We contacted Lionsgate back in April regarding their sub-license to the first 13 episodes (and first movie) of the original Dragon Ball TV series — productions that have always been available edited and English-dubbed-only due to a distribution deal FUNimation wrangled themselves into back in 1995 when they first began producing the series. At that time, Lionsgate would neither confirm nor deny any information at all to us, saying that the information we were seeking “… is confidential and cannot be used for a website.”

Since then, our forum members have noticed a listing on Wal-Mart’s website for a Dragon Ball: Season 1 (Widescreen) with an MSRP of $49.99 and a release date of 15 September 2009. As Wal-Mart’s site has hosted inaccurate information in the past, we all mostly shrugged it off. Since then, other forum members have brought to our attention that many online retailers are now listing Lionsgate’s (originally Kidmark’s) Saga of Goku as “discontinued” and no longer available.

Did FUNimation obtain new film masters for the first TV series and now have plans to released a faux-“remastered” version a la their DBZ TV season sets, including the first 13 episodes? Is it all one big misunderstanding? We await further clarification as the longest-running business blunder in FUNimation’s entire history perhaps moves into a new chapter!