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

[Scsigs]

Is this known, or is it speculation?

It started out as a speculation but then was confirmed by Ocean's Diana Gage.

What do we actually know about Ocean's Dragon Ball license?

Not much besides that FUNimation doesn't have anything to do with it. They weren't involved in any way in Ocean Kai's production. Their only relation was they borrowed the edited masters from Ocean for the Nicktoons broadcast and that's all.

If I recall correctly, besides Ocean and Toei, there was this company named IPP involved in this dub. Maybe Robo4900 or SX10 can confirm or correct this.

FUNi contracted Ocean to help them with visual edits for the edited TV broadcasts. They didn't "borrow" anything from them. Ocean is even credited in the English credits of Kai (at least in the TV airings) for that. My assumption is that that was because FUNi still contracted Ocean to help out with scripts & content edits for Z back in the day, which is why the Ocean dub of the rest of Z was based on the same scripts FUNi used & some of the new voices they had to have the actors do were also based on the FUNi ones. So, Ocean would've had the raw episode masters from that as a result, imo.

[Tian]

FUNi contracted Ocean to help them with visual edits for the edited TV broadcasts. They didn't "borrow" anything from them.

Did you forget the very important fact that Sean Schemmel watched Ocean Kai and then said shit about the music effects and soundtrack?

"Here is why the Ocean group dub will suck. And it has nothing to do with the actors as I have enormous respect for all of them. As far as I know, the Ocean group dub is going to have this really shitty music (some of which I have heard) and a whole host of added sound effects such as "doinks" and "boinks" and even in one scene, where Bulma simply turns her head in a conversation you hear a "whoosh" sound ala a bad martial arts movie. We are giving you the purest DBZ experience possible, and if you don't like that, then you don't like DBZ.

And unless he was lying, this suggests that at some point, FUNimation had found out about and had access to the Ocean Kai masters. The same masters that not even the Ocean actors were able to watch.

The guys at FUNimation clearly didn't watch those masters for fun but they had to preview what material they were going to working on for the TV broadcast.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Did you forget the very important fact that Sean Schemmel watched Ocean Kai and then said shit about the music effects and soundtrack?

Well we don't know if Schemmel watched a completed episode of Ocean Kai, or even just a tiny clip. It's possible that he just heard the sound effects and isolated tracks from the musical score. The thought crossed my mind that Ocean may have offered Funimation the option of using their score for the Nicktoons airings, which they obviously would have declined as Funimation stopped doing replacement soundtracks by 2010.

I wish someone had of asked Schemmel at the time what context did he hear the Ocean Kai score in, as it may have been something so minor as someone telling him in passing that he could easily have forgot by now. For what it's worth Schemmel did say when he was asked about Ocean Kai that he hadn't seen it, so unless he was trying to avoid getting into trouble his words could have all been stuff he heard about through the grapevine (him saying "as far as I know" also hints this may have been the scenario), or relayed to him by Sabat (who as Funimation's ADR director may have been in on some pitch meeting where the aforementioned scene of Bulma moving her head was shown).

[Scsigs]

FUNi contracted Ocean to help them with visual edits for the edited TV broadcasts. They didn't "borrow" anything from them.

Did you forget the very important fact that Sean Schemmel watched Ocean Kai and then said shit about the music effects and soundtrack?

"Here is why the Ocean group dub will suck. And it has nothing to do with the actors as I have enormous respect for all of them. As far as I know, the Ocean group dub is going to have this really shitty music (some of which I have heard) and a whole host of added sound effects such as "doinks" and "boinks" and even in one scene, where Bulma simply turns her head in a conversation you hear a "whoosh" sound ala a bad martial arts movie. We are giving you the purest DBZ experience possible, and if you don't like that, then you don't like DBZ.

And unless he was lying, this suggests that at some point, FUNimation had found out about and had access to the Ocean Kai masters. The same masters that not even the Ocean actors were able to watch.

The guys at FUNimation clearly didn't watch those masters for fun but they had to preview what material they were going to working on for the TV broadcast.

