Marketing Of And Education About "Kai"

[zeldarocks]

I got into a brief discussion with a friend of mine at school in regards to Kai; he obviously knew about Kai, but he SWORE to me that it was the EXACT same thing that aired on Toonami... I could not get him to go back and get his facts straight...

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, what with the cutting of material, the censoring of overly-violent shots and nudity, and the replaced musical score, I can certainly see how an ill-informed person might make such a mistake.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

For one, I think they need to advertise it as a new series. Adding the 'Z' only confuses things.

But it isn't a new series, and that's going to blatantly obvious to anyone who buys the DVDs. FUNi tacked on the "Z" to add brand familiarity as well as to help people become more aware of what they're actually getting into.


Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say: "Is Dragon Ball Kai a new series"? I'd be able to buy a Dragon Box. Adding the "Z" probably helped minimize such confusion.

[Metalwario64]

FUNi tacked on the "Z"

That was Toei.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

FUNi tacked on the "Z"

That was Toei.

Oh really? Did FUNi ask them to?

[Metalwario64]

Oh really? Did FUNi ask them to?

I believe it was just Toei trying to help overseas sales.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Oh jeez... I tried to explain to my friends at school what is DB Kai, but they sounded familiar. I would go ask "Dunno what DB Kai is?" and I would ask "DB Kai is DBZ Remastered, the manga version". Live with it.

[Blue]

Oh jeez... I tried to explain to my friends at school what is DB Kai, but they sounded familiar. I would go ask "Dunno what DB Kai is?" and I would ask "DB Kai is DBZ Remastered, the manga version". Live with it.

I'm picturing Plaque busting out his shades and strutting off to his mom's minivan.

[Budogenkai]

I agree. I mean, with all the current products available, people are just going to get the Remastered sets or the Dragon Boxes instead. It's more episodes, cheaper, and more visually appealing to buyers.


I think FUNi realls needs to do some sort of new marketing towards Kai to help people understand what makes it worth purchasing.

[VegettoEX]

Just tossing it out there... a couple of the most recent Google queries that led to Daizenshuu EX:

• "did dragonball z kai going to be new episode or the same old episode"
• "dragon ball Kai on blur ray"
• "is there new dragon ball z"

Point #1: God damn, people are stupid.
Point #2: God damn, people have no idea what Kai is.

[Li'l Lemmy]

blur ray

The best thing I've heard all week. I'm'ma get me some Blur-ray discs.


~Da Lemmy

[Sprite Satan]

• "did dragonball z kai going to be new episode or the same old episode"

Well, did it?

[*]"dragon ball Kai on blur ray"

Oh, Tanooki Kuribo, will you ever spell it right? (JK! JK!)

Point #2: God damn, people have no idea what Kai is.

That's not too surprising, is it? In all the hype for Kai, FUNimation has gotten across that it's "Bigger, badder, better" or "thicker, longer, uncut" (no wait lolz thats me) or whatever but they haven't really been trying to broadcast the message of what Kai is.

Now, some of that is understandable. For the most part, "there's less filler!" isn't a strong focus point for most people, I can see why it's not the focus. But it is leading to a wee bit of confusion among some people about what Kai is. Maybe it won't matter about six seconds after it broadcasts but right now there's a lot of unneeded confusion and rumour about this.

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, aside from this basically looking like a triple dip (after the orange bricks and DBoxes), it's also forcing them to basically go against their own marketing strategy of the past decade. "You want it uncut! You want it with all the footage intact! You want all the episodes we skipped over before! Uncut! Complete! Long!" And now, suddenly, they're having to hype, "it's shorter... there are scenes cut out... mostly the scenes we cut out before and then put back in and convinced you to buy... yeah, we're saying that's bad now and this is better... fewer scenes are better... less footage... less uncensored... is this making any sense to you?" So, yeah, I can understand another head-scratcher for less-informed fans.

And re: Mike's post... yeesh, people are stupid...

[TripleRach]

A few days ago, my boyfriend suddenly asked me, "So what's up with this new Dragon Ball show?" I watch Kai pretty regularly, and he's often in the same room with me when it's on (though not actually watching it with me). Sometimes I even watch it with a mutual friend of ours, and we have conversations about it while he's present.

