Fuji TV apparantly Fuji TV has Dragon Ball TV anime masters still. Could a remaster be on the way in a few years?

[sangofe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuv35o ... nBallCast-
"Fuji TV announced that they have the masters of the anime" (talking about Dragon Ball).

It's said at the 53rd minute, and 33 seconds in.

For those who speak and read japanese, is this true? What kind of masters do they have? I know they broadcasted upscales of DBZ years ago. I hope it's not those masters they say they have.

Edit:
After searching on twitter it seems like Fuji TV has a good audio source but I am not sure what their video source is?
Here's a video that was uploaded:
https://twitter.com/makaroni1986/status ... 9537620248
https://twitter.com/nappasan/status/1766770940057387252

Edit 2:
Chat with someone doing remastering for a living.
I had a chat with someone doing remastering for a living. Maybe there is slight hope?
Remaster person— Today at 6:47 PM
A master is the original film used to build the BDs/DVDs/LDs
I expect with those that there's a plan to make BDs in Japan for Z series and DB (as they're the only ones without a BD there)
but it's not gonna happen in less than 2-3 years
unless it's in progress
@sangofe they'd never give master access unless there's a plan to make it into a remaster format
and even then the access is highly controlled
sangofe — Today at 6:53 PM
The thing is that Fuji TV has always had these masters for their broadcasting. Also, it's supposedly tape masters, not film masters, that they have.
Remaster person— Today at 6:54 PM
Tape masters are film master
sangofe — Today at 6:54 PM
I was asking because you speak japanese.
Remaster person— Today at 6:54 PM
it's what we use on every single remaster
i never used anything that's not a tape/film master
sangofe — Today at 6:55 PM
You do remasters for a living?
Remaster person— Today at 6:55 PM
some contracts yeah
been doing that since 2009
now
sangofe — Today at 6:56 PM
Ohhh, are you allowed to speak about what you have remastered?
Remaster person— Today at 6:56 PM
I choose what i do cause i don't wanna work on something that won't let me do it properly
nope
sangofe — Today at 6:56 PM
Not even what's out?
Remaster person— Today at 6:56 PM
15 years NDAs
is what you deal with
sangofe — Today at 6:57 PM
Well, either way, Fuji TV has always had the masters for their TV airings. I would be pleasantly surprised if they get used for a future blu-ray release.
Remaster person— Today at 6:58 PM
as i said, most likely they keep it to do something with it, but it won't be public until they announce it
sangofe — Today at 6:58 PM
Even if they have had these for over 3 decades, and Toei didn't use the audio from these masters to remaster the Dragon Boxes?
It just seems too good to be true.
Remaster person— Today at 6:59 PM
you expect toei to do a good thing?
it's probably the worst company for BDs
sangofe — Today at 7:00 PM
I don't expect them to do anything good, no. That's why I don't think they would pay anyone to remaster the anime again. @Remaster person
Remaster person— Today at 7:01 PM
There hasn't been a Blu Ray for DB or DBZ tv series, so could happen
movies and tv is usually quite different in how the stuff is stored
sangofe — Today at 7:03 PM
Yeah, except international upscales. Selecta Vision in spain did all DB and good portion of DBZ. FUNimation did their shit on DBZ. AB has done half of DB in a respectable AI upscale.
Remaster person— Today at 7:03 PM
they all use an AI upscale
sangofe — Today at 7:03 PM
True, just that selecta vision was crappy ai upscale.
not funimation i think
theirs was film scan.
Remaster person— Today at 7:03 PM
was still ai upscale