I mean, it's very possible he watched the old Ocean dub of Z & grew a hatred of those specific liberties in it, then expected the Ocean dub of Kai to do the same thing. That's also not exactly indication that FUNi had the audio that Ocean was recording for Kai. Why would they? It's very possible someone showed him it, or something leaked & he heard it through that. I mean, there was that leak of the theme song a while ago that no one liked. Sean's also kind of a dick when it comes to this kind of shit with DB. He once had no apparent issue with Team Four Star, then later said he didn't watch them & thought what they were doing was copyright infringement, saying that Toei asked them to stop even though they didn't & he was either getting copyright strikes or a takedown of 1 of their posters at a con years ago with an actual C&D, which never happened. He also temporarily got Peter Kalemis uninvited from a con once, but reneged on that when Peter posted a tweet aluding to it being Sean who did it, then they worked it out. Sean's really odd & inconsistent when it comes to this shit, man.

Also, no. I didn't know Sean said that. I don't pay attention to every single interview these people have. Don't assume, man.

[Tian]

That's also not exactly indication that FUNi had the audio that Ocean was recording for Kai. Why would they? It's very possible someone showed him it, or something leaked & he heard it through that.

Well, video and audio masters can either come together or separate.

Back when FUNi started recording in-house, they had to borrow masters from Intertrack (the dubbing studio that recorded the LatAm Spanish dub) because Toei wouldn't give them copies of the original Japanese masters.

Sabat confirmed in a Kamehacon panel (the one he shared with Brian Drummond and René García) that both audio and video came together in those masters since he mentioned that he heard René García's voice before the audio was removed.

The Ocean masters probably came to FUNimation that way as well.

I mean, there was that leak of the theme song a while ago that no one liked.

Ah, the one recorded by David Steele. It's not bad but it doesn't fit Dragon Ball at all. It sounds too western cartoony, even for Ocean standards.

It's a good thing they have replaced it for the final version.

Sean's also kind of a dick when it comes to this kind of shit with DB.

Yep, I'm aware of that. The guy seems to be overprotective of Goku.

Strangely enough, he didn't have any problem with and even gave his blessing to Lex Lang when Bang Zoom recorded their alternate dub of Super.

So it seems this overprotective behaviour is limited to his Canadian counterparts (Ian James, Peter, Kirby and probably Jeremiah Yurk as well).

Also, no. I didn't know Sean said that. I don't pay attention to every single interview these people have. Don't assume, man.

Oh, sorry about that. I thought it was common knowledge since it's one of the things that led to the reveal of the existence of this dub.

[Scsigs]

That's also not exactly indication that FUNi had the audio that Ocean was recording for Kai. Why would they? It's very possible someone showed him it, or something leaked & he heard it through that.

Well, video and audio masters can either come together or separate.

Back when FUNi started recording in-house, they had to borrow masters from Intertrack (the dubbing studio that recorded the LatAm Spanish dub) because Toei wouldn't give them copies of the original Japanese masters.

Sabat confirmed in a Kamehacon panel (the one he shared with Brian Drummond and René García) that both audio and video came together in those masters since he mentioned that he heard René García's voice before the audio was removed.

The Ocean masters probably came to FUNimation that way as well.

I mean, I don't think that's how that worked at all for Kai. Back in the 90s, that makes sense for FUNi to get the video masters for the episodes from Intertrack since they had to dub the episodes as soon as possible for Toonami & they were in the area rather than wait for them to arrive from Toei, who're notoriously slow to respond to their international licensers even today for no reason. Especially because back then, Toei would've been shipping them VHS tapes from Japan & the dubbing tracks with just the sound effects or the Japanese audio. However, for Kai, I assume that Toei would've started licensing the episodes to their international partners within 6 months to a year after the Japanese broadcast started. FUNimation would've then got a DVD or a hard drive with the episodes, dubbing tracks, & Japanese audio straight from Toei. I'm assuming Ocean would've gotten the masters from FUNimation because they helped edit the visuals for the Vortex & Nicktoons airings, then began producing their dub for any European or Canadian licensers or broadcasters (AB Groupe or something) interested in an English dub, but not wanting to import FUNi's dub. That would make sense since they also produced dubs for DB & GT for Canada & English-speaking Europe. Now, we know that didn't happen because the dub hasn't made it off Ocean's hard drives yet & probably never will unless a disgruntled employee somehow does a data leak, which isn't likely to happen.
More than likely, Ocean got their masters from FUNi is my point here. I mean, they had the Z masters from FUNi because they were still helping with scripts & visual edits back then & the scripts for the Ocean dub of the rest of Z were based on FUNi's scripts for the episodes & even some of the voices their actors did were clearly based on FUNi's as well.

