Is it true that there were people making money off the Japanese Broadcast Audio?

[JohnnyCashKami]

For real? That was a pretty scummy thing to do.

[Forte224]

Any sources or links or anything? There isn't much to go on from your title and post.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Any sources or links or anything? There isn't much to go on from your title and post.

I read elsewhere that before the BA leaked some folks were selling it and so some of those got pissed because they couldn't profit from it anymore. Don't know how much truth there is to this. But a lot did get fucking pissed it was uploaded to the public.

[Robo4900]

I'm aware of at least two exchanges of broadcast audio for money.
Naturally, with the leaks in the past couple of years, this has all been put to a stop, but yes, some people were making money off the broadcast audio.

[TheOverlyMadHatter]

Oh yeah, definitely. I recall screencaps of PMs with transaction details. Won't namedrop anyone, but typically they would try to sell the audio for a couple hundred bucks.

Eventually, the audio was graciously leaked, which sparked a shirtstorm on message boards; folks were really bitter about the leak, and would come up with nonsense like "now we'll never see it on an official release" or "have fun with this shitty source, mine is better" etc etc.

[TheBigBoy]

I have all of them as I lived in Japan most of my life. I sold them all to Chris Sabat at a con for 500,000 dollars.

[Robo4900]

nonsense like "now we'll never see it on an official release" or "have fun with this shitty source, mine is better" etc etc.

To be fair, both of those were reasonable things to say, in the end.

The leak killed a lot of the motivation Derek Padula (main contact for passing broadcast audio to Chris Sabat), and Chris Sabat both had for it, and it killed any chance for the Japanese side who'd originally been negotiated with to maybe forgive and forget, and pass stuff along to official hands.

As for superior sources, yes, the leak was about the worst possible quality the broadcast audio could have been put out in. Far better sources exist, most of which have now leaked publicly in their raw form.
At this point, Chris Sabat has everything in its best possible form available, but if the Japanese side wanted to play nice, far better sources of almost everything, as well as a lot of missing OG DB episodes would all be available.

But sadly, a lot of bridges have been burned, so what we have is likely the best it's going to get, pretty much.
A bunch of missing OG DB episodes are likely going to turn up, and I'm seeing to it that they're passed along to Chris Sabat if so, but I doubt it'll be the whole run.

It's a complicated situation. If it hadn't been for the original leak, official interest wouldn't have died, but the higher-quality stuff wouldn't have been leaked, and thus passed along to official hands who now won't use it, and to fans who likely will use it.
Though I suppose the leaking still isn't done; allegedly it's still ongoing.

I have all of them as I lived in Japan most of my life. I sold them all to Chris Sabat at a con for 500,000 dollars.

God, don't even joke about that stuff, man. So many people talk this kind of crap, and a couple of them are exactly why the Japanese side don't talk to us anymore, which is what got us into this mess in the first place.

[HakkaiBills93]

nonsense like "now we'll never see it on an official release" or "have fun with this shitty source, mine is better" etc etc.

To be fair, both of those were reasonable things to say, in the end.

The leak killed a lot of the motivation Derek Padula (main contact for passing broadcast audio to Chris Sabat), and Chris Sabat both had for it, and it killed any chance for the Japanese side who'd originally been negotiated with to maybe forgive and forget, and pass stuff along to official hands.

As for superior sources, yes, the leak was about the worst possible quality the broadcast audio could have been put out in. Far better sources exist, most of which have now leaked publicly in their raw form.
At this point, Chris Sabat has everything in its best possible form available, but if the Japanese side wanted to play nice, far better sources of almost everything, as well as a lot of missing OG DB episodes would all be available.

But sadly, a lot of bridges have been burned, so what we have is likely the best it's going to get, pretty much.
A bunch of missing OG DB episodes are likely going to turn up, and I'm seeing to it that they're passed along to Chris Sabat if so, but I doubt it'll be the whole run.

It's a complicated situation. If it hadn't been for the original leak, official interest wouldn't have died, but the higher-quality stuff wouldn't have been leaked, and thus passed along to official hands who now won't use it, and to fans who likely will use it.
Though I suppose the leaking still isn't done; allegedly it's still ongoing.

