I was having my doubts but now I'm sure.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Dragon Ball Z Kai is smashingly popular in South Africa! It always appears on the top 5 list shows in ratings with kids!

http://kidscreen.com/2013/10/25/ratings ... h-africa-6

This isnt the only one I've seen but it IS the only one I can get At The Moment.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Really? That's interesting...didn't know that Kai aired in South Africa. Is it a dub, or Japanese and subtitled in....which language?

[kei17]

http://sabc2.co.za/show/dragonball-z/

The official website says Dragon Ball Z, but as far as I read the comments there, which annoy me, it seems that it's Kai what's actually on TV. Considering that it's a public broadcaster, my guess is that it's a censored version of the FUNi dub.

[NitroEX]

Dragonball Z has always been pretty huge over there to my knowledge. I live in the UK currently but around 2004 I moved back there for about a year and they had just finished airing the Funi Z dub and were moving onto GT. That was the first time I noticed the different dubs as I had just finished watching Ocean dubbed Dragonball Z and GT blue water in the UK. I should also mention that I first discovered the Funimation single movie releases over there as well which was awesome since UK was always barren when it came to Dragonball Z dvds.

[Blu-ray_Mistress]

Kai from what I understand was pretty popular over here in the US, a lot more popular than what it was over in Japan. Can anyone confirm if this is true?

[TheAldella]

Kai from what I understand was pretty popular over here in the US, a lot more popular than what it was over in Japan. Can anyone confirm if this is true?

Considering that I've heard our ratings are pushing it for that Buu saga, well...

[VegettoEX]

It's difficult to define "popularity" in this case. What do you mean by that? Pure ratings? Associated merchandise sales? Word-of-mouth general discussions?

From what I've personally analyzed via financial reports and various corporate presentations, Kai didn't really do a whole lot in the short-term in Japan. It was viewed on TV at just an "OK" level (better during key points, like Goku's SSJ transformation), but that's about it. Merchandise sales kept tanking until 2009 when they started rising again, which was coincidentally when Kai went off TV. Heroes didn't even start until the following year, so there's a separation there that leads to some pretty solid conclusions. Correlation isn't necessarily causation, sure, but there's something to be said about things picking up when Kai was NOT on TV anymore.

So then there's the North American "popularity". There really isn't much merchandise to sell associated with it, because none of that stuff gets licensed and promoted and ever released. There's... what?... video games? And those have been steadily decreasing over the years ANYWAY, and having Kai on TV here didn't really seem to push the needle any which way. So how about the ratings? Yeah, they did well for their timeslot and their intended audience considering it's a cable/satellite channel. But what do ratings get you? I guess better advertising income? That's really it...? It was enough for them ("them" being Nicktoons in this case) to investigate and ultimate go with airing movies and GT, so that says something.

[sangofe]

Dragon Ball Z Kai is smashingly popular in South Africa! It always appears on the top 5 list shows in ratings with kids!

http://kidscreen.com/2013/10/25/ratings ... h-africa-6

This isnt the only one I've seen but it IS the only one I can get At The Moment.

I didn't even know Kai was on in South Africa 0.o

[Cure Dragon 255]

It's difficult to define "popularity" in this case. What do you mean by that? Pure ratings? Associated merchandise sales? Word-of-mouth general discussions?

From what I've personally analyzed via financial reports and various corporate presentations, Kai didn't really do a whole lot in the short-term in Japan. It was viewed on TV at just an "OK" level (better during key points, like Goku's SSJ transformation), but that's about it. Merchandise sales kept tanking until 2009 when they started rising again, which was coincidentally when Kai went off TV. Heroes didn't even start until the following year, so there's a separation there that leads to some pretty solid conclusions. Correlation isn't necessarily causation, sure, but there's something to be said about things picking up when Kai was NOT on TV anymore.

So then there's the North American "popularity". There really isn't much merchandise to sell associated with it, because none of that stuff gets licensed and promoted and ever released. There's... what?... video games? And those have been steadily decreasing over the years ANYWAY, and having Kai on TV here didn't really seem to push the needle any which way. So how about the ratings? Yeah, they did well for their timeslot and their intended audience considering it's a cable/satellite channel. But what do ratings get you? I guess better advertising income? That's really it...? It was enough for them ("them" being Nicktoons in this case) to investigate and ultimate go with airing movies and GT, so that says something.

Dont forget 1.4 million on The CW.