Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

[Daimo-Rukiri]

So, how will canada get a dvd or blu-ray release when FUNimation owns region 1 or most of the English Market.

My guess is that like the previous dbz/db/gt this will be for TV only.

[Paradox295]

Not really. We don't even know who's making the English dub. It sounds like it's a different company this tie around (so, no more Westwood Media), but who else could it be? Maybe it's just Toei Animation themselves like they did with Pretty Cure...?

That happened because 4kids never produced a dub, than FUNimation aquired it in 2009.
This wouldn't happen with Kai as Toei is very pleased with the dub.

But, maybe they're producing a cheaper dub to sell to Canada, UK and the Netherlands
Dragon Ball prints money, so why not?

[TheBlackPaladin]

So, how will canada get a dvd or blu-ray release when FUNimation owns region 1 or most of the English Market.

My guess is that like the previous dbz/db/gt this will be for TV only.

Canada is included in the Region 1 format for DVDs...in other words, they have Region 1 DVD players just like us American people do. Similar deal for Blu-Ray. So they can order online and watch the release just fine.

[PuppetDoctor]

So, how will canada get a dvd or blu-ray release when FUNimation owns region 1 or most of the English Market.

My guess is that like the previous dbz/db/gt this will be for TV only.

I am guessing this will only be made for syndication. As usual Canada will get the Funimation DVDs/Blu-rays as we always do and this will confuse people who rent/buy the DVDs/Blu-rays who were introduced through the series via YTV and hear their favorite characters have different voices.

[linkdude20002001]

Not really. We don't even know who's making the English dub. It sounds like it's a different company this tie around (so, no more Westwood Media), but who else could it be? Maybe it's just Toei Animation themselves like they did with Pretty Cure...?

That happened because 4kids never produced a dub, than FUNimation aquired it in 2009.
This wouldn't happen with Kai as Toei is very pleased with the dub.

Maybe they decided to produce an English dub in Canada because of the whole CanCon law. But who knows...? Maybe some Canadian company got it. I really wish I knew. <_>

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I doubt it, after 2000 FUNimation owned the license for English speaking countries. FUNimation is involved in in some way for this to happen.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I doubt it, after 2000 FUNimation owned the license for English speaking countries. FUNimation is involved in in some way for this to happen.

But to what degree they are involved--and to what degree they were involved--with each other is still a huge mystery that nobody really knows the answer to. And every time Gen Fukunaga gets interviewed, that question unfortunately never comes up. I'd have to think that Fukunaga is the only one who has the full answers for this mystery.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Well what we know is that FUNimation has to be involved for a international English dub to be produced.
It's that simple.

[linkdude20002001]

Well, last time they were working together (as they are doing now), and Westwood Media must've gotten the broadcasting rights for Canada from FUNimation. It's confusing, though... Did they sub-licensed Dragon Ball Z from FUNimation? From AB Groupe? They clearly worked with both companies (though possibly at different times).

[JulieYBM]

I'm pretty sure this mysterious new player is paying FUNimation to do this...which probably happened with the Westwood/Airwaves Sound dub of #123-291. Considering how cheaply tossed together that dub was I have to wonder if it is because they spent all of their money on the rights.

[linkdude20002001]

That reminds me of Gokuh's joke: "I sold my car for gas money". ...

[ohaimynameiserik]

It is a good source of fun and entertaining. Dragon Ball Kai this kind of show. And i can never miss this show.

... Master Yoda?

[RazorX]

The rasp and anger wasn't what made him sound arrogant. And the authentic sounding anger is great for when he's angry, but Vegeta's rarely truly pissed off; annoyed is how angry he generally gets. I think if he dropped the rasp, he'd sound more age appropriate, and if he dropped the rage except for times when Vegeta's actually in rage, he'd be perfect. And I'm not saying to drop the arrogance; that's integral to his character.

Vegeta should have some rasp. If you want to hear Drummond without rasp, listen to his Vegito. It's smooth and works great with Vegito but that isn't how I'd want him to voice Vegeta. I'll be happy if Drummond uses his established voice for Vegeta and any personal improvements in voice acting would be a bonus. (Not that it's needed )

Sounds like it might be Toei Animation, sadly. They produced the English dub for Pretty Cure (also using Ocean Productions), but I don't think it's gotten a home release. If this is the case for Kai, I will be truly sad indeed.

This time there are more distributors who'd want to release DBZ. Toei and them just have to come to a deal.

Well, it was Saban, or rather the network's standards, that forbade the mention of death. Originally they had the Immortal Master say "I smell death in the air", but even that had to be changed.

I also remember reading about how Piccolo, after landing on Roshi's Island, threatened to kill them if they made him angry, which got changed. I heard it was on the first broadcast.

The problem with Maggie Blue O'Hara, she hasn't worked on an Ocean Anime dub in 6 years, hopefully they find a better replacement than Jane Perry was in the Westwood dub, but it would be nice to have her or Lalaina Lindberg return.

