FUNimation Announces "Kai" License ("DBZ Kai")

[Super Sayian Prime]

Kai is just so bleh that the only thing that could get me to buy it is an Ocean dub, and yeah well, that's not happening...

[theoriginalbilis]

Read about the news this morning, looks like I'll finally have to get a PS3 so I can buy the Blu-Rays. DBKai was intended for the HD format, so that's how I'm buying it.

My thoughts,

Title change: Doesn't bother me. Kai covers Z. Z is the most popular and marketable title internationally and in the States. It's an added letter, it's not something extreme like "What's My Destiny Dragon Ball" or "Knights of the Zodiac" or something.

DVD/BD: Judging by the price tag, we'll be getting a healthy amount of episodes per release. FUNi likes to have 10-13 episodes on their sets these days. So... $50-ish per BD isn't too bad. (It'll be even cheaper online anyway...) As for 16:9 vs 4:3, I don't care which one we get as long as it's HD quality like the Japanese got. For the pure 4:3 presentation, we have the Dragon Boxes. And Toei's framing of the 16:9 has rather good care behind it.

The big issue, THE DUB: This is FUNimation's big chance to please as both sides of the fanbase as much as possible. I like the majority of the dub cast, it really just needs proper ADR direction, an accurate script, and some tweaks/replacements to some of the roles. MAYBE WATCHING THE JAPANESE VERSION WOULD HELP. What I would personally like to see (but unlikely) though is:

1) At least recast Freeza, King Kai, and space out Sabat's roles. FUNimation has hundreds of actors in their VA pool now, they do not need one person (Sabat) voicing half of the cast.
2) No longer try to imitate the Ocean voices or previous FUNimation renditions. King Kai doesn't have to sound like he has cotton in his mouth or have that terrible lisp anymore. Recoome does not need to sound like he has Down syndrome. Freeza honestly should be voiced by a male, an effeminate male, but a MALE.
3) Either have cursing in the new dub or none at all. We do not need "DARN YOU" or any of that pseudo-cursing like all of the DB dubs have previously had.
4) New narrator. Brice Armstrong or the narrator they use for One Piece would be perfectly suitable.
5) TV exposure. It's been years since DBZ was on TV, and with this being such a hit in Japan and the Z brand recognition, it really should be on TV. This "new" form of the show is perfect for introducing newcomers, or people who have dismissed DBZ in the past.

Regardless, I'll be looking forward to the Blu-Ray release later this year. I hope the dub is an accurate and impressive work. If not at least I'll own reasonably priced BDs of the Japanese version.

[penguintruth]

Kai is just so bleh that the only thing that could get me to buy it is an Ocean dub, and yeah well, that's not happening...

I take solace in that Ocean is probably working on better shows.

[Gozar]

I'm just gonna keep away from the Voice Cast discussion now since I've been in that debate one too many times (Well, 500 too many times, lol). To focus on other matters...

The Name Change: At first I kind of laughed and shook my head. But it doesn't really bother me. Afterall, Kai does mean "renewed" and as far as we know. Kai is only doing the Z portion. So it's not really a problem in my book.

After all, odds are if Pre-Z did get a re-newed version it wouldn't be called "DragonBall Kai", lol. Unless Tooei decided to do Pre-Z within this series as more of a prequel...Picture this...

Goku flies off with Uub. They newly animate the ending to be like the Kanzenban. You see the shot of Uub flying on Kinto'un with the retrospective shot of Chibi Goku next to him. Then it cuts to the shot of Goku now just looking on. But unlike the Kanzenban, they add dialogue. Something along the lines of..."Man, it's been so many years since those days..."...Then it trails off and Kai does a filler cut version of DragonBall as a continuation of Kai.

That's the only reason the name change by FUNi would be a problem, lol.

