10 Years Of Bilingual DragonBall TV Series DVD's In America!

[Kendamu]

Dude, you got the season sets.

I know I'm going to get shit for this, but I don't see the Season Sets as being that bad.

Good for you. I have friends who feel the same way.

[Perfect]

I'm buying the season sets after I get all the Dragon Boxes, dub music if I'm feeling nostalgic.

[VegettoEX]

Not a whole lot of reasons to jump back into the "Grar! Grar! Season sets!" non-discussion -- they were but a skip along the way in the prance of the last ten years.

I very specifically remember my first viewings of that Captain Ginyu - Assault DVD. I was freshly 18 and had finally purchased a DVD player. Rurouni Kenshin and DragonBall Z were coming out on DVD, and I couldn't be a happier dude. Our DVD player was in our basement, but I also had my new computer for college (a rockin' HP with an 850 MHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM... and a DVD drive...!) that I would pop it in at night. Those first couple episodes had a bit of Bulma sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing, if I remember correctly... but it didn't matter. I was watching DBZ in crystal-clear quality (that being "no VHS noise"), in Japanese, subtitled, with chapter stops...

I actually had both discs on order with RightStuf at the time, but the demand was so overwhelming for the initial printing that many of their customers just couldn't get their orders fulfilled for months. I ended up canceling my order and tracked down the first disc at my local Suncoast (which is now an Indian rug store or something).

After all the nonsense with the "uncut" dub-only VHS and season three, the big petition, all the work Steve and Brian were doing... folks, if you weren't there, I can't even begin to describe in words how it felt. The announcement of the Dragon Boxes almost pales in comparison.

I'm really ashamed we missed the genuine anniversary earlier this summer. The Trunks discs are 10 years old this month, though, which is pretty spectacular .

[Kendamu]

Mike, if you haven't already you should grab some of the older guys around here and podcast about how it felt and what it was like compared to now. Maybe throw in a few "Get off my lawn!" jokes along the way. It would be interesting to hear even for me. I believe I was a manga-only guy by that point so I missed that bus by a few years.

[Codarik]

I started buying the DVDs when the season sets came out. I didn't bother getting any of the bilingual dvds. Though I did buy 4 bilingual dvds from the fusion saga and the first 5 movie singles cause I wanted to see them in 4:3 with the dub music.

[Gaffer Tape]

Heh, I remember that I only first got a DVD player in order to see Dragon Ball on DVD. I was totally convinced DVD was just a fad, like Laserdisc, up to that point!

[Great Saiyaman I]

Man, back then, I really thought Goku changed from a blue undershirt and wristbands to black from time to time. Those looked like crap.

[nathantheguitarist]

I couldn't really afford DVDs for a while, and I wasn't interested in the Japanese track at the time unfortunately. I saw upto Cell on TV, from syndication to Cartoon Network. It was awesome. Only I was too naive at the time to tape anything... soo... Then I moved. I learned how to tape shit, only I had no cable with Cartoon Network.

Walking through Walmart one day, saw something I hadn't seen before... DBZ on tape! Yup... tape. VHS. I didn't realize anything about the Japanese track, or DVDs supposed better picture quality, all I knew was VHS were half the price (for the most part). O got most of the rest of Z on VHS, starting with SSj3 Transformation (after several years of wanting to see such a crazy sounding/looking transformation!), as well as movies 5 and 6. Then, I decided DVD would be a nicer thing to have (still wasn't aware of the JP track lol), so I first got a few GT singles over a period of time. got movies 11-13 on DVD as they came out. A couple UUE's, and a few Freeza singles I saw Gamestop. (And the Ocean Saiyan Saga and movies, just because). By then, I'd had my exposure to the original version and didn't shun it away like everyone else did.

Then I saw Season One coming out. I was like, "fuuuuuuuuuuuuck yesssssss! Super cheap DBZ, I'll finally own the whole damn thing!" Then the subsequent shitty news, and then put me in the group of dudes who waited for the better release.

I still intend to get all of the singles on DVD after the Dragon Boxes, because I do like Faulconer Productions stuff, since that was what I saw back then (along with about two-dozen random Mexican episodes on Telemundo) and it has one of them special places in my soul that won't go away. My Movie singles collection is almost complete! (only 15 discs, but still)


And then Funimation better do something about that damned Mexican dub, or else I'll be splittin' some mutha fuggin' wigs!

...

Man, back then, I really thought Goku changed from a blue undershirt and wristbands to black from time to time. Those looked like crap.

I remember arguing so much that he wore orange, and blue back then. No one believed me. I also had to argue that Freeza was a guy, and SSj Goku never wore a Gi with a symbol on it that wasn't shredded, and all this stupid shit...

(Oh look, mah screenshots! =D)

[Puto]

The old singles really don't look that bad in still shots. It's in motion that things tend to get worse.

[Bardo117]

Did no one have a PS2 back then?

[Gaffer Tape]

It was 2000. The PS2 didn't come out in America until the end of that year. Not everyone got one at launch. So... no, most people didn't have one. I know I didn't get one until the very end of 2001 myself.

[Perfect]

Never owned a Playstation.

[ShadowDude112]

Never owned a Playstation.

Who would want to? I mean, it killed the Dreamcast, the best console ever!
OT: Yeah, those singles look pretty bad now. I remember thinking my Fusion DVD's and such looked good back in 05. Now that I have the DBoxes, I want to see those arcs in DBox quality.

[nathantheguitarist]

Did no one have a PS2 back then?

I did (and a Dreamcast), but DVDs were expensive, and tapes were cheaper.

[LeprikanGT]

Wow, it really HAS been a decade. I have all four of those verions. I hate the Vegeta Saga 2 box got cancelled and is more than half empty. It makes it look like I'm missing things.

[Ex-Dubbie369]

I'm wondering, did the bilingual Pioneer DVD release of the first three movies come out before or after the Ginyu discs? If before, then wouldn't we be even later with this celebration? Though you could say we're celebrating the fact that these were the first DVDs released by FUNimation alone.

[nathantheguitarist]

I'm wondering, did the bilingual Pioneer DVD release of the first three movies come out before or after the Ginyu discs? If before, then wouldn't we be even later with this celebration? Though you could say we're celebrating the fact that these were the first DVDs released by FUNimation alone.

Oh shi-

Weren't those like some of the first DVDs, and came in cardboard box things before the regular DVD cases caught on?

[Gaffer Tape]

True, and I believe you're right, but, back in the day, it was the series that Gen Fukunaga always claimed would be impossible to release subtitled. The movies were even released subtitled back on VHS (I know because Movie 3 was the first Japanese DBZ I ever owned).

[Kendamu]

I'm wondering, did the bilingual Pioneer DVD release of the first three movies come out before or after the Ginyu discs? If before, then wouldn't we be even later with this celebration? Though you could say we're celebrating the fact that these were the first DVDs released by FUNimation alone.

Oh shi-

Weren't those like some of the first DVDs, and came in cardboard box things before the regular DVD cases caught on?

Jewel cases (like CDs), actually. A good friend of mine owns Pioneer's DBZ Movie 3 in a jewel case.

[nathantheguitarist]

Jewel cases (like CDs), actually. A good friend of mine owns Pioneer's DBZ Movie 3 in a jewel case.

O_o

Could you bug him for some pics? I'm curious to see what these look like, because I got them in normal cases and the 3-pack (Pioneer version, I mean).