Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[ArmenianPepsi]

Oh! that didn't come with the statue, did it?

The statue's in the box with Goku on it.

Okay wow that's a lot smaller than I thought it'd be!

The statue is said to be 11 inches tall. That's actually pretty big by my standards, it's a shame though that it'll never get a separate release because it really does look quite nice.

[sskura]

If they did a proper remaster and then cropped it I might invest in a hydrogen bomb.

I’d chip in

[BluezaBladeNZ]

My set just arrived and it's exactly as I expected. Aside from the outer box, everything else is exactly the same as the USA release (and Manga UK as well I assume. Haven't actually seen any photos of that anywhere):

(heavy image load here)

Outer box:






Box contents:






It's even down to having the same Certificate showing the last 2000 and the paper insert having the US Tech info layout in it.

The discs were a pain in the ass to get out of the books no surprise, but I never intended to keep them in there. Made my own covers and box a few months back in preparation for it:



Discs are exactly the same as the USA release too.

[Kingbrockstar1995]

i wished i had this set now but i have to settle for the steelbooks

[Scsigs]

Honestly, I'll settle for the steelbooks once there's a decent price drop. I know this may sound like quitter talk, but I'm tired of FUNi jerking us around like yo-yos. They're not good, but at least I'd get the series in 4:3 with all of the audio options, extras, & good packaging that they're in. Unless I can get my hands on the first 4 D-Boxes for a decent price, this is, unfortunately, the route I have to go, then wait, hopefully, for FUNi to get their heads out of their asses & actually produce masters worth a damn for the series. At least with the steelbooks, I'd have the series no matter what.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah I'm going to settle for the standard Manga UK releases when they come out with the overtime money I should be getting soon. I figured it will probably be years before we get another Z remaster, this one may be the best we will ever get, and the art cards and posters will be nice to have.

The discs were a pain in the ass to get out of the books no surprise, but I never intended to keep them in there. Made my own covers and box a few months back in preparation for it:



Discs are exactly the same as the USA release too.

Those are really nice covers, good job man

[eledoremassis02]

Spoiler:

My set just arrived and it's exactly as I expected. Aside from the outer box, everything else is exactly the same as the USA release (and Manga UK as well I assume. Haven't actually seen any photos of that anywhere):

(heavy image load here)

Outer box:






Box contents:






It's even down to having the same Certificate showing the last 2000 and the paper insert having the US Tech info layout in it.

The discs were a pain in the ass to get out of the books no surprise, but I never intended to keep them in there. Made my own covers and box a few months back in preparation for it:



Discs are exactly the same as the USA release too.

As someone who's made custom covers for this set, I admit defeat. These are fantastic and stick to the tone of the boxset. Would it be possible to receive the files to print?

[BluezaBladeNZ]

Those are really nice covers, good job man

Cheers.
'

As someone who's made custom covers for this set, I admit defeat. These are fantastic and stick to the tone of the boxset. Would it be possible to receive the files to print?

I think I've seen your ones. But yeah, I always wanted to do one that sticked with the style of the set, which didn't happen for a while till HQ scans surfaced.

I assume it'd be alright to just post them on this thread. If not, someone can remove it later: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[eledoremassis02]

Those are really nice covers, good job man

Cheers.
'

As someone who's made custom covers for this set, I admit defeat. These are fantastic and stick to the tone of the boxset. Would it be possible to receive the files to print?

I think I've seen your ones. But yeah, I always wanted to do one that sticked with the style of the set, which didn't happen for a while till HQ scans surfaced.

I assume it'd be alright to just post them on this thread. If not, someone can remove it later: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Thank you very much!

[KBABZ]

One thing I find amusing about the box everything comes in is that it comes in the same clever-but-cheap-looking tongue-and-flap design used for things like HDMI Switchers and other small devices, and it feels the need to self-advertise on the back like it might find itself on store shelves. Kinda suspect that a premium 30th set does that IMO.

(not taking away from the rest of the design, personally I like it a lot)

[eledoremassis02]

One thing I find amusing about the box everything comes in is that it comes in the same clever-but-cheap-looking tongue-and-flap design used for things like HDMI Switchers and other small devices, and it feels the need to self-advertise on the back like it might find itself on store shelves. Kinda suspect that a premium 30th set does that IMO.

