Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

[Kaboom]

The problem's been dealt with. If there's a track to be found, let's get back on it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Bakugan is going to air on YTV.

Granted its not Kai, but between this and Mary and the Witch's Flower recently it seems YTV are more open to airing anime at least.

No harm in sending them an email to suggest Ocean Kai, the address is info@ytv.com

[Cure Dragon 255]

I got a major scare when I read this part and I thought they talked about Canada and not Japan

Marking a first for the franchise, the Japanese version of the new show’s premiere episodes were streamed subtitled internationally through a Roblox event in August. There’s been no news on if that version will be made available in its entirety elsewhere, nor is there any information on a Japanese release in general. The franchise has had a turbulent history in that market. Follow-ups to the original Battle Brawlers were produced for the international market, with the Japanese broadcasts often starting a year after. The fourth and final season has yet to be released there. The rights holders instead opted to produce their own short-form animated series adapted from the BakuTech! Bakugan manga in CoroCoro Comics. Battle Planet fared no better, as its television broadcast was dropped after one season, with the succeeding seasons released exclusively through streaming services. The regional release of the toyline was cancelled shortly into the second year.

[aleksandrored]

I apologize, I'm a bit lost on Kai Ocean, but is there any reason why the dub wasn't released?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I apologize, I'm a bit lost on Kai Ocean, but is there any reason why the dub wasn't released?

It seems to be because, as Ocean isn't a home video distributor and Funimation (now Crunchyroll) has always had those rights in North America the only way for this Kai dub to see the light of day is through a TV or streaming deal. Sadly to this day either no networks have been interested, or there was interest but due to unforeseen circumstances it never came to be.

Sadly while Funimation were once not in charge of the franchise in the UK, Manga UK (who wanted to include the Ocean dubs as extra audio tracks on their release of the orange bricks before realizing they were edited dubs and the higher-ups wanted a bilingual release so this never came to be) has since been bought by Funimation, and now rebranded to Crunchyroll (who, as I said owns the rights in North America and will likely only promote their own dub) so it doesn't seem it will get a DVD/Blu-Ray in these territories. Kai also didn't sell well for Manga UK. Granted their releases contained the Funimation dub, but it probably did deter them from ever releasing Kai again. The fact Madman released a box set in Australia and Manga UK never reissued Kai since the original season releases to me speaks volumes about the faith or lack thereof they had in the series. This is also likely part of the reason the person in charge of acquisitions at the time so dismissively said "No" on Twitter in response to any questions about Ocean Kai being released. Manga UK also never authored their own DVDs or Blou-Rays for Dragon Ball with the exception of Super Broly where they hired Visual Data London. The remainder of their releases have been simple repackages of the existing Funimation and Madman discs.

In terms of TV deals, in 2012 Kai premiered in the UK and we all expected them to air the Ocean dub, as the UK has always received the Ocean dub instead of Funimation's dub when it was available, but unfortunately Funimation pulled some strings and got their dub on the air (we were told it was TOEI who only gave them the option of the Funimation dub, but there is a very credible rumour that it was actually Funimation). In Canada, at one point Wow Unlimited was going to launch a new linear channel in Canada and they were in talks for Ocean Kai to be on their proposed channel, although sadly they were never able to secure the funds needed and as such the channel never materialized. An existing Canadian TV network called Toon-A-Vision was also interested, although the person in charge of the channel was told it was up to TOEI in Japan, but we still haven't heard any updates on that (it may be because the head of the channel isn't at liberty to tell us any more or TOEI charged them too much for the license, in any case I hope its more the former than the latter).

I do hope this dub will one day be seen, it is a shame that so much work went into recording it and to this day we've still seen none of it.

[aleksandrored]

I apologize, I'm a bit lost on Kai Ocean, but is there any reason why the dub wasn't released?

It seems to be because, as Ocean isn't a home video distributor and Funimation (now Crunchyroll) has always had those rights in North America the only way for this Kai dub to see the light of day is through a TV or streaming deal. Sadly to this day either no networks have been interested, or there was interest but due to unforeseen circumstances it never came to be.

