Anime Boston's Funimation Panel

Hitman Hart · Post by **Hitman Hart** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:12 am

Hello all. Today, I went to the Funimation Panel at Anime Boston. It was...nothing exciting, really. A fellow with an Apple laptop(I was a few minutes late so I missed him introducing himself) was showing a brief slideshow with a few trailers mixed in.
As for Dragonball related items, he mentioned the Trunks/Bardock set, which will be getting a Blu Ray release, as well as whatever number box sets, the one just out that goes up to Androids, and then the next one which will have all of the Cell arc. There will also be a new rerelease of the first 2 movies, which will also get a Blu Ray release.
Still no word on the TV show itself getting the Hi Def treatment, which is what they claimed was the reason for the new "restoration" in the first place. The fellow actually used the "9 year old born every day" line and continued to say there was new never before seen footage. He also said the move to widescreen was done so that it would look better on everyone's widescreen televisions.
After the presentation was done, he opened the floor up to questions. One man asked about the first 13 episodes of Dragonball, he said there's an issue with the Japanese company, did not bring up Trimark at all. He said they pester the Japanese company(did not say Toei) to get the rights on a regular basis.
I dutifully stepped up to the microphone and politely asked if there would be any other shows Funimation would be doing the widescreen treatment to. He said no, noting most shows are widescreen now anyway. I noted that the trailer for One Piece, the next big show they have, was in fact 4:3, and that the show does change aspect ratio at a point down the line. He said he didn't know what ratio One Piece the TV show would be in, but that all shows Funimation released would be in their original aspect ratio. I said thank you and moved away from the microphone at this point. I was left feeling even more puzzled about the decision to make DBZ widescreen after he answered my question.
Sorry for being so long winded here, I just wanted to be thorough.

SatoSky · Post by **SatoSky** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:23 am

Hitman Hart wrote:Hello all. Today, I went to the Funimation Panel at Anime Boston. It was...nothing exciting, really. A fellow with an Apple laptop(I was a few minutes late so I missed him introducing himself) was showing a brief slideshow with a few trailers mixed in.
As for Dragonball related items, he mentioned the Trunks/Bardock set, which will be getting a Blu Ray release, as well as whatever number box sets, the one just out that goes up to Androids, and then the next one which will have all of the Cell arc. There will also be a new rerelease of the first 2 movies, which will also get a Blu Ray release.
Still no word on the TV show itself getting the Hi Def treatment, which is what they claimed was the reason for the new "restoration" in the first place. The fellow actually used the "9 year old born every day" line and continued to say there was new never before seen footage. He also said the move to widescreen was done so that it would look better on everyone's widescreen televisions.
After the presentation was done, he opened the floor up to questions. One man asked about the first 13 episodes of Dragonball, he said there's an issue with the Japanese company, did not bring up Trimark at all. He said they pester the Japanese company(did not say Toei) to get the rights on a regular basis.
I dutifully stepped up to the microphone and politely asked if there would be any other shows Funimation would be doing the widescreen treatment to. He said no, noting most shows are widescreen now anyway. I noted that the trailor for One Piece, the next big show they have, was in fact 4:3, and that the show does change aspect ratio at a point down the line. He said he didn't know what ratio One Piece the TV show would be in, but that all shows Funimation released would be in their original aspect ratio. I said thank you and moved away from the microphone at this point. I was left feeling even more puzzled about the decision to make DBZ widescreen after he answered my question.
Sorry for being so long winded here, I just wanted to be thorough.

I would have let him have it after that BS. I'm an asshole that way.

Hitman Hart · Post by **Hitman Hart** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:33 am

I figured it would be best to be polite and let the man hang himself with his own words.
Edit: I would like to note they showed a trailer for One Piece at the panel and that was the 4:3 one I was referring to.

SonGokuGT · Post by **SonGokuGT** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:07 am

English-language Dragonball: Getting the shaft since 1995!

Why break tradition in the High-Def era?