(not taking away from the rest of the design, personally I like it a lot)

Back kind of reminds me of the collectable boxes for the VHS'. Pehaps they might end up and some Costco or FYE sometime

[ArmenianPepsi]

My set just arrived and it's exactly as I expected. Aside from the outer box, everything else is exactly the same as the USA release (and Manga UK as well I assume. Haven't actually seen any photos of that anywhere):

(heavy image load here)

Outer box:






Box contents:






It's even down to having the same Certificate showing the last 2000 and the paper insert having the US Tech info layout in it.

The discs were a pain in the ass to get out of the books no surprise, but I never intended to keep them in there. Made my own covers and box a few months back in preparation for it:



Discs are exactly the same as the USA release too.

I quite like the Manga UK box. It's simple and to the point.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

My set just arrived and it's exactly as I expected. Aside from the outer box, everything else is exactly the same as the USA release (and Manga UK as well I assume. Haven't actually seen any photos of that anywhere):

(heavy image load here)

Outer box:






Box contents:






It's even down to having the same Certificate showing the last 2000 and the paper insert having the US Tech info layout in it.

The discs were a pain in the ass to get out of the books no surprise, but I never intended to keep them in there. Made my own covers and box a few months back in preparation for it:



Discs are exactly the same as the USA release too.

I quite like the Manga UK box. It's simple and to the point.

Those custom covers are pretty cool looking, i really like the look of them over the book sleeve style of the cases that come with the set itself.

[SqueakyBoots]

I assume it'd be alright to just post them on this thread. If not, someone can remove it later: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Thanks for sharing these. I attempted making my own custom cover art earlier this year but I wasn't happy with how they were coming out (Finding high res promo artwork was surprisingly difficult) and yours look a lot better.

[precita]

This is a dumb question but is the old DBZ dub included on these? Meaning the one from 2000-2003 and the 2005 redub?

[Robo4900]

This is a dumb question but is the old DBZ dub included on these? Meaning the one from 2000-2003 and the 2005 redub?

No, but the weird 2007-2008 partial redub/remix of the 2000-2006 dubbing is included.

If you want the old dub, you want the old DVD singles, no other release has it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

This is a dumb question but is the old DBZ dub included on these? Meaning the one from 2000-2003 and the 2005 redub?

No, but the weird 2007-2008 partial redub/remix of the 2000-2006 dubbing is included.

If you want the old dub, you want the old DVD singles, no other release has it.

Yup, honestly I think the broadcast dub is dead to Funimation. Every release since 2005, excluding Rock the Dragon has used the remastered dub. It is very clear the redub is the only dub of Z they care about selling.

precita the singles are the way to go for the old dub if you can find a set of them for cheap enough per volume. Keep an eye on eBay.

[Scsigs]

Yup, honestly I think the broadcast dub is dead to Funimation. Every release since 2005, excluding Rock the Dragon has used the remastered dub. It is very clear the redub is the only dub of Z they care about selling.

I think that has to do with them getting the most polished version of their dubs out. Though DBZ could use a more accurate redub altogether, I understand this decision.

[Planetnamek]

This is a dumb question but is the old DBZ dub included on these? Meaning the one from 2000-2003 and the 2005 redub?

No, but the weird 2007-2008 partial redub/remix of the 2000-2006 dubbing is included.

If you want the old dub, you want the old DVD singles, no other release has it.

Yup, honestly I think the broadcast dub is dead to Funimation. Every release since 2005, excluding Rock the Dragon has used the remastered dub. It is very clear the redub is the only dub of Z they care about selling.

precita the singles are the way to go for the old dub if you can find a set of them for cheap enough per volume. Keep an eye on eBay.

Yes and it helps to have a VCR as some of the DVDs get a get pricey but you can usually the uncut tapes for more reasonable prices, I just got Freeza Revealed uncut on tape for 10 bucks compared to the 20-30 bucks a DVD would've cost me. Plus the quality is about the same anyways, most DVDs released around that time didn't look that much better then the VHS versions.

