Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[rs_chaosmaster]

Sure but he won’t get the 500-700 they go for now

[sangofe]

Sure but he won’t get the 500-700 they go for now

Are you referring to me? I live in Norway... Wonder if I should sell this at ebay.co.uk or ebay.com
Dragon Ball's not so popular here so I doubt I'll be able to sell it in my country.

[Spoofer]

If we were again to compare this Funimation Anniversary Collector's Edition release to Bebop's, Funimation didn't give any indication as to whether the discs would be newly reauthored (fixing their DNR/regrain nonsense) or reused, and fans only found out for the first time when the sets actually shipped 6 months after pre-ordering them (and long after the set was available to purchase). And again, it was marketed and worded the exact same way, barring anything like the 4/3 balls Twitter announcement. I doubt Funi will be able to pull the same thing off with DBZ even if the discs are reused, given how much interest in knowing the answer is among the fanbase, but just establishing the track record with their only other identical-in-marketing Anniversary release so far.

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new, but playing Devil's advocate here, and with Funi's track record (in all things), selling those DBoxes now would net you more cash than down the line, but you're definitely rolling the dice as to how this upcoming release turns out (even if it's 4:3, it could still be overly DNR'd or have other issues, etc.)

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

If we were again to compare this Funimation Anniversary Collector's Edition release to Bebop's, Funimation didn't give any indication as to whether the discs would be newly reauthored (fixing their DNR/regrain nonsense) or reused, and fans only found out for the first time when the sets actually shipped 6 months after pre-ordering them (and long after the set was available to purchase). And again, it was marketed and worded the exact same way, barring anything like the 4/3 balls Twitter announcement. I doubt Funi will be able to pull the same thing off with DBZ even if the discs are reused, given how much interest in knowing the answer is among the fanbase, but just establishing the track record with their only other identical-in-marketing Anniversary release so far.

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new, but playing Devil's advocate here, and with Funi's track record (in all things), selling those DBoxes now would net you more cash than down the line, but you're definitely rolling the dice as to how this upcoming release turns out (even if it's 4:3, it could still be overly DNR'd or have other issues, etc.)

That's precisely why i am staying cautiously optimistic at this point, given we don't know yet how exactly this release is going to turn out as far as the details such as the aspect ratio and everything will go. Until we see for certain that this is going to be a top notch transfer the FUNi Dragon Boxes are still the best available release at this time and my preferred one.

[Char Aznable]

If we were again to compare this Funimation Anniversary Collector's Edition release to Bebop's, Funimation didn't give any indication as to whether the discs would be newly reauthored (fixing their DNR/regrain nonsense) or reused, and fans only found out for the first time when the sets actually shipped 6 months after pre-ordering them (and long after the set was available to purchase). And again, it was marketed and worded the exact same way, barring anything like the 4/3 balls Twitter announcement. I doubt Funi will be able to pull the same thing off with DBZ even if the discs are reused, given how much interest in knowing the answer is among the fanbase, but just establishing the track record with their only other identical-in-marketing Anniversary release so far.

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new, but playing Devil's advocate here, and with Funi's track record (in all things), selling those DBoxes now would net you more cash than down the line, but you're definitely rolling the dice as to how this upcoming release turns out (even if it's 4:3, it could still be overly DNR'd or have other issues, etc.)

I knew Bebop was a repackage but I didn't know that's what they pulled when doing it, that's some pretty sneaky shit. I also can't stop referring to Toei tweeting out 16:9 DBZ a week or two back, I haven't seen any evidence so far to not be pessimistic about this release. The 3-star and 4-star Dragon Ball images don't cut it for me.

[Scsigs]

I hope I'm not a fool, but I've decided to sell my Dragon Boxes so I can afford this future release. Gambling this will turn out great. They're in like-new condition for vols 1-6, and vol 7's shrink wrapped.

I'd wait till more info is available before doing so, my guy. However, if this pans out & you're impressed, I'd like to buy the first 4 vols off you myself.

