The Harmony Gold Dub & Broadcast Audio Discussion Thread

[Ashura]

Thanks very much for posting this, Derek. It's cool to see people actually do legwork around here. I've actually put in some inquiries to people who live around where this has aired, and am hoping my shot in the dark turns up someone who taped more of it off of TV.

He also recommended the following: "Swallow your pride, ask the fans for the Harmony Gold dub tapes. Tell them that you want to digitally restore the tapes and create digital archives. Tapes are time bombs, they only last about 25 years. If they exist, then fans will send them to you. We did this with Robotech and were really surprised by the positive results. Some of the home videos were of episodes taped from TV that we were missing.

This, exactly this. This dub is actually one of those things which will likely disappear forever if the fans do not try to make some kind of digital preservation of it. This is the reason I completely restored the first movie digitally, and would like to do the second as well (as well as make the first one more accurate in terms of op + ed if possible...)

This is the only reason why a lot of missing Doctor Who episodes have been found.

[superrayman3]

Thanks for the info Derekpadula it was an interesting find and brings us one step closer to getting the most acurate and complete info about this dub as possible which is what this thread is all about, one thing I think needs addressed is the confusion about all this DB and Streamline talk since some people seem to be misunderstanding what exactly we're talking about, To clarify we do know is that Streamline did not make a dub of DB (Before Funimation HG was the ONLY company that dubbed DB), what we do not know however and are still trying to figure out is whether or not HG gave their dubs of movies 1&3 to Streamline for home distribution hence the nickname, the Streamline tape. Another thing that surprised me a lot was Tommy Yune's suggestion about asking people who have the episodes for the tapes, not only is it a good idea he also brought up a very good point that VHS tapes won't last forever and once they're gone they're gone. If anyone has tapes with episodes of the HG dub could you let me know?

[atm5508]

Thanks for the info, the interview with Tommy Yune was especially great. I agree with him (and others) that fans are going to be the only thing to save this dub. Even if Funimation wanted to release I doubt that they have much (or any) of it in their possession.

If anyone out there has tapes of the Harmony Gold dub, please back them up! If you need help backing them up, contact another member of the community or even a professional service (make sure both are trustworthy first )

[Pokewhiz7]

I wish we could somehow convince FUNimation to release it.

[DerekPadula]

You're welcome. I think when I get back to California from my vacation I'll call Harmony Gold again and see if I can get in touch with the archivist. Hopefully they still have a tape or two stored deep in the vaults and we can collaborate in some way that the fans will be happy with.

[superrayman3]

I wish we could somehow convince FUNimatio to release it.

No chance of that i'm afraid cause chances are they probably don't even have any of the HG dub at all.

[Pokewhiz7]

I wish we could somehow convince FUNimatio to release it.

No chance of that i'm afraid cause chances are they probably don't even have any of the HG dub at all.

But, if fans can find a copy, we can give it to them.

[superrayman3]

But, if fans can find a copy, we can give it to them.

Good point.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Harmony Gold's dub of DB was a originally a SAG project? Wow! That's very interesting. There's very, very little voice acting work for anime that happens in the Union anymore. Typically the only kind of anime dubs where you'll find SAG actors working are the big-name dubs like the dubs for the Miyazaki movies.

[superrayman3]

Forgive my lack of knowlege but what exactly is SAG and what does it stand for?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Forgive my lack of knowlege but what exactly is SAG and what does it stand for?

No problem! SAG stands for "Screen Actors Guild," and it's a Union that actors can join. Joining guarantees certain benefits (wages, residuals, working hours, occasionally health benefits, etc.) that non-Union actors are not entitled to. That's the short version. However, many actors--myself included--do not join SAG because 80% of the work out there is non-Union work, and if you join the Union, you're not allowed to do non-Union jobs (although some actors get around this by working under pseudonyms, it's technically still not allowed under Union rules).

[superrayman3]

Forgive my lack of knowlege but what exactly is SAG and what does it stand for?

No problem! SAG stands for "Screen Actors Guild," and it's a Union that actors can join. Joining guarantees certain benefits (wages, residuals, working hours, occasionally health benefits, etc.) that non-Union actors are not entitled to. That's the short version. However, many actors--myself included--do not join SAG because 80% of the work out there is non-Union work, and if you join the Union, you're not allowed to do non-Union jobs (although some actors get around this by working under pseudonyms, it's technically still not allowed under Union rules).

Oh I get it now thanks for explaining it to me.