SonEric84 · Post by **SonEric84** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:01 am

Man, what the hell is wrong with Funimation? Well, at least fans of their other releases will be happy..

shenron002 · Post by **shenron002** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:32 pm

He said he didn't know what ratio One Piece the TV show would be in, but that all shows Funimation released would be in their original aspect ratio.

This Contradicts this:

He also said the move to widescreen was done so that it would look better on everyone's widescreen televisions.

"9 year old born every day"

To be Honest I have 2 nephews, one who is 9 and one who is 7! I wouldn't consider showing them "Dragon Ball" atleast till there were both Teenagers. They watch shows like the "Backyardigans" and "Diago" and "Dora the explorer" My sister would kill me if I introduced a show like this to them. The only thing Dragon Ball related I would consider showing them is that edited, saga of Goku done by Tri-Mark, now that's ment for 9 year olds! (My 2 Cents)

Artificial Human #887 · Post by **Artificial Human #887** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:42 pm

The next time I hear (firsthand) "there's a 9 year old every day," I'm going to respond as such:

"There's also a Nineteen year old a twenty nine year old every day, and they're watching far more DBZ than the nine year olds."

It eats me alive seeing how they treat Dragon Ball, especially because I enjoy a lot of their other dubs so much. But I have a big mouth at panels, so I'll give them an earful next time I can... just to counteract all the crap they spewed at that panel. Geeze.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:46 pm

I'm sure you giving them an earful wouldn't matter. They probably get hate mail every day, and I'm sure that they get tons of people criticizing them to their face. Do they care? No. Because the big boss upstairs (I'm not talking about a higher being by the way), who DOESN'T show up at conventions, told them that it should be done a certain way, and to go advertise it a certain way. What do you want the representative to do? He's just there spewing you the crap that the head of the company didn't have the balls to tell you in person. The man's just doing his job.

Artificial Human #887 · Post by **Artificial Human #887** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:54 pm

Oh, I know that. But the fact of the matter is... it CAN'T help if nobody says anything. It's like the lottery... you can't win if you don't buy a ticket. So while it may do no good at all, at least I get the satisfaction of knowing I opened my big mouth and said something.

Then again, I'm the kind of person who will call the guy who doesn't have the balls to be there in person. Which... isn't really a bad idea. It's fun to get those guys riled up.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:01 pm

Truth be told, I KNOW that they have to understand. Believe me, they know that they crapped all over a product. The problem is, the big boss upstairs doesn't. I'm sure they know what they did. I mean it's obvious. I was pissed since I saw the "new" DBZ, I thought I'd be rebuying the whole series. But they sold it to me with promises of the entire Vegeta Saga, which I didn't have. And from the first second I noticed something was wrong. Surely they know they crapped it up too.

DaemonCorps · Post by **DaemonCorps** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:41 pm

Wow, that's all just... really frustrating. I know that if I was aware of a FUNi panel at my local convention, I'd just come up with a list of Dragon Ball related questions to have them answer as well as a bunch of responses to their attempts at answers. When I think about it, it really pisses me off to know that after all the stuff that FUNi has been doing with their other series that DB still gets crap treatment.

Someone should really think of making a panel made exclusively for the sake of going over everything FUNi has done with the Dragon Ball series...

Xyex · Post by **Xyex** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:19 pm

shenron002 wrote:To be Honest I have 2 nephews, one who is 9 and one who is 7! I wouldn't consider showing them "Dragon Ball" atleast till there were both Teenagers. They watch shows like the "Backyardigans" and "Diago" and "Dora the explorer" My sister would kill me if I introduced a show like this to them. The only thing Dragon Ball related I would consider showing them is that edited, saga of Goku done by Tri-Mark, now that's ment for 9 year olds! (My 2 Cents)

The entirety of Dragonball is meant for kids. Pre-teens, to be exact. Backyardigans and Dora and etc. are intended for pre-schoolers and kindergardeners.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:35 pm

DaemonCorps wrote:Someone should really think of making a panel made exclusively for the sake of going over everything FUNi has done with the Dragon Ball series...

