A press release distributed today officially announces FUNimation’s suspension of the in-progress remastered Blu-ray sets for the Dragon Ball Z TV series:

Flower Mound, TX – January 26, 2012- FUNimation Entertainment, has officially confirmed they have suspended production of all future planned Blu-ray releases of Dragon Ball Z including Level 2.1 scheduled to be released on March 27, 2012.

Blu-ray editions of Dragon Ball Z went into production based on fan demand, however due to technical challenges of restoring from the original film frame by frame, we are unable to continue these releases by way of this process. FUNimation will be re-evaluating the current process and researching more efficient methods of restoration.

Specific questions may be directed to : feedback@funimation.com

The first set (which, perhaps coincidentally, is on sale via Amazon for only $16.49) was released 08 November 2011, with the second set making its way out 13 December 2011.

The Japanese-created “refreshed” version of the TV series, Dragon Ball Kai, is still being released by FUNimation. The series will have had a six-month run between volumes six and seven by the time the latter makes its way out in March.

The last release to be canceled mid-run was the “Ultimate Uncut Edition”, which replaced the original FUNimation edited-only, English-dub-only version of their first two “seasons”. Nine discs (covering 27 episodes) made their way out before FUNimation canceled them outright in mid-2006 in favor of “season sets” that made their way out in 2007.