How am I supposed to I support the official release?

[MarCas92]

It seems that the only way for me to support this franchise from the US is to learn Japanese and import.

The Manga: Why would I want to buy a censored product? Also, from reading these forums, it seems the translations aren't that great either.

The Anime: Ho Boy. Where do I begin?
Original Singles: To many, no Sayiajin Saga, No episode previews.
Ultimate Uncut: Only goes up to Fight with Vegeta.
Orange/Blue/Yellow Bricks: Look awful, No Next episode previews.
Dragon Boxes: Too expensive and rare. None for Dragon Ball.
Blu-Rays: Cropped, no next episode previews. No Dragon Ball.

I love this franchise and I want to give them my money, but here in the US it seems that all the releases have something wrong with them. To be fair, the Dragon Boxes were the best and I would buy those, except you know, I don't' have 700 dollars to drop on DVD's. How can I support a franchise I love if we keep receiving flawed product?

What do we as fans have to do in order to get products we want here in the US? How can we get more Dragon Box and Less Orange Brick?

[TheKingOfKamehamehas]

If you want to support the official release in a good release, buy the Kai Season Sets. They look great and there are no faults with them. ( A musical change isn't a fault on Funimation's Part)
If you want to get Dragon Ball then get the Blue Bricks. Sure they are a little zoomed in but that is really minor and you are only loosing tiny footage. Little things like NEPs aren't that bad. Don't know why you don't like them...
If you want to get Dragon Ball GT then get the Green Bricks. Little Saturation, but it still looks pretty nice and it is really cheap. The Complete Series is like $30...
Just get the movie packs if you want the movies.

In terms of Manga, The Viz Big have color pages in them, but are censored. Some of the 3 in 1s are mainly uncut and the Full Colors are also uncut(Minus Popo's lips)

When you think about it, Dragon Ball isn't too bad in America...

If know someone who works at Funimation or Viz, maybe you can tell them about the Dragon Boxes and Manga Releases. Asking the voice actors will rarely work, but sometimes it does.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

I think you're being a little too picky. I own a few of the BD releases and they are fine. Sure, I do not like that they have cropped the image to 16:9 but it still looks wonderful. It doesn't suffer the same problems as the Orange Bricks do. Next episode previews aren't important either (to me, anyway). It's true that FUNimation has never released a perfect Dragon Ball product, but the BD set is as close to it as they will get. As for Dragon Ball, just buy the DVDs. I understand that they have sub-par quality due to not being high definition, but they are as close to perfect as we can get. The image is slightly zoomed in, but there is no cropping. There is also the option to just buy Kai 1.0 since it is damn good.

As for the manga, I would say that your best option is to cut your losses and just buy it. From the little research I have done, it seems as though your best option would be to purchase the VIZBIG edition of it since the original release (of the Dragon Ball portion at least) is out of print unless you buy online and the new 3-in-1 version is so thin that you can see through the paper. I saw it at my local Books-a-Million and figured it would be decent enough for me to buy if they hadn't gone with the equivalent of university toilet paper. From doing Google searches, there is no full and uncensored release of the Dragon Ball manga so if you want to support it at all then you will have to buy a censored product. Again, my recommendation is the VIZBIG edition.

TL;DR Buy the BD season sets of Z because it is still an excellent product despite being cropped. Buy the DVD season sets (Blue Bricks) of Dragon Ball because it is a near perfect release minus the lack of high definition. For the manga buy the VIZBIG edition because it's the best quality despite some censoring.

[Ex-Dubbie369]

Its a horrible catch-22. If you support the subpar releases that exist, then you give the companies no incentive to make a better product. However, if you don't buy anything, then they won't have the resources or will to make a better release.

I'd say don't even bother with the manga except maybe the Full Color volumes Viz put out. Yeah, its incomplete, but the images are (outside of Popo) uncensored and the dialog's mostly alright.

With the anime, the season sets are ok for DB and GT. Yeah, lack of JP title cards and NEPs sucks, but you're not going to get a better translation than the subtitles on those DVDs. I bit the bullet with them and am pretty happy about it. As for Z, you're just kind of SOL unfortunately. But Kai's got a solid release at least. And since the titles are direct translations this time, English-only title cards aren't such a big deal.

Funimation making the Dragon Boxes a limited release, and then caving to the idiots who want cropped DBZ for the Blu Rays was a travesty.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I suppose it depends on what one considers "flawed." I mean, as this article notes, even the Japanese Dragon Boxes aren't perfect, and this article doesn't even mention the lack of broadcast audio...which I have no reason whatsoever to suspect that we'll ever get.

