If Funimation/Crunchyroll gives up on the Dragon Ball license, which company should have it?

[TechExpert2021]

What if at some point in the future Funimation/Crunchyroll feels like they are "done with Dragon Ball" and decided to give up the license? I know it'll never happen, but if it did, which company should have the license? The options I could think of are Viz Media, Discotek Media, and Toei Animation USA. If either company has the license, I hope they'll give DBZ better home video releases plus new Blu-ray releases of OG DB and DBGT and reissued Blu-ray releases of DBZ Kai (with Kikuchi soundtrack only) and DB Super.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Viz Media absolutely. I wish they even did a Viz dub of all the Funimation material nostalgia for the old cast be damned, I know there's people who think Modern Day Dubbing sucks but I loved the Viz media made dubs. They could even hire the Ocean cast again, if only with recasting everyone sans Scott McNeil, because he's the one who actually isnt a nostalgia casting but simply the best choice.

[TechExpert2021]

Viz Media absolutely. I wish they even did a Viz dub of all the Funimation material nostalgia for the old cast be damned, I know there's people who think Modern Day Dubbing sucks but I loved the Viz media made dubs.

If Viz Media gets the rights to the Dragon Ball anime franchise, I hope the Viz-isms from their English-translated releases of the Dragon Ball manga (ex. Djinn Boo instead of Majin Buu) don't carry over to Viz dubs of Dragon Ball anime.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Viz Media absolutely. I wish they even did a Viz dub of all the Funimation material nostalgia for the old cast be damned, I know there's people who think Modern Day Dubbing sucks but I loved the Viz media made dubs.

If Viz Media gets the rights to the Dragon Ball anime franchise, I hope the Viz-isms from their English-translated releases of the Dragon Ball manga (ex. Djinn Boo instead of Majin Buu) don't carry over to Viz dubs of Dragon Ball anime.

Oh god please no.

[sangofe]

But they'll never do that. Is this thread for an alternative reality?

[TechExpert2021]

But they'll never do that. Is this thread for an alternative reality?

Well, yes...

If Viz held the rights to the anime, they might reverse the damage Funimation has done to OG DB, DBZ, and DBGT. But I want the Viz-isms of their English-translated Dragon Ball manga to go away and use the correct spellings and translations.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

In this never gonna happen scenario I'm not sure who'd be the best choice. Viz Media does some good work, but their treatment of the manga has never been particularly great. So we'd run the risk of their Vizisms the same way we have Funimation's deep rooted dubisms to this day. Instead of Special Beam Cannon we'd get fake Shakespearean Piccolo. Also Viz refuses to update their tragically outdated translation of the original manga despite having several golden opportunities to do so such as the "FULL COLOR" release. (Which I think might have been cancelled, correct me if I'm wrong, but that production has gone completely dark.)
Pioneer Entertainment could have pulled it off, but I don't know what happen to that company or the people working there after getting rebranded as Geneon.

[MasenkoHA]

Viz has been flopping in their dubs since they were switched to Studiopolis. And they would use Studiopolis, they haven't used Ocean Group in about 2 decades. So in this hypothetical alternate never going to happen in a billion years universe I would not want modern Viz in charge of some hypothetical redub. Though if there was even a teeny tiny microscopic chance of another company acquiring the license there is a 0 percent chance any of them would cash in on a redub.

Discotek would at least probably listen to fans and make special releases for the Saban era dub and the original in-house Funi dub. (Possibly as one release since its the same dub) and we would probably get something closer to the level set release for the main content.


So, I guess I'd want Discotek in this imaginary universe that will never happen where Crunchyroll gives up their biggest cash cow

[AliTheZombie13]

Gonna recommend Viz again here.
They did a wonderful job with InuYasha and Sailor Moon, I'm sure they'd put the same respect into Dragon Ball.

[coola]

Discotek Media, no doubt, all of their releases i've got are perfect

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Viz in the 90s and 2000s would have been a solid choice, they would have used Ocean to dub it and the scripts would be at the very least respectable.

If were talking about the present and future, Crunchyroll will never give up the license, but if they did I'd be all for Discotek picking it up, dubbing wouldn't be in their budget but I know they would make quality home releases for all the existing content.

[HarveyPlissken]

Given the current status of the Shueisha/Capsule Corp IP rights situation, I wouldn't put it past Iyoku to cut out Crunchyroll from having the license and hands it to someone else.

Ideally, I'd like to see Discotek Media get the IP. I can see them do separate releases of the Ocean/Westwood dub, the 1999 in-house dub, and the Japanese Broadcast Audio with English subtitles for all three original animes.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Oh if the rights war shuffle necesitated a redub I would love it if they TRULY FULLY abandoned any Nostalgia casts, say what you will about the Netflix Evangelion dub, but it had major balls to just drop a beloved cast.

