Walmart Exclusive Dragon Ball Z Bluray sets *Confirmed to be the 2013 cropped discs*

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

While it may not be the best the series has ever looked that's a great deal per set. I think that anyone who doesn't own the series, is on a budget but wants to support it these sets aren't a bad way to go. At the very least your getting all 291 episodes in 4:3.

[MasenkoHA]

While it may not be the best the series has ever looked that's a great deal per set. I think that anyone who doesn't own the series, is on a budget but wants to support it these sets aren't a bad way to go. At the very least your getting all 291 episodes in 4:3.

I think we all have given up on Funimation getting it right. The Dragon Boxes are expensive. The Level Sets were cancelled too early to be worthwhile (I know I’ll get disagreements but I stand by it) this really is the best its gonna get. The correct aspect ratio for less than $200

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I've said it before, but if TOEI don't care anymore there's not a hope of Funimation changing their ways. In the lead up to the 30th anniversary (of Z's release in Japan no less) were TOEI doing anything to create a remaster to rival international HD transfers? No, they were promoting Funimation's box set on social media, it's almost as if they were saying "Yeah, it's the 30th anniversary, we could create our own remaster but Funimation will do it for us". Granted the 30th set wasn't made for, or sold in Japan, but considering TOEI just decided to recut Z and pass it off as a new show for the 20th anniversary with Kai, which I love for what it is, but I digress, it just feels like the trajectory is, as time goes on is this - TOEI cares less, so Funimation can't see any reason to treat the show any differently.

[Demon Prince Piccolo]

I may even end up getting these, in case I ever need to sell the Dragon Boxes.

[eledoremassis02]

While it may not be the best the series has ever looked that's a great deal per set. I think that anyone who doesn't own the series, is on a budget but wants to support it these sets aren't a bad way to go. At the very least your getting all 291 episodes in 4:3.

I think we all have given up on Funimation getting it right. The Dragon Boxes are expensive. The Level Sets were cancelled too early to be worthwhile (I know I’ll get disagreements but I stand by it) this really is the best its gonna get. The correct aspect ratio for less than $200

I hate to say it, but it probly is (granted the 30th and the levels are the two sets I've never sold off at some point). Yea I'm still bummed the level sets were never done and FUNimation put in more work to make it look worse. Every release has had it's issues and while this one is namley DNR, it's still a huge win being 4:3 (if this is 4:3, tho I think we're all pretty confident it is).

I've said it before, but if TOEI don't care anymore there's not a hope of Funimation changing their ways. In the lead up to the 30th anniversary (of Z's release in Japan no less) were TOEI doing anything to create a remaster to rival international HD transfers? No, they were promoting Funimation's box set on social media, it's almost as if they were saying "Yeah, it's the 30th anniversary, we could create our own remaster but Funimation will do it for us". Granted the 30th set wasn't made for, or sold in Japan, but considering TOEI just decided to recut Z and pass it off as a new show for the 20th anniversary with Kai, which I love for what it is, but I digress, it just feels like the trajectory is, as time goes on is this - TOEI cares less, so Funimation can't see any reason to treat the show any differently.

There are reservations with TOEI remastering it too. The on main draw is the fact that they have the masters. Even if we had a finished level set release, TOEI's remaster would already look 1000 times better by default. However, Japan is also obsessed with DNRing animation so I'm pretty confident DBZ would arrive on bluray DNRed (much like the films).

[90sDBZ]

A DBZ remaster by Toei could potentially suffer from censorship like the movies did a couple of years back. That and potentially a green tint.

[Catsenti]

Pages are up for the new Walmart sets. $34.96 a set. Assuming these are the 30th Anniversary discs, that's an incredible deal!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dragon-Ball- ... /807781505

[Footlong Shoe]

I'm hesitant to jump on this before we know for sure what discs they are, but I guess the worst case scenario is that I blow $100 and can resell them at a slight loss. I still feel the 30A discs are inherently flawed in appearance, they look so "watercolor" for lack of better term, but at least I can make the comparisons for myself if I own them.

