A year & 2 months later and still no Battle of Gods dub

[samuraix123]

I would love so much! if the Jump Special got released along side Battle of Gods in like a Blu-ray box set like my Japanese release.

[BurakkuForesuto]

The first new Evangelion movie hit Japanese theaters in September 2007. FUNimation released it in March 2010.

The second new Evangelion movie hit Japanese theaters in June 2009. FUNimation released it in March 2011.

The third new Evangelion movie hit Japanese theaters in November 2012. FUNimation hasn't released it yet (it was delayed for a short theatrical appearance over here).

One Piece: Strong World hit Japanese theaters in December 2009. FUNimation released it in November 2013.

One Piece: Film Z hit Japanese theaters in December 2012. FUNimation will release it sometime in fall 2014.

So there are a bunch of comparisons for things like giant-scale theatrical films with large production committees down to serialized major shonen movies for a franchise they already produce.

Battle of Gods only hit Japanese theaters a little over a year ago. Expecting it to be out now in North America already is bonkers. I know seeing the rest of the world starting to get it makes it a little weird, but it's not like this is some set of extraordinary circumstances beyond comprehension.

It'll come out when it comes out. In the mean time, anyone who wants to enjoy the movie is free to do so via the plethora of legal options, including a cheap, English-subtitled DVD/Blu-ray release.

Most countries got a dub of Frozen less than 6 months after its original release. Frozen, a film with actual lip syncing and a franchise worth more than most shonen anime in mere months took a mere 4 months to be released in Japan. I don't see how anime is special. Anime has no real lip sync, so it's not hard to dub in the slightest. Also, Kill La Kill is having its dub shown within less than 10 months of the original broadcast. BOG had a Spanish dub within less than 7 months of the original release. Near simultaneous releases are not hard. It's been happening with American films for decades. In fact, American animated shows/films usually come with a Spanish dub and in Canada, you can get the French dubs of Disney films.

[B]

Yes, Frozen. The most successful Disney film of all time. Great, completely equal comparison.

And, I'm also not sure how many times it has to be explained, but there are multiple, big companies with their hands in the pot for BoG. There are a million reasons why it hasn't hit some places yet. America isn't special; France has gotten anything either.

[superrayman3]

They've gotta come up with something to rival Viz's announcement of Sailor Moon after all, and short of them like...having all of Gundam now or something, revealing Battle of Gods is pretty much the only way to even come close to rivaling Viz this con season.

I don't think just announcing BOG alone will be enough to rival VIZ's Sailor Moon announcement (it'll be a big announcement of course, but announcing BOG on its own is just one movie, as opposed to a 200 episode and 3 movie series). The only way FUNimation could even hope to stand any chance of rivaling VIZ this year is if they announce new DBOX's (whether it be for the original DB series, reprints of the Z boxes or the movies), the OVA's that haven't been released yet, and BOG. With that being said I can't wait till BOG does get an english dub.

[jjgp1112]

Can FUNimation even get the rights to the Jump Special? I recall hearing it was a product of Shueisha, so I assume that if anybody were to get the rights to it in the states, it'd be Viz.

[Hellspawn28]

License works in different ways. You can't just go up to their door to ask for something and they will be like "Okay here you go". There's a lot of stuff going behind the screens.

[VegettoEX]

Can FUNimation even get the rights to the Jump Special? I recall hearing it was a product of Shueisha, so I assume that if anybody were to get the rights to it in the states, it'd be Viz.

Anyone can get anything with the right amount of money.

There are probably some rights-of-first-refusal built in to a lot of these (sub)licenses. The fact that it (that JSAT special) was a Shueisha-sponsored project probably complicates things a lot, since it's not just a stanard Toei!DBZ product that would otherwise just go straight to FUNimation under either an existing license or existing relationship.

Then you've got things like Episode of Bardock which was clearly license-able in some capacity... to Bandai Namco themselves on their own video game release . It was clearly worth more of their time and overall investments, at least according to any projections they made, to just subtitle it and slap it on a game of their own rather than complicate things and sub-license it out in conjunction with FUNimation.

[TheBlackPaladin]

It's also worth noting that there are no official dubs in any language of the 2008 special. So whatever complications there may be in incensing it, it doesn't appear as though those are complications unique to FUNimation.

[VegettoEX]

It's also worth noting that there are no official dubs in any language of the 2008 special. So whatever complications there may be in incensing it, it doesn't appear as though those are complications unique to FUNimation.

In addition to that, and I think I was just talking about this... somewhere? maybe here or not?... I don't think I've ever seen any franchise's Jump Festa specials get licensed out anywhere. There's been stuff for One Piece (even one alongside the DB JSAT special in '08), some Naruto stuff, definitely some Bleach stuff, etc. Pretty sure none of them have come out anywhere but Japan, and usually in the same kind of magazine-pack-in dealios.

[ChibiGoku]

It's also worth noting that there are no official dubs in any language of the 2008 special. So whatever complications there may be in incensing it, it doesn't appear as though those are complications unique to FUNimation.

