Marketing Of And Education About "Kai"

[Gaffer Tape]

Only if we were referring to the voice cast, which I didn't think we were. I was just saying they've improved since the beginning, and the beginning isn't DBZ season 3.

[zeldarocks]

I believe Funimation should do something like this:

http://www.toonzone.net/blog/blogs/225/ ... ry-of-kai/

Very informative article; sets out to explain/clarify what Kai is and the History thereof.

[dan2026]

I believe Funimation should do something like this:

http://www.toonzone.net/blog/blogs/225/ ... ry-of-kai/

Very informative article; sets out to explain/clarify what Kai is and the History thereof.

That's pretty useless.
It says Kai was cropped to 16:9 in order to be broadcast on Japanese TV.
But it misses the important fact that the home release is in the original uncropped 4:3.

[JulieYBM]

I believe Funimation should do something like this:

http://www.toonzone.net/blog/blogs/225/ ... ry-of-kai/

Very informative article; sets out to explain/clarify what Kai is and the History thereof.

That's pretty useless.
It says Kai was cropped to 16:9 in order to be broadcast on Japanese TV.
But it misses the important fact that the home release is in the original uncropped 4:3.

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that it was cropped specifically for Japanese broadcast.

[Budogenkai]

Yeah I was watching some of Kai with my friend who's not really into anime but used to watch Dragonball Z as a kid, and he really didn't understand what Kai was. From the commercials he thought it was supposed to be a new storyline or plot changes, but I explained it to him and he liked the idea of a shortened Dragonball Z. I'll probably get the boxset and show him some of the episodes.

[VegettoEX]

Whether or not FUNimation follows any of what some of us say about the series and its marketing, one thing is for sure -- they're still going on the offensive with education lately. The @funimation Twitter account has seen some quasi-daily "Did you know?" posts about Kai. It's somewhat of an extension of that blog post we mentioned a while back. What are your thoughts on some of these? Are they accurate? Are they interesting? Are they genuinely informative for the fans who honestly just don't know about the series? What other ones would you suggest?

Here's the list so far:

• Did you know the Blu-ray / DVD of DBZ Kai is uncut featuring non-stop action in all its epic brutality? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Dragon Ball Z Kai is closer than ever to creator Akira Toriyama’s original vision? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Dragon Ball Z Kai is presented in HD with its original 4x3 format? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Goku curses in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases? http://DragonBallZKai/

Personally, I feel a couple of these fall a little too close to the "Grr, yeah! DBZ is totally hardcore awesomeness!" that they're otherwise shying away from. Brutality and cursing? That's what we're focusing on here? I dunno...

Overall, I think it's a *perfect* idea and execution. I'm just not totally on-board with what the content of that marketing is. Smirks galore with the mention of the aspect ratio, though.

[JulieYBM]

I agree it's a great idea, but I think the content is terrible fluff. Bullets two and three are the only part/completely educational bits with any real substance. While Twitter is a great way to get out news, describing Kai in such minute and sparse 140 character Tweets is unwieldy and better left to linking to a full, technical and well written write up.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Whether or not FUNimation follows any of what some of us say about the series and its marketing, one thing is for sure -- they're still going on the offensive with education lately. The @funimation Twitter account has seen some quasi-daily "Did you know?" posts about Kai. It's somewhat of an extension of that blog post we mentioned a while back. What are your thoughts on some of these? Are they accurate? Are they interesting? Are they genuinely informative for the fans who honestly just don't know about the series? What other ones would you suggest?

Here's the list so far:

• Did you know the Blu-ray / DVD of DBZ Kai is uncut featuring non-stop action in all its epic brutality? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Dragon Ball Z Kai is closer than ever to creator Akira Toriyama’s original vision? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Dragon Ball Z Kai is presented in HD with its original 4x3 format? http://DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know Goku curses in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases? http://DragonBallZKai/

Personally, I feel a couple of these fall a little too close to the "Grr, yeah! DBZ is totally hardcore awesomeness!" that they're otherwise shying away from. Brutality and cursing? That's what we're focusing on here? I dunno...