I have all of them as I lived in Japan most of my life. I sold them all to Chris Sabat at a con for 500,000 dollars.

God, don't even joke about that stuff, man. So many people talk this kind of crap, and a couple of them are exactly why the Japanese side don't talk to us anymore, which is what got us into this mess in the first place.

what's the point Chris sabat to get the audios? Funimation don't give any kind of Shit about what fans want? they totally don't care about what is good and what is shit? giving those audios to sabat will only lead him having them, it won't be use in official release

i heard here countless time that funimation will probably do far better work, true remaster and what they'll release? what they want, not what WE want
You just need to came back into reality, Funimation will never use any kind of best source as they don't give a fuck about what is quality

The right thing to do is uploading everywhere online broadcast audios online for everyone , if you want a true remaster then take the best sources and do it yourself, keeping an useless dream of "doing the thing legally" thanks to funimation and followers that buy the crap is purely nonsense.

Giving audios to funimation is as useless as making online backup on private server with the goal of never sharing them

[Robo4900]

what's the point Chris sabat to get the audios? Funimation don't give any kind of Shit about what fans want? they totally don't care about what is good and what is shit? giving those audios to sabat will only lead him having them, it won't be use in official release

i heard here countless time that funimation will probably do far better work, true remaster and what they'll release? what they want, not what WE want
You just need to came back into reality, Funimation will never use any kind of best source as they don't give a fuck about what is quality

Sabat said he'd do everything in his power to get it on a release.

And remember, for the Season BDs, Funi did put a lot of work into decrappifying the Japanese optical audio.

Anyway... Worst case scenario, we tried.
The "nothing will ever be good everyone hates us why bother" attitudes is exactly how we got into the mess we're in with the 30th anniversary boxset; fans just presume it'll remain crap, and just roll over and take it rather than taking even the most minimal of positive action to do the right thing.
So, if you don't mind, I'd rather try to make things better in the small was I can than just wallow in my own self-pity.

[HakkaiBills93]

what's the point Chris sabat to get the audios? Funimation don't give any kind of Shit about what fans want? they totally don't care about what is good and what is shit? giving those audios to sabat will only lead him having them, it won't be use in official release

i heard here countless time that funimation will probably do far better work, true remaster and what they'll release? what they want, not what WE want
You just need to came back into reality, Funimation will never use any kind of best source as they don't give a fuck about what is quality

Sabat said he'd do everything in his power to get it on a release.

And remember, for the Season BDs, Funi did put a lot of work into decrappifying the Japanese optical audio.

he said too that he couldn't guarantee their use.
By the way, I talked with someone inside AB group, he told me that all materials used into any release Has to be approved by Toei , without that, Funimation can't use any audios without Toei agreement , so it mean chris has to convince funimation, that need to convince Toei

Do you really think chris sabat have this kind of power into funimation? else why don't asking him about making funimation correcting the 30th birthday edition?

about the season sets audios i can't say anything as the audio differrence is not so big, i read that audio sources wasn't even the same as dbox as some audios informations were into this bluray and not into the dbox one , you can't know if Funi optical audio sound a little better originally than Toei one or if this "EQ" is really something that costed many times of hard work or just some kind of quick presets



i know we shouldn't support piracy but you have more luck to convince nice audio and video fans editor to create the best release for dragon ball using them than having them used correctly into an official release

even Toei for movies bluray didn't cleaned BD audios, they just mute silent part instead of cleaning and denoising

[Robo4900]

By the way, I talked with someone inside AB group, he told me that all materials used into any release Has to be approved by Toei , without that, Funimation can't use any audios without Toei agreement , so it mean chris has to convince funimation, that need to convince Toei
[...]
Do you really think chris sabat have this kind of power into funimation? else why don't asking him about making funimation correcting the 30th birthday edition?

Toei agreeing doesn't seem like an obstacle.
Yes, they'd have to get Toei to OK whatever they want to do on a release, but I doubt Toei would particularly mind/care. If the quality is better, it wouldn't be a hard sell.

