Dragon Ball Kai was finally announced by Funi as Dragon Ball Z Kai.
Here’s a bit of extra info I’ve had on hand for awhile about the release.
The current plan is to have the first DVD and BD boxes in May.
The BD releases will have a five dollar premium.
Having talked to a few people, it appears the cast will remain the same as the Funimation Dragon Ball Z dub, but with greater care being given to the script. I say appears because I’ve only talked to a few people, they are indeed playing the same roles they played before, and they were under the impression it was going to be the same cast, this may not apply for every character.
The show started being dubbed last year.
That’s all the information I have at the moment, but I’ll update if I gain anymore
Update: Funimation has confirmed with me via e-mail that they are NOT dubbing either show, nor do they have the rights to. So both of these are bunk.
I’ve gotten a bit of news about both of these lately. Neither are confirmed, but we will see.
First up we have Shaman King, which 4kids previously had. It appears Funi is already dubbing this with plans to release it next year. No idea if 4kids has anything to do with it, as very recently 4kids was still mentioning Shaman King in financial and legal reports (a month ago it was still listed in their financial reports), but there is no longer anything Shaman King related (even copyright information) on the 4kids website, which suggests 4kids doesn’t have the license anymore.
Then we have the new series Fairy Tail. A few different people have commented on this for me, and a few places have forum posts from people who talked to actors. I’m leaning towards this one having a higher probability of being ‘not real’ than Shaman King, but it’s leaning towards yes. Based on which persons info I should believe, Fairy Tail could start being release mid-2010, or may be held off for a DVD release until 2011 (the 2011 comments from multiple sources is why I’m a bit less sure about this one, with at least one person who got similar information who posted it on a forum saying it isn’t being DUBBED until 2011, which… an actor wouldn’t know that yet.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if both were true, but at the moment, Shaman King is seeming VERY likely. Fairy Tail… slightly less so, but since no one but Viz or Funimation were ever going to get a long running shonen title, it’s a bit to easy for people to pass off ‘assumptions’ as news..
A little birdy who tends to give me good game related info has given me one I just couldn’t wait to tell everyone, so feel free to take this as ‘rumor’… for now.
It appears WEP will be doing the Voltron 3d DVDs themselves and selling them via the official Voltron/WEP store. And the DVDs are… maybe being worked on right now?
It’s time to announce the winners of the Dragon Ball contest.
This was actually a really tough one, because quite a few of the entries were really good stories. I ended up picking two stories, and one amusing little aspect that has always made me smile myself.
First place is Joe Ricard.
Second place is Jack Bass.
Third place is Matt Fritz.
Here’s Joe’s entry:
If it can really be considered a “thing” then I’d say my favorite thing about Dragonball is sharing it with my nephew’s over the years.
Being an Uncle since I was six months old and having more neices and nephews come about over the years there always seems to be someone at just the right age to introduce to Goku and the gang.
When I was first getting into the series, I’d buy the VHS releases and bring them over to my sisters to watch with a nephew only a couple years younger than myself. When the “season sets” came about I bought the first one and would watch a few episodes every day with a nephew who would come to my house after school until his mother would pick him up after work. Finally I have a nephew who lives in Virginia and that I only see a couple of times a year. Everytime he visits, he checks my bookshelf to see how many new volumes of the manga I’ve gotten so that he can take them upstairs and read them before bed.
While the last nephew I mentioned is the only one with a continued interest in the series, I still enjoyed the time I spent with the others watching Goku and co. engaging in their crazy adventures and can’t wait for others to be old enough (not to mention when I have kids of my own) to introduce them to “Bloomers and the Monkey King”.
Here’s Jack’s:
Kame Sennin’s pafu pafu!
Makes me laugh so hard every single time! Bulma’s shoryuken follow up is just icing on the cake in that particular scene.
And Matt’s:
My favorite “thing” is by and large the VHS tapes of the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball I received for Christmas when I was 10 years-old. I’ve watched those tapes at least a dozen times over the years, and now I hope to finally win (if not, buy) these episodes without all the edits and a Japanese track.
Now to go ahead and reveal all the prizes.
First place obviously gets the Dragonball set.
Second place will get to choose between the Bardock and Trunks’ singles, while Third will get the remaining single.
Got lots of great entries and I’ll post more up in a week or so. And stay tuned, a few more DB related contests may be coming soon (and the next one, assuming it happens, is very likely to get far more entries than this one), and I may even end up awarding a few extra prizes for this one…
Just giving everyone an update. There were far more entries than I expected and I’m still going through them ranking and re-ranking to find my personal favorites.
I hope to announce a winner on Friday (although it may be on Sunday at the latest.)
Just letting everyone know what was going on. (Just as an example, there are ten times as many entries as the last contest.)
Since last year when I found out someone had been dubbing Captain Harlock I had been hearing news of other older and niche anime titles being licensed and dubbed. After finally confirming some of the details I thought I’d go ahead and let everyone know about them.
I’ll just go ahead and list off the shows.