[IAmTheMilkMan]

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new

I thought the same thing, but the closer we get to April, the more likely I think it is that those balls are just hinting at an April 3rd announcement of some sort, perhaps something more formal with details and pre-orders. Again, if Funimation has proven anything, it's that they don't give a toss about the original 4:3 aspect ratio. I doubt they would make it a key selling point, and if they do, well... I'll be excited to have it in HD 4:3, but to use what should have been the standard from the beginning as a key selling point in your marketing campaign... Let's just say I have issues with it.

[Char Aznable]

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new

I thought the same thing, but the closer we get to April, the more likely I think it is that those balls are just hinting at an April 3rd announcement of some sort, perhaps something more formal with details and pre-orders. Again, if Funimation has proven anything, it's that they don't give a toss about the original 4:3 aspect ratio. I doubt they would make it a key selling point, and if they do, well... I'll be excited to have it in HD 4:3, but to use what should have been the standard from the beginning as a key selling point in your marketing campaign... Let's just say I have issues with it.

FUNi made a poll asking fans if they wanted 4:3 or 16:9, 4:3 obviously won, and then they ignored it. That's really all you need to know.

[Gligarman]

Even if this release is 4:3 I have no reason to believe the show won't be edited to remove the episode previews as well as the proper credits in the opening and closing sequences. If Funimation and Toei has proven anything it's that they don't care about what fans want because they know they'll make money regardless.

I say prove them wrong and don't pre-order this set. Wait for proper feedback less we want to deal with yet another defective set.

[JohnnyCashKami]

@KBABZ

By "OG Dragon Box" you mean the Dragon Ball: Dragon Box or the Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Z? I guess it's the former but it's confusing.

@SuperSaiyaManZ94

The Dragon Ball Kai - Parts 1 thru 4 were fantastic too, Parts 5-8 would have been too if they had kept the Yamamoto score but they were forced to remove it.

If i recall correctly the music scandal happened around the time Part 5 was being readied for release, so they had to go back and strip it out once everything hit the fan because it was originally going to have the Yamamoto score the same as the previous four sets had. It's unfortunate that happened because as a result we have two entirely different sets of music over the course of the 98 episodes with only the first half being the original intended score on the home release (though the edited Nicktoons broadcast got a little further) and the Kikuchi replacement score is less than desirable in terms of it's placement.

Yes, the Kikuchi score in Kai is less than desirable but at the same time most countries that dubbed it finally got a proper DBZ dub.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

@KBABZ

By "OG Dragon Box" you mean the Dragon Ball: Dragon Box or the Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Z? I guess it's the former but it's confusing.

@SuperSaiyaManZ94

The Dragon Ball Kai - Parts 1 thru 4 were fantastic too, Parts 5-8 would have been too if they had kept the Yamamoto score but they were forced to remove it.

If i recall correctly the music scandal happened around the time Part 5 was being readied for release, so they had to go back and strip it out once everything hit the fan because it was originally going to have the Yamamoto score the same as the previous four sets had. It's unfortunate that happened because as a result we have two entirely different sets of music over the course of the 98 episodes with only the first half being the original intended score on the home release (though the edited Nicktoons broadcast got a little further) and the Kikuchi replacement score is less than desirable in terms of it's placement.

Yes, the Kikuchi score in Kai is less than desirable but at the same time most countries that dubbed it finally got a proper DBZ dub.

True, that's definitely the biggest advantage of Kai with being a much better acted and overall more faithful dub than the original in house DBZ dub was. In terms of watching the series in English it's definitely my preferred way of doing so over the old dub, in the same way that the Dragon Boxes are my definitive format for watching the original version of the series subbed in Japanese.

[Scsigs]

Even if this release is 4:3 I have no reason to believe the show won't be edited to remove the episode previews as well as the proper credits in the opening and closing sequences. If Funimation and Toei has proven anything it's that they don't care about what fans want because they know they'll make money regardless.

I say prove them wrong and don't pre-order this set. Wait for proper feedback less we want to deal with yet another defective set.

