Why could't Funimation use Mezase Tenka-ichi?

[TheGmGoken]

I'm watching Korean Dragonball(My boxset finally arrived! As most of you said. Bootleg. But at least I got my Korean Dragonball) and Mezase Tenka-ichi plays instrumental. I know German dub dubbed over the instrumental. I'm not sure about other dubs but from what I've seen most dubs just use the instrumental version which is ok with me. However why the hell did Funi remove or not have the song completely? I hate how they took this out of the English dub it only played a bit of it before a fight when the camera was canvasing the arena. I mean if they can play it for that small scene then how-come they could't play it again?

Two Bonus questions:

1. What's is an insert song? I heard that Mezase Tenkaichi , The Lone Warrior, Wolf Hurricane, and Red Ribbon are all insert songs. What makes them so special? Lyrics?

2. How come Funimation can use these "Insert" songs when you set the audio to Japanese but not the English soundtrack? Even if it's a licencing issue how come it's allowed on the Japanese track then? Did the track come with Audio(Such as voices and BGM) so Funimation can't fuck with it and ENG track you need to add BGM and Voice track?

[Zestanor]

There was one insert song "With a Burning Heart, Defeat the Red Ribbon Army" that was left intact in the dub. They unceremoniously added random dialogue on top the whole thing. My gut tells me leaving the inserts songs out was just a case of Funimation not wanting them there.

What's is an insert song? I heard that Mezase Tenkaichi , The Lone Warrior, Wolf Hurricane, and Red Ribbon are all insert songs. What makes them so special? Lyrics?

They are "inserted" into the the music lineup of the show

Did the track come with Audio(Such as voices and BGM) so Funimation can't fuck with it and ENG track you need to add BGM and Voice track?

Yes.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

I'm watching Korean Dragonball(My boxset finally arrived! As most of you said. Bootleg. But at least I got my Korean Dragonball) and Mezase Tenka-ichi plays instrumental. I know German dub dubbed over the instrumental. I'm not sure about other dubs but from what I've seen most dubs just use the instrumental version which is ok with me. However why the hell did Funi remove or not have the song completely? I hate how they took this out of the English dub it only played a bit of it before a fight when the camera was canvasing the arena. I mean if they can play it for that small scene then how-come they could't play it again?

Two Bonus questions:

1. What's is an insert song? I heard that Mezase Tenkaichi , The Lone Warrior, Wolf Hurricane, and Red Ribbon are all insert songs. What makes them so special? Lyrics?

2. How come Funimation can use these "Insert" songs when you set the audio to Japanese but not the English soundtrack? Even if it's a licencing issue how come it's allowed on the Japanese track then? Did the track come with Audio(Such as voices and BGM) so Funimation can't fuck with it and ENG track you need to add BGM and Voice track?

1. An insert song is pretty much a song that plays over a scene in an actual episode. These aren't necessarily vocal songs as you have instances like Battle Point Unlimited and Solid State Scouter.

2. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

Speaking of insert songs, I never realized that Dragon Ball had so many until recently. "Dragon Ball...Dragon Ball...Dragon Ball! I'LL GET IT!" (sounds like "I got it" to me, but whatever )

[MagicBox]

The general consensus is that certain insert songs just weren't included on the music-&-effects tracks that FUNimation received from Toei. FUNi can't work with what they aren't given. We've discussed this before on the forum, so I did a random search and found one of my old posts. To copy/paste...

Kept In The Dub:
- The "Mezase Tenkaichi" instrumental in episode 19
- "With A Burning Heart ~Defeat The Red Ribbon Army~" in episode 65.
- "The Dragon Ball Legend" in episode 76.
- "Blue Travelers" in episode 78.
- "Mezase Tenkaichi" in episode 86.

Removed From The Dub:
- "Mezase Tenkaichi" in episode 28.
- "A Mysterious Wonderland" in episode 29.
- "The Dragon Ball Legend" in episodes 30, 33, & 35.
- "The Son Gokū Song" in episode 43.
- "The Red Ribbon Army" in episode 48.
- "Wolf Hurricane" in episode 87.
- "Mezase Tenkaichi" in episode 95.
- "The Teachings Of Muten Rōshi" in episode 130.

"Battle-Colored Warriors," "MIND POWER ...Ki...," and "The Day Of Destiny ~Spirit VS Spirit~" aren't on FUNi's music-&-effects tracks for DBZ either. But the instrumental insert songs ("BP∞ Battle Point • Unlimited" and "Solid State • Scouter") were included. Luckily, the insert song versions of "Don't You See!" and "DAN DAN" were included in their respective episodes of FUNi's dub of GT.

Certain pieces of Shunsuke Kikuchi's background music are excluded from FUNi's dub of DBZ as well, most notably the choir chants during Piccolo's sacrifice against Nappa. Their "uncut" redubs of DBZ movies 02 and 03 each lost a 20-30 second piece of Kikuchi music, if I remember correctly. It's not certain if the latter example is due to an error in Toei's music-& effects tracks or just due to an oversight when FUNi was mixing the audio.

As for why FUNi didn't write/record English versions of the insert songs... your guess is as good as mine. I don't think anyone ever reached out to them about this.

As for your questions about the Japanese track, I highly doubt there are rights issues, so there would be no need to remove the songs. Even if they wanted to edit the songs out of the Japanese track, they wouldn't be able to. Toei doesn't have the source audio for the episodes anymore, and you can't remove separate pieces of a mono track (voices/music/sounds) because everything's already mixed together. You'd have to remove the entire audio.

[Super Sonic]

It might be what the guy above said about not receiving things. Nowadays it would've been kept or dubbed like in their other shows, like these songs. (Couldn't find the actual scene, but still).