USA DVD Releases

[Hellspawn28]

Battle of Gods and Resurrection F have good home video releases.

Not if you actually want to watch them in Japanese.

You can watch BOG and ROF in Japanese. Both of them on Blu-Ray have the choice to watch them dubbed or subbed. I don't know why you get the idea that you can't watch them in Japanese?

[Gaffer Tape]

Because it's not the actual Japanese audio track. If, for example, I bought a Dragon Ball DVD, and the entire thing was great except for three minutes where, for some reason, Goku was voiced by Sean Schemmel, even on the Japanese track, I would cry foul, no matter whose decision it is. And so I do here.

[TheAmericanDream]

I'm confused, what is wrong with the Battle of Gods US release? What's different from the Japanese Blu Ray version.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I'm assuming what you're talking about is the replacement songs where we have no choice but to hear the 'English' versions even on the Japanese track, right?

I agree that whoever made that decision at Toei seriously needs to re-consider what they're doing (it's pretty much the only reason I've been happy for no insert songs in Super yet), and agree that it's an issue, but is it really a bad enough one to make those releases not 'good'? Everything else on the release is fine, isn't it?

[Gaffer Tape]

Is it orange brick bad? Probably not. But by the time you factor in the visual differences since FUNimation refuses to include the Japanese credits and now altered audio, it's become something of a Frankenstein's monster of a product, stitched together from all over the place. I just want to watch the damn movie as it appeared in theatres. This is not it. And just like I won't pay good money to see George Lucas throw CG droppings all over the Star Wars movies, I'm not going to pay for something like this. "JUST" the title card and credits problem? Maybe I could ignore that. But I can't ignore something so intrusive into the movie itself.

[Gyt Kaliba]

The audio thing isn't exactly FUNimation's fault though, as far as I know, it's Toei's (again, assuming you're talking about the songs - if it's something else, I'm entirely unaware of what that would be). As far as the credits go, I do wish that we got two video tracks for that sort of thing just like we used to back in the earlier days of the company, like how we used to get a dubtitles track (which was handy for spot-checking dub dialogue you might not be able to make out easily).

Fair enough though, we all have our breaking points on what will cause us to support or not support a product. What's just a minor annoyance for me is definitely far more for you, and that's fine and understandable.

[Gaffer Tape]

The audio thing isn't exactly FUNimation's fault though

I'm aware, and like I said above, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. I'm not not buying it to spite FUNimation. I'm not buying it because the product does not live up to my expectations. And, yes, to clarify, I am talking about the songs.

[TheAmericanDream]

Was it a rights issue with the songs? I'm honestly perplexed as to why it happens at all. Why not have both versions of the songs and credits? It's not as if the Blu Ray disc cannot fit all that content separately on two tracks, so I assume this was in 2015 a rights issue? Or maybe they thought nobody would complain.

[Soppa Saia People]

The two disc DVD sets for Dragon Ball is very slightly better then the Blue Bricks.
IIRC the old DVD sets for GT have the NEP.

Slightly better how?
And well, losing the NEP is sad but I'd rather have a boxed set than a bunch of unorganized DVD's.

For one it has the JPN credits and two it is sightly less cropped.

[Kid Buu]

The song being dubbed is kinda annoying but I think the BOG/ROF Blurays are a good package. I think I'm overall content with most of Funi's releases for the series. Most of my favourite anime don't even have proper releases. :/

[Gyt Kaliba]

I think I'm overall content with most of Funi's releases for the series. Most of my favourite anime don't even have proper releases. :/

That's something a lot of people don't keep in mind, I feel. I mean, it's not entirely relevant since different series and all, but there are tons of shows - anime and otherwise - that are treated far worse on home video than Dragon Ball has been, if they get a home release at all.

[Kid Buu]

Yeah, if the original Saint Seiya series got even the Orange Bricks treatment, I'd swipe it up in an instant!

