Apparently, FUNimation Considered Not Dubbing Kai

[TheBlackPaladin]

So I came across interview, and learned something rather interesting. Apparently, the idea was briefly tossed around that FUNimation wouldn't dub Kai. They wanted to license it no matter what, but there was some brief talk of not actually dubbing it. Rather, the idea was tossed around that the editors and engineers could simply take the existing dialogue audio recorded for the FUNimation English dub of DBZ...and insert the audio into the Kai footage. However, Justin Cook fiercely fought against that. He strongly believed that Kai shouldn't be a splice job, and that it needed a new dub. He reasoned that although it would have saved a lot of money to do a splice job, it would have been ridiculously time-consuming considering all of the re-editing done on Kai.

On the one hand, I have a lot more respect for Justin Cook now. On the other hand, I'm disappointed that FUNimation even considered the idea of a splice job. Ah well. Neither here nor there, I guess. We have a good dub now, and that's what matters. I just thought I'd post it because I found it interesting.

[OneDragonZwill]

Wow. Thank god for Justin Cook. Even though I don't care for the dub I'll admit that it's 1000x better than the old one.

[funrush]

Wow, who'd have thought that Justin Cook would be the one to set things right. Yeah, this makes me lose a little respect for Funi.

[penguintruth]

I've always liked Justin Cook. Nice to see it's well justified.

[Gozar]

I love Justin Cook, as both a Voice Actor and a representative of FUNimation. Even as far back as Fruits Basket he was big on keeping things accurate. Thank you very much for giving me a Z Dub that I can be proud to watch.

[Mewzard]

I can definitely say thanks to Justin Cook for this (and YYH, but that's off topic). I needed an accurate Kai. It was important to me as a fan of certain voice actors, yet a lover of the accurate script. This has nearly perfectly given me my dream DB (minus a few issues, inconsistent music, and the lack of many episodes).

[Kirbopher]

I think Justin actually pushed for a LOT of the stuff that made the Kai dub what it was today and not a total disaster like it very well COULD have turned out.

[The Iron Fjord]

Who's Justin Cook?

[superrayman3]

Who's Justin Cook?

Justin Cook is the line producer for Funimations dubs of YYH (also did the voices of Yusuke Urameshi, Puu, Seiryu, Kuro Momotaro for YYH), and FMA (also voiced Russell Tringham). Cook was also the voice actor for Raditz, Cell Jr, the teen and adult versions of Dende, Evil Buu, Super Buu, Devilman, Agent Shu, Red Ribbon Snow Soldier, (in the Dragon Ball Movie 3 Only) in Funimations original in-house dubs of Dragon Ball and DBZ and reprises his role of Raditz in DBZ Kai.

[funrush]

Who's Justin Cook?

Justin Cook is the line producer for Funimations dubs of YYH (also did the voices of Yusuke Urameshi, Puu, Seiryu, Kuro Momotaro for YYH), and FMA (also voiced Russell Tringham). Cook was also the voice actor for Raditz, Cell Jr, the teen and adult versions of Dende, Evil Buu, Super Buu, Devilman, Agent Shu, Red Ribbon Snow Soldier, (in the Dragon Ball Movie 3 Only) in Funimations original in-house dubs of Dragon Ball and DBZ and reprises his role of Raditz in DBZ Kai.

Wow, good bio there. He also sang Dragon Soul for Dragon Ball Z Kai Part 2, or, for the second half of season 1.

[The Iron Fjord]

Wait, he was Raditz, and Buu!? That's totally neato!

[coola]

Guess that kinda bury any hope of redub DB/DBZ anime material.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Can't imagine he wouldn't have Chris Sabat's backing on that for whatever it was worth. Not to mention that his assessment of the hell it would be to sync pre-existing dub clips to Kai at all is spot on. Sound-syncing 291 episodes in two different languages multiple times is rough enough!

Nor would it have made the series any easier to market. It's a pointless series in Japan, aside from the filler cuts, and it'd be equally pointless and confusing Stateside with overdubbed clips.

[thedarkuniter]

I'm so glad they decided to dub Dragon Ball Kai. Before, I didn't have any interest in Kai and now I can't watch most of DBZ without it.

[MarcFBR]

I would have been shocked if splicing WASN'T considered at some point.

I mean, that is exactly what the show is, edited and spliced together DBZ.

I'd be concerned for any company and the way it's run if such an obvious idea wasn't at least considered.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

My original take on it was that Funi didn't need Justin Cook to come to that decision, that they came "full circle" in a sense. They were going to splice, Lord knows it would save money, and Dragon Ball is the cash cow we don't have to treat properly, then realized that was more trouble than it's worth and dramatically drops Kai's value as a separate property (One that most of the dubbie fanbase still doesn't really understand anyway). And given that every other anime we get our hands on gets a decent dub nowadays, there's no logical reason to deny it to DBZ when standards have risen.

I'm actually a little surprised this wasn't the case; I'm glad the VAs will stick their necks out for the series as much as they have, since the "it prints money!" attitude is apparently stronger than I expected (And it has every right to be strong to begin with!)

[saiyanprimalforce]

After seeing that interview, the idea of the Z dub dialogue spliced into Kai struck me as hilarious. . .so I decided to make a little concept video--just to provide physical evidence that this, indeed, was one of the worst ideas possible. What's so scary is, it really isn't that hard to do. I will forever from this point be eternally be grateful to Mr. Justin Cook. Love the Kai dub guys. Apperciate it. We could have ended up with THIS.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNU1V0bGHq0

[redlinks]

Guess that kinda bury any hope of redub DB/DBZ anime material.

It does and it's disappointing. I'd love an updated dub of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and GT. but who knows, maybe Justin Cook will eventually consider the idea and help convince FUNimation to redub the series. I would at least like a redub of kid Goku, kid/Teen Gohan, and Bulma. Hightly doubtful after seeing this though. -_-

and I'm actually disappointed in FUNimation that they actually even considered the idea of slicing Kai.

[Gonstead]

I did a chop job myself, only with Ocean Dub audio for the second episode.

Check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zIgaQLS2Nk

[penguintruth]

I did a chop job myself, only with Ocean Dub audio for the second episode.

Check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zIgaQLS2Nk

Scott McNeil as Piccolo in Kai? DO WANT.