Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[Issei189]

The amusing proof that something being sharper does not equal more detail.

Those poor, poor lines. The harsh shading edges hurt me so much.

Were those white dots in the character's outline always there ?

[Brangeta]

I watched the first three episodes last night and honestly really liked it. The DNR did remove some of the faint lines (toddler Gohan looked a bit like a median filter was used when he walked through a patch of sunlight, and a very faint line of Bulma's ear was missing in a scene) but overall, it looks a lot better than anything I've ever seen outside of the Level set that got cancelled. It doesn't look like it was drawn with a Sharpie like I remember feeling the 16:9 blu-ray looked like.

One thing I didn't expect, and haven't seen mentioned, is that the footage is edited. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it with American broadcast audio or if it's the same exact footage when watching it in Japanese or English with Japanese music (I assume it is), but there are short scenes missing. For example, when Raditz's attack takes Piccolo's arm off, it didn't show the scene where his blood is dripping. It was completely gone. The acknowledgement that Piccolo's arm got blasted off was completely missing. I was kind of surprised by that, because I was expecting to see the purple-edited blood (or red blood) dripping and Piccolo telling Goku he can still fight (or whatever) but it was gone.

I am kind of bothered by that, but at the same time, the footage looks so much better than anything else I own (outside of the Level sets) that I am not upset about it... just surprised. I really didn't expect editing. Was the orange brick missing that scene?

[KBABZ]

One thing I didn't expect, and haven't seen mentioned, is that the footage is edited. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it with American broadcast audio or if it's the same exact footage when watching it in Japanese or English with Japanese music (I assume it is), but there are short scenes missing. For example, when Raditz's attack takes Piccolo's arm off, it didn't show the scene where his blood is dripping. It was completely gone. The acknowledgement that Piccolo's arm got blasted off was completely missing. I was kind of surprised by that, because I was expecting to see the purple-edited blood (or red blood) dripping and Piccolo telling Goku he can still fight (or whatever) but it was gone.

I am kind of bothered by that, but at the same time, the footage looks so much better than anything else I own (outside of the Level sets) that I am not upset about it... just surprised. I really didn't expect editing. Was the orange brick missing that scene?

WHAT?! IMO that's inexcusable. What 13 year old has the spare cash to afford this release and thus justify that kind of censorship???

[Gdugz]

I watched the first three episodes last night and honestly really liked it. The DNR did remove some of the faint lines (toddler Gohan looked a bit like a median filter was used when he walked through a patch of sunlight, and a very faint line of Bulma's ear was missing in a scene) but overall, it looks a lot better than anything I've ever seen outside of the Level set that got cancelled. It doesn't look like it was drawn with a Sharpie like I remember feeling the 16:9 blu-ray looked like.

One thing I didn't expect, and haven't seen mentioned, is that the footage is edited. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it with American broadcast audio or if it's the same exact footage when watching it in Japanese or English with Japanese music (I assume it is), but there are short scenes missing. For example, when Raditz's attack takes Piccolo's arm off, it didn't show the scene where his blood is dripping. It was completely gone. The acknowledgement that Piccolo's arm got blasted off was completely missing. I was kind of surprised by that, because I was expecting to see the purple-edited blood (or red blood) dripping and Piccolo telling Goku he can still fight (or whatever) but it was gone.

I am kind of bothered by that, but at the same time, the footage looks so much better than anything else I own (outside of the Level sets) that I am not upset about it... just surprised. I really didn't expect editing. Was the orange brick missing that scene?

Is there anyway you could double check that to be sure, cant imagine they would censor it for the 30th anniversary. They could'nt

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

One thing I didn't expect, and haven't seen mentioned, is that the footage is edited. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it with American broadcast audio or if it's the same exact footage when watching it in Japanese or English with Japanese music (I assume it is), but there are short scenes missing. For example, when Raditz's attack takes Piccolo's arm off, it didn't show the scene where his blood is dripping. It was completely gone. The acknowledgement that Piccolo's arm got blasted off was completely missing. I was kind of surprised by that, because I was expecting to see the purple-edited blood (or red blood) dripping and Piccolo telling Goku he can still fight (or whatever) but it was gone.

I am kind of bothered by that, but at the same time, the footage looks so much better than anything else I own (outside of the Level sets) that I am not upset about it... just surprised. I really didn't expect editing. Was the orange brick missing that scene?

WHAT?! IMO that's inexcusable. What 13 year old has the spare cash to afford this release and thus justify that kind of censorship???

Maybe TOEI gave Funimation pre-edited masters. We all know what they did with the movie remasters so I wouldn't put it past them.

Either way that's a disgrace, another complaint that all who were unhappy with this set should say in their emails.

