Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[JohnnyCashKami]

FUNi probably has their remaster 90% complete at this point- internally, they're most likely starting work on the Blu-ray compression and authoring phase- if the timeline between authoring and release with other anime distributors also applies to FUNi, if they aren't they'd probably be behind schedule on a project this big.

Essentially, they can't go back to fix the DNR'd mess if they wanted to unless they delay it and re-start the video compression and BD authoring phase as a result.

In regards to "what's your source"- Well, other publishers would probably start the video compression stage around now in time before ship date, as it takes time to do, then it has to be QC'd after the fact, then discs have to be printed and so on. From what I've seen from compressionists on when they begin work, around now's the time. My sources are Justin Sevakis, David Mackenzie and mp3dom. One's American and does stuff for Discotek, one's American and does live action films for UK releases, and one's Italian and does Italian anime releases.

Take it with a grain of salt (pun intended), but if they are actually efficient, then they would be past the restoration phase, and can't change it now.

You've got a point. I'm now patiently waiting for the possibility of TOEI to announce their own Dragon Ball Z series HD remaster as they've done the Movies (01-13) and TV Specials (01-02). TV Specials have yet to be released on Blu-ray so that may be bundled with the Z series on BD.

TOEI just needs to reveal the Dragon Ball Z HD Remastered TV Series on Blu-ray and most will be happy, given it may be a bit DNR'd but not heavily. Fans need to accept we may never get a proper HD grainy version of Dragon Ball Z but different alternatives.

[Son Gara]

Here, educate yourself:





Thanks maybe do that first next time instead of just getting pissy.

Pissy? Because I said "educate yourself"? Pissiness wasn't the intention, it was a legitimate statement. Anyway, maybe do your research before making sweeping statements next time. There, that's pissy.

No it was what you said before that chief, but whatever. Sorry for questioning your "superior" knowledge on a fucking garbage product.

[MetaMoss]

Well, you can count me among the poor fools who pre-ordered this. I've been on the fence since the second trailer, since the framing was really my biggest reason for not going for the Season Blu-rays. The DNR and coloring, while not something I'll enjoy, is something I can live with. I'm also holding out a bit of hope that our messages are heeded (I even sent one of my own), but I'm not foolish enough to count on it. If Funimation does listen, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise. But honestly, this all came down to the fact that I just want some way to revisit DBZ, and this one-and-done deal in 4:3 came at a good time for me. I'm looking forward to watching the show all the way through in Japanese for the first time, at least!

It was either this or hunt down the Dragon Boxes, but the convenience won out for me. I may still begin that hunt, though...

[JohnnyCashKami]

Well, you can count me among the poor fools who pre-ordered this. I've been on the fence since the second trailer, since the framing was really my biggest reason for not going for the Season Blu-rays. The DNR and coloring, while not something I'll enjoy, is something I can live with. I'm also holding out a bit of hope that our messages are heeded (I even sent one of my own), but I'm not foolish enough to count on it. If Funimation does listen, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise. But honestly, this all came down to the fact that I just want some way to revisit DBZ, and this one-and-done deal in 4:3 came at a good time for me. I'm looking forward to watching the show all the way through in Japanese for the first time, at least!

It was either this or hunt down the Dragon Boxes, but the convenience won out for me. I may still begin that hunt, though...

Won't be that great. DNR'd and muffled audio, plus no NEPs. This is remaster is being done by FUNimation which should be clear for those who have read their blog post.

[Tylerman29]

Well, you can count me among the poor fools who pre-ordered this. I've been on the fence since the second trailer, since the framing was really my biggest reason for not going for the Season Blu-rays. The DNR and coloring, while not something I'll enjoy, is something I can live with. I'm also holding out a bit of hope that our messages are heeded (I even sent one of my own), but I'm not foolish enough to count on it. If Funimation does listen, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise. But honestly, this all came down to the fact that I just want some way to revisit DBZ, and this one-and-done deal in 4:3 came at a good time for me. I'm looking forward to watching the show all the way through in Japanese for the first time, at least!

It was either this or hunt down the Dragon Boxes, but the convenience won out for me. I may still begin that hunt, though...

Won't be that great. DNR'd and muffled audio, plus no NEPs. This is remaster is being done by FUNimation which should be clear for those who have read their blog post.

Is there a release that doesn't have muffled Japanese audio?

[Danfun64]

If we're only at the series and specials... no, at least, not right now (ignoring the Big Box episode). Only if Toei decides to use the broadcast audio.

As for the movies... usually the best sources are either the Japanese laserdiscs (as in straight from Japan, not the Pioneer laserdiscs with Japanese audio) or the Dragon Box audio. (We're ignoring the drama CDs/cassettes for this, and AFAIK those didn't cover every episode anyways). The Japanese Blu-ray audio not only has noticable hiss, but mutes completely silent sections in a way that's not only conspicuous, but hinders fan noise removal. Most of the foreign movie releases use optical audio for the Japanese, though the Funi single of DBZ Movie 13 has a mono sound mix that's very close in quality to the stereo Dragon Box mix.

[Forte224]

Pissy? Because I said "educate yourself"? Pissiness wasn't the intention, it was a legitimate statement. Anyway, maybe do your research before making sweeping statements next time. There, that's pissy.

No it was what you said before that chief, but whatever. Sorry for questioning your "superior" knowledge on a fucking garbage product.

I'm not sure how any of that was considered me being pissy. But whatever, the point is you waltzed in like you knew exactly what you were talking about when you clearly didn't. At all. And it's not "superior knowledge". It's taking 5 minutes to make sure what you're talking about is actually correct.

