Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[DHM211]

Spoiler:

Funimation outright said they put X amount of work into the Season BDs, the same amount as they put into the Levels, they specifically talked about how sometimes it can take a full week for one engineer to do.

This, along with the fact the tape marks are gone on the 30th sets leads to one reasonable conclusion.
Try to slander me and compare me to alt-right crazies/conspiracy theorists if you want, but if all you can offer me is ad-hominem tripe, then I'm not sure I have anything to say to you.

Funimation literally threw out the 4:3 vs 16:9 poll results because they didn't agree with the results. They spun a lot of bullshit on their blog post about the 30th sets... I really don't think it's a leap to say they're doing what they're doing with full knowledge of the fact the fans don't want it.


"We know that remaster was not finished" -- We know that the Level Blu-rays did not fully release. We also know from the Level 1.1 preview clips that their work was at least mostly done up to about where Trunks shows up back in 2011. And we know that the 30th sets are missing tape marks at the bottom of the frame, and the Season BDs were described as using this 5-person in-depth remastering process...

Yes, it's probably too much to say they literally have Level 5.2 in the vaults as it would have been if that line had continued, but I've avoided saying that; it seems quite clear to me that they have cleaned-up footage of all 291 episodes, without awful smeary DNR on it.


Good points all-round. And yeah, people overrate Kai 1.0, it's just too soft. It's a shame those last two seasons of the OB were cropped; if they were 4:3, they would honestly be a pretty good way to watch.

The thing that really gets me is no matter how much FUNi tries to justify their overdone DNR it still didn't need to be done, heck as i have likely noted in this very thread before if they'd have just taken their UUE/singles masters with just some minor tweaking for better encoding and quality and put those on the Orange Bricks back in 2007 then it would've been a legit good release, unlike the absolute smear test garbage that got released.

Yep.

I think the OBs, one could largely attribute to them just getting in over their heads and being a bit stupid. But at this point, I can't wrap my head around whatever mental gymnastics some people like to invent that they have no choice but to release the show like this...

The commonly-spread information that the Season BDs were cheaper to remaster than the Levels has no basis in reality, and at this point, I feel confident in outright calling it a lie, whether it was intentionally misleading or not. Dunno who started it, but nothing has ever been stated to point to this, and there's no evidence of any kind. It's just people grasping at straws to find a justifiable reason for why the Levels were so poorly managed, and ultimately cancelled in favour of the shit we actually got.

Honestly, wouldn’t the Season Blu-Rays be the longer and more expensive remaster? With the Level Sets, from what I understand, after the blemish and tape removal, all that was applied was a light amount of DNR and they were ready to go. With the Season Blu-Rays, Funimation had to pay someone to DNR, (Water color) Filter, and re color grade every episode. Not to mention the Season Blu-Rays, while 16:9, are selectively cropped. With the OB’s they just did a quick 16:9 crop across the board, like anyone could do in VLC. With the Season Blu-Rays, they had to pay someone to crop it frame by frame. Honestly, seems like the Season Blu-rays, despite being the worst remaster (all things considered), was the most time consuming and expensive.

[Robo4900]

Honestly, wouldn’t the Season Blu-Rays be the longer and more expensive remaster? With the Level Sets, from what I understand, after the blemish and tape removal, all that was applied was a light amount of DNR and they were ready to go. With the Season Blu-Rays, Funimation had to pay someone to DNR, (Water color) Filter, and re color grade every episode. Not to mention the Season Blu-Rays, while 16:9, are selectively cropped. With the OB’s they just did a quick 16:9 crop across the board, like anyone could do in VLC. With the Season Blu-Rays, they had to pay someone to crop it frame by frame. Honestly, seems like the Season Blu-rays, despite being the worst remaster (all things considered), was the most time consuming and expensive.

Y'know, I didn't consider that. And that's a really good point. They claim it's a shot-by-shot reframing, and if you actually line it up with Dragon Box footage or something, you can absolutely see that it's absolutely been reframed on a shot by shot basis, it's moving across the frame, etc.

