Dragonball Kai (FUNimation English) Dub: General Discussion

[Puto]

I imagine that at least the old episodes are going to be keeping Yamamoto's score for a while on Nicktoons.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Good point. On that note, does anyone think Toei/FUNimation would go so far as to recall the DVDs?

[VegettoEX]

Good point. On that note, does anyone think Toei/FUNimation would go so far as to recall the DVDs?

My favorite theory so far is the recent price reduction being a convenient way to get rid of the stock they already have, and just put out a stealth re-release of the earlier volumes with the Kikuchi score without really announcing it. No reason to get a crazy Streisand Effect going on by recalling them.

[xzero]

Good point. On that note, does anyone think Toei/FUNimation would go so far as to recall the DVDs?

<BR sab="679">My favorite theory so far is the recent price reduction being a convenient way to get rid of the stock they already have, and just put out a stealth re-release of the earlier volumes with the Kikuchi score without really announcing it. No reason to get a crazy Streisand Effect going on by recalling them.

I believe Funi did the same thing with the Freeza single DVDs. To my recollection, there was a second issuance of them with some alterations to them (not substantive in the episodes; just changes to the DVDs). Also, I think the Trunks DVD with 5 episodes just sort of started shipping at some point without any fanfare, and it was designed to replace the one with only 3 episodes.

[VegettoEX]

I believe Funi did the same thing with the Freeza single DVDs. To my recollection, there was a second issuance of them with some alterations to them (not substantive in the episodes; just changes to the DVDs). Also, I think the Trunks DVD with 5 episodes just sort of started shipping at some point without any fanfare, and it was designed to replace the one with only 3 episodes.

While that's true, I specifically didn't mention them because none of those disc re-issues had much in the way of "fixing" to them -- they were more of "updates" (putting eyecatches back in, adjusting subtitle height, putting two extra episodes on). With the Kai stuff, there's a legitimate reason that they would be "forced" to "update" the discs, which they haven't really had before short of production errors that required a disc recall.

[xzero]

I believe Funi did the same thing with the Freeza single DVDs. To my recollection, there was a second issuance of them with some alterations to them (not substantive in the episodes; just changes to the DVDs). Also, I think the Trunks DVD with 5 episodes just sort of started shipping at some point without any fanfare, and it was designed to replace the one with only 3 episodes.

While that's true, I specifically didn't mention them because none of those disc re-issues had much in the way of "fixing" to them -- they were more of "updates" (putting eyecatches back in, adjusting subtitle height, putting two extra episodes on). With the Kai stuff, there's a legitimate reason that they would be "forced" to "update" the discs, which they haven't really had before short of production errors that required a disc recall.

I suppose that reissuance is distinguishable since the content didn't really change (minus the extra episodes on the one). Though the more I think about it, the more I realize they probably can't (or at least shouldn't) silently replace the original discs without including some indication on the packaging of which score you're getting. Way back in 2002(ish), I bought one of the Freeza singles specifically because I wanted the episode with a particular Faulconer track on it. I would have been extremely annoyed if I put it in and found the Japanese BGM on both language tracks. Whether people feel the same way about the Yamamoto score, I don't know; what I do know is it's never a good idea to not make it reasonably clear what your product is when people are buying it, especially when it's something that's pretty substantially different from what consumers may have heard on TV.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Good point. On that note, does anyone think Toei/FUNimation would go so far as to recall the DVDs?

My favorite theory so far is the recent price reduction being a convenient way to get rid of the stock they already have, and just put out a stealth re-release of the earlier volumes with the Kikuchi score without really announcing it. No reason to get a crazy Streisand Effect going on by recalling them.

Yeah, that seems like the most logical route FUNimation would take.

[Super Sonic]

So is this whole music thing why there was no new episode today?

[Mewzard]

So is this whole music thing why there was no new episode today?

It's either that, or they reached the end of Funi's dubbing batch, and have to wait for the next one. Many dubbing companies do so many episodes at a time, break, then do another batch.

[Ahiru77]

Just watched 62-63. (With Yamamoto, hah!)


I find the Z-fighters a feisty, enjoyable bunch without Goku. And having that android twist in the story is just brilliant.


But man is Vegeta a miserable individual. After they found out about 17 & 18 he just nags on and on. Chris Sabat's voice is really perfect for that too.

