Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[Lord Beerus]

Mmm. A lot of these comment don't paint a pretty picture of how FUNimation have handled the 30th Anniversary home release. Maybe it's not that ba---

* watches advert *

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FUNimation haven't learned a goddamn thing. That's $350 they won't be getting from me.

[Chilly]

Really discouraging to see this. It is comical at this point. C'mon Funimation...

[sintzu]

Wow. I didn't know they just cropped the 16x9 release into 4x3 lol that's wiiiiiiiiiiiild lol i'm convinced that this franchise is cursed. Lol nobody will convince me otherwise LOL guess i'll just stick with my cropped blurays and dragonboxes. There will never be a release top it lol

Z's releases are just a problem with Funimation as other countries have prefectly acceptable releases. Someone there still believes that Z is a "modern" show.

Mmm. A lot of these comment don't paint a pretty picture of how FUNimation have handled the 30th Anniversary home release. Maybe it's not that ba---

* watches advert *

FUNimation haven't learned a goddamn thing. That's $350 they won't be getting from me.

If you'd put your pudding down and give them a "talk" they might start doing things right.

[Kinokima]

It’s hilarious how Funimation just does not understand what the fanbase wants at all.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Bandai also copped out with the figure too. Just to make the release extra shitty! All they did was change his arm, face and gave him a DB!

[sintzu]

It’s hilarious how Funimation just does not understand what the fanbase wants at all.

The fans keep paying for what they offer which is the only language companies (with rare exceptions) understand.

[Spoofer]

I was indeed wrong about the 4:3 and the price point, but I was right in that the only way it could be 4:3, cheap, and released so quickly, was if they simply reused their existing season remaster sans the crop. Almost surely it'll be missing NEPs, and have the dub-centric presentation of the season sets, too.

I still maintain it was unrealistic to expect Funi to completely remaster this series all over again, competently, especially 270whatever episodes frame-by-frame, within 6 months, and all up-front on the assumption they'd reach their pre-order goal. Even more unrealistic to believe Toei would've put all the work in and allowed Funi to release it first.

Can't say I'm not disappointed, but I'm not at all surprised.

Also not at all surprised that Geekdom guy had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, which was pretty obvious from the start. The other guy seemed wrong about the remaster's source as well. As many of us had said all along, wait for confirmation.

I highly doubt Funi would release a PR vid for the set with video that isn't reflective of the final product, but I mean, you could hold your breath and see what happens. Though I wouldn't recommend it. And I think you'll really have to poke and prod to get more info out of Funi at this point. Clock's ticking with a month left to pre-order, so someone with clout better start trying to get confirmation, assuming anyone still has any hope left.

[ect5150]

What a waste of potential. I can't stand the smearing they do trying to clean up the image. Someone can post some Cell Games picks from the BluRays and the DBoxes. They completely blur the lines. It's horrible!

No order from me.

[KBABZ]

Bandai also copped out with the figure too. Just to make the release extra shitty! All they did was change his arm, face and gave him a DB!

Spoiler:

Is there ANYTHING about this set that's new aside from the bloody packaging?!

[IAmTheMilkMan]

Wow, this... hurts my feelings. Somehow, it feels worse than if they were simply repackaging their 16:9 season BDs.

The crazy part is that due to Toei's involvement, they APPROVED THIS.

I am, again, reminded of Selecta Vision requesting high definition masters of Dragon Ball Z some time ago from Toei, who insisted that they use Funimation's existing HD masters. With that in mind, this... yeah, this makes sense. At least Selecta Vision declined. I wish Funimation had that kind of tegridy.

They will still have no problem reaching their goal, I don't know why some of you are doubting this (Dragon Ball Z is rather popular), but on the off chance that they don't, I can totally see them blaming it on 4:3. It's maddening.

I mean, the clips in the trailer really don't definitely say for 100% certain what type of remaster we are getting here. Is it the Level masters or Season BD's reconverted to 4:3 from the cropped 16:9??? Come on FUNi just reveal it already so we know what exactly we are getting here.

Those clips do say it, though, if that's the footage we are indeed getting. All it takes is looking at it. That HD opening has always looked far better than the actual HD episode footage, at least on the Level sets, so that's easily explained. However, those clips in the trailer that were taken from the actual episodes are clearly the uncropped BD season sets. My guess is that they'll use the nice opening wherever they can, and they'll use the BD season footage for the rest.

[Kinokima]

It’s hilarious how Funimation just does not understand what the fanbase wants at all.

The fans keep paying for what they offer which is the only language companies (with rare exceptions) understand.

A lot of people I know aren’t buying this

[SuperSaiyanPan]

They didn't even post audio information. If it has US Broadcast audio I will snag it. I sent FUNimation a message but I ain't doing shit until then.

[PhoenixEX]

Almost up to 300 and it's only been like two hours. Yeah, this has a good chance of reaching 3,000.