[Pokewhiz7]

There is a strange issue on the Bardock single, I believe. Originally, on screen, they would introduce a planet, with the name written in Japanese at the bottom of the screen, e.g. "Planet Vegeta". It fades in, so on the dub track, they just freeze-framed the screen before the text fades in for a second, but oddly, that also happened in the Japanese track once.

[Gaffer Tape]

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, when they show Planet Vegeta, that's what Mike was talking about, where the alternate angle was switching. So it stops momentarily to jump back after that shot with Japanese text.

[Pokewhiz7]

I thought he was only referring to the actual title card at the beginning (i.e. the name of the special). I don't think the original shot is on the DVD at all.

[Gaffer Tape]

Because the opening shot of Planet Vegeta has Japanese text on it saying the name of the planet, I believe it's part of the same video clip as the Japanese title card. But I'm saying all of this off of memory, so I could be mistaken. But if that's not the case, I can't say I've ever noticed any other "freeze-frame" problems on that release.

[Pokewhiz7]

Because the opening shot of Planet Vegeta has Japanese text on it saying the name of the planet, I believe it's part of the same video clip as the Japanese title card. But I'm saying all of this off of memory, so I could be mistaken. But if that's not the case, I can't say I've ever noticed any other "freeze-frame" problems on that release.

Alright, I was hoping I could get away with being lazy, but I went back and checked on my own. I own both the DVD single and the remastered Blu-ray double feature. Here is what I am referring to:

DVD Single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i7HWstlF6g
Blu-ray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9vPT7JjyxA

(I don't have a DVD or Blu-ray drive in my computer.)

[Gonstead]

The song being dubbed is kinda annoying but I think the BOG/ROF Blurays are a good package. I think I'm overall content with most of Funi's releases for the series. Most of my favourite anime don't even have proper releases. :/

I personally think it's incredibly petty to be annoyed over such minor details like English credits and a single piece of music that you don't even pay proper attention to while watching the movie itself. Hell, for English credits alone you might as well stop buying any future western anime releases, learn Japanese and go import the Japanese releases.

I'll agree on being content with Funi's releases. Anything that Madman imported over from them I've never had a single issue with. Unlike Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex who either tend to bare-bone their releases, use inferior audio, lock subtitles to the Japanese track, hold English subtitles hostage and force you to buy a version that has them or even not subtitling the Japanese extras at all (I'm still pissed Aniplex did this with the Madoka Rebellion releases).

I mean, look what Funi did with Battle of Gods. Not only did they give us the version that aired in theaters but they also secured the rights to release the extended version well before the Japanese. Can you imagine what kind of deal they had to go through to do that, especially with a notorious company like Toei?

It's like what you have quoted in your sig - "Fans of most anime shows would drool to get as much stuff as DBZ fans get. Like, absolutely perfect [DVDs], but just with English credits or something...drive em nuts".

[Theophrastus]

Unlike Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex who either tend to bare-bone their releases, use inferior audio, lock subtitles to the Japanese track, hold English subtitles hostage and force you to buy a version that has them or even not subtitling the Japanese extras at all (I'm still pissed Aniplex did this with the Madoka Rebellion releases).

Maybe I'm not in a position to comment on this since it's been years since I actually bought an anime DVD in general (I've moved completely onto legal streaming for the most part), but in my experience Funimation's releases also tend to be fairly bare bones, at least as far as TV series are concerned. You'll generally get one or two episodes worth of commentary from the dub cast/staff (which is nice if you enjoy the dub side of things but I imagine useless if you only care about the original Japanese), textless OP and ED, and...trailers for other shows because ads somehow qualify as a special feature.

Is that really much better than what their competition offers on that particular front?

[Gyt Kaliba]

For what it's worth, I do wish FUNi had been able to nab more Japanese side extras for the latest two movies. I can still remember all of the great trailers and such we had for Battle of Gods specifically, which we were all speculating wildly over with each new sneak peek. I'd have loved to have those on the release here to relive that experience with ease.