Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Corpsecreate]

Am I the only person to have noticed that Kai has INSANE frame jitter?

[Gonstead]

Am I the only person to have noticed that Kai has INSANE frame jitter?

In the Frieza Saga portion? Yeah, quite noticeable.

Others? Not really.

[SylentEcho]

My friend bought the first Blu-Ray and I watched it today at his place. It was okay at first, but after a point the contrast and the colours were making my eyes hurt. I actually brought myself to think that maybe Funimation's strategy was that these would sell as much as the OBs since it's a widescreen release instead of 4:3 and it makes sense from a business standpoint because almost everything is 16:9 nowadays, so I ignored the cropping that I always have an issue with. I still had a terrible time watching it.

Some of the backgrounds looked so bad as though they were lazily remastered on Photoshop or something. Some of the mistakes of the OBs have been blurred out or look like they've been traced over and almost every movement looks flat.

It's boggles the mind why Funimation would choose to "remaster" the Orange Bricks for this release instead of just putting in a little effort and doing this with the Dragon Box footage while just "colour correcting" the pink skin.

If a release must be 16:9 for whatever reason, they should do this:
1: Use the Dragon Box footage and "correct" the pink skin
2: Add the Faulconer score with the Japanese dialogue as an option. (I know this would probably be a long procedure, but it's something different. A lot of fans who want to feel nostalgic about the show they grew up watching in English and can't stand the dub would be happy too.)
3: Translate some of the Japanese extra. I'm tired of seeing Funi guys comparing Goku to Superman and Sabat saying he thinks he's a real life Vegeta.

Funi has done well on their Kai dub, but their Goku voice is still completely wrong, their Vegeta sounds like an old man, Piccolo sounds like a professor...I could go on and on about that and now this.

I think Funi actually wants to cater to the casual fans who don't care what they buy while at the same time "asking" Kanzenshuu for their opinions just to shut us up thinking we'll be happy just because they asked. I bet the Level Sets are going to get cancelled somewhere at the end of the Freeza arc and they'll continue making these Blu Ray season sets to match the OBs as their main release. I was right in not wasting my cash going in for this. I'm content with my Dragon Boxes for now.

These screenshots pretty much sum up what I think of the footage:
http://imgur.com/rQeOePa
http://imgur.com/b0Hm11O
and
http://imgur.com/elQIcsP
http://imgur.com/X009nni

I rank their releases this way:
1: Dragon Boxes (English or Japanese doesn't make a big difference to me) & Kai DVDs are both Number 1 for me.
2: Level Sets
3: Single DVDs
4: Blu Ray Season sets
5: Orange Bricks

[Puto]

If a release must be 16:9 for whatever reason, they should do this:
1: Use the Dragon Box footage and "correct" the pink skin
2: Add the Faulconer score with the Japanese dialogue as an option. (I know this would probably be a long procedure, but it's something different. A lot of fans who want to feel nostalgic about the show they grew up watching in English and can't stand the dub would be happy too.)

1. If you cropped the Dragon Box footage, you'd end up with 360p. Upscaling that would look horrendously bad.
2. This is literally impossible to do.

[MagicBox]

I've once again updated the very first post with everything we know so far. Check it out if you'd like.

So, has anyone talked about the bonus features for "season five" yet?

"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Sonny Strait"
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Stephanie Nadolny"
"Dragon Ball Z Retrospective: Part Four"

I have a feeling the "Part Four" thing is only a temporary title, considering we never really got a "part one," "part two," or "part three." Perhaps that'll turn out to be another minor bonus like the Justin Cook headshot thing.

The fact that they're bringing Stephanie Nadolny back is kind of a big deal. Isn't this the first thing she's done for FUNimation since they replaced her in Kai? Maybe there's no longer any bad blood between her and the staff.

[Corpsecreate]

Am I the only person to have noticed that Kai has INSANE frame jitter?

In the Freeza Saga portion? Yeah, quite noticeable.

Others? Not really.

