Dragon Ball has always had a fascinating history with English dubs.
Allegedly first came Frontier Enterprises, for the US it was the short-lived Harmony Gold dub, then Creative Corp Products picks it up for the Philippines and does their own dub, back in the US a newstart Funimation comes out of nowhere and has since provided all the English dubs for the American market, despite the Ocean Group once producing dubs for the European market and later their native Canada as well as Solar Entertainment and Speedy also doing English dubs at different points. Not to mention Big Green sprinkled in for the movies and specials alternate dubs in Europe. And if that wasn't enough there was the 2006 Animax dub, which should probably now receive Harmony Gold's title as "the lost dub" of original Dragon Ball.
Fast forward to the 2010s, we hear Funimation and Ocean are both recording their own English dubs of Kai for different markets. The latter to this day never airs and the former airs in a territory (the UK) that was thought to be intended for Ocean, just as the Westwood and Blue Water dubs seemed to be.
As such some thought we were never going to see any alternate English dubs again, but of course this franchise is always full of surprises.
In addition to the news in 2015 some fans never expected to hear that a new non-recut Dragon Ball TV anime was in the works, we also heard within a few months an English dub was coming, but not from Funimation.
A press release at the time from Toonami Asia read:
The words that took the Dragon Ball community by storm of course were "English-language world premiere" as many had come to expect Funimation to be the first company to come out with an English dub of anything Dragon Ball in this new age. Funimation themselves confirmed at that year's New York Comic Con 2015 they didn't have the license for Super.HONG KONG (NOVEMBER 10, 2015) – Toonami, Turner’s kids brand dedicated to delivering the best superhero and action-adventure animation in South and Southeast Asia, has snapped up the latest instalment of the Dragon Ball franchise from Toei Animation.
Dragon Ball Super (52×30’) is the first all-new Dragon Ball television series to be produced in nearly 20 years, and will make its pan-regional launch on Toonami in mid-2016. It will be an exclusive first-run premiere on Toonami in Southeast Asia and India, which will also be its English-language world premiere.
“This announcement is huge for fanboys and girls in Asia. Dragon Ball is undoubtedly the original and world’s biggest anime export, and is a cornerstone of our programming on Toonami,” said Mark Eyers, Chief Content Officer for Turner’s Kids Networks in Asia Pacific. “Since the channel launched in 2012, Toonami has been airing episodes of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Z Kai, and to premiere Dragon Ball Super demonstrates the channel’s continued commitment to securing must-have and must-see content, first on Toonami.”
Toonami Faithful reached out to Funimation to ask if they had any involvement to get the answer fans were looking for and updated accordingly:
Toonami Asia was available in the following territories at the time, so many of them likely got Bang Zoom's dub of Super:Funimation has commented to Kanzenshuu.com about the English Dub for Toonami Asia. This is what they said:
Funimation has no connection with the Toonami Asia Announcement or the Officer for Turner’s Kids Networks in Asia Pacific. “Since the channel launched in 2012, Toonami has been airing episodes of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Z Kai, and to premiere Dragon Ball Super demonstrates the channel’s continued commitment to securing must-have and must-see content, first on Toonami.”
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- Thailand
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Pakistan
- Maldives
- India
After a whole summer of fans being left in the dark DBZ_Lee contacted Turner Networks for an update and was told "I really cant share that information as it’s still under discussion…".
Indeed by October 10, 2016 TOEI Animation made this announcement:
Later Toonami Asia said they would have a premier date by December 2016. However it was only two days later that a clip was finally shared online confirming not only that this English dub of Dragon Ball Super would not be from Funimation, but in an even more surprising twist it was being recorded by an esteemed North American dubbing company known as Bang Zoom, rather than the usual suspects of Southeast Asian dubs like Animax or Odex.Toei Animation Europe has secured a range of broadcast deals on behalf of Dragon Ball Super, the long-awaited follow-up series to the global anime phenomenon. Beginning between the Fall 2016 and Winter 2017, Dragon Ball Super will air in France on TURNER’s new kids network, Toonami; in Italy on Italia 1 and Italia 2; in Spain on Boing; and in English-speaking Africa on Cartoon Network.
The series has already launched this September in Israel on Nickelodeon and in Portugal on SIC.
A clip of Bang Zoom's Goku of Goku dropped in December, uncredited at the time but highly suspected to be Lex Lang.
Although suspicions were not confirmed at the time Toonami Asia did tell fans to stay tuned for the preview to hear the main character:
After much debate online about the quality of the performances based on only a few clips Toonami Asia formally announced this new dub with the following statement:"The wait is over and Dragon Ball is finally back!