The fact that, after all of this, Trunks still developes to accept and like Vegeta (without Vegeta doing anything to deserve it) is just............really uncommon in the shonen genre. Different, mature......I like it.


And so far I'm not having any voice issues, so this is just great.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

One of the reasons I love 20 and the android saga altogether; the twistiness.

This dub just keeps winning. Everyone is sounding like utter badasses due to good acting! Hear that, Barry Watson? First Goku vs Trunks, now the redemption of the "Ducks in Row" (Had to do it) scene! Yes!

[AoiKageNoChikara]

The last episode was awesome everyone sounds great! (and yamamoto's music.... aaaah!!! This is great! !!!)

[Daimo-Rukiri]

It just blew my mind.......
Haha, twas amazing!

[cloud1414]

Wait so the new episodes still have the original score? If so epic win.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Wait, so the new episodes on Nick Toons are still using the Yamamoto score? I assume they're just running through all of the episodes of 'Part 5' as they'd already mixed the audio together for those eps, but I'm guessing the 'Part 6' episodes will be broadcasted with Shunsuke.
As for the home releases, I think we can expect Shunsuke Kikuchi for 'Part 5' and Madman's release of 'Part 4' as both have been delayed, which is uncommon for Madman.

[ShadowDude112]

Was the last episode to air "The Hunt for Doctor Gero! Discover the Hidden Laboratory!"? It's the last one I have recorded on my DVR and I'm just curious.

[DB_Fan1991]

Yes, that was the last new one.

[Ashura]

As for the reasoning 'why' the new music hasn't shown up on Nicktoons yet, just think about how huge an undertaking it probably is for Funimation to redo all the production of these episodes:

- They're about, what, 60 or so episodes into production depending on the version.
- They have 3 versions of this show that they're working on. The home video, Nicktoons, and Toonzai.
- That's 180 shows they potentially have to replace the music for, check the levels, and make sure it sounds right and everything's in-sync for.
- For the edited episodes, this involves them either straight cutting sections of music out if they're lazy or adjusting music placement and length slightly if they're not, which is time consuming to do ad-nauseum when the music is so completely different.
- They have to redo the credits wherever it mentions Kenji Yamamoto.
- I'm guessing the BS&P have to look over every episode again on both Nicktoons and Toonzai.
- If they think the music makes things too scary or changing the tone in a manner they're not comfortable with, they'll likely ask for more adjustments.
- They have to re-encode and remaster all the Blu-Rays and DVDs, and go through replication again. The menus on the Kai Blus use a piece of the score too, so that has to be redone as well.
- If they're delivering masters, it all has to be dumped to hdcam. If they deliver digitally, then it has to be re-encoded for the station's specific requirements.
- If it's all going to hdcam, due to the tsunami there's actually a run on hdcam tapes since the one plant in Japan that creates it was utterly wrecked in the disaster. This is something affecting the entire television industry currently.

Toonzai's edits showing up first makes sense. Their BS&P are probably more stringent (more back and forth) and it's getting out to the widest amount of people since it's broadcast TV over cable. They might also be delivering episodes more slowly to them since the episodes shown are behind Nicktoons, so the most recent episodes might've had the edits done more recently.

My assumption is that the way the Toonzai edits work is they submit the Nicktoons versions of episodes to Toonzai and then Toonzai requests further changes. They may do long-standing edits (Like Blue Popo) ahead of time (as well as record a lot of dialogue alts so they don't have to recall the voice actors), but I imagine this is why weird things slip through in episode recaps that weren't allowed in the previous episodes. (Different BS&P people have different opinions, et. al.)

[sangofe]

Does this mean Spirit VS Spirit will be kept intact with a proper dub?

> >

Like I said on many other threads, and this one too, I think, Kai's replacement BGM is not the same as Z's.
On a Japanese re-run of that episode, Nagasaki chose M817 for Gohan's SSJ2 transformation. Therefore, the same piece will play in the dub of Kai, not Spirit vs Spirit.

The scene is much, much longer in DBZ, so it probably would not fit either anyway.

[Attitudefan]

Honestly, I really like Kikuchi's score even for Kai. I don't know why but it fits just as well as it did in the past.

The DVD's probably have been delayed because FUNi is re-scoring Kai with Faulconer of course