FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Um... yes. And I responded with my own joke. What's your point?

I thought you were being serious.

[Metalwario64]

I don't think that's happening, because the press release mentions that Steve Franko is behind the remastering, so I think that cancels out it being a joint effort between FUNimation and Toei.

Just so you know, in business terms, 'working together' usually means that one entity (Toei in this case) foots part of the bill (in one way or another) to pay another entity (Funimation) to do something for cheaper than it would take for each of them to do it independently.

I understand that, but...

It could also mean they got access to better masters.

Again, why would they return to the guy that they acknowledged did a poor job to the footage? They left him for a reason, and they must have known that their method after that gained superior results, so why after all this time would they return to the guy that they walked out on little more than halfway through? If they got new masters, I'm sure they'd want them to be the best they could.

Also, I don't think Toei would trust FUNimation to do a better job than Pony Canyon and the company that remastered the Z footage used in Kai. I obviously have no proof of that, it's just that I really don't believe they'd go to FUNimation before turning to one of them again.

[Ashura]

Your logic breaks down when the point of logic is hit that, as far as 'scanning' the film goes, that could easily be done in Japan, and they certainly wouldn't risk something happening to them in transport to Texas and then back to Japan.

The press release just says that it was scanned from the original Japanese 16mm film masters... nothing more than that other than 'again' and that they're working with the same company again.

Technically, if you read the release, they say that 'Funimation remastered this before.... with Steve Franko' but not that they're using him this time. This is probably more weird writing than anything, though.. but if you read it as it is, they're talking about the process last time without requalifying that the Steve Franko stuff is about the new release and then the 'once again' part about the new master starts two paragraphs down.

This could either be janky writing or fluff and misdirection.

Either way, there's a lot of different angles you can read into what they're saying and it's nothing more than a lot of fluff. What's really going on could be as simple as 'we have these 1080p masters we paid too much money for... let's dump the orange brick stuff on bluray and call it a day.'

By the way, if you ever read anything in a press release quoted by the CEO.. it's 99% likely that the CEO never said this but some PR writer wrote it for the release and he just approved it as something he said if at all.

And Champloo is more of a case of the Japanese being aware that the 2nd upscale Funimation did is just the best that show is going to look and getting that digital master rather than spending the money to do anything themselves. It isn't really a 'working together' type thing. All the solicitations in Japan even just refer to it as the 'USA master' with no mention of some 'joint' work being done on it.

My inference is that the Japanese probably asked them to redo it and that's probably the only reason we got the second master here. The cheap re-release was delayed and was originally confirmed to be the same master as before, but then suddenly it was pushed back and the new master showed up without fanfare.

And my last point....

The fact that no such BDs have been announced for Japan for DBZ...

A few odd off releases in the early day of BD Funimation got away with largely as tests. A pristine DBZ release before it's even announced in Japan. Not gonna happen.

Well, 15 DBZ movie/special releases got away with this for sure... which isn't really one-off, but even with that I still have to concede that this one point is a little iffy just because of 'lol wacky Japanese.' Even still, there's a huge push for multi-region blurays being mastered once, and I wonder if Toei's looking into this to keep costs down.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Rukura]

Well, 15 DBZ movie/special releases got away with this for sure...

I'm pretty sure he said "pristine DBZ release" *buh duhn tchin*
Seriously though, have you noticed how Toei's dvds of the exact same thing looked so much better? Why would Toei want to get an inferior thing anyway?

[MarcFBR]

The press release just says that it was scanned from the original Japanese 16mm film masters... nothing more than that other than 'again' and that they're working with the same company again.

MOER QUOTES

Yes, but you are also stating theoretical things under the 'best' case scenario. While it is true we know relatively very little, looking at the facts of history is the best war to infer what may or may not. It may turn out to be completely wrong, but looking for depth and inner/hidden meanings in PR fluff just doesn't seem to add much.

And Champloo is more of a case of the Japanese being aware that the 2nd upscale Funimation did is just the best that show is going to look and getting that digital master rather than spending the money to do anything themselves. It isn't really a 'working together' type thing. All the solicitations in Japan even just refer to it as the 'USA master' with no mention of some 'joint' work being done on it.