Sadly while Funimation were once not in charge of the franchise in the UK, Manga UK (who wanted to include the Ocean dubs as extra audio tracks on their release of the orange bricks before realizing they were edited dubs and the higher-ups wanted a bilingual release so this never came to be) has since been bought by Funimation, and now rebranded to Crunchyroll (who, as I said owns the rights in North America and will likely only promote their own dub) so it doesn't seem it will get a DVD/Blu-Ray in these territories. Kai also didn't sell well for Manga UK. Granted their releases contained the Funimation dub, but it probably did deter them from ever releasing Kai again. The fact Madman released a box set in Australia and Manga UK never reissued Kai since the original season releases to me speaks volumes about the faith or lack thereof they had in the series. This is also likely part of the reason the person in charge of acquisitions at the time so dismissively said "No" on Twitter in response to any questions about Ocean Kai being released. Manga UK also never authored their own DVDs or Blou-Rays for Dragon Ball with the exception of Super Broly where they hired Visual Data London. The remainder of their releases have been simple repackages of the existing Funimation and Madman discs.

In terms of TV deals, in 2012 Kai premiered in the UK and we all expected them to air the Ocean dub, as the UK has always received the Ocean dub instead of Funimation's dub when it was available, but unfortunately Funimation pulled some strings and got their dub on the air (we were told it was TOEI who only gave them the option of the Funimation dub, but there is a very credible rumour that it was actually Funimation). In Canada, at one point Wow Unlimited was going to launch a new linear channel in Canada and they were in talks for Ocean Kai to be on their proposed channel, although sadly they were never able to secure the funds needed and as such the channel never materialized. An existing Canadian TV network called Toon-A-Vision was also interested, although the person in charge of the channel was told it was up to TOEI in Japan, but we still haven't heard any updates on that (it may be because the head of the channel isn't at liberty to tell us any more or TOEI charged them too much for the license, in any case I hope its more the former than the latter).

I do hope this dub will one day be seen, it is a shame that so much work went into recording it and to this day we've still seen none of it.

Thank you very much for the explanation. It's a shame this dub didn't air, YTV showed DBZ, it could have shown DBZ Kai at the time.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Thank you very much for the explanation. It's a shame this dub didn't air, YTV showed DBZ, it could have shown DBZ Kai at the time.

No problem, and yes given its history with the franchise YTV certainly would have been ideal, although sadly they haven't aired the series since 2005 (episode 1 of Z was rerun in 2008 but only to celebrate YTV's 20th anniversary). There's been a strong rumour Ocean approached a channel on and off for years to get Kai on the air but they eventually gave up when they realised this channel wasn't interested. My guess is the channel was YTV.

YTV even confirmed to a fan they trashed all the old Dragon Ball episodes they owned and stopped airing the series because they were fed up with editing it, which is absurd considering Ocean created a TV-safe edit (which aired on Nicktoons albeit with Funimation's dub) that was ready to go and they didn't need to do a thing.



At one point another fan asked YTV directly, and although in their response they said they missed Dragon Ball, it is very likely this was an intern and not someone higher up that knows the channel's true intentions, because it's been over a decade and again, YTV haven't shown any interest.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I hate defending YTV because they did turn their back on anime and actual quality programming but I think I understand what they meant. That grown adults go on forums and say OMG HOW DARE THEY NEED ANIME TO BE EDITED. And I guess they got tired of that. Pretty Cure, one of their very last anime unique to them had absolutely zero content cuts. The dub is as uncut as the Japanese. The only editing is to translate important signs into english.

[aleksandrored]

Thank you very much for the explanation. It's a shame this dub didn't air, YTV showed DBZ, it could have shown DBZ Kai at the time.

No problem, and yes given its history with the franchise YTV certainly would have been ideal, although sadly they haven't aired the series since 2005 (episode 1 of Z was rerun in 2008 but only to celebrate YTV's 20th anniversary). There's been a strong rumour Ocean approached a channel on and off for years to get Kai on the air but they eventually gave up when they realised this channel wasn't interested. My guess is the channel was YTV.

YTV even confirmed to a fan they trashed all the old Dragon Ball episodes they owned and stopped airing the series because they were fed up with editing it, which is absurd considering Ocean created a TV-safe edit (which aired on Nicktoons albeit with Funimation's dub) that was ready to go and they didn't need to do a thing.



At one point another fan asked YTV directly, and although in their response they said they missed Dragon Ball, it is very likely this was an intern and not someone higher up that knows the channel's true intentions, because it's been over a decade and again, YTV haven't shown any interest.

I understand YTV's point, today people are very critical of Japanese animation, if they change or censor something on TV, people simply attack the broadcaster in every way on the internet.
But even so, I think YTV should have reconsidered, I think they were too drastic to the point of destroying the old episodes of Dragon Ball.

[MasenkoHA]

.

YTV even confirmed to a fan they trashed all the old Dragon Ball episodes they owned and stopped airing the series because they were fed up with editing it, which is absurd considering Ocean created a TV-safe edit (which aired on Nicktoons albeit with Funimation's dub) that was ready to go and they didn't need to do a thing.