Anyway, I responded to his question with, "It's just DBZ with new music and no filler." "That's it?" "Well, it's also HD." It's a pretty easy concept to explain, but the explanations just aren't getting out there, apparently. Of course, in my anecdote, it's more a case of him not really caring enough to find out until now. But I still think it's kind of telling (and funny) that a big dork like me could live with someone that was completely clueless about it.

[LilKokuLink]

Someone I know asked me about what DragonBall Kai was because I was so hyped up about it, and then I struggled to find something that interested him.

- Closer to original manga
- New score
- HD

These were the points I said to him and yet he said: "is that it?" He's the type of fan that watched it as a kid on the tele and never really decided to commit his own time towards the series.
I just think that Kai is only really for the new generation of potential fans and the type of fans that post on these forums to this date, years after the end of the show.

[Adamant]

Those reactions seem pretty natural to me. If you only have a minor interest the series, and especially if you don't remember the slow pacing or read the manga, "It's the same series, just with some stuff cut. Oh, and new music" doesn't exactly sound very interesting. If someone told me they were producing "Super Lost! It's Lost with some scenes missing and a new score" I'd probably have the exact same reaction.

[LilKokuLink]

I suppose so, although it's annoying that fans like that aren't able to see why it's such a big deal (or atleast more of a deal than how they may perceive it). Over here on these forums, a lot of us are buzzing around with excitement for a more accurate and better delivered dub, however people like the one I described in my previous post fail to see why that's a big deal because they're not educated enough about the series to know it was inaccurate in the first place. So maybe a good reason for presenting Kai may be that it has given FUNimation a chance to produce a better dub for the series as opposed to introducing a new generation of fans in Japan?

I'm not entirely sure, but has DB/Z/GT still been airing in Japan ever since the series ended with GT? I think I heard this somewhere, maybe on the Daizenshuu EX podcast but if this is the case, then Toei probably thought it was time for something a little different.

As we're talking about the original Japanese version of Kai as opposed to the dub of Z Kai, I can't find a good enough reason to sell the Japanese version. It's just weird, to me it feels like the dub of Kai is more needed than the original version of Kai as the original Japanese version of Z was so perfect in the first place, however the dub can't live without the Japanese version so... meh!

[Cipher]

No reason to be offended if people aren't seeing why Kai is "important." It's not. Its only purpose is to provide a cheap-out way of drawing in a new generation of fans through Japanese television. Re-cutting it, adding new music, and going HD were the only ways to reasonably facilitate that.

For the English-speaking fan base, the new dub is a pretty big deal, but only if you're in the know enough to have been outrageously unsatisfied with the old one. Casual viewers were fine with it. Nothing wrong with that.

If anyone else here is familiar with Transformers, Kai is the slightly higher-budget equivalent of the Generation 2 cartoon they tried out in the '90s. I.e. recutting old episodes with some fancy new graphics to indoctrinate a new set of kids. It's great to familiarize people with what it is, and if they've been looking to own the series, it may be a good time to jump on, but that's about how exciting Kai will seem to most people. And really, they're very justified in their reactions.

I'm not entirely sure, but has DB/Z/GT still been airing in Japan ever since the series ended with GT? I think I heard this somewhere, maybe on the Daizenshuu EX podcast but if this is the case, then Toei probably thought it was time for something a little different.

On, like, non-basic cable packages. Japan hates old things.

[dan2026]

It's great to familiarize people with what it is, and if they've been looking to own the series, it may be a good time to jump on

That's sort of how I see it.
Kai is a great way of making DBZ into a more attractive package to draw in a new generation of viewers.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Just tossing it out there... a couple of the most recent Google queries that led to Daizenshuu EX:

• "did dragonball z kai going to be new episode or the same old episode"
• "dragon ball Kai on blur ray"
• "is there new dragon ball z"

Point #1: God damn, people are stupid.
Point #2: God damn, people have no idea what Kai is.

The sad thing is these guys represent the majority of Dragonball fans in the US and incidentally fans of the dub. It makes being a Dub fan in the US(and on here) that much harder. I'm surprised "Will Kai had the Falconer music in it" didn't show up.