Sean's also kind of a dick when it comes to this kind of shit with DB.

Yep, I'm aware of that. The guy seems to be overprotective of Goku.

Strangely enough, he didn't have any problem with and even gave his blessing to Lex Lang when Bang Zoom recorded their alternate dub of Super.

So it seems this overprotective behaviour is limited to his Canadian counterparts (Ian James, Peter, Kirby and probably Jeremiah Yurk as well).

When Sean explained it in his interview with Geekdom101, he said it was because he didn't want people unfamiliar with the alternate dubs of DB to mistake Peter for him & him to take credit for his work, even accidentally. I'm sure Peter wouldn't have done so, but that's what he said. Now, Sean should've been more adult & just contacted Peter over that because it's literally not such a big issue & Peter would've more than likely understood & obliged, but Sean had to act like a dick about it for some reason.
The only person he holds with any reverence for Goku is Masako Nozawa for some reason. Even though Ian & Peter came before him & he was hired because FUNi couldn't afford the Ocean cast without Saban's money & he sounded enough like Peter's take on Goku to fill in for him so the kids at home hopefully wouldn't notice. It's so dumb.

[LostTimeLord]

I'm assuming Ocean would've gotten the masters from FUNimation because they helped edit the visuals for the Vortex & Nicktoons airings, then began producing their dub for any European or Canadian licensers or broadcasters (AB Groupe or something) interested in an English dub, but not wanting to import FUNi's dub.

I thought it was established that the edited version was initially made for Ocean's own dub (hence "Tenkaichi Budokai" slipping into episode one's recap). Why would Funimation outsource that to Ocean, when they'd been making their own edits a few years earlier?

Assuming that Funimation did use an edited master intended for Ocean's own dub, it would surely be weirder for those masters not to include music/effects tracks, as the timing would be completely different. Perhaps Funimation planned to take Ocean's pre-edited version and swap out the voices, only to discover that it had all been changed and more work would be involved than anticipated? That would explain how Sean Schemmel had specific knowledge of music and effects.

[M0nsoon07]

GOOD NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

My meeting about my Toonami UK revival pitch with the Adult Swim people has finally been rescheduled to next Wednesday!

It's not over yet haha- I will push the case for them getting Ocean Kai as a must-get.

[Tian]

GOOD NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

My meeting about my Toonami UK revival pitch with the Adult Swim people has finally been rescheduled to next Wednesday!

It's not over yet haha- I will push the case for them getting Ocean Kai as a must-get.

These are good news. Hopefully the meeting goes well and we might finally hear Ocean Kai in the future.

[TheRed259]

TFC was put together specifically because things like the FUNimation dub were praised & a lot more people became fans of the franchise thanks to Kai existing, especially with some better dubs (not just English from what I understand, but also French & Portuguese because those were treated as gag dubs back in the day & the dub teams corrected them with Kai)

For the record, there is no European Portuguese dub of Kai and the French dub was never treated as gag dub. It just had a bad translation of the text.

[Scsigs]

TFC was put together specifically because things like the FUNimation dub were praised & a lot more people became fans of the franchise thanks to Kai existing, especially with some better dubs (not just English from what I understand, but also French & Portuguese because those were treated as gag dubs back in the day & the dub teams corrected them with Kai)

For the record, there is no European Portuguese dub of Kai and the French dub was never treated as gag dub. It just had a bad translation of the text.

I'm talking about Brazilian Portuguese, which is in South America, not European.

