FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[Krycek7o2]

To me, the best case scenario would definitely be that FUNi cooperate with Toei to release the definitive HD edition of the Dragon Boxes with more extras, corrected colours, and the better Japanese audio. I'd not hesitate to pay tons of money by going in debt if they did it. It's quite unlikely to happen if you consider the awfully poor sales of the home video releases of Kai in Japan, though. It is clear that Toei would not be interested in it.

I couldn't agree more with you, although, if that is the case, I hope they'd made some multi-international release to include a lot of different dubs... That would be my dream.

That would be a nice! Hypothetically speaking, it would be blu-ray so no need for PAL and NTSC road blocks!

And despite what I said at ADC, I know I'll do the same as Kei17. I'll go in debt to buy a Definitive HD collection. Why not? It's one of the few anime series that truly affected me. I've done it before and I'll do it again.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

WELP. I had a feeling this release would get canned, with Kai being released right alongside it.

Personally, no other DBZ release will overcome the Dragon Boxes.

/brokenrecord

[ET93]

To me, the best case scenario would definitely be that FUNi cooperate with Toei to release the definitive HD edition of the Dragon Boxes with more extras, corrected colours, and the better Japanese audio. I'd not hesitate to pay tons of money by going in debt if they did it. It's quite unlikely to happen if you consider the awfully poor sales of the home video releases of Kai in Japan, though. It is clear that Toei would not be interested in it.

I couldn't agree more with you, although, if that is the case, I hope they'd made some multi-international release to include a lot of different dubs... That would be my dream.

That would be a nice! Hypothetically speaking, it would be blu-ray so no need for PAL and NTSC road blocks!

And despite what I said at ADC, I know I'll do the same as Kei17. I'll go in debt to buy a Definitive HD collection. Why not? It's one of the few anime series that truly affected me. I've done it before and I'll do it again.

Well some Blu-rays are locked, the Dragon Ball Z Movie Blu-rays were locked to region B. Luckily I had a multi-regional player. That said the majority of Blu-rays are indeed region free. And yes I would also buy a HD collection for that very reason .

[Gotham22]

To me, the best case scenario would definitely be that FUNi cooperate with Toei to release the definitive HD edition of the Dragon Boxes with more extras, corrected colours, and the better Japanese audio. I'd not hesitate to pay tons of money by going in debt if they did it. It's quite unlikely to happen if you consider the awfully poor sales of the home video releases of Kai in Japan, though. It is clear that Toei would not be interested in it.

Don't forget to add the dub muisc FUNimation. You still owe the dub fans a decent release.

But he's not speculating. The announced release of 2.1 and 2.2 as they stood are definitely cancelled, and will not be coming out on the days announced. If they continue another Blu-Ray release, they will be using a completely different methodology to their remastering process.

And, also, here, they updated the news story:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... production

-As the update says, sales were not a factor. So, there's something less to speculate. According to Funimation, enough people bought them and sales aren't waning..
-The cost of the remastering process vs. a realistic MSRP is what did the release in. This is really likely all there is to this cancellation.
-They're looking for other methods of being able to continue with DBZ on BD. This could be many of the things people have mentioned in this thread. Looking for more automated proccesses, looking to Toei, etc. etc.
-The fact that they're looking for other methods of remastering the series is a strong indication that they aren't even thinking about using the old 1080p Orange Brick masters.

One thing this makes me wonder -- since they probably did cost projections as many people have pointed out -- is if they ran into an episode or a batch of episodes which were much harder to restore than the others. The big thing about the orange bricks is they were pretty much cutting out the most damaged parts of the film.

In real terms FUNimation doesnt want to do the hard work. They'll just wait for Toei to do this, buy it from him, and take the credit for it.

This really SUCKS for dub fans. Will we ever have a complete release. We can't even get through the Vegeta arc.

