Possible details on Selecta Vision's Dragon Ball (1986-1989) bluray release

[Scsigs]

I've emailed the guy that got interviewed (hope I found the right email address) asking if it's from film and if they'd be interested in the original broadcast audio.

If they turn out to be interested in broadcast audio won't they have to jump through extra hoops with Toei with the permissions and whatnot to use it?

They would have to ask for approval, and Toei would either say yes or no.

Wouldn't be hard, but Toei may very well say no. It's hard to say; they're awkward and inconsistent about this stuff... There's no real logic at work.

It's well worth trying, is what I'd say.

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

[ArmenianPepsi]

If they turn out to be interested in broadcast audio won't they have to jump through extra hoops with Toei with the permissions and whatnot to use it?

They would have to ask for approval, and Toei would either say yes or no.

Wouldn't be hard, but Toei may very well say no. It's hard to say; they're awkward and inconsistent about this stuff... There's no real logic at work.

It's well worth trying, is what I'd say.

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

That's such a shame. I don't understand why Toei would object to it. To implement it would be a relatively simple change, and it would objectively improve the presentation

[Cold Skin]

They would have to ask for approval, and Toei would either say yes or no.

Wouldn't be hard, but Toei may very well say no. It's hard to say; they're awkward and inconsistent about this stuff... There's no real logic at work.

It's well worth trying, is what I'd say.

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

Given what you mention, I think it would be a miracle too. However, companies can have a weird logic when it comes to dealing with various countries.

An example I think about is the Pokémon American translator being threatened to be fired for trying to put just one harmless joke, while the French translator was - luckily - free to do so a lot and to just decide extra things that would be fun for the audience without notable problems. Double standard at work.

Another example is how Americans are free to modify things for the Dragon Ball manga, even going as far as being able to release a bigger size, while from what we know, any attempt to change the content of the volume in France (just changing the chapter list from bright green to a darker easier-on-the-eye color or to add one single extra page of translation notes at the end of a DBS volume) is pretty much refused with a strict "you'll get exactly what the Japanese market gets in all of its shape and form, that's it!".

So companies punctually give freedom to some countries that they don't give to others and all countries become the winners or the losers in the story at some point. Who knows how it could go for the resources they can access for DB films and series?
(although in this case, I am really doubtful that Toei would allow access to the broadcast audio if they don't use it themselves in Japan to begin with).

[sangofe]

If they turn out to be interested in broadcast audio won't they have to jump through extra hoops with Toei with the permissions and whatnot to use it?

They would have to ask for approval, and Toei would either say yes or no.

Wouldn't be hard, but Toei may very well say no. It's hard to say; they're awkward and inconsistent about this stuff... There's no real logic at work.

It's well worth trying, is what I'd say.

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

Who says toei refused it? Is there proof of this claim? I suspect Funimation didn't even ask.

[Scsigs]

They would have to ask for approval, and Toei would either say yes or no.

Wouldn't be hard, but Toei may very well say no. It's hard to say; they're awkward and inconsistent about this stuff... There's no real logic at work.

It's well worth trying, is what I'd say.

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

Who says toei refused it? Is there proof of this claim? I suspect Funimation didn't even ask.

I mean, could be. All I know is that he has the files.

[TheGreatness25]

I think people give the situation way too much credit. "Sabat has the files" -- yeah, he has a lot of stuff. I'm willing to bet that people send him stuff all the time (like their video edits, the Ocean dub soundtrack, coverart, etc.) that he blows smoke up their ass about how, "This is so much better than what we do! I'll make sure to bring this up!" before tossing it somewhere to collect dust.

Also, let's not forget how things work over there. Sabat doesn't call the shots other than directing voice actors. That's like handing a new invention to a Best Buy manager and expecting Best Buy to start selling it. Unless I missed Sabat's big promotion where he is in a position to dictate which way they start releasing Z.

