Marketing Of And Education About "Kai"

[Gaffer Tape]

Basically, I'm still not sure if FUNimation even knows that Kai is currently airing in Japan. If they do, they're doing a damn good job of hiding the fact.

Seriously! You'd think that they'd be playing up that fact. Sometimes I get the impression that FUNimation isn't sure if their target audience actually LIKES that anime is from Japan, or if their audience scratches their heads and goes, "What's all this Japanese doing in this Japanese cartoon?" So they alway seem to waffle on whether or not they play up the Japanese-ness of it. If they can pair it with the words "uncut," "action," or "epicness" they seem to be able to get away with it.

[VegettoEX]

Less snark, more legitimate conversation, please.

[Gaffer Tape]

Sorry. Although I do genuinely believe that is the case. I really don't think they know how "Japanese" they want their products to look.

[TonyTheTiger]

Well it's not like they were changing the more Japanese names like Goku and Gohan. For all the complaints about FUNimation, they never gave us mid-80s anime localizations that essentially made it a completely different show. How in your face can they be about it being a Japanese cartoon? I think at this point it doesn't need to be said it's so common knowledge.

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh, no, of course not. I never inferred they were the Robotech of the new generation. In fact, they're pretty good now about embracing the Japanese aspects, much more so than they were, say, fifteen or even ten years ago. But it still comes off sometimes as buzzwords to me when they do use it. Like, they'll use it, but only if they can make it sound "hardcore" or somehow tie it to being "uncut." I can't really blame them for that, but I do agree with Hujio that it's weird that they haven't used the "currently airing in Japan" as a marketing point. To me, and to the industry in general, that's really cool. A practically concurrent release of a modern show! It's probably a bit of a stretch to assume that they aren't saying that because the word "Japan" is in there, but I honestly can't think of a reason why they wouldn't be hyping this aspect. I don't want to fall back into snark again, but I do start to wonder if all FUNimation thinks their audience cares about is "hardcore" "extreme" "epic brutality" "raw emotion" and "no darns or rats."

Although sometimes I look back and can't help but think they're totally correct in assuming that's all the fans care about...

[Hujio]

It may be common knowledge that DragonBall is from Japan, but it isn't common knowledge to most what the Hell Kai is, or that it's currently airing in Japan. Why would they want common fans to have to look up what it is? Why not just say it? I think that's more the point than just the mere fact that FUNimation has never really acknowledged the fact the original series is Japanese.

[penguintruth]

1.This is the one and only version of DBZ made BY FANS of the series, FOR FANS of the series.

That is a completely meaningless statement. "By fans for fans" does not ensure quality whatsoever.

2.For the first time in history, fans can experience a piece of the DBZ series in the full glory of true Blu-ray.

Wow, 20 year old animation on Blu-Ray. And new, poorly drawn retraced art, amazing.

3.Fans will love the non-stop martial arts madness and DBZ Kai’s vibe of epic brutality!

Because DBZ didn't have "martial arts madness" and "epic brutality"? Isn't the brutality lessened by the censoring of blood in Kai, even in the "uncut" release, by Toei themselves?

4.Not only is the animation streamlined to more closely follow Akira Toriyama’s original manga, but the English ADR scripts have been completely rewritten so that what you hear matches what you see!

Aren't these two reasons?

5.Nearly all of the original voice actors have reunited to revisit the adventure that launched their careers. Armed with a decade’s worth of experience, the cast sounds better than ever, and the English dialogue track is charged with raw emotion!

Years of sucking does not equal "experience". And half of these VAs have been in bit parts since DBZ. Sean Schemmel has a decade's worth of experience doing what? Sucking.

6.The all-new subtitle track is the most comprehensive of its kind in the entire DBZ universe! Every word is inherently accurate – including the original attack and character names – thanks to this unabridged translation.

You've had accurate subtitles for years, this isn't a new feature.

7.Every shred of footage, every tantalizing frame, is presented in its original 4×3 format, and the unprecedented color quality is so amazingly vibrant that fans won’t believe their eyes.

This is essentially what you boasted in reason #2. You're padding now.

8.The original Japanese score makes every episode of Kai feel like a trip to the movies

A trip to the video arcade at the movie theater, you mean.

