Dragon Ball Kai (the anniversary edition of Dragon Ball Z) has been broadcast in many English speaking countries so far including the United States and the United Kingdom. However, Canada has yet to receive a broadcast of the show, this is in spite of the fact that many of Canada’s acclaimed voice actors have since revealed the existence of a Canadian English dub dating as far back as 2010. Rumors point to this dub even being complete for a substantial amount of time so now only one question remains, why hasn’t it been broadcast yet?

Right now I think there’s no better time to broadcast a Canadian dub of this popular show. The original English dub of Dragon Ball Z, which aired in 1996, featured a voice cast of actors from Vancouver, British Columbia, many of whom have confirmed their return in the Canadian version of Dragon Ball Kai.



The goal of this petition is to find a television broadcaster in Canada who will license Dragon Ball Kai in 2017, preferably with the much anticipated Canadian dub produced by Ocean Productions, Inc.



WHAT IS DRAGON BALL KAI?

To put it simply, Dragon Ball Kai is an updated version of the wildly popular Japanese anime, Dragon Ball Z. The show was revised and remastered for HD TV standards in 2009 by Toei Animation and coincided with the 20th anniversary of the series in Japan. Along with an updated look the show also featured a new musical score and all new vocal performances to boot, it was a truly unique project unlike any of it’s kind!

DOESN’T A KAI DUB ALREADY EXIST?

Yes, Currently Dragon Ball Kai already has an English dub produced by FUNimation, this dub sources talent from Dallas, Texas and features the majority of the same cast that dubbed Dragon Ball Z for American audiences (Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat being the most prominently featured). This dub has since seen success in many English speaking countries across the world however, Canada has yet to receive this dub on television which leaves open the possibility of a Canadian dub being aired instead.



This idea isn’t quite as outlandish as you might think. The Dragon Ball Z franchise no stranger to multiple dubs. In fact, during it’s original television run, a separate English dub was produced for The United Kingdom, Holland and Canada while the US and many other English speaking countries continued to receive the U.S. (FUNimation) dub instead.

STILL NOT CONVINCED?

If you need more proof of why Canada’s voice actors are great at what they do then look no further than their other anime work over the years including Death Note, Black Lagoon, Sword of the Stranger, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Inuyasha, Ranma ½, Hamtaro, Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Megaman NT Warrior, and Vision of Escaflowne to name a few.



Not only have they provided the voices to popular anime series but many of the talent are also well known for voicing popular western animation such as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Storm Hawks, X-Men: Evolution, Planet Hulk & Hulk Versus, Cybersix, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Transformers Armada, Mucha Lucha, League of Super Evil and Reboot.



CRTC

The CRTC requires that broadcasters in Canada have a certain amount of Canadian produced content in their lineup. This means that a dub featuring Canadian actors would allow it to fit this requirement and thus make it more appealing to Canadian networks than an English dub produced elsewhere.



“But isn’t this is a Japanese show?” Yes, but just by virtue of having Canadian talent on the cast, that is by itself enough to meet the requirements set by the CRTC. A Canadian dub of Dragon Ball Kai would also likely have it’s own Canadian produced soundtrack and translated scripts in addition to performance. All these factors would count towards supporting Canadian talent in the entertainment industry.



TARGETS

The main target for this petition would be Corus Entertainment simply because they’re currently Canada’s largest children’s broadcaster and own channels such as YTV, Teletoon as well as Canada’s Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Other avenues are in consideration too such as Turner Broadcasting, FUNimation, Toei Animation and perhaps DHX Media but for now the goal is to let the powers that be know that we want Kai on television in Canada, preferably with a Canadian dub.



CONCLUSION

If you are a fan of DBZ, DB Kai, or even just a fan of Canada’s voice actors then I urge you to please consider signing this petition, we need to let the television networks know that this is a cause worth supporting and investing in.



Let them know that you not only want to see Dragon Ball Kai on Canadian television but that you also want to hear Canada’s acclaimed voice talent return to arguably the most popular anime franchise in the western world, one that they helped popularize over 20 years ago.



The US dub of Kai is still currently doing well for itself on the late night Toonami programming block on Adult Swim. I firmly believe that DB Kai can achieve similar success on Canadian TV, especially if the dub is one that is exclusive to Canada and has never been seen before.

Time is running out for this to happen and I think they deserve a second chance and I’m positive that the majority of the fanbase would love to hear their voices in this franchise once more. We need your support to make this a reality so please consider signing and spreading the word to other fans of this series.

I implore Carole Bonneau, vice-president of programming at Teletoon, Katie Wilson, Director of programming at Corus Kids, and Doug Murphy, president of Corus Entertainment to give this a chance. Dragon Ball has always managed to appeal to both kids and adults.