Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 16; Still Unreleased

[TVfan721]

There was once a video up that showed the final five seconds of the actual opening to Ocean Kai, with the lyrics "This is what I was born to be" from the demo reel of someone who worked on producing the TV edit of it, but the YouTube channel it was uploaded to was either shut down or taken down. (Possibly a YouTube copyright false-positive or two was triggered by the guy's use of copyrighted clips in his demo reels)
Either way, I saved a local copy of it, so here's the snippet in question.

Either way, the Ocean dub of Kai uses a replacement score (which, once it's released, will finally give us an alternative to the awful plagiarism of the Yamamoto score and the awful repetition of the Kai Kikuchi score), and that includes the OP.

It's been years since I was last here on these forums in any meaningful capacity but I find it interesting that after 3 years, this piece of information was entirely ignored and forgotten about. It's not even mentioned on the Lost Media wikipage for this production. Whether or not the clip is only 5 seconds, an actual piece of this bizarre lost production was found.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

There was once a video up that showed the final five seconds of the actual opening to Ocean Kai, with the lyrics "This is what I was born to be" from the demo reel of someone who worked on producing the TV edit of it, but the YouTube channel it was uploaded to was either shut down or taken down. (Possibly a YouTube copyright false-positive or two was triggered by the guy's use of copyrighted clips in his demo reels)
Either way, I saved a local copy of it, so here's the snippet in question.

Either way, the Ocean dub of Kai uses a replacement score (which, once it's released, will finally give us an alternative to the awful plagiarism of the Yamamoto score and the awful repetition of the Kai Kikuchi score), and that includes the OP.

It's been years since I was last here on these forums in any meaningful capacity but I find it interesting that after 3 years, this piece of information was entirely ignored and forgotten about. It's not even mentioned on the Lost Media wikipage for this production. Whether or not the clip is only 5 seconds, an actual piece of this bizarre lost production was found.

I've mentioned it and linked it to other fans privately mostly because it sounds a lot better than the cheesy "fight with courage, fight with honour, fight on Dragon Ball Z.... Kai" song.

[M0nsoon07]

Oh yeah for sure! I think the 'fight with courage... etc' opening was fanmade or something as saw that in the bio of the youtube vid it was from? May be wrong tho.

Unfortunately no update on meeting but hopefully soon!

[LostTimeLord]

There was once a video up that showed the final five seconds of the actual opening to Ocean Kai, with the lyrics "This is what I was born to be" from the demo reel of someone who worked on producing the TV edit of it, but the YouTube channel it was uploaded to was either shut down or taken down. (Possibly a YouTube copyright false-positive or two was triggered by the guy's use of copyrighted clips in his demo reels)
Either way, I saved a local copy of it, so here's the snippet in question.

I never knew about that titbit of Ocean Kai!
If someone was able to include clips in a show-reel, then logically some footage must have left Ocean's vaults. Of course, that footage could literally have just been the opening titles. And good luck convincing someone to jeopardise their career so that you can watch an alternative Dragon Ball dub.

Also, not to get too far off topic, but it's entirely possible that Ocean's copies of their own Kai dub are on videotape (i.e. DigiBeta or something similar), particularly if they only edited their version in SD.

I think the 'fight with courage... etc' opening was fanmade or something as saw that in the bio of the youtube vid it was from? May be wrong tho.

The actual music came from a portfolio of cartoon openings on singer Dave Steele's website (https://web.archive.org/web/20140310204 ... /cartoons/). Steele had performed Funimation's original Dragon Ball theme in the early '90s, so it's reasonable to assume that it's official in some way and the most obvious explanation is that it was commissioned for Ocean's Kai dub.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Dave Steele did answer a fan's question about the song thought to be the Ocean Kai theme, but unfortunately he didn't recall if it was just a demo or the final track, although considering there is seemingly another OP the latter seems more likely than the former.

All Steele recalled was that he was hired to sing it in 2009 so it seems like it was in the very early days of Ocean Kai's pre-production, which a lot could have changed since, even in the 4-5 years this dub was being worked on.

[Robo4900]

If someone was able to include clips in a show-reel, then logically some footage must have left Ocean's vaults. Of course, that footage could literally have just been the opening titles.

