The Steel Box Arrives- Trunks/Bardock DVDs Remastered

[Tanooki Kuribo]

So, anyone surprised this was announced for Blu-ray?

It was? Where?

[MajinVejitaXV]

So, anyone surprised this was announced for Blu-ray?

It was? Where?

FUNi's panel at Katsucon. I left before it took place, I had to get back to Northern VA.

Though there was a cute girl at the FUNimation booth in the merchandise hall ;p

-Corey

[SonEric84]

Personally, I wish they would have done some redubbing, because most of the voices in the Bardock special are downright terrible, it almost hurts my ears to listen to Bardock's crew ("Tora" was the only decent one.)

Not to mention that the dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who didn't even understand japanese. Seriously, the dub directly contradicts the japanese version at least one time. (Dub: This kid will grow up to be a great warrior someday! Sub: He sucks. Let's send him to a planet filled with wimps.)

Yeah, that's another thing that bugged the hell out of me. Do the writers even look at the translated scripts?

[Raki]

Personally, I wish they would have done some redubbing, because most of the voices in the Bardock special are downright terrible, it almost hurts my ears to listen to Bardock's crew ("Tora" was the only decent one.)

Not to mention that the dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who didn't even understand japanese. Seriously, the dub directly contradicts the japanese version at least one time. (Dub: This kid will grow up to be a great warrior someday! Sub: He sucks. Let's send him to a planet filled with wimps.)

Yeah, that's another thing that bugged the hell out of me. Do the writers even look at the translated scripts?

If I'm a Funimation writer for DBZ,the only thing you need to read is the amount of cash on the paycheck.

That's it,i'm only watching these TV Specials in the Japanese with subtitles.

[XxArmageddonX7]

Just took a look at the Best Buy ad in the paper today and they're having a sale. If you get both Season 4 and the TV Special set, it'll only cost $45, knocking roughly $15 off the deal. Just wanted to let that be known incase anyone else was planning on getting both.

I pre-ordered this last month..I should have waited. Now I got to pay $85 for them.

[Son Wukong]

It really buged me that they released Movie 8 & 10 and then Movie 1 &2 on Blu-ray and then left these two special on DVD.
Eventually I knew they would release it on Blu-ray....and they did.
So it didn't surprise me....just as it doesn't surprise me that Toshiba is going Blu-ray

[snaku]

So, anyone surprised this was announced for Blu-ray? I am kinda happy I didn't pick this set up today.

Not at all, and I'll be waiting for that version.

[MagicBox]

Got mine today at Wal*Mart for about $23 along with the One Piece movie (also $23). I'll just point out things that I noticed, and also re-confirm some things for you guys just for the heck of it.

English with Japanese Music Track:
- Burdock special has "Head-Cha-La," Trunks doesn't.
- Both Burdock and Trunks retain their original ending songs, with vocals intact and everything. And they sound goooood.
- "Solid State Scouter" is kept in Burdock for those of you who were afraid for some reason that it would be left out.

I remember that in the season sets, people were complaining that the English dialogue and sound effects overpower the Japanese music. Let me just say that the problem is fixed for this set. The Burdock special is mixed almost perfectly. The music and the dialogue are pretty equally balanced. The Trunks special, though, is a little worse, and not in the way you might think, either. In Trunks, the Japanese music actually greatly overpowers the rest of the track, especially the sound effects. I had to turn my rear speakers down just to hear the dialogue, and even then, I could barely hear the sound effects. A little tinkering with my surround sould volume fixed it for the most part, though, so it's not a big problem. Also, the voices in the Trunks special sounded a little distorted at times, especially when the voices echo. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but AnimeonDVD's review of the set touched upon this issue as well, so I know it's not just mine. Everything's fine in the Burdock special, though.

Japanese Track:
- On-par with FUNimation's other DVDs for the series. Not perfect and slightly muffled, but nothing worse than what we've gotten. Maybe a teensy bit better, actually, since this is of higher quality than the series itself.

Revised Dialogue:
- Haven't noticed anything so far. For the record, I've never seen the Burdock special, so I wouldn't have any idea if anything was revised or not. I watched the Trunks special, though, and I didn't notice anything.
- Kyle Hebert has redubbed all of the narrator lines that Dale Kelly originally recorded, but for some reason, the credits still credit Mr. Kelly as the narrator. I guess FUNimation was too lazy to revise the credits.
- I think Nappa was redubbed by Phil Parsons as well, but again, I have not seen the old version, so I've nothing to compare.

Oh, and speaking of the end credits, you guys don't have to worry about the footage being cropped out of them. Most of the footage cropped from the credits was cropped from the bottom, so you can still see that top-left box of scenes playing just fine. A little bit's cropped from the top, but only a little. When you guys watch it, you'll see what I mean.

