FUNimation Future Plans (+ OVA Thoughts)

[tarsonis]

and really the story is not that interesting anyway.

Is it worse than the stories of the "Dragon Ball Z" movies though?

I'm inclined to say yes, it is.

[Folken-sama]

As for the "OVA".... what was the big deal anyway? It was just animated cutscenes for a video game that's it!

The video game only recycled animation from the existing OVA.

[Olivier Hague]

and really the story is not that interesting anyway.

Is it worse than the stories of the "Dragon Ball Z" movies though?

I'm inclined to say yes, it is.

Well, I'm not...
Are you thinking of a movie in particular, out of curiosity?

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

There definitely won't be a release of the playdia footage, but it wouldn't be such a bad idea to release the footage for viewers who have yet to see it.

[MisterFlashdude]

Since there seems to be some confusion as to just what kind of footage you're all going on about..

Oh, well, see? It's so obscure, I'm not even sure what the hell it is...

I'll take out a few of the key points from the guide on the site, just the points that I think will make things easier to understand here.

In August 1993, a game was released for the Famicom (NES) in Japan entitled Gaiden: Saiya-jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Side Story: The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans). The plot revolved around a Tsufuru-jin seeking revenge for their destruction. Done in the traditional card-battle style of the time, it was one of the later games released for the Famicom (actually done after the Super Famicom / SNES had already been released!).

That same month, two VHS volumes were released, called "Official Visual Guides" for the games. What were they? Completely new, fully-animated, fully-voiced features telling the story to the game!

Amazingly, Bandai was able to pull together production on these "Visual Guides" that showcased the original cast in an all-new animated feature that essentially walked players through the "correct" path in the game. Released in two parts (Jôkan / Part 1, and Gekan / Part 2), these "Visual Guides" received an OVA-style release.

~[Snip]

In 1994, two games were released for a system that few people in the US have even heard of: the PlayDia, a system released by Bandai, themselves.
~
September and December of 1994, respectively, saw the release of parts 1 and 2 of Gaiden: Saiya-jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Side Story: The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans).
~~
The footage used in the two PlayDia games is the exact same footage released to home video as the "Official Visual Guides" a year earlier (it's slightly more pixelated in its compression for the video game system, but it's still the same footage).
~~~
In a shock to fans, Toei Animation included the footage in its entirety as an extra on their second DragonBall Z "Dragon Box" (giant DVD box set) in Japan, released in 2003. While the footage for this feature wasn't "remastered" (as the rest of the series was), it finally received another release on a decent home format.

And there you have it. First the famicon game, which had the 'visual guide' released depicting the 'correct' path through the game, a year later adapted and released for the Playdia using the 'OVA/Guide' footage.

You can get VegettoEX's synopsis for the footage here, including small screen shots.

Personally, I think that it should only be re-released in the fasion that it was in Japan... as an extra to a super box set filled with other such extras. I don't see it being translated and dubbed and released now. Maybe if it was demanded years ago, at Dragonball's peak popularity in America... but not now.

[Castor Troy]

What sucks even more is that the OVA on the Dragonbox dvd doesn't even show ALL the footage. I think it just shows all the footage from the correct paths in the game.

I think there's some funny footage of Piccolo putting on a radiation suit that's not in the DVD.

[tarsonis]

Is it worse than the stories of the "Dragon Ball Z" movies though?

I'm inclined to say yes, it is.

Well, I'm not...
Are you thinking of a movie in particular, out of curiosity?

I'm just saying that in the movies, where you have decent plots, although sometimes simplistic, and interesting villains is where the ova falls short. It doesn't have the quality of most of the movies, in my opinion.

[Olivier Hague]

What sucks even more is that the OVA on the Dragonbox dvd doesn't even show ALL the footage.

Again, the OVAs were released before the Playdia games. You can't expect them to include Playdia-exclusive footage.

I'm just saying that in the movies, where you have decent plots, although sometimes simplistic, and interesting villains is where the ova falls short. It doesn't have the quality of most of the movies, in my opinion.

Decent plots? Interesting villains? I don't know, I'd say they're on the same level, really (i.e. "low")...
Heck, I'd actually give the OVAs extra points for the scene where Vegeta and Dr. Raichi argue about the relations between their two species. Who's right? If it's Dr. Raichi, is Vegeta lying or simply wrong? What was he told? It's a fairly short bit, but it's slightly intriguing.

Technically speaking, the movies are obviously superior, but apart from that...
Oh, well.

[Goshin]

I actually enjoyed the OVA, I think it does fine as a stand alone "feature". But I still don't think Funi will release it unless they actually market it 5 years from now as a "Lost Movie". I mean, they did it to the first 16 episodes of GT, so who's not to think they'd do something like that again. It's doubtful I think, but still plausible.