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

[MistaL]

Couldn't Animeigo or Media Blasters release if crunchyroll lost the licence as they are some of the few classic distributors founded pre-Y2K that are still around.

Uhhh I don't know if you've kept up with anime releases but neither of those are at all what they used to be. Media Blasters sells hentai on burnt DVD-Rs.

[Doctor Seaweed Roll]

Couldn't Animeigo or Media Blasters release if crunchyroll lost the licence as they are some of the few classic distributors founded pre-Y2K that are still around.

Uhhh I don't know if you've kept up with anime releases but neither of those are at all what they used to be. Media Blasters sells hentai on burnt DVD-Rs.

Mazinkaiser SKL from 2021 was on Blu-ray from Media Blasters. Also I'd gladly take burnt DVD-R versions if it meant Ocean's dub would get released. Hell i'd even settle for a limited run VHS release similar to how SRS Cinema handles their releases

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Theres also Dave Bridges for the Animax dub of original Dragon Ball's 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc that was recorded in Hong Kong and aired throughout Southeast Asia.

I was gonna mention him, but that dub is lost, so it's not like anyone knows what his take sounds like anyway.

I seen one comment on Reddit which said he tried his best to sound like Sean Schemmel, but that's all I know of Bridge's take. Sadly most Southeast Asian fans I've asked only vaguely remember Dragon Ball on Animax so I haven't heard anyone corroborate this.

[Scsigs]

Uhhh I don't know if you've kept up with anime releases but neither of those are at all what they used to be. Media Blasters sells hentai on burnt DVD-Rs.

While Media Blasters sells hentai, they also sell non-porn stuff & switched to Blu-Ray like Discotek.

[Yellow Flower King]

I know this isnt the thread for this but had Ocean Kai premiered on HBO Max it would have been a huge hit since it hit 1.5 million users in just 5 days.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2026/04 ... st-5-days/

[LostTimeLord]

I know this isnt the thread for this but had Ocean Kai premiered on HBO Max it would have been a huge hit since it hit 1.5 million users in just 5 days.

Those numbers don't tell us anything at all; there's no way of knowing how many HBO Max users, which potentially number three or four times that of the 1.5 million subscribers reported in the article, would have watched Dragon Ball.

But, for the sake of argument let's put that number into some context. In the month that the BBC started streaming Dragon Ball Super, their non-linear programming had about 20 million viewers and the CBBC channel (which would have promoted Super) had three million viewers. In the month that Netflix started streaming Dragon Ball Daima, they had about 17 million subscribers and 43 million users. So there's not some huge missed potential in Dragon Ball not being picked up by HBO Max, a platform forecast to have six million subscribers by the end of the year.

[Yellow Flower King]

I know this isnt the thread for this but had Ocean Kai premiered on HBO Max it would have been a huge hit since it hit 1.5 million users in just 5 days.

Those numbers don't tell us anything at all; there's no way of knowing how many HBO Max users, which potentially number three or four times that of the 1.5 million subscribers reported in the article, would have watched Dragon Ball.

But, for the sake of argument let's put that number into some context. In the month that the BBC started streaming Dragon Ball Super, their non-linear programming had about 20 million viewers and the CBBC channel (which would have promoted Super) had three million viewers. In the month that Netflix started streaming Dragon Ball Daima, they had about 17 million subscribers and 43 million users. So there's not some huge missed potential in Dragon Ball not being picked up by HBO Max, a platform forecast to have six million subscribers by the end of the year.

I know this post was intended to be critical of my post but GOD Those numbers make me REALLY happy I am glad to see DB doing so well in the UK.

[LostTimeLord]

Those numbers make me REALLY happy I am glad to see DB doing so well in the UK.

To reiterate, we literally have no idea what proportion of those users actually watch Dragon Ball on those services; even the fact that Netflix picked up Daima doesn't tell us anything about the UK because that deal covered most of the world. I'm just using those numbers to point out that - from the perspective that Dragon Ball being on a larger service is a good thing in and of itself - HBO Max doesn't offer anything new.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, theres no way of gauging how well Ocean Kai, or Dragon Ball would have done on HBO Max, but the franchise has always been popular in the UK, aside from maybe the 2006-2011 drought period when it was not on TV/streaming, the only home releases were the Big Green dub, and all that was left was the video games.

Theres a reason Cartoon Network UK constantly had marathons, we got multiple full home releases from Manga UK/Crunchyroll of both Z and Super (the latter of which remained on Pop for nearly 7 years despite traditional TV being on the decline).

[TVfan721]

I just saw a social media video that Lee Tockar made a few months ago that promoted himself at a convention he was at. He was listing off (and talking as) the characters he's played over the years and he's actively promoting himself as the voice of Frieza for the Ocean dub of DB Kai. Now I'm geniunely curious if he has photos of Frieza at his booth that he signs out of confusion?

I understand it's all well intentioned and he's technically being completely truthful but I can't imagine just how confusing that's going to be for the majority of fans who have no clue Ocean Kai ever existed and rightfully so.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I just saw a social media video that Lee Tockar made a few months ago that promoted himself at a convention he was at. He was listing off (and talking as) the characters he's played over the years and he's actively promoting himself as the voice of Frieza for the Ocean dub of DB Kai. Now I'm geniunely curious if he has photos of Frieza at his booth that he signs out of confusion?

I understand it's all well intentioned and he's technically being completely truthful but I can't imagine just how confusing that's going to be for the majority of fans who have no clue Ocean Kai ever existed and rightfully so.

Lee Tockar seemed to be under the impression Ocean Kai had aired in one interview, as he said he was still not allowed to talk about it "even when it was on the air". Its a shame that the actors only know from the fans that this dub is unreleased. I think Tockar got confused as he posted that Facebook status asking if people could record Kai around the time it began airing on Toonami in the US. Sad too he has nothing to show for it after, as he says, tearing his larynx to shreds and tasting blood.

[Kirbopher]

Lee seems like a very nice guy, but with all due respect, there's another panel he was on within the last couple years at some Transformers convention where he even talked about how he thought the Ocean dub was "better than the Funimation version" - A product that literally hasn't seen the light of day. I know there was absolutely no I'll intent behind that statement, but it was a little ignorant.

I definitely learned over the years that, unfortunately, a lot of the Canadian voice actors unfortunately just don't remember and don't keep track of specific details of a lot of the things they've worked on, because basically other than guys like Scott (And even he doesn't remember absolutely everything about everything) none of them were actively anime fans and paid enough attention to a lot of these things in the first place; it's not like a lot of the people that are my contemporaries where we all keep track of hyper specific things about these characters and these shows because now it matters a lot more for our careers.

At this point, i've literally just been asking any and all Canadian actors I meet if they had ever worked on it, or even auditioned for it. Unless at some point I can never actually take a trip to Ocean and straight up ask if they'd be willing to show me an episode or something, There's really nothing left to pursue with this production anymore.