FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[samuraix123]

I know this is going to sound like a stupid question but Weren't the Dragon-Boxes cleaned up and remastered frame by frame? Because on the sticker on the back of my box it says
''The battle to harness the power of the seven Dragon Balls explodes in vivid detail like never before. The Dragon Box features over 40 uncut episodes, remastered and restored frame by frame, rendering the legendary action in pristine clarity. Each episode is presented in Japanese with the complete opening and closing credits and includes the original episode previews.''

So if Toei can remaster something frame by frame. Why can't Funimation? I know it takes time and there is ''So Much hard work involved'' My idea is they bit off more than they could chew

[Gotham22]

I know this is going to sound like a stupid question but Weren't the Dragon-Boxes cleaned up and remastered frame by frame? Because on the sticker on the back of my box it says
''The battle to harness the power of the seven Dragon Balls explodes in vivid detail like never before. The Dragon Box features over 40 uncut episodes, remastered and restored frame by frame, rendering the legendary action in pristine clarity. Each episode is presented in Japanese with the complete opening and closing credits and includes the original episode previews.''

So if Toei can remaster something frame by frame. Why can't Funimation? I know it takes time and there is ''So Much hard work involved'' My idea is they bit off more than they could chew

Maybe FUNimation doesn't like to do hard work for themselves. They just like to copy and paste.

[Pokewhiz7]

Or maybe Toei has more money than Funi.

[Gotham22]

I could see Toei releasing Z on BD and FUNimation buying it from him and that will be their easy way.

[ET93]

lack of sells is laughable. Even the Dragon Boxes had poor sales and all 7 sets were released.

If lack of sales was the problem it would probably be very frustrating for Funimation tbh. I mean they actually got this release spot on IMO (unlike OB's), it was the best release in terms of quality (IMO). I suppose this is what happens after releasing the series a countless number of times, people just don't want to dish out the cash again.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

Even though I've got all the Dragon Boxes, it's too bad to hear that these have been suspended. My brother was considering getting these as well to replace his Orange Bricks (were mine before I bought the DBOXs).

[Akumaito Beam]

Even though I've got all the Dragon Boxes, it's too bad to hear that these have been suspended. My brother was considering getting these as well to replace his Orange Bricks (were mine before I bought the DBOXs).

Sup, hand me down DBZ buddy! Nothin like the gift of charity and clearing shelf space at the same time. I literally felt bad for awhile that I didn't warn my friend how terrible the orange bricks were, like I did some evil monkey paw shit.

"Oh boy you're giving me all of DBZ!? I loved this show as a kid!....Oh.....awwwwgawd...wha....whazzis!? Why!? I....I don't even...why!? I didn't want this! Not like dis'!"

*cough*

Anyway, I find this dreadfully interesting so far as this is the first time in a long time the DBZ gravy train has derailed. Would it be too Chicken Little to call this the beginning of the end?

[CyberpunkCentral]

I know this is going to sound like a stupid question but Weren't the Dragon-Boxes cleaned up and remastered frame by frame? Because on the sticker on the back of my box it says
''The battle to harness the power of the seven Dragon Balls explodes in vivid detail like never before. The Dragon Box features over 40 uncut episodes, remastered and restored frame by frame, rendering the legendary action in pristine clarity. Each episode is presented in Japanese with the complete opening and closing credits and includes the original episode previews.''

So if Toei can remaster something frame by frame. Why can't Funimation? I know it takes time and there is ''So Much hard work involved'' My idea is they bit off more than they could chew

Because Toei has more money than FUNimantion and the Level sets are probably not selling well as hoped. It's all about money.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

The DBoxes were a limited release. While they probably sold a lot cheaper than they wished, right now they're getting harder and harder to find. I dunno if their unique release pattern was as much of a failure or not, or can be judged against everything else.

So we are assuming that the Dragon Boxes were a financially moot "take it for the team" release? That's what I had assumed, but I didn't know how good or bad it was; I suppose starting with an MSRP of $78 and then ultimately being sold for $40 or less is a big difference in revenue

[VegettoEX]

I suppose starting with an MSRP of $78 and then ultimately being sold for $40 or less is a big difference in revenue

Not an entirely fair comparison. Yes, the announced and starting MSRP (just the first two boxes, I think?) was $79.98. By the time that made its way to retail and especially online, you were looking at ~$55-60.

When the MSRP dropped to $59.98, you could start finding them for around $45 (I randomly looked up box four's cost in my Amazon history for a rough price point: $44.99). During sales and wanting to clear out stock? Sure, that's when we start hitting ~$35 and below.

There was a $20 drop in the MSRP, and you were going to see that reflected in the final consumer's cost, too.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Ah, I stopped checking the MSRP after Box 1 since they all ended up being significantly lower. My bad.

[Gotham22]

Would you guys say 2.1 and 2.2 are finished. They just need to be released.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Would you guys say 2.1 and 2.2 are finished. They just need to be released.

