Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 16; Still Unreleased

[Super Sayian Prime]

So in other news, Canada's YTV is airing some Dragon Ball tonight at 1am!

But here's the thing...



Now before you call YTV out on some trolling, consider this. What if this is their attempt at seeing if there is still interest in the Dragon Ball franchise? It's a lot less riskier on their part to just air this movie, which they can easily get their hands on, than a handful of episodes or a movie direct from FUNimation. YTV, IIRC, has never aired anime dubbed from FUNimation and has strictly worked with Viz Media up until their anime block, Bionix, dissolved. YTV is infamous for re-airing the same movies again and again but this is the first time I've seen Dragonball: Evolution being aired on it. But hey, maybe I'm looking too much into this,

I doubt it's a targeted attempt to look at anime viewership. Evolution premiered on YTV back in September 2011 and has been aired a few times since. They most likely picked it up in a package with other Fox movies.

As for YTV's relationship with anime distributors, I'm not sure I follow you. Ignoring Z's scattershot run back in the day, YTV ran Funimation's dub of Fullmetal Alchemist and Case Closed.

[Attitudefan]

So apparently Ocean Kai cannot get any Canadian TV network to air it for many years already. How awful. They should get Canadian only home video distribution so they haven't wasted any money.

I really want to see this dub. I know one of the actors who worked on this, and he was so ecstatic working on it! This breaks my heart man...

[NitroEX]

If the story's true then that's depressing news to say the least, hopefully they keep trying.

I wish we knew which channels they were pitching to so that we could at least do something to help. I'd happily send out emails to a TV network or support an online petition if that's what it took to get our voices heard. There's plenty of passionate Ocean fans outside of Kanzenshuu that would be willing to provide support if there was a clear goal in mind but as of right now we're all left in the dark.

[Attitudefan]

If the story's true then that's depressing news to say the least, hopefully they keep trying.

I wish we knew which channels they were pitching to so that we could at least do something to help. I'd happily send out emails to a TV network or support an online petition if that's what it took to get our voices heard. There's plenty of passionate Ocean fans outside of Kanzenshuu that would be willing to provide support if there was a clear goal in mind but as of right now we're all left in the dark.

That's the thing. There is a huge community that would gladly help get this the support it needs. If the producers came forward, then we can help! Keeping us in the dark will, more than likely, keep this dub in the dark as well (for eternity).

[Super Sayian Prime]

If the story's true then that's depressing news to say the least, hopefully they keep trying.

I wish we knew which channels they were pitching to so that we could at least do something to help. I'd happily send out emails to a TV network or support an online petition if that's what it took to get our voices heard. There's plenty of passionate Ocean fans outside of Kanzenshuu that would be willing to provide support if there was a clear goal in mind but as of right now we're all left in the dark.

There's really only two possible networks that would air a show like Dragon Ball in Canada. They're both owned by the same company.

Maybe DHX might be willing to air the show on Family Extreme (that name ) once their Disney stuff is taken away.

[Theophrastus]

Even if no one wants to risk dedicating live broadcast time to anime in Canada these days, one would think something like Kai could at least manage an on-demand deal or something. ...Then again maybe whatever license Ocean is working with is specific enough that that isn't an option? Would on-demand video as provided by a cable provider count as broadcast or streaming?

[Bananape]

I doubt it's a targeted attempt to look at anime viewership. Evolution premiered on YTV back in September 2011 and has been aired a few times since. They most likely picked it up in a package with other Fox movies.

As for YTV's relationship with anime distributors, I'm not sure I follow you. Ignoring Z's scattershot run back in the day, YTV ran Funimation's dub of Fullmetal Alchemist and Case Closed.

Odd, I don't recall seeing it on my TV guide before. Maybe you're right

As for YTV's relationship with anime distributors, I'm not sure I follow you. Ignoring Z's scattershot run back in the day, YTV ran Funimation's dub of Fullmetal Alchemist and Case Closed.

I see I was wrong about that, but still, that's only two titles from FUNimation, and titles from way back when. For the most part, any anime aired by YTV that wasn't aimed for the kiddies in the last 10 years (Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade) was from Viz Media. Numerous times, YTV even held contests that involved Viz anime titles like Inuyasha. So I still think FUNimation didn't really care to get it's feet wet in the Canadian television market, and probably never will.

So apparently Ocean Kai cannot get any Canadian TV network to air it for many years already. How awful. They should get Canadian only home video distribution so they haven't wasted any money.

The only problem here is that I can't see Ocean Studios throwing money to make this happen, or Toei for that matter.

There's really only two possible networks that would air a show like Dragon Ball in Canada. They're both owned by the same company.

Maybe DHX might be willing to air the show on Family Extreme (that name ) once their Disney stuff is taken away.

Might as well cross YTV off the list. The little anime they did have (Again: Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade) was shelved off to Teletoon for reason unknown. Teletoon seems to be the best candidate at this point, namely, Teletoon at Night. It's basically the Canadian counterpart of [adult swim] and airs pretty much the same content, except for the anime/Toonami acquisitions. I think Ocean Kai would be the best opportunity for them to try their hand at mature anime, but considering how long we have been waiting on this dub, I feel like they already approached them and got turned down.

[NitroEX]

If any requests are made to these companies we should definitely specify that the Canadian/Ocean Productions dub is the version that needs to be seen, not the Funimation one. God forbid they actually do show interest and air the Funimation version out of ignorance, that would be game over for sure.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Odd, I don't recall seeing it on my TV guide before. Maybe you're right.

In terms of Evolution's premiere date on YTV, there's no maybe about it.

