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

[Karrit]

Admittedly, I was pretty steamed when I first read it would be widescreen, however, I've decided not to get worked up until I see more evidence beyond a Twitter post. I am all for a quality product myself. Cropping Kai-Style might not be so bad. What I want to see are English versions of Cha-la Head-cha-la, Zekai Power, We Gotta Power, and We Were Angels. I prefer the Japanese, but I also like hearing the songs in English. I would also love to see a completely accurate Z dub, but we already have Kai for that, right?

I would ask Sonny if he knows anything, but usually he's reluctant to disclose anything until FUNi officially releases information. It's understandable since he needs to project his job. A while back he hinted at the Fujiko Mine series was going to be dubbed, but I figured that out on my own since I am also a Lupin Sansei fan and they already had the simulcast rights. It was inevitable.

[samuraix123]

I feel sorry for the dub fans who want their version of the show with the correct aspect ratio. We at least got the Dragonboxes, their only option is hunting down the crappy old DVD singles.

Sheesh, on the next survey, they might as well throw out questions about NTSC vs. PAL, crushed blacks, mono vs. stereo, and any and all other technical specifications to a crowd that only knows, "DUR HUR.... HD is purty!"

Kami bless these words.

Yeah this definitely sucks. I hated the cropped 16x9. like seriously, What's wrong with people? people are okay with them cutting like what 20% of the footage out? also how do I know to trust Funimation? They may just cancel these too! even though I don't own all the Dragon-boxes, I'm glad I own what I do. something that had time and care put in to them.

[Marcus Carr]

No sale. Cropped is cropped.

Just finished the Dragon Boxes. By the time I'm ready to watch again, maybe the NEXT release will be 4:3 Blu-ray.

[jjgp1112]

FUNimation, to date, has only cancelled two Dragon Ball Z releases, and they both had plausible reasons. In 2006 when they cancelled the UUE releases, it was because the 3-episode single DVDs had become obsolete, and so they decided to go with the boxset. And then the Level sets, because they weren't financially feasible.

[superrayman3]

This is horrible news.

It's almost like FUNimation is hell bent on releasing DBZ in 16:9 no matter what.

I'm putting my foot down and not buying this release.

I have no plans to buy this release either.

Extremely disrespectful to the crew who directed and animated the show and is wildly inconsistent with Dragonball and GT only having 4:3 framing.

This is an argument I actually haven't seen someone bring up before and truth be told Undercooked Sausage has a valid point, the people who animated DBZ poured their heart into their work for not much money to begin with, so what gives FUNimation the right to change the AR from what the animators used, not only that but why is it that DBZ is the only series in the franchise that gets this shit treatment meanwhile DB and DBGT get their proper AR's? When I took the survey I selected the 4:3 AR option (obviously) and when they asked my why I actually copied my response into a notepad just in case FUNi tried this, so just for fun here's what I told FUNimation during the survey:

I selected "4:3 - Original Production Release" because it's not FUNimation's job or position to crop a 4:3 image to a faux 16:9 image, if the original image is 4:3 it should stay 4:3, need FUNimation be reminded how much backlash they got when they cropped the image to 16:9 for the Dragon Ball Z DVD Season Boxsets?

If they release all 3 series in 16:9 is the only event I see myself picking this up, but I already have my dragonboxes, so I don't really see it happening.

Pretty much but what I want to know is why FNUimation keeps doing 16:9 releases of DBZ, why can't they do one single complete 4:3 release of DBZ that's affordable and available to everyone for once?

[Fennekin]

I agree, cropping a 4:3 series into 16:9 just isn't right. But do we know exactly how much of the picture they're cropping out? A picture example would be greatly appreciated.

[Aoi]

lol well it's not a determining factor, but this front cover seems a bit cheesy.


I don't usually nitpick. But, considering FUNI's improvements since the original Orange Bricks, it's surprising to see them revert to that "style" of animation after doing so well with previous releases.

Orange Bricks: Pretty mediocre.
Dragon Boxes: Very classy to beautiful
Level Sets: Very nice. Simple. Classy.
Kai: Very nice. Vibrant.

To this? I really hope these don't end up being what the front covers look like.

[samuraix123]

That's what I'm saying Aoi After releasing the awesome level sets and the Dragon-boxes and Kai. Why would you go back to that? I hate to say it but this season set better be worth it before I flop down the cash on it.(Yes I know people like me is the reason why these companies do what they do cause I and many others continue to support it.) I just wonder if it's going to have that thing were lines of animation will get deleted every now and then?

[B]

Cropping Kai-Style might not be so bad.

The difference here being that Kai was always sold as its own thing, and was selectively cropped by the people who originally made the show. They had their own animators adding drawings to scenes, something FUNimation didn't and most likely can't do.

This is just another instance of FUNimation sticking their nose where it doesn't belong, but the people asked for it, so...

[ect5150]

Admittedly, I was pretty steamed when I first read it would be widescreen, however, I've decided not to get worked up until I see more evidence beyond a Twitter post.

I won't buy it for these reasons unless it's a quality release -- but we have old threads comparing the cropping issues. There are legitimate issues here and I don't think pan-and-scan will fix anything at all (what are they doing? panning-and-scanning vertically? Normally pan-and-scan is done from 16:9 to 4:3, now they are reversing it?).

