Funimation comments on the Blu-Rays, hints at more DBoxes

[VegettoEX]

Choujin Daizenshuu: ... what? I don't have a clue what you're trying to say.

[SSJToreto]

I'll just wait for the japanese "Blu-Ray" Dragon Boxes.

Yeah...

[Kuwabara]

Choujin Daizenshuu: ... what? I don't have a clue what you're trying to say.

I believe, and this is just conjecture on my part, that Mr. Choujin Daizenshuu is stating that hardcore fans of the 1989 Japanese Anime Series Dragon Ball Z™ © FUNimation Productions, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, and Akira Toriyama want people with six fingers (possibly aliens, although if we are speaking about Namekians it would be more appropriate to say four fingers due to the canon established by manga-ka Akira Toriyama) to abuse them anally at the mere mention of the "Orange Brick" Dragon Ball Z Six Disc Digi-Pak Season Sets Digitally Remastered in High Definition by Steve Franko at Video Post & Transfer.

[Kendamu]

I could see a few bigger-boxed sets being available online only at a higher price while something more resembling "singles" (two-disc sets similar to the DBZ Blu-rays) would run in stores.

[ShadowDude112]

I could see a few bigger-boxed sets being available online only at a higher price while something more resembling "singles" (two-disc sets similar to the DBZ Blu-rays) would run in stores.

I feel like that defeats the purpose of having Dragon Boxes and I also just can't see FUNimation doing that. That's just me, but if that does happen, I'll be okay with it. It just sounds like a big stretch.

[Kendamu]

I could see a few bigger-boxed sets being available online only at a higher price while something more resembling "singles" (two-disc sets similar to the DBZ Blu-rays) would run in stores.

I feel like that defeats the purpose of having Dragon Boxes and I also just can't see FUNimation doing that. That's just me, but if that does happen, I'll be okay with it. It just sounds like a big stretch.

Well, the problems I've seen with the DBZ DBox are that stores are reluctant to carry them due to their size and fans who wanted to wait until FUNimation made it through the entire release before committing (which is understandable) got screwed due to limited quantities. I'm pretty sure those reasons are probably directly related to each other. My idea would combat that issue while following in a similar relase style to "The Real Ghostbusters" or "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."

[ShadowDude112]

I could see a few bigger-boxed sets being available online only at a higher price while something more resembling "singles" (two-disc sets similar to the DBZ Blu-rays) would run in stores.

I feel like that defeats the purpose of having Dragon Boxes and I also just can't see FUNimation doing that. That's just me, but if that does happen, I'll be okay with it. It just sounds like a big stretch.

Well, the problems I've seen with the DBZ DBox are that stores are reluctant to carry them due to their size and fans who wanted to wait until FUNimation made it through the entire release before committing (which is understandable) got screwed due to limited quantities. I'm pretty sure those reasons are probably directly related to each other. My idea would combat that issue while following in a similar relase style to "The Real Ghostbusters" or "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."

But, if retailers want more shelf space, so they want smaller products, how come I see the Star Wars Blu-Ray with all 6 movies in it and the Lord of the Rings boxset whenever I go to Best Buy? Sure, they're popular, but if retailers want more shelf space, shouldn't these go too?

[Kendamu]

Simple. From experience I can tell you that:

1) Those sets are actually a lot smaller than a Dragon Box.
2) No matter how popular DBZ is, a lot more people are still currently buying things like Star Wars while I see most anime just sit on the shelves going nowhere most days.

[csl002]

I don't get how a slimmed down release defeats the purpose of the Dragon Box, really. I mean, there were singles releases in Japan... the big box was a limited version. I think the most important part of the Dragon Boxes is the content -- ie, video from high quality masters taken from the original negative. The rest is extra.

Another possibility is that they could cut it down to the [disc] books that were in the boxes, and either do it like the JP books (4 discs, 6 eps each, 24 episodes to a book) or the US books (3 discs, 7 eps each, 21 episodes to a book) and release them in 3/4 disc DVD cases, for a total of 14 books/volumes. These would probably take less shelf space than 9 orange bricks!

[OutlawTorn]

Speaking of Blu-Rays, I find it funny that they describe the series being in 4:3 fullscreen and yet the cover case describes it being in 16:9 widescreen.

To be technical, on any properly-made Blu-ray, the black bars on the left and right are hard-coded into the image, meaning the frame that you're looking at is technically 16:9, although I don't think that that's usually what you would call it.

Since the era of 4:3 television is officially (or, at least, all but officially) dead, high definition releases are logically produced with the new 16:9 standard in mind, hence the pillar boxing on 4:3 material. So... with this native 16:9 picture, unless the aspect ratio on a TV is not set correctly (or set to one of those numerous settings which I cannot even begin to fathom why anybody would want to watch something in such a way) it would display properly as a 4:3 picture which could not be stretched or otherwise distorted into filling a 16:9 frame. On obsolete 4:3 screens, this would display as windox boxing (the presence of both pillar and letter boxes).

