"Blue Water" Dragon Ball Z? (* unfinished project *)

On another forum I collected links to encodes of almost all eps of this dub, which runs from Japanese episode 123 to the end of the series.

It’s a rare dub.  Never released on video, didn’t air in too many places.  Canada (where it originated), UK, Netherlands and Belgium are known to have aired it.  Most extant rips are from Cartoon Network in the Netherlands.  A few from Cartoon Network in the UK.

The dub is actually a dub of a dub - it is based on the Funimation dub and scripts.  There is some further editing.  The voices are provided by The Ocean Group, as had been done for the eps released for Funi by Saban in 1996.  It’s generally considered better than Funimation’s version despite the heavier editing.

I, of course, am a connoisseur of the obscure.

There were some attempts to remaster these episodes; however they fell prey to some common problems:

1. They were based on the current R1 DVDs which are blown out and TILTSCANNED.  Except for the movies, Dragon Ball Z was made to be seen in 4:3, not 16:9, but for the latest R1s, Funimation cropped the picture, saying it looked “more cinematic” that way.

2. The encoders seem clueless as to how framerate works in regards to anime.  They took video that was at 23.976 fps and noob-converted it, either to 29.97 fps, or worse, to 25 fps (since they were generally from PAL countries and since their source for the dub was 25 fps, they assumed 25 fps was correct).

3. I still haven’t found the OPED, though supposedly at least one of the rips has it.

Notably, the episode title cards are the same as Funimation’s.  Funi’s first, edited release, if it can be procured, would be the easiest to cut to match this dub; followed by their uncut but NOT “remastered” early R1, and the R2.  The R2 may be better quality, but the R1 would be necessary for title cards.  Some work may be needed to rebuild the OPED and possibly previews if they can be obtained.

The best I am able to do is only a slight improvement because I do not at this time have access to rips of these episodes in a form that is not tiltscanned.  (As an experiment, I redid someone’s remaster of the first episode of the new dub, but I used the tiltscanned R1 as a base.)

Most of these episodes are often found "remastered" by youtubers.  These youtubers are usually arseholes though, so good luck getting HQ videos.  Also, they don't even crop the picture - they just stretch the previously existing 4:3, and it looks horrid IMO.  Personally, I'm far more interested in the original DragonBall dub.  Not only is that script different from FUNimation's, but it's also much harder to find (Nyoibou is used, as is the "Son" family name).

Many of the videos that don't simply have synched footage from a DVD have foreign subtitles and are of dubious quality.

GT is not quite as hard to find as DB, but it's harder than Z.

That being said, if I could help let me know - I'm also interested in this project.  Similar projects have been attempted at Daizex by a member calling himself DBZOceanHD.  He's also the Kai fandub guy.  You can find the few episodes he completed here

Oh the ocean groups dubs were the ones I first saw. And hearing the more recent english dubs made me sick. They sounded bad and the acting was bad. I wished for once though we could get Dragon Ball Z the way it was written in Japan. It was a serious show.

The ones I've seen "remastered" used the tiltscanned R1s.

The subs you refer to - yes - most of the eps I have are subtitled in Dutch.

I miss the drummond vegeta. The other vegeta dubs were meh. He sounded constapated as did goku. Actually all of the characters did outside the ocean group dubs. Krillin being the worse.

Yeah.  Funi's Krillin...ugh.  And Chris Sabat is a secondrate Brian Drummond wannabe.

I am suprised they couldnt get steven blum to play one of the characters. He does more voice work than mark hamill.

He would have made a bad ass goku LOL. BANG!!!

My current analysis of the situation:

* I have access to, unless some MU links have fallen, all but 3 episodes of this dub: "Learn to Fuse", "Race to Capsule Corp", "Goku's Time Is Up" (the BW and Funi dubs use the same episode titles).

* Some episodes have glitches, defective cuts to commercial, or end early.

* Most episodes are missing recaps and next-episode previews.  This wouldn't be too big of a deal except that the narrator says "stay tuned for scenes from the next Dragon Ball Z" all too often!

Very few eps have the OPED, but that's less of an issue.  The OP, except for a few very short shots, uses almost the exact same footage the Saban dub did.  The Saban dub is on R1.  I will, at first, use Saban's OP footage, with the audio replaced.