[Robo4900]

Yup, honestly I think the broadcast dub is dead to Funimation. Every release since 2005, excluding Rock the Dragon has used the remastered dub. It is very clear the redub is the only dub of Z they care about selling.

I think that has to do with them getting the most polished version of their dubs out. Though DBZ could use a more accurate redub altogether, I understand this decision.

The "Remastered" dub isn't more polished, though. For instance, the remastered dub of the framing of one particular Cell saga flashback scene (1:09 for original dub, 2:10 for remastered dub) shows evident bad redubbing, where the revised dialogue doesn't make sense; "Dad, you know what, you're a good guy." "I'm glad you think so!" turned into "Dad, you know what, I'm so happy." "I'm glad you think so!" This is just one example; I'm fairly sure there are many others.
And then there's the missing SFX and dialogue, the really jarring differences between 1999 and 2007 voice recordings.
There are also cases like that one Garlic Jr. scene (skip to 0:21) where it appears that Funi did a late retake of one line, which was heard on the US broadcast and on home video, but an early, nonsensical version of the line was heard on the Canadian broadcast (see 0:39); Ocean did TV edits of Funi's DBZ for YTV using Funi's masters and raw recordings, so the retake was likely after Ocean had been sent masters to use to assemble their edit. When it came time to do the 2007-2008 redub, Funimation seems to have used the original script of the Garlic Jr. scene there, so the new actor playing the role of the smaller dude (the larger dude's lines were kept as original) read the original line that only Canadian viewers had heard, similar to how the "Remastered dub" also reverted several episodes' US score placements to early, pre-final versions that were previously only heard in Canada (which people seem to often assume was a deliberate rearrangement of score done for the Orange Bricks in an attempt to improve the Faulconer score).

The "Remastered dub" was supposed to update DBZ to reflect Funi's modern dubbing standards. Instead, the modern redubbing alongside the original 1999 recording just makes their unprofessional early work stand out even more, some of the alternate dialogue makes no sense, they didn't improve the dub's faithfulness to the source material, and there were mounds of production mistakes, some of which make some scenes less accurate (or at least, less comprehensible) than the original dub, and it only covers Z, leaving the pretty poor scripting of DB and the really shit scripting of GT to stand as they were in 2001-2004, and that's without mentioning the jarring difference between Funi's 1998 dub of DB movies 2-3, their 2001-2002 dub of the DB series, their ~2004 dub of the 10th anniversary movie, and their (really weird) 2009 Kai cast redub of DB movie 1 that largely reused the 1995 edited dub script but kinda screwed it up further rather than improving it.

So, if you ask me, the "Remastered dub" is a complete failure, and Funi should have never done it in the first place. If they wanted DBZ to reflect their modern dubbing standards, they should have started from scratch with both the scripts and the recording; throw out all the 1996-2004 dialogue, write everything from accurate translations, get all the actors in to dub it from start to finish (ideally starting with DB and also doing GT, but I understand that Funi only really care about Z, so probably they would only do Z). We eventually saw what this could have been like when they did Kai in 2011-2013, which just shows even more how lacklustre the Z redub was.

It's really quite a shame. If they'd done it right in 2005-2009, they could have done a new, proper dub for the Kikuchi-scored track, and then just used the original dub as-is on a stereo track with the US replacement score. Then everyone could be happy. Instead, no one is.

I don't begrudge Funi for trying to improve things, it's just sad that they ended up with this messy compromise. I feel they just shouldn't have bothered, and I don't understand why they're so proud of this version that they seem to want to erase the original dub, especially when that's the version most American fans watched when they were kids. At one point, they were going to put out a box set of the original US TV dub of Z, all 276 episodes. But, for some reason, they just didn't want to put it out. Would've made a lot of fans very happy to finally have their childhood version on DVD (certainly I know I want that, but Funi, MangaUK, and Madman seem uninterested in putting out DVDs of the Ocean dubs).

--

TL;DR: The "Remastered dub" is nothing to be proud of, and I don't understand why Funi so aggressively bury the original dub in favour of it. Frankly, it's a significant downgrade, if you ask me.