KBABZ wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:34 pm
JohnnyCashKami wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:55 pmYes, it was Q-TEC who remastered Kai and then Kai TFC was directly done by TOEI. The selective cropping of Kai was done spectacularly and had they offered that as the version for all, no one would've complained. People only moaned about Kai TFC being in 16x9 AR 'cause TOEI released the Kai series in 4x3 AR.
I disagree, the reason fans complained about TFC in 16:9 is the same reason why the complaint came up for the Orange Bricks: you're removing 20% of the footage and ruining the composition set by the artists and storyboarders who made the show in the first place (and this is different from the movies, which were EXPECTED to be cropped and composed accordingly).
Kai and TFC's 16:9 crop, whilst undesirable, at least makes the best of it and is selective about where to place the crop so that important elements remain on-screen and in focus, which helps the original show meet modern broadcasting standards. But the fact remains is that the show, no matter how you actually edit it, was made to be shown in 4:3, and when you're dropping a significant amount of money on this show, you'd expect it to not abjectly remove any footage, right? Like the NEPs everyone keeps talking about? It's equivalent to, say, cropping it to 9:18 for phones and then pushing that out to Blu-Ray saying "Hey we had to make it look good on an Android because market research tells us more people watch it there, sorry".
I mean, that's why I was disappointed that Kai: TFC was force-cropped to widescreen. The fact that Toei didn't save 4:3 masters of it was just stupid & I much rather would've watched it in 4:3 instead. At the very least, though, it's selectively cropped so you don't miss anything important. The cropping is still idiotic, though.
Spoofer wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:36 pmIt's rare for anime, but sadly all too common for live-action programming. Seinfeld and Friends are unwatchable to me in their present streaming, broadcast, and home video incarnations, with how cramped the framing feels after they were likewise sliced for 16:9. Even critically-acclaimed shows like The Wire and The Shield couldn't escape the treatment for their latest remasters (though at least they were originally filmed in 16:9 even if they were never framed or originally intended to be shown that way), mandated by the studios, against the wishes of their creators (who begrudgingly accepted the reality and made the best of it). It's awful, and most genuine dedicated film and television fans of course roll their eyes at it. But these shows target more than just the dedicated fans, and have to appeal to the plebes who can't stand there being something "wrong" with the TV signal that creates a square picture on their lovely, expensive widescreen TVs. God, if you check reviews for the Cowboy Bebop BD, there are even people complaining about 4:3 for
Bebop.
As Funi considers DBZ an evergreen property with appeal first and foremost to casuals, rather than purist anime fans, or even the hardcore purist DBZ fandom, they treat it like Western TV companies treat Western live-action. Ugh to both.
We (anime fans) are actually lucky that anime is so niche that DBZ is one of the only anime properties affected.
I mean, at least live action shows can be extended to widescreen without much of a problem, since there's extra stuff on the film to show. The only shows I've seen not get the widescreen treatment when upgraded to HD are Star Trek TOS & TNG & that was because TOS was filmed on film that only allowed for 4:3 (because 60s, same for other programs & even films not being in widescreen like Twilight Zone) & TNG was filmed by the crew knowing about the blocking requirements for 4:3 TVs, so you have film equipment & people on the sides of the frames that couldn't be painted out without an extensive editing process, which would've caused it to be more expensive to do. The only place the blocking came up was in the roundtable Seth MacFarlane did with 4 of the main writers & he said that. Other than that, nothing. So, they left it as-is.
As for the blocking of these other shows you pointed out, I've heard no one actually talk about that with those shows anywhere. Some shows back during the 90s WERE future-proofed with the blockings (like X-Files), but the only show I've seen be remastered & extended into widescreen where it shouldn't have been is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've seen the comparisons & that was a show that, much like TNG, shouldn't have been extended to widescreen because of the film equipment & people visible on the sides. Though those remasters also have problems of lighting issues completely changing the mood of some of the scenes, which is why I suspect that show hasn't received a Blu-Ray or HD digital release yet. If they redo the remasters with Joss Whedon's help, then they could have a proper HD version of the show ready to go.
On the other shows, though, if they CAN be in widescreen with no issues, I see no problem with that. If the blocking isn't too affected by it, converting a live action show to widescreen if it was filmed on the appropriate film elements is fine for the most part. An animated series, though, I don't think SHOULD be cropped unless it was created in that format & converted to 4:3 because it was broadcasted in a time where that was the standard. I mean, Disney & WB created many of their 2000s cartoons in HD widescreen & those are now available on iTunes & other places in that format to watch. Toei, however, didn't start creating shows in widescreen until the late 2000s. Super Sentai's first widescreen season was Boukenger, I believe, which aired in 2006 & One Piece had been a bit earlier in 2004 with episode 207. Dragon Ball was WAY earlier than that, so reformatting it to widescreen was unbelievably stupid.
