Chris Sabat finally sheds light on DB specials not dubbed

[Doctor Seaweed Roll]

Yes.

That is probably how VIZ got approval when Funimation didn't because VIZ basically just had to ask their Dad's permission

As opposed to Funimation and the LITERAL Uncle at Toei.

I thought the uncle was a worker on tokusatsu division not anime

[Yellow Flower King]

No. I meant literally? Didnt you know? Funimation got its start literally because Gen Fukunaga had an uncle at Toei Animation. No, really!

[Scsigs]

Yeah, I remember the uncle story. Gen Fukanaga managed to get Toei to license Dragon Ball to a US licensor (the nascent FUNimation at the time) specifically BECAUSE his uncle convinced them to do it. Talk about knowing people in the industry.

[rweasp]

Its an interesting question to think about, but what would have happened to the franchise in the USA if Fukanaga didn't create Funimation? Obviously some other company would scoop up the license eventually (and of course Harmony Gold tried with the og Dragon Ball initially), but when? How would they treat the series in-terms of faithfulness to the source material? What voice actors would they choose? I guess you would have to look at how anime was being treated back in the mid-late 1990s to get a general answer, but Dragon Ball was a juggernaut overseas at this point.

[Scsigs]

Its an interesting question to think about, but what would have happened to the franchise in the USA if Fukanaga didn't create Funimation? Obviously some other company would scoop up the license eventually (and of course Harmony Gold tried with the og Dragon Ball initially), but when? How would they treat the series in-terms of faithfulness to the source material? What voice actors would they choose? I guess you would have to look at how anime was being treated back in the mid-late 1990s to get a general answer, but Dragon Ball was a juggernaut overseas at this point.

Objectively, I'm pretty sure that the reason OG DB failed twice with the Harmony Gold & early FUNimation dubs is because they tried running it in syndication where it failed to find an audience. Z as well failed initially when FUNi ran it in syndication. Toonami airing it is what gave it the audience it needed over here. It also airing in the 90s over here helped it immensely.
In a world where FUNi didn't get the license & the release of the show over here was delayed several years, what I could imagine is maybe Viz gets it, or Ocean. I doubt 4Kids or Saban would've picked it up. How would they have dubbed it? Probably better than FUNi did in terms of translation. FUNi & Saban scripted the dub they did with the Ocean cast really badly when it came to the translations & it's mainly because they thought they could tell the story better than Toriyama & Toei did. Now, the original version has its problems, but as told, it's a much stronger product that how it got dubbed into English. I imagine not as many rewrites in the scripts would've happened. As for the cast, that's up to who'd get it. Viz, they'd cast a bunch of people who live in LA. Ocean, they'd cast Canadians. Same with any other dubbing studio. I imagine the go-to kid's networks would've either been Fox Kids or Toonami just like when FUNi dubbed it. Viz went with CN for a lot of their other dubbed animes & CN quickly supplanted Fox Kids as the go-to kid's network for cartoons when it got popular over 2 decades ago. I assume a dub for a kid's network of its time that would've been better in some ways than what FUNi did, but still kinda cringey in some ways.

[Yellow Flower King]

Its an interesting question to think about, but what would have happened to the franchise in the USA if Fukanaga didn't create Funimation? Obviously some other company would scoop up the license eventually (and of course Harmony Gold tried with the og Dragon Ball initially), but when? How would they treat the series in-terms of faithfulness to the source material? What voice actors would they choose? I guess you would have to look at how anime was being treated back in the mid-late 1990s to get a general answer, but Dragon Ball was a juggernaut overseas at this point.

Objectively, I'm pretty sure that the reason OG DB failed twice with the Harmony Gold & early FUNimation dubs is because they tried running it in syndication where it failed to find an audience. Z as well failed initially when FUNi ran it in syndication. Toonami airing it is what gave it the audience it needed over here. It also airing in the 90s over here helped it immensely.
In a world where FUNi didn't get the license & the release of the show over here was delayed several years, what I could imagine is maybe Viz gets it, or Ocean. I doubt 4Kids or Saban would've picked it up. How would they have dubbed it? Probably better than FUNi did in terms of translation. FUNi & Saban scripted the dub they did with the Ocean cast really badly when it came to the translations & it's mainly because they thought they could tell the story better than Toriyama & Toei did. Now, the original version has its problems, but as told, it's a much stronger product that how it got dubbed into English. I imagine not as many rewrites in the scripts would've happened. As for the cast, that's up to who'd get it. Viz, they'd cast a bunch of people who live in LA. Ocean, they'd cast Canadians. Same with any other dubbing studio. I imagine the go-to kid's networks would've either been Fox Kids or Toonami just like when FUNi dubbed it. Viz went with CN for a lot of their other dubbed animes & CN quickly supplanted Fox Kids as the go-to kid's network for cartoons when it got popular over 2 decades ago. I assume a dub for a kid's network of its time that would've been better in some ways than what FUNi did, but still kinda cringey in some ways.