[tiedyegypsy]

Dang, I just dropped on the steelbooks so it's too bad that these are like half the price. Oh well, I don't like that they used new artwork for 1-3 anyway. It clashes with the rest of the set too much for my liking.

[JEFFMAN219]

Saw this on the BluRay.com forums.

Funimation February 2022 Solicitations

Available on February 15. Exclusive to Walmart



https://www.funimation.com/blog/2021/11/15/funimation-announces-february-2022-home-video-releases-including-attack-on-titan-final-season-part-1/



Dragon Ball Z – Seasons 1-3 (Blu-ray) - Walmart exclusive)




Dragon Ball Z – Seasons 4-6 (Blu-ray) - Walmart exclusive)




Dragon Ball Z – Seasons 7-9 (Blu-ray) - Walmart exclusive)

No word on if these are the 4:3 30A discs or the older cropped discs. It would be pretty short sighted to sell another variation of the cropped discs.

The 4-9 sets use older promo art and don't look that bad. The 1-3 sets use newer promo art tho, and kinda stand out in a bad way. Should have gone with the packaging of the Manga UK sets for consistency.

Nearly 25 years later of the first DBZ home release and funimation is still dropping new versions of it amazing lool.

At this point they've milked this series to death. At least the cover art looks decent

[TheGreatness25]

Even though I was on here singing the 30th anniversary set's praises as "this is a good option and it's in 4:3," I look back and realize how preposterous that statement is. The series should have always been in 4:3. That shouldn't even be a discussion point. This was just an example of Funimation taking something away for a long period of time, then giving it back as if it's doing everyone this gigantic favor. Like, no, you people made a subpar version the standard, then are presenting a less subpar product that's better as great when it isn't.

If Funimation really wanted to get creative with themselves, they could have made a release that keeps the top and bottom 20% that they happened to chop out of previous releases through their cropping and included this "amazing" additional side video that they were so generous to give us in their cropped version. Yeah, would make for some weird aspect ratio that's bound to have black bars somewhere, but I would be all for it.

I don't know; Funimation had a cute little new gimmick for each release, but with this set, the gimmick seems to be "Hey, look! We fixed what we messed up before! Well, not really, but we fixed that little business of chopping off 20%! Eh? Eh? Love us! Your wish has been granted!"

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, it's funny in retrospect Funimation thought that a "4:3 is for the hardcores" mindset was needed to promote the 30th set as this once-in-a-lifetime legendary Blu-Ray collection that would need to be crowdfunded, and then decided that it should be for a general audience making the remaster they did for the 30th not as special as they claimed. The company needs to hire a fan because they don't know what people want most of the time.

[MasenkoHA]

The company needs to hire a fan because they don't know what people want most of the time.

I don’t think it’s lack of fan insight that’s the problem. I think the people at Funimation just tend to not be very bright.

I know one of the former brand managers for Funimation did say they ran a poll back in the day to get fan feedback and fans overwhelming voted on 4:3 over 16:9 aspect ratio their counterargument was “the 16:9 sets were outselling the 4:3 sets “ the problem with that was yeah duh the Orange Bricks out sold the Dragon Boxes they were a lot cheaper to obtain included the dub music and more importantly they came out first. The average Joe Moe isn’t going to buy the Dragon Boxes after they just bought the orange bricks. Same thing with the level sets vs the blue ray season sets. The latter didn’t sell better because it was 16:9 it sold better because it was a complete season and consumers didn’t have to buy a single season in ”sets”

[eledoremassis02]

The company needs to hire a fan because they don't know what people want most of the time.

I don’t think it’s lack of fan insight that’s the problem. I think the people at Funimation just tend to not be very bright.

