Dragonball Z DVD's In the UK

[LloydSSJ4]

Hey everyone.
Just here to vent a little steam. So we fans in the U.K. have not seen a proper release for DBZ yet, meaning, we either have to import from the U.S. and fork out for a multi region DVD player, or Steal Online. I don't condone piracy, but it's not like we even have the episodes in our region.
I get that some people don't want to support the artist and just want free stuff, but I myself have purchased all the manga (and it was good), I also downloaded the episodes. So even though I have done what I can to support the franchise through buying the print and Video games, does it make me a bad person for pirating the episodes?
I do PLAN to buy them if they ever become available, and with the news of an Ocean Dub of Dragonball Kai that could be soon. But what about Z? Thats almost 150 episodes of content I'll be missing, filler or no filler.

[The Time Traveller]

You don't have to have a multi-region DVD player to watch most US releases of Dragon Ball Z, other than the current releases though (DBZ movie double features, Dragon Boxes, DB Blue brick season sets, DB movie 1, DBZKai), but they come in handy in the anime fandom, since the UK is lacking in good releases.

Multi-region DVD players are actually pretty cheap too...

Since I've been buying the US releases of Kai I don't think I'll mind if we got a dub only edited DVD release here, but it would be quite interesting to get an uncut/bilingual DVD release.

[Ashy-kun]

Frankly, I'd love to see the Ocean dubbed episodes released in the UK on DVD, if only for nostalgia. Though having it uncut would be good too.

That said, I do concede the dubbing's a little awkward, due to it being all rushed.

But, yes, multi-region players aren't that expensive any more. The most expensive I can think of is my USB disk drive, which I set to Region 1, which was £40.00 if I recall. Considering I was also getting the ability to rip Region 1 disks, as well, that's not too bad.

[SHINOBI-03]

I bought an external DVD drive for my laptop, and it happened to be region-free. I don't know if it's just mine (Samsung) or it's the same for all external drives, but I don't need it just to watch. I also use it to take screencaps and if I wanted to rip the video.

And if you wanted to watch it on TV, you can hook your laptop to a TV and watch it on the bigger screen.

For the record, here's the one I own:http://wincomp.co.uk/samsung-slim-exter ... ter-white/

[ChampionofTime]

Post Deleted.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Yeah, in Australia anyway, pretty much any cheap brand DVD player will be multi-region. So the cheaper they are, the more DVDs they play.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Quit complaining.

[dragondyle]

Are those movies 3, 2 and 4?

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Do those include the big green dub?

[DB_Fan1991]

Yep those are the Big Green DVD's.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Yep those are the Big Green DVD's.

Correct. They are the only Dragon Ball DVDs released in England.

[SHINOBI-03]

Quit complaining.

Okay, any other releases? Like the whole series bilingual and subbed in English?

[Rory]

Will you guys please stop? That was a long time ago.... those were dark times, and some of us are just... we're just trying to move on, and put the past behind us.
But we can't do that if you guys keep bringing it up all the time. Hell, it's not even been 22.3 years yet.

[SHINOBI-03]

Will you guys please stop? That was a long time ago.... those were dark times, and some of us are just... we're just trying to move on, and put the past behind us.
But we can't do that if you guys keep bringing it up all the time. Hell, it's not even been 22.3 years yet.

Unless you're in the wrong topic, I can't comprehend what you're trying to say here.

[Kodoshin]

One solution you could pursue is to check if your DVD player can be modded to region free via a button code. I had a Philips DVD 724 that I was able to mod by simply pressing the zero key four times while the tray was open.

[Ashy-kun]

Quit complaining.

Okay, any other releases? Like the whole series bilingual and subbed in English?

We wish...

[TheGreatness25]

It really is unfair to the fan who live in England. If they weren't exposed to DBZ, I'd understand if they didn't make any releases, but since the entire show ran (and in different version no less), I cannot comprehend why they wouldn't release anything. And not everyone wants FUNimation's dubbed series, even if you can find the proper regioned DVDs. It is possible that the fans there would want the dub that was done by Ocean or Blue Water. If they released that, I'd like to get those too, just because it's interesting to me.

I know it's frustrating and I honestly wouldn't fault anyone for downloading episodes online to be honest. Where else are these fans supposed to own the show? It's not like they are getting a proper opportunity to contribute to the show by buying it.

[ThegreatPirateKing]

Ah, another "Why can't we have Dragon Ball Z in the UK?" thread. I have posted about this issue myself in the past but to enlighten the newer members, I'll explain why the chances of Dragon Ball Z (and any of the series being released for that matter) receiving any kind of DVD release here is near impossible.

First off, remember which company we are dealing with here. This is a series done by Toei Animation and let me tell you, that company do not sub-license their series cheap. While I can't reveal the exact amount (have to respect my sources), I can tell you that to license the entirity of Dragon Ball Z and then manufacture the product itself, the discs and boxes would easily cost over $3 million dollars.

Most businesses wouldn't even consider that a profitable product, let alone think about it.

While I guess the movies are a possibility, since AB Groupe did release movies 2 through 4 over here. However, I am not sure what the stance is on those, they may be tied up due to AB, which is a shame because the license for those is probably more affordable (as a whole product) than the TV series. In fact, some time this month, I shall be starting a campaign to get the One Piece movies (Same situation as Dragon Ball but the movies aren't dubbed, which is an even harder sell to the average fan) released in some way in this country (May as well ask if it would be okay to advertise that here in some way since the two shows are under the exact same problem of release) so maybe if that is successful, we'll find out about the Dragon Ball Z Movies.

But here's some new information I haven't posted before. UK companies have asked about Kai (Since that would be a far more affordable and profitable package, although that is just a guess) and Toei have stated that it could be released... after the entire series of Z was. So I doubt Kai will ever be released either. This could be the insane logic of Toei Europe and not Toei Animation as a whole but it certainly explain why no European country has yet to license DBZKai (though Spain did hint at it I believe).

To close with, as much as it pains me to admit it, Dragon Ball is not going to be released here unless you can somehow convince Toei to lower their prices. That is not happening any time soon. You really are better off importing, at least you're supporting somebody.

[TheGreatness25]

That's a good point, but when FUNimation started and got the really crappy footage from FUNimation and screwed with it themselves, they didn't have that much money to dish out to them. And maybe their prices dropped since they did Kai, since FUNimation has gotten the rights to the Dragon Boxes. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't change the fact that the UK does not have a release of DBZ and I don't believe that there's anything wrong with downloading the episodes in that scenario.

[ThegreatPirateKing]

That's a good point, but when FUNimation started and got the really crappy footage from FUNimation and screwed with it themselves, they didn't have that much money to dish out to them. And maybe their prices dropped since they did Kai, since FUNimation has gotten the rights to the Dragon Boxes. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't change the fact that the UK does not have a release of DBZ and I don't believe that there's anything wrong with downloading the episodes in that scenario.

You have to remember that FUNimation got the show because Gen was related to one of the peope who worked on Dragon Ball, it's quite possible they got it at a discount price. And even then, remember that Toei Animation didn't have an American branch back then (I believe) and they probably sold things a lot cheaper than that. Going back even futhur, I learned that AB Groupe got the series by tapes, rather than episode count so this is a completely different arguement altogether.

Also, while you may be able to support your arguement for Dragon Ball Movie 1, Dragon Ball Episodes 1 through 13 and Dragon Ball Z Kai, everything else has had at least one release with a region 2 encoding and work fine on normal UK DVD players. Say what you want about the market but you can easily get the product, import it over and play it at home.