"LBX" on NickToons recycles Westwood Dub music...

[TheBalishChannel]

So a new show called "LBX" recently made it's debut on the NickToons network about 10 days ago. Because Dragon Ball still has a lingering presence on the station I still tune in from time to time and now that LBX has taken over Dragon Ball GT's weekday timeslot I decided to watch an episode and see what it was about. Not even a minute into the episode and this is what I hear playing in the background of the opening narration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkN4sXS5FGQ

Yeah, it turns out that this particular anime is being dubbed by Ocean Studios in Vancouver but with most of the voices being recorded in Blue Water Studios in Calgary.

Spoiler:

As per usual with most of Ocean's anime reversionings that are aimed specifically towards children, their replacement scores are typically outsourced to AniTunes who are responsible for scoring the Megaman cartoon with which most of it's music was recycled for the alternate English dub of Dragon Ball Z.

Spoiler:

Here, after nearly 20 years (5 more days until the Megaman cartoon is officially 20-years-old at the time of this writing), we can see the music is still being used even in AniTune's newest work.

The reason why I figured I'd bring this to the community's attention is because for the longest time we've heard numerous actors at Ocean Studios confirm that they are indeed working on an alternate English dub for "Dragon Ball Z Kai," and a quick look on AniTunes' official company website reveals that they will be the ones producing the replacement score for that particular version of the show. If LBX is anything to go by, then I'd say Dragon Ball Z Kai using the often-criticized soundtrack is a very likely possibility despite the rather sarcastic jokes about such an event occurring that are common in the "'Ocean Studios' 'Dragon Ball Kai' dub seems to be coming..." thread.

This is actually pretty frustrating to me considering I had always thought that the reasoning behind the recycled music in the Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z was a result of a rushed production schedule, and thus the music had some really poor placement to boot. Obviously, it's a lot harder for me to accept this as a fact seeing as we now have 3 or 4 cartoons that share the same soundtrack and all of them are tied to Ocean in some form or another. The overwhelming presence of Blue Water actors as opposed to Ocean Studios actors in LBX is also disturbing because I'm lead to believe that they will do the same for Dragon Ball Z Kai, seeing as Brendan Hunter has announced that he will be reprising his role as Tien that could be heard in Blue Water's version of "Dragon Ball."

Spoiler:

Clearly, Ocean has preferred to produce English adaptions of anime/cartoons aimed at children as cheaply as possible, but I'm really hoping that wouldn't be the case with their upcoming(?) Dragon Ball production.

[NitroEX]

I'm so glad you found this, it just blows my mind that they're using these tracks for a third time although it's kind of more forgivable in this case since the Ruby Spears Megaman and even Westwood/Ocean Dragonball Z are much older now than the target audience for this LBX show. Nobodies going to notice aside from us older hardcore obsessive nuts.

I do think that if they're reusing megaman tracks in this it probably wouldn't be used again so closely in Ocean Kai (if that's even still coming out and the project hasn't been scrapped).

On the bright side maybe third time's the charm and they might finally release the music in some form. Very unlikely I know but crazier things have happened.

I'm very curious, were you able to spot any other familiar tracks or were they mixing the megaman tracks with original stuff? but I don't think there's a way for me to watch this in the UK to see for myself.

[TheBalishChannel]

I'm very curious, were you able to spot any other familiar tracks or were they mixing the megaman tracks with original stuff? but I don't think there's a way for me to watch this in the UK to see for myself.

I've spotted at least two other tracks in this episode alone, and in the following episode I've counted 5 songs that have been recycled from the Westwood Dub. New episodes premiere every Sunday so I'll be watching to see if I can pick out some more tunes.

On the bright side maybe third time's the charm and they might finally release the music in some form. Very unlikely I know but crazier things have happened.

Looking through my listings it appears that the program is coming in 5.1 Surround Sound, so I should be able to output the channels into separate mono waves and rip the soundtrack that way.

[Attitudefan]

Why are replacement soundtracks still a thing? Very disappointing. They are wasting talent on BS like this.

[DBGod]

Yeah Balish informed me about this prior to making this thread. Its fucking weird as hell. All this does is raise more questions than answer previous ones. *Sigh

Curious to see where this leads to. Will defiantly be keeping track of this topic and abroad.

[kei17]

Actually, this is the forth time these tracks are used. Monster Rancher had a few tracks recycled from Mega Man, too.

I'm kind of relieved that they still have the original masters anyway.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Sean Schemmel claimed a few years ago in a (now deleted) Facebook post that the score would be replaced for the Ocean dub, and there has been much speculation over whether or not that will actually happen. Ultimately, this is till speculation, but it does seem to be another hint towards Schemmel being right.

He also said that even the SFX would be modified, noting one particular instance which involved a scene where Bulma turns her head and an unnecessary, over-the-top "whoosh" sound was thrown in. Hoping that's not the case!

Why are replacement soundtracks still a thing? Very disappointing. They are wasting talent on BS like this.

