We really should have just gotten raw 4x3 scans (maybe with that frame weave removal they've been doing) advertised as the "full screen version" of the Orange Bricks. FUNimation could have made an uncropped release for those wanting it, and it could still be in production today for those who still want to buy the show in the proper aspect ratio, due to Toei not freaking out about their best masters being used. They could have also included the dub score to appeal to that crowd as well (and that's why I still have my bricks). Then other countries could have licensed that slightly touched up, newly scanned footage instead of being stuck with FUNimation's cropped masters.ringworm128 wrote:IIRC the price of the level sets was due to the remastering being done by actual humans and not a machine. Honestly at this point I'd be fine with just the single footage rescanned at 1080/2160P, no thrills, no frills just the episode in 4:3 with no bleached footage.
Then again I already have the DBOX.
The Dragon Boxes are excellent, but I'd take a slightly inferior release that would have appealed to more people and still be on the market today as opposed to going back to having no 4x3 release.
I also admit to still watching the orange bricks primarily, partly due to the scarcity of the Dragon Boxes (if I mess a disc up somehow I have a $300 paperweight!), and because while I vastly prefer the Japanese version, the bricks are the only convenient way for me to watch the old dub with the replaced scores out of nostalgia. I've had so much crap happen in my life recently that I have way more important things to worry about than the footage issues, but of course I still get that everyone else still has every single right to be adamantly against them.
That said, if we did get a new 4x3 release that was also released on DVD and had the dub score as an option, I'd gladly get it and sell off both my bricks and Dragon Boxes. It's still ridiculous that we don't have an uncropped version of the show readily available for purchase, and just because I still watch my cropped sets doesn't mean I've gone back to being blind to their faults. Between FUNimation cropping the show again despite the polls and them inserting their political ideology into their dubs, I'm not really fond of the company right now...