Really? I see it everywhere. Heres a quick example from the Saiyan Saga that I uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORT5Z3 ... e=youtu.be

[dbboxkaifan]

I've once again updated the very first post with everything we know so far. Check it out if you'd like.

So, has anyone talked about the bonus features for "season five" yet?

"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Sonny Strait"
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Stephanie Nadolny"
"Dragon Ball Z Retrospective: Part Four"

I have a feeling the "Part Four" thing is only a temporary title, considering we never really got a "part one," "part two," or "part three." Perhaps that'll turn out to be another minor bonus like the Justin Cook headshot thing.

The fact that they're bringing Stephanie Nadolny back is kind of a big deal. Isn't this the first thing she's done for FUNimation since they replaced her in Kai? Maybe there's no longer any bad blood between her and the staff.

Interview with Stephanie? I'll watch that!

It would be interesting if she talked about why she didn't voice Gohan in Dragon Ball Kai and such.

[Kakarot88]

I've once again updated the very first post with everything we know so far. Check it out if you'd like.

So, has anyone talked about the bonus features for "season five" yet?

"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Sonny Strait"
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Stephanie Nadolny"
"Dragon Ball Z Retrospective: Part Four"

I have a feeling the "Part Four" thing is only a temporary title, considering we never really got a "part one," "part two," or "part three." Perhaps that'll turn out to be another minor bonus like the Justin Cook headshot thing.

The fact that they're bringing Stephanie Nadolny back is kind of a big deal. Isn't this the first thing she's done for FUNimation since they replaced her in Kai? Maybe there's no longer any bad blood between her and the staff.

Interview with Stephanie? I'll watch that!

It would be interesting if she talked about why she didn't voice Gohan in Dragon Ball Kai and such.

I grew up on Toonami airing DBZ and later fell in love with the Japanese Version as well. This of course led me to Kai. However, I was surprised when I discovered that various voice actors had been recast. Wanting to know why I search and the answers were not readily available although some could be found. So I decided to try and uncover just what actually happened…

First off let me put things in context as to why I find these veiled business decisions disturbing. Anybody whose read interviews of voice actors knows that most state how they grow attached to their roles and that they couldn’t imagine not being that part. Lots of fans feel that way too. This website alone has many such interviews with Masako Nozawa (THE Goku) stating those vary sentiments.

Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat, the US voice actors for Goku and Vegeta respectively, and ones in lead command of Kai with Mr. Sabat at the helm as director are no exception. For those who are fans of the American cast of Kai or the Z dub that aired on Toonami you may have wondered “why then were actors replaced?”

Many, including myself, came to the conclusion that it all had to do with Mr. Sabat and Mr. Schemmel making a more accurate dub in line with the franchise. This at first blush would seem a fair analysis. After all those guys are the leading force behind Kai and chose to make the script better by making it more accurate to the Japanese script of Kai which is supposed to follow the manga more closely! Sean Schemmel afterall “for those of you who are purists I’ve always been in your camp, my hands were tied in a lot of ways.”.

So again it seems that the newest business decisions especially Kai recasts have all been done for artisitic reasons…case closed. Whoa! Not so fast…is this really about artistic integrity?

The Dragon Ball dub:

• Not only did all the old VAs who were not used in Kai return for Dragon Ball, the Dragon Ball scripts are also romanticized as was the script for Z with various changes and additional dialogue during long pauses. Stephanie Nadolny even recorded some of the theme songs which had different lyrics. However. there was no new music for the series like there was for Z. This saved greatly on overhead especially for a dub that would have a limited airing on television.
  • Song Performances (may not be complete):
    -Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files (TV) : Theme Song Performance (END 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HOiwTuhhKY
    - Case Closed: Opening/Ending Theme 2
    - Kiddy Grade: Opening Theme, Ending Theme
    -Dragon Ball GT Boxed Set Ending Theme 2 dub http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkBOuzBNRAs
    
    As far as Dragon Ball goes:
    She was the original singer for both the Dragon Ball Ending, and the Blue Gender ending.
    She was replaced on both counts by Daphne Gere after the Japanese producers of Dragon Ball thought it was inappropriate for the voice of Goku to sing the ending theme.
    