At some point, one just has to say, "this is good enough." Nobody, and nothing, is perfect. It's just a matter of what matters to you most. I mean, for me, I don't need Next Episode Previews at all. I never watch them even if they're there, as far as I'm concerned all they do is spoil what's coming up, when I'd rather be surprised.

[theoriginalbilis]

The Season Set "bricks" for original DB and GT are perfectly fine releases. Full-frame, uncut, both language options. Maybe if you just support these releases, you'd definitely be supporting a "full-frame" release.

Both the DVD and Blu-Ray "Seasons" for Dragon Ball Z are very flawed, but watchable IMO. At least the Blu-Ray looks and sounds a bit better, due to the new remastering process and cleanup done to the Japanese audio track.

Kai's DVDs and Blu-Rays look and sound great, and have all of their NEPs. Other than the Toei-imposed replacement music, no complaints here.

[Ryuji-Otogi]

Not having episode previews isn't much of a reason not to support a release. I agree that even to this day FUNi is making it hard for fans to own the series in its proper format. It really seemed they turned a corner with the full screen DB and GT sets, the Dragon Boxes, and the fullscreen Level sets they were putting out. Seemed like they put widescreen behind them. Only to revert right back to it for the BluRay seasons, and now some of the Dragon Boxes are going for $400+ a set.

If you have Hulu Plus you can watch all of Dragon Ball subbed, and they have the Japanese title cards too. It irks me that FUNi ditched the video angles that allowed their previous releases to have both English and Japanese title cards for their respective versions. I used to be super picky about those things and it sure would be nice to have English Dragon Box sets for all three series, but at the end of the day the blue and yellow bricks are respectable releases.

The yellow bricks only have the English title cards too. But they really rebranded the dub with the newly dubbed OP/EDs and by putting the original score in. Makes it way more watchable. If you're only gonna watch it subbed, then you can get the old GT sets that have both the episode cards. And don't the GT sets have the episode previews too?

Also the Kai releases are as good as you're gonna get. If you have no interest in Kai itself that's one thing, but if you do wanna buy Kai then there's nothing stopping you. It does suck that releases of the first few volumes with the plagiarized music are now expensive and hard to find though :/

I understand having little desire to support the manga though. I don't think the translation is too bad besides some obvious WTF things like Djinn Buu, Vegerot, Piccolo talking like Yoda, etc.

[Puto]

You're actually far luckier than you'd think. Let's compare to the releases available here in Portugal, shall we? We have...

- Dub-only DVD releases of some of the Z movies, transferred from tapes.
- An incomplete manga release that stopped in the middle of the Saiyan arc.
- ...and that's it, really.

Compared to this, you guys have it godly.

[rereboy]

The Manga: Why would I want to buy a censored product? Also, from reading these forums, it seems the translations aren't that great either.

The censorship is minimal and the translation is great, even though it's not perfect. Some fans just like to nitpick when it's not perfect. I wonder how they would feel about it if they lived in some other country with no release or an actually bad release.

[Quebaz]

You're actually far luckier than you'd think. Let's compare to the releases available here in Portugal, shall we? We have...

- Dub-only DVD releases of some of the Z movies, transferred from tapes.
- An incomplete manga release that stopped in the middle of the Saiyan arc.
- ...and that's it, really.

Compared to this, you guys have it godly.

We also have a complete release of Dragon Ball in singles format containing the Portuguese and the multiple Spanish dubs.

[Super Sonic]

I think you're a little too nitpicky about the Next Episode Previews. Personally I don't care about them except when they're humorous like in Fairy Tail and Negima. Heck, if they didn't skip the credits, I'd do marathon play for a lot of things. You should support official release and not ignore for little things like you mentioned.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Seemed like they put widescreen behind them. Only to revert right back to it for the BluRay seasons, and now some of the Dragon Boxes are going for $400+ a set.

An unpleasant fact is needed for context: as much as I love Kanzenshuu, we don't represent the majority of fans...at least not in the territories that are most easily able to buy FUNimation's releases.

The majority of English-speaking fans want the old dub, with Faulconer's score, in widescreen. They're not informed about why Dragon Ball in 16:9 is not the optimal viewing experience, and don't notice the shortcomings of the remastering process for the orange bricks and blu-ray season sets...and I can't blame them, because until I came to Kanzenshuu (then still Daizenshuu EX), I honestly couldn't notice them. Nor did Anime News Network, who said in their review of the Dragon Boxes that they were nothing special and that if people already had the orange bricks, those were good enough.