Here's the thing, though. FUNimation NEVER uses the original Japanese credits in ANYTHING they dub outside of maybe some movies. They get the creditless versions of the animation & translate the credits into English. For the first 3 DBZ anime series, they just use the creditless versions by default. They also never dubbed the previews for Z, or at least never dubbed them consistently. While they COULD go back & have Schemmel or whoever dub over them, it'd be a serious undertaking. For one, they don't employ some of the actors anymore, like Tiffany Vollmer & Stephanie Nadolny, & if they do, they don't have them as the characters anymore, like Linda Young, so while I'm sure they might be able to get SOME of the older cast members back, they probably couldn't get all of them. I know that the majority of the characters' voices don't appear in the previews, but you get what I mean.
Personally, I'd think that if they'd get the previews, they might as well as redub the whole thing, but that'd require more time, money, & extended effort than I think they're willing to put into this product. I mean, I'm sure we'd all love a new dub with Kai's level of quality voice acting & translation with playful adaptation into the English scripts, but on top of them still dubbing the last however many episodes of Super, Kai already being a thing, them possibly starting preproduction on dubbing the new Super episodes that are coming, & the fact that we're already 3 months into the year, I don't think you can reasonably expect that. However, if they DID get the previews & just included them for the Japanese track, that'd still be something. I'm just saying they probably won't bother. I WOULD like to be pleasantly surprised here, however.

As for not preordering, voting with your money is a thing you wanna do here, but not as you're suggesting. If this set is indeed 4:3, of which there's not a lot of legit reasons to say the opposite since they already have their terrible 16:9 sets out there, we NEED to support that. You don't get progress like this by doing nothing, that's why they didn't trust when most people said they wanted 4:3. Their reasoning probably went, "well, the level Blu-Rays didn't sell well, but the orange bricks DID, so let's do that again & crop the picture," even though that logic is extremely faulty considering there are more legitimate reasons like the oversaturation, the cost per # of episodes, the timing, & other things. I mean, everything else about the season sets was influenced by the orange bricks. 16:9? Yep! Oversaturation of colors? Yep! Overuse of the brightening tool, making everyone's eyes bleed? Yep! HEAVY DVNR used to remove the majority of the grain? Yep! The failure of the levels really retroactively made the orange bricks more preferable in their eyes. The fact that the season set BRs felt like a cheap cash grab because they were dubbing Battle of Gods, which had come out earlier in 2013, & were going to release it in 2014 didn't help whatsoever.
If FUNi's proven one thing, though, it's that they can really make up for something that wasn't good. When the dub of Z doesn't hold up whatsoever 10 years later, we get Kai's dub. When the orange bricks caused a divide for the fans who wanted a good home release of the series, we get the Dragon Boxes & the levels. By that same token, when the orange bricks cause a rift, we get the Blue Bricks & the Green Bricks for DB & GT, which even though they have some problems (like DB being zoomed in a little to hide the damaged frames), they're nowhere near as bad or as divisive as the orange bricks. This could be them trying to do the same in BR form to make up for their earlier BR failures. The bad thing about this, though, is that these won't be the standard releases of the series, even though it'll be the definitive one by a longshot. I mean, I don't get why they don't go the Shout! Factory route & do standard releases after the bundled ones when they do them, but that's their prerogative.

[Forte224]

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new

I thought the same thing, but the closer we get to April, the more likely I think it is that those balls are just hinting at an April 3rd announcement of some sort, perhaps something more formal with details and pre-orders. Again, if Funimation has proven anything, it's that they don't give a toss about the original 4:3 aspect ratio. I doubt they would make it a key selling point, and if they do, well... I'll be excited to have it in HD 4:3, but to use what should have been the standard from the beginning as a key selling point in your marketing campaign... Let's just say I have issues with it.

I think it will be 4:3, they'd be dumb not to. BUT, I think the release will still be inferior to the Dragon Boxes. I can't see how it won't be. Basically what I'm saying is, just finish Z Recut with the Z Dragon Boxes

[Gligarman]

Even if this release is 4:3 I have no reason to believe the show won't be edited to remove the episode previews as well as the proper credits in the opening and closing sequences. If Funimation and Toei has proven anything it's that they don't care about what fans want because they know they'll make money regardless.

