Saiya-jin's Pride

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Saiya-jin's Pride
Founder(s)	Ed Gorgen
Launch	17 March 1996
Final URL	bayside.net/users/saiyajin/
Status	Defunct

Saiya-jin's Pride was an amateur, fan-created website founded 17 March 1996 by Ed Gorgen. The site was notable for its regular coverage of the Dragon Ball GT television series, information on Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, samples of various international dub performances, and its various lists and interactive fan polls.

The site's name was stylized in various ways by visitors and Gorgen himself alike, including as a "full" title of the "Saiya-jin's Pride Dragon Ball Home Page" as well as "Saiya-jin's Pride Page".

As with other fansite operators of the day, Gorgen was forced to move or otherwise rethink his fansite strategy due to provider interruptions. In 1997, following a brief stint with a Geocities mirror, Gorgen moved the site from dragonfire.net to bayside.net. With the closure of Bayside Computer Systems, Inc.'s personal web space server in 1998, Gorgen created a new website named the Dragon Ball Experience.

Gorgen was an active participant within alt.fan.dragonball.

Features

Fanfic: Doorway To Destiny

TBD

Legacy

Saiya-jin's Pride was regularly cited as a favorite fansite and served as an inspiration for the next generation of fansite owners.

Insider News

Saiya-jin's Pride and Gorgen himself were known for regularly receiving and posting what appeared to be insider information. While difficult to analyze removed from their contemporary postings, some of the notable claims included information on a forthcoming American home video release in 1997 (FUNimation's home video release in conjunction with Pioneer indeed began in August 1997) and the upcoming conclusion of the Dragon Ball GT television series (though claims that Toei had "stopped drawing it" in early 1997 would be impossible with the series' production pipeline and it formally ending in November that year).

Interview with Gen Fukunaga

Gorgen's site featured an interview (conducted by "Liz") with FUNimation president Gen Fukunaga in the summer of 1997, which was conducted after the first season of Dragon Ball Z's syndication run and before its second season. The interview was notable for being one of the first pieces of real contact between the online fandom and the television series' official licensee, as well as it confirming the upcoming hour-long block for the season season and touching upon the potential of uncut home video releases.

The interview was later archived by Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored (which itself was later archived yet again by Ryan Molina on Ginga Giri Giri Kai).

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. There is a huge DBZ following here in the states as I'm sure your already aware of.

Yes I am and I'm flattered that the fan club would be interested in an interview.

How long have you been the Executive Producer?

A few years ago I started the company and it was my goal to bring anime here to the States, especially DB & DBZ.

So do you own all the rights to DB & DBZ?

No, we own the property broadcast rights to the US dubbed version of DB & DBZ. We work in conjunction with Bandai who makes the toys and with Saban who broadcasts.

Will the Japanese allow you to produce versions in Japanese with English subtitles?

No, they were very adamant on that. BUT they did allow us to take the first 3 movies and produce those in English and Japanese. These will probably be released in the late fall of 97' on home video.

That's great!! Perhaps you can clear up a rumor then. I've heard there was a company that bought the rights to the Japanese version and they would be selling the original version subtitled in the US.

That would have to be a false rumor. In fact, many of the companies who do subtitle DB & DBZ are pirates and do so without permission.

Really? It's a shame though because for persons like me who don't speak Japanese, without subtitles, I would be lost.

Yes, I understand. That's why here at Funimation we are trying to produce a US version of DBZ completely unedited with the original music, only in English.

That sounds great. Will this be on home video?

Yes our goal is to put this directly on home video. Censors won't allow us to put this on the US TV.

So is it Funimation that currently edits what we see on the US DBZ?

No, it is a third party company. Whenever you produce children's shows, you have to allow censors to dictate what exactly gets on the air. We try to keep to the scripts as closely as possible but the censors ultimately dictate what gets on. That's why we want to make an unadulterated [(unedited)] version for true fans.

Will the current voices for the characters be the same?

Yes, probably, but we're not completely happy with all the voices.

You mean Vegita? I don't want to be so forward, but his voice has really been a dissappointment.

Really, go on.

Well, many people including myself feel that Vegita needs a strong male voice as his character becomes very important in the show. People admire him and want to be like him but frankly with the voice chosen I don't see that happening.

