CONFIRMED - Dragon Ball Kai coming to Taiwan

[tinlunlau]

Someone at tvb.com (TVB..Hong Kong's leading tv station) has brought this to attention but apparently, Dragon Ball Kai is scheduled to premiere on TTV in Taiwan. And get this? It's scheduled air date is January 1st, 2011. What a great day to start the year!

It's going to be given a weekly schedule on Saturdays at 6pm

(Update: Well, looks like it really air in Taiwan last week cuz the first Chinese-dubbed episode of Dragon Ball is already streaming on the net.)

[JulieYBM]

Wow, 6PM on a leading station? That's practically prime time right there.

[tinlunlau]

Wow, 6PM on a leading station? That's practically prime time right there.

Hold on right there~!!!
TVB (Hong Kong) hasn't confirmed anything yet. Although it is assumed that TVB will be next. After all, TVB did air the original Dragon Ball Z in the Cantonese dialect. This Taiwanese station will most likely be dubbing DB Kai in Taiwanese-Mandarin. (There are usually two Mandarin dubs of anything animated. One catering to Mainland China and another for Taiwan. The language is basically the same but their slangs and lingos tend to differ from each other. Hence, the necessity of having 2 dubs in Mandarin.)

If TVB does decide to air Dragon Ball Kai in Cantonese, I really do hope they manage to get some of the original Cantonese dub voices back. From what I gather, some of those voice actors have already retired or have switched on to TVB's competitors.

[JulieYBM]

So television channels over there have their own in-house dubbing actors? That's interesting. I think I've noticed similar for Japanese voice actors, too.

[tinlunlau]

So television channels over there have their own in-house dubbing actors? That's interesting. I think I've noticed similar for Japanese voice actors, too.

The dubbing process kinda applies to the big animated features as well. There's at least 3 different Chinese dubs of Toy Story 3 including Cantonese. But I guess that works differently in a way cuz just like America, they get big name stars to do the dubbing for the main characters. But yes, you basically get dubs in Cantonese, Mandarin (for the Mainland) and Mandarin (for Taiwan). Dragon Ball Kai was only announced for Taiwan. Nothing concrete for Hong Kong or the rest of China yet.

[tinlunlau]

Brace yourselves, everyone!
Here is the first episode of Dragon Ball Kai dubbed in Mandarin!

(link removed for legitimate reasons)

Impressions: OMG, It's uncut! TTV (the station that is airing DB Kai in Taiwan) even kept "Dragon Soul" and "Yeah Break! Care Break!" in its original Japanese. Translation seems to be fine. And it appears that all text on the opening, closing and episode title screen have been removed. The voices are fine. Freeza's voice is pretty dead-on. Another worthy mention is you can switch to the original Japanese audio through the NICAM/SAP system. (This streaming version obviously doesn't have that function.)

[penguintruth]

The only decent voices seem to be Gohan and Kuririn.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Shit, no region blocking!? Why is NickToons (a cable station) so tight about this, while TVB (the leading Hong Kongese station) a-okay with it? I can't comment on the acting/adaptation of dub, since Mandarin Chinese is completely foreign to me. I've heard people speak it many times, but I know nothing of it myself. It's cool (and a bit interesting) that it's airing fully uncut, though.


Whoa, "baba" means "dad" in Mandarin Chinese too.

[tinlunlau]

Shit, no region blocking!? Why is NickToons (a cable station) so tight about this, while TVB (the leading Hong Kongese station) a-okay with it? I can't comment on the acting/adaptation of dub, since Mandarin Chinese is completely foreign to me. I've heard people speak it many times, but I know nothing of it myself. It's cool (and a bit interesting) that it's airing fully uncut, though.

No, TVB has nothing to do with this dub. This is airing on TTV in Taiwan. TVB is very "anal retentive" when it comes to region blocking. None of their TV shows on their myTV service ever work outside Hong Kong and Macau. In regards to the dub, this is the first time I've ever seen Dragonball dubbed in Mandarin so I don't have familiarity with Mandarin-dubbed Dragonball. (I was always more familiar with the TVB Cantonese dub.) But so far, this dub sounds fine.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

No, TVB has nothing to do with this dub. This is airing on TTV in Taiwan. TVB is very "anal retentive" when it comes to region blocking.

Really? Then how come the video is on TVB's site.

[tinlunlau]

No, TVB has nothing to do with this dub. This is airing on TTV in Taiwan. TVB is very "anal retentive" when it comes to region blocking.

Really? Then how come the video is on TVB's site.

For a number of obvious reasons.
And I repeat. TVB has an official streaming network known as 'myTV' and region blocking is heavily enforced. (The link I've provided will be removed later today.)

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

For a number of obvious reasons.
And I repeat. TVB has an official streaming network known as 'myTV' and region blocking is heavily enforced. (The link I've provided will be removed later today.)

Oh. That site was myTV. I got confused.

[tinlunlau]

Also noticed the "Dragon Ball Z Kai" logo carried over to the Taiwanese dub so it's not just Funimation renaming it to "Z Kai"

[NeoKING]

DRAGON BALL KAI IN MANDARIN?! MUST SEE, NAO!

[tinlunlau]

DRAGON BALL KAI IN MANDARIN?! MUST SEE, NAO!

Check your PM.

Why is VegettoEX not even mentioning the Taiwanese dub on the daizex site?

