The International Version of the Buu-Kai Arc

[Valerius Dover]

I do wonder what the point behind multiple ending themes would be, though. Isn't it usually just to sell singles?

[ChibiGoku]

^A fair point. They've already bothered to do a brand new score and new theme songs when they could've just reused the stuff from before. The same thing was done with Season 3 of Sonic X (which doesn't have more than the 4Kids dub on home releases), only in that case, the music was almost entirely recycled and no new theme song animations were made. That was understandable since they were replacing the score almost everywhere else, except France. They apparently streamed it in Japan, but I don't know when. Maybe they had similar plans for The Final Chapters, until the broadcast edit came along that is. Now Japan will most likely not see The Final Chapters.

Sonic X's situation is more complicated. We don't know completely what happened there. The following things we knew was that Sonic X's Second Series (or Third Season) was planned to be broadcasted in Japan of Summer 2005, based off what Junichi Kanemaru said sometime ago. We also know that the show was supposed to receive a new Opening song, by the band Luna Sea, via the production materials that were made available. We do know roughly the "Finished" production dates for Sonic X 53 - 78. which took place between August 2004 until March 1, 2005. As to why the delay, almost 5 years, to release of the series in Japan, it was never made clear. I've cited that the leak of the Japanese version online, complete with decent quality video and audio (though, mono), was part of the issue. TMS Entertainment once asked my friend's website to take down specifically those episodes in Japanese. I suspect with the episodes having leaked, it gave little reason for networks and sponsors to put the show on television, since they would no longer be exclusively airing the content, first hand. To complicate matters further, additional episodes were also in production and were set for a 2007 release (if I recall correctly), but ultimately that plan never went through.

For that matter, why even bother produce a Japanese audio track for a series that ultimately was never meant to be released in Japan? I feel you're looking too much into this.

Foreign-language dubs need a Japanese script to translate from. Fans also expect a Japanese track on the home release, regardless.

They have to show how foreign VAs should perform and what kind of voices dubbing companies need by providing the original version. Also, some countries usually leave yells from the Japanese version as they are for the sake of saving money.

It's worth noting that, in some cases, Japan never recorded a Japanese audio track for a series or movie they were, otherwise, heavily involved in the production of. So, in those cases, the production company would have to go in blind for producing an audio track for their local language. I believe this recently happened with FUNimation's Co-production for the Mass Effect anime, due to the Japanese release being halted and probably cancelled. They went as far as having to produce an entirely new M&E track for it. They did not have to do this with their other co-production, Dragon Age, though it's believed they may have done that recording in pre-lay.

[Valerius Dover]

Ok, that clears things up a bit. So, they were intending to broadcast it, apparently. Yoshihiro Ike did write a few new tracks for this arc, but most of it was recycled (They even pulled stuff from the games at some points). And I always thought it was odd that not only did they not change the opening at all (animation or anything) but they went back to one of the previous ending themes rather than feature a new one.

I suppose that was a different case then. I still think the multiple ending theme thing is odd. Does anyone know what the purpose of having more than one ending even is? I would think it has to with selling singles, much like insert songs, but then why does The Final Chapters have more than just above the bare minimum?

[Cold Skin]

^ Fan service, maybe? They might know how we all love to see new endings every 13 episodes nowadays with One Piece, Naruto, etc...
Helps keeping things fresh and giving you a sense that you're moving forwards to new stuff.

Then, you might wonder why they didn't do it with the Freezer and Cell sagas before that, each of them having only one ending?
I would say it has nothing to do with selling singles, since they sold more singles with those two first endings than they would with the Final Chapters ending which has no single release at all, and yet they do more for that non-single material than they did for the single-related material.

So if it's not about the single and purely for fans' pleasure, what's the difference? Time. They had all the time they wanted with the international version not being aired and being produced "in secrecy" to animate stuff, whereas when it's being constantly aired in Japan:
- FREEZER/CELL: they don't have time to make more than one ending for a whole 50-ish episodes saga.
- FREEZER/CELL: they don't have time to make a whole new opening (even between sagas), just quickly replacing the last part or half of the animation at most.
- BOO: they don't have time to create fully new endings and must edit together pre-done pieces of animation to create as little new animation as possible.
- BOO: same thing for the opening, but they also make a version that covers the whole saga so that they won't even have to update anything until the end.
- BOO: they don't have tme to update the eyecatches like they used to, let alone time to make a decent-looking still picture for them.