Fist of the North Star
Gaiking
Captain Harlock
The Adventures of Nadja
Starzinger
Tekkaman: The Space Knight
Danguard Ace
Many of these shows were previously dubbed partially by other companies in the past, but these appear to be new dubs all around. The only cast member I’ve been able to confirm directly has been Robert Axelrod (most would know him as Lord Zedd from Power Rangers) who is playing ‘Darius’, the primary villain in Gaiking. After confirming that he himself had worked on four of the shows outside of Gaiking (Fist of the North Star, Danguard Ace, Harlock, and Nadja) he added they were great shows and hopes people will enjoy them when they come out.
I should also mention many of these shows had sequels and movies. The version licensed may be any number of specific parts of the franchises (although Tekkaman looks to be the original.)
Tekkaman has actually been dubbed before by the same company in the 1980s. Looking around it appears they got half way through the series, with it doing relatively well before many of the heavy toy based shows of the 80s knocked it right off the airwaves.
The company doing these are William Winckler Productions, an independent film company. I sent William Winckler Productions an email requesting additional details and am currently waiting on a response.
It has also been brought up that Tekkaman may have been added to the list in error due to William Winckler Productions having dubbed it in the 80s. I will try to get clarification on this from William Winckler Productions.
Further details- I’ve received further details that may clarify which parts of some of the franchises are being done, and also suggests that it may be a co-production, or sublicense from Toei USA.
They are listed as follows, which suggests the majority of them may be films, or dubbed as ‘multi season’ shows rather than as single series’ (although some of the franchises don’t have movies that could be split up as listed, so it’s looking slightly more likely for ‘multi season’ shows.)
Fist of the North Star/Hokuto No Ken
The Adventures of Nadja I, II
Starzinger I, II, III
Danguard Ace I, II, III
Gaiking I, II, III
Space Captain Harlock I, II
This also suggests the Tekkaman listing may indeed have been a mistake.
Update Again: I’ve found three more actors who are involved with the projects, two of which list roles on their public resumes. Paul Oberle is playing Takuma in Danguard and Pete in Gaiking. Kyle Rea is playing numerous roles in all six of the listed franchises that I received a little bit ago. The resumes also suggest that Toei may be involved in the production of the dubs.
Also, Donald Glut, has put up two galleries of pictures of him recording for Gaiking and Danguard, which include both Gaiking and Danguard toys, along with company namesake William Winckler. Descriptions of these pictures seem to confirm past information that Winckler is directing the shows himself. The pictures also date recording of some of the shows back to April and June 2008. Fans of 80s and 90s toons may know Glut as a writer for various cartoons including Transformers, Go Bots, He-Man, and Mighty Orbots (among others.)
They aren’t ready to announce release details or put out a press release, but gave me a few details that they said I could add to the article, along with a ‘stay tuned’.
They are currently in talks regarding Tekkaman.
They are producing both current and classic anime, and quoting them, have produced “25 new English dubbed anime feature films to date.”
Two shows I missed, but they provided the titles of are…. “LUN LUN THE FLOWER GIRL” and “KITARO’S GRAVEYARD GANG (GE GE GE KITARO)”
I’ll quote this next part from their response, as I don’t think I can say it better, “Most of the properties are the classic, original versions, such as the original Captain Harlock, and the original Fist of the North Star.”
The dubs are produced by three companies: William Winckler Productions, Inc., Rioloco Productions, and Toei Animation Co., Ltd., Japan.
Now, for some dub cast info. First, a list of “Key American voice over talent” for the various series:William Winckler, G. Larry Butler, Robert Axelrod, David Gerrold, Kyle Rea, Marieve Herington, Don Glut, Paul Oberle, Bradford Hill, Jason Barker-Avellino, Laura Siegel, Alison Lees-Taylor, Caleb Pearson, Fred Laderman (Fred Ladd), Chase Masterson, George Lindsey Jr., Anne Lockhart, Butch Patrick.
And for the last little detail, William Winckler is Captain Harlock in Captain Harlock and Kenshiro in First of the North Star.
That’s all the information they can share for now, but hopefully more will be coming.
Another new update. WWP has provided ANN with information that the three companies producing these have made compilation films out of the original series material. WWP will be involved in the American distribution of the titles and that television, digital, and DVD distribution will be announced in the next few months. More of these compilation features are planned.
I’ll say this. It’s a creative way to bring franchises out in the USA that might not be able to sell the entire series. I’m curious to see what other franchises might get this treatment.
This article has been modified since originally put up.
Edits Made
Adding some further Tekkaman information.
Adding possible mistake in regards to Tekkaman.
Possible details on which versions of some of the franchises.
More actors, and links to pictures of the dubbing.
Little bit of cleanup.
Added information provided by WWP.
Bit more info.
Contest closed a few days ago. I will be going over all entries over the weekend and get in contact with the winners, and I’ll be sure to post the winners and some of my personal favorites.
And based on if I’m able to get out to where I need to be to make it happen, may be a special early review tomorrow for shonen fans.
I recently got some info that the cast of the upcoming Avengers cartoon (which recently wrapped recording for Season 1) have been informed that Season 2 has already been greenlit based on the quality of episodes coming in.
One thing of interest to add. Recently Marvel regained animated and television rights to Spider-Man, is it possible the wall crawler may feature in Season 2?