The only roadblock is if Funi don't care, then it doesn't matter who Sabat is, they would not accept his offer. Similarly and yet also conversely, if Funi do care, then it doesn't matter who Sabat is, they would accept his offer and try to get it used, likely to no resistance.

about the season sets audios i can't say anything as the audio differrence is not so big, i read that audio sources wasn't even the same as dbox as some audios informations were into this bluray and not into the dbox one , you can't know if Funi optical audio sound a little better originally than Toei one or if this "EQ" is really something that costed many times of hard work or just some kind of quick presets

The Season BD audio is the optical track from Funi's film reels, with some EQing and other such processing. Same kind of processing they'd need to apply to the broadcast audio, just with worse starting material.

-

Ultimately, though, none of this dissuedes my core thesis, which I will once again lay out...
The only chance of the broadcast audio ever getting on an official release was via him. No one else in any official position has ever been able to be pitched the idea (and no, the guys who answer Toei's public-facing emails who've handwaved offers away don't count), and he's in such a position that if Funi were ever to be convinced to use the audio, he'd easily be able to pitch it to them.

In responding to me, you started by asking what point there was in getting the audio to Chris Sabat.

So far, the extent of your argument to the effect of doubting there being reason to get the audio to Sabat has been "they'll never do it; it'll never be better; they'll never try to do better; woe is us"... In other words, the exact same attitudes that got us into this mess with the 30th anniversary release; people not just rolling over and taking whatever is dished out to us, but actively arguing against people who try to do better.

I was -- and hell, I still am! -- out there gathering broadcast audio for the only official hands who'd take it. I've spent these last three years trying to contribute and potentially make a future official release better; even if it comes to naught, I would have done my best, and unlike every idiot who's gone and preordered Funimation's latest insult to the entire fanbase, I at least tried to make a better situation, rather than just sit and complain about how sad it is that nothing will ever be better while actively criticising anyone who actually tries to make it better.

You have every right to be angry that we're in this crappy situation.
But honestly, your attitude of criticising me for trying to make it better, through the only means that has ever been available to make it better? I don't think that attitude is justified. Not one bit.

You're angry/depressed at how things are right now? You're annoyed the broadcast audio isn't being used? Email Funimation. Address is in my signature. Make your voice heard, don't just silently mumble about how awful things are and how much you don't think it'll ever change, try to make change happen.
It doesn't work? Well, you tried. You did your part. You didn't just sit by and complain about how nothing will ever change, you actually got up and did something. Trying to improve a situation won't always work, but especially when the effort required is as little as writing an email, you have no reason not to.

[HakkaiBills93]

no i am not angry or anything against what you are trying to do, i just see it as a waste of time now, for me it was something really nice to try as long as they didn't make this crappy announcement. Funimation never listen what fans asked them, they allways follow what the staffs members like etc. fans want 4/3 but last time staffs members wanted 16/9, fans fuck you, it will be 16/9, you want grain? fuck you, it will be DNR. there will be no matter what any kind of respect towards fans. If this release is 4/3, it's only cause they can't take the season sets, repackage it like that and said it's something collector
what making me keep feet in reality is:
- This release will follow some of the staffs taste not fans one (like it was told by this idiot girls from funimation)
- They already show that they ignore deliberately fans wish (4/3 against 16/9 last time) , for me it was also a staff decision
- to promote their crop, they deliberately ignore all less crop release and use all that was having more cropping, so it's really fake advertising making people trust what is 100% fake
- all their justification including the so called "answerman" position taking (that i am pretty sure was or paid by funimation or a friend of theirs) are litterraly fake informations only by watching level sets sharpness

i wrote 2-3 times to funimation and never got any answer , i am pretty sure that most people that send an email to funi about the 30th set don't get any answer (they totally don't care about our opinions taste etc..)