I also sincerely doubt that Sabat is as invested in the series as we are. That's his job, that doesn't mean that he cares one way or another how the sausage is made. We're the ones obsessing about a "proper" release and proper audio and video, etc. Doesn't mean he is. And there's nothing wrong with that! I think sometimes people think that the people working on something they love, love it just as much.

[Scsigs]

I think people give the situation way too much credit. "Sabat has the files" -- yeah, he has a lot of stuff. I'm willing to bet that people send him stuff all the time (like their video edits, the Ocean dub soundtrack, cover art, etc.) that he blows smoke up their ass about how, "This is so much better than what we do! I'll make sure to bring this up!" before tossing it somewhere to collect dust.

Also, let's not forget how things work over there. Sabat doesn't call the shots other than directing voice actors. That's like handing a new invention to a Best Buy manager and expecting Best Buy to start selling it. Unless I missed Sabat's big promotion where he is in a position to dictate which way they start releasing Z.

I also sincerely doubt that Sabat is as invested in the series as we are. That's his job, that doesn't mean that he cares one way or another how the sausage is made. We're the ones obsessing about a "proper" release and proper audio and video, etc. Doesn't mean he is. And there's nothing wrong with that! I think sometimes people think that the people working on something they love, love it just as much.

I mean, Sabat cares about how DB is released. If he didn't, he would't care to have the dubs of Kai, Super, & the last 3 films turn out as good as they are (yes, I know Super's dub isn't perfect. Neither is Kai's if you actually pay attention. Shut up). He loves DB as a franchise & is a fan, which is why he comes up with the ideas he does for castings (Brian Drummond for Copy Vegeta & James Marsters as Zamasu, etc) he does, as well as play with the scripts for the dub (which, I know doesn't always lead to the best results, but I still enjoy the dubs on the whole regardless).

As for the audio files, that's an extremely pessimistic way to view it. For stuff that isn't actually important, I can see him disregarding it & I really doubt he says to everyone that their stuff is better than that they do. However, having the broadcast audio is something he wouldn't disregard. We also have to remember that FUNi's been trying to make the Japanese audio more presentable in the modern era by cleaning it up a bit (details on which have been explained by Ajay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTLBEzJQU9M), but it's not a definitive way to make it the best it can be, so I'm willing to bet that they wanna be able to use it, but Toei refused them from even trying. Sabat cares more than you're saying (if anyone's gonna try to argue the Z releases since 2011, Sabat has no control over the remastering, as he'd only be a consultant with what's on the discs, but makes no decisions on the video quality).

[superrayman3]

Honesty if there was any foreign licensee that would stand a chance at getting approval from Toei to use the OBA, France/AB Groupe would probably be our best bet (assuming they're sincere about being interested in using it).

From what I understand (although please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) France/AB Groupe has a very good business relationship with Toei as one of if not the very first licensee of the DB anime and have gotten things DB anime related that other countries haven't gotten as quickly if at all in the past as a result, so assuming that's indeed the case, if any foreign licensee is in the best position to get approval from Toei, it'd be them.

[Scsigs]

Honesty if there was any foreign licensee that would stand a chance at getting approval from Toei to use the OBA, France/AB Groupe would probably be our best bet (assuming they're sincere about being interested in using it).

From what I understand (although please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) France/AB Groupe has a very good business relationship with Toei as one of if not the very first licensee of the DB anime and have gotten things DB anime related that other countries haven't gotten as quickly if at all in the past as a result, so assuming that's indeed the case, if any foreign licensee is in the best position to get approval from Toei, it'd be them.

What has AB Groupe gotten that other countries haven't?

[Cold Skin]

^ I'm not fully aware of what other countries currently have.
It's possible that our Blu-ray, fully dubbed release for Episode of Bardack and Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans is exclusive to France, but I can't confirm that other countries don't have them too.

But other than that, I can't think of any international exclusive we might have when it comes to the anime...

Shuesha sure gives us a lot (the manga, the series' Anime Comics, the movies' Anime comics, various guide books like Landmark and Forever, the quiz book, the Yamcha spin-off, Dragon Ball SD...). They even allow us to publish our own like the Dragon Ball cooking book.