The series debut of ‘Dragon Ball Super’ in Asia – and the international English-language premiere – is set for Saturday, January 21, 2017.
But Goku fans around Asia who can’t wait that long can also get a sneak peek on Saturday, December 17 at 10:35am, to watch the full first episode – only on Toonami Asia" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znYqJim6Gwc)
From what DBZ_Lee was told by official sources the Bang Zoom dub of Super is the property of Turner Networks, and any Turner owned station can use it in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region or sublicense to other networks."The wait is over and Dragon Ball is finally back!
The series debut of ‘Dragon Ball Super’ in Asia – and the international English-language premiere – is set for Saturday, January 21, 2017.
But Goku fans around Asia who can’t wait that long can also get a sneak peek on Saturday, December 17 at 10:35am, to watch the full first episode – only on Toonami Asia" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znYqJim6Gwc)
Turner UK also told him that any channel could in theory air any English dub and he would be surprised if there were any such restrictions, more or less debunking the often thrown around idea Funimation could have "exclusive broadcast rights" for their dub in any territory.
Moreover, Turner Networks commissioned the Bang Zoom dub and paid for its production.
Since Dragon Ball series traditionally aired on Turner-owned channels in the UK and Ireland like Cartoon Network, CNX and Toonami, which all aired alternate English dubs there was hope amongst fans if Super came to the UK it would air with Bang Zoom's dub. Reportedly the plan originally was for Bang Zoom Super to air in the UK on a Turner-owned network but none of them were willing to risk it.
Super Saiyan Prime gave a rather interesting explanation for why the Bang Zoom dub may have been created:
Baggie_Saiyan offered his own explanation:Super Saiyan Prime wrote: Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:48 pm I think this dub was Toei's fail-safe to make sure they received international revenue from Super while it's still relevant. Just look at the debacle that is Kai: The Final Chapters. That show was created for the west, but more than 2 years after its Japanese debut it's shown up in fewer than 10 foreign markets. It'll likely enter calendar 2017 with 0 officially announced sales in the English speaking world. That limits the franchise's profile significantly and hurts merchandise sales among those who weren't already diehards. Who's to blame for that? Ultimately, Toei, for waiting 3 years to revive Kai, but at this juncture it's Funimation. We know their dub has been finished for ages but it's as MIA as Ocean's dub of the first 98. As so many international markets are reliant on Funimation's materials and their productions don't premiere outside the US, that means Toei hasn't received license revenue from the UK, Australia, South East Asia, South Africa and every other market that derives releases from the US one. Kai: TFC is now old news. Very few people care about it. They might still sell the show to those markets, but it'll be at a diminished rate thanks to new content. Based on this, maybe Toei felt Funimation wouldn't be able to get a Super dub out in a reasonable amount of time, so they commissioned their own. Think about it. Toei sold the "English-language premiere" of Super to Toonami Asia over a year ago and they're only now getting the show.
Why Bang Zoom and not Ocean? Maybe Toei knows Canadian broadcast is a lost cause and figured there's no reason to pander? Given what we've heard of this Super dub, it seems like there was a deliberate attempt to try to do soundalikes. We don't know what Ocean's dub of Kai sounds like, but from the leaked cast members, I get the sense they weren't gunning for 1:1 clones of the people who cloned them. If Toei were looking for a dub that wouldn't be jarring in markets that received Funimation's one, recasting would be likely. From what I can tell, this isn't a SAG dub, so that's money saved.
In a modified version of the previous announcement the suspicions about Lex Lang were confirmed when Toonami Asia unveiled some of the cast about a week and a half before the general premier:Baggie_Saiyan wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:34 pm This whole situation more or less is due to a lack of communication between Toei branches and or poor planning. Toonami Asia were originally supposed to air July 16 but that didn't happen cuz Toei USA and FUNi hadn't struck a deal yet thus no dub to air so Turner had a mess on their hands they and or the responsible Toei branch probably went around looking for another dubbing company and presumably that's where they contracted BZ then surprise surprise that would take time and Toonami Asia finally aired in Jan 17 but guess what in between all that FUNi licensed the show and also aired in January as we all know... Well done Toei gg.
Sometime later the full cast list became known, for anyone interested here it is:"The wait is over and Dragon Ball is finally back!
The series debut of ‘Dragon Ball Super’ in Asia – and the international English-language premiere – is set for Saturday, January 21, 2017.
