Toei Animation has acknowledged certain instances of visual censorship in their recent remastered Blu-ray release of Dragon Ball Z‘s 11th and 12th theatrical films from 1994 and 1995, respectively. The acknowledgement comes by way of an apology for the packaging’s descriptive text:

＜映像表現上の修正の内容＞
本件商品の発売にあたり、皆様により楽しんでいただけるように、また、子どもへ与える影響にも配慮したうえで、映像の確認作業を行いました。映像確認作業の結果、表現上の修正を行った映像を本件商品に収録いたしました。

＜ジャケットの記載＞
本件商品のジャケットに「この作品には、映像、台詞の一部に、現在では不適当と思われる表現もありますが、作品の歴史的価値を重視し、現存する原版のとおり収録してあります。」という注意文を掲載していました。

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-Content of Visual Edits-
Approaching the release of the products in question, so that they could be enjoyed by everyone even more thoroughly, as well as out of consideration for their influence upon children, a review of visual content was conducted. As a result of this review, versions of the films which contained edited expressions were included in the final products.

-Jacket Description-
Jackets of the products in question were printed with the following warning: “Certain parts of images and dialogue may contain material considered inappropriate for modern audiences. However, out of respect for historical value of the works, their original editions are maintained.”

Those wishing to seek a refund are able to fill out the respective form on Toei’s website through January 2020. New jackets with an “accurate” description may also be requested, and new versions printed from today moving forward will have the adjusted text. No mention is made of replacing discs with unaltered content or future re-releases.

In effect, Toei has apologized for the misleading statement on the packaging, rather than the new, otherwise-unannounced censorship in the product itself. These particular scenes remain untouched in the versions currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Netflix in Japan, which launched ahead of the Blu-ray release. Additional still-formally-unannounced changes have also been made to certain films, such as digital paint jobs correcting previously-unfinished animation.

Back in November, Toei apologized for an instance of flipped artwork on the back of the third volume’s cover art, offering replacements to consumers.

Three volumes covering the first six Dragon Ball Z films were released in November, followed by three volumes covering the next six Dragon Ball Z films in December, with a final two volumes released earlier this month rounding out the company’s new remastering of the original 17 theatrical films produced during the series’ original serialization.

While no international release of the films’ new remastering has been announced, Toei’s recent limited theatrical run of previous features in America was clearly based on this new print.

The films last saw a home video release in Japan within 2006’s remastered “Dragon Box: The Movies” DVD box set which was subsequently broken out as individual DVD releases over the course of 2008-2009.

Thanks to friends of the site kei17 for the above Piccolo comparison images and Cipher for translations.