But I'm not sure Toei gives us much more than what they give to other countries too, it must pretty much the same.
There were plans and discussions about us having the long version of Resurrection 'F' that includes Trunks' retelling of the previous events, but negotiations failed and it never came to pass in the end, so we don't have that many exclusivities as far as I know.

[Robo4900]

Considering that Chris Sabat has files of the broadcast audio for Z, but Toei refused FUNi using them on the new BRs from last year, I think it'll be nothing short of a miracle if the French company is able to use them instead for DB.

We don't know why Funi didn't use the broadcast audio. The 30th anniversary sets in general were clearly quite a cheap-to-put-together release, so I doubt the broadcast audio was high on the agenda for anyone.

Even if some guy who acts and directs the modern dubs has the better audio, I don't think the home video department cared that much this time around.

That's such a shame. I don't understand why Toei would object to it. To implement it would be a relatively simple change, and it would objectively improve the presentation

IDK. Toei are weird. I don't think Funi asked this time, but if someone did ask Toei for approval and they didn't give it, it would fit their pattern of weird restrictions being put on foreign distributors for no particular reason.

At the same time, it would fit Toei's pattern of apathy about a lot of things if they allowed a foreign distributor to use the broadcast audio.

[Aragami]

I have the 3 BOX and all the Las peliculas/The movies, I can tell you that compared to Funimation they did AN amazing job !!!
This is what the real old fan wanted from DBZ and Funimation can't understand and didn't deliver even with the 30 years edition.
I can't freaking beileve it and it doesn't even have an English dub... what a waste.. makes me want to cry..

I really hope they release the DBZ series the same way to obliterate Funimation.. I will simply take my selecta vizion BD and edit a audio version to fit them and remake my own BD for my own entertainment.
Ifanywaonewantstoworkonthatcontactme

[eledoremassis02]

I have the 3 BOX and I can tell you that compared to Funimation they did AN amazing job !!!
This is what the real old fan wanted from DBZ and Funimation can't understand and didn't deliver even with the 30 years edition.
I can't freaking beileve it and it doesn't even have an English dub... what a waste.. makes me want to cry..

I really hope they release the DBZ series the same way to obliterate Funimation.. I will simply take my selecta vizion BD and edit a audio version to fit them and remake my own BD for my own entertainment.

Weren't the Selectavision Dragon Box upscales? Are they color corrected? Do you have screencaps, I am interested in having a great Dragon Ball release. I'm hoping for the French one, but different releases intrigue me.

[Aragami]

Here, I took 1 episode from each box and screen cap directly from the mts/mt2s files...
https://imgur.com/a/okpelXH

I will add the movies another day..
We are not in the early 2000's anymore, the AI up-calling technologie and digital upscale are now to a point where you barely lose 1% if not 0.5% on the actual quality. If done well, like they did unlike funimation did directly from the Master Reels and can't even get it right.
Selecta vision did a very good job on it and kept all the details and the original colours and got approval from Toei...

[Aragami]

I have the 3 BOX and I can tell you that compared to Funimation they did AN amazing job !!!
This is what the real old fan wanted from DBZ and Funimation can't understand and didn't deliver even with the 30 years edition.
I can't freaking beileve it and it doesn't even have an English dub... what a waste.. makes me want to cry..

I really hope they release the DBZ series the same way to obliterate Funimation.. I will simply take my selecta vizion BD and edit a audio version to fit them and remake my own BD for my own entertainment.

Weren't the Selectavision Dragon Box upscales? Are they color corrected? Do you have screencaps, I am interested in having a great Dragon Ball release. I'm hoping for the French one, but different releases intrigue me.