all of them are
they never will get a master out of japan
sangofe — Today at 7:04 PM
Steve Franko said they scanned film. There is a documentary of that. Funimation got like 2nd or 3rd generation film.
Remaster person— Today at 7:05 PM
oh those, yeah, it's the US films they got then
sangofe — Today at 7:05 PM
Yeah, I never said they had the first gen masters.
they used copies of masters to scan film.
Remaster person— Today at 7:05 PM
yup, but still used a bit of ai upscaling to do the work (Funi isn't known to let someone take 2 years to remaster properly)
it takes years of work to properly do it
sangofe — Today at 7:06 PM
But they absolutely trashed them with their filters
Remaster person— Today at 7:06 PM
it's the AI upscaling at work
what i mean that good remasters aren't easy or fast
Eva remaster was also done thru software and not human verified cause the studio needed it out asap to stay afloat
sangofe — Today at 7:12 PM
It's the noice reduction filters I think
Remaster person— Today at 7:13 PM
there's multiple of them in it
sangofe — Today at 7:13 PM
Did you have a look at their 30 aniversary release they had? It's awfully smeared - lines are lost, colors are washed out. Grain is removed.
Anywho, I hope it means remasters in the future. But I still fear Toei is too fucking cheapskapes to pay for that. But thanks for the info!
Maybe... Maybe they will show more respect and see the value in it since Toriyama is seen a legend world wide.
Remaster person— Today at 7:16 PM
yeah it's a lot worst than i expected, it's all too softened and due to it, the chroma/luma got completely fucked up from the original
(there's a reason i do things thru hardware for my chroma/luma even for normal fansubs, so i can understand the chroma/luma curves and see issues at the frame levels)
it's such a nightmare that 95% of BDs don't have stable curves even today
sangofe — Today at 7:17 PM
Remasters of the TV specials were done not that long ago, maybe they have been working on something...
Well, it's 5 years since already so i guess not
Remaster person— Today at 7:19 PM
it can be done slowly, don't forget the sheer size of the DB series
it's not a simple task
sangofe — Today at 7:19 PM
yeah i understand. I would SO buy blu ray releases if they ever come out.
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
(a 40 eps series i did before took me that 6 years to align everything properly)
sangofe — Today at 7:20 PM
shit, are you kidding me?
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
nope
sangofe — Today at 7:20 PM
did you do it alone though?
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
yes, cause that's not something you do with other people
sangofe — Today at 7:21 PM
I see. So you can't work in a team remastering old anime?
Remaster person— Today at 7:21 PM
difficult
as every people can have different views of the show
sangofe — Today at 7:21 PM
Yeah but you'd all agree on something of course
Remaster person— Today at 7:21 PM
and how it should be recolored, remastered, re-recorded
not everyone has the same setups
sangofe — Today at 7:22 PM
I see. Well, I guess we will see in a few years, maybe for the 50 year anniversary of the anime?
(in 10 years)
What you've said gives me slight hope but I don't know if I want to hope too much.
Thanks for the chat and insight. Talk to you another time

[Joujou]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuv35o ... nBallCast-
"Fuji TV announced that they have the masters of the anime" (talking about Dragon Ball).

It's said at the 53rd minute, and 33 seconds in.

For those who speak and read japanese, is this true? What kind of masters do they have? I know they broadcasted upscales of DBZ years ago. I hope it's not those masters they say they have.

i can be wrong but if i have correctly understood, you should follow https://twitter.com/nappasan/with_replies , if i'm right, there wasn't an "official announcement" but while there was a program for toriyama's death, people like kei17 (aka nappasan) and few others noticed that the audio in this was sourced from cinetape and not usual optical shit and seems to use for most part of the show, original broadcast footage
(some like dbz 2 3 footage seems to be sourced from the footage usually aired by animax) SO it seems that Fuji TV still have tapes from the original broadcast (including cinetape audio) maybe partially, maybe totally
that's what i understood, but i NEVER see any official statement coming from FUJI TV

[sangofe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuv35o ... nBallCast-
"Fuji TV announced that they have the masters of the anime" (talking about Dragon Ball).

It's said at the 53rd minute, and 33 seconds in.

For those who speak and read japanese, is this true? What kind of masters do they have? I know they broadcasted upscales of DBZ years ago. I hope it's not those masters they say they have.

i can be wrong but if i have correctly understood, you should follow https://twitter.com/nappasan/with_replies , if i'm right, there wasn't an "official announcement" but while there was a program for toriyama's death, people like kei17 (aka nappasan) and few others noticed that the audio in this was sourced from cinetape and not usual optical shit and seems to use for most part of the show, original broadcast footage
(some like dbz 2 3 footage seems to be sourced from the footage usually aired by animax) SO it seems that Fuji TV still have tapes from the original broadcast (including cinetape audio) maybe partially, maybe totally
that's what i understood, but i NEVER see any official statement coming from FUJI TV

I see. Thank you for this. I wonder and really hope that this source could maybe be used for a future remastering of the TV animes but that might be dreaming too much. From what date is the post?

