Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[eledoremassis02]

Are they region locked? I just got the single Japanese DVD of volume one Whats the difference between France and Germany?

1. Don't know if it's Region A compatible so someone who physically owns them would have to verify.
2. The quality of Kai released on the French Blu-rays is like it aired in Japan, but the quality is vastly superior, of course. The German Blu-rays of Kai were a mixture of two different sources, they used the Japanese for about the first 52 episodes and then an international (Z Kai) for the rest but the latter looks blurry, darkened and kind of unacceptable.

Still, Kazè Germany redeemed itself with the release of Kai: TFC on Blu-ray. It's easily the best out of all Western Kai: TFC home media releases (it used Japanese credits and Japanese episode titles).

What's this about Kai being fine in 16:9? I mean, I realize the framing was done with more care than the FUNi OBs and Blu-rays, but how can anyone say it's fine? It's still footage that was intended for 4:3 being cropped down, which just shouldn't happen.

Q-TEC remastered Z in HD and they made two versions, one in 16:9 for Japanese TV broadcast and a 4:3 AR for home media release. 4:3 AR is the proper AR of Kai but the 16:9 AR version was released on DVD in Japan and Germany and France both received Kai in 16:9 AR too to publish it on Blu-ray/DVD. Plus, the purpose of Kai was to make it a modernized, fresh edition of Z.

Catalunya and Galicia dubbed Kai and Kai: TFC but it wasn't released on BD/DVD. And yes, they too received the 16:9 AR version of Kai.

Everyone got Kai: TFC in 16:9 AR but it's worth mentioning that the international version of Kai 2014 (aka TFC) has slightly more footage than the Japanese.

I cant access this but are these 16x9? https://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/p/00722/v12320/

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Making old footage feel "modernized and fresh" by cropping it to 16:9 is exactly what everyone criticizes FUNimation for. It's a bit inconsistent to exclude Kai and Toei from that criticism in my opinion. If they wanted 16:9 they should have reanimated it from scratch, not use footage that was specifically intended for 4:3.

Well tbf to ToeiJP Kai 1.0 did have the intended 4x3 on BD, broadcast rules dictated 16x9 for TV so I think they can be excused for that.

Kai 2.0 however it seemed they left it cropped because it was easier and was only intended overseas. But I don't think that's a good excuse so yeah I think I can excuse them for Kai 1.0 but not 2.0.

[Forte224]

Making old footage feel "modernized and fresh" by cropping it to 16:9 is exactly what everyone criticizes FUNimation for. It's a bit inconsistent to exclude Kai and Toei from that criticism in my opinion. If they wanted 16:9 they should have reanimated it from scratch, not use footage that was specifically intended for 4:3.

Well tbf to ToeiJP Kai 1.0 did have the intended 4x3 on BD, broadcast rules dictated 16x9 for TV so I think they can be excused for that.

Kai 2.0 however it seemed they left it cropped because it was easier and was only intended overseas. But I don't think that's a good excuse so yeah I think I can excuse them for Kai 1.0 but not 2.0.

Yeah that makes sense. As long as a 4:3 version is available. 2.0/TFC is just so disappointing for so many reasons, 16:9 and the green tint being among my least favorite parts.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Making old footage feel "modernized and fresh" by cropping it to 16:9 is exactly what everyone criticizes FUNimation for. It's a bit inconsistent to exclude Kai and Toei from that criticism in my opinion. If they wanted 16:9 they should have reanimated it from scratch, not use footage that was specifically intended for 4:3.

Well tbf to ToeiJP Kai 1.0 did have the intended 4x3 on BD, broadcast rules dictated 16x9 for TV so I think they can be excused for that.

Kai 2.0 however it seemed they left it cropped because it was easier and was only intended overseas. But I don't think that's a good excuse so yeah I think I can excuse them for Kai 1.0 but not 2.0.

Yeah that makes sense. As long as a 4:3 version is available. 2.0/TFC is just so disappointing for so many reasons, 16:9 and the green tint being among my least favorite parts.

It's funny that we got the 4:3 version here on both DVD and BD for Kai 1.0, when compared to Japan where the single discs on DVD were the same widescreen version as the Fuji TV broadcast while the Blu-ray boxes were the proper 4:3. There's a consistency in aspect ratios here that wasn't the case over there.

[Bardo117]

There’s tons of people on this thread commenting about removing the action figure and book to make it more affordable.

[gokaiblue]

What they had and make "improvements" because the unaltered footage looked "terrible".

Sad part is that the "improvements" look sorta good. They just went too far.

They look good? Well, you have a right to your own opinion after all.

