Toriko Takes DBK's Slot On April 3 (Kai Ends with Cell)

[Kaboom]

Well, this is... disappointing to say the least. I don't really care about Kai as a japanese product, but I had desperately wanted a full good english dub of Dragon Ball Z. Oh well...

Me too.

Well, damn. I guess it was good while it lasted, though that doesn't make being cheated out of the entire last 1/3 of the story any less disappointing.

Toriko can go blow itself.

[Flamingwindjutsu]

I'd like to spark a little groundless speculation here, but what would people think if Funimation decided to do their own recut of the series, with the manga as a base? Now of course I don't expect any reanimation, and we might have to settle for the orange brick "remasters" rather than the Dragon Box remasters, but I think it would be... interesting at the very least, and far preferable to a simple redub of the last arc, and FAAAAR preferable to settling for the original dub. Thoughts?

[Kaboom]

I would love for ANY redub of the Majin Boo arc to come from FUNimation and make up for the half-assed lack of dedication from Toei. Which is why I don't expect it to happen.

[Zionist]

The fuck is Toriko?

[Kaboom]

The fuck is Toriko?

Another Shonen Jump series, a comedy-action one, which is getting an anime in April which is stealing Kai's timeslot and thinks it deserves a crossover special with One Piece. Here's hoping it also crashes and burns because it doesn't rake in the revenue.

[JulieYBM]

Well, Dragon Ball Kai sure as hell didn't earn itself a third year, so...

[Makaioshin]

It is sad to hear that this is it. Hopefully they can do the Boo arc one day.
Hopefully after this Toriko and One Piece special those two will be paired so we will no longer have any of that One PieceXDragon Ball junk.
Funimation dubbing the Boo arc would be nice. I'm not someone who watches the dub but at least with a dub not everyone has to be disappointed.

[Herms]

The fuck is Toriko?

It's one of the most popular series running in Jump right now.

[Paradox295]

This is a good outcome.

Not for us, for Funi.

Think about it, why would they redub the Buu saga, when they could market Seasons 7, 8 and 9 as 'the lost saga' or something?

They'll sell bucketloads of an old release

[MagicBox]

Although I can't help but want to wait for legit, 100% official confirmation (I'm silly like that), I keep slowly leaning towards the belief that we're really at the end of Kai.

At the risk of sounding like I'm in denial, perhaps Toei'll use this time to take a small hiatus and build up some sort of a budget to fund production of a Boo Arc. That's the only possibility I can see happening at this point.

This isn't too big a deal for me since Kai has been less and less significant in my mind as it went on (and on the English side, I still have a great deal of problems with the new dub despite its improvements), but it's always sad to see something get canceled before its ending, especially if it's DragonBall-related. I guess we can't automatically say "it prints money!" anymore...

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Well, at least it did better than GT during it's run...

[MetaMoss]

Damn... And I kinda liked the American Shonen Jump "preview" of Toriko...

Though I do hope FUNi pays Toei to Kai-ize the Boo arc, if it is canceled (though at this point, it seems so).

[jjgp1112]

The fuck is Toriko?

Another Shonen Jump series, a comedy-action one, which is getting an anime in April which is stealing Kai's timeslot and thinks it deserves a crossover special with One Piece. Here's hoping it also crashes and burns because it doesn't rake in the revenue.

Don't you think you're being just a tad bit irrational?

[Super Sayian Prime]

Mike, would you happen to remember if Digimon is in any of Scamco's financial reports as of late? The newest series will end in a few months, and I don't remember it ever being listed as a top earner. Nor does the show have good ratings. How can Toei keep that, an all-original production ongoing when Kai seems to die?

Well, I guess they could've bought that timeslot for 50 weeks...

[Puto]

Well, this is... disappointing to say the least. I don't really care about Kai as a japanese product, but I had desperately wanted a full good english dub of Dragon Ball Z. Oh well...

The problem is that the big majority opinion is just that. "I don't really care about Kai as a japanese product," so it fails miserably in Japan.

[Kaboom]

Don't you think you're being just a tad bit irrational?

Perhaps.

But Toriko can go rot for replacing Kai, regardless. Giving it the animated crossover with One Piece, which Dragon Ball deserves more and is long overdue for, on top of that just comes off as insulting to me. As if Toei is not just indifferent about Kai, but actually thinking, "oh boy, we can't wait to kick this show to the curb and replace it!"