Also, in the Japanese version, both the opening credits and ending credits are intact, all the way down to the karaoke lyrics at the bottom, so that's a nice little bonus as well. Also, yes, the special eyecatchers have been re-inserted back into the specials, and they look awesome. I had never seen them until now, and they really are cool; the one for the Trunks special made me smile.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

I'm gonna be gettin' this one!

(It IS gonna be released in regular DVD format, right? )

[MajinVejitaXV]

I'm gonna be gettin' this one!

(It IS gonna be released in regular DVD format, right? )

Nope, Laser Disc only.

-Corey

[VegettoEX]

I probably skimmed over this, but out of morbid curiosity, does the non-JP-BGM-dub-track contain all of the music from the original VHS/DVD release, like Sum-41 and American Hi-Fi closing out the Bardock special?

That was... interesting...

[Kaboom]

I probably skimmed over this, but out of morbid curiosity, does the non-JP-BGM-dub-track contain all of the music from the original VHS/DVD release, like Sum-41 and American Hi-Fi closing out the Bardock special?

That was... interesting...

Ooh, that's right. I second this question.


I hope it does... I always found them pretty cool. >.>

[DaemonCorps]

Nice review, MagicBox, though considering that the ending credits move the footage to the corner with the rest being blank space, you'd think FUNi would just crop the bottom part. Though from the sound of it, they did an alright job with that.

Got mine today at Wal*Mart for about $23 along with the One Piece movie (also $23).

I completely forgot about WalMart. Ever since Media Play and Suncoast got shut down here, I automatically assumed that there were no other places to pick up my anime DVDs (with exception to Borders, which sells everything at retail price and mainly focuses on Naruto stuff in terms of anime) so I resorted to getting my DBZ stuff online.

[SonEric84]

I probably skimmed over this, but out of morbid curiosity, does the non-JP-BGM-dub-track contain all of the music from the original VHS/DVD release, like Sum-41 and American Hi-Fi closing out the Bardock special?

That was... interesting...

I've only watched dub with the JP track so far, but they still had the bands listed in the American credit roll.

[MagicBox]

I probably skimmed over this, but out of morbid curiosity, does the non-JP-BGM-dub-track contain all of the music from the original VHS/DVD release, like Sum-41 and American Hi-Fi closing out the Bardock special?

That was... interesting...

Yep, "Makes no Difference" by Sum-41 and "A Bigger Mood" by American Hi-Fi still play during the credits.

To be honest, I can't really say I'll be watching the dub-with-dub-music track, but I have noticed one instance of replaced music so far. At the end of the Trunks special, "Through Her Eyes" by Dream Theater originally played at the end of the dub, but on this version, it's been replaced by Mark Menza's ending music for the regular episodes (If it helps, it's the music that plays during "ZENKAI Power" on the season sets when the dub music is selected.). I know quite a few people liked that song, so I guess some fans will be a little disappointed to see it replaced.

Strangely enough, though it's been replaced, the song and its artist is still credited in the end credits for being there. But as I said in my earlier post, FUNimation didn't update the credits, which is why the song is still credited and why Dale Kelly is still credited as the dub narrator.

EDIT: Oh, and before I forget, after watching both specials, I can honestly say that I did not notice a single instance of disappearing lines anywhere. If it did happen, it was either very brief or very minor, because I didn't see anything. The specials are still as cropped as ever, but that aside, it really doesn't look too bad. Darn good, actually, for a FUNi Dragon Ball release.

[Sshadow5001]

I'll probably pick this up at some point and try to merge the Audio tracks from this set to the original 4:3 video from the old DVD'S (If thats possible?).

[Raki]

I'm gonna be gettin' this one!

(It IS gonna be released in regular DVD format, right? )

Nope, Laser Disc only.

-Corey

I hear Laser Disc is the future. I can't wait to watch remastered TV specials on Laser Disc.

[SatoSky]

I'll probably pick this up at some point and try to merge the Audio tracks from this set to the original 4:3 video from the old DVD'S (If thats possible?).

It's possible, but you may run into some synch issues because the old DVD's do not have the eye catches. You can either insert them letterboxed into the 4:3 footage, or remove that particular portion of the audio stream. Though I don't know if you can remove it without having to recompress the audio stream.

Yep, "Makes no Difference" by Sum-41 and "A Bigger Mood" by American Hi-Fi still play during the credits.

Wow, talk about not fitting the mood of the special.

[omegacwa]

I got this today at best buy for 15 bucks. I haven't watched it yet, but I intend to very soon. The season set had very little "line disappearing problem" so far, I have watched half the set. I only noticed it a few times, and it only appeared to happen when the lines were against a bright white color during a scene were the screen was shaking a lot, which to say, doesn't happen too often.

[Kaboom]

How long is this double-deal thingamajiggy at Best Buy going on? Was it just for the release day (I hope not) or is it ongoing for the next week or something? I wasn't planning to pick both this and Season 4 up at the same time, but I may anyway if it'll be cheaper in the long run.