Dragon Ball Daima English Dub Release

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

The English dub of Daima officially dropped for streaming yesterday and I'm baffled by the handling of its release.
Just to be clear I'm not the target demographic for the dub. I just wanted to check out the first 2 episodes as a curiosity to compare a few scenes and see how the new cast handled their characters. But, Toei/Crunchyroll are releasing dubbed episodes weekly 1 at a time. I'm not surprised by this approach since they probably want it to mirror the Japanese release, but I find it odd that they only released episode 1. They already showed the first 3 episodes dubbed in select movie theaters so I figured that all 3 would be released to get things rolling once the dub got its streaming release.
I've read from some people online that Toei isn't big on simuldub releases of their TV anime. I'm not familiar enough with Toei's library to judge, but it seems backwards from a marketing perspective. Having a dub closer to the release of the Japanese version would get more people watching. And, even if the 3 episodes they showed in theaters got released at the same time yesterday the Japanese version would still be 10 episodes ahead. I just can't understand the thought process.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'm conflicted, I understand people's frustration as it cheapens the general release of the dub to not even have the 3 episodes shown in theatres released in one go.

On the other hand I'm a bit fatigued with the vast inundation of content we've seen from platforms like Netflix dumping whole seasons in one go I appreciate getting stuff gradually, and being able to watch an episode a week allows time to take it in, build excitement for further episodes, speculate, etc.

Ideally this should have been simuldubbed, as the 40th anniversary celebration of Dragon Ball and the legacy of Akira Toriyama it would have been the perfect show to have a large global push as we saw with Super Broly.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

It should have been simuldubbed since Dragon Ball is such a huge property and having it available in 2 languages out the gate would've been great for getting more people invested. Even if Toei still wanted to do the limited theatrical release of episodes 1-3 they could have just released the dub after they had aired those episodes in Japanese, done their theatrical showings, then started simuldubbing the show's release from there.
Nerds like me would still just watch the show in Japanese anyway.

[LettuceJUMP]

Wonder when the english dub will make it to netflix. Hoping it will be today, a week after the crunchyroll schedule.

[fadeddreams5]

I've always preferred Dragon Ball dubbed, but man...I am not digging a lot of these voices. Mainly, Piccolo's.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I got the chance to spot check some of the new voices for the English dub of Daima and the results are interesting. I say interesting because some of the actors for the "mini" characters sound more like the pre Kai era casts than they do the current actors. Mini Bulma sounds much more like Tiffany Valmer than she sounds like Monica Rial. Mini Vegeta's voice constantly teeters between sounding vaguely like Chris Sabat to more often sounding like Brian Drummond. Which isn't a comment on the new actor's ability, it's a comment on the unfortunate fact that the English dub voice for Vegeta has always been an exaggerated cartoon voice since its inception. Regardless of any actor's ability to perform in that voice. Also the mini Kuririn voice is grating. I really don't understand the thought process behind that one. Mini Piccolo doesn't really sound like any of the prior voices to me.

[TechExpert2021]

To those asking why the Crunchyroll English dub of Dragon Ball Daima isn't available on Crunchyroll in the UK and Ireland, I think I have a reason why.

The American branch of Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (Toei Animation Inc.) only serves the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. They don't serve the UK and Ireland, because Toei Animation's European branch (Toei Animation Europe S.A.S.) serves those countries along with other European countries. The same reason could be applied to why Europe wasn't initially listed as one of the countries that'll be getting the official Dragon Ball Daima simulcast on Crunchyroll when the official Crunchyroll simulcast was initially announced back in September (about less than a month before Daima premiered) until they actually did maybe a few weeks later or so (I don't remember when).

I could be wrong on any of this though.

[jjgp1112]

It should have been simuldubbed since Dragon Ball is such a huge property and having it available in 2 languages out the gate would've been great for getting more people invested. Even if Toei still wanted to do the limited theatrical release of episodes 1-3 they could have just released the dub after they had aired those episodes in Japanese, done their theatrical showings, then started simuldubbing the show's release from there.
Nerds like me would still just watch the show in Japanese anyway.

