Seeing this claim made me go check a wikipedia source (spoilers: bad idea) for the VHS tape release dates of the "Season 3" dub episodes and attempt to compare them to the Toonami air dates. As someone that regularly kept up with the show during this period, I can confirm that the dates given for Toonami airings are correct. However... to my knowledge, some of the release dates provided for the VHS products do not align with reviews/accounts of viewers, of which date all the way back to the Spring/Summer of '99.mecha3000 wrote:Back in the day, didn't Z release FASTER than Cartoon Network's airings? Why is it reversed in 2018?Baggie_Saiyan wrote:No DBS Part 4 for May. Guess there isn't a set release schedule.
Not to mention: I have personal experience! I watched the "Transformation - Edited" tape containing episodes 78-81 (Freeza's second form, infamous Krillin impalement, Piccolo arriving, etc.) as early as July or late as August that year. I held it in my tiny, 9-year-old hands and popped it into my VHS player. Before you ask - yes, the FUNimation release. This was my first experience with the new in-house dub cast from FUNimation, - so I definitely didn't just find some rando bootleg. If you wanna call BS, that's fine - I expect there to be documentation of these releases out there - but where?
What I should have done was fact check here on Kanzenshuu first, but not only does the Episode Guide provide just DVD release dates and no record of VHS (DVDs started churning out later than the initial VHS home releases, so they do not align with our first exposure to the new dub), the summary on the "Series" page lists the Ginyu Series release dates as June 20, 2000 - of which sounds accurate! However, upon clicking that series to check on the individual releases... they are listed as October 1, 2001. Okay, fair enough - these are most likely the DVD release dates and the previous page with Series summaries give the actual VHS release da- nnnnnnope. "Frieza" series release date: May 8, 2001 - December, 11 2001. That can't be right. They didn't wait for over a year to release the VHS. Those Fryza tapes were in every mall, in every Sam Goody, in every goddamned Suncoast - don't you dare look at me like I made those words up.
I double checked the references for both the vanilla and fandom wiki pages and sure enough - no references or links for any VHS release dates. While the vanilla wiki provides dates for only the boxed sets (dated as October 1, 2000), the fandom wiki appears to have appropriate dates for the Ginyu saga tapes (April 26, 1999), but then lists every "Frieza" tape release date as November 16, 1999. Just to make things even more confusing, the vanilla wiki page also lists the "Frieza" boxed set with two release dates: May 8, 2001 and December 11, 2001. Those two dates again! No other sets are listed with two dates and there is no reason nor reference provided for such an anomaly.
>TLDR; The wikis are not completely accurate in their documentation(shocker) and it's possible my memory of that sunset-bathed evening spent with the VHS tape has been implanted by aliens. That would be shitting on my accountability, but I'll take the facts over my own childhood memories. Either way, Kanzenshuu's documentation on North American home releases are currently not reliable, nor have I come across any legitimate record of their retail availability.
Does anybody have any proper info on this? I'm talkin' late 90's catalogs, brochures, receipts - anything? I'm triggered - I wanna get to the bottom of this. Thanks, mecha3000