Dragon Ball Z Kai Volume 1 Discussion

[MugiMikey]

As for the Z in Z Kai, remember, it was Toei's doing to have Z added in the Funi release, likely due to Z doing better than the other releases, and Toei liking every scrap of ad work and cash they can get.

I think it was so people don't get confused and think it's the fourth installment of the anime. It's not confusing to Japanese fans because they know what "Kai" means.

Adding the "Z" makes much more sense and I'm glad it's officially called "Dragon Ball Z Kai" in the English market.

[Gaffer Tape]

Do people really want the 'sponsored by McDonalds' bit kept in? I find the sponsors more annoying than anything.

It'd be cool if they were there. I always enjoyed seeing them on my fansubs (not to mention the commercials themselves... they were awesome! ). I don't expect them to ever be on an official release, and I certainly wouldn't be upset if they weren't. But those are indeed some memories. ^_^

[Raki]

I think the thing you're forgetting is that this isn't the Dragon Box. This is the first release of an anime series and it's being targeted toward American fans. As Marc mentioned, the needs of many go over the needs of the 5 people who want it differently.

Actually with the advent of an accurate dub, it's being targeted to everybody.

Removing alternate angles from DVDs was the best thing Funi did to improve both their video quality and the impression that anime fans had in general that Funimation releases were low quality.

But with more space available on a Blu-Ray disk, isn't that irrelevant?

[Puto]

The more space available on a Blu-ray disc is rendered moot by the fact that Blu-rays are HD. You NEED that "extra space" for high quality HD content.

[TripleRach]

Do people really want the 'sponsored by McDonalds' bit kept in? I find the sponsors more annoying than anything.

For some shows, the sponsor cards are left in on the home releases, but without any of the text or logos, and no narration about the sponsors. It's just the blank artwork with the accompanying BGM. I think Inuyasha may have been one of those shows (I've never seen a Japanese TV rip, and the internet is not helping me figure it out), but those blank cards were actually animated with silly little things happening.

I think it would be neat to keep at least a blank version, for completion's sake. But at the same time, it is kind of awkward to stare at a blank image for 10 or so seconds (unless they're like the Inuyasha example), unlike the full broadcast version, which feels a lot more natural with the appropriate text and narration. So I'm kind of torn about it. It would be neat to include it, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if they don't.

[Adamant]

So they would effectively be paying quite a bit more to please... how many people? And ignoring if it makes a few people happier or not, how many will refuse to buy the release purely for that reason?

I highly doubt there are people so insane as to not purchase a DVD release of a foreign movie/TV show because there's text in a foreign language present in it.

Hell, the best and most cost-effective method would be to just a) leave the original title card and have some dub announcer guy read the English title if the dub track is running, and b) keep the original credits and toss in a credit page for the localizers at the end of the episode.
Everyone gets their credits and title, no one loses out on anything, the localization company doesn't have to spend money editing video, everyone's happy. It's the perfect solution, and the one that's always been used over here.

[Gaffer Tape]

Ugh, I hate to (slightly) argue against my point, but if the dub is going to be broadcast on television (which this one is), I can certainly see the reason why English versions would need to be made. So they'd really have to be spending money to edit credits regardless of the logic of putting it there in the home release.

Well, since this topic keeps on being brought up, even without me, I want to point out that I just remembered something. Remember that blurb on the back of the Dragon Boxes? It specifically mentions the fact that it has credits on it. I know this is a hardcore collector release, but just think about that for a second. A blurb actually uses the original credits AS A MARKETING PLOY! Has anyone ever seen anything else do that before? Has anyone turned over a DVD case to read the special features and see "Credits" listed there? I think that goes a long way in showing that there's more than a few people who've been missing the credits for all these years, and FUNimation considers them a large enough market share to actually hype.

[Adamant]

Ugh, I hate to (slightly) argue against my point, but if the dub is going to be broadcast on television (which this one is), I can certainly see the reason why English versions would need to be made.

Why? Is there some kind of broadcast law demanding it, or something? It's rarely done here, and you never really see any actual complaints about it. The majority of people generally don't pay attention to credits anyway.

[Budogenkai]

Question about the packaging for the DVD/Blu-Ray: From what I've seen, the Blu-ray version has a shiny sort of cover. Does the DVD packaging also have a shiny effect too?

[Gaffer Tape]

Ugh, I hate to (slightly) argue against my point, but if the dub is going to be broadcast on television (which this one is), I can certainly see the reason why English versions would need to be made.

Why? Is there some kind of broadcast law demanding it, or something? It's rarely done here, and you never really see any actual complaints about it. The majority of people generally don't pay attention to credits anyway.

I honestly have no idea. I'd be curious to find out where you're from. But first of all, you know we're on the same side, right? I want the Japanese credits too. However, in the event of a dub-only release (which the TV broadcast would be), I see the logic in having English, dubbed credits and title cards. However, I find little justification for dub-only title cards and credits in what is, ostensibly, a dual-language release. That just seems sloppy to me and ever so slightly misleading.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Do people really want the 'sponsored by McDonalds' bit kept in? I find the sponsors more annoying than anything.

No, but I bet some hardcore fan of the original, somewhere, is complaining about it.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Do people really want the 'sponsored by McDonalds' bit kept in? I find the sponsors more annoying than anything.

It does have a cool background image (I think)

[dan2026]

It does have a cool background image (I think)

True enough, to be honest I'm not bothered if the sponsors are there or not.

[dragondyle]

Are the eyecatches in this release?

[SonGokuGT]

Are the eyecatches in this release?

But of course!

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

Except for the English credits and title cards...

What is wrong with them? Aren't we the English-speaking folks? They pretty much have just translated everything that was on Japanese releases, except they made some minor changes in title card, but it hardly changes your viewing experience. I don't see why you should make such a big deal about these.

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh, good God. Every time I think this topic of discussion is over, someone else keeps bringing it back up. I've already explained in great detail why I (and others) feel the way I do. If you can dig up this post, you can dig up those as well. Some of it's still on the current page.

Dragon Boxes had English credit at the very end of last episode's next episode preview.

I know... which is what I'd been expressing would be the ideal scenario... What's your point?

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

If you can dig up this post, you can dig up those as well. Some of it's still on the current page.?

I skimmed some of the the posts. I don't feel like reading the entrie thread.

I know... which is what I'd been expressing would be the ideal scenario... What's your point?

The thing is I don't get why you would make a big deal out of these. As much as I'd love to have them keep the Japanese credit, that's not realistic. Z Kai is in American market for American folks. We want to be able to know who's in the credit, instead of doing hard work of figuring out who are in it. Beside, the FUNimation folks have to be credited too. It would be way too weird to have their name written in Japanese.

[JulieYBM]

The thing is I don't get why you would make a big deal out of these. As much as I'd love to have them keep the Japanese credit, that's not realistic. Z Kai is in American market for American folks. We want to be able to know who's in the credit, instead of doing hard work of figuring out who are in it. Beside, the FUNimation folks have to be credited too. It would be way too weird to have their name written in Japanese.

The show's trues cards and credits are not present on the FUNimation release. We want to watch it as originally presented. It's very understandable.

[Gaffer Tape]

If you can dig up this post, you can dig up those as well. Some of it's still on the current page.?

I skimmed some of the the posts. I don't feel like reading the entrie thread.

And I don't feel like re-re-stating my argument. Fair enough?

Suffice it to say, I'm a purist, and ONLY having the English credits to me is unbalanced in what is supposed to be a dual-language release. But that's all I'm going to say on this for right now. Sorry if I came across too strongly, but there's really nothing more to say about it, and it keeps coming up.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks, as always, for the backup, JulieYBM.