A very important 15-year anniversary just passed (and your opinion on it)

[TVfan721]

Last week was the 15th anniversary of when Funimation released the first Orange Brick and hence, the first time Funimation finally released DBZ the way people had been fighting for (for the past 11 years at that point, 96-07) English dubbed Dragon Ball Z with the original background music left fully intact. I still remember those days well. Before the Orange Bricks, the three Pioneer movies was the closest we had ever gotten to a true, proper dub.

Obviously there were issues with cropping and I remember the widescreen ratio was a big criticism. I would argue though that despite that, this was the first time Funimation started listening to the fans and gave them what they had been fighting a long time for and english-speaking countries were getting DBZ the same way every other country in the world was getting it. I remember this was the BIGGEST thing that Chris Psaros, VegettoEX, and all the other big online names wanted and fought for. How did you react at the time and what are your thoughts? And how Funimation been doing with DBZ in the past 15 years?

I've said this before but hearing the dubbed voices with the Japanese soundtrack behind it actually made appreciate the voice acting more. The original music made the English VA work somehow sound better. Not great by any means but still better. It was pretty wild.

[eledoremassis02]

This came around right around the first time I lost major interest in Dragon Ball. I remeber thinking it was cool (didnt realize that they were cropping and not opening up the frame) *this forum educated me a lot on remastering and cropping*

However, when I got back into Dragon Ball the Dragon Boxes were almost done coming out and 1-4 were already hard to get. I had to get the season 2 orange brick in order to see early namek uncut for the first time, so I have a soft spot of probly the worst of the bricks

[jjgp1112]

If the Orange Bricks never came out I don't think I'd still be a fan to the extent that I am...which in hindsight is probably a double edged sword.

I didn't even know about them at first. I'd moved on from DB and a friend told me about it, and I figured I might as well catch all the Uncut Saiyan saga episodes I never saw.

[MyVisionity]

It was a shit release that I never would have purchased. I had already seen all of the uncut Japanese episodes that weren't released, and the cropped widescreen and brightness killed it for me. I don't particularly like the in-house English dub overall, but I prefer the broadcast version of Season Three. And Dale Kelly.

Also I don't think that this is exactly what anyone had been "fighting for"...

[MasenkoHA]

Last week was the 15th anniversary of when Funimation released the first Orange Brick and hence, the first time Funimation finally released DBZ the way people had been fighting for (for the past 11 years at that point, 96-07) English dubbed Dragon Ball Z with the original background music left fully intact.

This feels like an oversimplification. Fans wanted an accurate to the Japanese version dub which would include using the correct music. Pasting the inaccurate and often amateurish dub over the Japanese M&E track ended up pleasing very few people. Purist didn’t care because it was still attached to a dub they hated for reasons beyond a rescoring and dub fans mostly hated it because they grew up with the Faulconer score.

I do think it was a good choice mostly because it connects it better to Dragon Ball (the idea of going from Kikuchi to Johnson to Faulcouner gives me whiplash) and I hate the Z dub score but most people weren’t asking for it

Before the Orange Bricks, the three Pioneer movies was the closest we had ever gotten to a true, proper dub.

After the Orange Bricks, the Pioneer movies were the closest we got to a true proper dub. Because they had accurate scripts. The dub scripts for the tv series were all over the place in 1996-2003 and they were all over the place in 2007.

, this was the first time Funimation started listening to the fans

But not when they started releasing the show with subtitles with translations done by a well known online fan?

I remember this was the BIGGEST thing that Chris Psaros, VegettoEX, and all the other big online names wanted and fought for.

I know Psaros voiced his sentiment that having the Japanese music was what he wanted most from the dub and he thought it was at least interesting hearing the dub actors over it.

I don’t think Mike ever asked for it or cared because he doesn’t care about the dub.

I've said this before but hearing the dubbed voices with the Japanese soundtrack behind it actually made appreciate the voice acting more. The original music made the English VA work somehow sound better.

It made the dub more tolerable. Instead of shitty voice acting and shitty music it was just shitty voice acting. The first 67 episodes probably benefited the best from the Kikuchi score because the actors were mostly tolerable by that point and Funimation wasn’t doing as many stupid one liners even omitting a lot of them from their original 1996 scripts they mostly copied off of.

I can’t say the Japanese music made the English voices better. They just weren’t being drowned out by an obnoxious score begging for your attention as it actively fought against what the show was.

[M16U3L2015]

Obviously there were issues with cropping and I remember the widescreen ratio was a big criticism.

Let's not forget the abuse of DNR that they used

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The ads and trailers were some of THE most misleading and lie filled pieces of garbage ever. I think the Orange Bricks could've been far better than they were if FUNi had just taken their UUE masters for eps 1-67 then the singles footage for 68-291 (albeit with tweaking for better quality and stuff) and put that out instead. Then we'd have a readily available release in 4:3 on store shelves, but no they had to go one step further and completely butcher the presentation to appeal to those folks who like stuff to fill their fancy schmancy TV's, even with the fact that DBZ was fully intended to be shown in the standard 4:3 frame.

And here are said trailers from early 2007, deceptive buzzwords and all. Boy, they really wanted to sell the hell out of that 16:9 widescreen and make it seem all cool and awesome regardless of how bad it really was.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JDelwuyToVw&t=3s

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=miXN6645TfM&t=86s

[coola]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWfw-rrZrE& Everything wrong with Funimation releases culminated there, false advertisement and lies (The way the show was intended to be seen, high definition) but also what is wrong with average consumer in general, release was crappy, but also very cheap, so it ws very popular among casuals, and to this day some people believe DBZ was supposed to look like this I remember MajinVegetaXV review...and picture of Season 1 boxset thrown out of balcony

[MasenkoHA]

I remember MajinVegetaXV review...and picture of Season 1 boxset thrown out of balcony

I never did understand the concept of trashing or destroying something you paid for just for views.