Since the international version already has multiple endings, using Japanese equivalents as singles is a good way to make money or promote the product without having too much to do in emergency: the song creation is entirely taken care of by the artist (no need to create and record a "Dragon Ball"-related song), 3/4 of the animation has already been drawn and just has to be edited now (and I'm sure the 1/4 remaining mostly composed of still images is already bothering them and is done because it's really necessary)...

That's my guess anyway.
Four endings in the international versions because they had all the time they wanted to satisfy today's fans' demands/habits with those.
Four endings in Japanese because it's an occasion to associate the product with "pre-existing" singles with a minimal amount of totally-new animation to create, due to 3/4 of the work having been done for the international version.

[MagicBox]

If this new opening/ending is anything other than Majin Vegeta terrorizing various cities Elsa-style to the tune of "Let It Go," then color me severely disappointed.

[Valerius Dover]

Hmm, I'm fairly new to anime in general, so I don't know exactly how these things work. The aforementioned Sonic X went through 3 endings in the 52 aired episodes, but Hoshi no Kaabii that was on at around the same time period went through 71 episodes before changing both the OP and ED, though I get the feeling that series is aimed at a younger audience.

Not to mention that DB and DBZ hardly ever changed their themes. It wasn't really until DBGT that they started doing this, it seems.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Let It Burn is a Kid Boo image song where he belts out his lust for destruction.

♫ Let it burn, let it burn ♫

[dbzfan7]

^A fair point. They've already bothered to do a brand new score and new theme songs when they could've just reused the stuff from before. The same thing was done with Season 3 of Sonic X (which doesn't have more than the 4Kids dub on home releases), only in that case, the music was almost entirely recycled and no new theme song animations were made. That was understandable since they were replacing the score almost everywhere else, except France. They apparently streamed it in Japan, but I don't know when. Maybe they had similar plans for The Final Chapters, until the broadcast edit came along that is. Now Japan will most likely not see The Final Chapters.

Oh my Godkamikingkai(o), don't mention that piece of shit . It makes GT look like a master piece.

So I hear the international version has more episodes too. Still sad Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go is being replaced.

[Valerius Dover]

Oh my Godkamikingkai(o), don't mention that piece of shit . It makes GT look like a master piece.

So I hear the international version has more episodes too. Still sad Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go is being replaced.

Again, Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go IS the replacement. Fight it Out is the original. Japan's getting the edit.

Also, guess I have a masterpiece to look forward to.
Although, seriously, this is apples to oranges.

[DBZ_Lee]

I'm just grateful that we are getting the Series as Toei originally intended - it seems to have everything the Japanese version lacks - Consistent pacing, good editing & decent music placement.

The one episode where Trunks was talking to his first opponent at the Budokai was just awful, it was like watching disco lights it was so fast, and unnatural.

[Flame Dragon]

I wonder how it will look in Blu-Ray compared to the first Kai.

[ChibiGoku]

^A fair point. They've already bothered to do a brand new score and new theme songs when they could've just reused the stuff from before. The same thing was done with Season 3 of Sonic X (which doesn't have more than the 4Kids dub on home releases), only in that case, the music was almost entirely recycled and no new theme song animations were made. That was understandable since they were replacing the score almost everywhere else, except France. They apparently streamed it in Japan, but I don't know when. Maybe they had similar plans for The Final Chapters, until the broadcast edit came along that is. Now Japan will most likely not see The Final Chapters.

Oh my Godkamikingkai(o), don't mention that piece of shit . It makes GT look like a master piece.

I don't know. I think Sonic X was overall better than Dragon Ball GT. Don't kill me...

So I hear the international version has more episodes too. Still sad Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go is being replaced.

Actually, it's the other way around. "Fight it Out!" is the original Opening song, while "Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go" is the replacement song.

[dbzfan7]

Oh my Godkamikingkai(o), don't mention that piece of shit . It makes GT look like a master piece.

So I hear the international version has more episodes too. Still sad Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go is being replaced.

Again, Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go IS the replacement. Fight it Out is the original. Japan's getting the edit.

Also, guess I have a masterpiece to look forward to.
Although, seriously, this is apples to oranges.

Well if that's true then I prefer Japans edit.

Guess so. It's all preferences...though it's basically GT except this time only boy blue can do anything.

I don't know. I think Sonic X was overall better than Dragon Ball GT. Don't kill me...

Ugh it's no contest. At least Pan and Trunks can do something early on. Everyone who isn't Sonic and sometimes Knuckles can't do jack shit in X. Then you have the worst surrogate character Chris, then you have Season 3's GT esque story with Chris stealing more from Tails after he already stole from Amy and others beforehand. Then Tails gets left with the other stupidest interspecies romance since Sonic and Elise. Except worse cause it's under aged too. So now chalk up Human X Animal and Animal X Plant as two phases of Sega.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Oh my Godkamikingkai(o), don't mention that piece of shit . It makes GT look like a master piece.
So I hear the international version has more episodes too. Still sad Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go is being replaced.