You are absolutely correct but you're forgetting one thing: Toei has to be dragged kicking and screaming into every modern development

But yeah, for real, no excuse in 2024 not to have simuldubbed this. They missed the window of buzz

As far as the dub goes: Krillin's voice...weird choice but he's not significant so whatever. Laurie Steele was on the older side so I'm not surprised she didn't reprise it but they couldn't have gotten somebody to imitate it? Piccolo's voice is a bit jarring but I got used to it, and honestly as great as Monica Rial is the kid Bulma voice is so good I wouldn't mind her taking over the adult role either! Stephanie Nadolny sounds a bit rusty but that's to be expected

[jjgp1112]

Can't edit now, but double posting to say Nadolny is much better in episode 3!

[90sDBZ]

It's stupid that once again the UK gets messed around when it comes to the dub. I guess we'll just have to wait for the eventual Blu-ray release.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

It's stupid that once again the UK gets messed around when it comes to the dub. I guess we'll just have to wait for the eventual Blu-ray release.

There are "other" ways to check out the dub that I can't recommend since you have no other option.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's stupid that once again the UK gets messed around when it comes to the dub. I guess we'll just have to wait for the eventual Blu-ray release.

There are "other" ways to check out the dub that I can't recommend since you have no other option.

We all know sailing the high seas is an option, albeit not an advised one. It does suck for fans wanting to support the dub as the last piece of Dragon Ball content to hit Netflix UK - Super Broly was also subbed only, despite the fact they had no problem getting Battle of Gods and Resurrection F dubbed and subbed.

[jjgp1112]

Episode 7 might be the first time the Funi Dub has ever used "ki."

[Mr Baggins]

I binged the show again after watching the final episode yesterday, starting with the 8 dub episodes released so far.

Stellar performances and voice directing across the board, and I can now say with complete confidence that bringing back Nadolny was 100% the right call. Outside of the modern movies, I haven't enjoyed a Dragon Ball dub this much since Kai.

Good shit.

[MasenkoHA]

Episode 7 might be the first time the Funi Dub has ever used "ki."

Damm. It took them nearly 30 years but they did it. They finally did it.

I feel like the proud parent of a D student getting their first C.

[Mr Baggins]

Having rewatched 'Thieves' for the third time now, this has cemented itself as one of my favorite Daima episodes.

I like them all, of course, but this was the show really firing on all cylinders and packing in just about everything that makes it great into a single sitting. It also rivals 13 in whimsy scenery.

And dare I say it? Dismuke > Uchiyama.

[TechExpert2021]

Episode 7 might be the first time the Funi Dub has ever used "ki."

They finally did it. What an amazing achievement.

I hope Funimation/Crunchyroll will retire the use of the word "energy" for Ki in their future English dubs of future DB anime/film productions.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I binged the show again after watching the final episode yesterday, starting with the 8 dub episodes released so far.

Stellar performances and voice directing across the board, and I can now say with complete confidence that bringing back Nadolny was 100% the right call. Outside of the modern movies, I haven't enjoyed a Dragon Ball dub this much since Kai.

Good shit.

She sounds very solid in the role to me. I've only spot checked a few episodes, but it seems that once she found her groove with this new ADR director that she's been on point. The last thing I checked was the Tamagami fight, and I have to give her props for being able to portray a wide array of emotions (wide for Goku anyway) in that episode. I've said elsewhere that if I could cast any actor as Kid Goku I'd like to hear Melissa Fahn (Edward from Cowboy Bebop) take a crack at it, but I can't deny that Stephanie has done a good job here.

[TechExpert2021]

Sorry for the necropost, but I want to ask this:

Why has the English dub of Daima never been a simuldub in the first place? Other anime on Crunchyroll got simuldubs, so I don't understand why Dragon Ball Daima has never gotten a simuldub. Or is Toei against simuldubs of their animated productions?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Sorry for the necropost, but I want to ask this:

Why has the English dub of Daima never been a simuldub in the first place? Other anime on Crunchyroll got simuldubs, so I don't understand why Dragon Ball Daima has never gotten a simuldub. Or is Toei against simuldubs of their animated productions?

Progress doesn't seem to be a priority for TOEI, and if it happens it's a happy accident.

• Kai was released in Japan in April 2009 and the US in May 2010 (13 months) but Super was released in Japan in July 2015 and the US in January 2017 (18 months)
• Broly was released in English-speaking territories a month after Japan, but for Super Hero it was two months

I guess we should be grateful that Daima got such a widespread subbed release only a week after the episodes premiered on Fuji TV. It was a huge improvement over Super where the simulcast came over a year later.