They look clean and not as bad as the season sets (especially the Orange bricks. They're not $350 good, but I'd pick them up for $10-15 a piece maybe (big maybe though). Doesn't negate the set's glaring flaws.

[JohnnyCashKami]

I cant access this but are these 16x9? https://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/p/00722/v12320/

That is indeed in 16:9 AR and even downloadable as close to the original quality as it can via YouTube-DL but not much point to. It's on Blu-ray.

There’s tons of people on this thread commenting about removing the action figure and book to make it more affordable.

A "ton"? Most are talking about the PQ of it which is the top priority of it, not some toy. The Goku figure looks nice but I'd not be buying it for a figure.

Also, you seem to be missing the point completely about a true DBZ hardcore Blu-ray release, it's not about being affordable but offering the highest quality available. As such, if that were the case I'd happily pay $500-700 or more for it.

[SqueakyBoots]

Making old footage feel "modernized and fresh" by cropping it to 16:9 is exactly what everyone criticizes FUNimation for. It's a bit inconsistent to exclude Kai and Toei from that criticism in my opinion. If they wanted 16:9 they should have reanimated it from scratch, not use footage that was specifically intended for 4:3.

This all makes the fact that Funimation wants to modernize Z seem even more stupid because modernized DBZ is exactly what Kai is. Brighter colors, minimal grain, shorter episode count, better dub, a new soundtrack before that got messed up. That's basically what current day anime watchers want. One would think it would make more sense to market Kai as the big super high definition true modern experience while giving the original version a proper restoration and just let that be what it is.

[ProjectAlpha22]

There’s tons of people on this thread commenting about removing the action figure and book to make it more affordable.

I don’t know your definition of a ton, but I don’t think it matches my definition. As someone who just literally read through everything past the date of the full initial announcement, I counted less than 10 times if even that it was brought up. As for your earlier statement of “adapting Dragon Ball to modern times”, there are countless sets that match your standards. This set is being sold as a set for the “hardcore fans”, not the average consumer. Thus the low amount being produced, and all the fancy extras. It’s basically a giant pre-order package. For that reason, the argument of “Adapting with the times” doesn’t fit. It’s like telling a big fan of the Star Wars movies to buy a 600 dollar set of the original trilogy with only the George Lucas editions because “it’s the newest version.” The average consumer may not care, but we’re not exactly talking about the average consumer here, are we?

[Mr.Poot]

The normies who don't care about film preservation ruined this set, also I still wonder what Toei had to do with this did they just slap their name on it?

[eledoremassis02]

The normies who don't care about film preservation ruined this set, also I still wonder what Toei had to do with this did they just slap their name on it?

Probly the package art. Toei did make the art for the season blurays

[JohnnyCashKami]

Probly the package art. Toei did make the art for the season blurays

The art/package does look very much TOEI's work but that's about it. Those Blu-ray boxsets of the Saiyan arc, Freeza arc, Cell arc and Majin Boo arc look pretty awesome to me but the remaster... pass.

[eledoremassis02]

Probly the package art. Toei did make the art for the season blurays

The art/package does look very much TOEI's work but that's about it. Those Blu-ray boxsets of the Saiyan arc, Freeza arc, Cell arc and Majin Boo arc look pretty awesome to me but the remaster... pass.

They like that style art for a while too, i'd kinda like to see this art redone

[KBABZ]

Also, I found the shots that I was looking everywhere for!

Spoiler:

Anyone have the season set shots to go with this?
Also just behind the scenes stuff

Some context for these? Where are they from?

Question about cropping, even though I think we've past that part - isn't it possible to add a zoom feature or something to make the 4:3 change to 16:9 to get both aspect ratios without having to put double the footage on each disc?

That depends on your TV; the past three that I've owned won't let me zoom in on a 16:9 picture, rendering this idea for Kai at least moot.

I would’ve accepted Kai Blu-rays being 16:9, that’s how it was presented. But Z, that we have to do 16:9. It makes no sense.

For me it only makes sense when it's being aired on TV to meet broadcasting standards (which is why I'm also okay with the removal of blood when it's being aired on Nickelodeon). When it comes to the home release though... no excuses. At this point only hardcores are buying anime on Blu-Ray, and they'd prefer to see the entire thing.

So those snapshots are from the O'hara interview on the season sets and it seemed they DNRed the 4x3 footage then cropped, but I'm not sure it's the same master because the whites arent as blown out, unless the had the work files and regraded them?

Remember that the goal with the Orange Bricks and Level Sets appeared to be to make the blacks BLACK and the whites WHITE, which is not the case if you go to the shots from Funi's raw film scans.