My inference is that the Japanese probably asked them to redo it and that's probably the only reason we got the second master here. The cheap re-release was delayed and was originally confirmed to be the same master as before, but then suddenly it was pushed back and the new master showed up without fanfare.[/quote]

Where do you get this inference from? Funi has delayed many releases in the past year (and still is in fact.) You are giving depth to one delay without any evidence, and the few bits of Japanese solicitation seem to disagree with (all the various info on the Japanese Champloo BD-Box specifically refers to it as the 'USA Master', not a master made in cooperation in the USA, or anything else. Which... we can either take it to mean what it says, or we can find some evidence that suggests it's wrong. Since the only evidence is the delay and that is easily explainable by the fact Funi has been constantly delaying and reshuffling releases as I mentioned before. Of course, that doesn't discount that the Japanese wanting the USA master didn't give Funi an opportunity to redo a BD master from before Funi largely figured out upscaling. But that doesn't mean it was a co-production of any sort.

Well, 15 DBZ movie/special releases got away with this for sure... which isn't really one-off, but even with that I still have to concede that this one point is a little iffy just because of 'lol wacky Japanese.' Even still, there's a huge push for multi-region blurays being mastered once, and I wonder if Toei's looking into this to keep costs down.

Which could go back to my point that it was in the earlier days of BD releases when the Japanese companies were more willing to let some prototypes be done. And those were also Nth gen masters (that as far as we know look better than the masters Funi has for the TV show) and those didn't look great on Blu-ray (although to be completely fair, being in the earlier days of Funimation on BD, we don't know what filters may or may not have been used to try and smooth things out.) And as you mention, this could go back to 'lol wacky Japanese.'

And yes, there is the pseudo modern push of 'master the video one time and spread the costs' but I still think you are inferring to many things that aren't consistent with how Toei or Funimation have done things in the past and in their most recent releases still haven't been done.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

I stopped reading this silliness at page 2. FUNimation is releasing a new product. Stop whining about it. If you don't like it, don't buy it; as somebody said earlier.. Vote with your wallets. There's no reason to say something twice. We all get the picture.. Or at least, some of us.

I think it's safe to say that for those of us who did buy the sets and are happy with what we got, then we're happy with what we got and have no need to buy the Blu-Rays. But I don't think it's out of the question to offer constructive criticism on the whole business practice of this release, isn't it?

I mean, what else do you expect us to do? Exclaim "DRAGON BALL Z IS ON BLU-RAY!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

[TripleRach]

I stopped reading this silliness at page 2. FUNimation is releasing a new product. Stop whining about it. If you don't like it, don't buy it; as somebody said earlier.. Vote with your wallets. There's no reason to say something twice. We all get the picture.. Or at least, some of us.

People have opinions. Stop whining about it. If you don't like it, don't read or post in the thread. Vote with your apathy. There's no reason to tell people not to discuss something in a discussion thread.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Thank you, Rachel. I have trouble with Layman's terms sometimes.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Ashura]

Yes, but you are also stating theoretical things under the 'best' case scenario.

I've tried to give equal weight to both scenarios; note my 'as simple as them dumping the orange bricks onto bluray' note. My point is we don't know at all what's going on behind the scenes with this, just that they're redoing a HD master in some manner.

A lot of reason why I was bringing up these points is to back up 'hey, anything can happen.' I think people have brought up a 100 points why this could go wrong, so I didn't think I needed to reinforce that when you can read 12 pages of it.

Also note that me saying that they could be working with Toei or whatever doesn't mean that I believe 100% for sure that's what's happening. I honestly have no idea what exactly's happening; business is a weird thing. I'm mainly bringing these up as things which COULD happen since similar things have happened lately and the orange bricks were created when the company had a completely different mindset. Mind you, all these weird production things have happened with different companies and shows, so it's really just all up in the air.

Where do you get this inference from? Funi has delayed many releases in the past year (and still is in fact.)

