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

[Scsigs]

Y'know, as someone born in '97 who grew up mainly with Funimation's replacement cast, is it just me or do I think, well, it's time to just give up on this dub ever releasing? I admit I'm biased for having grown up with the replacement cast, but to me, we already have the Kai English dub through Funimation's version. I get the appeal of wanting to hear the Ocean actors get the Kai treatment, but even Brian Drummond admitted he didn't go as hard for the screams as he did back in the day. And at the very least, we got to hear him return as Copy Vegeta.

As someone who's been campaigning for Funimation and now Crunchyroll to dub Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans, and Episode of Bardock, I realize that time has passed and it's no longer anywhere near Crunchyroll's interest to dub those. And then there's the rights issues regarding the 2008 special being from Shuiesha. But yeah, I think it's time to just move on from waiting for this because even if it got aired, we'd never get an official home release anyway. I know all the episodes would be archived by fans, though, so that'd be nice, but again, it doesn't seem like it will ever air.

On the other hand, as someone who deeply loves the Kai part of the DB franchise for getting me back into it when I was 13 back in 2010, it is nice to see that after the waiting for the Kai Buu Saga dub kept Kai alive, now Ocean Kai is doing the same thing. But unlike the Buu Kai dub, the Ocean Kai dub seems to have ZERO chance of ever releasing. Some things we just have to let go, I think. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but that's just my two cents. I mean, this thread only ever gets updated after a random Ocean actor says an off hand comment and someone reports that as news. I'm probably sounding very callous right now, but it is what it is.

I mean, even the fact that this thread was retitled to add "Still Unreleased" speaks VOLUMES.

Ocean Kai is just sitting on a hard drive somewhere in Ocean's HQ. I feel like the only way it'll eventually get out is from either a data leak from a hacking or someone at Ocean leaking it on to torrenting websites. I know people have wanted this to air on Canadian TV, but considering this is a decade & a half old dub, Toei doesn't see any use in releasing it because the US cast has become the default & definitive English cast for them, & they don't see the point in having more than 1 English dub of the series, plus no Canadian TV stations seem that interested in actually airing it, I think it's time the holdouts give up. I'd love to hear it too, but it's just not realistic at this point.

Yo Son Goku & His Friends Return will never be licensed or dubbed, I'm sorry, man. Otherwise it would've been by now. It was contracted & made for an anime tour, Toei animated it & their voice cast supplied the voice recordings, & Shueisha also owns part of the rights to it because it was made for an anniversary thing where they had a bunch of OVAs made for anime productions of their mangas. If those rights issues could be resolved to license & dub it, I think they would've by now 16 years later. Especially because it's a fan favorite.
Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans, I'm surprised wasn't dubbed for Raging Blast 2, which it was animated for & they even had an English voice for Hachiyack in it. Same with Episode of Bardock for DBZ For Kinect. Even if they're not that great, it's always baffled me that they were never dubbed into English for those games even if they couldn't release them on regular Blu-Rays over here. They'd have the dubbing tracks & they're not that long, so I'd think it would've been a no-brainer to have the crew at FUNimation dub the OVAs when the voice actors were recording their lines for the games. I think that certainly would've sold a few more copies of DBZ For Kinect since that game was a flaming pile of dogshit otherwise that needed all the help it could get.

Buu Kai was always going to get released. It just didn't right away because Toei apparently wanted a TV airing & the only channel that could; Toonami, was busy getting through the first 98 episodes first, otherwise it would've come out much quicker.

[8000 Saiyan]

I've lost all faith in this dub ever coming out.

Sure, it would have been nice to hear Drummond and McNeil again, and even Carol Anne Day as Bulma, but the chances of this ever coming out are so, so, so SLIM.

[JulieYBM]

If we just stop bumping this thread, nobody would really think about this thing lol

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If we just stop bumping this thread, nobody would really think about this thing lol

Well, as Diana Gage said herself fans should make their voices heard and let it be known they want to see this dub. As I recall Anime Time Machine said the same thing at the end of one of their livestreams. Basically nothing is a guarantee but discussion about this dub and how it could potentially be seen never hurts.

It's been said on here that as long as Ocean doesn't destroy the masters there is always a chance, however slim, that this dub will see the light of day. I'll never give up wanting it to be seen, although I understand the difficulty with having any faith at this stage.

It really is a shame that WOW Unlimited's linear channel never launched as that was the golden opportunity, or if Toon-A-Vision had the money TOEI was likely asking for the license.

And no, it will never let it leak. Saffron Henderson said in one of the livestreams that would never happen because Ocean are very strict about properties that belong to other companies (such as TOEI) and not themselves.

[Kirbopher]

I interviewed Scott and we talked about it. He remembered nothing of significance or about anything we didn't already know, which was what I expected.

But, here's your one nugget: I had him perform this scene we've never heard him perform as Piccolo, using the Kai script.