Making old footage feel "modernized and fresh" by cropping it to 16:9 is exactly what everyone criticizes FUNimation for. It's a bit inconsistent to exclude Kai and Toei from that criticism in my opinion. If they wanted 16:9 they should have reanimated it from scratch, not use footage that was specifically intended for 4:3.

That would have been too expensive, and up until Broly Toei was adverse to spending TOO much money on anything.

There’s tons of people on this thread commenting about removing the action figure and book to make it more affordable.

I wouldn't mind keeping the book, or maybe selling it individually. Would say though that it's technically a statue; an action figure would be much smaller and have articulation so you can move it (hence the word "action" in "action figure").

[funrush]

There is definitely a part of me that wants to plop $350 that I don't have on this, but another, larger part of me is holding out on them releasing this as a budget release like Toei did with the Dragon Boxes (which I wish Toei would have let Funi do, but that's neither here nor there).

About where I'm at with this release. Not super into the idea of throwing $350 at it as opposed to getting each set as I watch them for like $35 a pop. And then of course there's the DNR problem, which isn't a total dealbreaker, but come on Funi, we've done this dance enough times by now. Just make some slightly color corrected Level sets.

[eledoremassis02]

(images)
Some context for these? Where are they from?
_________________
Remember that the goal with the Orange Bricks and Level Sets appeared to be to make the blacks BLACK and the whites WHITE, which is not the case if you go to the shots from Funi's raw film scans.

This was on one of the season Blu-rays special features and are the uncropped "masters" from that release.

I would say the levels actually tried to be as close as they cool to the original balance of the film (tho it seems their masters have a issue with black crush)

and it's one of the more welcoming additions to this new release

[IAmTheMilkMan]

Probly the package art. Toei did make the art for the season blurays

The art/package does look very much TOEI's work but that's about it. Those Blu-ray boxsets of the Saiyan arc, Freeza arc, Cell arc and Majin Boo arc look pretty awesome to me but the remaster... pass.

Don't know if this has been pointed out already, but the packaging artwork doesn't seem hard to come by. Then again, it "isn't final" according to the trailer. You're right, though, it probably came from Toei.

[JohnnyCashKami]

(images)
Some context for these? Where are they from?
_________________
Remember that the goal with the Orange Bricks and Level Sets appeared to be to make the blacks BLACK and the whites WHITE, which is not the case if you go to the shots from Funi's raw film scans.

This was on one of the season Blu-rays special features and are the uncropped "masters" from that release.

I would say the levels actually tried to be as close as they cool to the original balance of the film (tho it seems their masters have a issue with black crush)

and it's one of the more welcoming additions to this new release

Would you happen to know exactly which Season disc? That would be great to archive.

@ IAmTheMilkMan

Yup, I've seen that and kinda tempted because it's the entire series in only three boxes but I don't feel like taking more space as it is. If it were remastered in HD then I might've.

[KBABZ]

Some context for these? Where are they from?

This was on one of the season Blu-rays special features and are the uncropped "masters" from that release.

Huh! I know they're still clearly DNR'd, but you should put these in the Ultimate Comparison Thread! I'd love to grab some of these from Kai.

Don't know if this has been pointed out already, but the packaging artwork doesn't seem hard to come by. Then again, it "isn't final" according to the trailer. You're right, though, it probably came from Toei.

So THAT'S where they're from! Will say that I saw the Krillin artwork used on one of the discs was taken from the artwork used for the third Level Set. And the Vegeta artwork for the second Level Set was re-used as a Kai wallpaper:

Spoiler:

And of course Funi have been using this artwork of Shenron since AT LEAST the Blue Bricks:

Spoiler:

[Scsigs]

Word of advice to anyone who doesn't understand all of this discussion, do not worry. This additional footage will not dramatically change your viewing experience in any way, shape or form.

We will feel an incredible satisfaction if we get a proper 4:3 set, but something gives me the feeling that it would ware off fast because its really not that important. Kind of like a dog chasing its tail, it wouldn't know what to do with it if it caught it, and if he did, he would realize how pointless it really was.

Plus, even if this WAS a proper release, people would still complain that it is not a readily available set that's affordable. Same with the DragonBoxes. The proper version EXISTS, and it's BEEN released in the past. The problem with the Dboxes is how difficult they are to get, and it's going to be the exact same with this set. It's a COLLECTORS item, get that through your head. In no way shape or form should the most popular animated show be shown in its original state, nobody likes 4:3, and nobody typically likes grainy images either. No one on here will see this though and will just push their agenda forward. It's best for you to accept the facts like I have and stop being antagonistic. I use to defend the 4:3 'Proper' release until I realized that I looked like a fool.