[Robo4900]

One thing I didn't expect, and haven't seen mentioned, is that the footage is edited. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it with American broadcast audio or if it's the same exact footage when watching it in Japanese or English with Japanese music (I assume it is), but there are short scenes missing. For example, when Raditz's attack takes Piccolo's arm off, it didn't show the scene where his blood is dripping. It was completely gone. The acknowledgement that Piccolo's arm got blasted off was completely missing. I was kind of surprised by that, because I was expecting to see the purple-edited blood (or red blood) dripping and Piccolo telling Goku he can still fight (or whatever) but it was gone.

I am kind of bothered by that, but at the same time, the footage looks so much better than anything else I own (outside of the Level sets) that I am not upset about it... just surprised. I really didn't expect editing. Was the orange brick missing that scene?

WHAT?! IMO that's inexcusable. What 13 year old has the spare cash to afford this release and thus justify that kind of censorship???

Maybe TOEI gave Funimation pre-edited masters. We all know what they did with the movie remasters so I wouldn't put it past them.

Either way that's a disgrace, another complaint that all who were unhappy with this set should say in their emails.

No. Funi are working off of uncut film reels Toei gave them over a decade ago. Either they've censored this of their own accord, or Toei ordered them to censor it for this new release. Either way, whoever's responsible, this is bullshit. Naturally, this is one person saying it, so check your discs to see if you're seeing the censorship too... If you are, then everyone, SEND EMAILS NOW. These are supposed to be "Uncut". We were supposed to have put shitty censoring behind us in the '90s. DO NOT tolerate this shit.

UGH. I didn't think I could hate this release more, but I think this confirms this release as the worst release of DBZ so far...

But make sure we have more confirmation of this than just one person saying it, of course.

I have checked with some people online and confirmed the 30th anniversary release does contain the mentioned blood-dripping arm stump scene. I don't know why Brangeta is not seeing the scene, but it is there.
Only thing I can think is that the BDs contain some playback metadata that tells the player to skip certain violent scenes under certain circumstances, but unless someone else can reproduce this, we can't say for sure.

[KBABZ]

Maybe TOEI gave Funimation pre-edited masters. We all know what they did with the movie remasters so I wouldn't put it past them.

Either way that's a disgrace, another complaint that all who were unhappy with this set should say in their emails.

Impossible actually. We know for a fact that Funimation is using the master given to them by Toei back in the 90s that has been the basis for every one of their home media and streaming releases, from the Ultimate Uncuts right to the Black Bricks today. How they censor it would be up to Funimation (and if broadcast on TV, the broadcasters).

Only thing I can think is that the BDs contain some playback metadata that tells the player to skip certain violent scenes under certain circumstances, but unless someone else can reproduce this, we can't say for sure.

I personally have never heard of this, but it might work based on the Parental Settings of the player/console that's being used to play the discs. If this IS happening, a telltale sign would be sudden audio cuts, particularly with the music.

[Gdugz]

Maybe TOEI gave Funimation pre-edited masters. We all know what they did with the movie remasters so I wouldn't put it past them.

Either way that's a disgrace, another complaint that all who were unhappy with this set should say in their emails.

Impossible actually. We know for a fact that Funimation is using the master given to them by Toei back in the 90s that has been the basis for every one of their home media and streaming releases, from the Ultimate Uncuts right to the Black Bricks today. How they censor it would be up to Funimation (and if broadcast on TV, the broadcasters).

Only thing I can think is that the BDs contain some playback metadata that tells the player to skip certain violent scenes under certain circumstances, but unless someone else can reproduce this, we can't say for sure.

I personally have never heard of this, but it might work based on the Parental Settings of the player/console that's being used to play the discs. If this IS happening, a telltale sign would be sudden audio cuts, particularly with the music.

Thats crazy, I have never heard of a blu ray release that has done that.

[Robo4900]

Funimation is using the master given to them by Toei back in the 90s that has been the basis for every one of their home media and streaming releases, from the Ultimate Uncuts right to the Black Bricks today.

Incorrect.
Funi were given standard-def DigiBeta tapes of DB and Z by a mixture of Toei and whoever held the rights in Latin America during the '90s and early '00s. They were then given proto DBox masters by Toei in 2003 for GT, and they would later acquire the DBox masters of Z from Toei in '09.
The DigiBetas of DB&Z and the proto DBox masters of GT had been the basis of every one of their home video releases until the Orange Bricks. DB and GT continued to use their older masters, but in about '06 or '07, Funi acquired 16mm film prints of all of DBZ (including both specials) and 35mm film prints of all the movies. That has been the basis of every release since the OBs.

I personally have never heard of this, but it might work based on the Parental Settings of the player/console that's being used to play the discs. If this IS happening, a telltale sign would be sudden audio cuts, particularly with the music.

Quite.