The problem with that is, no matter how you phrase everything and how well you present it, you would look like nothing more than a typical, whining, annoying domestic anime fan. I've seen (and experienced) this time and time again over the last decade. It's almost inherently impossible to relay (even quasi-unbiased) information about "negative" items without people simply retorting, "Quit your whining!" or "You're the type of fan that's never happy with anything!" or "Nothing will ever satisfy you!" or something else along those lines...

... even when you're just... ya' know... saying things. It's like some of the responses we've gotten to our "Inconsistencies" videos on YouTube from people saying "Shut up and enjoy the show!"

Really? I don't enjoy the show? After spending an entire weekend recording a podcast about it and creating a video showcasing the entire scene with a discussion about it?

It's just so difficult to do ANY type of project or presentation that ISN'T nonsensical fanboy-gushing, because people immediately think you're being negative and inflammatory.

Perhaps that viewpoint is just a frustrated sigh of disappointment and ineptitude from me, but I see it as the (sad) truth.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:03 pm

VegettoEX wrote:It's just so difficult to do ANY type of project or presentation that ISN'T nonsensical fanboy-gushing, because people immediately think you're being negative and inflammatory.

Perhaps that viewpoint is just a frustrated sigh of disappointment and ineptitude from me, but I see it as the (sad) truth.

I agree completely. I've been around the DragonBall community for about 10 years now, and it seems like anytime someone voices concern about any negative aspect of the series they're "whining" and should just shut up and enjoy the show however they can get it.

As a result, my activity in the community waxes and wanes. Hell, if you're posting anything negative about the English version in general it's almost as though you're wiping your ass with the American flag to some people, which gets really old really quick

-Corey

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:14 pm

What a shame. The fans of the show that brings in the most money are the ones that get treated like shit. Truth is, that we would be satisfied if they did the show right. Are we wrong for pointing out the obvious? Face it, if Viz tried this with Naruto or Inuyasha, they would never hear the end of it. We(the Dragonball fans) complain, and people tell us to be quiet. Is it so wrong to have a show done right?

Adamant · Post by **Adamant** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:17 pm

Or, to use one of their own shows as an example, is anyone really complaining about the way they dub One Piece? Well, aside from those silly TV-edits, that is.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:20 pm

Adamant wrote:Or, to use one of their own shows as an example, is anyone really complaining about the way they dub One Piece? Well, aside from those silly TV-edits, that is.

No, their dub is very good, aside from those CN-mandated edits for broadcast, of course. Heck, their awesome dub of Movie 8 almost made me forget how subpar that movie was to begin with.

Sebastian (SB) · Post by **Sebastian (SB)** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:49 pm

Meh, I don't know. Colleen and Chris still haven't won me over with their performances. I just got Movie 8 today and I ended up switching over to the Japanese track halfway through the film. I think it's a solid dub, it's just that I find their performances subpar compared to Tanaka and Kazuya. Though it's unfair to compare it to a cast I've been hearing for 300+ episodes now, but I was at least hoping for something decent. Overall, it's tolerable.

.....Oh yeah, Dragon Ball.....what can I say since it's already been said. It's sad. I've also had similar experiences going to Boston back in 04-05. We've getting the shaft, but at the same time were overwhelmed by the masses of the average Flag-waving, testosterone American viewer. That's why we have Daizenshuu EX.

bkev · Post by **bkev** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:02 am

shenron wrote:To be Honest I have 2 nephews, one who is 9 and one who is 7! I wouldn't consider showing them "Dragon Ball" atleast till there were both Teenagers. They watch shows like the "Backyardigans" and "Diago" and "Dora the explorer" My sister would kill me if I introduced a show like this to them. The only thing Dragon Ball related I would consider showing them is that edited, saga of Goku done by Tri-Mark, now that's ment for 9 year olds! (My 2 Cents)

Wow, things have changed; I was done with all the kiddy shows on Nick Jr. by 5. I guess people are scared of violence now more than ever.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:43 am

Oh for gosh sakes people! If the kids like those shows, they like them. They're children. Lay off already.

Kanzenshuu

Anime Boston's Funimation Panel

Anime Boston's Funimation Panel

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