.

It was Ocean themselves, as a fan who contacted the studio was told.

It shouldn't be too hard if its pitched to GoAnime and Videoland in the right way. Think of it from their perspective, if you owned a streaming platform and were told about an English dub no one had ever seen but were eager to would you not want to seek it out? Even more so if you were told the other option is widely available and wouldn't generate anywhere near as much hype.

Anyway, I got a response from Videoland in relation to ensuring they pick up the English dub were asking for:

Videoland's Response in Dutch

Spoiler:

Dank voor je bericht!

Ik begrijp wat je bedoeld. Maar ook dat kunnen wij niet van te voren inzien. Dit hangt er puur vanaf welke rechten wij konden krijgen en waar uiteindelijk voor is gekozen.

Ik zet je mail wel door naar de desbetreffende afdeling. Zij kunnen dan nagaan welke rechten er nu komen en waar en eventueel in de toekomst op gelet moet worden.

Ik hoop dat je zult genieten van de nieuwe serie die eerdaags online komt.

Vragen? Vragen!

Neem gerust opnieuw contact op. Je kunt ook hier klikken om naar onze hulppagina te gaan. Daar vind je overigens ook op welke manieren je ons nog meer kunt bereiken.

Videoland's Response in English

Spoiler:

Thank you for your message!

I understand what you mean. But we cannot predict that in advance either. This purely depends on what rights we were able to obtain and what was ultimately chosen.

I will forward your email to the relevant department. They can then determine which rights are now available and what needs to be paid attention to in the future.

I hope you will enjoy the new series that will be online soon.

To ask? To ask!

Please feel free to contact us again. You can also click here to go to our help page. There you will also find other ways you can reach us.

So it looks like my email was reached by a customer service agent who isn't in charge of licensing/acquisitions and can only give general advice but it was escalated to the higher-ups who have that authority.

I worry because generally it is up to the license holders of any given anime (in Dragon Ball's case - TOEI) to inform the distributor about what options are available to them. Netflix picks up alternate dubs of some shows, Paw Patrol was streamed in the UK with the Canadian dub at one point, not the British dub, similarily Yo-Kai Watch was streamed with the Hong Kong dub instead of the American dub, even in the US. I kinda wish Netflix would license more Dragon Ball content in countries they have not yet done so because they are a rare case of a company that goes out of their way to license variants of a show other than the standard. A lot of distributors merely take what they are given and don't question it, which is why Discotek's Wicked City Blu-Ray contains the 90s British dub and the Streamline dub, but Manga UK's release only has the latter.

I think the more fans reach out to GoAnime and Videoland the more likely they are to have such ambition, WOW Unlimited were because fans online asked for them to negotiate with Ocean to get their dub of Kai on air, which they did but that didn't work out as they didn't have the money to launch a linear channel. Hopefully there should be no issues if GoAnime and Videoland are as informed as WOW were.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So I've started what I hope will be a successful social media campaign to encourage GoAnime and Videoland to seek out Ocean's dub of Kai when they are ready to make a decision on adding an English dubbed option.

6 retweets so far and 2,066 views in the 17 hours since I've posted it. Managed to convince THE Dragon Ball YouTuber Geekdom101 to help, and he said he'll be able to do more in the future.

I'm aware these streaming services may not know what the Ocean dub of Kai is, but at least if this tweet thread spreads far and wide we'll have something to show, in addition to this petition, which has 41 signatures so far.

[ThunderPX]

I can't imagine a Dutch dub is going to be any good or that the target audience will enjoy such a thing. Back in the day when DBZ was on TV in English, the idea of it being dubbed in Dutch was a common joke just because of how stupid it would sound.

It's true that since then, all animation on TV gradually got dubbed into Dutch when it didn't use to be that way, but it's also true that anime has mostly been wiped from the airwaves, especially the more action-oriented stuff. Meanwhile this is streaming, and I know that Dutch kids really have no issue watching content in English. Heck, my little sister learned English mostly by watching a lot of YouTube and got really into My Hero Academia by watching the English dub online. Even Netflix, which will dub its anime acquisitions in a ton of languages, only provides subtitles when it comes to Dutch.

So basically, I'm kinda confused that they'd put money into a Dutch dub for Kai, while there'd probably be a lot of advantages in licensing an English one.