As for the ED?  There's almost no credits there, which I'd like to rectify, but can only do so to a limited extent. :/  We know who the voice actors are for the most part.  We can determine trivially who the script writers are (they're the same ones as Funimation's dub).  There is a credit for "Music and Lyrics", prolly for the OPED.  But that's not much.  The actual credits are only, two for Akira Toriyama's manga, two for Toei, one for the music and lyrics, and one for the director whose name is misspelled - even less, in some eps, as one ED I have ONLY credits Akira Toriyama.

Although slightly MIA at the moment, a user by the name of luigi24 on youtube is a dub collector from Japan.  If/when he returns, he could probably help you.  Here's a clip of ending #2 from the dub: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXLnprAQSQI&feature=channel_page

"one ED I have ONLY credits Akira Toriyama" = that exact video xD;

oops... my bad then. x[ but that video was just to illustrate my point.  It might be worth asking him if there's more credits on another ending.

I've only seen two EDs for the Blue Water Z.  it's typical of non-English dubs (supposedly the dub was contracted by AB Group in France), but not typical of English dubs.

ah.  You're correct in that AB Groupe commissioned the dub, as they hold the rights in practically all of Europe.  I guess Toonami/Cartoon Network and YTV found it cheaper to buy this from them - and supposedly the fans were much angrier about the new cast there.

At this point, I have every episode of this dub, in some form.

Most are missing either or both of the recap and the next-ep preview; some are even missing the end of the episode.

The following episodes are incomplete: 175-177, 183-186, 188, 190, 197, 204, 223-224.  Only the following episodes are truly complete: 108-112, 114, 144, 147, 151-152, 154, 156, 187, 189, 192-194, 221, 226-227, 229-230, 232-249, 251-254, 256-257, 259-268.

I don't have enough footage to rebuild anything now (I insist on 4:3!), but I may have a shot once Funimation starts releasing their new box, which will be 4:3 (I guess enough fans chewed them out over the tiltscanning of their last set).  As most of the OP is the same as Saban's, rebuilding that shouldn't be hard.  Funimation will probably include English title cards on their DVDs; they will probably be the same as BW's but (if their recent DB rerelease is anything to go by), like the 16:9s, will lack the DBZ logo over them.

Also: Any idea if this font, or one very similar, can be obtained?

(Apart from popping up the colors that's a genuine screenshot from this dub.)

I did a test version of 108 some time ago - I've improved it but it still needs work.

1. It's tiltscanned.  I want the final version to be 4:3 OAR.

2. There are a couple incorrect shots during the opening title (because I designed the title for use by people remastering the Saban dub using the tiltscanned R1s).  Likewise, the ending is completely wrong (but in both cases, the audio is correct).

3. AFAICT, everything else is correct.

It's only a draft (though it doesn't have any bugs or such); it's also only one of 169 episodes in this dub!

I uploaded the first episode to YouTube as a preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPqCqEXLuo - 108 Part 1 (Funi has a claim on this one but let it stay; it has ads on the window.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6RGok2NCU - 108 Part 2

The final version, when released, will be better than this.  Audio source is an mpg of a Dutch CN airing.  The episode proper is complete.

I got the base (i.e., everything but the preview) synched for 109 from a widescreen rip.  I hate that the 4:3 rips are made of unobtanium, but since Funi plans to reissue DBZ from a 4:3 master, with next-ep previews, I should have everything I need once they start hitting ep.123.

I'm such an impatient person.

Now if someone could just reconstruct the harmony gold dub with Wendee Lee as Bulma/ renamed Lena,lol.

Too bad i know of no one who actually has them on vhs tapes recorded off of tv, there is a place online that has a few audio clips but if the guy running the site has the tapes he is not sharing.

I mean of Dragon Ball of course, i don't care about Z.

I only like the manga and the old retro cartoon, the 90's stuff is complete and utter garbage as bad as pokemon or sailor moon, or power rangers seriously.  But thats my opinion.

Though i get quite sick of these shonen super power shows unless there is a point to it all, you have hundreds of episodes of the dragon ball shows and very little plot to speak of.

