I want to start this out by saying that I've recently been hired to a job that has a lot of downtime. By a lot, I literally mean that 90% of it is me doing nothing. I'm prefacing with this because the vision and scope of the project I'm proposing are extremely ambitious. Enough about that, though, let me explain WHY I would like to do this.
Personally, I have always preferred Dragon Ball Kai (w/ the Kenji Yamamoto score) over Z. I understand that's a controversial opinion among some Dragon Ball fans but that's just my preference. I want to extend my love for Dragon Ball Kai by fixing the problems that exist with Dragon Ball Kai: The Final Chapters. If you aren't aware, The Final Chapters is riddled with numerous problems that include, but are not limited to:
-A green tint present on the image throughout the entire series.
-Being cropped from 4:3 to 16:9, resulting in a loss of picture.
-An unusual amount of filler being left in.
-A score that many believe to be lack-luster.
I plan to fix all of these issues and more with this edit. I understand that this is a very ambitious project, but it is something I would truly be willing to work on.
The goal of this project is to create a definitive version of Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters that can hopefully be comparable in quality to the original run of Dragon Ball Kai.
Video:
While I am planning for this to stand in the place of Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters, ironically enough, I won't actually be using any of the footage from that release for a multitude of reasons, mainly because there isn't enough room to work with. Instead, I will be opting to use the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box releases for this project. The reason behind this is that it's essentially the purest release of Dragon Ball Z "commonly" available as of the creation of this post. While it is the currently best release of Dragon Ball Z currently available, it still isn't optimal as the colors in the Dragon Box releases are not accurate. They are certainly lightyears ahead of The Final Chapter, but they aren't perfect by any means. The color inaccuracy stems from degradation in the film masters used to create the Dragon Box release. The color inaccuracies are most noticeable when it comes to the character's skin-tones where instead of a fleshy peach color, they've been discolored to an almost salmony pink.
I understand that some people enjoy the color palette of the Dragon Boxes, but I believe it should be changed as this wasn't how Dragon Ball Z was ever intended to look. Because of this, I will be attempting to color correct the Dragon Box releases to be more consistent with the original run of Dragon Ball Kai.
Dub:
I will primarily be sourcing the dub from Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters as I believe it to be the superior dub. However, with that said, there are a few lines and performances from the original Dragon Ball Z dub that I may end up using in place of Kai's. This will likely be a rare occurrence, but in any case, I will be sourcing that audio from the Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box releases unless the 2014 Blu-Ray release of Dragon Ball Z happens to be of noticeable higher quality in some way that I'm not aware of.
Soundtrack:
The score is my biggest hangup with this project. In my mind, there are only 3 options for the score of this project, all with their own pros and cons.
1. Using Shunsuke Kikuchi's score from Dragon Ball Z.
As of now, I'm currently leaning towards the Kikuchi score as I feel like it would be the most consistent for the most people, but what I use may change in the future. I'm really interested in what you guys would rather see.
Content:
Personally, I am going to take an approach similar to the original run of Dragon Ball Kai when it comes to cutting filler. In my eyes, that means cutting needless and excessive content that was not present in the manga while leaving in somethings that allow scenes to flow better. Because of this, I want to make it crystal clear is that this isn't going to be a 1:1 manga cut. Obviously filler arcs and anime only content will be cut down to a minimum, but with that said, I want to try and leave in some anime only content that allows dialogue and action scenes to flow better. Kai actually did this and they did it rather well. In fact, most people don't even know that Kai left a lot of what could be considered "filler" in. I don't mean filler events, but rather just anime only content that allows an episode to flow better. If I were to make a 1:1 manga cut, I feel that the pacing would be harmed. You have to remember, Dragon Ball Z is an adaptation of a manga, things will be added to better translate chapters into a 24-minute time slot.
Video Sources:
Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box release
Dragon Ball Z Kai Blu-Ray release(as references for color correction)
Dub Sources:
Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters Blu-Ray release
Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box release
Sountrack Sources:
TBD
Here is a summary/TL;DR of the major changes this project aims to make:
•A reversion from 16:9 to the original aspect ratio of 4:3 used for both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Kai.
•Dragon Box source video color corrected to be more consistent with Dragon Ball Z Kai
•Some lines and performances from the original Z dubs added
•An updated/changed score
•Cut Filler
I'm really interested in what everyone thinks about a project like this. If there does happen to be enough interest, I'll create a proof of concept sample, and from there I'll decide if there's enough interest to warrant me committing to realizing this project to the end.