Some people don't want things to change, and that's fine, but Dragon Ball adapted to the future with 16:9 and an updated vibrant pallet and it's worked wonders for them. It helped them get the show past that old fashioned look that we all love here.

You, sir, are an idiot. How can you look at this & just say, "well, fuck it. It's a collector's item. They're not gonna give us a release we actually want, so what's the point? People don't like grain & cropping the show to widescreen & color correcting was great, so why even try?" with a straight face & expect people to take you seriously?

First of all, this is a COLLECTOR'S ITEM meant only for the more hardcore fans. Why WOULDN'T they give us a proper remaster? They're already giving us 4:3, what's one more step with only slight grain removal to keep in a good amount of it & not a lot of color correction to keep them preserved?

Second, this set is the entire series all in one that's gonna cost $350 before shipping & tax. If you want the hardcores to actually buy this shit, you NEED to have a good remaster. That's the whole reason this set is getting released.

Third, people can put up with grain & 4:3 if what they get is a good representation of what they bought & knew they were buying. If Star Trek: The Next Generation got released on Blu-Ray with the amount of DVNR & terrible color correction these sets continue to get, CBS Digital & Paramount would've received severe backlash from the fans of the series. FUNimation has absolutely NO excuses to keep doing this shit. Further & further do people continue to prove that they don't care about the aspect ratios of old shows as long as they get a good remaster & release of them. Look at this video I've linked here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4LPDX6uqSM
THAT is some good remastering of Star Trek DS9 I REALLY want that series remastered into HD. Whether or not it can be converted to widescreen by extending the open spaces on the sides from the film masters, I don't know, since I don't know if they filmed it like TNG, where they knew it'd be converted to 4:3 anyways & let film crews in on the sides of the frames (although, since they had bigger sets for the space station & planets, I hope they didn't do that because they had bigger spaces to film in) but I hope it CAN be in the near future if they filmed it with the full frames on the sides uncompromised. If it can't, however, that needs to be honored for the show to retain its full integrity. Then, watch this video on Buffy's HD remaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWNGq70Oyo
It shows why DVNR & conversions to widescreen don't work on shows that weren't mean to be in widescreen. I know it's mainly for live action shows, but it just shows what happens when you don't take care to properly remaster something. Ajay's video explains perfectly why it's not good to do it for animated stuff.
https://youtu.be/6QZDHVwpHZo

Fourth, you defeated your own argument, but I've already pointed that out. It's a collector's item. THAT'S where you do this shit the most & should be its own reason why companies do anything like this. Hell, SOME companies release bigger collectible sets before releasing the individual sets of episodes. Fox released The X-Files in a collected set before releasing the first 9 seasons in HD & widescreen on Blu-Ray. Shout! Factory released 4 4-5 season sets of remastered Power Rangers seasons that they own the license to before releasing the seasons individually. Usually, FUNi does it the other way around with their releases, where they release smaller sets first due to wanting to make their money back on licensing & dubbing the material, then release collections that combine 2 of those smaller sets together at a lesser price. If FUNi had released Z in Level set quality in a big collector's set like THIS set, they would've made most of their money back on that investment, then release volumes in separate, smaller releases for less money so people who couldn't get the collector's set could still get the episodes. They could even replace the older shitty Orange Brick DVDs (products I'm surprised are still in print, btw) with newer ones with 480p versions of the episodes from the Blu-Rays. THEN they could do the same with the original DB series & possibly GT. That's how any other company would've handled it, but not FUNi. Their heads are too stuck up their asses to even remotely be smart about this.
The majority of people who buy other anime from FUNi, Viz, & other companies neither have to put up with this bullshit, nor are they complaining. I have Blu-Rays for Bleach & Sailor Moon still in 4:3 (though SM suffers from awful saturation & color correction problems outside of the films) that Viz released & I'm not complaining. I'm just happy to own those shows on the format. The majority of people wouldn't care because 1. they have the material in-hand & 2. they have TV remotes that can zoom in/stretch the picture for them, so to say otherwise is just stupid.