It is like watching an animated video game, when their is no humor involved, or any point to the action other than kicking someones ass,lol.

Though i hated the kiddie-ized verison of the old cartoon, and dbz and the manga i want it uncut or not at all.  Dragon Ball Kai is somewhat censored, cropped and has recolored missing episodes and animation and bad new cgi.  But will probably be the only one on blu ray considering the dragon boxes in 4:3 are probably the best you will ever get of the real thing.

They basically pulled a George Lucas, just like Oshii did with leaving the real ghost in the shell unremastered and putting out a bad recolored cgi piece of garbage.

DBK is tightening up DBZ quite a bit.  DBZ did get reeeeeeeeally laggy there, and so far DBK threw the lag out the window.  In the time it took *Saban* to get to "OVER 9000!!!" DBK is already on Namek and Freeza's already collecting the Dragon Balls there.

I heard a rumor that CN once started reairing DBZ, and played the Funimation dub.  Didn't do so hot, so they decided to switch to the earlier dub, and it did a lot better.  I suggested it was because the voice work was better; my friend suggested it was because the show was tightened up (15 eps' worth of footage removed from the 67 eps dubbed).

I thought to get a show aired in the us or to go into syndication it

A. has to be dubbed

and

B.  has to have a certain amount of episodes

Leading to why robotech exists,

and why harlock and queen millenia were combined i don't know if the rules has changed since then.

I do know Gurren Lagann only got a dub because the sci fi network picked the show up,  these days no tv deal equals no dub, usually.

Anime is mostly going sub only, basically glorified  fansubs but at the full price instead of for free. 

It is only worth it if the subs are accurate and get the nuance of the original japanese.

Some shows with the official sub are a entirely different show because the meanings are better conveyed, man some of those fansubs get things all wrong or engrishy you wonder if they used babelfish to translate,lol.

Or worse, they leave half the dialogue in Japanese.

Got someone uploading me vobbage of 123-125 (108-110, corresponding to the first 3 eps of the Ocean dub) from an early (4:3) Funimation R1.  That'll get me off the ground nicely from a video perspective.

The first edition I do will have a slightly inaccurate OP and wrong ED because I don't have the source to do them properly.  (OP will have the Saban footage, making it only about 95% accurate.  ED will have the Saban footage, making it only about 50% accurate.  The audio will be correct.)  I will keep enough raw material around to fix it when the vobbage I need for the oped shows up.

I made the following preview videos for this project.  Please note that this is unfinished, especially the recap video - I use what I've got.

* Audio Source: MP3 from AVI encode, from Dutch TV
* Video Source: loose vobbage provided from an early R1 DVD (which contained the Japanese recaps for episode 109=124 and 110=125 and part of 108=123, and the Funi dub's preview for 111=126).  This is why the title card on the first link is still in Japanese, rather than English, and will be fixed on the final encode.

Recap, from episode 110 (Goku's Ordeal)
Next episode preview, same episode

I'll probably only post small clips and screencaps directly to the forum from here on in.  Remember - this dub has not been and almost certainly will never be released on video, so the audio is taken ENTIRELY from captures of TV broadcasts.  Some of these are very old and worn-out.

These videos are VOBs; they aren't unprocessed, I did an inverse telecine on both of them.

An MP4 I uploaded to MegaLoad a couple days ago still has the cigarette in his mouth, but further releases will remove it, as seen on the TV rip I have.

The reason it is ep.110(125) ("Goku's Ordeal", an ep I personally hate) that I have been working on is simply...I have no other 4:3/23.976 source for of 108(123) or later and therefore cannot produce a video track for any other episodes at this time.  (Still waiting on 108-109 and have no other source at this time.)

Current status...going nowhere fast.  I do, however, have a complete list of clips for the OPED, so when I have the footage, I can rebuild them.  The source for R1/4:3 108/109 said he'd finish uploading the DVD with them but he's currently uploading another DVD for someone else, I think as part of a trade.  These are quite rare. :/

I've drawn some interest because the files are much higher quality than anything else out there - hopefully it'll help me get what I need!

I've checked one of two fye stores in the area, and all they had was the Orange Bricks (16:9 set).  :/