I know one of the former brand managers for Funimation did say they ran a poll back in the day to get fan feedback and fans overwhelming voted on 4:3 over 16:9 aspect ratio their counterargument was “the 16:9 sets were outselling the 4:3 sets “ the problem with that was yeah duh the Orange Bricks out sold the Dragon Boxes they were a lot cheaper to obtain included the dub music and more importantly they came out first. The average Joe Moe isn’t going to buy the Dragon Boxes after they just bought the orange bricks. Same thing with the level sets vs the blue ray season sets. The latter didn’t sell better because it was 16:9 it sold better because it was a complete season and consumers didn’t have to buy a single season in ”sets”

100% this. They follow numbers. Which is really suprising they pushed out the steel books after the 30th barley made it. DNR sells as well unfortunatly, I remember people complaning how distracting the grain was when the Level sets came out and DNR is quite popular in the industry (espeshally for animation). It's an unforunate thing, which is one reason why I'm not pushing for a TOEI remaster outside the fact they have a better source.

[DBZAOTA482]

Yeah, it's funny in retrospect Funimation thought that a "4:3 is for the hardcores" mindset was needed to promote the 30th set as this once-in-a-lifetime legendary Blu-Ray collection that would need to be crowdfunded, and then decided that it should be for a general audience making the remaster they did for the 30th not as special as they claimed. The company needs to hire a fan because they don't know what people want most of the time.

People just want Dragon Ball but in an affordable price. FUNimation keep shooting themselves in the feet when it comes to pricing.

[TheGreatness25]

The company needs to hire a fan because they don't know what people want most of the time.

I don’t think it’s lack of fan insight that’s the problem. I think the people at Funimation just tend to not be very bright.

I know one of the former brand managers for Funimation did say they ran a poll back in the day to get fan feedback and fans overwhelming voted on 4:3 over 16:9 aspect ratio their counterargument was “the 16:9 sets were outselling the 4:3 sets “ the problem with that was yeah duh the Orange Bricks out sold the Dragon Boxes they were a lot cheaper to obtain included the dub music and more importantly they came out first. The average Joe Moe isn’t going to buy the Dragon Boxes after they just bought the orange bricks. Same thing with the level sets vs the blue ray season sets. The latter didn’t sell better because it was 16:9 it sold better because it was a complete season and consumers didn’t have to buy a single season in ”sets”

100% this. They follow numbers. Which is really suprising they pushed out the steel books after the 30th barley made it. DNR sells as well unfortunatly, I remember people complaning how distracting the grain was when the Level sets came out and DNR is quite popular in the industry (espeshally for animation). It's an unforunate thing, which is one reason why I'm not pushing for a TOEI remaster outside the fact they have a better source.

What's that mean: "DNR sells"? DNR sells? What did they compare to determine this? Did they put out two releases at the same time which were identical in price, episode count, etc., one with DNR and one without? No. The set that they put out that was dirt cheap, had more episodes in the set than ever before, and was the only way to own a chunk of the series (the Namek arc) sold well. Yeah, it happened to be in 16:9 and had a huge DNR presence, but that's what the got out of it? That 16:9 and DNR sell? I don't want to call them incompetent morons--I'd rather give them the benefit of the doubt and say that 16:9 and DNR served their agenda and they just used the "you fans must like it more as proven by the sales!" crap to try to justify it to us. I'm going to go ahead and say that they think we're idiots as opposed to saying that they actually are idiots.

[Catsenti]

Sorry to bump but these sets release on Tuesday and I was wondering if anyone was planning on picking them up?

[MasenkoHA]

Sorry to bump but these sets release on Tuesday and I was wondering if anyone was planning on picking them up?

Probably not immediately but if these are indeed the 4:3 30th anniversary repackaged and not a repackaging of the 16:9 season sets I will eventually.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

After all these months i still have a feeling that these will be the 30th and steelbook versions, because from what i would figure they'd want to use the most recent release and thus repackaging an eight plus year old cropped widescreen version that isn't even readily on store shelves anymore (I don't know if the 2013/2014 Season BDs are even still in print at his point) wouldn't really make much sense.

[eledoremassis02]

I expect these to be the 30th too. If they're not (for better or worse) I'll be suprised. However, can't wait to see posts about people getting them