Kind of seems like the YTV rep is full of shit tbh. Funimation and Ocean would have edited the show for content before YTV even got it. Someone is lying out their ass or misremembering the details. They certainly never would have been given a Dragon Ball episode with nudity

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Honestly, it would have made more sense if the person in question said "YTV were sick of requesting edits for the Dragon Ball series they aired". Considering the fact the Piccolo Junior arc is the last pre-Kai thing Ocean dubbed and it was fully uncut with all the blood on TV I could see a scenario where whoever in YTV was making those calls to Ocean finally got fed up and didn't bother for the final batch of episodes. To say "YTV got sick to death of censoring it" is only muddying the waters, as it makes it sound like the channel were handling it themselves, which we know wasn't the case.

[MasenkoHA]

Honestly, it would have made more sense if the person in question said "YTV were sick of requesting edits for the Dragon Ball series they aired". Considering the fact the Piccolo Junior arc is the last pre-Kai thing Ocean dubbed and it was fully uncut with all the blood on TV I could see a scenario where whoever in YTV was making those calls to Ocean finally got fed up and didn't bother for the final batch of episodes. To say "YTV got sick to death of censoring it" is only muddying the waters, as it makes it sound like the channel were handling it themselves, which we know wasn't the case.

And that's probably what they meant. The show wasn't edited enough to their liking.

I was surprised Ocean left the Piccolo Jr fight intact, iirc the edited Funimation dub completely removed any blood

[Hellspawn28]

I'm willing to bet that Half Life 3 will come out first before we see Ocean's Kai dub be release.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Alright it's been a while, so time for a new suggestion to get this dub released - a Blu-Ray from Anime Limited.

I know home video seems like a lost cause, and Funimation/Crunchyroll seems to have a monopoly on that, but let's say Crunchyroll, for whatever reason doesn't renew their license to Kai (which is not out of the realm of possibility because they haven't re-released it since the season sets).

Let's not also forget in the UK its not uncommon for different installments of the same series to be in different hands. Manga UK had the first season of Sword Art Online while Anime Limited had Alicization and Alternative Gun Gale Online, for example. Anime Limited has also had all of Lupin that's been released in the UK so far but Manga UK had Fujiko Mine at one point. Maybe the same could happen for Dragon Ball where Crunchyroll lose Kai but still has the rights to everything else.

So if the English Kai Blu-Rays are no longer big sellers, perhaps Anime Limited can rescue it and go after the Ocean dub to give people incentive to buy it again, or for the first time if they have no interest in Japanese or Funi Kai.

Anime Limited have also taken more of an interest in shounen, they're re-releasing Bleach and Naruto in the UK soon, they even released some TOEI stuff recently like Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and One Piece Red.

They can be contacted here.

[eledoremassis02]

Alright it's been a while, so time for a new suggestion to get this dub released - a Blu-Ray from Anime Limited.

I know home video seems like a lost cause, and Funimation/Crunchyroll seems to have a monopoly on that, but let's say Crunchyroll, for whatever reason doesn't renew their license to Kai (which is not out of the realm of possibility because they haven't re-released it since the season sets).

Let's not also forget in the UK its not uncommon for different installments of the same series to be in different hands. Manga UK had the first season of Sword Art Online while Anime Limited had Alicization and Alternative Gun Gale Online, for example. Anime Limited has also had all of Lupin that's been released in the UK so far but Manga UK had Fujiko Mine at one point. Maybe the same could happen for Dragon Ball where Crunchyroll lose Kai but still has the rights to everything else.

So if the English Kai Blu-Rays are no longer big sellers, perhaps Anime Limited can rescue it and go after the Ocean dub to give people incentive to buy it again, or for the first time if they have no interest in Japanese or Funi Kai.

Anime Limited have also taken more of an interest in shounen, they're re-releasing Bleach and Naruto in the UK soon, they even released some TOEI stuff recently like Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and One Piece Red.

They can be contacted here.

I wonder if India could be a market since they got an alternative Super dub? Did they love FUNi as a market?

[King Bogo]

Has anybody tried contacting Chinook directly as they list it on their website.

http://www.chinookanimation.com/

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I wonder if India could be a market since they got an alternative Super dub? Did they love FUNi as a market?

Not sure how they feel about Funimation, but they did air their dub of Z in 2001 and 2005 and have traditionally based their dubs on Funimation's version.

Cartoon Network aired Kai in various Indian languages this year, but given their history of importing Funimation's materials they would probably use their dub of Kai if they ever needed an English version.