    And just want to clarify something, I more dislike Clinkenbeard than am a fan of Nadolny. It's not like I think Nadolny was perfect.

Moving on …Kai:

• First off, Mr. Sabat directed Z and he’s directing Kai. It’s not as if now the actors are in control, they have more creative control for sure, but it’s not as if the Director cannot direct.
  
  Freeza was not recast as an artistic decision. Far from it. Linda Young recorded lines as Freeza and entire episodes. Chris Ayers was hired out of necessity. In the given that the script was not going to be a direct translation, but rather long winded prose to make Freeza sound more sophist aced, but the result was so many words per scene that the dialogue was akin to speed racer, thus these lines required someone who could speak rapidly and somewhat sink up with the mouth flaps.
  
  Mr. Schemmel and Mr. Sabat clearly stand by their choice to recast Child Gohan and Bulma. Despite the negative effect it had on
  sales I am not arguing the merits of either decision only that it is one that is barely discussed, and what rumors do circulate is that there were “creative differences.”
  
  However, those differences did not seem to matter to this group in 2010 (a year after Kai aired in Japan and the year before it aired in the US) when the group still was using Tiffany Volmer and Stephanie Nadolny as their respective parts when they dubbed their voices in Dragon Ball DS 2: Charge! Red Ribbon Army (2010 Video Game). Nor, did these “creative differences” matter for the Dragon Ball dub.
  
  So what gives? Is all of this just mere marketing ploys or was there a falling out between these actors that has essentially been concealed from the prying public?
  
  Well, the answer is yes to both. Essentially Schemmel and Sabat took to heart a lot of the criticisms they recived over the years at panels when they attended conventions and decided to make Kai what fans then demanded, to make it a more accurate dub. The following of the first American Z dub, I would say almost in the realm of being its own cult classic ...and to encapsulate that and redo it would be neigh impossible.
  
  So what then about the the falling out:
  15:13—15:37: “It’S been an honor to have been a part of something that has grown into something so large, and to kind of be there when it was, you know, still kind of a baby company, and you know still hope to get back into it again. You know I’m still friends with a lot of the uh or I stay in contact with a lot of the directors I should say. ”
  She males a point to correct herself and say they aren’t friends :-/
  
  Well based on that interview and several others with Nadolny and other actors it seems to have gone like this: (for one interview with correlating time stamps go here:
  • Nadolny and Vollmer were and still are good friends that came into the industry together.
    Vollmer was introduced to Sabat by Nadolny. 18:11 “I actually brought in Tiffany Vollmer [the Bulma that Funimation used for its first dub of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z] who was interested in some signing.”
    Nadolny wanted initially to have a music career and help with making reversionings of Japanese songs into English.
    • 17:44—“At one point I remember sitting down and taking the translation of some of the themes and helping come up with the English translations [referring to a non dragon ball property].”
    Nadolny does this for some other animes and a few songs for dragon ball.
    Flash forward people at conventions hate on Nadolny, but Funimation keepa using her.
    Nadolny does the circuit thing as a VA but never really gets or learns the anime fan culture and kind of falls off the scene (this is important because I am sure this is what began the begining of the end of her career as Gohan)
    • 19:19 “[when discussing replacement music] I know that fans have, you know, mixed reviews about what they think and how it should be done and that’s certainly they’re entitled to that. I’m not real sure if they’re doing any of that animation theme stuff again right now or not.”… 20:01 “at least having it as an option, you know like now when they released the DVDs of these properties and these dubs. It’d be nice that both of these were available for the fans to have a listen to both and enjoy both.”
    Flash foward several years after Z is off the air: Vollmer is told of Kai, but Nadolny is not. The reason being that Sabat was considering a recast because
    Nadolny was vocal about wanting fans to have options to watch shows with new replacement score music for dubs or original music with dubs too, but wanted there to always be and option of a replacement score, ostensibly so she could work on the music. Second, Sabat was never going to allow replacement music if he became director. Third, Nadolny was not as involved with the franchise's fanbase as some of the other more prominent VAs.
    So when Nadolny learns of Kai, at Vollmer's "heated request?" Sabat begrudgingly lets Nadolny "audition" when no other returning VA had to.
    When Nadolny did not get the part and was essentially disrespected, Vollmer was angry and either was asked to leave or quit, it's unclear but more likely was asked to leave as her recast was doing an impression of Vollmer for the first arc.
    Subsequently Nadolny tried to repair at least the friendship and that did not happen.
    • 27:22 “They’re taping Dragon Ball Z Kai now, which I don’t know much about, I unfortunately wasn’t asked to reprise my role. Sadly, but you know I wish the show success. I wish those guys the best always. Maybe there will be another show or some other opportunity for me in the near future.

