Episode #0287 (29 January 2012)

[sangofe]

I'm impressed you remember my real name, Mike

[Phred]

I think the biggest sting about this whole ordeal is that the box design lays out the entire release plan with those little half squares.
It's taught me to not dilly dally with buying those Dragon Boxes that have been sitting at Best Buy for ages.
Although it seems to have taught other people the same thing; there's some actually missing now.
I'll have to do some research, but I picked up 7. I think that's all I need for after-Kai content.
EDIT: Looks like I need 5 and 6, too. Darn it.

[MajinVejitaXV]

Another episode I was supposed to participate in, another connectivity issue. I'm sure Mike was grinding his teeth in my general direction and probably won't invite me again anytime soon (though, as I told Heath, my foolproof plan to prevent this from happening again is to crash Castle LaBrie ;p).

In any case, I'll mention one thing that to me summarizes a big reason why these releases tanked. On the day I picked up Level 1.1, I had gone to Best Buy (I was scheduled to be on the blu-ray review podcast, so I had to buy the set last second at full price, no big deal). When I went to the register to cash out, the guy I spoke to mentioned that he had watched the show before, but was visibly confused. He asked why this was new when they had been releasing DragonBall Z on blu-ray for awhile per what he had seen on their shelves. I tried to briefly explain what Kai was and how this was different, but even as someone who knew all about it I admitted it was a bit confusing.

So, while I am willing to acknowledge that the cost of remastering may have been more than FUNi expected (though, two months out from the third release they decide this? When it's an in-house project that they licensed the software for?), I think that's the main problem: FUNi suspended the releases because the average consumer didn't know what the hell was going on. Two releases that say DragonBall Z on their cover (which, to me, FUNi may have shot themselves in the foot with that name change IMHO), FUNi competing against themselves...I'm willing to bet that when Kai is over, the blu-ray production issues will magically resolve and they'll make a comeback.

Or maybe I'm being too optimistic. Or cynical. Optimistically cynical? Cynically optimistic? Your pick.

[EdHilario]

I think the biggest sting about this whole ordeal is that the box design lays out the entire release plan with those little half squares.
It's taught me to not dilly dally with buying those Dragon Boxes that have been sitting at Best Buy for ages.
Although it seems to have taught other people the same thing; there's some actually missing now.
I'll have to do some research, but I picked up 7. I think that's all I need for after-Kai content.
EDIT: Looks like I need 5 and 6, too. Darn it.

Some of the FS/BB I've seen typically stocked 5-7. You can check HMV as well.

If FUNimation turned the Dragon Boxes into Blu-rays in the future they would need:
- a "Play All" feature that would disregard the intro & credits
- Subtitles that worked on the English audio
- better chapter placement
- fix inconsistency of disc order (starting from Volume 6 it went left to right as opposed to previous volumes going right to left like it was Japanese).
- properly affix or remove glued on backing on package

There's a couple of more things that I can't remember from the top of my head right now.

[Gotham22]

I think the biggest sting about this whole ordeal is that the box design lays out the entire release plan with those little half squares.
It's taught me to not dilly dally with buying those Dragon Boxes that have been sitting at Best Buy for ages.
Although it seems to have taught other people the same thing; there's some actually missing now.
I'll have to do some research, but I picked up 7. I think that's all I need for after-Kai content.
EDIT: Looks like I need 5 and 6, too. Darn it.

Some of the FS/BB I've seen typically stocked 5-7. You can check HMV as well.

If FUNimation turned the Dragon Boxes into Blu-rays in the future they would need:
- a "Play All" feature that would disregard the intro & credits
- Subtitles that worked on the English audio
- better chapter placement
- fix inconsistency of disc order (starting from Volume 6 it went left to right as opposed to previous volumes going right to left like it was Japanese).
- properly affix or remove glued on backing on package

There's a couple of more things that I can't remember from the top of my head right now.

Add the american music.

[Cipher]

"Where are those fans?"

I guess I'll gone on record as being a fan who's content with my Dragon Boxes but is actually sad for myself at this cancellation.

I think it certainly looked better, and I planned on slowly replacing my Dragon Boxes with them as time and money allowed, so there's that. But more importantly, DVDs wear out. They get scratched. They get dirty. The Dragon Boxes are all out of print. That means if something happens to a single Dragon Box disc, your only resource is now the orange bricks. Why anyone would be so ambivalent about losing the only other 4:3, cleaned up release, on a more durable format no less, is beyond me.

Every fan should want these back out there. I anxiously await the security of another acceptable 4:3 release.

[EdHilario]

Oh, I also forgot the typos in the subtitles that need to be revised.

[canine224]

I am not sure if this idea has been put out there and if it has just ignore me but here is my opinion on the suspension.

I think Toei had something to do with it, although I could be reading into it more than necessary. Here are my 2 scenarios that possibly brought Toei to as FUNi to hold off on the sets.

This first would be that Toei was either afraid of reverse importation, since the US and Japan are in the same blu-ray regions, or had seen it happening. If Toei was planning a future blu-ray release of the series that could have easily made them request that FUNi stop their sets.

The second is sort of a combination of what has been though plus Toei. Maybe Toei could be planning to release the series remasted to blu-ray and FUNi seeing how expensive the process is for them decided to wait until Toei does their release and then use that version rather than something they do it on their own. That is more wishful thinking probably though. ^_^

Anyway, while they are not the most likely scenarios I would not exactly call them highly unlikely either.

[Bluebolt]

Any new news regarding this? I'm a Toonami days fan (please to each to his own). Is there any other way for me to get a HD release with the Bruce Faulconer score? Besides Orange Bricks. Or is there any rumours. Last question is this suspended or cancelled?

[VegettoEX]

Any new news regarding this? I'm a Toonami days fan (please to each to his own). Is there any other way for me to get a HD release with the Bruce Faulconer score? Besides Orange Bricks. Or is there any rumours. Last question is this suspended or cancelled?

We can only point you to this very website that you are on right now -- if there were any additional updates to speak of, you would have read it by now .

The "Level" sets, done with the exact same remastering process as seen on "Level 1.1" and "Level 1.2", will not be further released in any capacity -- FUNimation explained this in their press release back on January 26th. If (and when) FUNimation decides to revisit the idea of a DBZ TV series release (be it on Blu-ray or any other physical or digital release format), it will not be in the exact same style of those two releases (with the minor exception of a couple extra episodes that have been released to Xbox Live and PSN).

Whether you want to call it "canceled" or "suspended", those are the facts of the situation.

[RocktheDragon]

Enjoyed the backlog listen of this podcast and thought it was somewhat appropriate to give it a listen since the new BD series has started to trickle out (now on the second season!). The cancellation of this set really gets me thinking about the whole new cropped BD release and how successful that release will be in comparison to this former "suspended" iteration. I would agree that there is a sense of entitlement to getting a certain amount of episodes though per BD release. People were just used to getting 30-40 episodes per season and I remember looking at the Level Sets myself in 2011 and finding that it contained way too few episodes for me to consider purchasing it at the time. I know that puts me into the entitled group but when Funimation sets you up to expect something that expectation is difficulty to ignore at times.

Of course it is always a shame when any releasing series is stopped short of its full run but what other scenario could we have expected? The over saturation of the DBZ market has been well documented by everyone on this website, forum, and podcast so there isn't much more to say about that besides Funimation really set up this release to fail. That might have led to some of my own apathy at the time of its release since I had just finished acquiring all of the Dragon Box sets. An interesting podcast to go over though like I said (at this present time) and it's worth a revisit for anyone interested in the current BD release of DBZ as well.