4:3 Vs. 16:9: Honestly. I don't care what we get in this regard. 4:3 woould be nice and probably my preference. But I don't see 16:9 being a problem in the case of Kai. Kai is meant to also be a refresh of the series for the new generation. HD. HQ Audio. Re-drawn scenes. The music is more modern. I don't see a problem with such a project being presented in the new age way of TV viewing.

[MarcFBR]

4:3 Vs. 16:9: Honestly. I don't care what we get in this regard. 4:3 woould be nice and probably my preference. But I don't see 16:9 being a problem in the case of Kai. Kai is meant to also be a refresh of the series for the new generation. HD. HQ Audio. Re-drawn scenes. The music is more modern. I don't see a problem with such a project being presented in the new age way of TV viewing.

There isn't, nor will there ever be a native 1080p 16:9 version of Kai.

Kai at 1080p would be upscaled from around 800.


And a big project... ha.

[Gozar]

And a big project... ha.

I did not say "big".

Anyway, I'm not sure if this has been brought up yet. But, we've got more than Walmart as confirmation for the upcoming release. Dragonballzkai.com (Which was confirmed as legit according to the DaizEX main page) says "Coming This Spring". Sorry if that's been brought up already. Too lazy to check, lol.

[LeprikanGT]

Saw this on the kanzentai site:

http://www.dragonballzkai.com/

I hope this doesn't mean that they are going to turn DragonBall Z into some kind of webisode type thing.

They should air it on tv AND release it on dvd/blu-ray.

[Tweaker]

Well, at least the name makes sense now. =P

Looking forward to the new dub! I kind of figured this would happen, so that's more or less what I'm interested in more than anything else. Does anybody else have hopes of a more accurate translation and proper portrayal of the characters?

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Am I the only one who likes the name change and after all they are "Kai-ing" Z not the original Dragon Ball.

[Soul]

Am I the only one who likes the name change and after all they are "Kai-ing" Z not the original Dragon Ball.

No no, I do.
It only makes sense right?
Added Brand Recognition.

[MCDaveG]

Admit it, people in general or wide audience are ''idiots'', If you won't tell them anything, they simply don't know, they aren't searching info about things, they wait until somebody tell them.....

Here in Europe, everyone was: ''God damn, Dragon Ball Kai, new series!!!''

Later there were people thinking: ''What? It's only Z!!!! There are re-drawn scenes? Where? It's same as Dragon Ball Z!!!
I thought it'll be re-drawn in it's all entirety!
There is new music and no filler??? Cool, but I don't care anyway!! I already saw Z,
let's go watching Bleach, One Piece or whatewer......''

These were random thoughts of most people in central Europe on message boards I was on. Also I told about Kai to my long time friend, who was watching Dragon Ball series when it was broadcasted on TV, two months ago and his reaction was again:
''What, new series???'' and I said no, it's DBZ with re-drawn scenes, new music and dubbing and less filler, so it's more like manga. His reaction was: ''Hm.'' And then we were talking about different matters.

Actually, people here in central Europe in general aren't hyped out about Dragon Ball Kai like people in Dragon Ball comunity, they simply don't care. They were hyped out in the begining because everybody was thinking about re-drawn series at last, when they realized that it is not a new series.
So Funimation simply avoided this mess and came with this: It's upgraded and altered Z series and it's coming in March....
I can imagine the same fade of interest in US as in Europe without Dragon Ball ''Z'' Kai.

[Captain Awesome]

Whoa!, this was a bit of a surprise, I expected FUNimation to finish with the Dboxes before announcing this. Hopefully this doesn't step on the toes of possible future Dragonbox releases.

Anyway, colour me disappointed that they're sticking with the same dub cast, the videogames have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that the FUNimation cast hasn't improved in 11 years, they still sound absolutely fucking awful. I have very little interest in Kai at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if once these start hitting store shelves, I at least pick up the first BD set.

[SSJmole]

*Crosses fingers* Please make Dragonball Kai blu-ray region free, Please make Dragonball Kai blu-ray region free.