Funimation released a green tint version of broly to people ,when it was pointed by ajay, what did they do? did they apologize? no, they could have justify (saying for example that it's a Toei mistake) only by respect towards their fans, but what they did? ignoring .
it's just a big kind of contempt towards people.

what i was explaining with all i said hardly is that Funimation have ALL attitudes that show HOW MUCH they contempt fans, they show theirs vision of dragon ball like a product and nothing more, so with all that in mind , yes even if i would like that this project with sabat could be true, i see it as useless as in the last part, funimation constantly spits on fans

the quickier and better way to get any kind of dragon ball release using BA is spits to them the same way and send the same kind of BIG FUCK YOU to funimation by doing it
it's a little like some star wars preservation project that did themselves the work that should have been done by lucasfilm and that no matter what happened , it will never happened

i was a little fool saying that giving audios to sabat is useless, it cost nothing to give him but originally what i heard about this project was sending the audios to him and public should get the audios ONLY if funimation did something with them , so probably never

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

By the way, I talked with someone inside AB group, he told me that all materials used into any release Has to be approved by Toei , without that, Funimation can't use any audios without Toei agreement , so it mean chris has to convince funimation, that need to convince Toei
[...]
Do you really think chris sabat have this kind of power into funimation? else why don't asking him about making funimation correcting the 30th birthday edition?

Toei agreeing doesn't seem like an obstacle.
Yes, they'd have to get Toei to OK whatever they want to do on a release, but I doubt Toei would particularly mind/care. If the quality is better, it wouldn't be a hard sell.

I see no way that Toei wouldn't care. There is the very real cultural aspect of Japanese honour to consider. The difference in quality between the broadcast audio and the Dragonbox audio is drastic, and would forever render the Dragonbox as a "lesser" release.

This is why I figured there was no way that FUNimation's 30th anniversary set would include the broadcast audio, even though it is now in FUNimation's hands. There is no way that Toei would allow what's been made available in Japan to be shown up to such a degree by some foreign release. Now, Toei could very well do a broadcast audio release in Japan (and of course, we all hope they would someday), but allowing FUNimation or any other dubbing company worldwide to do so before they do so in Japan would be shooting themselves in the foot by encouraging reverse-importation among Japanese customers.

It's worth keeping in mind that when FUNimation started releasing DBZ on DVD in 2000, it was still a few years before the Dragonboxes. At that point, no home release of the series proper had ever been made available in Japan. FUNimation's releases were (rather infamously) missing the next episode previews. Apparently, this was due to FUNi never having been provided Toei's Japanese audio tracks for the previews, and the general assumption among fandom at the time was that Toei didn't provide them with those materials so as to prevent any reverse-importation by Japanese fans. This had the effect of making FUNimation's earliest releases seem "lesser" and incomplete, which made the Dragonboxes all the more appealing when they were later produced.

[Captain Awesome]

I see no way that Toei wouldn't care. There is the very real cultural aspect of Japanese honour to consider. The difference in quality between the broadcast audio and the Dragonbox audio is drastic, and would forever render the Dragonbox as a "lesser" release.

Hahahahaha.

Where did you learn about Japanese culture?, Lego Ninjago?

[Robo4900]

I see no way that Toei wouldn't care. There is the very real cultural aspect of Japanese honour to consider. The difference in quality between the broadcast audio and the Dragonbox audio is drastic, and would forever render the Dragonbox as a "lesser" release.

This is why I figured there was no way that FUNimation's 30th anniversary set would include the broadcast audio, even though it is now in FUNimation's hands. There is no way that Toei would allow what's been made available in Japan to be shown up to such a degree by some foreign release. Now, Toei could very well do a broadcast audio release in Japan (and of course, we all hope they would someday), but allowing FUNimation or any other dubbing company worldwide to do so before they do so in Japan would be shooting themselves in the foot by encouraging reverse-importation among Japanese customers.

Toei has never shown any problem with such a thing.

The DVD singles started coming out bilingual before Japan got the Dragon Boxes, the Levels and the Funi HD movie masters came out with Japan having no HD equivalent, the filtering on Funi's Season BDs makes the Japanese audio significantly more listenable than the DBox...
IIRC there were also bilingual releases in various other countries before Japan in addition to Funi, many of which are rather great in quality, particularly for the movies, which were often available in the open-matte 4:3 presentation which was never put out in Japan.