[penguintruth]

It's truly unfortunate. I've found that Kai really helps along some of the denser, more filler-padded arcs of DBZ, and the English dub has been just the medicine needed for the American audience. I was looking forward to a Kai version of the Buu arc, even though it was my least favorite arc, mostly because I was looking forward to a good English dub for that material, and maybe some new music for that material (Kikuchi barely composed anything for the Buu arc).

[Chuquita]

Kind of agree with Kaboom. I feel I should be more upset about the whole thing, since Toei is going about bumping off Kai for Toriko in such a rude fashion. (And before Kai even gets a chance to finish!) Though instead, I just feel a sort of dull ache.

It makes me feel sad as someone who enjoys One Piece and DB; now whenever I see the One Piece/Toriko stuff all I'm going to think about is how the new show snuffed out Kai.

I tried Toriko ages ago, but it didn't do anything for me. While the world itself was interesting, I had no interest in the actual characters that inhabited it.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Well, this is... disappointing to say the least. I don't really care about Kai as a japanese product, but I had desperately wanted a full good english dub of Dragon Ball Z. Oh well...

The problem is that the big majority opinion is just that. "I don't really care about Kai as a japanese product," so it fails miserably in Japan.

Can you blame people though? I mean it's not like Toei went into the production with full force. I mean, shit look at the Dragonball special that debuted the year before Kai or hell the opening and closing themes. That is what people were expecting, that is what we wanted. Instead, the animation was rushed and the production as a whole was so-so. Marketing was all over the place, it's not like they did anything special with the games and toys. Instead they kept doing what they were doing with Dragonball before only now with a Kai sticker on the box. From the start Toei didn't have a care for Kai. It was just a cash in.

The only redeeming quality behind Kai came from America. Funimation's cast seemed to mask a lot of problems I noticed while watching the original. And sure, it's not like there voice acting is an Oscar winning masterpiece but they put more dedication towards the product then Toei ever did. Wasted efforts if you ask me, but it made Kai respectable in my opinion.

There is still some small hope. It's not over until Toei says it's over, but I have my video camera and shorts ready for that day.

[RazorX]

The fuck is Toriko?

Another Shonen Jump series, a comedy-action one, which is getting an anime in April which is stealing Kai's timeslot and thinks it deserves a crossover special with One Piece. Here's hoping it also crashes and burns because it doesn't rake in the revenue.

I agree. Toriko would be among the list of Anime I don't think I'll ever watch, but it was the unlucky Anime scheduled to broadcast on the timeslot held by Kai.

Dragon Ball Kai is a success in Japan. It's usually in the top 5 most watched Animated shows and pretty much always in the top 10. Naruto Shippuden and Bleach for example only have less than 1% rating IIRC.

There are people in Japan who care about Kai and there will be people who'd be angry if the Buu saga doesn't get dubbed.

If "Kai" goes off TV, you will NOT see a home-release-only. It just won't happen. Those things sell like crap. That's not enough to self-sustain itself.

We might do. That's actually a business strategy available to Toei. Don't forget that Dragon Ball Z is not a new Anime, it's very well known. A Kai release of the Buu saga before its TV broadcast is likely to sell well, or at least better than the previous Kai releases.

Actually, that's what Funimation did for the Buu saga.

Well, uhh... if the general population cares about it so little that it leads to the series being canceled, no-one's going to be showing up looking for answers... because no-one cares to go ask.

The general population cares enough about Kai to have it pop up in the top 5 of the most watched shows a number of times and always keep it in the top 10. Dragon Ball Kai is doing much, much better than a lot of other Anime in this regard.

At the end of the day, money is the only thing that matters. The series sells like crap, the merchandise has been going down the drain (with CONSTANT readjustments downward in terms of projected sales), and the only thing saving the franchise at all is international licensing. Is that enough to cover it? Who knows?

Toei may have overestimated sales if they expected Kai to have DBZ level sales, but it is still doing well and Kai is still profitable.

I've heard about the merchandise sales apparently being low mentioned on this forum but do we have sales figures or charts to show how well the sales are? We have Kai calenders, figures, t shirts and even frying pans as well as other stuff.

As for international licensing and revenue, Dragon Ball is Toei's biggest revenue generator by far, no other Anime comes close.