Honestly, it's really kind of sad, in one interview she starts getting a little choked up and says "You know I’m still friends with a lot of the uh or I stay in contact with a lot of the directors I should say.” The other sad thing I found was apparently when Linda Young was recast, they did not do so in the most charitable of ways and essentially she left the studio in tears.

And on that note, what are your thoughts on any of this?

[rs_chaosmaster]

Wow business is harsh and to a VA big roles like this become their life I feel bad for them because of how much dedication and time they put into these roles but, i prefer the recasts so I'm glad funimation went with the new VA's. I have stated this before but i love now that Kid Gohan and Kid Goku have different voices and stephanies goku is perfect to me her gohan was just off!!

[qjz123]

I don't have a problem with Linda Young being recast, if what they said was true that she couldn't do it than she just couldn't do it. Regardless I didn't think her voice fit the character. Now as far as Nadolny if it's true that she wasn't cast because she was very vocal about having a replacement score that she would work on(and obviously want to get payed for) than no, I don't have a problem with her being recast either. Funimation doesn't do replacement scores anymore nor should they. The fact of the matter is that Colleen Clinkenbeard is Funimation's go to actress she's literally in almost everything they dub they enjoy working with her so I say more power to em. As far as vollmer being recast again same as Linda Young I don't have a problem with it I don't think her voice fit the character it was a classic example of only playing one side of the character.

[bkev]

Someone who compares Ayers' dialogue to Speed Racer clearly hasn't seen a single episode of the latter. I'll give you that I find Kai suffers from some transliteration here and there, but seriously? Sheesh.

[MarcFBR]

And on that note, what are your thoughts on any of this?

My thoughts are that sounds a bit more like pseudo conspiracy theory craziness than things to actually discuss (I believe you do have some actual points, but the way you frame them honestly just makes me go "Oh man...")

To properly visualize my reaction to your post though, I will have to hand it over to my partner... Ovaltine Jenkins.

[Kakarot88]

And on that note, what are your thoughts on any of this?

My thoughts are that sounds a bit more like pseudo conspiracy theory craziness than things to actually discuss (I believe you do have some actual points, but the way you frame them honestly just makes me go "Oh man...")

To properly visualize my reaction to your post though, I will have to hand it over to my partner... Ovaltine Jenkins.

honestly, how is that at all constructive or facilitating conversation?
I do not deny that I wrote it with an admitted slant. I find the "we aren't in it for the money and care about the integrity of the product" claims to be suspect when they happily cash their checks from the sale of these blu-rays, and in the level sets the favorite quote of Sean Schemmel was the "Hope of the Universe" speech.

So, no, I find that unfortunately, all of these decisions are not driven by creative choices and rather, like everything else with this series: profit. Fan loyalty does not even seem to be a factor given that the only true recast from the get go was Nadolny, which was an obvious choice given the fact, she was not fitting in with the con scene. Moreover, the American Z dub has its fanbase and a cult following. Kai was a perfect opportunity for a new US dub that could tap in to another market: the fan base that cried foul and berrated them at conventions. Listen to their interviews they tell you as much. Much of the more dedicated fans of the American market criticized Nadolny and Young, so it was a convenient selling point to say "we fired them over creative differences." When truth be known these "creative differences" were not present for Young in Kai, nor Nadolny in Dragon Ball.