[Kendamu]

I don't care if you like raspy English-speaking "DAARRNN IIITTT!!" Vegeta or if you like the cool and proud-sounding Japanese-speaking Vegeta. In the end, as long as they're saying the same thing, I'm happy. Though I do have a feeling that it'll still be "Over 9000" in the dub.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Whilem I would have liked to see FUNimation release the new special first, I'm glad that we're getting this over with so as to avoid years of speculation and torture. I will, however, take the opportunity to point out three key things:

1. I don't think FUNimation would commit to a domestic release without some certainty that DragonBall Kai as it is airing now in Japan will last to span the entire series. I take this license as an unofficial confirmation that TOEI will Kai its way through the Boo arc.

2. I see no evidence that any consideration whatsoever will be given to a "new" dub. Kai itself is one giant edit; why can't FUNimation do the same thing with their current dub track, slap a fucktarded Kai Z on it and call it a day? Althought even just's that is more work than needed, considering:

3. We're assuming a dub at all. Remember how adding dub audio to their domestic Dragon Box releases was "an afterthought"? Yeah. Slowly but surely, FUNimation is moving away from their English iteration of their iconic cash cow to embrace the real DragonBall. They've already done it by omitting the Faulconer score (and quite possibly, for good). I say the chances are very real that they'll take this policy one step further and completely drop the dub from DragonBall Z Kai. What's more work and costs more money: To edit and retouch a dub, or to simply not include one? BAM.

Time will tell, a'course. And for the record, I'd love to be proven wrong. A new and retooled dub would be nifty, indeed.


~Da Lemmy

[Castor Troy]

I can't wait for the internet meme filled trailer.

[Kendamu]

2. I see no evidence that any consideration whatsoever will be given to a "new" dub. Kai itself is one giant edit; why can't FUNimation do the same thing with their current dub track, slap a fucktarded Kai Z on it and call it a day? Althought even just's that is more work than needed, considering:

3. We're assuming a dub at all. Remember how adding dub audio to their domestic Dragon Box releases was "an afterthought"? Yeah. Slowly but surely, FUNimation is moving away from their English iteration of their iconic cash cow to embrace the real DragonBall. They've already done it by omitting the Faulconer score (and quite possibly, for good). I say the chances are very real that they'll take this policy one step further and completely drop the dub from DragonBall Z Kai. What's more work and costs more money: To edit and retouch a dub, or to simply not include one? BAM.

Time will tell, a'course. And for the record, I'd love to be proven wrong. A new and retooled dub would be nifty, indeed.


~Da Lemmy

They're dubbing it.

http://www.fanboyreview.net/2010/02/02/ ... xtra-info/

Having talked to a few people, it appears the cast will remain the same as the Funimation Dragon Ball Z dub, but with greater care being given to the script. I say appears because I’ve only talked to a few people, they are indeed playing the same roles they played before, and they were under the impression it was going to be the same cast, this may not apply for every character.

The show started being dubbed last year.

[Li'l Lemmy]

They're dubbing it.

http://www.fanboyreview.net/2010/02/02/ ... xtra-info/

Y-You're kidding me . . .

. . .

Well, I did say that I'd love to be proven wrong.

Seriously, though. WTF?! I can hardly believe that they've managed to pull the (majority) cast for yet another recording. Sensational news, although they probably had to hog-tie more than a few of 'em. Except Sabat. Sabat goes on record saying that he'll probably still be voicing DragonBall characters from beyond the grave, so I unconditionally believe him.

Thanks, Kendamu!

. . .

Hm. I need to get in touch with Kara and see what's up. I refuse to partake if they've replaced Goten.


~Da Lemmy

[Tanooki Kuribo]

With all the video games in the past ten years, they had to re-dub most of the series (if not all of it) over and over again. Maybe it was good practice. Some of it actually turned out pretty good. Didn't they call him "Son Goku" in one of those dubs? I'm I making stuff up? I don't remember.

[Son Wukong]

I think it's safe to say that things have become even more confusing for the fans but, nevertheless, this is good news for the franchise.