I say prove them wrong and don't pre-order this set. Wait for proper feedback less we want to deal with yet another defective set.

Here's the thing, though. FUNimation NEVER uses the original Japanese credits in ANYTHING they dub outside of maybe some movies. They get the creditless versions of the animation & translate the credits into English. For the first 3 DBZ anime series, they just use the creditless versions by default. They also never dubbed the previews for Z, or at least never dubbed them consistently. While they COULD go back & have Schemmel or whoever dub over them, it'd be a serious undertaking. For one, they don't employ some of the actors anymore, like Tiffany Vollmer & Stephanie Nadolny, & if they do, they don't have them as the characters anymore, like Linda Young, so while I'm sure they might be able to get SOME of the older cast members back, they probably couldn't get all of them. I know that the majority of the characters' voices don't appear in the previews, but you get what I mean.
Personally, I'd think that if they'd get the previews, they might as well as redub the whole thing, but that'd require more time, money, & extended effort than I think they're willing to put into this product. I mean, I'm sure we'd all love a new dub with Kai's level of quality voice acting & translation with playful adaptation into the English scripts, but on top of them still dubbing the last however many episodes of Super, Kai already being a thing, them possibly starting preproduction on dubbing the new Super episodes that are coming, & the fact that we're already 3 months into the year, I don't think you can reasonably expect that. However, if they DID get the previews & just included them for the Japanese track, that'd still be something. I'm just saying they probably won't bother. I WOULD like to be pleasantly surprised here, however.

As for not preordering, voting with your money is a thing you wanna do here, but not as you're suggesting. If this set is indeed 4:3, of which there's not a lot of legit reasons to say the opposite since they already have their terrible 16:9 sets out there, we NEED to support that. You don't get progress like this by doing nothing, that's why they didn't trust when most people said they wanted 4:3. Their reasoning probably went, "well, the level Blu-Rays didn't sell well, but the orange bricks DID, so let's do that again & crop the picture," even though that logic is extremely faulty considering there are more legitimate reasons like the oversaturation, the cost per # of episodes, the timing, & other things. I mean, everything else about the season sets was influenced by the orange bricks. 16:9? Yep! Oversaturation of colors? Yep! Overuse of the brightening tool, making everyone's eyes bleed? Yep! HEAVY DVNR used to remove the majority of the grain? Yep! The failure of the levels really retroactively made the orange bricks more preferable in their eyes. The fact that the season set BRs felt like a cheap cash grab because they were dubbing Battle of Gods, which had come out earlier in 2013, & were going to release it in 2014 didn't help whatsoever.
If FUNi's proven one thing, though, it's that they can really make up for something that wasn't good. When the dub of Z doesn't hold up whatsoever 10 years later, we get Kai's dub. When the orange bricks caused a divide for the fans who wanted a good home release of the series, we get the Dragon Boxes & the levels. By that same token, when the orange bricks cause a rift, we get the Blue Bricks & the Green Bricks for DB & GT, which even though they have some problems (like DB being zoomed in a little to hide the damaged frames), they're nowhere near as bad or as divisive as the orange bricks. This could be them trying to do the same in BR form to make up for their earlier BR failures. The bad thing about this, though, is that these won't be the standard releases of the series, even though it'll be the definitive one by a longshot. I mean, I don't get why they don't go the Shout! Factory route & do standard releases after the bundled ones when they do them, but that's their prerogative.

In regards to the editing, you're absolutely right that they never use Japanese credits and that's always annoyed me but admittedly that's just a personal preference. The reason why it annoys me particularly with Dragon Ball is because they changed the titles of pretty much every episode and every movie. It just looks so phony when the use those ditial title overlays over old film. I'd much rather they just leave them in Japanese which they did for the Dragon Boxes. As such I regard that set as the best home video release DBZ has ever had because it's the only one that wasn't edited in any way shape or form.