Most of the fans don't notice them, and don't care, just like they're not informed of how poorly the old dub was in terms of adapting the source material. They don't know what we know. They just want to watch that TV show they love as a kid...the majority of people I've talked to about Dragon Ball initially don't care to talk too much about any of the stuff we like to talk about, often responding (at first, anyway) with a sort of, "You're thinking about a TV show too much, I just want to watch that great nostalgic TV show I loved as a kid"-attitude. I compare Kanzenshuuers to the people freed from the Matrix...we just knew, even if we couldn't quite figure it out, that something wasn't quite right, investigated further, and found the real version. Kanzenshuu was my Morpheus.

Most, however, remain trapped in the familiar, seeing just what's on the surface, and like it that way.

I know FUNimation said that the Dragon Boxes were a "limited run," but they said that months after they started coming out, not in the initial release details. And, the prices continued to drop a fair deal while they were still in print. To me, I interpret that as meaning that they weren't selling that well, and slapping on the label of "limited run" was a nicer-sounding alternative than, "they didn't sell that well, so we're lowering the price to get more people to buy them and will stop printing them eventually to cut our losses." I think it was a mistake not to include an audio track with the English voices and Faulconer's score, as that would have made them more desirable to consumers who wanted that version, and if enough had sold, I'm absolutely convinced they'd still be in print. Alas, it was targeted towards fans of the Japanese version, and those fans, while by no means irrelevant, don't represent the majority...most consumers just didn't want it. Similarly, most consumers did want the Blu-Ray season sets that they're now printing.

So as painful as it is to say this, FUNimation is simply giving the people what they want (or most of them, anyway).

[Adamant]

The majority of English-speaking fans want the old dub, with Faulconer's score, in widescreen.

Not really. The actual majority of English-speaking fans have no idea what a "Faulconer" is, nor that the BGM they hear when they push that Play button on their remote is different from the BGM they heard on TV when they were 9.

Nor did Anime News Network, who said in their review of the Dragon Boxes that they were nothing special and that if people already had the orange bricks, those were good enough.

Whomever wrote that should've been fired for sheer incompetence. Someone whose attitude towards video quality - one of the primary things that actually make an individual home release an individual home release - is "Who cares?" has no business writing DVD reviews in the first place.

[Rukura]

You're actually far luckier than you'd think. Let's compare to the releases available here in Portugal, shall we? We have...

- Dub-only DVD releases of some of the Z movies, transferred from tapes.
- An incomplete manga release that stopped in the middle of the Saiyan arc.
- ...and that's it, really.

Compared to this, you guys have it godly.

We also have a complete release of Dragon Ball in singles format containing the Portuguese and the multiple Spanish dubs.

...which is based on a mediocre, censored French version, no less.

MarCas92, I hear ya loud and clear. I bought the 18 volumes we got as they came out, only for the release to be dropped at 18.
I'm currently getting the Japanese tankoubon (though I am learning Japanese), I have the Spanish movie boxsets, the American Dragon Boxes, the Japanese DVDs for all the specials and some singles. Notice how NONE of these is a Portuguese release (except for a dub-only Bardock DVD I have). I'm gonna have to get the UK Battle of Gods Blu-ray...because it never reached Portugal.

If I was in North America? Shoot, I'd buy the Battle of Gods Blu-ray and import the rest all the same as I do here. Buy some Dragon Boxes, if you find them at the right price, I guess.

[theoriginalbilis]

The majority of English-speaking fans want the old dub, with Faulconer's score, in widescreen.

Not really. The actual majority of English-speaking fans have no idea what a "Faulconer" is, nor that the BGM they hear when they push that Play button on their remote is different from the BGM they heard on TV when they were 9.

I agree. Growing up with casual fans and much younger relatives who watched Kai, I can safely say from what I've observed, many people watching DBZ in the States don't know of even care about the BGM that's playing on their TV. They just want to watch the show. The outcries of dub fans on YouTube are still just a very vocal fraction of the fanbase.

Nor did Anime News Network, who said in their review of the Dragon Boxes that they were nothing special and that if people already had the orange bricks, those were good enough.

Whomever wrote that should've been fired for sheer incompetence. Someone whose attitude towards video quality - one of the primary things that actually make an individual home release an individual home release - is "Who cares?" has no business writing DVD reviews in the first place.

Actually, having followed Anime News Network for well over a decade, it's fairly normal for their review format to cover the show's content itself primarily and then technical details (video quality, subtitles) only briefly near the end. If one is looking for anime sites that cover more technical aspects of home video anime releases, Mania.com or The Fandom Post is more of what you're looking for.

Otherwise, I agree with you that their reviews of the Dragon Box release could've been detailed a bit better, especially since the packaging and content was geared for a different audience than the "casual" audience.

[Adamant]

Actually, having followed Anime News Network for well over a decade, it's fairly normal for their review format to cover the show's content itself primarily and then technical details (video quality, subtitles) only briefly near the end. If one is looking for anime sites that cover more technical aspects of home video anime releases, Mania.com or The Fandom Post is more of what you're looking for.