There's no Japanese honour at play here, and there's none of the reverse-importing concerns that a lot of people justify this take with.

It's worth keeping in mind that when FUNimation started releasing DBZ on DVD in 2000, it was still a few years before the Dragonboxes. At that point, no home release of the series proper had ever been made available in Japan. FUNimation's releases were (rather infamously) missing the next episode previews. Apparently, this was due to FUNi never having been provided Toei's Japanese audio tracks for the previews, and the general assumption among fandom at the time was that Toei didn't provide them with those materials so as to prevent any reverse-importation by Japanese fans. This had the effect of making FUNimation's earliest releases seem "lesser" and incomplete, which made the Dragonboxes all the more appealing when they were later produced.

Funi started releasing stuff in 1996, with it being bilingual starting in 1999.

Fan assumption means nothing. It's not even useful speculation in this case, as there's no sources to back up even the simple idea of Funi never being provided the NEPs.
At the very least, what will have happened is the Spanish DigiBeta footage didn't include the proper NEP footage or something, but that gap was filled when Funi acquired film of the show in about 2006.

But I honestly don't see how Funi excluding NEPs means anything to this discussion... Funi have had superior releases out compared to what Japan's had many times over, I don't see how broadcast audio somehow crosses some mystical line all of a sudden.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Funi started releasing stuff in 1996, with it being bilingual starting in 1999.

Fan assumption means nothing. It's not even useful speculation in this case, as there's no sources to back up even the simple idea of Funi never being provided the NEPs.
At the very least, what will have happened is the Spanish DigiBeta footage didn't include the proper NEP footage or something, but that gap was filled when Funi acquired film of the show in about 2006.

Not counting bilingual releases of the movies (which had already been made commercially available in Japan years earlier on VHS and Laserdisc), FUNimation's first bilingual DVD releases of the series proper were in 2000. The DVDs released in 1999 were the dub-only releases of the first two seasons by Pioneer.

Regarding the missing audio for the next episode previews at the time, it wasn't just fan assumption. When it became known that Steve Simmons was the one doing the Japanese to English translations for the subtitles on FUNimation's DVDs, Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored mentioned in his review of the first two DVD releases that Simmons issued a report saying that the master tapes provided by Toei were "unfinished" and that the audio for the next episode previews was missing.

Yes, we know that FUNimation got them later (circa 2006 as you mention) as they were included in the North American Dragonboxes, but by that point they had already been released in Japan years earlier.

I agree that FUNimation's cancelled 2011 "level" Blu-rays were of superior quality to anything available in Japan video-wise, but it was an entirely different situation by that point. Prior to the Dragonboxes, none of the series proper had ever received home release in Japan in any form, making them particularly special. For the second major release that is (most likely) yet to come, it's not like it's inconceivable that Toei will eventually do their own remastered Blu-ray release. It's just a matter of time, but we'll still be stuck with the crappy audio situation. The broadcast audio is so much better than the audio available on past releases, and would also be an admission on Toei's part that they made a huge mistake in throwing out the old master audio tapes back in the day. Silly as it may seem to us fans who just want the best possible release, I don't see how it wouldn't be a sensitive type of issue for them.

For what it's worth, we also have other users on this very forum mentioning how "difficult" Toei is to deal with.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I have seen somewhere around here before although i don't know for certain, sometime in around 2000/2001 or so that there were fans of the series in Japan who were in fact importing FUNi's Z single discs being that the series proper wasn't released by Toei until a few years later with the Dragon Boxes. Of course as we know, prior to them coming out the only Dragon Ball things on home video in Japan at that point were the DB/DBZ movies on VHS and Laserdisc.

That's really something when you think about it, as in it took so many years for them to get a release while here and elsewhere had home releases of the show while the series was still airing on TV in Japan.