For those fanboys and girls who want to know who’s behind our English dub, the company is called Bang Zoom. And here is the cast for 7 of the key roles:
Goku – Lex Lang
Goten – Dana Hayes
Beerus – Archie Fletcher
King Kai - Michael McConnohie
Vegeta - Kaiji Tang
Trunks – Haley Lewis
Piccolo – Ray Chase"
Reportedly other actors such as Patrick Seitz, Ben Diskin, Kyle Hebert and Neil Kaplan denied any involvement in this dub. For some time Shenlong's voice was a mystery, Darin de Paul, Richard Epcar, Patrick Seitz, Neil Kaplan, Chris Terglaferia, Imari Williams and Travis Willingham also said none of them were cast in the role.Goku – Lex Lang
Goten – Dana Hayes
Beerus – Archie Fletcher
King Kai – Michael McConnohie
Vegeta – Kaiji Tang
Trunks – Erica Mendez (credited as Haley Lewis)
Piccolo – Ray Chase
Gohan – Chris Hackney
Whis – Doug Erholtz
Bulma – Wendee Lee
Chi-Chi – Michelle Ruff
Krillin – Brian Beacock
Videl – Erika Harlacher
Majin Buu – Spike Spencer
Hercule – Jamieson Price
Android 18 – Tamara Ryan
Tien Shinhan – Ray Chase
Master Roshi – Kirk Thornton
Yamcha – Grant George
Oolong – Ray Chase
Emperor Pilaf – Tom Fahn
Mai – Julie Maddalena
Shu – Tom Bauer
Supreme Kai – David Vincent
Old Kai – Steve Kramer
Frieza – Derek Stephen Prince
Sorbet – Paul St. Peter
Tagoma – Tom Bauer
Captain Ginyu – Richard Epcar
Future Trunks – Sean Chiplock
Jaco – Greg Chun
Champa – Kirk Thornton
Vados – Tamara Ryan
Narrator – David Vincent
Tamara Ryan said she hoped to see the dub some day suggesting, as is the case with Ocean Studios, Bang Zoom or Turner don't share any of their dubs with the actors.
The director was later confirmed to be Julie Kliewer, or Julie Maddalena in a resume no longer shared online.
Sadly just before it's premier and during the run there was some unnecessary drama on Twitter about the Bang Zoom dub.
Criticisms came in from Chris Sabat and Chris Rager with the latter hashtagging #onlyonedub, assuming the cast copied his Mr Satan and Josh Martin's Majin Buu. Chris Rager dismissed the Bang Zoom dub as "shit" based on a firm belief the Funimation cast were being copied.
As sangofe rightly pointed out though this is hypocritical considering Funimation's inhouse cast were hired to imitate the Ocean cast.
Keiji Tang was unhappy with the constant bashing of the Bang Zoom cast. Chris Sabat tried to tell fans there was no conflict and it was a merely a case of confusion caused by one dub that was never meant to be seen outside America. And ironically in a now deleted tweet Chris Rager told fans to relax.
During Bang Zoom Super's run Lex Lang himself joined these forums and gave fans some interesting tidbits such as:
- No one was doing imitations because the Bang Zoom cast were all friends with the Texas cast
- Texas cast couldn't record for the Asian and European broadcasts because of "f'd up contracts"
- Sean Schemmel is Lex's friend and they talked about him playing Goku beforehand
- Paraphrasing but Lang basically said fans should keep an open mind because although it was not the voices they were used to a lot of work was being put in to make Bang Zoom Super a great dub
- The cast recorded alone so Lex Lang didn't know who else was in this dub, Brian Drummond said the same about Ocean Kai in his interview with Geekdom
- Goku was cast with "purity, an innocence, good hearted, cheerful energetic nature, with a love for competition and food, and an underlying ferocity driven by his anger and determination when being challenged or seeking vengeance", so while the performance wasn't to everyone's liking, evidently Goku was cast with the best intentions
- By Jan 5th they were recording episode 10
- The actors were told to make the dub their own, again suggesting the dub wasn't being made to copy Funimation's dub although the subconscious influence may have been inescapable
- The cast had limited exposure to Dragon Ball but Lang avoided the other dubs to not be influenced
- The cast were taking cues from the director for acting beats and performance nuances
- Bang Zoom's dub was well received from the Asian audiences up to that point
- The director was new and getting her bearings
- Lang hoped for Steve Blum or Eric Kimerer to be cast if dub continued although this may have been a response to the negative feedback that he was dissatisfied with
- By April the cast were back dubbing Dragon Ball Super as good reviews kept coming and the actors continued improving everyday
On September 1, 2017 Toon Anime India reported Dragon Ball Super began airing on Cartoon Network although it was not known whether Funimation or Bang Zoom's dub was aired. I informed everyone when the same outlet confirmed Super was to air on weekends only with 2 new episodes a day. Not long after it was confirmed Bang Zoom was airing. Sometime after it concluded ProjectAlpha22 documented the entire run with premiere dates for each episode:
The Toonami India airings followed about a month after, for example episode 5 aired on March 6, 2017.ProjectAlpha22 wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 3:05 pm I went through the forum and catalogued the dates. As far as I can tell, these should be mostly if not completely accurate! For the first batch, episode dates paired together are Saturdays and Sundays respectively!