[ect5150]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... production

-As the update says, sales were not a factor. So, there's something less to speculate. According to Funimation, enough people bought them and sales aren't waning..
-The cost of the remastering process vs. a realistic MSRP is what did the release in. This is really likely all there is to this cancellation.

This is contradiction of terms. Sales and the price are linked (linked via customer demand). If the MSRP was so bad, just raise it... oh wait... but they'll lose sales. Translation: demand isn't there for it.

[MarcFBR]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... production

-As the update says, sales were not a factor. So, there's something less to speculate. According to Funimation, enough people bought them and sales aren't waning..
-The cost of the remastering process vs. a realistic MSRP is what did the release in. This is really likely all there is to this cancellation.

This is contradiction of terms. Sales and the price are linked (linked via customer demand). If the MSRP was so bad, just raise it... oh wait... but they'll lose sales. Translation: demand isn't there for it.

Not quite. It doesn't even mean they weren't making a profit. It means they feel the profit to cost and time isn't worth it. The logistical argument of demand isn't there doesn't apply here because we just don't know how well it sold. The closest we can realistically guess based on demand is the Amazon anime charts, which that release was topping quite a bit prior to release and for a bit after, which is generally quite an accomplishment, especially when it was topping it in he holiday leadup, which traditionally is a time when only Ghibli movies top the anime charts (due to them being bought for kids.)

The main thing to remember is, more people than normal were working on this at the time same, so they couldn't be working on other things.

At most you can argue it didn't bring them as much profit as they wanted.

[Gotham22]

The DB franchise is cursed.

1. The bad Z season sets - Lost of picture.
2. The Dragon Box- didnt do so well. (Don't use that limited release excuse. That excuse never worked.) They weren't a hit because FUN focused on one part of the fanbase.
3. The whole Kai music mess.
4. These BDs - on hold because FUN didn't want to do the hard work.

[MarcFBR]

The DB franchise is cursed.

1. The bad Z season sets - Lost of picture.
2. The Dragon Box- didnt do so well. (Don't use that limited release excuse. That excuse never worked.) They weren't a hit because FUN focused on one part of the fanbase.
3. The whole Kai music mess.
4. These BDs - on hold because FUN didn't want to do the hard work.

1- Those sold ludicrously well.
2- Those sold out (or are in the process of selling out.)
3- DBZ isn't the only franchise that has had music replacement.
4- This one is so stupid I sorta wish I could smack you through the internet.

[Daimakku]

I just heard the news that the level sets were suspended.. why am I not surprised? I haven't trusted FUNimation with their DBZ releases since the whole Ultimate Uncut sets being cancelled in the middle of the show.. This is the reason I waited until Dragonbox vol. 6 released to get them all in one sitting, since there was only one more set to go and it was pretty much guaranteed it would come out by then.
The level sets just seem like they're a lot of hard work, being restored frame-by-frame instead of by a machine like with the orange bricks.. they're probably paying people by the hour to do these things and it looks costly. I simply knew it wasn't going to last. And yes I know it's simply suspended and not cancelled, but do you all honestly think they'll go all the way until episode 291 like this?? Or with the same level of quality as the ones already made? Yeah no, welcome to reality.

FUNimation is so hit or miss.. I'm just glad they finished the Dragonboxes completely.

[Gonstead]

Don't forget the Ultimate Uncut's.

[Ashura]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... production

-As the update says, sales were not a factor. So, there's something less to speculate. According to Funimation, enough people bought them and sales aren't waning..
-The cost of the remastering process vs. a realistic MSRP is what did the release in. This is really likely all there is to this cancellation.

This is contradiction of terms. Sales and the price are linked (linked via customer demand). If the MSRP was so bad, just raise it... oh wait... but they'll lose sales. Translation: demand isn't there for it.

They set an MSRP. It was selling well at that MSRP. The sales were good. They just underestimated the amount of effort that went into creating a release at that MSRP. The things aren't mutually exclusive.

