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I bet they are waiting to upload that on Christmas for Christmas content.
Team Four Star - Creators of a bunch of stuff to make people laugh trying to figure out what to do after a decade of comedically retelling Dragon Ball Z.
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starborn427614
kiwifarms.net
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- Aug 27, 2020
Ehh, the other Christmas special they did was a lot better. Tree of Might is one of the weaker movies and wasn't much better abridged.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
Kaiser was also one of their best VAs. Out of TFS only Taka, Lani, Kaiser and maybe MasakoX had the chops to be professional VAs, and that is also why they're the only ones who got parts, however small.
Having your writing compared to something that's made billions of dollars and even its critical failures are financial successes is hardly something to be embarrassed about, to be fair. It'd be weird to compare abridged writing to some kind of high-brow literature.
Kaiser was also gay when he wrote the joke. It's not as if he were straight or even in the closet and in denial when he wrote the jokes. He was openly married to another man and didn't have a problem with any of the gay jokes he himself wrote into the show.
They wanted to get away from DBZA because they were very likely indicated behind the scenes that the abridged series was holding them back from getting real offers. I can't remember who it was, but someone who later broke into the industry stated in an interview that 'you shouldn't start with fandubs, because it will prevent you from getting into the main industry', so I suspect there is some attitude in the primary dubbing industry that says 'we will not hire fandubbers'. It's possible that Japanese studios just put black marks on VAs they notice doing fandubs/abridged series because they get pissy about their copyright. Whatever connections they thought they had fell through for one reason or another, and their audience is utterly uninterested in all of their original, non-DBZ content. Sooner or later, they'll come crawling back to DBZA because they've never had anything else going for them.
Regardless, the commentary seems to just echo what I've said for years: Kaiser was the source of the problems in TFS and the primary reason that they stopped at Cell saga. It's no coincidence that the Cell saga was Kaiser's favorite, and that, I believe, Kaiser hated the Buu saga while Lani enjoyed it (Lani and Kirran being the ones who constantly made the fusion jokes in streams). It's known that the Broly movie took forever because there was a bunch of infighting over the script due to someone hating Broly and someone being a fan of Broly. I wouldn't be surprised if that prior conflict was leveraged to get the team to agree that it was better to just end it there and move on. It's notable that they had not planned on ending it at the Cell saga even by the point of airing the Cell saga finale. They went out of their way to say 'DBZA will return in season 4' only for Kaiser to announce a few months later they were dropping it and the movie everyone had been waiting on.
6MillionCoofs
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
The dude that voiced Cooler actually now works in the industry. They were able to get hold of some real talent. But yeah the core group mostly sucked.
Well yeah. There’s a reason all video game voices are now being taken up by jobbing theatre actors. Because simply put fandubs on a reel usually show real bad quality and even if the VA industry is full of amateurs, they don’t want to be any more. It’s a case of ‘old guard got in and does not want to let new guard get in the same way, or easier’
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
Does he? I know FF7MA has industry talents in it (including Deku's VA pre-MHA) but that was so late into their project I don't really count it, as they had more reach and influence then.
Unfortunately, it is a huge issue in the dubbing industry that they really don't want new blood. VAs get so little pay and so few benefits because they're constantly being ripped off by their companies in every conceivable way that they can't afford there to be more competition. Granted, the fandubbing thing in particular still may just be the Japanese corporations making demands. It's noteworthy that TFS members got bigger roles in video games than they did anime, and the decision makers for who gets what roles in anime and vg differ. Japan really hates things they think violate their copyright, especially when that thing does not in fact violate their copyright.
6MillionCoofs
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Overlord.
Yeah. There later work basically became ‘what famous anime va could they get to cameo this week’
Think that might be an issue with their simply being more games to voice than anime dubbing companies. And gatekeeping by English VAs mostly and less so Japan. At most they’d say ‘they do not touch DB’.
I mean TFS were using their copyright to parody and then sell merch based on that. If I were a company I’d say no to them just because of that.
wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
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- Dec 17, 2019
It would be the height of irony if TFS never advanced, not because Toei cares that much about them, but because the VAs they constantly sucked the dicks of blacklisted them because they saw their established popularity as a threat. And it's not that unlikely.
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2019
I mean, maybe on the youtube/parts of DBZ fanbase they had a popularity. But among mo casual anime watchers? eeeeeeeh...I kinda doubt it, heck I'm not even sure they're a blip on the radar of the hardest of otakus.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
Ah, Overlord, I forgot.
I don't honestly think that Toei knew about the merch, because in my opinion Toei would have melted down super hard about the merch, and to my knowledge they never received DMCA, C&D, or any interference whatsoever from the company with their 'we called a lawyer and they said it's legal' designs. I still think it's nothing more complex than 'Toei is a bunch of old Japanese men who don't understand USA copyright or fair use at all and refused to accept that DBZA was legitimate fair use.'. It's extremely common that Japanese people just don't get copyright laws as they pertain to fair use. And they're often hyper paranoid and push things like DRM on indie games. The whole 'Japan allows doujin' thing is very misunderstood and overblown as far as how that actually works.