That's a shame, I would prefer Maggie Blue O'Hara to voice Bulma but Lalainia Lindjberg would be great too. If the final few episodes of Z are anything to go by, I wouldn't want Jane Perry voicing Bulma. Though to be fair to Jane, she was probably directed to make Bulma sound older, because she was. Ocean and Blue Water always had age appropriate voices for Bulma, unlike Funimation. (I loved Leda Davies as Teenage Bulma in Dragon Ball)

I don't see a single reason why another English Dub of Kai should exist when there already is a competent English dub in the FUNimation dub, though it's not my money to waste, and there hasn't been many Ocean dubs in the past few years, so I'll take whatever Ocean material I can get as long as it's competent. But I wont tolerate another Westwood 108-276 mess, they have a chance to do it right from the beginning, some script changes and some cut material will be acceptable if it's another broadcast dub.

It's also not your profits to make.

That criticism is too harsh on the Westwood dub, but I can imagine Ocean doing a better job now. (Providing the main cast is the same, if they don't bring back Scott McNeil and Brian Drummond, they can forget about their Kai dub being better than their Z dub) 10 years ago Ocean were so busy they couldn't schedule DBZ at Ocean Studios so they had to schedule it at Airwaves Studios and Westwood Studios. If what you say is true, they have more time to devote to the DB Kai dub.

Matthew Erickson worked on Gundam Seed Destiny which was an Ocean dub, he played Shinn Asuka one of the main characters.

Alistair Abell's Trunks wasn't true to the character, the voice was lifeless, didn't convey any emotion, harsh and flat it was like he was ready the script trying to sound smart and angry.

Matthew Erickson's Trunks on the hand was more in line with the Japanese version, and almost as good as Eric Vale's version. It actually involved acting, wasn't monotone, didn't sound like he was just reading the script, one of but a few Blue Water actors that did some good work on Dragon Ball GT.

Alistair and Matthew are both better than Eric Vale, but Vale isn't too bad himself. I can see where you're coming from with your criticisms of Alistair but I don't agree to the extent of them.

I didn't know Matthew Erickson voiced an Ocean dubbed show, if he and Alistair are in Vancouver and both audition for Trunks, it would be interesting to see who the director picks.

As for Roshi, Blue Water's Dean Galloway voiced a better version of Roshi than Klassen.

Agreed. Dean Galloway is the best dub Roshi. The man could go from seriousness to comedic in an instant and handled both of those important aspects of Roshi really well, although Klassen gave him spirit as well. I prefer Galloway's Roshi over all the Japanese voices of Roshi except Kouhei Miyauchi, the first Roshi. (Though sometimes I felt Dean was better than even him)

[RazorX]

Well, supposedly Ocean didn't "purchase" FUNi's script. I recall a Daizex poster saying that apparently it was just some guy watching the FUNi dub and jotting down what was said, then copying the script verbatim. I would not have paid much attention to that were it not for the fact that shortly before I read that, Schemmel had written that apparently Ocean "stole" their script from FUNi back in the day. He said the reason he knew this was because occasionally when the script wasn't working, he and Sabat would change or modify some of the lines. These changes were not noted in the original English scripts, they just did them on the fly. Yet somehow, the changes appeared on the Ocean dub as well.

Did you ignore my post where I answered your question? Some of Ocean's actors worked with Funimation on the script, which is most likely why they were similar. They're even credited on Funimation's ending credits.

Sean didn't say Ocean "stole" their script, he said something along the lines of the Canadians collaborated on the script.

As for that "daizex poster" it seems some people are so insecure that they feel the need to spread malicious rumours about the better dub. Perhaps you can ask this "daizex poster" to jot down the script of an entire episode while it's running, much less around 170 episodes, see how long it takes. Then you can ask this "daizex poster" how it was possible for Ocean to have got ahead of Funi in the dub process if someone was waiting for the Funi dub to air just to nick their scripts. Then you can why Ocean's Kid Buu saga was aired months before Funi's. Then ask him if he knows anything about copyright and the legal consequences of a production company using a competitor's script without permission. Finally, ask him if he realises that this is the daizex website's forum rather than the youtube comment section.

Ocean Group have been professionally dubbing shows before Funi even existed. Such a claim is ridiculous even for a small inexperienced dubbing studio, let alone one as big as the Ocean Group.

I doubt it, after 2000 FUNimation owned the license for English speaking countries. FUNimation is involved in in some way for this to happen.

No they didn't. Funi had the DB license for the USA only. They never had any rights for the English speaking countries of Europe. AB Groupe own the European rights to the Dragon Ball franchise.

Funimation is not involved in the Ocean dub of Kai. Kirby Morrow talked about the "Texas dub." If Funi were behind this, he probably would've mentioned it instead of saying "new company."