Overall, I think it's a *perfect* idea and execution. I'm just not totally on-board with what the content of that marketing is. Smirks galore with the mention of the aspect ratio, though.

While I personally don't care *too much* if Goku swears or not, a lot of people do care about swearing in anime in general. There seems to be this attitude that an anime is being adapted without seriousness if curse words are eliminated. Whereas if they're still in there, it's "true to the tone of the original version." So, not saying I care too much about Goku swearing, but I thought I'd clear up why people do care.

It just seems exotic, foreign--and cool--to people familiar with the American philosophy of cartoon-making to hear cartoon characters swear. I can remember very clearly in 1999/2000, when I was in 6th grade, one of my classmates stayed up late to watch the uncut dub of Gundam Wing. Once he let loose that he did, he was a celebrity for the rest of that class period. He went on and on about, "the uncut version is so much cooler, and they swear like heck!"*

*Mind you, we were still at that age where we didn't swear too much. About a year or two later we were using curse words ourselves.

[VegettoEX]

While Twitter is a great way to get out news, describing Kai in such minute and sparse 140 character Tweets is unwieldy and better left to linking to a full, technical and well written write up.

I moderately disagree. Full articles are fantastic, but no-one other than fans who are already in-the-know are going to read something like that. The quick-hit points are perfect.

Keeping with their own consistency (fits to 140 characters, uses "DBZ Kai", starts with "Did you know...", and ends with their URL), here are a couple I've come up with (some of which I don't even necessarily agree with but would push from a marketing perspective, and some of them obviously getting a little fanboy-ish, but that's what we're all about!):

• Did you know that DBZ Kai was created as a refreshed version of the series for its 20th anniversary in Japan? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai has a new musical score from franchise veteran Kenji Yamamoto? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai features all-new and natively-HD opening and ending theme songs? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai brings back the majority of the original voice cast w/ several great new actors? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai presents the series in stereo sound in Japanese for the first time? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that the new DBZ Kai English dub faithfully adapts the original Japanese script? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that Katsuyuki Konishi (Kamina, Gurren Lagann) plays Captain Ginyu in DBZ Kai? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that Chris Sabat returns with a decade's worth of experience to direct the DBZ Kai dub? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai premiered on Japanese television on the original author Akira Toriyama's birthday? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai airs right before One Piece, another one of our great shows, on Japanese TV? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that Vegeta's armor color has been corrected in episode 3 of DBZ Kai? He's not brown, anymore! http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that our DBZ Kai releases feature all of the original themes, eyecatches, & episode previews? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com

(Yes, I know that the "stereo" one is debatable on a number of levels, but for all intents and purposes, it's accurate enough.)

The list could go on and on, but that's what I came up with in just a couple minutes.

[Big Momma]

• Did you know Goku curses in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases? http://DragonBallZKai/

I can't tell you how much this make me rage...

[Cipher]

While Twitter is a great way to get out news, describing Kai in such minute and sparse 140 character Tweets is unwieldy and better left to linking to a full, technical and well written write up.

I moderately disagree. Full articles are fantastic, but no-one other than fans who are already in-the-know are going to read something like that. The quick-hit points are perfect.

Keeping with their own consistency (fits to 140 characters, uses "DBZ Kai", starts with "Did you know...", and ends with their URL), here are a couple I've come up with (some of which I don't even necessarily agree with but would push from a marketing perspective, and some of them obviously getting a little fanboy-ish, but that's what we're all about!):

• Did you know that DBZ Kai exploded into being as an extreme version of the series for its 20th anniversary in Japan? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai has an ear-bleedingly awesome score from Japan? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai features natively-HD opening and ending theme songs to catch every excruciating j-pop detail? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai brings back the majority of the something about Japanese actors yawn? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that DBZ Kai presents the series in face-melting stereo sound in Japanese for the first time to put you in the middle of ACTION? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that the new DBZ Kai English dub faithfully adapts the hardcore Japanese script? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that something about Japan plays Captain Ginyu in DBZ Kai? http://www.DragonBallZKai.com
• Did you know that Chris Sabat returns with over 9000 decades' worth of experience to direct the DBZ Kai dub? YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED, ROCK THE DRAGON. http://www.DragonBallZKai.com

The list could go on and on, but that's what I came up with in just a couple minutes.