It would be funny, but I don't think it's 100% that. They had Christopher Sabat in their office warming party, Sabat's the one who calls most of the shots when it comes to getting dubbing jobs in Funi, and all three Kaiser, Lani and Taka seem like the type to jump on the couch for a chance at realizing their dream job. If anything, I suspect the one who gave them the quiet tip that they needed to drop DBZA to get some jobs that 'might be dropping through the pipeline soon' kind of thing was Sabat. If they were sabotaged, it probably wasn't by other VAs. The only VA who was outspoken against them was Sean Schemmel and literally no one likes or listens to Sean, not even Sean.
By the end of their run it's very likely most active DBZ fans knew about DBZA, because the ones who were on youtube never shut up about it. This is the english speaking fanbase only, though. I don't know how they were received overseas. My personal suspicion is that Akira Toriyama was partly inspired to make Dragonball Super based off of the very popular, multilingual, and longer running DBZ fan-comic Dragonball Multiverse, rather than DBZA, but at least among the NA fanbase, DBZA was probably the better known of the two.
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wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
A decade ago the Abridged scene was massive and TFS and LittleKuriboh were some of the most prominent in it, plus anime was already very geek focused so it would be weird if some of the prominent figures hadn't learned of it and thought of using its popularity.
From what I heard of the Vic case, the dubbing scene seems to be working on high school clique rule, so the biggest suspects would be ones who appear very sympathetic to them in public but betrayed them beyond closed doors. Of course the team is completely male so the ones who will have the most to benefit are male VAs. But on the other hand there's probably hatred for the group for actually starting things from scratch rather than going to some fancy art school and sucking cocks until you make it.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
Oh, I don't doubt there was a lot of secret dislike of TFS, but Sabat runs (or ran, until he got outed for it, who knows now) Funimation like he's a mafia don. If Sabat says, for the most part, it goes. This is why even before the kickvic blast, Vic struggled to get parts for a long time - any time Sabat had a say over casting, Vic was auto-banned. Thus, I think something changed where Sabat's protection or control no longer had the influence they (and he) expected. Probably because even though they were confident to the public, behind closed doors they were more nervous, especially when Huber made his affidavit. One of Sabat's blacklisted VAs leveraged the situation to come back, so it's very possible Sabat didn't have the influence to get the TFS crew much. And then once they dropped out of the spotlight because they quit DBZA, there was no real reason to pursue the matter even if he maybe later got that influence back.
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2022
Possible drama coming from YouTuber MercuryFalcon. I have no idea what his sources are in the American dubbing industry but his videos are very well researched on the Japanese production side. So I'm skeptical as to why he would say this without receipts.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2017
Most of TFS' problems in maintaining relationships is likely to be Kaiser's fault, unless everyone involved really are just drama whores.Possible drama coming from YouTuber MercuryFalcon. I have no idea what his sources are in the American dubbing industry but his videos are very well researched on the Japanese production side. So I'm skeptical as to why he would say this without receipts.
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- Joined
- Apr 5, 2019
Please, somebody spill the beans on this. All I want for Christmas is a good fucking laugh.Possible drama coming from YouTuber MercuryFalcon. I have no idea what his sources are in the American dubbing industry but his videos are very well researched on the Japanese production side. So I'm skeptical as to why he would say this without receipts.
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DDBCAE CBAADCBE
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2019
I don’t know if any of you remember this but TFS made an entire video trashing Sabat after he got one of their merch booths canned at a con. Granted they did finally do an apology video but that was pretty much the last nail in their coffin as I recall. It was shortly after that I think that they decided to end DBZA
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2019
First I'm hearing of this. For the longest time word was Sabat was the person responsible for shielding them from heavier Japanese DMCA shit.
DDBCAE CBAADCBE
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2019
What? No. That’s literally the opposite of what happened according to the TFS crew themselves. From what I remember it was Funi directly fucking on them over and over to the point that when they DID get rolls in DBZ related projects such as Xenoverse and Xenoverse 2 they had to use fake names.
- Joined
- May 24, 2021
And Scott wonders why people like me refer to him as a tool.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2022
Chris Sabat spent a literal decade of his life running a "Keep Your Enemies Close" campaign with Vic Mignona. Who's to say he didn't do the same thing to TFS? It wouldn't surprise me to find me to find out the entire time he was "running protection" for TFS, he was actively stifling them. It's something that would be in his ballpark and interest in doing. If you go back and scroll through the comments section on the older videos, I'm sure you'll find plenty of "The TFS cast should VA Dragonball Super!" remarks. It's totally possible and within the profile of a faggot like Sabat to take notice of it and want to keep them close juuuuust in case. Then everything simply went south when Funimation collapsed and nothing came of this relationship and he broke ties with them.
I don't buy that for a fucking second. There were at least talks of making a clean break when they had the chance and they ALL knew it. Season 4 was questionable at best and that's why they wrote the episode the way they did. It was an open ended "if we decide to continue", right from the start. You don't write a finale when the following season is guaranteed.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2015
This better get a follow up. It's the most interesting TFS has been in years.Possible drama coming from YouTuber MercuryFalcon. I have no idea what his sources are in the American dubbing industry but his videos are very well researched on the Japanese production side. So I'm skeptical as to why he would say this without receipts.
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