Otherwise, I agree with you that their reviews of the Dragon Box release could've been detailed a bit better, especially since the packaging and content was geared for a different audience than the "casual" audience.

If all their DVD reviews are just show reviews with a "who the hell cares about shit like aspect ratio?" thrown in at the end it just means they're all terrible and ANN should probably get their people to write show reviews instead of DVD reviews.

There's absolutely no point in reviewing a DVD release of a show, one that's been released on DVD several times before AND everyone reading the review knows what's about because it's fucking DBZ at that, if they're not going to review the actual DVD release itself.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

The majority of English-speaking fans want the old dub, with Faulconer's score, in widescreen.

Not really. The actual majority of English-speaking fans have no idea what a "Faulconer" is, nor that the BGM they hear when they push that Play button on their remote is different from the BGM they heard on TV when they were 9.

People are not as stupid as you believe. I think everyone can tell the difference between Bruce Faulconer's score vs Shunsuke Kikuchi's farts. In more detail, Faulconer's score had plenty of techno/electronic/guitar sounds in it. It is way too different for anyone to be able to not notice the difference. The only person who probably would not be able to tell is my dad, as we watched the first episode of Better Call Saul last weekened and the A/V got out of sync by 7-10 seconds and he never noticed for the 20 remaining minutes of the show.

But people in their 20s who grew up watching DBZ every day after school? Yeah, we can notice. The people who don't care for it anymore would be able to tell that the background music is different.

Both the DVD and Blu-Ray "Seasons" for Dragon Ball Z are very flawed, but watchable IMO. At least the Blu-Ray looks and sounds a bit better, due to the new remastering process and cleanup done to the Japanese audio track.

The only real flaw for Z's BD remaster is that it's cropped to 16:9 and thus 40% of the original image is lost. FUNimation did a much better remastering this time around compared to their Orange Brick sets for the show. I remember reading that there is a major loss of detail due to the DVNR process used for the Orange Bricks--that is no longer the case. I own a couple of the BD sets and love them. If they had not cropped the image then it would truly be a perfect release.

[Duo]

The Viz release was mostly good when it was published during the early / mid 2000's. There were some oddities in the 'DB' period, but it didn't really start getting egregious until Mr. Satan had his name changed. I just can't.

As for the anime, you should definitely support the blue bricks and the movie thin-packs, as well as the BoG release. As for the main series, well...things do still kind of suck. I really have no way of watching or reading the Majin Buu arc in a way that is acceptable to me.

[GTx10]

Honestly just buy the Brick sets. They are cheap, Uncut, and have the Jap dub with subs. I'm in the process of buying all the brick sets. I got the GT complete green brick set and various orange Z bricks and blue DB bricks. Yes, they are missing previews and have incorrect openings but its all there. I don't care for the wide screen debate and Z on Blue Ray means nothing to me. Just grab the bricks because the Japanese Dragon Boxes aren't complete and correct either.
I'm doing the same with the Manga. I'm picking Viz (normal size) Manga releases. You'll know what's censored so just imagine the context back in or find a uncut image from the internet.
"Please support the Official [USA] release!"

[ParkerAL]

, I honestly couldn't notice them. Nor did Anime News Network, who said in their review of the Dragon Boxes that they were nothing special and that if people already had the orange bricks, those were good enough.

Are you sure Anime News Network published that? Their review of the first Dragon Box points out its superior picture quality and adherence to purist sensibilities.

The Dragon Box features Dragon Ball Z in its original 4:3 ratio, remastered by the folks at Toei. So no more faux "remastering" from Funimation, the type from the previous boxsets, with the top and bottom of the image chopped off to accomodate 16x9 televisions. The video is pristine, with none of that oversaturation of the previous releases. There is still some grain, but at twenty years old, it's part of the experience of watching the series. As we saw with the most recent season box sets, by removing the grain, you also remove detail. No color swaps exist here, either. When Goku fights Vegeta, there's a sea green sky, as opposed to the baby blue of previous releases. It is Dragon Ball Z in its purest form.

The English dub track is, frankly, a relic of the past, and is often inaccurate in both word and tone. It may hold nostalgia value for the people who grew up listening to Goku's various stiff, generic tough guy voices and over-the-top morality speeches on television (which is a lot of people, to be fair), but it tends to gloss over some of the nuances of the Japanese version. Masako Nozawa's performance as our hero in orange captures a bit more of his personality, where Sean Schemmel's seems to go more for a voice that fits the body type. A lot of subpar scripting and awkwardly inserted jokes makes the antiquated English dub seem more than a little cheeseball.