I mean. Ocean has it. It's not lost media in the sense that, say, London After Midnight is lost. It's "lost" in the same sense that certain segments/episodes of Sesame Street are (or have been) "lost", or that a certain episode or two of the Blue Water dub of OG Dragon Ball was "lost" for a time -- the actual existence of these things has never been in doubt. We know it exists, there has never been any reason to believe the material was junked -- in fact, an acquaintance of mine had a phone call with Ken Morrison of Ocean a while back, and Ken confirmed to him that, in fact, everything Ocean has ever had in regards to Dragon Ball (right down to the original session tapes as far back as, like, 1997-ish) is safely archived.
We know from email correspondence that SX10 shouldn't have been in on, but was accidentally dealt into, that while Toei's sales rep will point out Ocean's version is only 98 episodes (compared to Funi's 167), she'd happily sell the Ocean episodes to a TV broadcaster if it was requested, and why not, the customer is always right in matters of taste -- but this particular broadcaster never launched (and, given it was a new linear TV channel aimed at kids during the streaming boom, I'm surprised it was ever on the cards anyway).

Ocean Kai is "lost media" in the far more common sense that it's used today -- in that it's not actually lost, just elusive. Equally frustrating though, if not moreso, since the only thing stopping us from enjoying this piece of art -- or just media, if you're feeling reductive -- is rich rightsholders refusing to play ball because someone else might make money that they could be earning instead. Literally the only barrier is that it would need a home media release (not happening since Funi handles all that in all English-speaking territories), a TV broadcast (not happening since anywhere that would air it isn't airing anime on TV), or a streaming release (not happening because Netflix prefers new IP, and the only service that does anything with anime is Crunchyroll, which is Funimation).
It's a finished product that could release any day -- if there was an outlet for it. Which, sadly, there isn't. I'd love to be proven wrong (fucking hell, please someone prove me wrong; I wanna see this thing!), but there is no reason to believe we'll see Ocean Kai in this lifetime (again, I gladly welcome being proven wrong; nay, I encourage it).
Funi could put out a special DVD release today, but they won't. They never will.

Anyway, that aside -- yes, it surprises me that people don't make any sort of big deal out of that clip. I suspect part of it is because that "Fight with courage, fight with honour" etc. one sounds really awful, so people like to use it as a way to cope with Ocean Kai's elusiveness -- "we can't be missing out if it's as bad as this." (When, from the very beginning, it was never certain it was actually used -- and I suspect that, indeed, it never was used in the finished product.)
But it is kind of huge that we do literally have a 5-second clip of this thing that's otherwise so obscure.

(FWIW if anyone wants to feel useful amid my doom and gloom -- go email the BBC about getting Ocean Kai and putting it on iPlayer alongside their other anime like Dragon Quest and One Piece. I've given up, but if any of you out there still care enough to send emails and bother people -- that's probably the way to go.)

[GhostEmperorX]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?
(And if not, it's one more strike against Toei for being as hands-off as they usually tend to be.)

Unsure how the logistics of that would even pan out though, given what went down in 2011.

[JulieYBM]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?
(And if not, it's one more strike against Toei for being as hands-off as they usually tend to be.)

Unsure how the logistics of that would even pan out though, given what went down in 2011.

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

[AlexSketchy04]

If someone was able to include clips in a show-reel, then logically some footage must have left Ocean's vaults. Of course, that footage could literally have just been the opening titles.

an acquaintance of mine had a phone call with Ken Morrison of Ocean a while back, and Ken confirmed to him that, in fact, everything Ocean has ever had in regards to Dragon Ball (right down to the original session tapes as far back as, like, 1997-ish) is safely archived.

Crazy to know they still have seasons 1-2 sessions, although, I don't know why they are on tape when the show was always recorded digitally to disk using the DAR Soundstation, unless mixing needed to be done with a different equipment.

[AlexSketchy04]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?
(And if not, it's one more strike against Toei for being as hands-off as they usually tend to be.)

Unsure how the logistics of that would even pan out though, given what went down in 2011.

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

[JulieYBM]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?
(And if not, it's one more strike against Toei for being as hands-off as they usually tend to be.)

Unsure how the logistics of that would even pan out though, given what went down in 2011.

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

Aah, interesting. I wonder how that factors in to doing alternative line readings, then.

[Scsigs]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?
(And if not, it's one more strike against Toei for being as hands-off as they usually tend to be.)

Unsure how the logistics of that would even pan out though, given what went down in 2011.

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

I remember the reason Peter Kalemis left Z is because they refused to count his screams as lines & didn't pay him adequately for his recordings as a result, so maybe it's somewhere in the middle?

[MasenkoHA]

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

I remember the reason Peter Kalemis left Z is because they refused to count his screams as lines & didn't pay him adequately for his recordings as a result, so maybe it's somewhere in the middle?

That’s the reason Ian Corlett left. Peter Kelamis left because he was busy with other projects in LA and dubbing was low priority because it paid worse than on screen acting and prelay voice work

[LostTimeLord]

I mean. Ocean has it. It's not lost media in the sense that, say, London After Midnight is lost.