[Joujou]

I see. Thank you for this. I wonder and really hope that this source could maybe be used for a future remastering of the TV animes but that might be dreaming too much. From what date is the post?

https://twitter.com/nappasan/status/1766770940057387252

some infos are given in comments and other discussion, just check history

[sangofe]

I see. Thank you for this. I wonder and really hope that this source could maybe be used for a future remastering of the TV animes but that might be dreaming too much. From what date is the post?

https://twitter.com/nappasan/status/1766770940057387252

some infos are given in comments and other discussion, just check history

Yeah, I updated the original thread with posts I found after going through a lot of posts. I wonder if these can and will be used for future home releases or remasters.

I had a chat with someone doing remastering for a living. Maybe there is slight hope?
Remaster person— Today at 6:47 PM
A master is the original film used to build the BDs/DVDs/LDs
I expect with those that there's a plan to make BDs in Japan for Z series and DB (as they're the only ones without a BD there)
but it's not gonna happen in less than 2-3 years
unless it's in progress
@sangofe they'd never give master access unless there's a plan to make it into a remaster format
and even then the access is highly controlled
sangofe — Today at 6:53 PM
The thing is that Fuji TV has always had these masters for their broadcasting. Also, it's supposedly tape masters, not film masters, that they have.
Remaster person— Today at 6:54 PM
Tape masters are film master
sangofe — Today at 6:54 PM
I was asking because you speak japanese.
Remaster person— Today at 6:54 PM
it's what we use on every single remaster
i never used anything that's not a tape/film master
sangofe — Today at 6:55 PM
You do remasters for a living?
Remaster person— Today at 6:55 PM
some contracts yeah
been doing that since 2009
now
sangofe — Today at 6:56 PM
Ohhh, are you allowed to speak about what you have remastered?
Remaster person— Today at 6:56 PM
I choose what i do cause i don't wanna work on something that won't let me do it properly
nope
sangofe — Today at 6:56 PM
Not even what's out?
Remaster person— Today at 6:56 PM
15 years NDAs
is what you deal with
sangofe — Today at 6:57 PM
Well, either way, Fuji TV has always had the masters for their TV airings. I would be pleasantly surprised if they get used for a future blu-ray release.
Remaster person— Today at 6:58 PM
as i said, most likely they keep it to do something with it, but it won't be public until they announce it
sangofe — Today at 6:58 PM
Even if they have had these for over 3 decades, and Toei didn't use the audio from these masters to remaster the Dragon Boxes?
It just seems too good to be true.
Remaster person— Today at 6:59 PM
you expect toei to do a good thing?
it's probably the worst company for BDs
sangofe — Today at 7:00 PM
I don't expect them to do anything good, no. That's why I don't think they would pay anyone to remaster the anime again. @Remaster person
Remaster person— Today at 7:01 PM
There hasn't been a Blu Ray for DB or DBZ tv series, so could happen
movies and tv is usually quite different in how the stuff is stored
sangofe — Today at 7:03 PM
Yeah, except international upscales. Selecta Vision in spain did all DB and good portion of DBZ. FUNimation did their shit on DBZ. AB has done half of DB in a respectable AI upscale.
Remaster person— Today at 7:03 PM
they all use an AI upscale
sangofe — Today at 7:03 PM
True, just that selecta vision was crappy ai upscale.
not funimation i think
theirs was film scan.
Remaster person— Today at 7:03 PM
was still ai upscale

