I dunno why, but every time I went to do something I would have an issue come up. I got sick of the topic, rewrote it about three times and finally had the thing toasted by a power surge this past Monday when the wind was blowing up to 60 MPH. My HDD is gone, along with my entire multimedia collection and a bunch of personal crap.
In short, no review. I feel bad about it on some levels and on others I don't at all. I kinda felt like a tool at times for putting so much effort into a review about a cartoon, especially having said so much before. So, here's my review in summarized form:
FUNimation did a competent encode in terms of bitrate, but the video was still slightly anemic due to the three language tracks with nearly three hours of video per disc. One more disc could have helped things significantly, but at least they didn't keep it at 5 discs like originally intended.
The DVNR was horribly applied, resulting in loss of animation detail. This wasn't a carefully performed remaster job, it was a automated rush job that's embarassing to me and should be to FUNimation. It doesn't make the show look "new," in fact it's worse than FUNimation's prior attempts to rejuvenate the footage. Best part? $850.00 an hour is the base rate for what VP&T did, per Terry Hall (their Exec. Producer, who I spoke to). Guess FUNimation got what they paid for.
Speaking of which, if the color and so on is untouched, I'm the love child of David Lee Roth and Eddie Murphy.
Finally, the widescreen was horrible. It causes unnecessary loss of footage and anyone who supports it (in terms of advocating the aspect ratio, not buying the set) is an idiot. It doesn't make the show "more cinematic" or "show more footage," it simply makes the show more viable to idiots who believe FUNimation's spin that has so many gaping holes in it that Tommy Lee, Peter North and Ron Jeremy could fuck it for days and not stretch it out. Look at Amazon.com for proof, where I was told that "you are nor real dbz fan." THAT is the target demographic here, guys. 9 year olds that are "born every day."
As for the audio? Yay, 5.1!...That sounds like I mixed it with a portastudio (if not worse)! Seriously, the mix isn't exactly inspiring and the levels need work (BGM dwarfed by SFX and vocals, anyone?).
And missing songs? Yeah, no compromises my ass. Either FUNimation got cheap, or they remained incompetent as they've always been with DBZ.
What else...
The packaging is bleh but who really cares. Everything else is basically nitpicking. FUNimation is offering a package that's worth every bit that they're charging and that speaks volumes. Before, the show was worth up to $8.31/episode... now it's worth $1.28/episode.
Gee, I wonder if they realized they fucked up, and the only way they could make a killing with these sets was to make them so cheap that every idiot would come out of the woodwork and support them? I mean, after all, IT'S SO CHEAP!.
Frankly, I'm sick of the rampant stupidity regarding the subject and have written volumes and even done a podcast about it. DBZ fans have the disadvantage of having a lot of stupid people in their demographic, so yet again they get screwed. FUNimation lied excessively and blatantly. No one really cares. I cared, but now I don't, and now I'm done.
Sorry for the tone of this post, but I'm exhausted and pissed because of all the shit I lost. If people wanna ask questions, I did a full tech workup on the discs and can remember all of it.
Thank you, goodnight Cleveland!!!! *ignites flashpots*
-Corey
