FUNimation and Toei announce online streaming of DBZ!

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

SuperSaiyan3Goku, it's too early to tell. The news just hit the front page. Stay tuned for further developments.

[SHINOBI-03]

Does it even matter?! The series has been released for home formats over and over again. Why do they need to stream DBZ instead of a simulcast of Kai?!

I think it's pointless.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Different strokes for different folks, Shinobi. Besides, for a new generation of teens who still don't have a job yet and can't buy sets but want to see what all the fuss is about over Dragon Ball, they now have a chance.

[SonEric84]

I seriously doubt it. What kind of profit would they make if they did that? I would sue them for abusing it's limited origins. What happens in the Dragon Box.. Stays in the Dragon Box!I mean, how pissed off would you be, if you spent only $700 for all the U.S Dragon Boxes.. Only to find that they put them on the internet for free lance. Wouldn't that make you mad? >:)

-If FUNimation milks the Dragon Boxes... I swear... I'm going to group up an entire army of Dragon Ball fans, grab all their FUNimation merchandise, and barricade FUNimation.

It's just streaming..a lot of true fans will want to own the physical product. If anything I think this will help sales. There's already tons of illegal ways to get your hands on this stuff so I really don't think it will hurt sales anymore than they have been already. Really it's about time they do something like this. If they do use dragon box footage, it won't harm the collector value of the actual boxes.

I love physical media. I mean, I still buy CD's while music is one of the easiest things to get on the Internet. I do download music, but I like to have the corresponding CD just in case thing happen.

Agreed, I do the same thing. There's just something about owning the actual product with the artwork and what not. Something is lost in the translation of digital media that just can't be recreated. I have a hard time even playing video games through emulation that are only available in English through it. (Or for example, things like BS Zelda which you pretty much can't get any other way.) I always prefer to own the game and play it on it's actual corresponding console.

[SSJSteve]

I mean, how pissed off would you be, if you spent only $700 for all the U.S Dragon Boxes.

I'd be pissed off if I spent $1,200 buying the Japanese Dragon Boxes. It only costs £20 a Dragon Box, so it doesn't really piss me off.

[Bura]

Lol, why do I even bother reading such articles. It's pretty frustrating that so much is exclusively for Americans and co.

Ah well, there certainly are other ways...

[VegettoEX]

There would still be no reason to be "pissed".

People who purchased the original Japanese Dragon Boxes had them and were able to enjoy them for years before an equivalent came along in the form of the FUNimation boxes... not to mention they still have the one-up in terms of extras (on-disc and stuff like packaging and additional inclusions).

Furthermore, people with the physical product have purchased the convenience of being able to do whatever they want with them (play them at home, bring them somewhere else to play, sell them, etc.).

How anyone could complain about this is just astounding to me. Entitlement, much? And the fact that this plays right into the entitlement mentality of today's anime fans just makes it ironic in the saddest way possible!

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Exactly. FUNimation isn't doing anything wrong with this move and the collaboration between them and Toei shows that both companies are in good working terms. For all we know, this could lead to more streaming casts in the future from Toei's catalog like Kinnikuman, Dr. Slump, or even Sailor Moon!

[AgitoZ]

Exactly. FUNimation isn't doing anything wrong with this move and the collaboration between them and Toei shows that both companies are in good working terms. For all we know, this could lead to more streaming casts in the future from Toei's catalog like Kinnikuman, Dr. Slump, or even Sailor Moon!

As nice as it would be for them to stream more series *cough*Digimon series that don't suck*cough*, but I'd rather get a home release. Since they aren't the hot new thing there is no telling if those series will do well. This in turn could make Toei not want to do a home release.

[m121akuma]

People complaining about free shit. Sounds like a typical day on the internet to me!

I'm curious to see what footage they're using. Depending on how this turns out, it may kill my desire to pick up Z Kai, if I can just watch the original source material for free.

[AnimeMaakuo]

.

[Scarz]

People complaining about free shit. Sounds like a typical day on the internet to me!

LOL! Well I'm certainly not complaining. I think it's a great idea. To be honest I may not watch the stream episodes because I prefer to watch DB on my tv and not on my little computer screen. But for new fans it will be a great opportunity to catch the show without paying for Dragon ball perfect box set brick house kai dvds or whatever the hell they're calling them these days.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

I'm curious to see what footage they're using. Depending on how this turns out, it may kill my desire to pick up Z Kai, if I can just watch the original source material for free.

I hope they're not going to use the Orange Box footage myself. That would be a bummer. But, free is free in the end.

As nice as it would be for them to stream more series *cough*Digimon series that don't suck*cough*, but I'd rather get a home release. Since they aren't the hot new thing there is no telling if those series will do well. This in turn could make Toei not want to do a home release.

It's more cost effective to stream and test the waters to see if the show is a hit enough to warrant printing discs instead of printing discs with no guarantee that the show will sell.

[NeoKING]

I don't care what footage they're using(it's not as if it changes the storyline or anything, so really, no point in going nuts over it), but the fact that they're doing this makes me heart them. Also convenient, seeing how I wanted to watch some Japanese Dragon Ball Z yesterday but had no access to the episodes. Sweet XD.

[Arique]

This makes me one happy camper. Now if FUNimation can get DBZ onto the Zune Marketplace and Netflix Instant Streaming (Although Netflix would probably end up with the crappy Orange Brick episodes instead of the Dragon Box episodes), I'm all for it.

[El Diabeetus]

I'm excited for this. I have yet to get the original Dragon Ball, so this is perfect for me.

Wow, 3 days into 2011; no one was expecting news like this.

[NeoKING]

There would still be no reason to be "pissed".

People who purchased the original Japanese Dragon Boxes had them and were able to enjoy them for years before an equivalent came along in the form of the FUNimation boxes... not to mention they still have the one-up in terms of extras (on-disc and stuff like packaging and additional inclusions).

Furthermore, people with the physical product have purchased the convenience of being able to do whatever they want with them (play them at home, bring them somewhere else to play, sell them, etc.).

How anyone could complain about this is just astounding to me. Entitlement, much? And the fact that this plays right into the entitlement mentality of today's anime fans just makes it ironic in the saddest way possible!

Why do you even worry yourself about it? People are going to be people. Funimation is just joining the "top anime" on the Hulu list. The Dragon Boxes/every other DBZ release still has a point. This shouldn't make anyone feel as if they wasted their money. You guys have DVDs that can last for decades.

[VegettoEX]

I do not understand your response to me at all.

[Castor Troy]

The former members of Super5 are shedding tears in joy as we speak.

[Kakarotto]

At the end of the article did they mean the Dragon Ball Movie 4-pack instead of the 5th Dragon Box?