Thats crazy, I have never heard of a blu ray release that has done that.

I think it's uncommon, but entirely possible to do.

[KBABZ]

Funimation is using the master given to them by Toei back in the 90s that has been the basis for every one of their home media and streaming releases, from the Ultimate Uncuts right to the Black Bricks today.

Incorrect.
Funi were given standard-def DigiBeta tapes of DB and Z by a mixture of Toei and whoever held the rights in Latin America during the '90s and early '00s. They were then given proto DBox masters by Toei in 2003 for GT, and they would later acquire the DBox masters of Z from Toei in '09.
The DigiBetas of DB&Z and the proto DBox masters of GT had been the basis of every one of their home video releases until the Orange Bricks. DB and GT continued to use their older masters, but in about '06 or '07, Funi acquired 16mm film prints of all of DBZ (including both specials) and 35mm film prints of all the movies. That has been the basis of every release since the OBs.

Huh! That needs to be recorded on the main site somewhere, I'm sure.

[Char Aznable]

Well good news folks, I didn’t have to get my card involved. After my second prodding email I got this from FUNimation.

Thank you for your patience as we’ve processed your damage report for the Dragon Ball Z 30th Anniversary Collector’s Set. Due to the exclusive nature of this item, a specialist (that's me!) needed to take a look at the request and process it, which takes a little longer than a normal agent.

We can ship out the new discs in the way you're requesting fairly quickly at this point, early next week at the latest, though possibly as early as today. However, I can also have a full return processed for you if you would rather do that now.

Please let me know which of these options you would like, and I'll be happy to further assist you!

To which I replied:

Thank you for getting back to me. Honestly it’s just too much to replace, and I can’t say I trust the long term storage of this packaging anyway, never mind the tears that a few of the pages have. I’ll be happier to process a return. Please consider a standard release of the show in 4:3 in the future, and I’ll be happy to give it a second look.

It’s cool that they’re giving people the option to exchange discs, but I’m burned out on this now. I wasn’t aware that the artificially inserted grain was a thing, if so that’s truly disheartening. Here I am collecting fantastically done remasters of all the Gundam series on Blu-ray, and the best I’ll ever get for Dragon Ball is on a DVD.

[eledoremassis02]

Well good news folks, I didn’t have to get my card involved. After my second prodding email I got this from FUNimation.

Thank you for your patience as we’ve processed your damage report for the Dragon Ball Z 30th Anniversary Collector’s Set. Due to the exclusive nature of this item, a specialist (that's me!) needed to take a look at the request and process it, which takes a little longer than a normal agent.

We can ship out the new discs in the way you're requesting fairly quickly at this point, early next week at the latest, though possibly as early as today. However, I can also have a full return processed for you if you would rather do that now.

Please let me know which of these options you would like, and I'll be happy to further assist you!

To which I replied:

Thank you for getting back to me. Honestly it’s just too much to replace, and I can’t say I trust the long term storage of this packaging anyway, never mind the tears that a few of the pages have. I’ll be happier to process a return. Please consider a standard release of the show in 4:3 in the future, and I’ll be happy to give it a second look.

It’s cool that they’re giving people the option to exchange discs, but I’m burned out on this now. I wasn’t aware that the artificially inserted grain was a thing, if so that’s truly disheartening. Here I am collecting fantastically done remasters of all the Gundam series on Blu-ray, and the best I’ll ever get for Dragon Ball is on a DVD.

Thats really good news! I'm glad they got back to you and youre able to get a refund (and that replacements are available for others who sets are damaged.) They did it with cowboy bebop, but from what I've seen from this set, the DNRing isnt as bad as the season blurays cause the 16:9 crop zoomed into the picture and made it worse.

[Brangeta]

I have checked with some people online and confirmed the 30th anniversary release does contain the mentioned blood-dripping arm stump scene. I don't know why Brangeta is not seeing the scene, but it is there.
Only thing I can think is that the BDs contain some playback metadata that tells the player to skip certain violent scenes under certain circumstances, but unless someone else can reproduce this, we can't say for sure.

Well that's weird... I have no idea if my blu-ray player has some sort of setting blocking violent scenes. I'll have to try to figure that out tonight when I get home. I didn't detect it as an abrupt change... I don't remember the music skipping a beat. I guess when I get home tonight I'll look into the settings and rewatch it. I'll take a video on my phone, throw it on youtube, and share it here. I'll try watching it in Japanese or something and see if the scene still gets removed.

