MagicBox wrote:We have to keep in mind that blu-ray is still a very niche thing. Even if these blu-rays are successful, they're not going to be "game-changing" in the way some might think.
While not wrong, you've slightly overblown it. Last I checked it's roughly 2/3 DVD and 1/3 Blu-ray (which is DVD clearly selling more, but Blu-ray is past the point of being 'niche', it just isn't as large, and of course, being a more expensive product, that isn't suprising.) There is also the matter that DVD sales are clearly going down year over year, while Blu-ray is going up (The last numbers I saw were for October, where Blu-ray was up roughly 8%, and DVD was down more than 10% comparing the same month both years.) Obviously these releases aren't going to be 'game changing', because anime releases in general aren't, even the top selling ones, nor were they ever really to be honest (no doubt anime has had some good sellers, but minus a few outliers like Ghibli content, or things like that, anime has never hit the level that most fans think it was.) The only measure of 'game changing' for a release like this is if it adds a ton to Funi's numbers, which it may very well do (I expect it's likely that it will to be honest.)
It's sort of like how people who like various shows keep pointing to TNG as the measure of restoration quality a company should aim for (declaring TNG to be a game changer) when it really isn't. TNG is a unique show, with a high fanbase, and a decent number of casual fans who might pick up a season when it gets cheap enough (and no doubt will be sold to Netflix, or newly sold to syndication once it's done.) Now that TNG has gotten such a treatment, people keep expecting tons of other shows to get it, when realistically, very few will be.
The DBZ BD season sets will only be measured as game changing by adding to Funi's bottom line, or doing poorly enough that it makes retailers question if DBZ is worth the hassle outside the orange bricks.