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

[Ringworm128]

Right now our best bet is to spread the word of how bad this release is. Hopefully everyone is already content with their OB's and this will tank faster then broccoli at a kids birthday party.

[bkev]

Is this guy a rep for them?

Lol

Pardon me for not keeping up with every anime news source, I have other things more important in my life.

[Ringworm128]

Made the Twitter hashtags #ZShouldBe4by3 and #DontMuckUpAspectRatios .

[qjz123]

Is this guy a rep for them?

Lol

Pardon me for not keeping up with every anime news source, I have other things more important in my life.

My bad I thought that you were calling me a Funimation rep.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I used the phrase "pan & scan" in my survey answer- about 16:9+ ratios being cut to 4:3, not the other way around- but still, this makes me feel awful.

I'm curious what that will translate to, though. Ugggggh, Funay.

[Kakarot88]

Is there anything we can actually do or do we just need to accept it?

[TheOverlyMadHatter]

I really, really, really hope this is just an error on the listing... Why are they doing this? I understand finishing the bricks in 16:9 for consistency, but we got DB, DBGT, DBZ Kai (which, mind you, got a superior release here than in Japan) in their original 4:3 ratio. Why the sudden jump back to 16:9? Four steps forwards, and then back to square one. We just can't get a complete/uncropped/de-zoomed release from FUNi, it seems.

Should this information prove accurate, it gives me more reason to lack faith in the franchise's North Americans fans. The "pan & scan" aspect is nice and all, if even true, but it would've been much, much easier to leave the footage be. Guess the responsibility to release a proper Dragon Ball Blu-Ray would have to fall into Toei's hands, and that's if they see a reason to do so (Hopefully with the broadcast audio, but Kei seems skeptical about that).

[Chuquita]

Even though I never had any plans to buy the blu-rays, this is still depressing to read about.

[Ringworm128]

Our best bet is to spread awareness of how bad these things are on Twitter, Tumblr etc and of coarse not by them.

[theoriginalbilis]

Wow... I don't know quite know what to say. I'm really hoping this just isn't their "Orange Brick" remasters just slapped onto Blu-Ray, but there's a good chance that's what this is...

If it's a truly brand-new remaster, and they're really manually cropping instead of "default-center-cropping" like the OBs, then there's a chance this could look decent (ala Kai.)

Personally, I'm just feeling more and relieved I snapped up the Dragon Boxes and Kai, cuz it's looking more and more like I don't need to buy the DBZ TV series from FUNimation ever again (until that mystical DBox: The Movies is ever announced.)

[Gonstead]

Is there anything we can actually do or do we just need to accept it?

Message them on Facebook and Twitter about the issue.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Is this guy a rep for them? I don't know the twitter account. Remember, one of their reps said the green bricks were going to be 16:9 too.

WTK doesn't work for Funimation. The image he posted is likely from a retail fact sheet.

[SativaSam]

This is an honest question here, how does Funimation keep doing this? I'm being 100% serious. EVERY single release thus far has had a dealbreaker with it, atleast for me. The Dragon Boxes were amazing quality but didn't have Faulconer (I know not everyone wants that) the orange boxes are... obviously bad, etc etc etc. How does it keep coming to this? They continue to re-release this series and never get it right. I really do not understand... like I seriously don't know what to say. How do you mess it up this many times...

[eledoremassis02]

This is an honest question here, how does Funimation keep doing this? I'm being 100% serious. EVERY single release thus far has had a dealbreaker with it, atleast for me. The Dragon Boxes were amazing quality but didn't have Faulconer (I know not everyone wants that) the orange boxes are... obviously bad, etc etc etc. How does it keep coming to this? They continue to re-release this series and never get it right. I really do not understand... like I seriously don't know what to say. How do you mess it up this many times...

The closest you can get are the singles...minus Saiyan/namek sagas...sigh....

[MarcFBR]

I'm actually not as surprised reading that as I expected to be hearing that the BDs will be 16x9.

As a fan, I don't like it and I'm unlikely to buy them.

Looking at it from a purely business/fiscal perspective... it's probably the right way to go (add on some of the technical knowledge and I'm more surprised that I didn't see this coming honestly.)

Makes perfect sense even if I don't like it.

[JEFFMAN219]

So why am I hearing that the new dragon ball z blu rays are gonna be in 16:9 like what the fuck

[theoriginalbilis]

As a fan, I don't like it and I'm unlikely to buy them.

Looking at it from a purely business/fiscal perspective... it's probably the right way to go (add on some of the technical knowledge and I'm more surprised that I didn't see this coming honestly.)

Makes perfect sense even if I don't like it.

I'm in the same boat, really. I would be more upset if this was the only way they released DBZ. Luckily, they've already given fans like me the release we've wanted (the Dragon Boxes), so even though I'm not happy that they are cropping the show again, I'm happy knowing I've got my complete collection of Z already. And for a good dub, I've already got Kai on Blu-Ray as well.

[eledoremassis02]

This also really makes me wonder if infact the level sets didn't sell well because they were not 16x9.

[MarcFBR]

As a fan, I don't like it and I'm unlikely to buy them.

Looking at it from a purely business/fiscal perspective... it's probably the right way to go (add on some of the technical knowledge and I'm more surprised that I didn't see this coming honestly.)

Makes perfect sense even if I don't like it.

I'm in the same boat, really. I would be more upset if this was the only way they released DBZ. Luckily, they've already given fans like me the release we've wanted (the Dragon Boxes), so even though I'm not happy that they are cropping the show again, I'm happy knowing I've got my complete collection of Z already. And for a good dub, I've already got Kai on Blu-Ray as well.

As far as we know their 1080p masters (ignoring the cropping) are decent enough (the damage being done to the DVD set seemingly being done during scaling, by one of Funi's older video guys who left partway through doing the bricks.) They tried doing the more expensive fancier remastering with the Level release, which required a different budget/pricing level to make work. It didn't work out well enough, and they have shiny masters that fans don't like, but the mass market literally can't get enough of them.

The orange bricks still sell like hotcakes, to the point you have retailers like Wal-Mart wanting their own special formations of them so they can sell even MORE of them.

Fans didn't buy it remastered properly. The mass market will likely love these, same as they did the orange bricks (Assuming of course that information wasn't preliminary, or incorrect text sent out.)

This is also brilliant in another potential way...

They are doing a mass market release which will likely do very well.

If/When Toei does their own release, Funi can release it again if they believe the market exists for it.

This also really makes me wonder if infact the level sets didn't sell well because they were not 16x9.

The level sets were more expensive to remaster, and because of that they were higher priced/less episodes. Priced well for an anime release, but not necessary the cheaper mass market style release that can sell at higher amounts.

[jjgp1112]

I'm actually not as surprised reading that as I expected to be hearing that the BDs will be 16x9.

As a fan, I don't like it and I'm unlikely to buy them.

Looking at it from a purely business/fiscal perspective... it's probably the right way to go (add on some of the technical knowledge and I'm more surprised that I didn't see this coming honestly.)

Makes perfect sense even if I don't like it.

This is likely a dumb question, but what specific aspect sets "Pan & Scan" apart?