DBZ DID NOT fail on Syndication, sure it did not grow explosive until CN but it wasnt a flop and I am tired of people pretending like it was. Sailor Moon did flop though. Absolutely Terrible timeslots.

[Scsigs]

DBZ DID NOT fail on Syndication, sure it did not grow explosive until CN but it wasnt a flop and I am tired of people pretending like it was. Sailor Moon did flop though. Absolutely Terrible timeslots.

Bro, it failed in syndication. If it didn't reach the ratings they were looking for, failed to find an audience, & didn't drive merch sales to the point where they parted ways with Saban & shopped it around to new kid's networks before landing on Cartoon Network, airing on Toonami, & finding its audience, it failed.

[Yellow Flower King]

DBZ DID NOT fail on Syndication, sure it did not grow explosive until CN but it wasnt a flop and I am tired of people pretending like it was. Sailor Moon did flop though. Absolutely Terrible timeslots.

Bro, it failed in syndication. If it didn't reach the ratings they were looking for, failed to find an audience, & didn't drive merch sales to the point where they parted ways with Saban & shopped it around to new kid's networks before landing on Cartoon Network, airing on Toonami, & finding its audience, it failed.

This is a bunch of bullshit revisionism. It was the no 1 syndicated show, merch was popular, Saban parted ways with Funimation and not the other around. Even Chris Psaros as little love he had for Saban's era and censorship, said it was a success, as documented on his website the syndication era was a success. Again, you arent wrong, On CN it was the biggest show on television PERIOD, not even Family Guy or other Network shows could match it. Buu Saga was the biggest hit Anime on USA Television had. And syndication also had no future either, it was providence that had DBZ make the jump when they did. But Pokemon and Dragon Ball were the last successes of the syndication era and its revisionism to say otherwise.

Heck I think even Kanzenshuu the website has actual receipts and historical evidence to show this. Like fans begged affiliated stations to have more DBZ in letters and emails and more merch from Funimation.


https://dbzu.3gkai.com/opinions/bwatson.html

We have. We've gotten a lot of feedback, and for the most part, it's been very positive, which we're glad to see. I think a lot of people appreciate the fact that we are trying to keep as much as we can, and trying to keep the spirit of the original animation, within TV's boundaries. I think most people have noticed that. And the show's done extremely well- we were the number 1 syndicated show last week. Then again, obviously, there are some die-hard anime fans who would really rather see the uncut version, and for that we're working with Pioneer. Pioneer is releasing uncut versions of the episodes as well as the TV versions, so for people who want to see the show uncut, that'll also be readily available. For the uncut versions, they do a second recording. Pioneer basically oversees the anime script, and we coordinate to some extent with them.
As a closing message, I would like to say to viewers that we appreciate your response, and it has made a difference! Many of you have e-mailed us with your opinions and comments (FUNimation.net), and written to TV stations, which helps them know how popular the shows are with the viewers. For this we are extremely grateful. Many of your opinions have been forwarded to TV programmers, toy manufacturers, and others who take serious stock in what you say. We have made a serious effort to respond to all of your letters, although at times we may fall behind because of the large amount of mail. However, we do read each and every letter we receive, so keep your comments coming! Currently, there are discussions underway for the release of more Dragon Ball shows to complement our Dragon Ball Z shows. Your letters and comments are important in this regard.

We are updating our web page at present so that you will be able to download cool graphics and audio from the shows, as well as find the latest news and information on Dragon Sell Z...so you'll know as soon as we know! Many of you have asked where you can get merchandise for Dragon Ball Z. We have just made a preliminary agreement for many new lines of Dragon Ball Z merchandise, all of which will be available for sale everywhere very soon! And we expect a broader release of our new Dragon Ball GT game, available for the Sony PlayStation.

So thanks for your support! Hopefully, together we can get many more episodes of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and eventually Dragon Ball GT on the shelves and available to everyone, both cut and uncut. Because as you know, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series is just unbelievably good!

And that exact same interview on Kanzenshuu the website if you want me to look for it.

[GhostEmperorX]

I thought the uncle was a worker on tokusatsu division not anime

He was, name being Nagafumi Hori [堀 長文] (presently deceased).
Kamen Rider (like the J movie of 1994) in particular.

[Yellow Flower King]

Wow. I cant believe he died! Did Kanzenshuu discuss that? That was before my time. As much as Funimation was a nepo baby company and how terribly they dubbed DB until recently, his decision to give it to Gen Fukunaga literally reshaped the industry.

[rweasp]

Wow. I cant believe he died! Did Kanzenshuu discuss that? That was before my time. As much as Funimation was a nepo baby company and how terribly they dubbed DB until recently, his decision to give it to Gen Fukunaga literally reshaped the industry.

Yeah, he is a pretty significant figure in the English side of the franchise and, indirectly, the anime dubbing industry in general in the US given how large Funimation became.