VegettoEX wrote:Fair point to make. Expecting a logical break-point in domestic anime DVD releases should never really be expected. I don't know how I feel about that, though, since a random collection of 12 episodes doesn't make as much sense as a more-carefully-selected group... but it's more bang for the buck.
*shrugs*
To make a parallel, that's essentially the position we're in for
One Piece, at times. The first 'season' is considered the first 53 episodes. Being that FUNimation now works in 12-14 episode two disc sets, we got fourteen on the fourth of these sets (Season One 'Fourth Voyage'). So cool, we got a year's worth of the anime (plus one) in four sets, ending with the Straw Hat's leaving Loguetown. The end of the canon East Blue story arcs.
Now, Season Two is just...well, when FUNimation first announced the property they announced episodes 144-206 (62 episodes) as their 'Season Three'. Obviously, 143 episodes devided into sets of 13 made for 11 sets. Season One was four sets, and as was recently confirmed as such in the May solicitations, Season Two would be seven sets. Episodes 54-143 makes for a 89 episode season, fourteen DVDs in total in comparison to Season One's eight. To compensate, Season Two First Voyage and Season Two Fifth Voyage were twelve episodes. Season Two Sixth Voyage will be episodes 117-130, fourteen episodes, so as to make sure the last episode of the Alabasta arc does not bleed into a 'perfect' thirteen episodes of filler for Season Two Seventh Voyage two disc. Had both Fifth and Sixth been thirteen Fifth would've ended in the middle of a fight, I believe, so your example comes up there (although you spoke more on a 'arc ending' scale).
When Season Three was airing on Cartoon Network in the US, it got canned about 24-25 episodes in. CN Australia kept up airing 143-195, 195 is the final episode of the Skypeia story. Funny enough, 143-195 is...you guessed it, 52 episodes. Easily enough for four sets of thirteen. But wait, about about 196-206, the other first ten of the eleven episode G8 filler arc? If we take all eleven episodes of that arc and make a DVD release out of them that's a
record low eleven episodes! What's more, it was with episode 207 (the first episode of the Davy Back Fight story) that One Piece began airing in widescreen HD.
So now we have this big question: do we consider 196-206 a 11 episode Season Three Fifth Voyage so as to avoid having a switch from full screen to wide? If we consider 207+ Season Four we can say "With Season Four and up, the series is in wide screen" without any dirt on our hands. The next big question is: how long is Season Four going to be? The story litterally continues from 207 to 325 as the same over all story before a real break in the story (like between the Saiyan and Namek arcs). This CP9 'saga' contains the Davy Back Fight (a small mini-arc before the actual CP9 story) that one couldn't just set aside as it's own full-on season.
What's more, what happens when we reach the point where FUNimation wants to begin putting out full season sets? Unlike with their other series' (Sgt. Frog, D.Gray-man, etc.) that art split into 24-26 episode seasons we're looking at 53, 89, and 118 episode seasons. Sure, DVD is coming to the end of its era and likely any future releases will be seen on Blu-ray, but even those discs have their limits, espicially when it comes to the native HD and wide screen episodes. By FUNimation's rules, we're looking at a lot of episodes and a lot of discs for one full season.
Anyhow, that's the industry we're looking at, espicially for a new series like
Dragon Ball Kai that has to go through the same motions other FUNimation titles do these days (season parts, full season releases...or, if you're previous FMA or YYH releases, half-season sets then full seasons).