all of them are
they never will get a master out of japan
sangofe — Today at 7:04 PM
Steve Franko said they scanned film. There is a documentary of that. Funimation got like 2nd or 3rd generation film.
Remaster person— Today at 7:05 PM
oh those, yeah, it's the US films they got then
sangofe — Today at 7:05 PM
Yeah, I never said they had the first gen masters.
they used copies of masters to scan film.
Remaster person— Today at 7:05 PM
yup, but still used a bit of ai upscaling to do the work (Funi isn't known to let someone take 2 years to remaster properly)
it takes years of work to properly do it
sangofe — Today at 7:06 PM
But they absolutely trashed them with their filters
Remaster person— Today at 7:06 PM
it's the AI upscaling at work
what i mean that good remasters aren't easy or fast
Eva remaster was also done thru software and not human verified cause the studio needed it out asap to stay afloat
sangofe — Today at 7:12 PM
It's the noice reduction filters I think
Remaster person— Today at 7:13 PM
there's multiple of them in it
sangofe — Today at 7:13 PM
Did you have a look at their 30 aniversary release they had? It's awfully smeared - lines are lost, colors are washed out. Grain is removed.
Anywho, I hope it means remasters in the future. But I still fear Toei is too fucking cheapskapes to pay for that. But thanks for the info!
Maybe... Maybe they will show more respect and see the value in it since Toriyama is seen a legend world wide.
Remaster person— Today at 7:16 PM
yeah it's a lot worst than i expected, it's all too softened and due to it, the chroma/luma got completely fucked up from the original
(there's a reason i do things thru hardware for my chroma/luma even for normal fansubs, so i can understand the chroma/luma curves and see issues at the frame levels)
it's such a nightmare that 95% of BDs don't have stable curves even today
sangofe — Today at 7:17 PM
Remasters of the TV specials were done not that long ago, maybe they have been working on something...
Well, it's 5 years since already so i guess not
Remaster person— Today at 7:19 PM
it can be done slowly, don't forget the sheer size of the DB series
it's not a simple task
sangofe — Today at 7:19 PM
yeah i understand. I would SO buy blu ray releases if they ever come out.
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
(a 40 eps series i did before took me that 6 years to align everything properly)
sangofe — Today at 7:20 PM
shit, are you kidding me?
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
nope
sangofe — Today at 7:20 PM
did you do it alone though?
Remaster person— Today at 7:20 PM
yes, cause that's not something you do with other people
sangofe — Today at 7:21 PM
I see. So you can't work in a team remastering old anime?
Remaster person— Today at 7:21 PM
difficult
as every people can have different views of the show
sangofe — Today at 7:21 PM
Yeah but you'd all agree on something of course
Remaster person— Today at 7:21 PM
and how it should be recolored, remastered, re-recorded
not everyone has the same setups
sangofe — Today at 7:22 PM
I see. Well, I guess we will see in a few years, maybe for the 50 year anniversary of the anime?
(in 10 years)
What you've said gives me slight hope but I don't know if I want to hope too much.
Thanks for the chat and insight. Talk to you another time

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Interesting discussion there sangofe .

I'd love to talk with someone that does remasters for a living, such a cool profession.

I see this individual shares the lack of faith many of us have in TOEI.

I'd love to think Fuji TV's masters are being held on for a future Blu-Ray release, but I've learned not to get my hopes up with this franchise.

[sangofe]

Interesting discussion there sangofe .

I'd love to talk with someone that does remasters for a living, such a cool profession.

I see this individual shares the lack of faith many of us have in TOEI.

I'd love to think Fuji TV's masters are being held on for a future Blu-Ray release, but I've learned not to get my hopes up with this franchise.

Yeah, I'm not betting my money on them paying to get it done.

[Vegard Aune]

I am confused at that person saying it's all AI upscaling though, because... Wasn't the FUNi remaster done from full HD scans done all the way back in 2007? I feel like calling it "AI upscaling" is not applicable there? Was AI used in the "cleaning" process? Well certainly, I think the behind-the-scenes footage even flat-out showed that. But they were, from what I understand at least, working with scans that were native 1080p. Though... That might be the resolution of the uncropped footage before they cut off the edges...

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Funimation did do a HD transfer of their film prints for the orange bricks, but of course it was a DVD release so the footage was downscale to SD. I believe there was automation involved when it comes to the colours and cropping as you can see throughout the run how sloppy it all was.

