Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Metalwario64]

Yeah, though I can see grain in the dark areas, which seems to show that it's just the crappiness of FUNimation's masters and not them actively crushing them this time.

Though, even with the green tint, I think Kai's palette is more vibrant, whereas the FUNi Blu-ray version of that shot looks kind of washed out and the sky is way too dark and dull.

[dbboxkaifan]

Ajay @ It wasn't even my rip just a raw episode I downloaded to watch the SSJ3 scene and that's it, but yours certainly looks better with the proper resolution and colour-corrected.

P.S.: On the right those white dots are part of the damaged area of this cel (I guess it's what they call it)? I'm surprised they didn't try to repair that for a new Z/Kai release.

[fps_anth]

I haven't been following these releases too closely, but the 9th and final season of this set of releases just popped up for me on Amazon, showing a December 9th release.

As of that date, there are no future Dragon Ball releases from FUNimation announced, correct?

How soon after (or before?) the final release of one set does FUNi tend to wait before unveiling what's next? Is there a big convention coming up?

I figure the Buu saga of Kai is coming next, but I'm still hoping for that Dbox release of the movies, as unlikely as that is at this point. Maybe include Battle of Gods? Use it to hype the next movie? No? >_<

[dbboxkaifan]

Season 9 - $24.99
http://www.amazon.com/Dragonball-Z-Seas ... B00NP06FAQ

Just hurry up and release this so that a proper remaster can take its place.

[Codarik]

For some reason the Faulconer Prod. track that was used for the 1st eyecatch was carried over for the 2nd eyecatch in the season 7 Blu ray, whereas in the orange brick season 7 and on had a different track played for the 2nd eyecatch. Did the season 8 Blu ray correctly put the right track back or is it still wrong?

[Valerius Dover]

For some reason the Faulconer Prod. track that was used for the 1st eyecatch was carried over for the 2nd eyecatch in the season 7 Blu ray, whereas in the orange brick season 7 and on had a different track played for the 2nd eyecatch. Did the season 8 Blu ray correctly put the right track back or is it still wrong?

Actually, here's the deal on the Bricks.

Episodes 1-84 use the Johnson theme (despite the Faulconer score starting at Episode 68).
Episodes 85-211 use the the first Faulconer theme (continues a little bit after the animation change.)
Episodes 212-291 use the second Faulconer theme.

So, the change occurred a little over halfway through Season 7 on the Bricks. It may simply be the same situation on the Blu-Ray. Did you only spot check or watch?

[PhoenixEX]

...and here I remain waiting for Season 8 to be sold at $24.99 or less on Amazon.
I don't want to purchase it from BestBuy.com because the last 2 times I've purchased from them, they shipped it in cheap packaging and not a box so the slip covers were badly damaged.
Blah.

[JEFFMAN219]

So today I watched a bit of season 8 and in my opinion this is the best looking set out of all of the blu ray season sets in terms of picture quality. Can't wait until season 9 comes out.

[Codarik]

Actually, here's the deal on the Bricks.

Episodes 1-84 use the Johnson theme (despite the Faulconer score starting at Episode 68).
Episodes 85-211 use the the first Faulconer theme (continues a little bit after the animation change.)
Episodes 212-291 use the second Faulconer theme.

So, the change occurred a little over halfway through Season 7 on the Bricks. It may simply be the same situation on the Blu-Ray. Did you only spot check or watch?

I watched all of the season 7 Blu ray, and for every episode the eyecatch music was the one Faulconer theme used for episodes 85-211. I was wondering if season 8 had changed back to the Faulconer theme used for episodes 212-291. Or if the other was still being used.

[Valerius Dover]

Actually, here's the deal on the Bricks.

Episodes 1-84 use the Johnson theme (despite the Faulconer score starting at Episode 68).
Episodes 85-211 use the the first Faulconer theme (continues a little bit after the animation change.)
Episodes 212-291 use the second Faulconer theme.

So, the change occurred a little over halfway through Season 7 on the Bricks. It may simply be the same situation on the Blu-Ray. Did you only spot check or watch?

I watched all of the season 7 Blu ray, and for every episode the eyecatch music was the one Faulconer theme used for episodes 85-211. I was wondering if season 8 had changed back to the Faulconer theme used for episodes 212-291. Or if the other was still being used.

Hmm, that's weird. As if that one wasn't overused enough already.

[SupremeSSJ]

I haven't been following these releases too closely, but the 9th and final season of this set of releases just popped up for me on Amazon, showing a December 9th release.

As of that date, there are no future Dragon Ball releases from FUNimation announced, correct?

How soon after (or before?) the final release of one set does FUNi tend to wait before unveiling what's next? Is there a big convention coming up?

I figure the Buu saga of Kai is coming next, but I'm still hoping for that Dbox release of the movies, as unlikely as that is at this point. Maybe include Battle of Gods? Use it to hype the next movie? No? >_<

I think Toei wants an insane price for them that's y we don't have them(just guessing). I hope they give the long die hard fans a treat for the 30 anniversary, we deserved it. Funi needs to tend to the fans who been with them for the past 15-20 years.

[Ultimate_DB_Fan]

I didn't know whether or not to ask this in a separate topic, so I'll just post here. Basically, for any of you who've bought these sets, does the widescreen bother you a little bit, or not? Are you really happy with these?

