DBZ Opening: 3 Incomplete Versions

[kei17]

Recently, I noticed there are 3 versions of DBZ opening which have never been released on DVD.
They were broadcast only on the original broadcast.

Notice: These images are from the betamax tapes recorded in a remote area. They have very faded colours because of poor reception.

Episode 1-3 Left: Original Run / Right: DBOX

Bigger credits


Colouring error


Kinto'un comes in earlier


No highlight


Disappearance of upper right shadow


Different rolling speed of the back ground



Episode 4-16

Credits become normal


Highlight added


Rolling speed fixed


Other differences do not change in this version. Actually, on the original broadcast, the complete version of the 1st opening that DBOX has in episode 1 to 21 was used during episode 17 to 21, only in 5 episodes. You can check out these differences with a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x08tjv9F_7o


Episode 200-201

No cloud in the beginning


There is no more difference in this except the speed of Shenlong's move. I made a video for this, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16uL4Yy9Kh4

[PuppetDoctor]

Wow, that was very interesting and thanks for sharing the differences.

No clouds at the beginning of We Gotta Power was the strangest to watch though out of them all.

[linkdude20002001]

Weirdness! But this is pretty cool. It's like how they messed up on DBGT's eye-catches.

[Cipher]

Things get changed throughout broadcast histories all the time, but it's still really cool to have them documented like this.

[theoriginalbilis]

This happens quite a bit with televised anime, I believe. Credits or scenes will have different or incomplete animation that is usually corrected or changed for reruns or home releases. I remember my 9 year old fansubs of Hellsing TV had incomplete animation for certain episodes, but was completed for the DVD releases.

[Cipher]

I remember my 9 year old fansubs of Hellsing TV had incomplete animation for certain episodes, but was completed for the DVD releases.

The broadcast version of Hellsing has some really different shots from what ended up on the home release. We're talking about entire scenes being redrawn.

[Gaffer Tape]

Sigh. It's a shame that the DBox didn't preserve these differences and present them the way they originally aired. Thanks for pointing this out, kei17!

[.:PoetikaL:.]

I knew of the incomplete openings for Episodes 1-3, but never knew of "We Gotta Power" not having the clouds in the beginning. Nice find kei!

[Fox666]

Wow, that was nice to know

[Jurik]

Woooow, great topic, thanks!!

[kei17]

I forgot to mention this. There is one country received and broadcast these incomplete openings.
It's Hongkong. TVB Pearl broadcast the Japanese version of DBZ with English and Chinese subtitles, and it had them.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Oh wow. Chinese and English subtitles. Could you please show us a bit more of these? I'm curious about the quality of the translation. Also, it's a bit weird having the subtitles cover almost half of the screen.

[samuraix123]

Hey Kei! the video keeps telling me it's private buddy. any help? I think you gave me a copy of the clouds in the beginning intro anyways.

[eledoremassis02]

I second this... very interested in this!

[ShinGaijin]

Very interesting, it's nice to share that, Kei.Why the hell Toei/Pony Canyon didn't include those openings in the Dragon Boxes ?
EDIT : Can you unlock the second opening, please ? :FANBOY MODE ACTIVATED:

[kei17]

Very interesting, it's nice to share that, Kei.Why the hell Toei/Pony Canyon didn't include those openings in the Dragon Boxes ?

My guess is that they consider them as incomplete versions and thought that they're not worth including.

[superrayman3]

Very interesting, it's nice to share that, Kei.Why the hell Toei/Pony Canyon didn't include those openings in the Dragon Boxes ?

There's a few possible reasons they didn't include them in the DBOX.

1. They couldn't find these openings at the time and were too lazy and didn't want to bother tracking them down. (Toei is known for being lazy so it wouldn't surprise me if that's what happened in this case)

2. The openings are in such bad shape that Toei/Pony Canyon weren't able to restore them to the DBOX standard of quality (highly unlikely but possible).

3. Toei/Pony Canyon didn't realize there were slight differences in the opening for the early episodes (don't forget over 10 years had passed since DBZ aired when the DBOX's were produced so it's possible they thought there was only one version of the DBZ 1st opening animation and only used the fixed version as a result).

4. Toei threw them out after the fixed versions were finished (this one is the most likely since Toei is notorious for throwing stuff out without making backups first).

My guess is that they consider them as incomplete versions and thought that they're not worth including.

That wouldn't make sense very much considering the DBOX's were advertised as being complete with original opening and ending animations, it was probably just something that slipped under the radar for the possible reasons I listed above.

[lolman196]

I have a couple Pearl tapes as well, and I noticed something strange on one of them.

Sadly this tape only has one opening on it, with the rest of them cut out, but the one that is there is creditless.

I'm not sure if this was even done for the broadcast version ever, and I'm wondering how/why TVB Pearl used a creditless opening. In later episodes, the opening is normal.

Not that big of a deal, but interesting nonetheless. I've taken the opening from this tape and uploaded it to YouTube:

http://youtu.be/HKXtaGaoJn0

[kei17]

Thanks for sharing the video, lolman196.

By the way, I recently noticed that BS Fuji's rerun has the first opening only on episode 1.

[superrayman3]

Thanks for sharing the video, lolman196.

By the way, I recently noticed that BS Fuji's rerun has the first opening only on episode 1.

That's good because now those who recorded the BS Fuji re-run of DBZ episode 1 will have access to a higher quality version of DBZ's "real" first opening sequence which is at least to me a piece of DBZ's history (I wish I could get my hands on this higher quality opening).