As for the episode previews, this is where I have to speculate and welcome any clarification. Now obviously the Dragon Boxes included them in Japanese which didn't bother me because that's how I watch the show. I know that the dub version also left the previews in Japanese for the Dragon Boxes but I also remember their original North American broadcast having episode previews dubbed into English. What I don't know is if they used the same clips and just removed the title screens. But assuming that was the case then they basically created this own mess by removing them in the first place. If they had just left the footage alone then all of this editing wouldn't be necessary. It's just really frustrating and shows just how warped the standards were of anime distributors back then, especially on TV.

When it comes to the pre-order situation though, I still believe that absolutely nobody should pre-order this set until we have all of the details but at the very least everyone should hold off if they have any doubts about the set's quality. There's always a chance that they'll announce some details will keeping quiet about others. For example, after all that nonsense with the crowdfunding campaign if it had been announced that Funimations's release of Escaflowne would have locked subs I never would have dropped cent on it despite it being one of my favorite anime series. Ultimately, I just don't feel as though they have enough credibility to be this vague.

[sumpter360]

but I also remember their original North American broadcast having episode previews dubbed into English. What I don't know is if they used the same clips and just removed the title screens. But assuming that was the case then they basically created this own mess by removing them in the first place. If they had just left the footage alone then all of this editing wouldn't be necessary. It's just really frustrating and shows just how warped the standards were of anime distributors back then, especially on TV.

I can't speak to the entirety of Z episodes, but I believe most episodes either didn't have NEPs or they were cut together different from the original Japanese NEPs.

[rs_chaosmaster]

As I've said all along, the balls are indeed a potentially strong hint for something new

I thought the same thing, but the closer we get to April, the more likely I think it is that those balls are just hinting at an April 3rd announcement of some sort, perhaps something more formal with details and pre-orders. Again, if Funimation has proven anything, it's that they don't give a toss about the original 4:3 aspect ratio. I doubt they would make it a key selling point, and if they do, well... I'll be excited to have it in HD 4:3, but to use what should have been the standard from the beginning as a key selling point in your marketing campaign... Let's just say I have issues with it.

I think it will be 4:3, they'd be dumb not to. BUT, I think the release will still be inferior to the Dragon Boxes. I can't see how it won't be. Basically what I'm saying is, just finish Z Recut with the Z Dragon Boxes

It definitely can be superior to the dragon boxes. As there are many big color issues due to the film aging before because the colors are off on the dragon boxes. So if they do a 4:3 release with proper colors and then the Japanese Broadcast score it will be better than the Dragon Boxes. Like you have all stated I'm not holding my breathe though. We should start a friendly bet on how they will screw it up this time :O

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I thought the same thing, but the closer we get to April, the more likely I think it is that those balls are just hinting at an April 3rd announcement of some sort, perhaps something more formal with details and pre-orders. Again, if Funimation has proven anything, it's that they don't give a toss about the original 4:3 aspect ratio. I doubt they would make it a key selling point, and if they do, well... I'll be excited to have it in HD 4:3, but to use what should have been the standard from the beginning as a key selling point in your marketing campaign... Let's just say I have issues with it.

I think it will be 4:3, they'd be dumb not to. BUT, I think the release will still be inferior to the Dragon Boxes. I can't see how it won't be. Basically what I'm saying is, just finish Z Recut with the Z Dragon Boxes

It definitely can be superior to the dragon boxes. As there are many big color issues due to the film aging before because the colors are off on the dragon boxes. So if they do a 4:3 release with proper colors and then the Japanese Broadcast score it will be better than the Dragon Boxes. Like you have all stated I'm not holding my breathe though. We should start a friendly bet on how they will screw it up this time :O

I'm still on the fence too, it's better to wait until more about the specs are revealed although i still have a good feeling this is going to be a 4:3 release if they got a fresh HD remaster sourced off of the original masters from Toei.