It's just baffling, what they're doing.

[TheMajinRedComet]

I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility that the 30th anniversary release was the A option of that poll all those years ago. Its possible this was how the blu ray release was going to look until the powers at be decided crop the show again. At this point it's a marathon not a sprint when it comes to a proper release... maybe in another 30 years. Btw does anybody know if they rescaned thier masters for the season sets or are we still working off the hd scan before the orange bricks?

[Robo4900]

I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility that the 30th anniversary release was the A option of that poll all those years ago. Its possible this was how the blu ray release was going to look until the powers at be decided crop the show again. At this point it's a marathon not a sprint when it comes to a proper release... maybe in another 30 years. Btw does anybody know if they rescaned thier masters for the season sets or are we still working off the hd scan before the orange bricks?

They scanned their masters once for the Orange Bricks and generally screwed the whole process up.

Then they scanned their masters again, but had properly calibrated equipment and a base colour adjustment. They would then go on to clean up the tape marks, film damage, dirt, etc. off these masters. These cleaned masters then became the Levels, the Season BDs, and the 30th anniversary sets.

[theoriginalbilis]

My gut still tells me they'll probably reprint/repackage these discs for a more general (Walmart, Best Buy) release in about a year or two.

I mean, my gut's been wrong before; but I've been around anime long enough to know that the real popular stuff usually gets a budget release down the road.

[TheGreatness25]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

[Tylerman29]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

Oh they would, but they already got our money, so yeah. It's not like FUNi is a stranger to pissing off fans of Dragon Ball, and we expect it at this point.

[Robo4900]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

Oh they would, but they already got our money, so yeah. It's not like FUNi is a stranger to pissing off fans of Dragon Ball, and we expect it at this point.

Bingo.

If Funi think people would buy this, I could totally see them doing that. Besides, the people who bought this are the kind of people who ultimately wouldn't complain if Funi did that.

[KBABZ]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

Aaaaand when has that ever stopped them?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

My gut still tells me they'll probably reprint/repackage these discs for a more general (Walmart, Best Buy) release in about a year or two.

I mean, my gut's been wrong before; but I've been around anime long enough to know that the real popular stuff usually gets a budget release down the road.

I'd say there's a very good chance of this happening. They could sell them as "Dragon Ball Z Collection One, Two, Three, Four" and it would sell for being an even more budget friendly way of owning the series in HD than the season BDs.

Manga UK will more than likely jump on it. A lot of people expressed excitement over this set but weren't willing to pay the asking price.

Honestly though, this set's flaws aside if it replaces the season sets in circulation and 4:3 becomes the new standard that's at least something good that came out of this release, even if it should have been Funimation's baseline from the get-go.

[Scsigs]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

I mean, for them, they have reasons to reuse these shit masters for a smaller release. They know there's a small section of the fanbase that hasn't bought a release of theirs for Z since the Dragon Boxes. They want to get these people as well as the casuals who don't care about proper visual quality. They just don't wanna actually put a good amount of actual EFFORT into said releases, which they don't realize is the problem & they keep justifying the new releases with terrible reasons. Plus, they know there are people who didn't buy the limited release because there wasn't a tier for just the episodes without the physical extras. I think they definitely would've sold more copies if they offered different tiers with one only having the episodes on the discs in the cases & dropped the price a bit. I would've definitely considered it more if they did.

[funrush]

If the 30th Anniversary footage was repackaged and released or put up for streaming, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of paying the $350 for it? Wouldn't they run the risk of pissing off the (relatively) few fans that actually spent money on these things?

Well if they announce a "DBZ in Fullscreen" wide release and put out each "season" for $30, that'd be like $270 total. The remaining $80 can be chalked up to the artbook, the figure, and the collector packaging. Doesn't seem that terrible although I didn't buy it so that's easy for me to say.