January 21st, 2017 - Episode 1.
January 22nd, 2017 - Episode 2.
January 28th, 2017 - Episode 3.
January 29th, 2017 - Episode 4.
February 4th, 2017 - Episode 5.
February 5th, 2017 - Episode 6.
February 11th, 2017 - Episode 7.
February 12th, 2017 - Episode 8.
February 18th, 2017 - Episode 9.
February 19th, 2017 - Episode 10.
February 25th, 2017 - Episode 11.
February 26th, 2017 - Episode 12.
March 5th, 2017 - Episode 13.
This is the end of the first batch of episodes. From March 6th onward, the episodes from this first batch were looped. These first 13 dates are as far as I can confirm accurate. This next part is where the waters do muddy a bit, however.
While not all episodes have a confirmation of airing on the exact date listed, a large portion of this second batch of episodes are confirmed to adhere to the same rules as the first batch from posts in this very forum, except doubled. It seems that at this point, in fact, we were getting 4 episodes in a weekend. With all this info, I believe it’s safe to assume that these episodes also released in packs on Saturday and Sunday on the following dates:
October 28th, 2017 - Episode 14 and 15.
October 29th, 2017 - Episode 16 and 17.
November 4th - Episode 18 and 19.
November 5th - Episode 20 and 21.
November 11th - Episode 22 and 23.
November 12th - Episode 24 and 25.
November 18th - Episode 26 and 27.
As far as I can tell, these are all of the episodes that have been not only released, but recorded of the Bang Zoom! dub of Dragon Ball Super! I hope this helps!
Around this time Tamara Ryan also said on Twitter in relation to Super returning "haven't been called in almost 6 months, so I am assuming no". It was a few months before the Bang Zoom dub of the Resurrection F arc would finally premier. In June Doug Erholtz posted a photo on Twitter showing he was recording for new episodes.
Throughout 2018 the Bang Zoom dub of Super was constantly shown in loops, rerunning from episode 1 once in April 2018 and the following month, moving to a 10pm slot at weekends on Cartoon Network India by June.
With the lack of new episodes for several new months despite the initial reports 52 were licensed although fans reported Turner MENA began running Funimation's dub on Toonami Africa, leading many to believe the Bang Zoom dub was dead and with Toonami Asia confirmed to be closing down by March things weren't looking good, although Bang Zoom said they'd love to dub more. It was however still theoretically possible as users suggests that Turner Asia could fund more episodes to run on Cartoon Network or Boomerang in the region although this was unlikely because Super was a Toonami Asia exclusive outside India. While the show left Toonami India's website it continued to be shown on Cartoon Network, so while Toonami India soon closed it still had a place to air.
In terms of episodes past 27, TheBlackPaladin heard from a reliable source something went wrong with the dub however and that it may have been cancelled.
Luckily however the dub was rerun, probably for years as fans noted in July 2022 Bang Zoom Super was still airing on Cartoon Network Pakistan. wjbraden suggested that since Cartoon Network in India and Pakistan were sister channels with different programming and schedules and the latter started airing Super a month or so after the former exclusively in English (not unlike Cartoon Network India airing English first and then other languages) both companies were able to use the Bang Zoom masters for their Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubs as they were based on Bang Zoom for episodes 1-27.
In what has become an unfortunate tradition in the case of alternate English dubs for home video enthusiasts Bang Zoom Super has never had an official DVD or Blu-Ray release, but it has all been recorded. You all know where to look if you have sailed the seas, but a while ago the entire run was finally recovered from Cartoon Network India HD+ that were "catchup" copies shown on TATA-Play, an Indian direct broadcast satellite service.
Some more fun facts about Bang Zoom worth mentioning:
- It was Wendy Lee's return to playing Bulma after 27 years
- Also the first time Dragon Ball was dubbed in Los Angeles in nearly 20 years since Final Bout's release in October 1997
.More importantly, does anyone have any memories of watching this dub as it aired? I'd love to hear.