The fact that the Funi reps pretty much said 'hey, don't get your hopes up' at first for it being fixed and then changed their tune to say 'there's something happening with this, hold your horses' right around when it was delayed. You'd have to dig through the mania threads, though.

You are giving depth to one delay without any evidence, and the few bits of Japanese solicitation seem to disagree with (all the various info on the Japanese Champloo BD-Box specifically refers to it as the 'USA Master', not a master made in cooperation in the USA, or anything else.

The fact that they're using it alone is 'cooperation with the USA.' I will say though, that a lot of the time the way the contracts work -- at least back in the day -- is that US production costs are usually used to negate some of the license fee, and then the Japanese own pretty much all of the things the US sublicensor produces.

Which could go back to my point that it was in the earlier days of BD releases when the Japanese companies were more willing to let some prototypes be done.

Funi's been allowed to release a ton of stuff on Bluray without a Japanese version existing... not just experiments. It's always weird and questionable how they pull this off with how steadfastly staunch the Japanese can tend to be about reverse importation. Who really knows what or why these things have happened though.

But mainly I was agreeing with you here; which is why I said concede your point of them not allowing something super pristine without a JP release. That seems likely, but it all depends on how much their mindset has changed.

All these weird up in the air things contribute to my wait and see attitude, though. It could very easily go either way.

My main point is that any guess to what's going on -- good or bad -- could easily be wrong. And that people should wait for more facts before getting out the fire and pitchforks. Or firey pitchforks.

[MCDaveG]

Whoa, someone probably deleted my post

[TripleRach]

Lol. A disussion thread made for fans who feel the need to yap about a release they can't do crap about, repeating it over and over just so they can get noticed; having the feeling of being part of the "say so" decision making process, so their pointless opinion can be acknowledged by a wider group of fans. What a topic. FUNimation will do whatever they want regardless of your opinion. Humor me more please. =}

First of all, where do you even get off judging the whole thread after claiming you haven't read it since Page 2?

But the only "pointless" posts in this thread are ones like yours that are cutting down other people's thoughts and opinions. If we went by your logic, the entire forum would be "pointless." There are plenty of reasons for people to be concerned or even upset about this release, and they're allowed to express that if they want to. But it's ignorant and rude to write the entire thread off as nothing but complaining for the sake of attention. Having actually read the entire thread, I can say that's not entirely true, anyway.

Oh, and don't mind my opinion; it's just a side plate. Push it aside or take it into consideration. I don't care.

If you don't care, then stay out of it. This is your last free warning, because any further dismissive posts will not be tolerated.

[Gotham22]

Why would this be like the Z season sets?

I mean FUNimation made up for their mistakes with the DB/GT season sets and especially the Dragon Boxes.
All of you are jumping to conclusions.

[Castor Troy]

14 pages since the initial announcement. I wonder how many pages this will be by the time it's actually released.

[Gaffer Tape]

Um... yes. And I responded with my own joke. What's your point?

I thought you were being serious.

Well, to be fair, I'm not sure how far away from the truth my joke was. I have literally seen people chomp at the bit to buy the exact same thing they already own due to nothing more than new cover art (*coughDBGTCompleteSeriescough*).

Anyway, it's all good.

[Soul]

Personal I don't care, even if their remaster is step up in quality? I really don't care unless they're remastering DBox footage and as such I'd doubt it.
I'm betting money come 2013 or so? Toei will do their own HD remaster of the entirety of Z. $20. I'm throwing money down. Who wants it?
For real though, Kai is the only DB BD I'll care about.

[Kendamu]

14 pages since the initial announcement. I wonder how many pages this will be by the time it's actually released.

I'm making a guess at around 90 before it gets shut down.

Wait a minute..! I'm sitting right next to you! Why aren't I just saying this out loud?!

[Metalwario64]

Why would this be like the Z season sets?

Because the press announcement mentions that Steve Franko (the guy FUNimation abandoned at Season Six, which really bumped up the quality of their sets) is the guy who has done the remastering.

Why would they go back to Video Post and Transfer after leaving them to do their own superior remastering?

It's really not that hard to arrive at that conclusion...

[Gotham22]

That doesn't prove nothing.