[Forte224]

I’m about to pull the trigger and just snag the Dboxes. With my luck they announce a reprint right after(doubtful).

Nah, I had the same fear when I ordered my Dragon Boxes like 2-3 years ago or however long it’s been. The only thing that happened since then was the Dragon Boxes becoming even more expensive, and then this Blu-ray debacle, both have f which only further solidified my Dragon Box purchase as a good decision.

[Robo4900]

My gut still tells me they'll probably reprint/repackage these discs for a more general (Walmart, Best Buy) release in about a year or two.

I mean, my gut's been wrong before; but I've been around anime long enough to know that the real popular stuff usually gets a budget release down the road.

I'd say there's a very good chance of this happening. They could sell them as "Dragon Ball Z Collection One, Two, Three, Four" and it would sell for being an even more budget friendly way of owning the series in HD than the season BDs.

Manga UK will more than likely jump on it. A lot of people expressed excitement over this set but weren't willing to pay the asking price.

Honestly though, this set's flaws aside if it replaces the season sets in circulation and 4:3 becomes the new standard that's at least something good that came out of this release, even if it should have been Funimation's baseline from the get-go.

Y'know what, out of all the "maybe this release wasn't so bad" takes I've heard since we realised how shit this release is, this is the one, single take I've heard that I can get behind.

Yes, this release is still shit, it was manipulatively marketed, it was a perfect display of just how much contempt Funi have for their fans, but if Funi do put out cheap sets from this, at least the most widely available version will be in the proper aspect ratio.

Doesn't mean it's not a really shitty release, nor does it mean it's worth anyone's money, but I guess it's a less vomit-inducing option than the Season BDs.

Personally, I'm still gonna push for them to #ReleaseTheRaws, and take every opportunity to point out how shit these releases still are, and how much this really isn't an improvement.
They probably won't change anything as a result of any of this, but I might as well put all my frustration with their shitty practices regarding releasing the show to some use.

[Tylerman29]

Nah, I had the same fear when I ordered my Dragon Boxes like 2-3 years ago or however long it’s been. The only thing that happened since then was the Dragon Boxes becoming even more expensive, and then this Blu-ray debacle, both have f which only further solidified my Dragon Box purchase as a good decision.

Unfortunately I decided against it. I just can't justify it with my current financial situation. That's just too big of a hit to the wallet for some DVDs. Oh well..guess it's back to waiting for a better release.

[Tommym38]

Ok so long time lurker first time poster (so feel free to let me know if I need to change anything due to guidelines, also my apostrophe button on my computer is broken so just ignore the spelling errors).

So I had bought the 30th anniversary edition when the pre orders were up, as while I knew there would be remastering problems with it I figured oh well because its in 4:3 and to be honest I still have that mentality, but thats not the point of the post. So I received the set but before opening it, I had ordered blu ray cases to put the discs in as I knew that many people had scratches on theirs. However, what I did not expect when I opened it was every single disc having some sort of scratch on it. While some are barely scratched I felt for $350 I should at least get a set that has no scratches on it. So, using Char Aznables email as a template I contacted customer support, I reached out to them. But, unlike Char, I requested a new set of discs as I felt that this is the best way to own the series for me being in college and currently unable to afford the Dragon Boxes.

My order number was 100153978-422017. As I have checked there are scratches on every single disc from this release, which is due to how the discs were packaged in sleeves, not from shipping. While I do enjoy the artwork on both the discs and each page dedicated to that disc, I do not know who had the idea to put fragile discs into cardboard sleeves on such a major release. While I knew this release would be controversial I still decided to back it, but never did I expect there to be flaws in something as simple as the packaging. While I am disappointed I more so feel anger that a company’s biggest franchise would get this kind of treatment on one of it’s biggest celebrations. As the sleeves were not shown in any trailer or promotional material I feel that this was a known issue and was taken advantage of for my faith in a company to take care of it’s properties.

