CR/Funi losing DB license - What need to happen?

[coola]

Unfortunately, in my opinion, Funimation and now Crunchyroll, is terrible company, with subpar DVD/BD releases (And forgetting DB/DBGT is a thing) and meh English dub cast. What would need to happen for Toei or Shueisha to take USA license away from those incompetent people and give it to different one?

[JulieYBM]

It would have to become more profitable for Toei Animation to no longer work with Crunchyroll for the release of Dragon Ball in English-speaking territories.

That's not going to happen lol

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's never going to happen.

Why would any self-respecting business allow their most profitable IP to slip from their fingertips?

Why would the original Japanese licensor (TOEI) revoke said most profitable IP from a company that have made them millions for decades?

[Tian]

Unlikely.

The only way it could happen would be if Toei decided to be extremely cheap and distribute the series themselves (a la Toei Latin America).

[TechExpert2021]

Toei is not going to revoke the Dragon Ball license from Funimation/Crunchyroll. The Dragon Ball franchise is Funimation's/Crunchyroll's number one cash cow and if Toei did revoke the license from them, how would Funimation/Crunchyroll survive without it? How would the Dragon Ball franchise survive without Funimation in countries where Funimation had the license? What if the company that got the license couldn't afford, isn't permitted, or refuses to use the Funimation in-house voice cast for future English dub productions and decides to utilize a brand new voice cast (and therefore risk alienating the majority of the English-speaking fanbase if their goal is to dub or redub everything to be more faithful to the original Japanese versions, especially in regards to character voices and dialogue)?

I think Toei revoking the DB license from Funimation will do a lot of damage to the Dragon Ball franchise in countries where Funimation had the license.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

How would the Dragon Ball franchise survive without Funimation in countries where Funimation had the license? What if the company that got the license couldn't afford, isn't permitted, or refuses to use the Funimation in-house voice cast for future English dub productions and decides to utilize a brand new voice cast (and therefore risk alienating the majority of the English-speaking fanbase if their goal is to dub or redub everything to be more faithful to the original Japanese versions, especially in regards to character voices and dialogue)?

I think Toei revoking the DB license from Funimation will do a lot of damage to the Dragon Ball franchise in countries where Funimation had the license.

I'm sure Dragon Ball would survive fine in territories Crunchyroll/Funimation had the license or companies that became part of their global monopoly were based (like Manga UK and Madman for the British Isles and Oceania respectively) because any other anime distributors would kill to have the Dragon Ball license.

Even in this severely unlikely scenario another company got the license I don't think it would be a problem using the existing dub. Maybe some royalties would need to be paid but those could be easily made back.

If Anime Limited got the rights they would produce a beautiful looking box set for the UK and Ireland with art cards, posters, booklets and it would sell like hot cakes. Then they would release standards, which would quickly be snapped up and go on the companies buy one, get one free sales (which they do three times a year, with the biggest sale being at Christmas).

Discotek would put out the series in regular amarays with Funimation's raws as the video tracks along with the broadcast audio, and it would still beat everything Funimation has ever released. That too would sell like crazy. A Discotek release would be the dream, if any company would go after the Canadian (Westwood/Blue Water) or Southeast Asian (Creative Corp Products, Animax) English dubs of Dragon Ball it's them.

[90sDBZ]

This must be the 3rd or 4th time this question has been posted here this year.

It's simply never going to happen.

I mean why would it suddenly happen now after all these years of huge financial success for both companies?

The franchise has enjoyed enormous success and continues to do so. They're not going to throw that away just because of a few disgruntled fans online.

[jjgp1112]

Of course, they are incredibly likely to revoke the license from a company that has consistently raked in boatloads of cash on it for nearly three decades because a vocal minority of fans don't like their dub.

They had no problem with the dub when it was at its dirt worst in 1999. They had no problem with the Orange Bricks, which were by far the most egregious of the bad releases. Toei's own releases of the series in recent years haven't exactly been the picture of quality.

So they're gonna walk away from them now why, exactly?

[GhostEmperorX]

To add to a lot of what's been said above, Toei has generally made some massively dumb decisions in a consistent pattern of who to license their anime to in the US, from the likes of Harmony Gold and Saban to DiC and 4Kids (2 of those now defunct and 1 effectively out of business but for IP trolling). And even in the 2010's at least one of those was still active with terrible, outdated localizations of two of their anime series.
FUNimation may have been spectacularly bad even among those ridiculous choices (because they were completely unqualified when they got it), but they ended up at least trying to correct course, short-lived as it was in certain areas (when certain players like Barry Watson parted ways with the company).

The only times that quality in dubs of Toei series (for their anime adapted from manga at least) was actually enforced was when authors (such as Takeuchi and Oda) stepped in directly when the dubs for their series were being redone. Toriyama when he was alive never did this because it evidently wasn't a concern for him.

And in general, Toei has never really cared that much for the niche crowd or for the presentation of all their older pre-digital animation series (except Slam Dunk, amazingly enough), unless it was a series like Fist of the North Star or something where they practically didn't even have the option to go the hack job route in the first place.

[Hellspawn28]

Funimation/CR make too much money from the franchise. If they are making money from it, they are not going to lose the IP.