[Robo4900]

I agree that FUNimation's cancelled 2011 "level" Blu-rays were of superior quality to anything available in Japan video-wise, but it was an entirely different situation by that point. Prior to the Dragonboxes, none of the series proper had ever received home release in Japan in any form, making them particularly special. For the second major release that is (most likely) yet to come, it's not like it's inconceivable that Toei will eventually do their own remastered Blu-ray release. It's just a matter of time, but we'll still be stuck with the crappy audio situation. The broadcast audio is so much better than the audio available on past releases, and would also be an admission on Toei's part that they made a huge mistake in throwing out the old master audio tapes back in the day. Silly as it may seem to us fans who just want the best possible release, I don't see how it wouldn't be a sensitive type of issue for them.

... I don't see how what you say here addresses my underlying point.

If Funi were allowed to put out the Levels in 2011, then I see no reason Toei would block them using the broadcast audio now. It was, to quote you, so much better than what was out in Japan. It's just that this is video instead of audio.

And as for any ideas of admission of a mistake... I don't see that...?
Yes, I know Japanese culture has some weird ideas about various things, which make their way into the business side -- just look at Toei's weird focus on TV deals that pushed Kai TFC and Super back so far for Funi -- but I really don't see why Toei USA would have anything against Funi doing yet another thing that would make one of their releases superior to the Japanese release, on top of the mountains of things they've done over the years, especially given what I've heard about how Toei USA is run; the head of Toei USA is apparently a pretty much 100% business-orientated person. Better quality audio sounds like a good business thing for a home video release.

I just don't see the audio being a problem. More likely, Funi just don't care, and would rather spend their time putting out automated remasters that require no work, no money, no manpower aside from the marketing, and get rich off the ridiculous profit margins of such crap, rather than actually put in any work, talk to Toei about improving the audio on their release, etc.
To me, this really just sounds like you've already got the idea that you don't think Toei will let it happen, and you're just reaching for reasons why. We really have no reason to believe Toei would care; they never have.

For what it's worth, we also have other users on this very forum mentioning how "difficult" Toei is to deal with.

That's my buddy Sangofe. I'm pretty sure he's referring to fans who tried to use the public-facing email addresses to tell Toei "we have this audio you may want!!" and the reps just giving a "Thanks but no thanks" form response type thing.

[sangofe]

I agree that FUNimation's cancelled 2011 "level" Blu-rays were of superior quality to anything available in Japan video-wise, but it was an entirely different situation by that point. Prior to the Dragonboxes, none of the series proper had ever received home release in Japan in any form, making them particularly special. For the second major release that is (most likely) yet to come, it's not like it's inconceivable that Toei will eventually do their own remastered Blu-ray release. It's just a matter of time, but we'll still be stuck with the crappy audio situation. The broadcast audio is so much better than the audio available on past releases, and would also be an admission on Toei's part that they made a huge mistake in throwing out the old master audio tapes back in the day. Silly as it may seem to us fans who just want the best possible release, I don't see how it wouldn't be a sensitive type of issue for them.

... I don't see how what you say here addresses my underlying point.

If Funi were allowed to put out the Levels in 2011, then I see no reason Toei would block them using the broadcast audio now. It was, to quote you, so much better than what was out in Japan. It's just that this is video instead of audio.

And as for any ideas of admission of a mistake... I don't see that...?
Yes, I know Japanese culture has some weird ideas about various things, which make their way into the business side -- just look at Toei's weird focus on TV deals that pushed Kai TFC and Super back so far for Funi -- but I really don't see why Toei USA would have anything against Funi doing yet another thing that would make one of their releases superior to the Japanese release, on top of the mountains of things they've done over the years, especially given what I've heard about how Toei USA is run; the head of Toei USA is apparently a pretty much 100% business-orientated person. Better quality audio sounds like a good business thing for a home video release.

I just don't see the audio being a problem. More likely, Funi just don't care, and would rather spend their time putting out automated remasters that require no work, no money, no manpower aside from the marketing, and get rich off the ridiculous profit margins of such crap, rather than actually put in any work, talk to Toei about improving the audio on their release, etc.
To me, this really just sounds like you've already got the idea that you don't think Toei will let it happen, and you're just reaching for reasons why. We really have no reason to believe Toei would care; they never have.

