Previously it was announced that Dragon Ball Kai would be coming to Disney+ in Canada.
Yesterday was the day that the series finally landed on the platform.
A source has confirmed however that Disney+ did not receive the Canadian dub from Ocean Studios, but instead the Funimation dub has been released on the popular streaming service.
Nonetheless some fans remain committed to this dub one day seeing the light of day, as there is a petition that was started to show interest in the product.
It has been revealed that on December 17th streaming giant Disney+ will be adding Dragon Ball Kai to their service in Canada.
This is in addition to Dragon Ball Super hitting the platform on November 19th.
It has not been said what English dub will be added, but it is worth noting there is a Canadian dub of Dragon Ball Kai that was produced by Ocean Studios between 2010 and 2014.
At this year’s Heroes Comic Con on the weekend of June 22nd-23rd the company who previously released a Dragon Ball Super: Broly Blu-Ray Periscoop Anime casually presented a Dragon Ball Kai banner, prompting speculation the series might finally be coming to the Netherlands.
Periscoop Anime have a streaming service called GoAnime (not to be confused with the illegal streaming site GoGoAnime), which it is expected Dragon Ball Kai will be released on, although as they are also a home video distributor a DVD or Blu-Ray release may be possible.
Although the company never announced a release date on their social media, or issued a press release, a fan was told it would be September 6th, and that Kai would be available on another Dutch streaming service named Videoland.
After further fan enquiries Periscoop checked with their material manager that confirmed their contract included Japanese and Dutch audios with Dutch subtitles and that they were looking into an English option if enough potential viewers were interested. In a tweet I made that received 4,345 views, 25, likes, 22 retweets and 3 comments as of this date fans expressed a desire to see the unreleased Ocean Productions dub of Dragon Ball Kai.
As there has never been a Dutch dub of Dragon Ball this will be the first of its kind, and it remains to be seen whether Periscoop will acquire Funimation’s dub of Kai or take the extra initiative, as fans have advised for licensing the Ocean dub. Nonetheless, Videoland forwarded on the request to the relevant department about what needs to be paid attention to in future.
The former Sony Pictures Television broadcaster, which is now owned by Narrative Entertainment has responded to a fan enquiry about them airing Dragon Ball Kai.
POP previously aired Dragon Ball Super, which premiered in the UK and Ireland in July 2019, has been in reruns since and only in the last few months been removed from POP’s schedule, although many promotional videos can still be found on their website suggesting they have not lost the rights yet.
Dragon Ball Kai previously aired in the UK and Ireland on the now defunct channel Kix (owned by another one of POP’s previous owners CSC Media), but despite a lot of rumours at the time the channel ended up airing the Funimation dub, allegedly because TOEI gave them no other option. This may have been because Manga UK’s season DVDs of Dragon Ball Z, which contained the Funimation dub were being released at the time as a means of avoiding marketing confusion, or Funimation might have pulled some strings, but unfortunately clarity was never given on this.
It is worth noting both WOW Unlimited and Toon-A-Vision negotiated with TOEI to acquire the rights to Ocean Productions’ English dub of Dragon Ball Kai, and the company’s long standing producer Diana Gage has previously said fans should make their voices heard if they wish for this dub to see the light of day.
It would inevitably be a great opportunity for POP if they were to air Dragon Ball Kai with an English dub that is not widely available or seen, and has a built-in fanbase with actors like Brian Drummond and Scott McNeil, but until then the best that can be hoped for is enough fans reach out to them advising they seek out the Ocean dub.
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