9.You won’t miss a millisecond of the action because the DVD release is truly, honestly, and utterly uncut – including the English dub! No more “drats”, no more “rats”, and no more “darns.”

So you're boasting about doing what you do with every other dub? Isn't that like when DVD backs boast that something is in Dobly Surround Sound or has trailers on it?

10.This is the definitive version of the DBZ adventure! You literally can’t get any closer to experiencing Akira Toriyama’s original vision!

The definitive version is the Toriyama manga. The definitive anime version is Z. This is not the "definitive" anything. It's a faster-paced version, which is good enough to boast about without throwing out the word "definitive".

You only need two reasons to get Kai:

1) Better pacing than Z.

2) Improved English dub script

Trying to stretch it out to ten reasons is a symptom of insecurity.

[Gaffer Tape]

It may be common knowledge that DragonBall is from Japan, but it isn't common knowledge to most what the Hell Kai is, or that it's currently airing in Japan. Why would they want common fans to have to look up what it is? Why not just say it? I think that's more the point than just the mere fact that FUNimation has never really acknowledged the fact the original series is Japanese.

Yeah, you're probably right. But I still get the impression with this list that they believe their fans are more interested in swearing and brutality than actual information about the show itself. And, again, sometimes I don't doubt that that's true.

[TonyTheTiger]

Oh, no, of course not. I never inferred they were the Robotech of the new generation. In fact, they're pretty good now about embracing the Japanese aspects, much more so than they were, say, fifteen or even ten years ago. But it still comes off sometimes as buzzwords to me when they do use it. Like, they'll use it, but only if they can make it sound "hardcore" or somehow tie it to being "uncut."

It might be because something being Japanese was actually a selling point a few years back and probably still is to a point. It was so bad that I remember lots of mediocre anime being advertised like:

• Complex Plot!
  Deep Characters!
  Straight from Japan!

The great wave of anime came almost to the detriment of cartoons not made in Japan. We've all dealt with people going through the "anime is so much more adult" phase often coupling their praises of Sailor Moon and Akira with put downs of X-Men and The Little Mermaid. It didn't help when even western cartoons were doing their best to pretend to be anime. Teen Titans comes to mind.

I think FUNimation is, perhaps unfortunately, playing to that mentality. "If something is Japanese then it is inherently raw and uncut." So I don't think they're avoiding the show being Japanese. They're just marketing it's Japanese-ness to the lowest common denominator.

I can't really blame them for that, but I do agree with Hujio that it's weird that they haven't used the "currently airing in Japan" as a marketing point. To me, and to the industry in general, that's really cool. A practically concurrent release of a modern show! It's probably a bit of a stretch to assume that they aren't saying that because the word "Japan" is in there, but I honestly can't think of a reason why they wouldn't be hyping this aspect. I don't want to fall back into snark again, but I do start to wonder if all FUNimation thinks their audience cares about is "hardcore" "extreme" "epic brutality" "raw emotion" and "no darns or rats."

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of using "currently airing in Japan" as a marketing slogan. If I'm a guy who just bought either the orange bricks or Dragon Boxes and now see this new DBZ product out, I'll probably sigh and ask what's so special about this one. If I'm told "it's currently airing in Japan" my response is going to be, "So what?" Really, what does that tell anybody about what the show actually is or why it's special? Yeah, it tells me that the turnover between an episode going from Japanese TV to my DVD or Blu-ray player is small but how does that help me decide whether or not to actually buy the thing? Even if I didn't buy any of the original releases, knowing Kai is airing in Japan tells me nothing about what it actually is. For all I know, they could just be airing reruns of vanilla DBZ.

[Gaffer Tape]

No, you misunderstand me. I never said they should use it as a marketing slogan. In fact, I pretty much said they should avoid doing just that, because, really the only time they bring up the fact that it is Japanese is when they're playing it as a hype or a marketing push. I'm just talking about the content of the show in general. Again, they've come a long way from Americanizing with pop culture references and digitally painting away certain instances of kanji, but I still don't know if they're completely comfortable in it, nor do I think their fanbase is. Yes, that "lowest common denominator" you speak of will get all a-tizzy when the buzzword "This is Japanese!" pops up, but if the content itself seems "too" Japanese, then I get the impression it somewhat scares them off, especially in a dub, and dub viewers are the majority of their audience. So it's a thin line they have to traverse.

