Why do fans prefer 4:3?

[JoshuaSaiyajin]

After reading forums in this website and seeing how Toonami broadcasts Kai in this format (and receiving praise for it), it seems that fans prefer Dragon Ball to be at 4:3 when released through home media; Why is that? Is it because it is reminiscent of its original format or is something else?

[Metalwario64]

Because that's how the original series was framed. When you crop it, even selectively, you are messing with, and hurting the original framing of the series. There are also many shots where you can't crop them without losing something important on the top or bottom.

Plus, what's the point in changing it anyway? At best, it doesn't help anything to crop it (so again, why bother?), and at worst, it ruins the framing and intent of the image.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Pretty much. Having the original, intended format is always nice. And with 4:3 home media release you give the fans that want the full, original image (some exceptions apply like Kai 2.0) and the people that want to crop it to 16:9 can basically accomplish the same thing by using the zoom function on their TV. Everyone wins.

[KentalSSJ6]

Green outline is 4:3, red is 16:9.

Doesnt take a rocket scientist to know that the amount of picture getting cropped is obscene, and that is just one frame of animation. Whole episodes will suffer from that same exact level of cropping. It also doesnt help that nearly every 16:9 release of DBZ has looked absolutely horrible, ranging from problems such as crushed blacks, over saturation, and blurred lines while the 4:3 releases have almost constantly looked good with releases such as the sadly cancelled level sets and the Kai releases.

But the average Joe just isnt going to know the details of aspect ratios and sometimes even worse, not care in the slightest and only cares about having his screen completely filmed instead of having two black bars on the sides.

So yeah, the general majority of forum users here prefer 4:3 because it doesnt hurt your eyes looking at it.

[Zillamon51]

I think Funimation did things bass ackwards. The original shows should be presented in 4:3, as they were originally made. I would have no problem with them panning & scanning DBZ Kai for 16:9 presentation, since that version of the show is altered / modernized anyway.

[KentalSSJ6]

I think Funimation did things bass ackwards. The original shows should be presented in 4:3, as they were originally made. I would have no problem with them panning & scanning DBZ Kai for 16:9 presentation, since that version of the show is altered / modernized anyway.

The weird thing is that they do this just with DBZ. Eureka 7 was kept in 4:3 with their bluray release. Yu Yu Hakusho was also.

[JoshuaSaiyajin]

Ah alright I see why cropping it to 16:9 is pretty much a bad idea. Thanks for the answers!

[Cipher]

As others have pointed out, it's not a general preference for 4:3. It's just that 4:3 is the framing of the original series, and cropping it to other aspect ratios is less than ideal. Most fans in support of the 4:3 releases would also have a negative response to cropping 16:9 footage to 4:3.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

Most people on this forum are purists even if the original product is crap (e.x. Toei's version of Z). My reason for being against the 16:9 cropping of the series is that it was created with the 4:3 aspect ratio in mind. When it is cropped, there is the loss of 40% of the original image which sometimes creates awkward shots such as the part where the faces of everyone telling Goku to "do it!" when he's about to kill Kid Buu is cut, leaving only the bottom or top half of a character's face visible. It looks bad, unprofessional, and sloppy. I wouldn't mind it if there weren't any issues, but when watching the episode from the Blu-ray remaster, a few faces were cut off due to the cropping. It bothered me.

My guess is that besides fans apparently wanting the series to be cropped for the releases, cutting 40% of the image for every episode saves time and money. If they crop it then there is 40% less image which means 40% less work to do for every frame. That is basically half of the image. If my math is correct it is almost twice as much work remastering the whole series in 4:3 than 16:9. Instead of remastering 291 episodes they basically did the amount of work that 175 episodes would require if remastered in 4:3.

cropping 16:9 footage to 4:3.

Is that even possible? If the image is created in 16:9? I mean they could zoom in on the image until it covers a 4:3 aspect ratio but....

[OutlawTorn]

it seems that fans prefer Dragon Ball to be at 4:3 when released through home media; Why is that? Is it because it is reminiscent of its original format or is something else?

It's (obviously) not universal as there are people who, regardless of whether the source material is native 4:3 or 16:9 want the picture to fill the entirety of their TV screen, whether that involves cropping of 16:9 to fit a 4:3 TV or cropping of 4:3 to fit a 16:9 TV but when a product is produced in a particular aspect ratio it is intended to be viewed in that format. There is a short featurette on YouTube with Leonard Nimoy explaining how cropping 16:9 affects the framing of shots.

A misconception some people have is that HD equals 16:9 and while it is true that a blu-ray picture is 16:9, HD is merely the resolution of the picture regardless of aspect ratio. In the same respect, there is a misconception that all movies are 16:9 but there are plenty of movies (such as Citizen Kane) which are 4:3. In fact, 16:9 was popularized due to the saturation of television which was upgraded from 1.25:1 to 1.33:1 to broadcast films.