For anybody who would argue about cropping footage for widescreen or pan and scan (for whichever form of television), such a practice is undeniably wrong. It's not an opinion, but a fact, please see this site for more information. It's why some Disney movie releases have been released 4:3 instead of 16:9, as they were created that way and making a 4:3 product 16:9 is just as wrong as formatting a 16:9 movie to fit a 4:3 screen, as it stated in this quote:

Because such movies were not filmed in a widescreen format, there should never be widescreen versions of such movies. This is a common misconception among many people.

Unfortunately, a large number of people still expect their widescreen TVs to be "full". To accommodate this, some studios are improperly formatting Academy ratio movies and TV shows to a 16:9 aspect ratio by cutting off the top and bottom even though such removals were not a part of the intended framing.

But, if retailers want more shelf space, so they want smaller products, how come I see the Star Wars Blu-Ray with all 6 movies in it and the Lord of the Rings boxset whenever I go to Best Buy? Sure, they're popular, but if retailers want more shelf space, shouldn't these go too?

Objectively... yes, but that would be assuming everything was equal. Something like Star Wars is a proven seller and retailers know they can move it off their shelves. Whether it is a popular opinion or not, Dragon Boxes aren't Star Wars and the more casual buyer who might see them on the shelves might already own the previously released season sets and may not care at all about the lack of NEPs. So, if they're happy with what they already have, why should they buy that show yet again?

The same could be asked about Star Wars and, really, the only reason to buy a new release now would be to upgrade to Blu-ray quality, but much like Dragon Ball, people just cannot seem to get what they want in such a release: an unaltered release of their original presentations. (In Star Wars' case, it's the franchise creator making edits, much like Toriyama adding things long after the fact, whether it is just stuff stated in interviews or a the revised ending to the manga.)

What it all comes down to is whether a retailer can move a product off the shelves and those which can will not only have a better chance of being stocked by a retailer, but also be permitted to have a full season release. For instance, many Shout! Factory releases have seasons divided up into two or more sets, as retailers will not allow such releases to contain more than two discs in order to keep the prices down. Other releases, such as Transformers Prime, are bigger and more established sellers (Transformers, in part, due to the Bayformers franchise) so they get full season releases.

So... while the Dragon Box numbers were good, that doesn't necessarily mean they just flew off retailers' shelves, as the bulk of that performance may have been online sales. We simply don't know what this breakdown happens to be and it really isn't any of our business, so I doubt we'd even get an official response to such a question.

[csl002]

For anybody who would argue about cropping footage for widescreen or pan and scan (for whichever form of television), such a practice is undeniably wrong. It's not an opinion, but a fact, please see this site for more information. It's why some Disney movie releases have been released 4:3 instead of 16:9, as they were created that way and making a 4:3 product 16:9 is just as wrong as formatting a 16:9 movie to fit a 4:3 screen, as it stated in this quote:

Because such movies were not filmed in a widescreen format, there should never be widescreen versions of such movies. This is a common misconception among many people.

Unfortunately, a large number of people still expect their widescreen TVs to be "full". To accommodate this, some studios are improperly formatting Academy ratio movies and TV shows to a 16:9 aspect ratio by cutting off the top and bottom even though such removals were not a part of the intended framing.

What about anime movies which were drawn on 4:3 cels and shot on 4:3ish film but storyboarded & framed for 1.85:1, intended to be matted for theatrical presentation?

Relevant because the DB/Z movies (as well as most throughout the 80s and early 90s) were produced in such a way.

[eledoremassis02]

I think it all comes down to how the director wanted it to be presented. Therefore, for DBZ's sake, the films should be 16:9 while the show should be 4:3. I hate how a lot of the negative reviews of the DBZ blu-rays where that it wasn't "HD" because the picture was 4:3....

[DisapprovingOwl]

I'll have to keep an eye on this - hopefully there'll be some more concrete news at some point soon. As a UK fan who's been slowly importing the Dragon Box Z sets (only one more to go, now!), I'm really hoping there'll be more Dragon Boxes.

I'd assume the movies would be most likely - wasn't it said when the Dragon Box Z sets were announced that FUNimation had purchased the Dragon Box footage for those?

However, what I'm hoping for most is Dragon Ball - ideally split into three 51-episode boxes. I'd love to own a Dragon Box release of this series, despite my issues with some portions of it - specifically the Red Ribbon Army story arc. Though it introduces a few memorable characters (e.g. Artificial Human #8, Tao Pai Pai) and locations (Muscle Tower, Karin Tower) that are used as a building point for future events, overall I find that it's long and meandering with not much of a driving force behind the plot for the most part. By the time Goku gains a reason to actually confront the villains, rather than just meeting them incidentally over the course of his journeys, it almost seems the author has grown bored of them; they're dealt with ridiculously quickly and a new short story arc is used to wrap up Goku's mission to revive Bora. The Dr. Slump crossover during General Blue's portion of the arc does nothing for me either, having never seen or read the series - I'm sure it's great for those who know the characters; however, in my opinion it doesn't hold up well for someone who isn't already invested in that series.