I see I was wrong about that, but still, that's only two titles from FUNimation, and titles from way back when. For the most part, any anime aired by YTV that wasn't aimed for the kiddies in the last 10 years (Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade) was from Viz Media. Numerous times, YTV even held contests that involved Viz anime titles like Inuyasha.

Viz did have a lot of their stuff air on YTV, but Bandai had almost as much on Bionix.

So I still think FUNimation didn't really care to get it's feet wet in the Canadian television market, and probably never will.

Funimation was pretty aggressive in trying to get shows on TV up here. Outside of YTV, they got Beck on Much, a bunch of shows on Razer and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Superchannel. Compare that to someone like Viz who can't sell Sailor Moon to the country that made Sailor Moon a thing in the English-speaking world. I've been saying this for years, but the problem is more on the Canadian broadcasters than it is the anime licensing houses.

Might as well cross YTV off the list. The little anime they did have (Again: Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade) was shelved off to Teletoon for reason unknown. Teletoon seems to be the best candidate at this point, namely, Teletoon at Night. It's basically the Canadian counterpart of [adult swim] and airs pretty much the same content, except for the anime/Toonami acquisitions. I think Ocean Kai would be the best opportunity for them to try their hand at mature anime, but considering how long we have been waiting on this dub, I feel like they already approached them and got turned down.

Dragon Ball is a kids action show. Sticking it next to Family Guy and Archer is going to be really weird. It works in the US because of Toonami based nostalgia. Dragon Ball wasn't marketed up here like that.

[Attitudefan]

It's not like Canadians don't watch anime, they do. There's a huge market here, but it is the broadcasters that don't air it. What cable loves to purchase here to broadcast is reality TV, British TV, sports, and sensationalist documentaries. TV is bunk here for solid artistic fun. In the 90's and early 2000's, it was really different. The major shift happened around 2004-5, and anime, serialized shows, and many other non-reality based shows were cut. YTV had an anime block at night that ran till about 1 am. I remember watching Death Note and Full Metal there, and I recall they cut the block's hours that one fateful week.... THEY NEVER AIRED THE FINAL EPISODE OF DEATH NOTE. Me and my family watched up to the second to last episode, and were left hanging on the final one. That was 2006, if I recall. Soon after the anime block was cut completely. They aired some teen drama instead of the final episode of Death Note. Honestly, that killed me back then. Thankfully, I found it on Youtube a year later and watched it. But seriously, how lame can you cut the show when it was almost done, literally the only thing left was the last episode.

Anime never recovered on YTV after that. Maybe it was a ratings thing and felt it was too expensive to air?? I always thought the last episode was cut off TV because it was too dark. Again, the anime block was cancelled not long after.

[Super Sayian Prime]

YTV aired the finale of Death Note on July 4th 2008. The show premiered in October 2007.

[Attitudefan]

YTV aired the finale of Death Note on July 4th 2008. The show premiered in October 2007.

Hmm strange. When I watched it it was cut. Either I saw a repeat or they aired it earlier.

[TheGmGoken]

Has any Kai content aired at all in Canada?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Has any Kai content aired at all in Canada?

Mmmmm....not.....really. I mean, it's possible to access the U.S. channels that aired Kai while in Canada, but it's not widely-available enough to be considered "Kai content aired in Canada," if that makes sense.

[noham-el]

Is there always some anime aired on Canadian TV or in DVD Canadian Market with a special "Canadian" dubbing?

[Attitudefan]

Is there always some anime aired on Canadian TV or in DVD Canadian Market with a special "Canadian" dubbing?

No there isn't. We get too much American goods that our own stuff gets bought out or drowned out by the power of American industry.

No special Canadian dubs.

[TheGmGoken]

Is there always some anime aired on Canadian TV or in DVD Canadian Market with a special "Canadian" dubbing?

No there isn't. We get too much American goods that our own stuff gets bought out or drowned out by the power of American industry.

No special Canadian dubs.

Canada is American . But wow. Not lots of Canadian dubbing going on huh? Why is that? Lack of money? Easier to buy stuff from USA?

[NitroEX]

Not lots of Canadian dubbing going on huh? Why is that? Lack of money? Easier to buy stuff from USA?

The majority of Ocean's anime work came from either Viz media or Bandai Entertainment. I'm not sure how well Viz is doing these days but I'm pretty sure Bandai are no longer releasing anime so that's one reason they aren't dubbing as much as they used to.

The whole dubbing situation in LA confuses me so I won't say much about that but I do know Funimation acquires a lot of the popular new anime and chooses to dub it in Texas rather than outsourcing to companies like Ocean. It's a shame really as Ocean have put out some really great stuff in the past but I guess anime doesn't make enough to warrant the cost of hiring them.

Ocean still get plenty of work on western cartoons, videogames and commercial stuff (as well as dubbing French cartoons apparently) but I do sorely miss them in anime dubs.

[Theophrastus]

Viz is still around, but as far as anime goes these days they're mostly focused on Naruto Shippuden and their re-dub of Sailor Moon (both of which are recorded in California), with some other small releases here and there. I think the last Viz project given to Ocean probably would have been Inuyasha: The Final Act, and that was a few years ago and probably done mainly for consistency with the original series dub.

Aniplex of America has sort of filled in Bandai's role of "the other California-based anime distributor", but they also primarily use Californian talent for their dubs.

[Bananape]

I think the last Viz project given to Ocean probably would have been Inuyasha: The Final Act, and that was a few years ago and probably done mainly for consistency with the original series dub.

They are dubbing Cardfight!! Vanguard and Future Card BuddyFight, both of which are still being dubbed. Future Card BuddyFight even airs on Teletoon every week.