For what it's worth, we also have other users on this very forum mentioning how "difficult" Toei is to deal with.

That's my buddy Sangofe. I'm pretty sure he's referring to fans who tried to use the public-facing email addresses to tell Toei "we have this audio you may want!!" and the reps just giving a "Thanks but no thanks" form response type thing.

Toei being difficult to deal with has nothing to do with audio. It was for a group in Germany that tried to license DBZ Kai. Toei were being difficult asking for a lot of money for the license and wanting a guanrantee the company being financially successful with the license. And a group in the scandinavian countries that were trying hard to get DBS Broly out in cinemas in Scandinavia. Toei basically don't want to deal with groups that they're not sure are gonna bring them in §§§§.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

If Funi were allowed to put out the Levels in 2011, then I see no reason Toei would block them using the broadcast audio now. It was, to quote you, so much better than what was out in Japan. It's just that this is video instead of audio.

There is a major difference between the audio and video situation though. When it comes to the video, Toei would have no problem at all remastering the series themselves and creating a video track as good (if not better than) FUNi's 2011 Level sets if they're willing to spend the money to do so. We're already seeing the beginnings of a rather excellent-looking video remastering process going on in Japan with the Bardock and Trunks TV specials on GYAO. FUNimation didn't do anything in 2011 that Toei couldn't do themselves.

However, when it comes to the audio? Those original broadcast audio master tapes were foolishly discarded by Toei. To reacquire the broadcast audio will require assistance from fans. I just don't see pride not getting in the way of that.

Don't get me wrong: we all want this to happen. The fact that the broadcast audio finally turned up in recent years is amazing, because there was a time not too long ago (when the Dragonbox was released) that we all thought it was lost forever. The fact that it has been confirmed to exist in its entirety now (at least in the case of DBZ), means that it should logically be made available on some future home release along with excellently remastered video. I just don't assume that it will happen.

And as for any ideas of admission of a mistake... I don't see that...?
Yes, I know Japanese culture has some weird ideas about various things, which make their way into the business side -- just look at Toei's weird focus on TV deals that pushed Kai TFC and Super back so far for Funi -- but I really don't see why Toei USA would have anything against Funi doing yet another thing that would make one of their releases superior to the Japanese release, on top of the mountains of things they've done over the years, especially given what I've heard about how Toei USA is run; the head of Toei USA is apparently a pretty much 100% business-orientated person. Better quality audio sounds like a good business thing for a home video release.

You would think so, but the "weird ideas" often appear to be an intrinsic part of their society. To use another long-running and popular Japanese franchise as an example, take a look at Pokémon (or Pocket Monsters). I was shocked when I heard that in Japan, no proper DVD release of the series has ever been given. There are scattered episodes available here and there, but no way to legally acquire a vast amount of the episodes in a consistent format. Additionally, the DVDs that are available are intended for rental only. Japanese fans cannot legally purchase them.

Also, the Japanese version of the show is strictly prohibited from being licensed for home release in other countries, so bilingual releases featuring the English and Japanese versions of the show (for example) are non-existent.

More likely, Funi just don't care, and would rather spend their time putting out automated remasters that require no work, no money, no manpower aside from the marketing, and get rich off the ridiculous profit margins of such crap, rather than actually put in any work, talk to Toei about improving the audio on their release, etc.

I agree with this as a secondary reason for why we wouldn't get it. If they had any real dedication to the fans and didn't want to cheapen out, the 30th Anniversary Blu-ray set would've been the perfect opportunity to do it (particularly if they did a proper remaster of the video instead of the latest hack job they're offering up).

To me, this really just sounds like you've already got the idea that you don't think Toei will let it happen, and you're just reaching for reasons why. We really have no reason to believe Toei would care; they never have.

Entirely possible. It's not like I'm deliberately trying to be pessimistic here, but I don't find my arguments to be unrealistic either. Likewise, I think you're being a little too optimistic about the matter even though as a fan I hope you would end up being right in the long run.