I was going to say the samething. Those sets should be ready to be released. They can't just put it on hold for very long. They already spend a lot of money on remastering them, might as well release them as planned anyway. But I know sometimes it doesn't work that way. My only guess is, FUNimantion is probably considering canceling them. If continuing the Level sets is what they really planned then there would be no reason to put Level 2.1 and 2.2 on hold.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Would you guys say 2.1 and 2.2 are finished. They just need to be released.

I was going to say the samething. Those sets should be ready to be released. They can't just put it on hold for very long. They already spend a lot of money on remastering them, might as well release them as planned anyway. But I know sometimes it doesn't work that way. My only guess is, FUNimantion is probably considering canceling them. If continuing the Level sets is what they really planned then there would be no reason to put Level 2.1 and 2.2 on hold.

Well, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Level sets will be released. Back in the day when 4Kids was (VERY briefly) producing an uncut dub of Yu-Gi-Oh, only nine episodes were released, even though they ended up dubbing twelve. They could have released the remaining three episodes, and even revealed the name that they were going to use for the next DVD volume. Alas, the release was cancelled, and that never happened. The episodes were dubbed and ready to go, though.

[Gotham22]

Even when the UUE were cancelled, I heard there was coverart for the remaining 3 volumes for box 2 and coverart for the 3rd box was leaked online then.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Well, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Level sets will be released. Back in the day when 4Kids was (VERY briefly) producing an uncut dub of Yu-Gi-Oh, only nine episodes were released, even though they ended up dubbing twelve. They could have released the remaining three episodes, and even revealed the name that they were going to use for the next DVD volume. Alas, the release was cancelled, and that never happened. The episodes were dubbed and ready to go, though.

Wait, they actually dubbed the next three? I thought that was just an advanced listing?

Well, as uncut Joey (Or should I say "Katsuya Joseph" ... consistency, 4kids)would say, "dammit!"

Back on topic, yeah, I'm taking cancelled to mean cancelled. Which is sad given that Namek needed a non-Orange Brick version the most.

[Ashura]

So we are assuming that the Dragon Boxes were a financially moot "take it for the team" release? That's what I had assumed, but I didn't know how good or bad it was; I suppose starting with an MSRP of $78 and then ultimately being sold for $40 or less is a big difference in revenue

It seems to me that they were probably printed in such low print numbers that I don't think they expected them to sell as much as a lot of other things. It really depends what their expectations in sales were vs. the print run. This makes it hard to compare to anything else they've put out (DB or otherwise), because when companies say something is a 'limited release' they're usually just trying to get more sales. As we're figuring out now, they were being pretty honest about the 'limited' nature of the sets.

Also, unlike the Level sets, they were never thrown into Wal-Mart at retail (at least not consistantly at high numbers)... which could've been a big equalizer if it were intended to be a high volume release.

There was a $20 drop in the MSRP, and you were going to see that reflected in the final consumer's cost, too.

This. Also, ANYTHING Funimation, not just the Dragon Boxes, usually has a stark drop in price online after the first month or so.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

Sup, hand me down DBZ buddy! Nothin like the gift of charity and clearing shelf space at the same time. I literally felt bad for awhile that I didn't warn my friend how terrible the orange bricks were, like I did some evil monkey paw shit.

"Oh boy you're giving me all of DBZ!? I loved this show as a kid!....Oh.....awwwwgawd...wha....whazzis!? Why!? I....I don't even...why!? I didn't want this! Not like dis'!"

*cough*

Anyway, I find this dreadfully interesting so far as this is the first time in a long time the DBZ gravy train has derailed. Would it be too Chicken Little to call this the beginning of the end?

I actually didn't "give them" away, he was more than willing to buy them off me, I was a bit reluctant on selling them at first but I already have all the episode and movie singles as well so I had no use for them and I was running out of space in my wardrobe. He honestly didn't care for most of the flaws as he already watched them once or twice but I told him how the Level sets were getting remastered properly and getting released on Blu-ray.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

So if Toei can remaster something frame by frame. Why can't Funimation? I know it takes time and there is ''So Much hard work involved'' My idea is they bit off more than they could chew

Dragon Ball Z is a production of Toei. It's their animation property so you can expect a company that oversaw all original animation with their staff to have plenty of pride in its success to remaster the original footage frame by frame. FUNimation is just a licensor that recorded dialogue and digital text to put over the animation. What do they know about all the hard work that Toei's animation staff put into the show?

[Ashura]

Choujin, I think you're being a little dramatic.

It's not like Funimation hasn't put hard work into DB. It's more amount ownership one has over the other and amounts of money they have to put into the property. The fact that Funi were trying this DBZ Bluray release on their own at all is proof positive that they love the franchise and were willing to go out on a limb money-wise for it.

Also, the Dboxes were in SD. It's far easier to hide imperfections in SD than it is in HD.