[VegettoEX]

Why is VegettoEX not even mentioning the Taiwanese dub on the daizex site?

I hadn't seen the thread and I've been out of town. Sorry...?

You're always free to e-mail us with news, too!

[tinlunlau]

Why is VegettoEX not even mentioning the Taiwanese dub on the daizex site?

I hadn't seen the thread and I've been out of town. Sorry...?

You're always free to e-mail us with news, too!

No, no, no~! I should be the one apologizing. I sounded very...I dunno...I'm at a loss of words and I'm also in a hurry to head out for some Chinese BBQ skewers. Goes really good with beer! You gotta try this shit.

Okay, heading out! Mike, if you want the link just to see how the dub is in Mandarin, I can send you the link later. Heck, that site even had Barbapapa dubbed in Chinese. This is stuff I hadn't seen since kindergarten!

[NeoKING]

As for the voices/acting:

- Narrator is pretty good.
- Bardock is decent.
- Freeza is practically as good as Chris Ayres/Ryusei Nakao.
- Goku is practically as good as Sean Schemmel in the Z Kai dub
- Raditz is decent.
- Piccolo's voice sucks, but it sort of reminds me of the JP's version's. He sounds so... strained.
- Bloomer(as they rightly call her) is as good as her JP voice.
- This is the best Currin(that's what they call him) voice voice.
- Roshi's voice is decent.

It's as if this dub was modeled after the Funimation one - it's basically as good as it, and some actors even sound similar to their Funimation counterparts(Goku sounds like Sean Schemmel here. I don't know his Chinese VA seeing how this TV channel has it's own in-house dubbing crew like many other Chinese TV channels). In fact, if Z Kai was a Chinese anime and Funimation dubbed it, you can say that their adaption would be a perfect dub.

Interestingly enough, and I need some clarification on this, it seems that they don't use "Kakarrot" in this dub but they went with a phonetic version of "Carrot." Raditz calls Sun Wukong "Ca Luo Te" which sounds very similar to a phonetic saying of "Carrot." But they got the pronunciation of "Saiyan" right, and the dialog is more or less the same as the JP version.

And LOL at Farmer w/ Shotgun calling Raditz a demon. As if Piccolo wasn't bad enough, the rockin' hair man from space is even worse.

But in all seriousness, this dub is a B+ in my book.

[tinlunlau]

As for the voices/acting:

- Narrator is pretty good.
- Bardock is decent.
- Freeza is practically as good as Chris Ayres/Ryusei Nakao.
- Goku is practically as good as Sean Schemmel in the Z Kai dub
- Raditz is decent.
- Piccolo's voice sucks, but it sort of reminds me of the JP's version's. He sounds so... strained.
- Bloomer(as they rightly call her) is as good as her JP voice.
- This is the best Currin(that's what they call him) voice voice.
- Roshi's voice is decent.

It's as if this dub was modeled after the Funimation one - it's basically as good as it, and some actors even sound similar to their Funimation counterparts(Goku sounds like Sean Schemmel here. I don't know his Chinese VA seeing how this TV channel has it's own in-house dubbing crew like many other Chinese TV channels). In fact, if Z Kai was a Chinese anime and Funimation dubbed it, you can say that their adaption would be a perfect dub.

Interestingly enough, and I need some clarification on this, it seems that they don't use "Kakarrot" in this dub but they went with a phonetic version of "Carrot." Raditz calls Sun Wukong "Ca Luo Te" which sounds very similar to a phonetic saying of "Carrot." But they got the pronunciation of "Saiyan" right, and the dialog is more or less the same as the JP version.

And LOL at Farmer w/ Shotgun calling Raditz a demon. As if Piccolo wasn't bad enough, the rockin' hair man from space is even worse.

But in all seriousness, this dub is a B+ in my book.

They also named Vegeta "Da Er" (達爾). But that has always been the case with the Taiwanese edition of Dragon Ball. In Hong Kong, we call him "Bay Daat" (比達). What the Taiwanese call Bulma was a better choice compared to her name in the Hong Kong translations. In Taiwan, she was 布馬 ("Bu-Ma") compared to the 莊子 ("Jong Ji) in the Hong Kong version.

But despite the changes in names for the Hong Kong edition of Dragon Ball, Piccolo's name change is so bad-ass. They renamed him to 笛子魔童 (dek ji moh tung). "dek ji" being a literal translation of a piccolo. "moh tung" meaning the child of a demon. Plus, it sounds like something you would hear in a wuxia novel.

[NeoKING]

They also named Vegeta "Da Er" (達爾). But that has always been the case with the Taiwanese edition of Dragon Ball. In Hong Kong, we call him "Bay Daat" (比達). What the Taiwanese call Bulma was a better choice compared to her name in the Hong Kong translations. In Taiwan, she was 布馬 ("Bu-Ma") compared to the 莊子 ("Jong Ji) in the Hong Kong version.

But despite the changes in names for the Hong Kong edition of Dragon Ball, Piccolo's name change is so bad-ass. They renamed him to 笛子魔童 (dek ji moh tung). "dek ji" being a literal translation of a piccolo. "moh tung" meaning the child of a demon. Plus, it sounds like something you would hear in a wuxia novel.

That's a cool transliteration, so it's like "Devil Piccolo Jr." That does sound pretty wuxia.

Have they changed any of the attack names this time around? I remember seeing the Cantonese version where Vegeta's Final Flash was changed to "Extreme Light Ray Finisher."