Kai Blu-Ray Release

Kai_fan · Post by **Kai_fan** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:16 pm

Sweet, sweet.

That there is a release at all is kinda significant.

Given the somewhat unusual nature of Kai, I've felt since the beginning that there was (some) chance it would never be released on video. Like this was just going to be a special TV-only thing for the next couple of years. OK, so not too likely, but it was a possibility. Or that they would release it, but not do so until the series was complete two years from now.

But this is very good. A concurrent-with-broadcast release in Japan is sure to portend an imminent FUNi release with subs by Daimao!

Since I consider Kai to be the definitive anime version of volumes 17-42, its the only version I plan to "take with me through life" so to speak and introduce to others. Very good news that I won't have to sit here spending countless hours making my own DVDs of it.

Now it's just a matter of hoping to god that they leave it uncensored, and maybe even restore a few canon shots and/or lines that may have been cut for time.

Jurik · Post by **Jurik** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:20 am

That's ridiculous, I wont pay $30 for a blu ray with only 3 episodes...

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi · Post by **Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:01 am

Jurik wrote:That's ridiculous, I wont pay $30 for a blu ray with only 3 episodes...

Come on, we all did it when FUNimation first started releasing subtitled DVDs. Considering that these are imports too makes the price even more attractive.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:58 am

Hey, there's boxes too. What do ya know?

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%89%E3%83 ... 812&sr=1-1

Oh, and the real kicker? Kai on Blu-ray...AND (unless I'm reading wrong) IN FULLSCREEN!?

Three boxes scheduled. 10/23/09, 2/19/10 and 2/23/10. ￥ 15,960 each, preorder for ￥ 11,810. That's about $120USD. Looks to be 12 episodes each. There's also preorder items so this might be a DragonBox type affair. More info as I find it.

http://www.happinet-p.co.jp/dragonball appears to be the official site for the company releasing these, but that link isn't active yet as near as I can tell. Once it goes live, I'd expect more information will comes out.

Now I'm off to go cry, since I'll undoubtedly order these...

-Corey

Mystery Person X · Post by **Mystery Person X** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:20 am

Yup, it specifically says that the Blu-ray release will be 4:3 despite the broadcast being cropped to 16:9.

What's odd is that it seems like you have to get the first individual disc and the first box set. The box is listed as having episode 4-15.

JAPPO · Post by **JAPPO** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:25 am

Horrible release. I can't see why anyone would support this, when chances are Kai will be packaged into season box sets when it's done airing.

Post by **Herms** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:39 am

JAPPO wrote:Horrible release. I can't see why anyone would support this, when chances are Kai will be packaged into season box sets when it's done airing.

Yeah, like all those other season box sets that have come out in Japan.

jda95 · Post by **jda95** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:51 am

I'm gonna wait and see how the DVDs pan out once the series finishes airing, I'm getting kinda confused. Was the first release in 4:3?

SSJToreto · Post by **SSJToreto** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:59 am

MajinVejitaXV wrote:Hey, there's boxes too. What do ya know?

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%89%E3%83 ... 812&sr=1-1

Oh, and the real kicker? Kai on Blu-ray...AND (unless I'm reading wrong) IN FULLSCREEN!?

Three boxes scheduled. 10/23/09, 2/19/10 and 2/23/10. ￥ 15,960 each, preorder for ￥ 11,810. That's about $120USD. Looks to be 12 episodes each. There's also preorder items so this might be a DragonBox type affair. More info as I find it.

-Corey

I am so confused right now...

I wonder what's the quality of the BR release. I downloaded a 720p episode of Kai to get the feel of the overall quality. While it looked nice, the lines were blurry, I guess due to the grain removal?

Also, if it's gonna be 4:3, is it possible they're going to use the same masters from Dragon Box, but in high def?

Captain Awesome · Post by **Captain Awesome** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:35 am

So perhaps if they are putting out a 4:3 release, it will be "uncut" or as uncut as a chopped up version of a 20 year old show can be.

I might actually pick one of these up for the hell of it.

B · Post by B » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:02 am

I'll wait for Kai to either end or until we get more releases for DVD.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:45 am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that first box is saying episode 4 through 16...? That means... the first single disc with episodes 1-3 is necessary to even have the beginning of the series?

What kind of crazy shit is this...?

The Tori-bot · Post by **The Tori-bot** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:00 pm

VegettoEX wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but that first box is saying episode 4 through 16...? That means... the first single disc with episodes 1-3 is necessary to even have the beginning of the series?

What kind of crazy shit is this...?

It's actually 4 through 15.

... 120 bucks for 12 episodes?

$10 an episode...

Then again, that's basically the same rate for the starter disc, and relatively cheap for a JP Blu-ray, I guess...

The Time Traveller · Post by **The Time Traveller** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:06 pm

I may just get the DVD box set... if they do one.

I'm guessing the DVD version of that box would be about £50 or less...

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:52 pm

I'd like to just pop in and drop off this awesome placeholder image for those who want it...

and a bigger version can be found here: http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/3746/49761991.png

Kuhan · Post by **Kuhan** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:00 pm

So, does this mean that they do the entire 4:3 image and then crop it? Like they did with the movies?

DaemonCorps · Post by **DaemonCorps** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:24 pm

So since when did Toei start taking a page from FUNimation and start confusing fans with aspect ratio jargon?

Meh, I'll pass on these and hope FUNi will release some DVD equivalents once they pick up the series.

linkdude20002001 · Post by **linkdude20002001** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:43 pm

http://www.happinet-p.com/jp2/dragonball/index.html appears to be the actual site for the Kai releases. There's not much to it yet.

Mystery Person X · Post by **Mystery Person X** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:55 pm

Kuhan wrote:So, does this mean that they do the entire 4:3 image and then crop it? Like they did with the movies?

DaemonCorps wrote:So since when did Toei start taking a page from FUNimation and start confusing fans with aspect ratio jargon?

I really don't see why this is confusing. As noted already, the description says that the show was cropped to 16:9 for broadcast, but the Blu-ray version will instead contain the complete 4:3 image within the full HD frame. This is perfectly clear and in no way contradicts anything else Toei has told us. It's quite plausible that they did all of the other editing before cropping the show to 16:9 for broadcast.

If the Blu-ray version turns out to be 16:9 anyway or some such, then so be it. But there's no vagueness in what the Amazon page says.

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:06 pm

I really don't see why this is confusing. As noted already, the description says that the show was cropped to 16:9 for broadcast, but the Blu-ray version will instead contain the complete 4:3 image within the full HD frame. This is perfectly clear and in no way contradicts anything else Toei has told us. It's quite plausible that they did all of the other editing before cropping the show to 16:9 for broadcast.

I don't know man. One of the things that made DBK different from DBZ was it was in widescreen. Why would they wanna drop that aspect now? But besides that, this wasn't done the same way FUNimation did it's widescreen release where it just cuts the image off to make it widescreen. Some frames in Kai were actually re-positioned to have it look\fit better in widescreen. So what about those scenes now? It just don't make sense to me...