Lost Dragon Ball Dub Discovered on a Mysterious VHS

[SupaFumeiJin]

So recently I have uncovered something rather exciting, it all started when a friend of mine was looking for the CD "DRAGON BALL & DRAGON BALL Z: SONGS OF A HIGH SPIRITED SAGA VOLUME 1" and found someone selling it on a Filipino site called "Shopee." Out of nothing more than curiosity, he messaged the seller asking if he had any other Dragon Ball items and the seller sent these images!

Spoiler:

As you can just barely see due to the poor quality of the images, these are VHS and VCD copies of something simply called "Dragon Ball" released by a company called "Regal Home Video", no relation to the American horror VHS distributor of the same name.
After having been sent these images I was alerted immediately and volunteered myself to do whatever I could to get my hands on these and get them preserved since these are releases that had no documentation or discussion online whatsoever... except for this one blog post that I remembered reading a few years ago. At the time I didn't completely discredit the blog post as I figured it wasn't entirely unlikely for something like this to exist but as there was no real proof and the author's memory seemed to be hazy it seemed irresponsible to claim that this release really existed. With these newfound images in hand though I suddenly realized that this whole time the author was correct.

That being said though, I still had no idea what the actual contents were of these releases other than it being some kind of dub of movie 3, my initial theory was that it was an obscure release of the Harmony Gold dub since the movie they did was also simply called "Dragon Ball" and could add credence to the rumors of the Harmony Gold dub having a supposed VHS release by Streamline Pictures. Even though it was a Filipino release, I didn't think it had any relation to Creative Products Corp. as the "Greatest Rivals" movie wasn't distributed by Regal Video but rather Magnivision Home Video and when I talked to one of the Creative voice actors a few years ago, he told me that "Greatest Rivals" was the only thing Creative did that was released on video. However upon closer inspection of the images, I noticed screenshots of movie 2, which Harmony Gold didn't dub (though they had some footage from it their OP). If these screenshots were an accurate reflection of the contents within then that meant there was no way it could be the Harmony Gold dub, so at this point I assumed it would be either one of two possibilities, it could be the rumored Frontier Enterprises dub or it could be an entirely different dub produced in the Philippines similar to "DRAGON BALL Z THE MOVIE" (unlicensed dub of movies 10 & 11). The seller didn't own a VCR and the VCD was sealed so they had no way to verify the contents. Regardless of the uncertainty, I knew that whatever this was it needed to be preserved. Actually securing the package was a bit difficult since I was unable to communicate directly with the seller and had to go through my friend who has a Shopee PH account to work out the details of getting a package together and shipped directly to me but we settled on a price and eventually after I sent a rather decent sum of cash, it was on its way to me and about a week later it arrived and I could finally dive into it!

Spoiler:

So what actually was this after all this time of being able to do nothing but speculate? Turns out it actually is the Creative Products Corp. dub! Now, the company's name or logo is not mentioned anywhere on the packaging nor within the actual program itself but I could immediately tell it was the same voice cast from Greatest Rivals and the OP song is "Get That Dragon Ball" from the aforementioned High Spirited Saga CD. As for why it was being distributed by a completely different company this time? I have absolutely no idea, but this is a HUGE deal in my opinion as before there was not a single thing available online regarding the CPC dub of Dragon Ball except a few very poorly recorded promos and the songs from the CD, while we still don't have a single episode of this dub preserved, I believe these movies provide some great insight into what the dub of the TV series actually sounded like. If you're curious as to what this dub is like, I've made a thread on Twitter filled with clips from my transfer of the VHS (I've ripped the VCD as well) for your viewing pleasure. IMHO, I actually think these dubs are really good, at least as far as the voice acting is concerned, it's like night and day compared to other English dubs from SE Asian territories. There are a few edits done, the biggest thing I noticed is that all of the scenes with General Blue were cut from movie 3, but overall I found this production to be an enjoyable watch!