In addition to that, and I think I was just talking about this... somewhere? maybe here or not?... I don't think I've ever seen any franchise's Jump Festa specials get licensed out anywhere. There's been stuff for One Piece (even one alongside the DB JSAT special in '08), some Naruto stuff, definitely some Bleach stuff, etc. Pretty sure none of them have come out anywhere but Japan, and usually in the same kind of magazine-pack-in dealios.

Unless I'm mistaken, Viz did manage to pick up this one for Naruto. However, on the flip side, they're owned both by Shueisha and Shogakukan, so it probably made it easier for them to get a hold of it (not to mention, them getting footage from episode 26 from the original tv airing, that had not been included on most releases, including the Japanese DVD release itself). So, they'd probably be an exception here.

[JulieYBM]

Can FUNimation even get the rights to the Jump Special? I recall hearing it was a product of Shueisha, so I assume that if anybody were to get the rights to it in the states, it'd be Viz.

Anyone can get anything with the right amount of money.

There are probably some rights-of-first-refusal built in to a lot of these (sub)licenses. The fact that it (that JSAT special) was a Shueisha-sponsored project probably complicates things a lot, since it's not just a standard Toei!DBZ product that would otherwise just go straight to FUNimation under either an existing license or existing relationship.

Then you've got things like Episode of Bardock which was clearly license-able in some capacity... to Bandai Namco themselves on their own video game release . It was clearly worth more of their time and overall investments, at least according to any projections they made, to just subtitle it and slap it on a game of their own rather than complicate things and sub-license it out in conjunction with FUNimation.

That's about the jist of it, but let me add in one more thing. For Dragon Ball Kai Episode #99 the 制作 credit goes to Fuji Televi and Toei Animation. For the 2008 special the 製作 credit (different kanji from what Dragon Ball Kai uses) means that the money for the series came from Fuji Televi and Toei Animation alone. Shueisha, despite owning the original comic, essentially put forth no money. This seems to be indicative of all Shueisha cartoons produced for Fuji Televi. Other than allowing Toei Animation to provide the Animation Production (likely as a service to Toei than any legal right Toei has to the franchise) all rights belong to Shueisha alone.

Episode of Bardock, in contrast, gives the 製作 credit to Toei Animation at the end of the ending credits. According to Kanzenshuu, the 製作 is given to Torishima Kazuhiko at the beginning of the credits. It's really weird. Normally Toei would be credited for Animation Production.

[TheGmGoken]

I don't see the problem. Funimation was always late with DB. Remember Db was already around the world by 95 I think. The Ocean dub(yes i know it was still Funi.)began in 97? Funimatin didn't finish DB(Gt and movies included) until 2006. That's makes Funi REALLY late compared to other dubbers. So the fact we haven't gotten English BoG isn't a shock. Just be patience. I would do Kai first seeing as it's in Toonami and Nicktoons(maybe). The New generation will get ultra hyped(I like seeing new fans) and old fans getting nostalgic hyped

[Gyt Kaliba]

They've gotta come up with something to rival Viz's announcement of Sailor Moon after all, and short of them like...having all of Gundam now or something, revealing Battle of Gods is pretty much the only way to even come close to rivaling Viz this con season.

I don't think just announcing BOG alone will be enough to rival VIZ's Sailor Moon announcement (it'll be a big announcement of course, but announcing BOG on its own is just one movie, as opposed to a 200 episode and 3 movie series). The only way FUNimation could even hope to stand any chance of rivaling VIZ this year is if they announce new DBOX's (whether it be for the original DB series, reprints of the Z boxes or the movies), the OVA's that haven't been released yet, and BOG. With that being said I can't wait till BOG does get an english dub.

True, but Battle of Gods is just one movie compared to an entire franchise of Sailor Moon, so Battle of Gods wouldn't quite rival the release of Sailor Moon, no. That said though...I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but I'd honestly see that as much bigger news that would have me jumping for joy, than even Dragon Box re-prints or new Dragon Boxes for DB and GT, since Battle of Gods is at least material I don't own yet.

[B]

It's also worth noting that there are no official dubs in any language of the 2008 special. So whatever complications there may be in incensing it, it doesn't appear as though those are complications unique to FUNimation.

In addition to that, and I think I was just talking about this... somewhere? maybe here or not?... I don't think I've ever seen any franchise's Jump Festa specials get licensed out anywhere. There's been stuff for One Piece (even one alongside the DB JSAT special in '08), some Naruto stuff, definitely some Bleach stuff, etc. Pretty sure none of them have come out anywhere but Japan, and usually in the same kind of magazine-pack-in dealios.

BLEACH got its Jump Festa specials slapped on one release, but as you said, it's just Japan. And since it's another studio(Pierrot and not Toei Animation) who knows what the deal is with there not being an R2 release of the JSAT, BoG's limited edition notwithstanding.