Thought I'd help out on a few.

[VegettoEX]

While a little bit of humor is fine and dandy, if you don't actually have much to contribute beyond that, then maybe this isn't the right place for you.

I can't even tell what you're getting at with some of these. Are you poking fun at the series? FUNimation? Daizenshuu EX? The one about returning cast -- that could be taken as either original Japanese *or* English dub (it applies to both), and you insert a "yawn" comment about the Japanese cast. Really? That's helping, somehow?

[Cipher]

While a little bit of humor is fine and dandy, if you don't actually have much to contribute beyond that, then maybe this isn't the right place for you.

I can't even tell what you're getting at with some of these. Are you poking fun at the series? FUNimation? Daizenshuu EX? The one about returning cast -- that could be taken as either original Japanese *or* English dub (it applies to both), and you insert a "yawn" comment about the Japanese cast. Really? That's helping, somehow?

It just seems to be the approach they're taking with the marketing. Downplaying any mention of its age or Japanese version except when it pertains to how "brutal" or "uncut" it is. All in all, they're doing a good job with Kai. That Twitter feed is just beyond '90s ridiculous right now.

EDIT - So yes, I was trying to poke fun at Funimation. As in, those are the types of asinine changes your tweets would need to go through in order to be approved by them for this campaign.

[monkeydlogan]

This dude takes that shit, dumb serious. I've been readin these on FUNi's Facebook and they always make me laugh a lil

[Big Momma]

Thought I'd help out on a few.

You put Kamina back on that list. He is/should be/needs to be relevant to EVERYONE'S interests.

[VegettoEX]

It just seems to be the approach they're taking with the marketing. Downplaying any mention of its age or Japanese version except when it pertains to how "brutal" or "uncut" it is. All in all, they're doing a good job with Kai. That Twitter feed is just beyond '90s ridiculous right now.

EDIT - So yes, I was trying to poke fun at Funimation. As in, those are the types of asinine changes your tweets would need to go through in order to be approved by them for this campaign.

Goooooooootcha. I didn't understand if your were legitimately making nasty suggestions, or were doing sarcastic commentary on their marketing style .

Still, I'd love to see some more (genuine) tweet suggestions from folks. Be nice to compile them all together and present it as, "Hey, we did your work for you!" .

[JulieYBM]

While Twitter is a great way to get out news, describing Kai in such minute and sparse 140 character Tweets is unwieldy and better left to linking to a full, technical and well written write up.

I moderately disagree. Full articles are fantastic, but no-one other than fans who are already in-the-know are going to read something like that. The quick-hit points are perfect.

Hmm...that does make sense. 'Speed' is always a good tactic, but I am a in-depth kind of guy. Then again, 'in-depth' types are the types to likely already know what Kai is, obviously not the focus of the audience here. I suppose there's always an argument to make for using both strategies.


As for the Tweet-sized bytes (or is it 'bite'?), I'm thinking Mike's ideas are quite well done. I can't think of any new ones that are worthwhile off the hand, though.

[Blue]

• Did you know Goku curses in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases? http://DragonBallZKai/

I can't tell you how much this make me rage...

The fact that he does or the phrasing? I personally think the phrasing is kinda ridiculous, they could have said something like "Did you know the majority of pseudo cursing has been eliminated in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases?" instead.

[Big Momma]

• Did you know Goku curses in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases? http://DragonBallZKai/

I can't tell you how much this make me rage...

The fact that he does or the phrasing? I personally think the phrasing is kinda ridiculous, they could have said something like "Did you know the majority of pseudo cursing has been eliminated in the Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-ray and DVD releases?" instead.

The fact that they use cursing as a selling point at all.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

The fact that they use cursing as a selling point at all.

I think the fact that they said Goku curses comes under the umbrella of the more mature and improved dub they've been promoting.