I never called the Ocean dub "lost media", or suggested that it was at risk of being junked. Slightly earlier in the thread, a few people had speculated that it would be impossible for the dub to leak, which the existence of that showreel clip seems to disprove. Presumably, the uploader must have had a personal copy of Ocean Kai clip(s) in order to include one in their showreel. That is hypothetically where a leak could come from.

Anyway, that aside -- yes, it surprises me that people don't make any sort of big deal out of that clip.

I think the reason is that a single line doesn't really give you a sense of how the full thing sounded, whereas it's pretty easy to picture the full "fight with courage" theme after listening to its 22-second sample.

[TVfan721]

I found this tweet from Lee from 2022. Unfortunately, the youtube link he is replying to no longer works as the account in question got terminated but he at least seemed to think it was Ocean Kai footage and featured his work.

https://x.com/leetockar/status/1523414929948114944

[AlexSketchy04]

I'm going to guess no, because they pay by the word in Canada, if memory serves.

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

Aah, interesting. I wonder how that factors in to doing alternative line readings, then.

I can only speak as a Latin American Spanish Dubbing producer, but it doesn't really count much(?, you still get paid on lines that are used.

It does depend on the client and if that's covered, normally it is, it also depends on Union restrictions, the International Latam dubbing industry doesn't go by Unions, but voice work in Canada is almost entirely Union.

[JulieYBM]

Never did VO in Canada, but I recall some actors mentioned at that point they were paying per hour rather than the line / loop

Aah, interesting. I wonder how that factors in to doing alternative line readings, then.

I can only speak as a Latin American Spanish Dubbing producer, but it doesn't really count much(?, you still get paid on lines that are used.

It does depend on the client and if that's covered, normally it is, it also depends on Union restrictions, the International Latam dubbing industry doesn't go by Unions, but voice work in Canada is almost entirely Union.

Aah, I see! Thanks for the insight, I can see how that might work out.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I found this tweet from Lee from 2022. Unfortunately, the youtube link he is replying to no longer works as the account in question got terminated but he at least seemed to think it was Ocean Kai footage and featured his work.

https://x.com/leetockar/status/1523414929948114944

That was a fan made clip of the Ocean actors in Resurrection F. monsoonx4 has done a few videos like that for other revival era material like Super Broly. NitroEX even got some of the old voices to perform lines from the movie at SaiyaCon. It's neat to see how these scenes would play out with actors like Peter Kelamis and Brian Drummond, even just as a curiosity.

[Robo4900]

Now wait just a minute here...
With all this talk of alternate OP's, BGM, and whatnot... was there ever going to be an uncut version of this dub?

There's no reason to believe there was going to be – except that SubZeroIce claimed there was some consideration put into it. But, given it was (as with all of Ocean's other Dragon Ball work aside from the Pioneer movies) produced for TV, there would have been no reason to produce an uncut version, no. It's theoretically possible they wrote extra lines for the actors to deliver in case there was ever a reason to make an uncut version, but there's no reason to believe this happened.

It's a TV dub, just like Westwood Z, just like the Blue Water dubs. There is no reason to think an uncut version ever existed.

Crazy to know they still have seasons 1-2 sessions, although, I don't know why they are on tape when the show was always recorded digitally to disk using the DAR Soundstation, unless mixing needed to be done with a different equipment.

I said 1997-ish – I don't actually know if they have the Saban-era sessions. I would guess they don't – but they might. Certainly everything from the Pioneer movies onward, they would have. They might have stuff from as far back as Saban season 2, since Ocean was brought in as a producer, but season 1, Ocean was just the recording studio I believe. They did always distribute the show to Canada in that era, so it's not impossible they also have the season 1 recordings... but I doubt it.

That’s the reason Ian Corlett left. Peter Kelamis left because he was busy with other projects in LA and dubbing was low priority because it paid worse than on screen acting and prelay voice work

Nearly right. Peter said in a more recent interview that there was a break in recording, so he scheduled other work, and when Ocean called up to resume recording, he wasn't available anymore, since he'd scheduled this other work. But I think the truth lies in some combination of all of that – he was scheduling other work, and moving on, and then Ocean called after not booking him in a while, he'd filled his calender with LA work, so they had to replace him.

[GhostEmperorX]

There's no reason to believe there was going to be – except that SubZeroIce claimed there was some consideration put into it. But, given it was (as with all of Ocean's other Dragon Ball work aside from the Pioneer movies) produced for TV, there would have been no reason to produce an uncut version, no. It's theoretically possible they wrote extra lines for the actors to deliver in case there was ever a reason to make an uncut version, but there's no reason to believe this happened.

It's a TV dub, just like Westwood Z, just like the Blue Water dubs. There is no reason to think an uncut version ever existed.

Never knew before, but I guess aside from acting there might not have been that much to even look forward to.

(BTW, I realize you're no longer a regular here, but I wonder if you have time for one other small topic...)