With the exception of the movies, all Dragon Ball content was animated and intended to be viewed in a 4:3 format (which leads to inevitable pillarboxing on modern HDTVs) and Blu-ray is supposed to be an archival medium and if I am going to spend money on DB, DBZ or GT on Blu-ray, I want to get the absolute best quality possible and cropping it to appease the people who cannot stand letter or pillarboxing is nothing short of butchering the source material and is no longer archival quality. Simply put, it was designed in 4:3, animated in 4:3 and broadcast in 4:3 therefore it should be presented in 4:3 without exception on home media. At the very least, if companies are so hell bent on manipulating stuff to make them appear "modern" they should include the original unaltered version, just like the original Japanese audio is included.

[Kendamu]

Is that even possible? If the image is created in 16:9? I mean they could zoom in on the image until it covers a 4:3 aspect ratio but....

Yeah, you can crop 16:9 to 4:3. It used to be a regular practice back in the day on VHS. There would be a thing saying, "This movie has been formatted to fit your screen." Sometimes, they'd artifically scroll the image, too, in order to show an entire shot that's needed but unable to fit in a 4:3 frame.

[thaman91]

Is that even possible? If the image is created in 16:9? I mean they could zoom in on the image until it covers a 4:3 aspect ratio but....

They used to do this back when televisions were all in 4:3. Home video releases of movies like Star Wars, which had a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, would get cropped to 4:3 for home video releases:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

[Cipher]

Is that even possible? If the image is created in 16:9? I mean they could zoom in on the image until it covers a 4:3 aspect ratio but....

This is how nearly all theatrical films were released on home media until the advent of DVDs. And even then, most early DVDs were released in an uncropped "Widescreen" version and a cropped "Fullscreen" one (with 4:3 still being the standard aspect ratio for TVs).

Most realeses would also employ "pan and scan" to ensure essential information remained in-frame.

It's actually kind of shocking to realize there are members here who no longer remember this being a regular practice.

[Herms]

It's actually kind of shocking to realize there are members here who no longer remember this being a regular practice.

Too young, presumably.

[clutchins]

It's actually kind of shocking to realize there are members here who no longer remember this being a regular practice.

Too young, presumably.

We get so caught up in cropping issues because it's thankfully the only aspect ratio problem DBZ has. I know all the Star Wars fans/collectors are plenty familiar with Pan and Scan.

[LordCrumb]

Is that even possible? If the image is created in 16:9? I mean they could zoom in on the image until it covers a 4:3 aspect ratio but....

Yeah, you can crop 16:9 to 4:3. It used to be a regular practice back in the day on VHS. There would be a thing saying, "This movie has been formatted to fit your screen." Sometimes, they'd artifically scroll the image, too, in order to show an entire shot that's needed but unable to fit in a 4:3 frame.

Open Matte was also the way it used to be transferred to home video. I used to buy 80s horror movies on VHS to get the open matte versions

[Puto]

FUNimation's old DBZ movie singles would qualify as open matte, for what it's worth.

[kei17]

It's basically the same as this:

It's actually kind of shocking to realize there are members here who no longer remember this being a regular practice.

In Japan, that kind of "full screen" practice completely died out during the VHS era, so I was very surprised when I learned that it had been still alive even on DVD in the US.

[Cipher]

In Japan, that kind of "full screen" practice completely died out during the VHS era, so I was very surprised when I learned that it had been still alive even on DVD in the US.

That's interesting. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that, if I understand correctly, home media has always been viewed as more of a luxury item in Japan (thus being more responsive to videophile interests), whereas it's much more commonplace in the U.S. (thus concerned with marketing toward audiences who may not understand aspect ratios that don't fill their screens).

[kei17]

In Japan, that kind of "full screen" practice completely died out during the VHS era, so I was very surprised when I learned that it had been still alive even on DVD in the US.

That's interesting. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that, if I understand correctly, home media has always been viewed as more of a luxury item in Japan (thus being more responsive to videophile interests), whereas it's much more commonplace in the U.S. (thus concerned with marketing toward audiences who may not understand aspect ratios that don't fill their screens).

Yeah, that must be one of the main reasons. Also, in Japan, original aspect ratio tends to be respected on any kind of media. I often see drastically cropped old videotape footage when I watch documentaries from foregin countries, but it rarely happens in Japanese documentaries. Also, old TV shows all air in 4:3 with side bars. The only exceptions I know are some anime produced by Nippon Animation such as Heidi (16:9) and a few dramas from the '90 that air on BS Fuji (cropped down to the action-safe area.) And of course, reversioned shows like Kai don't count here. In addition, their preference for subtitles might have been a major reason. Subtitles are easier to read with a black bar at the bottom of the screen.