Fifth, just because a series has been released in what's been deemed its proper format & version before doesn't mean it can't continue to be. How many releases has DBZ had in its completed form for mass consumption? Technically twice not counting the original volumes, but if you count the Dragon Boxes & Kai, 4 times. This is to be 5. 5 releases in total & we only have 1 & 2/3 times it's been in its proper format. The Dragon Boxes are the first, since the episodes are in 4:3 without much grain removal or proper color correction, but still perfectly watchable. It's missing the 2 TV specials, but FUNi forgets that those aren't actually movies all the time, but the episodes are there in their most compact & completed form. The next one is Kai & Kai 1.0 at that, since TFC was cropped & left cropped because Toei didn't tap Q-Tec to do it, so we only have the first 98 episodes in 4:3, which FUNi didn't even HAVE to do because the show was reframed during its remastering & recutting process to be in 16:9 in a more effective way than FUNi would later do to the original series it used footage from, yet they did even though a lot of other companies that licensed the show for other countries in other language markets didn't. This'll be the first release since 2011 of the original version of the series in its proper aspect ratio. 8 years we've been waiting for either a continuation of the Levels to release the other 16 sets' worth of episodes & we've been gipped again from how this is looking so far.

Sixth, the backlash this set has gotten has gotten results already. Have you not been keeping up? Wouldn't surprise me since it seems you only dropped by here, skimmed the last several pages' worth of posts, & then left a comment so devoid of self-awareness & filled with so much stupidity that it's actually impressive how willfully ignorant you are or at least come off as. The backlash against the first trailer from the Friday before last prompted a NEW trailer & a blog post on FUNi's site explaining their remastering process trying to calm people down from how the footage in the first trailer looked. Don't get me wrong, it only helped slightly, but it did more damage than it didn't. This is how you get results, my guy.
This isn't even the first time FUNi has done this either, btw. When hardcore fans hated the Orange Bricks & expressed their displeasure, FUNi released the Dragon Boxes, then the first 2 Levels & Kai in 4:3. Don't get me wrong, the Levels were great, but releasing them as quickly as they did did them no favors. Coming off the heels of 2 back-to-back DVD releases that satisfied different sections of the fanbase wasn't smart, which resulted in their quick cancellation. Now, they're trying to give the hardcores what we want after ANOTHER version of the Orange Bricks on Blu-Ray, but they're screwing up the level of DVNR & color correction, over-correcting for problems that don't really exist from what they've shown in the blog post of the raw film scans. All we need to do is show them the hardcores want the grain & we want the original colors just made more vibrant. They're SO close to a great release here, but some stubborn idiot in their video department doesn't understand how to properly do a remaster & he NEEDS to be educated on how to do it.

Seventh, Dragon Ball Z is the ONLY series both in the DB franchise as well as in general that they've licensed that they've done this to. Every other series they have the license to that was produced in 4:3 are left intact in their original, proper aspect ratios. DB, DBGT, DBZ Kai, One Piece episodes 1-206, Yu Yu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, etc, are STILL in 4:3. Why does DBZ get a pass with you, dude? That whole, "I look like an idiot arguing this shit/it's hopeless to argue this shit," excuse does NOT fly, my guy. That's defeatist talk & only serves the point that you are a coward who doesn't stick to his guns on a topic he even admits he still agrees with even when the odds seem to be against him. How dare you try to talk down to us. You have no ground to stand on with this topic, so you shouldn't have even tried.
You're no different from that Timm person on FUNi's discord saying he/she & their friends don't like grain & THEY'RE "hardcore" fans (more of idiots, if you ask me). Putting your fingers in your ears, trying to drown out the noise from people who have legitimate things to say & legitimate reasons for doing so. If you're not gonna be part of the solution to a problem that's persisted for years now, don't even try. You're actively trying to discourage us from getting what we're owed for supporting & sticking with this franchise for YEARS, even through the bullshit, that we've been waiting for. FUNi owes us for screwing up this badly over & over again. I say that being someone who usually says companies don't owe anyone anything (example, Sony/PlayStation fanboys/girls last year wanting Square Enix to keep Kingdom Hearts PS-exclusive, which is already a dumb argument when it has more games on Nintendo handhelds & mobile devices than PlayStation consoles before they were ported to them, rather than port them to Xbox One as well because "Square Enix owes [them] to keep it on PlayStation"), but the argument is invalid when 1. a company is doing a release specifically for the fans (& hardcores at that), which is what FUNi has explicitly stated this release is for, & 2. the company specializes in releases specifically for fans like Shout! Factory. Yet FUNi's trying to have their cake & eat it too, where they only revert the series to 4:3, but keep most everything else like the past releases in an attempt to finally get more money out of hardcore Z fans who rallied against their shitty past releases because they can't get tit through their thick heads that that's not what we want. Ever.

I don't get why you're like this. Companies are supposed to give us stuff we never thought we'd want with special releases, not bullshit we already know we don't. Think before you say anything else here or don't come back, dude.