For me, I love 'em. I mean, these were what the bricks should've been from the get-go, right? There are those here who will always say the show is/should be presented in 4:3, and they're right in having that mentality; the show IS 4:3, but Funi's gonna do what they wanna do, y'know? When it comes to these sets, they more or less fixed the cropping issues from the bricks, so that whole thing about someone's face or whatever being cut off is non-existent.

For the longest time, I had nothing but the orange bricks. The reason these sets were a must by for me was because I can deal with filler, I like the original, uncut footage, and I like to switch between the original sub version and funimation dub. The Faulconer score is just too good to not hear once in a while, and unlike other people, I can look at the old dub as its own version telling a similar story with the same footage (bad dialogue and all).

Lastly, do you see Funi releasing the series AGAIN after these sets are done?

[JEFFMAN219]

I didn't know whether or not to ask this in a separate topic, so I'll just post here. Basically, for any of you who've bought these sets, does the widescreen bother you a little bit, or not? Are you really happy with these?

For me, I love 'em. I mean, these were what the bricks should've been from the get-go, right? There are those here who will always say the show is/should be presented in 4:3, and they're right in having that mentality; the show IS 4:3, but Funi's gonna do what they wanna do, y'know? When it comes to these sets, they more or less fixed the cropping issues from the bricks, so that whole thing about someone's face or whatever being cut off is non-existent.

For the longest time, I had nothing but the orange bricks. The reason these sets were a must by for me was because I can deal with filler, I like the original, uncut footage, and I like to switch between the original sub version and funimation dub. The Faulconer score is just too good to not hear once in a while, and unlike other people, I can look at the old dub as its own version telling a similar story with the same footage (bad dialogue and all).

Lastly, do you see Funi releasing the series AGAIN after these sets are done?

The widescreen does not bother me at and to be honest with you the cropping is barely noticeable on these blu rays.

[TheAldella]

Here is a shot with the correct aspect ratio (albeit colour-corrected):

i desire this color correction for the dub at the least

[ParkerAL]

If this review of Viz's Sailor Moon blu ray from Anime News Network is anything to go by, it appears Dragon Ball Z has company on the market of classic cartoons aggressively tampered with for no rationally justified reason.

[eledoremassis02]

If this review of Viz's Sailor Moon blu ray from Anime News Network is anything to go by, it appears Dragon Ball Z has company on the market of classic cartoons aggressively tampered with for no rationally justified reason.

They have it worse though cause that's like taking the Dragon Boxes and turning them into orange bricks. Plus they've waited so long to get it uncut :/

But welcome to the club sailor moon!

[Vegard Aune]

If this review of Viz's Sailor Moon blu ray from Anime News Network is anything to go by, it appears Dragon Ball Z has company on the market of classic cartoons aggressively tampered with for no rationally justified reason.

Well at least they only seem to have to deal with an incompetently encoded BD. Hardly comparable to having a good 20% of the frame missing at all times.

[Metalwario64]

I don't know if that review covers it, but the DVD version of VIZ's Sailor Moon is encoded in 16x9, but the image is 4x3 with black bars on the sides, so when you watch it on a CRT 4x3 TV (like mine), it's like watching a Blu-ray; you get the bars on the top and bottom.

That's a pretty big blunder, and I've heard that their new Ranma release has the same problem. I really hope this gets brought up to Viz so I can buy those new Ranma sets (old ones are lousy these days, but it's better than watching a tiny screen), and maybe check out Sailor Moon some day (but considering they said they'd reprint the first Dragon Ball 3 in 1 with corrections and still haven't I have my doubts as to whether they actually would recall, and/or replace these DVDs).

Even FUNimation, with their tampering, were at least competent enough to encode them with the right aspect ratio (of course, the Orange Bricks were 16x9, but my point is they were actually encoded in 16x9), even in their days of their horrible settings with tons of macroblocking.

[Vegard Aune]

I don't know if that review covers it, but the DVD version of VIZ's Sailor Moon is encoded in 16x9, but the image is 4x3 with black bars on the sides, so when you watch it on a CRT 4x3 TV (like mine), it's like watching a Blu-ray; you get the bars on the top and bottom.

That's a pretty big blunder, and I've heard that their new Ranma release has the same problem. I really hope this gets brought up to Viz so I can buy those new Ranma sets (old ones are lousy these days, but it's better than watching a tiny screen), and maybe check out Sailor Moon some day (but considering they said they'd reprint the first Dragon Ball 3 in 1 with corrections and still haven't I have my doubts as to whether they actually would recall, and/or replace these DVDs).

...Yeah okay that is the epitome of lazy and incompetent. There is literally no excuse for that to happen.

[dbboxkaifan]

I'd thought the Sailor Moon Blu-rays would at least be OK but they're actually terrible not only are they filled with ghosting the blurrness makes it worse too, sure it's good that they at least kept the original aspect ratio but other than that they fucked it up. Viz shouldn't have attempted to release this in "HD" because they're obviously not qualified to do so.

I'm guessing those who pre-ordered the Limited Edition either did so for the packaging 'cause if it's for the actual video quality they'll be sending these turds back to where they once came from.

In case any of you want to see how bad the Sailor Moon Blu-rays are here's lossless screenshots: - https://mega.co.nz/#!iMAmFbSJ!lDuBQFj_s ... nGoU5lXZeU

So disappointed with this release as I had hoped it'd be a pleasant experience to watch SM in HD than that shameful Crystal series. The DVD version will be based on the Blu-ray so it's not good either.