AI is becoming more common in all areas of work though (I suspect thats what the remaster person meant), but it's still important for humans to be involved manually, to some extent, because we are still better at the finer details than computers are.

[Inkei9001]

this "remaster person" tells you that "tape masters are film masters" in response to you telling him fuji tv have old videotape masters and not 16mm... is he really someone worth posting such long transcripts of lol

[sangofe]

this "remaster person" tells you that "tape masters are film masters" in response to you telling him fuji tv have old videotape masters and not 16mm... is he really someone worth posting such long transcripts of lol

He's someone I trust and known for years for whatever that's worth.

[Joujou]

this "remaster person" tells you that "tape masters are film masters" in response to you telling him fuji tv have old videotape masters and not 16mm... is he really someone worth posting such long transcripts of lol

He's someone I trust and known for years for whatever that's worth.

Yes, but all of this remains theoretical.
Whether this guy is truly reliable or not, it's still just theory, presumptions, his opinion.
Nothing new or concrete, really.
It wouldn't surprise me if Fuji TV still had the sources from the initial broadcast, even though there's still no evidence.
Whether all the sources are still exploitable and in their possession remains uncertain.
Furthermore, for these sources to be utilized, it would require:

1 - Toei to prepare an official release on physical media, which doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
2 - For them to request the material (which is borderline impossible considering Toei has the 16mm and couldn't care less about the quality of its products).
You can easily find another person working in video who would argue the opposite.
For example, just two years ago, a former employee of AB claimed that the French collector's DVDs of Dragon Ball Z were based on a French scan of the 16mm that AB themselves had done because supposedly they were on bad terms with Toei, who didn't wanted to provide them with the material (which is completely false, anyone comparing the Japanese DVD to the French one immediately sees that it's the same source).
Until there's an "official" statement from someone at FUJI TV to confirm it or a broadcast with this material (DBGT is broadcast with Cinetape audio despite the absence of this audio on legal stereo media) to prove to what extent this material still exists. We'll not know more about it.

What Nappasan demonstrated is that FUJI TV still has materials from the initial broadcast, but it remains to be seen the quantity of this material still available (complete or partial), especially since he himself has reservations since some elements of the show are from Dragon Box and from the rerun material still used by BS FUJI, Animax when they were still airing Dragon Ball Z.

[sangofe]

this "remaster person" tells you that "tape masters are film masters" in response to you telling him fuji tv have old videotape masters and not 16mm... is he really someone worth posting such long transcripts of lol

He's someone I trust and known for years for whatever that's worth.

Yes, but all of this remains theoretical.
Whether this guy is truly reliable or not, it's still just theory, presumptions, his opinion.
Nothing new or concrete, really.
It wouldn't surprise me if Fuji TV still had the sources from the initial broadcast, even though there's still no evidence.
Whether all the sources are still exploitable and in their possession remains uncertain.
Furthermore, for these sources to be utilized, it would require:

1 - Toei to prepare an official release on physical media, which doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
2 - For them to request the material (which is borderline impossible considering Toei has the 16mm and couldn't care less about the quality of its products).
You can easily find another person working in video who would argue the opposite.
For example, just two years ago, a former employee of AB claimed that the French collector's DVDs of Dragon Ball Z were based on a French scan of the 16mm that AB themselves had done because supposedly they were on bad terms with Toei, who didn't wanted to provide them with the material (which is completely false, anyone comparing the Japanese DVD to the French one immediately sees that it's the same source).
Until there's an "official" statement from someone at FUJI TV to confirm it or a broadcast with this material (DBGT is broadcast with Cinetape audio despite the absence of this audio on legal stereo media) to prove to what extent this material still exists. We'll not know more about it.

What Nappasan demonstrated is that FUJI TV still has materials from the initial broadcast, but it remains to be seen the quantity of this material still available (complete or partial), especially since he himself has reservations since some elements of the show are from Dragon Box and from the rerun material still used by BS FUJI, Animax when they were still airing Dragon Ball Z.

You're completely right. I was just throwing up the question and as you see from the chat, I am hesitant to a project like that being under way or coming to fruition. It's Toei, after all.