But I've heard these words before from FUNI. What has FUNI done in the past to make me think that this time is different? Answer: NOTHING!

I can't see this as being anything but the orange bricks rehashed, and I'm betting that's all we'll be getting (I've got money on the same "missing lines" issues showing back up). At least I've got my own DragonBoxes to watch and the means to color correct them now. I've guess we now have to hold out for Toei to remaster it properly on Blu Ray and have FUNI bring that over for a "limited release."

[Kakarot88]

Cropping Kai-Style might not be so bad.

I thought that... for a moment...and then I remembered how a crap load of the show, especially in the Buu arc does full 4:3 fill up the screen shots like SS3 Goku reveal for the first time

This does not do justice



to this



Keep in mind that the bottom image is zoomed more in already -_-

so so bummed

[Bardo117]

Honestly the top Goku looks more badass

[Kakarot88]

Honestly the top Goku looks more badass

Why? cuz of coloring or because you cannot see all of him?

[NessMudkip]

When I found out about this release I just sat and stared at my screen for a while, trying to figure out if I was looking at what I thought I was looking at. Now, I know people are saying "Don't judge the product till you've seen it"... But the fact of the matter is, it's a 4:3 show in 16:9. It just doesn't work. What baffles me even more is the fact that this probably means that more people voted 16:9 on the survey than 4:3. I know for a fact that almost all modern TVs have a zoom feature, so surely if some people just HAD to have their entire screen filled, they could just use that? I'm really really struggling to work out the thought process on this one. Again, at the end of the day I have my Dragon Boxes so this doesn't affect me too much. I would however, like to see Dragon Box: The Movies/DB Dragon Box/GT Dragon Box show up at some point, as I always say.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Basically, what happened here is Funimation created a monster and now they have to feed it.

[samuraix123]

When I found out about this release I just sat and stared at my screen for a while, trying to figure out if I was looking at what I thought I was looking at. Now, I know people are saying "Don't judge the product till you've seen it"... But the fact of the matter is, it's a 4:3 show in 16:9. It just doesn't work. What baffles me even more is the fact that this probably means that more people voted 16:9 on the survey than 4:3. I know for a fact that almost all modern TVs have a zoom feature, so surely if some people just HAD to have their entire screen filled, they could just use that? I'm really really struggling to work out the thought process on this one. Again, at the end of the day I have my Dragon Boxes so this doesn't affect me too much. I would however, like to see Dragon Box: The Movies/DB Dragon Box/GT Dragon Box show up at some point, as I always say.

''this probably means that more people voted 16:9 on the survey than 4:3.''
I wonder if they voted 16x9 because they thought or were not aware of the cropping that's going to come along with it? or because of the ''Oh it's 16x9 mannnn''
Funimation can't let something like this happen again....can they?

[Gyt Kaliba]

Yeesh...while I can't really condone FUNi's choice here (unless the votes on the survey really did come out with a majority support of widescreen, because if that's the case, you can't really blame them cuz they're listening to their market base - just not the same market base that most here subscribe to), the way some of you are posting, it's like FUNimation literally hired someone to drive by and kick you repeatedly in the groin.

'Living like 2007' indeed, though in my case this may be more of a 'hide from the crazies' than it is a 'rant and rave' ride.

[Kakarot88]

Yeesh...while I can't really condone FUNi's choice here (unless the votes on the survey really did come out with a majority support of widescreen, because if that's the case, you can't really blame them cuz they're listening to their market base - just not the same market base that most here subscribe to), the way some of you are posting, it's like FUNimation literally hired someone to drive by and kick you repeatedly in the groin.

'Living like 2007' indeed, though in my case this may be more of a 'hide from the crazies' than it is a 'rant and rave' ride.

But that's not EVEN likely half the market base, those who voted are just the market base that voted I am sure there is a silent majority who would be appaled. But for luck I finally discovered Kanzenshuu and I have been a fan of Dragon Ball since 1999...so there's a definite disconnect and if they have x amount of people on just one website exclaiming there distaste more are sure to be of like mind (granted the same goes for those individuals who enjoy cropping art).

[jjgp1112]

samuraix, you're greatly overestimating the degree to which the casual fan cares about cropping...which is to say, they don't. They just want 16x9 to fill up the widescreen TV's. The season sets consistently sell like hotcakes. If the cropping was such a huge dealbreaker to the general audience, this wouldn't be the case at all.

Like Tanooki said, they created a monster and have to feed it. Most people here have Dragon Boxes already anyway, so I fail to see how this will really affect them in the grand scheme of things.

[samuraix123]

samuraix, you're greatly overestimating the degree to which the casual fan cares about cropping...which is to say, they don't. They just want 16x9 to fill up the widescreen TV's. The season sets consistently sell like hotcakes. If the cropping was such a huge dealbreaker to the general audience, this wouldn't be the case at all.

Like Tanooki said, they created a monster and have to feed it. Most people here have Dragon Boxes already anyway, so I fail to see how this will really affect them in the grand scheme of things.

I understand that the season sets still sell great. I just don't understand how even a casual would like something like this