It probably doesn't make sense for Funi to contract an Ocean dub if they are doing a dub in Texas. The main reason Funi split with Ocean a decade ago was because they wanted to hire cheaper people to dub the voices for them.

The company behind the Ocean dub of Kai is either AB Groupe, Toei Animation or a new company. Hopefully we'll get confirmation of who it is.

[Mewzard]

The better dub? Those are fighting words, good sir! Joking aside, some people may disagree with that.

So, all we have on this dub are earlier rumors, and a comment by Marrow. Is that because it's just not at a far enough point to say it's a sure deal? Or perhaps they're still finalizing the contracts? Or, are they waiting to getting somewhat into Kai before letting it out?

Either way, I wonder if it will turn out more like Kai's Funi dub or like what we've heard from Kai's Spanish dub. Fans can get easily enraged when shit goes wrong, casting especially.

[penguintruth]

Bad casting is practically a staple of DBZ English dubs. They should concentrate more on casting people who suit the roles more than bringing back VAs just because people are used to them.

This is why I'm glad Morrow's getting the boot. He's a great VA, but he was a terrible Goku. If only Funimation had so much sense.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Did you ignore my post where I answered your question? Some of Ocean's actors worked with Funimation on the script, which is most likely why they were similar. They're even credited on Funimation's ending credits.

Sean didn't say Ocean "stole" their script, he said something along the lines of the Canadians collaborated on the script.

As for that "daizex poster" it seems some people are so insecure that they feel the need to spread malicious rumours about the better dub. Perhaps you can ask this "daizex poster" to jot down the script of an entire episode while it's running, much less around 170 episodes, see how long it takes. Then you can ask this "daizex poster" how it was possible for Ocean to have got ahead of Funi in the dub process if someone was waiting for the Funi dub to air just to nick their scripts. Then you can why Ocean's Kid Buu saga was aired months before Funi's. Then ask him if he knows anything about copyright and the legal consequences of a production company using a competitor's script without permission. Finally, ask him if he realises that this is the daizex website's forum rather than the youtube comment section.

Ocean Group have been professionally dubbing shows before Funi even existed. Such a claim is ridiculous even for a small inexperienced dubbing studio, let alone one as big as the Ocean Group.

Jeez, no need to get offended. I did indeed read your post, but I treated it--as I treat all info regarding the Ocean/Westwood Media dub--with a grain of salt. Not because I doubt you, but only because everybody who claims to have official information on that dub has never cited any official sources or provided links to official sources. I once asked somebody who printed all that info on their YouTube profile, and they simply said, "I don't know if that's true, that's just what I've heard." So until Gen Fukunaga or an Ocean executive comes forward to clarify things, I treat all of this "info" as rumor.

Likewise, I treated that Daizex poster's response the same way. That's also why I included the word "supposedly." I could probably dig it up with some time and effort, but as I recall the Daizex poster claimed to be a former FUNimation employee. Then again, who knows if he was telling the truth, right? He, like you, didn't cite any official sources.

Bad casting is practically a staple of DBZ English dubs. They should concentrate more on casting people who suit the roles more than bringing back VAs just because people are used to them.

This is why I'm glad Morrow's getting the boot. He's a great VA, but he was a terrible Goku. If only Funimation had so much sense.

Well I guess I disagree with you on an artistic level because I love the FUNimation dub cast for the most part (one of the few exceptions being Linda Young, who's no longer there anyway). I disagree with you on a business level too, though. Have you seen how angry the average joe is that Bruce Faulconer isn't coming back (not that I care, good riddance), or that Stephanie Nadolny isn't back (...not "good riddance," but Clinkenbeard is better)? And that's just two people! For better or for worse, many people regard the reversioned dub of DBZ as the "true" form of DBZ. FUNimation is likely to lose a lot of potential viewers and DVD-buyers if they just recast the dub from the ground up. Their mode of thinking continues to be that the people who don't like their dub can always listen to the Japanese audio that they make available on their DVD and Blu-Ray box sets. From a business standpoint, that kinda makes sense.

*sigh*....If only DBZ had been dubbed loyally in the first place....

[penguintruth]

Please. The people who are bitching are still going to buy it. Funimation could replace the entire cast with dogs barking and cats meowing and people will buy it, because it's still DBZ, and most American DBZ fans have no standards. That's why the Funimation cast is popular.

[ohaimynameiserik]

Please. The people who are bitching are still going to buy it. Funimation could replace the entire cast with dogs barking and cats meowing and people will buy it, because it's still DBZ, and most American DBZ fans have no standards. That's why the Funimation cast is popular.

Not true, though the reason why is equally stupid.

They want everything how they remember seeing it on TV when they were little. If that's changed, they won't buy it. It just so happens what they saw on TV sucked, but that's what they saw.

[JulieYBM]

I'd hope Drummond changes his Vegeta if he isn't recast. If he played the character a bit more real he could probably do a decent job.

By the way...has nobody tried to actually contact Ocean or the known actors for more information yet?