Bang Zoom Super likely only happened because TOEI had to strike while the iron was hot and Funimation's dub wasn't ready at the time.

Has anybody tried contacting Chinook directly as they list it on their website.

http://www.chinookanimation.com/

Chinook Animation is Blue Water as far as we know, and are part of the Ocean Group. Like the main Ocean Studio themselves Chinook can't do anything unless they reach a deal with someone to get Kai released.

[Kirbopher]

Yeah, for the record I tried reaching out to the head of Chinook/Blue Water (to see about getting anything resembling a cast list) and actually spoke with them briefly on the phone. They seemed to act like they didn’t know what DBZ Kai was, despite my pointing out that it was listed as being recorded there on the résumé of their website. To me, that indicated that they were trying to deny involvement for the same reason I don’t think we’re ever going to actually SEE this dub: it’s very highly likely that Toei doesn’t want it to be released. In fact, they probably don't even want people to know it exists.

Honestly, I’d given up many many years ago I’ve ever actually seeing it, which is why my main focus has been just trying to figure out at least who was IN it. However, between ocean being notoriously tight-lipped, and Karl Willems seemingly not able to remember much about the actual production (along with the fact that the actors barely seem to remember much about it either, because it’s been well over a decade by now), there’s very very little left that we can actually do about this thing, other than the little bits of info we find. Even then, a lot of the Vancouver actors are barely doing con appearances these days (let alone any of the Calgary guys), so opportunities to ask some of them about the production in the first place dwindles year after year.

[MistaL]

Yeah, for the record I tried reaching out to the head of Chinook/Blue Water (to see about getting anything resembling a cast list) and actually spoke with them briefly on the phone. They seemed to act like they didn’t know what DBZ Kai was, despite my pointing out that it was listed as being recorded there on the résumé of their website. To me, that indicated that they were trying to deny involvement for the same reason I don’t think we’re ever going to actually SEE this dub: it’s very highly likely that Toei doesn’t want it to be released. In fact, they probably don't even want people to know it exists.

Honestly, I’d given up many many years ago I’ve ever actually seeing it, which is why my main focus has been just trying to figure out at least who was IN it. However, between ocean being notoriously tight-lipped, and Karl Willems seemingly not able to remember much about the actual production (along with the fact that the actors barely seem to remember much about it either, because it’s been well over a decade by now), there’s very very little left that we can actually do about this thing, other than the little bits of info we find. Even then, a lot of the Vancouver actors are barely doing con appearances these days (let alone any of the Calgary guys), so opportunities to ask some of them about the production in the first place dwindles year after year.

It could just be that because it was mainly actual Ocean, with Blue Water acting as essentially a remote studio for this production, they just don't have much info on it themselves since they weren't as hands-on with it.

Toei doesn't seem to be totally against it ever coming out, as we saw with the Wow! emails, but I do think they'd prefer to avoid it for a number of reasons. The fact they've tried in recent years to force Funimation dub conventions into official subtitle tracks might be influenced by the same reasoning for their not being too keen on releasing this dub; we already know they use terms like Tenka'ichi Budoukai in this dub thanks to its footage being used for the censored Funi Kai broadcasts, and we've heard Brian Drummond in recent years pronounce Goku closer to the Japanese pronunciation (Gokuu). This dub doesn't fit at all with Toei's demand for all new releases of the Dragon Ball anime to follow the Funimation dub's conventions wholesale, because god forbid we actually know the names Tenshinhan or Kuririn.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

TOEI might prefer for Funimation Kai to be the universally available version, but I don't think they would be opposes to Ocean's dub coming out. Lisa Yamatoya did say they were happy to license it out to interested broadcasters provided they are aware there is no Canadian dub of The Final Chapters yet.

I also don't think names would be an issue. TOEI had no problem with "Kai-O-Ken" being used in the Pioneer dubs instead of "Kay-O-Ken" or the brief period Funimation used Makankōsappō in their Kai dub (yes you could argue TOEI may have requested Funimation to change it but that doesn't explain why they didn't recommend they redub all uses of the Japanese terms in the early episodes).

I also don't think there will be that many different pronunciations other than Naw-Mek and GoKU. It will most likely be a compromise between what the fans want to hear and something the purists will accept. Karl Willems did say, after all he pushed for terms fans would generally be familiar with. I'd be very surprised if we hear Sai-Yan instead of Say-Yan. Maybe Tenshinhan will be used but I doubt it, as I believe Brendan Hunter said Tien at conventions. I'm also pretty sure we won't hear Kuririn, it would be too jarring for most fans and run the risk of coming across pretentious (even if that wasn't the intention).