However, having gone rather off-tack there, I must stress that this arc is the exception for me - I enjoyed the first loose 'arc' quite a bit, and also the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, and in my opinion, post Red Ribbon, the Uranai Baba arc is interesting enough to start to get things back on track. Thus, even though I'm not the biggest Red Ribbon fan, I'd definitely buy all of the series in Dragon Box format if it were released!

[Akumaito Beam]

That's good news. I've personally decided not to buy anymore Dragon Boxes myself. I'm way too nervous to handle the discs often. If there's not going to be a limited run I'll totally reconsider, otherwise I'll stick to my Blue Bricks and singles.

[Son Satan]

But, if retailers want more shelf space, so they want smaller products, how come I see the Star Wars Blu-Ray with all 6 movies in it and the Lord of the Rings boxset whenever I go to Best Buy? Sure, they're popular, but if retailers want more shelf space, shouldn't these go too?

Also, I can tell you that the Star Wars Blu-ray box is half as thick and 20% shorter than a Dragon Box.

[KiddoCabbusses]

I would like to note that FUNimation themselves have made boxsets which "cram more in less" so to speak.
In particular, the Dragon Ball GT "Complete Series" green brick fits the entire GT series - which would be sorta like one-and-a-half a DBox Z Episode Count - into a package about the size of a single Orange Brick. There's also Amazon's Dual-Orange-Brick Sets, which... well, actually, they're quite a bit wider than an individual DBox, but being 2 "Seasons" in one set means they cover a lot more episodes. Those could probably have been made even smaller if they switched to GT Complete Series packaging.

It wouldn't be that difficult for FUNi to make the DBoxes smaller, unless they want to do it in a way that doesn't remove the "Feelies" - that is, the Dragon Books and the elaborate packaging.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah, but it's not just the size of the packaging. It's the amount of material/cost. People are apparently buying fewer whole "seasons" because they're seemingly more expensive for something they just want to pick up. That's why Walmart now has the season sets split into two parts. Season 1 parts 1 and 2 together cost more than just season 1, but, individually, they are less expensive, so people are more inclined to buy them.

[OutlawTorn]

Yeah, but it's not just the size of the packaging. It's the amount of material/cost. People are apparently buying fewer whole "seasons" because they're seemingly more expensive for something they just want to pick up. That's why Walmart now has the season sets split into two parts. Season 1 parts 1 and 2 together cost more than just season 1, but, individually, they are less expensive, so people are more inclined to buy them.

Exactly. This is why numerous Shout! Factory titles have their seasons broken into parts, despite the fact that they would take up the exact same amount of space on a shelf. Four discs cost more than two discs regardless of whether the packaging is the size of a single DVD or Blu-ray case.

What about anime movies which were drawn on 4:3 cels and shot on 4:3ish film but storyboarded & framed for 1.85:1, intended to be matted for theatrical presentation?

A lot of theatrical animated movies are animated at 4:3, but what should be considered the "correct" ratio is what the filmmaker intended from the beginning. It would be like someone taking an altered version of the Dragon Ball manga and saying it is more correct than the original Japanese version, the original version is Akira Toriyama's intended vision, thus remains superior to any and all altered/censored versions. It doesn't matter if more animation can be seen, it's as incorrect a presentation as the cropping of the DBZ series and TV specials are.

Both the animated Transformers and G.I. Joe movies were animated at 4:3 with the intention of being viewed 16:9, though for 20 years, all that had been available were 4:3 releases. In fact, many people actually believed that there was even more footage available for those movies despite Transformers having been open matted in the theatre (G.I. Joe was straight to video, thus its 16:9 presentation was never seen up until the recent Blu-ray release).

Since the 4:3 presentation had been the only version people had seen of Transformers outside of those who saw it during it's theatrical run, Sony released a two disc set with one featuring the first North American release of the movie in 4:3 as well as a 4:3 version. The same happened when Shout! Factory released G.I. Joe the Movie on Blu-ray, which was originally going to just be the 16:9 version as that was the director's intended version, but fan demand on their message board convinced them to include a 4:3 DVD.

[Son Geeko]

Choujin Daizenshuu: ... what? I don't have a clue what you're trying to say.

I guess he was poking fun at how different groups of fans view the Orange Bricks. Many casual fans enjoy them without seemly noticing any of it's "flaws" and how hardcore fans HATE them with a passion.

At least that's what I think....

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Wow! Did I just stump VegettoEX on something Dragon Ball fandom related? I didn't think that was remotely possible! I should reward myself with a 3 Musketeers bar! *Goes off to 7-11*

P.S. Son Geeko, you're right on the money!