[TripleRach]

Furthermore, he mentioned something interesting about FUNimation, and why Toei decided to work with them instead of Harmony Gold.

He said that Toei licensed DB to FUNimation because they wanted to keep it in the family. Gen Fukunaga had family members in executive positions at Toei, and they wanted to work with people they could trust.

Apparently there were a lot of Japanese rights holders with marketable products, and at this time in the 80’s and early 90’s, some Japanese companies had bad luck with licensors in America. Such was the case with Evangelion and ADV films, which filed for bankruptcy. Then the so-called Evangelion 2.0 came out under a different licensor, with different voice actors and so on. As a result, Toei and other companies were more inclined to work with companies they could trust and felt would be around for a long time. Apparently Toei were convinced that FUNimation was one of those.

I don't doubt that there's some truth to that, since it's common knowledge that Gen Fukunaga had family at Toei. But there are timing issues with the rest of those statements. I don't know when exactly Evangelion was first licensed in the US, but the original TV series didn't even premiere in Japan until 1995, and by then FUNimation already had the Dragon Ball license (and the first 13 DB episodes were probably airing already). Then the Eva movies were first released in 1997, which was well into DBZ's US run.

[Pokewhiz7]

I don't doubt that there's some truth to that, since it's common knowledge that Gen Fukunaga had family at Toei. But there are timing issues with the rest of those statements. I don't know when exactly Evangelion was first licensed in the US, but the original TV series didn't even premiere in Japan until 1995, and by then FUNimation already had the Dragon Ball license (and the first 13 DB episodes were probably airing already). Then the Eva movies were first released in 1997, which was well into DBZ's US run.

I don't think he means that they happened at the same time, just that that's an example of them wanting to keep it in the family.

[superrayman3]

I don't doubt that there's some truth to that, since it's common knowledge that Gen Fukunaga had family at Toei. But there are timing issues with the rest of those statements. I don't know when exactly Evangelion was first licensed in the US, but the original TV series didn't even premiere in Japan until 1995, and by then FUNimation already had the Dragon Ball license (and the first 13 DB episodes were probably airing already). Then the Eva movies were first released in 1997, which was well into DBZ's US run.

I don't think he means that they happened at the same time, just that that's an example of them wanting to keep it in the family.

Yeah I got the same impression about that remark.

[Ashura]

The thing about Eva and then ADV's bankruptcy is a little weird, but I can see the perspective he's coming from. ADV had Eva for like 10 years before they had to declare bankruptcy. It also always made money for them, and their relationship with Gainax always seemed fine to me. The show got re-released and the license continued enough that if they really wanted to pull out, I'm sure Gainax could have eventually. The situation with 2.0 (and the EoE movies) always felt more like they couldn't afford the films. EoE's asking price was apparently equivalent to licensing many shows for ADV at the time.

[TripleRach]

I don't think he means that they happened at the same time, just that that's an example of them wanting to keep it in the family.

I thought about that, because there were a lot of instances of one company licensing a TV series, and another company licensing its movies. And Eva is probably the most famous example of it. But how much of that really happened before FUNimation got Dragon Ball? It always seemed more like a DVD era issue to me, when North American companies were licensing and releasing everything they could.

[superrayman3]

It always seemed more like a DVD era issue to me, when North American companies were licensing and releasing everything they could.

There's no doubt about that, companies back in the early DVD era would lisence and release as much stuff as they could to make a profit no metter what it was.

@ Pokewhiz7 and atm5508 has there been any new developments in getting word from the person who mentioned the Streamline tape?

[Ashura]

If by early in the DVD era you really mean the middle of the DVD era and the anime boom, then yes. Early in the DVD era is 1998ish, and what we had in anime land back then was like... Tenchi Muyo the Movie.

[superrayman3]

If by early in the DVD era you really mean the middle of the DVD era and the anime boom, then yes. Early in the DVD era is 1998ish, and what we had in anime land back then was like... Tenchi Muyo the Movie.

Yep that's the era I was refering to, what's kinda weird for me regarding the anime boom is the fact that at the time I saw a lot of anime DVD's but didn't pay too much attention to them cause I was only 9 years old at the time so I was more into american cartoons go figure however on june 3rd 2002 that completly changed when I watched Sailor Moon for the first time (It was the very first episode) and after it left the airways (I still hold a major grudge against Toei for refusing to allow the lisence to be renewed ) I got into DB/DBZ (I haven't seen GT yet so can't say anything about it) and anime in general.