Again, Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go IS the replacement. Fight it Out is the original. Japan's getting the edit.
Also, guess I have a masterpiece to look forward to.
Although, seriously, this is apples to oranges.

Well if that's true then I prefer Japans edit.
Guess so. It's all preferences...though it's basically GT except this time only boy blue can do anything.

I'm not sure if I've understood you well, but do you prefer Japan's edit only for Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go?
IMO, the best and easiest (although unlikely because of rights and stuff) would be offering the option to choose the OP and ED in the DVDs/Blu-Rays. That way, we could watch the international cut with Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go.

[dbzfan7]

I'm not sure if I've understood you well, but do you prefer Japan's edit only for Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go?
IMO, the best and easiest (although unlikely because of rights and stuff) would be offering the option to choose the OP and ED in the DVDs/Blu-Rays. That way, we could watch the international cut with Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go.

I don't know enough about the International episodes. I prefer Japans opening, but that doesn't meal I'll prefer how the episodes are done til I see them for myself.

[Valerius Dover]

I'm not sure if I've understood you well, but do you prefer Japan's edit only for Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go?
IMO, the best and easiest (although unlikely because of rights and stuff) would be offering the option to choose the OP and ED in the DVDs/Blu-Rays. That way, we could watch the international cut with Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go.

That would only work if they used alternate angles, which Funimation doesn't do anymore. Batman: TAS Volume 4 has a thing where you can choose which OP you want, so I figured it could work like that, but again, no alternate angels.

Plus, wouldn't it be pretty much like inserting Rock the Dragon into Japanese Z?

[dbboxkaifan]

I'm not sure if I've understood you well, but do you prefer Japan's edit only for Like Nothing Before or After?
IMO, the best and easiest (although unlikely because of rights and stuff) would be offering the option to choose the OP and ED in the DVDs/Blu-rays. That way, we could watch the international cut with Like Like Nothing Before or After.

If FUNimation were to include Like Nothing Before or After they could bundle it it in the Extras' section allowing people to experience Dragon Ball Kai: The Final Chapters like it was originally meant to. Although between the two, I wouldn't mind taking the Japan ver. over the International ver. given the choice.

[TheRed259]

As it seems the Vietnamese version of DBZ Kai ends this summer. It will be interesting to see if they will continue with the Buu arc (considering that DBZ Kai is still ongoing in Vietnam) or stop it right there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BydEHXCQJgs

[theoriginalbilis]

I honestly don't see FUNimation getting anything from the Japanese TV edit of the Kai-Buu arc at all.

I mean, we know they've been given their masters already by Toei to record over well ahead of the fact. We're most likely just going to get whatever entails "The Final Chapters" and that's it. On the slim chance, FUNimation has access to the Japanese TV replacement songs, they could be included as a home video extra.

Of course, there have been a lot of miracles happening in the R1 anime market recently, so... never say never?

[andrewtuell1991]

The more I hear about this longer International version of Buu arc Kai, the more I hate it. I still don't understand the purpose and value of this obscenely longer version of the final arc of Kai. Well, obviously the purpose of having more episodes is so Toei can sell the distribution rights at a higher price and continue to whore out Dragon Ball without putting a lick of though or effort into the quality and integrity of their product, but still. They do remember the purpose of Kai is to be "closer to the manga" right? I specifically remember them saying so during initial advertisements. So why does the international version have a whole filler episode left in about some bullshit of Videl beating up a Nappa recolor!?

Let me do quick little comparison of Z, Kai JP, and Kai International.
Z: 212 (13). Happiness Times a Million! The Junior Champion is Decided!!
Kai JP: 103 (5). Everyone is Shocked! Goten and Trunks' Super Battle!!
Kai International: 10. Boys section final winner! Who will confront Satan!?

13 vs 5 vs 10...
What is the International version even cutting out? It doesn't seem like a whole lot! I just hope Funimation is able to somehow able to obtain distribution rights to the Japanese version because I really don't want to have to go through the headache of getting a credit card and buying it from Amazon JP, CD Japan, or somewhere else just to get the version of Kai that does what it's suppose to. And no, I don't care about "breathing room" or music placement (which outside of the theatrical movies has always been iffy for Dragon Ball). Also, I vastly prefer KKZG to the snorefest that is Fight It Out.