[TheRed259]

TFC was put together specifically because things like the FUNimation dub were praised & a lot more people became fans of the franchise thanks to Kai existing, especially with some better dubs (not just English from what I understand, but also French & Portuguese because those were treated as gag dubs back in the day & the dub teams corrected them with Kai)

For the record, there is no European Portuguese dub of Kai and the French dub was never treated as gag dub. It just had a bad translation of the text.

I'm talking about Brazilian Portuguese, which is in South America, not European.

Okay, but I don't think the Brazilian dub was treated as gag either.

[OmegaRockman]

For the record, there is no European Portuguese dub of Kai and the French dub was never treated as gag dub. It just had a bad translation of the text.

I'm talking about Brazilian Portuguese, which is in South America, not European.

Okay, but I don't think the Brazilian dub was treated as gag either.

It wasn't. It was based on the Latino Spanish dub, even making a few fixes in places from what I understand, so it's on balance pretty accurate. The European Spanish dub was the gag dub.

[M0nsoon07]

Hey everyone- i had my meeting!

Key takeaways from it were: no plans currently to bring back toonami to uk via adult swim uk/europe, however they were very impressed with my pitch and stuff so they said keep an eye out in the future. Then, just general stuff like how to get into tv industry etc etc.

Big thing was when I mentioned about ocean kai being a big selling point for if they ever do it, the main guy wrote something down on his paper... although tbh it could have been anything tho haha.

Anyway i'm happy they were impressed and just a great meeting all round.

[sangofe]

Hey everyone- i had my meeting!

Key takeaways from it were: no plans currently to bring back toonami to uk via adult swim uk/europe, however they were very impressed with my pitch and stuff so they said keep an eye out in the future. Then, just general stuff like how to get into tv industry etc etc.

Big thing was when I mentioned about ocean kai being a big selling point for if they ever do it, the main guy wrote something down on his paper... although tbh it could have been anything tho haha.

Anyway i'm happy they were impressed and just a great meeting all round.

Cool initiative, man!

[SX10]

Hey everyone- i had my meeting!

Key takeaways from it were: no plans currently to bring back toonami to uk via adult swim uk/europe, however they were very impressed with my pitch and stuff so they said keep an eye out in the future. Then, just general stuff like how to get into tv industry etc etc.

Big thing was when I mentioned about ocean kai being a big selling point for if they ever do it, the main guy wrote something down on his paper... although tbh it could have been anything tho haha.

Anyway i'm happy they were impressed and just a great meeting all round.

That is fantastic news! Whatever happens now is out of our hands, but seriously well done with this. Where they surprised that there are two English dubs or what?

[eledoremassis02]

Somewhat related in regards to leaks at Ocean Studios but I saw on archive some test One Piece dub clips (that were originally uploaded to youtube in 2016). Anyone know the source of these (like if there were leaked or whatnot).

[LostTimeLord]

Anyone know the source of these (like if there were leaked or whatnot).

"Anyone up for a barbecue" etc. are from The One Piece Podcast, episode 370 Barbecue Time. The hosts talk about a VHS tape that someone from Funimation had screened for them, containing pre-4Kids One Piece 'pilot dubs' from various studios. They included those very brief clips (which, based on the sound quality, were literally recorded with a microphone next to the TV) as a transition between segments.

[chalaheadchala1989]

Hello guys, I contacted Adult Swim USA and they said:
"We want to continue making the best, weirdest, irreverent-est shows in the universe – and as such, we do our best to take our viewers’ feedback into consideration.

Thank you again for contacting us. Have a great day!"
Is it possible that they will release the Ocean dub?
I contacted Adult Swim Canada too, but they didn't respond.

[Scsigs]

Hello guys, I contacted Adult Swim USA and they said:
"We want to continue making the best, weirdest, irreverent-est shows in the universe – and as such, we do our best to take our viewers’ feedback into consideration.

Thank you again for contacting us. Have a great day!"
Is it possible that they will release the Ocean dub?
I contacted Adult Swim Canada too, but they didn't respond.

You expect Adult Swim US to want to air an alternate dub of a show they've been airing for a decade now?