Hmm, you know we had a tough time getting a good actor for him and that has been our biggest trial. We were thinking about changing him in the future. I'll talk to the acting studios regarding this.

So you mean you're going to change his voice?

We were thinking about it, but now I'll give it very serious consideration as to when. Hopefully soon.

So is it you that picks who does the voice acting for the characters?

No, actually that's done in Canada. In fact, 35% of all cartoons shown in the US have the voice acting done in Canada. Partially because it's cheaper to do so there and also in order to show our cartoons in Canada a certain amount of work has to be done there.

I see, that's fascinating! Did you have a hard time casting everyone?

For some of the characters, Vegita in particular. We had this other guy in mind who would have been much better but he could not commit to a full time schedule so we picked someone else. We're not too happy with Piccolo's voice either but everyone else we are, especially Gokou and Yamcha.

When can we expect to see any changes in the voices?

Well, not yet. Not in the '97 air schedule anyway. Possibly when Vegita, Kuririn and Gohan go to Namek then we can change Vegita's voice.

That's a relief. So tell me, who's your favorite DBZ character?

Gokou, of course. I especially liked him in the DB series when he was young and spunky. Gokou has inner strength and is the ideal "good guy", so to speak. You have to root for him. Next to him, I like Kuririn.

I like Piccolo myself.

Yes, many people do. Him and Vegita sell well in the toy department. In the fall, Bandai will be releasing never before seen toys in the US including an 18" Gokou, Vegita and Piccolo. Kuririn will even have an energy ring. According to our research, Gokou & Piccolo have always sold the best in Europe, so look for a lot of variations on their characters in the toys.

Will you do a lot of marketing for DBZ come Christmas time?

Yes, in fact, we are thinking of doing a DBZ mall tour around the US.

Oh, that would be great! May I ask how old are you?

I'm 35 years old.

Married?

Yes, Cindy Fukunaga is my wife and the other Executive Producer, as well as the Director of Marketing.

Is there a place fans can send fan mail & suggestions?

Yes, Funimation Headquarters' address is: Funimation 6851 North East Loop 820, Suite 247 Ft. Worth, TX 76180 Fan Mail Dept.

Are you thinking of putting together an official fan club?

We're thinking about it. We're also thinking about an official web page. We just haven't had the time to do so yet. Do you know of any good DBZ pages?

Yes, there's Ed Gorgen's "Saiya-jin's Pride" and Wuken's personal DB Page. There's many more, I'll e-mail the URLs to you.

OK.

Is there any other reason why so much is cut from the US DBZ?

Aside from the censors, the other reason is cost. You see in Japan, it costs $150,000 to air an episode. Here in the US it costs between $300 - 350,000 per episode. I'm sure you can do the math. In order to make it more cost effective we had to cut out a lot of stuff. I think we did a good job though. We made 26 episodes out of the original 36 episodes.

Any other changes we can expect to see for the 98' season?

Well hopefully we will air an hour long block of DBZ for the 98' season which starts in the fall of 97'. This would consist of 2 episodes back to back.

Any chance of moving the time slot like how the Simpsons are aired so you can get less censoring?

No, not a chance. Bandai would not support us if we did that and we need them. You see, to be successful in marketing a cartoon with toys you must appeal to the age range of 2-11 year olds. It's that simple. We have to leave the show on Saturday morning, but remember we do plan on releasing an unadulterated English version on home video.

I can't wait. I have just one more question, but the most important in my opinion. Do you know Akira Toriyama?

(chuckling) No, I'm sorry, I don't. I don't know if you're aware of this, but he is an extreme recluse. Only one man can correspond with him regarding DBZ, and he has to travel a few hours out of Tokyo to do so. Akira doesn't even like his picture being taken. To send him fan mail you have to go through one of the Japanese publishing companies like Shonen Jump Magazine.

Well, thank you very much for this interview! I'm sure I can speak on behalf of my many DBZ friends and say this information is greatly appreciated.

No problem.

Web Addresses

• http://home.earthlink.net/~cgorgen/epg.html
• http://www.dragonfire.net/~saiyajinpride
• http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2693/
• http://bayside.net/users/saiyajin/