[Gonstead]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sabat and Schemmel are NOT, repeat, NOT employees of Funimation. Sean is a freelance voice actor.

And...

I guess it should be pointed out again that Sabat is not a full-time employee of FUNimation. He's contracted a lot, obviously, and all Dragon Ball projects are recorded at his studio, Okatron 5000, but that's still being contracted to produce content. I like the term Mike used in his "Beerus" article: "franchise evangelist".

[Kakarot88]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sabat and Schemmel are NOT, repeat, NOT employees of Funimation. Sean is a freelance voice actor.

And...

I guess it should be pointed out again that Sabat is not a full-time employee of FUNimation. He's contracted a lot, obviously, and all Dragon Ball projects are recorded at his studio, Okatron 5000, but that's still being contracted to produce content. I like the term Mike used in his "Beerus" article: "franchise evangelist".

No where in there did I say they were "employees" lol, and being contractors just goes to the point, which still remains, these decisions for the series consistently are about profit and not artistic integrity or fan loyalty.

[SylentEcho]

I find it surprising how just because Schemmel and Sabat love playing those roles, they automatically assume we like hearing them play those roles. I mean some of us do, I did at one point, but that's not the point. Their voices are just wrong. Especially Schemmel's Goku. I'm not starting that pointless debate about Saban vs. Funi again coz both dubs were pretty bad, but they really need a voice more like Peter Kelamis' for Goku. He was the perfect English counterpart for Nozawa.

2. This is literally impossible to do.

It takes a lot of effort, but it's not impossible. I've seen people isolate audio tracks from mono too.

[Gonstead]

2. This is literally impossible to do.

It takes a lot of effort, but it's not impossible. I've seen people isolate audio tracks from mono too.

In a case such as Dragon Ball though, it is indeed impossible. Nobody, not even Toei (who destroyed the original master recordings), with any amount of technological knowledge will be able to accomplish in completely removing the voices from the music.

Plus, there just is no financial incentive for them to even consider, let alone give any thought to committing to such a thing. Any attempted payoff is not worth it for such a tiny, if any niche audience for it.

[Fizzer]

Now that Schemmel plays Goku with more of a Southern twang, I really like him for the part. I mean, I'd rather he took the accent a bit further, but it's not exactly an unsatisfactory performance in my eyes. Kelamis was also a good Goku, though.

[dbboxkaifan]

In a case such as Dragon Ball though, it is indeed impossible. Nobody, not even Toei (who destroyed the original master recordings), with any amount of technological knowledge will be able to accomplish in completely removing the voices from the music.

Plus, there just is no financial incentive for them to even consider, let alone give any thought to committing to such a thing. Any attempted payoff is not worth it for such a tiny, if any niche audience for it.

Dragon Ball never had a clean broadcast audio like Dragon Ball Z did it or it wasn't just captured by someone?

Even on those unreleased specials Dragon Ball sounds muffled whereas Dragon Ball Z has clean audio.

[Gonstead]

In a case such as Dragon Ball though, it is indeed impossible. Nobody, not even Toei (who destroyed the original master recordings), with any amount of technological knowledge will be able to accomplish in completely removing the voices from the music.

Plus, there just is no financial incentive for them to even consider, let alone give any thought to committing to such a thing. Any attempted payoff is not worth it for such a tiny, if any niche audience for it.

Dragon Ball never had a clean broadcast audio like Dragon Ball Z did it or it wasn't just captured by someone?

Even on those unreleased specials Dragon Ball sounds muffled whereas Dragon Ball Z has clean audio.

By Dragon Ball, I meant it as the name for the franchise, not just the Dragon Ball anime itself. Specifically speaking, I'm referring to both DB and DBZ.

Both anime have lost their original audio masters. Only GT still has it's original masters.