The company still has your money.

[MetaMoss]

I remember MajinVegetaXV review...and picture of Season 1 boxset thrown out of balcony

I never did understand the concept of trashing or destroying something you paid for just for views.


The company still has your money.

[coola]

I remember MajinVegetaXV review...and picture of Season 1 boxset thrown out of balcony

I never did understand the concept of trashing or destroying something you paid for just for views.


The company still has your money.

This And also, i think 2007 was when whole Angry Reviewing schtick was at it's peak, and it's not complete without reviewed item getting destroyed in creative way

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWfw-rrZrE& Everything wrong with Funimation releases culminated there, false advertisement and lies (The way the show was intended to be seen, high definition) but also what is wrong with average consumer in general, release was crappy, but also very cheap, so it ws very popular among casuals, and to this day some people believe DBZ was supposed to look like this I remember MajinVegetaXV review...and picture of Season 1 boxset thrown out of balcony

This video sums up the whole frustrating saga of home releases here, and boy the Orange Bricks (and to a lesser extent the 2013-2014 Blu-ray seasons) were about the worst possible releases if we go from a purely visual standpoint. I contend that the OB's would've been perfectly fine if FUNi had just simply repackaged the Ultimate Uncut/singles masters and leaving the dubs as they were. There was no logical reason for cutting off 20%-25% of the picture or DNR'ing the picture to oblivion either, these decisions were made by a bunch of higher ups who clearly didn't give a rat's ass about presenting the show in it's proper form.

[MasenkoHA]

I never did understand the concept of trashing or destroying something you paid for just for views.


The company still has your money.

This And also, i think 2007 was when whole Angry Reviewing schtick was at it's peak, and it's not complete without reviewed item getting destroyed in creative way

Yeah and that whole era was cringe af. Thank God we’ve mostly moved past it.


Grrrr Care Bears dumb! Shit! Shitty shit fuck fuck! I’m the Nostalgia Critic! I alienate my co-workers so you don’t have to! Fuck!!

[MetaMoss]

Yeah and that whole era was cringe af. Thank God we’ve mostly moved past it.


Grrrr Care Bears dumb! Shit! Shitty shit fuck fuck! I’m the Nostalgia Critic! I alienate my co-workers so you don’t have to! Fuck!!

I'm certainly glad that the internet reviewer space has matured past that point. I mean, not completely, but at the very least we're spoiled for choice when it comes to people who put out reviews with some meat to them.

After having half of my college experience being about taking deep dives into works of literature and having meaningful discussions on them, I do have to say that my old angry reviewer favorites have really lost their luster on more recent viewings.

[JulieYBM]

Oh wow, I hadn't noticed. Dang, when did it stop being 2007?

I think FUNimation's shenanigans are silly and a shame but I'm also just plain done giving them my time and attention.

[eledoremassis02]

Only thing that kills me now is the "unboxing experience". I've never gotten that. Its a box lol...thats how we end up with boxes like the one the Motorola Razr shipped out in

Spoiler:

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.ZUd7p4zcJ ... mgDet&rs=1

It's cool, but kind of a waste of resources.

Anyway.....back on topic speaking of boxes, I'll never understand why they put the spine art under the slipcover, and not just do it how they did their VHS'

[90sDBZ]

For me and many others the Orange Bricks were a lifesaver. For years the UK had no home release, so there was no way to watch the show post-Toonami. Importing all the singles was out of the question at the time, as they were expensive, there was loads of them, import fees were high, and I was a high schooler with a paperround. It also didn't help that Amazon UK wrongly labelled all the singles as Region 1 only. For a few years I genuinely wondered if i'd ever see my favourite show again.

Then the Orange Bricks came out in the US. They were cheap with high episode counts, and over the course of 4 years I eventually managed to import them all. I actually got Season 3 first as the Frieza saga was always my favourite. I watched it all the way through with the Faulconer score (which I still love to this day), then again with Kikuchi which I also enjoyed (I remember really appreciating that it had moments of silence).

Then in 2012 the Orange Bricks finally got a UK release, allowing many other long time fans to watch the show for the first time since Toonami (7 years). They sold extremely well and got many people back into Z, which led to GT, OG DB, Kai, Super, and the movies getting released too. And we had 2 enourmously successful theatrical runs for Resurrection F and DBS Broly.

I know they have their issues, but the Orange Bricks allowed me to watch my favourite show again, and literally revived the franchise over here. For that they will always hold a special place in my heart.

[ABED]

I was happy to have a release that took up much less shelf space and to finally have all the episodes

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I was happy to have a release that took up much less shelf space and to finally have all the episodes

They're good in that aspect and being all episodes uncut, it's just too bad they messed up the aspect ratio and image quality in the process.

[MetaMoss]

I think FUNimation's shenanigans are silly and a shame but I'm also just plain done giving them my time and attention.

I don't think there's anything better you can do about it. Fifteen years on, and it's plain to see: DBZ is too big for Funimation to not be successful with it, even if they really fumble the execution. I saw an Orange Brick sitting on a store shelf this past week, in the year of our Kami 2022, and if that doesn't say what you need to know, then I don't know what to tell you.