I will do my own version with french audio too.. (I speak french also... my native language)
Ifyouwanttoworkonitcontactme

[eledoremassis02]

I have the 3 BOX and I can tell you that compared to Funimation they did AN amazing job !!!
This is what the real old fan wanted from DBZ and Funimation can't understand and didn't deliver even with the 30 years edition.
I can't freaking beileve it and it doesn't even have an English dub... what a waste.. makes me want to cry..

I really hope they release the DBZ series the same way to obliterate Funimation.. I will simply take my selecta vizion BD and edit a audio version to fit them and remake my own BD for my own entertainment.

Weren't the Selectavision Dragon Box upscales? Are they color corrected? Do you have screencaps, I am interested in having a great Dragon Ball release. I'm hoping for the French one, but different releases intrigue me.

I will do my own version with french audio too.. (I speak french also... my native language)
Ifyouwanttoworkonitcontactme

Those are pretty cool, if I recall they also have neat packaging (a weakness of mine). Unfourtunatly,I dont really have any skills that I think I can contribute to such a project. Do you plan on color correvtion, thats my one main drawback of the Dragon Box?

[Zestanor]

I mean why wouldn’t FUNi be authorized to use the broadcast audio? It’s the exact same audio. It just sounds better. I cannot fathom the argument that there is an essential difference between the optical audio and the broadcast audio that would make it contractually unacceptable. It’s all just the audio to Dragon Ball. Same voice actors, same music, same direction.

[ArmenianPepsi]

I mean why wouldn’t FUNi be authorized to use the broadcast audio? It’s the exact same audio. It just sounds better. I cannot fathom the argument that there is an essential difference between the optical audio and the broadcast audio that would make it contractually unacceptable. It’s all just the audio to Dragon Ball. Same voice actors, same music, same direction.

This is gonna be a humongous stretch, but this is just some brainstorming.

Maybe it's a matter of consistency in the audio presentation to them? Like, the optical audio is bad, but it's uniformly the same level of subpar. If you watch say DBZ, through out the entire show the audio is about the same, you won't have random episodes that sound much better, or ones that sound much worse. Just "Meh".

For how good the BA is, isn't there still a perceptible difference from episode to episode depending on where the episode was captured in Japan? The BA is great, but some episodes will sound better than others, so possibly the chance that there wouldn't be uniform audio quality through out via BA tracks makes somebody at Toei's alarms go off?

[MasenkoHA]

There was a interview that took place between season 1 and 2 of the dub where Gen Fukanaga stated Toei wouldn’t allow them to release subtitle releases of the Japanese version. It’s possible he was lying for PR reasons, but Chris Psaros theorized Toei didn’t want Funimation to release the Japanese episodes on Home Video because they hadn’t yet in Japan and didn’t want people importing the Japanese episodes from America just in case. And excluding the movies, it took until 2000 for Funimation to finally release subtitled Japanese episodes.

Possibly the same principle? Toei doesn’t want Funimation to release episodes with broadcast audio just in case they decide to.

[KBABZ]

I mean why wouldn’t FUNi be authorized to use the broadcast audio? It’s the exact same audio. It just sounds better. I cannot fathom the argument that there is an essential difference between the optical audio and the broadcast audio that would make it contractually unacceptable. It’s all just the audio to Dragon Ball. Same voice actors, same music, same direction.

This is gonna be a humongous stretch, but this is just some brainstorming.

Maybe it's a matter of consistency in the audio presentation to them? Like, the optical audio is bad, but it's uniformly the same level of subpar. If you watch say DBZ, through out the entire show the audio is about the same, you won't have random episodes that sound much better, or ones that sound much worse. Just "Meh".

For how good the BA is, isn't there still a perceptible difference from episode to episode depending on where the episode was captured in Japan? The BA is great, but some episodes will sound better than others, so possibly the chance that there wouldn't be uniform audio quality through out via BA tracks makes somebody at Toei's alarms go off?

Honestly for Funimation it's likely a case of where it came from to begin with. While Toei is the source of the broadcast audio, it was not officially provided to them by Toei. Funi is likely cautious of Toei getting upset with them over using something of theirs they weren't authorized to use.