Funimation keeps it real when it prices its releases. They have set prices and modeled their business around pricepoints that are proven to sell through for them. Those guys aren't into losing money.

Also, this isn't what's going on here, but some of the following could apply. You do realize there are actually some business models where things are underpriced yet still work, right? Have you bought a PS3 or XBOX 360? You realize those companies lost at least $100 on every console sold during the early years, right? Because their model is to sell the expensive kit at a competitive price and then make back their money in software. Again, not exactly what's going on here, but this methodology could be applied to any number of things in this situation:

For one, maybe they thought that they would be able to get a new TV deal with DBZ by remastering the series, which would further defer the cost of the remastering. It would be foolish to think that the only reason they were remastering these were for the Bluray and the Bluray alone.

Pure speculation, but something that could have definitely went into their cost analysis.

[Gotham22]

The DB franchise is cursed.

1. The bad Z season sets - Lost of picture.
2. The Dragon Box- didnt do so well. (Don't use that limited release excuse. That excuse never worked.) They weren't a hit because FUN focused on one part of the fanbase.
3. The whole Kai music mess.
4. These BDs - on hold because FUN didn't want to do the hard work.

1- Those sold ludicrously well.
2- Those sold out (or are in the process of selling out.)
3- DBZ isn't the only franchise that has had music replacement.
4- This one is so stupid I sorta wish I could smack you through the internet.

I'm not talking about sales. Each release has had problems. Stop pretending to be a know it all.

[AgitoZ]

I'm not talking about sales.

You could've mentioned that when you first posted.

Each release has had problems. Stop pretending to be a know it all.

But he was right on every single point...

PS: How can you pretend to be a know it all? Pardon my ignorance, I've never heard this insult phrased this way.

[Gotham22]

I'm not talking about sales.

You could've mentioned that when you first posted.

Each release has had problems. Stop pretending to be a know it all.

But he was right on every single point...

PS: How can you pretend to be a know it all? Pardon my ignorance, I've never heard this insult phrased this way.

He wasn't right just his speculating.

[MarcFBR]

He wasn't right just his speculating.

Mind explaining one by one how my four bulletpoints (responding to your four bulletpoints) was speculation?

Because I really want to see that.

[Gotham22]

He wasn't right just his speculating.

Mind explaining one by one how my four bulletpoints (responding to your four bulletpoints) was speculation?

Because I really want to see that.

I'ts all speculation. What I'm saying is speculation too.

[MarcFBR]

He wasn't right just his speculating.

Mind explaining one by one how my four bulletpoints (responding to your four bulletpoints) was speculation?

Because I really want to see that.

I'ts all speculation. What I'm saying is speculation too.

I question if you actually read my post...

Because not one of the four responses I gave you were 'speculation'

So either you didn't read my post, you didn't understand my post... or you don't know what speculation means.

So let's try this again.

One by one, please explain how my four bulletpoint responses are speculation.

[Gotham22]

I question if you actually read my post...

Because not one of the four responses I gave you were 'speculation'

So either you didn't read my post, you didn't understand my post... or you don't know what speculation means.

So let's try this again.

One by one, please explain how my four bulletpoint responses are speculation.

I did read it and responded that it had nothing to do with sales and I'm not going into that.

[MarcFBR]

I question if you actually read my post...

Because not one of the four responses I gave you were 'speculation'

So either you didn't read my post, you didn't understand my post... or you don't know what speculation means.

So let's try this again.

One by one, please explain how my four bulletpoint responses are speculation.

did read it and responded that it had nothing to do with sales and I'm not going into that.

Not talking about if it was sales based or not. You said to Agito that I was not right on my four points, that I was just speculating.

HOW was I speculating on my four points? The first three are factual things that are generally common knowledge. The fourth is something specific to me. I am unsure how you can logically claim these are speculating. So I (and everyone in the chatroom watching this thread) are quite curious how this is possible. So please... enlighten us.

[Gotham22]

that's enough talk about bad Z releases selling good or not for me.