[Joujou]

You're completely right. I was just throwing up the question and as you see from the chat, I am hesitant to a project like that being under way or coming to fruition. It's Toei, after all.

For me, it's exactly the same as the situation we've heard here for a long time regarding Chris Sabat and the broadcast audios, where Funimation was supposed to do something right, and it couldn't turn out any other way, blah blah blah, and we all know how it ended up in the end.
no broadcast audios and a vidéo tutorial on how to destroy a filmprint scan with amateur filtering

[sangofe]

You're completely right. I was just throwing up the question and as you see from the chat, I am hesitant to a project like that being under way or coming to fruition. It's Toei, after all.

For me, it's exactly the same as the situation we've heard here for a long time regarding Chris Sabat and the broadcast audios, where Funimation was supposed to do something right, and it couldn't turn out any other way, blah blah blah, and we all know how it ended up in the end.
no broadcast audios and a vidéo tutorial on how to destroy a filmprint scan with amateur filtering

Nah, I don't think it's the same situation. The circumstances are very different. For starters, there's no employee that has said anything from either Fuji TV or Toei that I am aware of. And there's the unfortunate passing of Toriyama. I'm not holding my breath Toei cares enough even with the passing of Toriyama but they might try to capitalize on this. And, while in minority, fans would complain a lot of a new remaster is not done properly. My reasoning behind thinking it might be that a remasterization started is because the TV specials have gotten remasters. What if someone started these and continued in silence? Especially after understanding how long proper remasters do take that question remained in my head. But I don't think we'll know before several years, probably. I would be very surprised if someone is announced for the 40th year anniversary that is this year.

[Jord]

We'll probably get an AI remaster in a few years. It's cheaper and provides a big quality boost compares to the current versions.

[sangofe]

We'll probably get an AI remaster in a few years. It's cheaper and provides a big quality boost compares to the current versions.

"Wait and see." It would be laughable if Toei just re use AB's remaster and re-release it in several years.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I too was one of those fans who hoped TOEI remastering the TV specials would be a sign they would work on the series, but it really wasn't in retrospect.

While the TV specials are not movies, TOEI doing a HD scan of them is still more comparable to them doing a scan of the movies. They are self-contained stories, and a low time commitment.

For all we know the specials could have just gotten a HD remaster for the purpose of packaging with other movies they provide context for. For example Bardock : The Father of Goku was shown in theatres leading up to the release of Broly.

I've also been saying for a while now it's looking more and more like Kai was TOEI's HD Dragon Ball remaster. For the 30th anniversary they didn't show any interest in taking initiative other than promoting Funimation's 30th anniversary collection, it was as if they thought HD Z was there if for whatever reason people wanted an alternative to Kai.

[sangofe]

I too was one of those fans who hoped TOEI remastering the TV specials would be a sign they would work on the series, but it really wasn't in retrospect.

While the TV specials are not movies, TOEI doing a HD scan of them is still more comparable to them doing a scan of the movies. They are self-contained stories, and a low time commitment.

For all we know the specials could have just gotten a HD remaster for the purpose of packaging with other movies they provide context for. For example Bardock : The Father of Goku was shown in theatres leading up to the release of Broly.

I've also been saying for a while now it's looking more and more like Kai was TOEI's HD Dragon Ball remaster. For the 30th anniversary they didn't show any interest in taking initiative other than promoting Funimation's 30th anniversary collection, it was as if they thought HD Z was there if for whatever reason people wanted an alternative to Kai.

Yes, this is the pessimistic and realistic view but who knows. It wasn't known that Fuji TV had these masters before. Do they use storage space for fun? The hopeful, positive view would be that they released the specials to see if there was demand and has been silently working on the TV series since. But again, we will just have to follow whatever happens. I thought it would be interesting to discuss the discovery of the Fuji TV raws and why they have them but we will not really know unless we get Uranai Baba posting on the board haha.

[GhostEmperorX]

Toei is cringe unlike most everyone else operating since the 80's, especially considering that they don't do anything with even the good material they actually do still have (not to talk of some other establishment or individual).
So the pessimistic view is the only possible one that will manifest in reality.