Anybody have a sample clip where that scene is actually included? I just checked a few clips on youtube of that fight and none of them show it, but two of them ended up being fan-made splices of "supposedly" the full fight, but those fan-made compilations are missing the conversation Piccolo and Goku had before Goku charged Raditz and ended up using the bending kamehameha while Piccolo charged his makankosappo. Also, all three clips I watched have Goku getting kicked after that blast that vaporized Piccolo's arm, and then there's a strange scene of grass falling. I recall that last night while I was watching as well. Is the unedited footage like that? That was really weird. Goku hit the ground, a second or so passed, and then there was a closeup of grass falling... from what?

Edit: I found the manual for my blu-ray player online and it does say:
[Parental Control Area Code]
Playback of some BD-ROMs, DVD
VIDEOs, or Internet videos can be
limited according to the geographic area.
Scenes may be blocked or replaced with
different scenes. Follow the on-screen
instructions and enter your four-digit
password.
x
[BD Parental Control] /
[DVD Parental Control] /
[Internet Video Parental Control]
By setting Parental Control, scenes can
be blocked or replaced with different
scenes. Follow the on-screen
instructions and enter your four-digit
password.

So that sounds like it is worth looking into... if other owners of this set truly do have the scene with Piccolo's missing arm dripping.

[Ajay]

The amusing proof that something being sharper does not equal more detail.

Those poor, poor lines. The harsh shading edges hurt me so much.

Were those white dots in the character's outline always there ?

Yeah, it's the underlying paint poking through holes in the Xerox lines.

[kei17]

The amusing proof that something being sharper does not equal more detail.

Those poor, poor lines. The harsh shading edges hurt me so much.

Gosh I really hate this watercolor painting shit. It must look even worse in motion.

[PacificOceanDub]

After seeing all the horror stories about scratched discs on here, I decided to assess all 37 discs in my set. Fortunately only found one minute scratch on one of the discs. Guess I was lucky, but I still feel horrible for anyone who bought this fair and square like me and then opened it and found it to be a damaged mess. I personally enjoy the picture quality quite a lot. It’s just great that I can watch all of DB and Z in 4:3. The jump in image quality from Blue Bricks on DVD to 30th anniversary on BD is extremely noticeable but whatever. At least I don’t have black bars on the sides of the screen for the first 153 episodes of a 400+ episode run, and then no bars for the rest.

[bigray]

After seeing all the horror stories about scratched discs on here, I decided to assess all 37 discs in my set. Fortunately only found one minute scratch on one of the discs. Guess I was lucky, but I still feel horrible for anyone who bought this fair and square like me and then opened it and found it to be a damaged mess. I personally enjoy the picture quality quite a lot. It’s just great that I can watch all of DB and Z in 4:3. The jump in image quality from Blue Bricks on DVD to 30th anniversary on BD is extremely noticeable but whatever. At least I don’t have black bars on the sides of the screen for the first 153 episodes of a 400+ episode run, and then no bars for the rest.

Holy crap is dragon ball on this as well? Legit had no idea haha definitely a bonus

[sangofe]

After seeing all the horror stories about scratched discs on here, I decided to assess all 37 discs in my set. Fortunately only found one minute scratch on one of the discs. Guess I was lucky, but I still feel horrible for anyone who bought this fair and square like me and then opened it and found it to be a damaged mess. I personally enjoy the picture quality quite a lot. It’s just great that I can watch all of DB and Z in 4:3. The jump in image quality from Blue Bricks on DVD to 30th anniversary on BD is extremely noticeable but whatever. At least I don’t have black bars on the sides of the screen for the first 153 episodes of a 400+ episode run, and then no bars for the rest.

Holy crap is dragon ball on this as well? Legit had no idea haha definitely a bonus

Did they really put the blue bricks in here?

[Robo4900]

After seeing all the horror stories about scratched discs on here, I decided to assess all 37 discs in my set. Fortunately only found one minute scratch on one of the discs. Guess I was lucky, but I still feel horrible for anyone who bought this fair and square like me and then opened it and found it to be a damaged mess. I personally enjoy the picture quality quite a lot. It’s just great that I can watch all of DB and Z in 4:3. The jump in image quality from Blue Bricks on DVD to 30th anniversary on BD is extremely noticeable but whatever. At least I don’t have black bars on the sides of the screen for the first 153 episodes of a 400+ episode run, and then no bars for the rest.

Holy crap is dragon ball on this as well? Legit had no idea haha definitely a bonus

... It isn't.

Funi do like to ignore the original series, but they aren't quite so serious about it that they'd secretly put it on a boxset of Z.
Besides, they'd never package up any of the series together; god forbid this single, continuous series actually be sold and billed as one, continuous story...

[PacificOceanDub]

My post was misinterpreted! The Blue Bricks aren’t included, I just meant I can watch them and then follow it up with the 30th set for a consistent aspect ratio. Which you could accomplish with the Dragon Boxes too if ya had them. Before this I had to watch DB in 4:3 and then Z in 16:9 because all I had was the Season BDs.