Talent, perhaps, but not money. Which seems to be what it comes down to. For a while I was curious as to what was more expensive...to keep the original score or to compose a replacement score. Apparently, according to an anonymous 4Kids exec and Gen Fukunaga, it's actually cheaper to compose a new score from the ground up.

[Valerius Dover]

Aw, man, here I thought replacement scores were mostly a thing of the past. I recognize this very track from Mega Man. It was used pretty often, too.

Yes, it is cheaper to replace the music, because a fair amount of Japanese music is under JASRAC contract, and can't leave Japan without paying a hefty price.

[TheBalishChannel]

Sean Schemmel claimed a few years ago in a (now deleted) Facebook post that the score would be replaced for the Ocean dub, and there has been much speculation over whether or not that will actually happen. Ultimately, this is till speculation, but it does seem to be another hint towards Schemmel being right.

AniTunes' website indicates that they have already scored Dragon Ball Z Kai. Granted, the site hasn't been updated since 2010, but I imagine nothing has changed since the beginning of it's production.

Proof (underlined in red):

[Attitudefan]

Honestly, I don't want to hear that score for Dragon Ball. I much rather hear the old Shuki Levy score.

[Fionordequester]

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.......

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You know, I really hate being too negative, since the world has enough of that already...but seriously? They're really doing that? I mean, even though the songs by themselves are pretty good...I pretty much get sick to my stomach every time I hear one of those tunes! The Ocean dub just bashed those same songs into my head over and over and over again that...man, listening to just that one song in the video almost gave me something like a war flashback or something. It's like NO...NOOO...NOOOO, NOT THOSE SONGS AGAIN!! OH, ANYTHING BUT THAAAT!!


EDIT: But hey, look on the bright side...at least their Kai will actually have a consistent soundtrack !

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

At this point, voice acting is all that matters right now. And... If their acting hasn't improved, then Ocean Kai will mean nothing to me. Good thing Funimation knew what they were doing with Kai. Everything pretty much has been close to the Japanese version, even the title cards.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Since this soundtrack was never released, maybe this will be of use to some people who wanted to get a good quality rip of these songs.

[shinmaru]

Love the music

[90sDBZ]

You know, I really hate being too negative, since the world has enough of that already...but seriously? They're really doing that? I mean, even though the songs by themselves are pretty good...I pretty much get sick to my stomach every time I hear one of those tunes! The Ocean dub just bashed those same songs into my head over and over and over again that...man, listening to just that one song in the video almost gave me something like a war flashback or something. It's like NO...NOOO...NOOOO, NOT THOSE SONGS AGAIN!! OH, ANYTHING BUT THAAAT!!

This. One of the main reasons I so hated having to endure the Westwood dub was their constant repetition of the same few songs. Rushed voice acting is one thing but having the whole Android/Cell saga and most of the Buu saga filled with nothing but those same few underwhelming songs over and over and over again just sucks all emotion and excitement out of the show for me. That track on the video posted got played in pretty much every fight scene, every transformation scene and every important moment and just ruined it all completely. Even if the voice acting in the Westwood dub had been topnotch I still wouldn't have been able to enjoy it with that godawful repetitive music. It's so repetitive and jarring it even makes the Kikuchi placement in Kai seem varied in comparison.

[Blade]

It's both quite remarkable and ridiculous that even after 10 years they're still sourcing those same tracks.

I mean, hundreds of thousands of generic stock music libraries exist out there - is this really the only stuff they have access to?

[TheBalishChannel]

It's both quite remarkable and ridiculous that even after 10 years they're still sourcing those same tracks.

I mean, hundreds of thousands of generic stock music libraries exist out there - is this really the only stuff they have access to?

I believe that the crew at AniTunes are so proud of their own original compositions from 20 years ago that they don't want them to go to waste on just one show.

[Valerius Dover]

^Good point there. The track usually titled "Trunks Theme" online (not familiar with Ocean Dub) was only used three times in the Mega Man cartoon that it originated from.

[matt0044]

Yes, it is cheaper to replace the music, because a fair amount of Japanese music is under JASRAC contract, and can't leave Japan without paying a hefty price.

But how do companies like FUNimation do it when they do mostly straight to DVD releases?

Also watching LBX, the dub music was... surprisingly not so repetitive.

[Valerius Dover]

Yes, it is cheaper to replace the music, because a fair amount of Japanese music is under JASRAC contract, and can't leave Japan without paying a hefty price.

But how do companies like FUNimation do it when they do mostly straight to DVD releases?

Also watching LBX, the dub music was... surprisingly not so repetitive.

Well, that's what I thought back then, but I see all sorts of theories going around as to why this still occurs. My guess is that Funi is able to afford it, whereas companies that replace it probably find it cheaper to replace it. There's also a difference regarding what you air on TV and what's on DVD. Again, all speculation, I see evidence conflicting every possible theory.