[MetaMoss]

Won't be that great. DNR'd and muffled audio, plus no NEPs. This is remaster is being done by FUNimation which should be clear for those who have read their blog post.

I am fully aware of what I'm going to get here. I don't need NEPs, I already said my piece about being able to tolerate the DNR, and even the Dragon Boxes have muffled audio. At least somebody at Funimation (Sabat) has broadcast audio available, because Toei sure doesn't. Fat chance it'll be used on this, but that opportunity is technically there.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Is there a release that doesn't have muffled Japanese audio?

Officially, these ones don't:

• Dragon Ball: Movie 4 (LaserDisc) (Japan)
• Dragon Ball Z: Movies 01-13 (LaserDisc) (Japan)
• Dragon Ball: Movie 4 (Original Single Release) (DVD) (America)
• Dragon Ball Z: Movie 13 (Original Single Release) (DVD) (America)
• Dragon Ball GT (DVD) (Taiwan)
• Dragon Box: The Movies (DVD) (Japan)
• Dragon Ball: The Movies (Blu-ray) (Japan)

I would've liked to own the Taiwan release of GT but don't know where to buy it.

[KBABZ]

At the very least we have a couple people who'll be able to get screenshots for us in the inevitable comparisons. I haven't personally ordered them at this point because I came to the realization that I'd NEVER watch them; I have no interest in the crappy dub, and the series is ultimately WAY too long and meandering for me to go through the Japanese version. I've been too spoiled by Kai in that way, I guess.

[Freeza Soldier #156]

They should forget about the remaster and just give us the raw footage. Use our money for a redub instead.

[sintzu]

The series is ultimately WAY too long and meandering for me to go through. I've been too spoiled by Kai in that way, I guess.

Same here. I don't think I could ever justify sitting through Z when a 40%+ shorter version exists.

Use our money for a redub instead.

I think a redub would be too expensive and take too long, especially for a series that sells regardless of dub quality.

[Metalwario64]

I think a redub would be too expensive and take too long, especially for a series that sells regardless of dub quality.

So many people say that, but with how big FUNimation has become and how much money they've made from the franchise (and butchered video releases), I'm sure they could afford it without much problem, especially if they used Kai as a base and dubbed in the old lines that were cut.

Thing, is, at this point in time I don't really care about the dub.

[sintzu]

I think a redub would be too expensive and take too long, especially for a series that sells regardless of dub quality.

So many people say that, but with how big FUNimation has become and how much money they've made from the franchise (and butchered video releases), I'm sure they could afford it without much problem, especially if they used Kai as a base and dubbed in the old lines that were cut.

Thing, is, at this point in time I don't really care about the dub.

Of course they could afford it but will enough people buy it to make up the cost and time ? Z is a 291 episode anime so no matter how much they have, it will still take a lot of time and money to get done.

[KBABZ]

I think a redub would be too expensive and take too long, especially for a series that sells regardless of dub quality.

So many people say that, but with how big FUNimation has become and how much money they've made from the franchise (and butchered video releases), I'm sure they could afford it without much problem, especially if they used Kai as a base and dubbed in the old lines that were cut.

Scheduling I believe is also an issue. Certainly now with Super in production they just don't have the time to get all their current VAs in to do those roles again.

[MadSpecialist]

I would've liked to own the Taiwan release of GT but don't know where to buy it.

If I'm not mistaken, the same set was available at YesAsia but I can only now find it at Taiwanese retailers. A proxy would probably be your best bet and it could always turn up on eBay or Yahoo! Auctions. As far as I know, although it does contain the broadcast audio, it's completely in mono rather than stereo.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but it's encouraging to see sites picking up the reaction:

https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/04/10/ ... rsy-anime/
https://geektyrant.com/news/funimation- ... rs-edition

[jaisonas]

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but it's encouraging to see sites picking up the reaction:

https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/04/10/ ... rsy-anime/
https://geektyrant.com/news/funimation- ... rs-edition

Christ, the comment section on that geektyrant post

[sangofe]

I would've liked to own the Taiwan release of GT but don't know where to buy it.

If I'm not mistaken, the same set was available at YesAsia but I can only now find it at Taiwanese retailers. A proxy would probably be your best bet and it could always turn up on eBay or Yahoo! Auctions. As far as I know, although it does contain the broadcast audio, it's completely in mono rather than stereo.

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned but it's encouraging to see sites picking up the reaction:

https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/04/10/ ... rsy-anime/
https://geektyrant.com/news/funimation- ... rs-edition

I see in your second link people commenting are taking FUNimation in defence... Sigh.

[kemuri07]

I do have a couple of those season blu-ray sets, but after viewing those vids--I completely see what Animejay is talking about, especially in comparison to my Dragonbox sets.

I'm not hardcore enough to get annoyed by how Funimation has handled the video quality of their season sets (especially since the blu-rays are so fucking cheap), but it's kinda shitty that they're presenting this home release as the "FOR THE MOST HARDCORE FANS" but clearly not doing what the fans want. And then charging them $350 a pop for the sets.

That's..yeah that's fucked up.

[coola]

I'm kinda reminded of Viz releases of Sailor Moon, they are also very crappy, especially original series, later series have little better quality, but it is stiill farcry from DVDs from Italy and other countries in Europe (And of course Japan) you can get singles in US, but they have very crappy Japanese audio, seems like both Sailor Moon and DBZ dont have luck with good releases in USA (DBZ had Dragon Boxes, but of course Funimation had to screw it up too by making it limited release and now good luck finding whole set for under 1000$)