[Scsigs]

Spoiler:

In regards to the editing, you're absolutely right that they never use Japanese credits and that's always annoyed me but admittedly that's just a personal preference. The reason why it annoys me particularly with Dragon Ball is because they changed the titles of pretty much every episode and every movie. It just looks so phony when the use those digital title overlays over old film. I'd much rather they just leave them in Japanese which they did for the Dragon Boxes. As such I regard that set as the best home video release DBZ has ever had because it's the only one that wasn't edited in any way shape or form.

When it comes to credits, I don't really think it matters. I even think it helps to either have no credits in the opening sequences, or translate the credits into English to suit the new audience & language they're bringing the properties over for. In my opinion, that takes more dedication to the localization than dubbing, since you have to ask the animation studio to provide clean versions of the scenes other than the openings & closing, then typeset the credits in the same font in another language where it was originally. It's just making sure the audience understands all of what's going on without the need for subtitles. I DO get the episode titles, but only to the degree that the episode titles are changed drastically from the original Japanese ones.

Spoiler:

As for the episode previews, this is where I have to speculate and welcome any clarification. Now obviously the Dragon Boxes included them in Japanese which didn't bother me because that's how I watch the show. I know that the dub version also left the previews in Japanese for the Dragon Boxes but I also remember their original North American broadcast having episode previews dubbed into English. What I don't know is if they used the same clips and just removed the title screens. But assuming that was the case then they basically created this own mess by removing them in the first place. If they had just left the footage alone then all of this editing wouldn't be necessary. It's just really frustrating and shows just how warped the standards were of anime distributors back then, especially on TV.

They might've made their own previews, which were just editing together clips of the episodes with the narrator having his "Next time on Dragon Ball Z" speeches. I don't know because I wasn't really watching the show at that time, but that's MY best guess.

Spoiler:

When it comes to the pre-order situation though, I still believe that absolutely nobody should pre-order this set until we have all of the details but at the very least everyone should hold off if they have any doubts about the set's quality. There's always a chance that they'll announce some details will keeping quiet about others. For example, after all that nonsense with the crowdfunding campaign if it had been announced that Funimation's release of Escaflowne would have locked subs I never would have dropped cent on it despite it being one of my favorite anime series. Ultimately, I just don't feel as though they have enough credibility to be this vague.

I mean, that WAS what I was talking about. When they announce more details on the video quality, THEN that's the time to really put it under scrutiny. I'm waiting with bated breath & if they announce it won't be in 4:3, then I'll really be shitting on them.
When it comes to hard/locked subs, they haven't really done that for a lot of their releases. I only know that they've done it for Attack on Titan & Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. In both cases, I'm pretty sure the studios they licensed them from forced them to do that as a means to stop reverse importation. I mean, that was stupid because they're still watchable to Japanese people because you can still switch the spoken language, but whatever. Escaflowne is an old enough show that that didn't matter, so they just set the subs as optional. The only thing I heard was bad about the initial stuff for Escaflowne was them apparently only including the Canadian dub for certain backers of the Kickstarter campaign, which I'm glad that they included it on all releases of the series, but still. Even then, hard or locked subs isn't really the right way to describe it, it's actually that they won't turn on unless you choose the Japanese dub. Even then, why would that be a dealbreaker? If you prefer to watch the Japanese dub, you'll still be able to watch it.

In terms of credibility, what do you mean? As far as I know, they've only bungled the releases of Z. It's like I said, though. They've often made up for their failures later on with better releases. And, even then, Z is the only property where I feel they've completely wronged the customers. All of their other properties have gotten good to great releases, so I don't think they'll screw this one up. At least, I hope not.

[Mr.Poot]

I just hope they aren't a super limited release like the Dragon Boxes so I don't have to sell one of my kidneys.

If it's 16:9 AR and censored, it probably won't sell as much as they expect to regardless making it in limited quantities.

If they're that then you couldn't pay me to buy them.

[Mr.Poot]

They might've made their own previews, which were just editing together clips of the episodes with the narrator having his "Next time on Dragon Ball Z" speeches. I don't know because I wasn't really watching the show at that time, but that's MY best guess.

They did have next episode previews I believe they were only for the Freeza saga though, here's one I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1SaUfTAQ5M