[sintzu]

It feels worse than if they were simply repackaging their 16:9 season BDs.

I agree. Had they been honest about not wanting to spend too much money fans would give them a break. Instead they took an already unpopular remaster and made it worse.

As a dub fan, thank god for Kai. It may not be perfect but god knows its picture quality is nowhere near this bad. I do feel bad for Z fans who were anticipating this.

[Char Aznable]

The truly sad part is that this is still better than what we currently have. I mean I'll take the Dragon Box over this... but it's better than any readily available release just by virtue of at least being in the proper aspect ratio.

But it doesn't, though. I get what you're saying, but cropping a cropped release and calling it 4:3 is not the proper aspect ratio to me, it's lazy garbage.

[SqueakyBoots]

Okay. Before I read anyone else's comments here, I want to put out my initial thoughts on what we're getting.

The video quality is something I'm a bit torn on and that's partly because Funimation didn't actually show that much footage in this trailer. The shots from the OP animation look pretty good but those crowd shots you see about five seconds into the video look like there was heavy dnr applied to them. I'm not sure if this is a new transfer or if they just took the transfer from the previous blu-ray sets and uncropped them. If it's the latter, that's something I can live with despite not being the ideal situation but I know other people aren't going to be happy with that. I feel like the key thing to consider is that they're only charging $350 for this which is honestly a steal for a collectors set of a series with this many episodes. There is no way they could finish restoring the series in Level Set quality and be able to sell it for that price.

I like how they're doing the disc artwork. It's like the Dragon Boxes where each disc has a character that's important to the episodes on that disc. Simple and effective. Maybe Goku should be on the first disc instead of Raditz but otherwise, it looks great.

The figurine is actually better than I expected it to be. It's being made by Banpresto. I own a couple other Dragon Ball figurines made by them and they are really high quality so I'm sure I'll be happy with it. What's with the bullet hole in chest though?

Kinda wish they had given more details on the artbook like how many pages are in it or an example of more than one page. The image of the box it comes in does make it look like it'll be fairly big.

Here are the things about this set that concern me.

-I'm assuming for now that the movies and tv specials won't be on this but the page for it says "Entire Dragon Ball Z series" without specifying anything else. Funi should probably clarify on this one way or the other before people get confused about it. (This set is 37 discs. How many discs total did the season blu-rays take up?)
-I'm guessing no next episode previews on this either.
-This is what bother me the most. According to the FAQ section, they are limiting this set to only 6,000 copies total. I think it is very likely that they will hit that number before the 30 reservation period and after that, you will likely see people scalping their sets for ridiculous prices on ebay. I hope Funi considers a standard release of the episodes in 4:3 if they reach 6,000 orders in a short period of time.

[Chilly]

Almost up to 300 and it's only been like two hours. Yeah, this has a good chance of reaching 3,000.

Yuck. This is why Funi gets away with all the crap they churn out.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Leave it to Funimation to always find new ways to screw up a Dragon Ball Z home release.

I was looking forward to this release with all the hints pointing to 4:3, but cropping the already cropped season set footage? That's a new low.

I'm not buying this set, but the sad thing, as has been previously stated is that now Funimation will use the failure of this set to justify 16:9 releases from now on. That's total disrespect to the fanbase that made them what they are and no one should have to pay for that.

Rrally everyone should just stick with whatever set they already own. Don't let these companies bully you.

[KBABZ]

I'm not sure if this is a new transfer or if they just took the transfer from the previous blu-ray sets and uncropped them.

They didn't, it's a widescreen crop.

I like how they're doing the disc artwork. It's like the Dragon Boxes where each disc has a character that's important to the episodes on that disc. Simple and effective. Maybe Goku should be on the first disc instead of Raditz but otherwise, it looks great.

I think Raditz actually makes a lot of sense for the first disc considering that's the only time he appears as a major character.

The figurine is actually better than I expected it to be. It's being made by Banpresto. I own a couple other Dragon Ball figurines made by them and they are really high quality so I'm sure I'll be happy with it. What's with the bullet hole in chest though?

Sadly it's a different Goku statue they've already released with a happy face mold and a new "holding a Dragon Ball" arm mold.

As a dub fan, thank god for Kai. It may not be perfect but god knows its picture quality is nowhere near this bad. I do feel bad for Z fans who were anticipating this.

Kai has been my salvation at this point, haha.

[sintzu]

This set is 37 discs. How many discs total did the season blu-rays take up?

-This is what bother me the most. According to the FAQ section, they are limiting this set to only 6,000 copies total.

The sets had 36 discs so the 37th is either a behind the scenes bonus or the 2 tv specials.

Even with the limited copies, I'm pretty sure they will release this in separate season sets as that's how the discs are listed.

Cropping the already cropped season set footage? That's a new low.

Don't complain or they'll crop this as well. Eventually we'll end up with 10% of the original footage.