[HarveyPlissken]

Oh if the rights war shuffle necesitated a redub I would love it if they TRULY FULLY abandoned any Nostalgia casts, say what you will about the Netflix Evangelion dub, but it had major balls to just drop a beloved cast.

Oh, that would be nice! If the original Dragon Ball and GT get accurate re-dubs and proper Blu-Ray releases, I'd be happy with that.

[TechExpert2021]

Oh if the rights war shuffle necesitated a redub I would love it if they TRULY FULLY abandoned any Nostalgia casts, say what you will about the Netflix Evangelion dub, but it had major balls to just drop a beloved cast.

IMO if I want a redub of OG DB, DBZ, and DBGT, I expect whatever company has the license to outsource their dub to OkraTron 5000 under the direction of a producer that truly respects the original Japanese source material (and we might get some recasts like Doc Morgan replacing Sean Schemmel as Kaio-sama).

Oh, that would be nice! If the original Dragon Ball and GT get accurate re-dubs and proper Blu-Ray releases, I'd be happy with that.

I hope we'll get separate Blu-ray releases of OG DB and DBGT that include the Blue Water dubs, with the main Blu-ray releases including the original Japanese versions and the accurate English redubs (and the Mexican Spanish dubs as a bonus).

[jjgp1112]

But they'll never do that. Is this thread for an alternative reality?

Well, yes...

If Viz held the rights to the anime, they might reverse the damage Funimation has done to OG DB, DBZ, and DBGT. But I want the Viz-isms of their English-translated Dragon Ball manga to go away and use the correct spellings and translations.

At this point, who would even be the audience for any of that? Even in the unlikelihood that Crunchyroll just gave up something that makes a ton of money, the best case scenario are superior re releases that use the same ol dub. Toei has already forced English dubisms onto international stuff; that's here to stay for better or worse.

[Cure Dragon 255]

But they'll never do that. Is this thread for an alternative reality?

Well, yes...

If Viz held the rights to the anime, they might reverse the damage Funimation has done to OG DB, DBZ, and DBGT. But I want the Viz-isms of their English-translated Dragon Ball manga to go away and use the correct spellings and translations.

At this point, who would even be the audience for any of that? Even in the unlikelihood that Crunchyroll just gave up something that makes a ton of money, the best case scenario are superior re releases that use the same ol dub. Toei has already forced English dubisms onto international stuff; that's here to stay for better or worse.

It would not be about an audience in this case, rather than the new master licensee would lose the rights to the old dubs and new ones would be required.

[jjgp1112]

Well, yes...

If Viz held the rights to the anime, they might reverse the damage Funimation has done to OG DB, DBZ, and DBGT. But I want the Viz-isms of their English-translated Dragon Ball manga to go away and use the correct spellings and translations.

At this point, who would even be the audience for any of that? Even in the unlikelihood that Crunchyroll just gave up something that makes a ton of money, the best case scenario are superior re releases that use the same ol dub. Toei has already forced English dubisms onto international stuff; that's here to stay for better or worse.

It would not be about an audience in this case, rather than the new master licensee would lose the rights to the old dubs and new ones would be required.

If a licensor as big as Crunchyroll lost a franchise as big and as old as Dragon Ball, it would most likely be because Toei/Shueisha wanted to distribute the franchise themselves in the West and since the dub is ultimately there's, they'd just use that.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I hope we'll get separate Blu-ray releases of OG DB and DBGT that include the Blue Water dubs, with the main Blu-ray releases including the original Japanese versions and the accurate English redubs (and the Mexican Spanish dubs as a bonus).

Those seriously need official releases, even as a Rock the Dragon-style Collector's item bundled with Dragon Ball Z with the Ocean edits of Funimation's dub and the Westwood dub. The Canadian dubs really are a unique experience and sadly 20+ years on have only ever been legally available through TV broadcasts that ended long ago.

Such a shame Crunchyroll are not like Discotek and have no ambition.

[Lance Freeman]

It'll never happen, but at least Discotek would try and give it a halfway decent remaster like they did with Digimon. At worst, they'd do an SDBD, probably DBox, which is still much better than what we've gotten thus far. Sadly, I don't trust Viz since they seem to be moving away from DVDs and, with no official HD print of Dragon Ball from Toei, it might go just as badly as their first release of Sailor Moon did. No one would do a redub if only because it would require a redub of ~800 episodes of content plus 21 movies and 3 TV specials.