I am curious to read what some of you guys think of this dub and I also wonder if anyone on this forum was actually aware of these releases but withheld the information for whatever reason.

[VegettoEX]

I saw some tweets regarding this being tossed around -- meant to reply but kept forgetting. Thanks so much for posting this here! Absolutely very neat stuff. Really observant cross-checking and such you did.

Like you, my only knowledge about this at all was the blog post you mentioned, and honestly I think I keep confusing this and perhaps some other potential dub in my head. Maybe they're one in the same? Maybe not? Not entirely clear; would have to dig back and see if I'm fabricating some memories of reading things, too.

Gotta say, though, I'm confused by this ending statement:

I also wonder if anyone on this forum was actually aware of these releases but withheld the information for whatever reason.

We're not a piracy community (and walk a fine line as it is with the amount of information we already archive) so you certainly won't (or shouldn't!) find the actual Intellectual Property™ itself being shared wholesale ("lost" or otherwise), but the Kanzenshuu website as a whole is literally about the opposite of what you're saying here: documenting history. Our primary focus is on the original Japanese version of the franchise, but I wonder if you checked out the feature we did last year on the 1994 Curse of the Blood Rubies dub? That's more in line with what Kanzenshuu actually is. I have a really fun article coming out next month that's similar in spirit.

I think my personal "lost dub" holy grail would be that "Vendar" version of DBZ movie 1!

Thanks, again for sharing the information!

(I'm also a big fan of the "Songs of a High Spirited Saga" songs! Those take me back to the days before I even had my website!)

[ZeBenko]

Now, the company's name or logo is not mentioned anywhere on the packaging nor within the actual program itself...

Some else of note is that you mentioned both the VCD and VHS having FBI warnings on the back, despite these only being known to have been released in the Philippines.

[SupaFumeiJin]

Gotta say, though, I'm confused by this ending statement

I can see now that the wording sort of made it look like I was targeting Kanzenshuu specifically, I was really targeting the DB community as a whole as there are certain community members who suffer from hoarding disorders and withholding certain information for ultimately petulant reasons that have been illustrated at places outside of these forums. Of course I am not going to mention specific names or situations as I do NOT want this thread to devolve into unnecessary and irrelevant drama. All I will say is that some of these people have accounts here and I just wonder how many of them may have known the full details the entire time.

I have been visiting the Kanzenshuu site and browsing the forums for years and I am fully aware of what the intention is and respect it.

but I wonder if you checked out the feature we did last year on the 1994 Curse of the Blood Rubies dub?

Of course! After all if I hadn't made a certain tweet last year, none of that would have happened

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think I keep confusing this and perhaps some other potential dub in my head. Maybe they're one in the same? Maybe not? Not entirely clear; would have to dig back and see if I'm fabricating some memories of reading things, too.

The English dubs produced in Asia are the easiest to mix up, I do it myself. In general though, I like to think of them chronologically. Frontier Enterprises was the first (shown in late 80s, sometime before the Harmony Gold dub), Animax is later (aired around mid 2000s). Everything else like Creative Corp, the Speedy sub, the mysterious Z movies 10-11 dub are somewhere in between.

Great find SupaFumeiJin it's always fun to think that some of these dubs have legal releases out in the wild. I've often wondered is there any obscure European DVDs with an English track that contain the Big Green dubs of OG Dragon Ball movies 1-3 and the GT special. While I very much doubt this is the case it's nice to see other dubs can still be found if fans look hard enough.

For what it's worth the voices are quite good, makes me more interested to one day see the dub of the series.

[wjbraden]

Wow, yet another piece of English dubbed material uncovered, great work!

I do have a somewhat unrelated question. From my understanding, there's two versions of first 26-35ish episodes of Z that aired on RPN-9 with two separate casts. Does anyone know what the whole story was behind that, because as Dragon Ball Ireland pointed out, these SE Asian English dubs are extremely confusing in nature haha.