I have combined the damaged pictures into an album naming each disc, S standing for season and D standing for Disc. They are posted online and the link is provided here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/L6wlgno

I expected much more for a $350 release, not including the $26.49 I had to spend on replacement cases to properly store the discs, which were already damaged. I would be willing to accept replacement discs, as long as they are shipped in better blu-ray cases than cardboard sleeves. For FUNimation’s next release I hope that you decided to release it in it’s proper format of 4:3 (something that took Disney a total of 3 days to address after backlash from displaying The Simpsons on Disney+ in 16:9 instead of 4:3) with proper cases.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and I hope that you are able to solve my problem and keep me as a customer of FUNimation.

They got back to me rather quickly and gave the standard well have to review this, then I got another email saying that theyd send me the new discs, requested for it to be in different packaging, and would give me a tracking number with a follow up email (which I never got). So it comes in the mail today and when open it... its just the booklets in a box filled with bubble wrap. No plastic case, no black box with Shenron (or Shenlong however you role) which side note I would think would protect them more because it would stop the booklets from moving around but I guess Funi didnt think so, and no message or anything (which other side note even though the first set is damaged I'm still kinda surprised that they didnt ask for it back but whatever).

https://imgur.com/n99LsUk

Now the first thing I do is randomly take out a disc from each set and, low and behold, the first disc I take out of each set is scratched.

https://imgur.com/YDJmuNK
S1D3

https://imgur.com/zWvPw2n
S4D2

https://imgur.com/CxiyDh8
S7D2

https://imgur.com/qSdxLGq
S8D4

Sorry for the long post, a bit difficult as I tend to be a bit introverted , I'm just dumbfounded at how this entire release was handled. I'm sure that between the two sets I have working discs of the whole series, but am I just unlucky or something or is everyone who got this release having these problems too? At this point I feel like I should just ask for my money back, but I kind of dont want to as I said earlier, this is probably going to be the best way for me to watch DBZ for a while. But does that say something about my passion for Dragon Ball or the releases Funimation has put out...

[Robo4900]

Ok so long time lurker first time poster (so feel free to let me know if I need to change anything due to guidelines, also my apostrophe button on my computer is broken so just ignore the spelling errors).

First off, welcome to Kanzenshuu!
We're generally a kind bunch, so I don't think anyone's going to take issue with you making the occasional spelling error, missing apostrophe, etc. throughout your post. The community guidelines are more about tone, politeness, good faith discussion, etc., and as a massive grammar nazi, I didn't take any issue with anything you've said in your post, so don't be too concerned.

[the rest of your post]

Damn, that's really poor service.

Probably best to send another email. For $350, the least they should give you is discs that don't arrive scratched. At the very least, they should replace the scratched ones from the replacement set, if not all of them are scratched. So, I say email them again, work under the assumption that you are owed at least another set of the ones that are scratched this time, and see what happens.

Remember: You are the $350-paying customer, they are providing you service for your $350. They ultimately exist to serve you. And until you have been properly served, customer support owes you some service.

[KBABZ]

no black box with Shenron (or Shenlong however you role)

Also no need to worry about this. What matters on this forum is respect and knowledge about the original form of the manga/anime, not which spelling you prefer. Shenron, Genki-Dama, Gokou, it's all fine so long as you're informed or have intent to be informed. : )

Sorry to hear about your set. I think you should request that your discs be delivered in a non booklet format and instead in standard cases. If customer support agrees, it'll help eliminate any scratches that may occur during transit.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So apparently in addition to scalping some sellers on eBay are trying to pass this set off as a "Dragon Box". Could imagine someone scrolling past it and thinking yeah right

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dragon-Ball ... SwwEddyMCG

[TheGreatness25]

So apparently in addition to scalping some sellers on eBay are trying to pass this set off as a "Dragon Box". Could imagine someone scrolling past it and thinking yeah right

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dragon-Ball ... SwwEddyMCG

It's got a dragon, it's in a box lol