[TonyTheTiger]

I think they're conscious about it in a certain way. Kami vs. God, for instance. They clearly aren't comfortable with having some wrinkled green guy being "God" so much so that they just left the word untranslated. But to be honest, there's not exactly a whole lot of stuff in the series that is extremely Japanese. A bunch of strong guys fighting other strong guys, aliens, robots, etc. It's not like there's a heavy emphasis on Shinto or Buddhism that FUNimation is trying to skirt around. The characters eat with chopsticks and bow once in a while. That's about it.

[Gaffer Tape]

Good point. Like I said, they've come a long way from where they were before. But really, my point, overall, was in how they're marketing it. They seem more interested in the usual hyping of blood and swearing and the occasional technobabble over actual information about the product (such as the fact that it's currently airing, which is really cool and relatively unprecedented for a show like this as far as I know).

[TonyTheTiger]

They're just running with the marketing style that's worked for them all these years. The badass asskicking action angle worked so well that they're probably uncomfortable focusing on the whimsical adventure angle DragonBall (arguably less so Z) also has. A vestigial remnant of the old era.

[Gaffer Tape]

Again, I agree. Like I said in my previous posts, a lot of the times I feel that's all the fans care about, so I can't exactly blame FUNimation for catering to that demographic. It just makes me cynical...

[Cipher]

Funimation's little hype list was way, way over-the-top. Almost to the level of being amateurish. "Every tantalizing frame" was where I consciously said, "This is too much."

Still, it was slightly edifying, so that's something. Have they just said "Fuck the DragonBoxes" at this point though? Makes me a little nervous when they start throwing the word "definitive" at other releases. Then again, I think they always intended those for a niche market?

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Well it's not like they were changing the more Japanese names like Goku and Gohan. For all the complaints about FUNimation, they never gave us mid-80s anime localizations that essentially made it a completely different show. How in your face can they be about it being a Japanese cartoon? I think at this point it doesn't need to be said it's so common knowledge.

I couldn't agree with you more, Tony. Even the original (FUNi) Z dub was clearly Japanese. Some characters had Japanese names, others had Japanese symbols on their clothes and no Japanese text was edited out.

[Gaffer Tape]

While most of the vague Japaneseness (as Tony said, Dragon Ball's not an exceptionally Japanese-y series to begin with) was left intact, you're incorrect in stating that "no Japanese text was edited out." It did happen on occasion in the early days.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

While most of the vague Japaneseness (as Tony said, Dragon Ball's not an exceptionally Japanese-y series to begin with) was left intact, you're incorrect in stating that "no Japanese text was edited out." It did happen on occasion in the early days.

I said the FUNimation Z dub, not the Ocean Studios Z dub.

[Gaffer Tape]

Okay. Let's just make sure we're on the same page. FUNimation was responsible for the dub of the entire series, including seasons 1 and 2 from '96-'97 and the 13 episodes of Dragon Ball in '95. Referring to those as the "Ocean dub" is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as Ocean handled nothing but the voice cast in DBZ. You'd be correct in saying that Saban, their syndicator at the time of DBZ seasons 1 and 2, had a large amount of creative input, but the dub was still FUNimation's. So, yes, I am referring to FUNimation's dub.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Okay. Let's just make sure we're on the same page. FUNimation was responsible for the dub of the entire series, including seasons 1 and 2 from '96-'97 and the 13 episodes of Dragon Ball in '95. Referring to those as the "Ocean dub" is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as Ocean handled nothing but the voice cast in DBZ. You'd be correct in saying that Saban, their syndicator at the time of DBZ seasons 1 and 2, had a large amount of creative input, but the dub was still FUNimation's. So, yes, I am referring to FUNimation's dub.

I am fully aware of what you just said. I thought it was standard that when you say "FUNi dub" you are referring to their in-house dub and when you "Ocean Studios dub", you are obviously referring to the Canadian Ocean Studios dub of seasons 1 and 2.