DBZ Kai "part 1" (eps 1 - 54) is out in France

[sangofe]

Release company: AB Video
Gencode : 0887254426493
Languages : Japanese Stereo 2.0 | French Stereo 2.0
Subtitles : Français
Image format : 16/9 anamorphic
Zone : 2
Number of episodes: 54
Running time : 18 hours
Number of DVDs : 9
Price: 54.95 €

Source:
http://www.declic-collection.fr/dc/Drag ... 6-297.html

Edit: Oops, I posted this in the wrong section...

[VegettoEX]

I was all set to make an update about this, but then I realized we already posted about it back in June . I guess we could do a little note about the included language/subtitle tracks and the fact that it's cropped. Thanks for that!

[sangofe]

Thanks for the update, and thank you for understanding the french subtitles information even though I somehow forgot translate that ^^

[dbboxkaifan]

Is the cropping from the original Japanese broadcast or custom cropping?

[Pokewhiz7]

Is the cropping from the original Japanese broadcast or custom cropping?

Yeah, I was actually wondering that myself.

[sangofe]

No idea.

[Puto]

Pretty sure it's the Japanese cropping. If the TV airings are any indication, it even has the shorter, TV-size previews for early episodes (which were a bit longer on both English and Japanese home releases).

I'm unsure whether to order this or not. On one hand, it's really cheap! On the other hand, it's cropped... and it's a DVD. I'd much prefer a 4:3 blu-ray, but I'd make do with a 4:3 DVD. Cropped, though? I'm not sure...

[VegettoEX]

Your English is plenty fine. You should just order our BD re-releases for a quality product and your silly little cropped DVD box sets to support local products .

[Puto]

I can't play American BDs. Region-locking and all that :P

[dbboxkaifan]

I can't play American BDs. Region-locking and all that

The US DBZ Kai Blu-rays are Region A & B so if you have a BDP/PS3 (with a BDP that works) you're able to watch them.

And even if they were region-locked hacking PS3 (Models FAT to Slim 2000) would fix the issue.

[Puto]

I wouldn't hack my PS3 - I kind of like to play games on it. Nice to know, though.

I still prefer to order stuff from my own region though.

[Cold Skin]

I'll make sure to get it sometime before Christmas. While not perfect, the new French dub is very good and sort of a dream come true (I had lost hope that we'd ever see Dragon Ball dubbed again - this time correctly - in France).

I don't mind it being cropped, since it does fit my HDTV without using the TV zoom, therefore without llosing resolution and having a dead-center zoom (meaning inappropriate for some shots).
That crop is clever, I mean they even went as far as extending some pictures when needed to actually have a clean widescreen version.

However, I'll have to bear with the old Kikuchi score rather than the more cinematic and immersive Yamamoto one, I wish Toei had indeed solved the plagiarism problem after a few months, but they just replaced the score for good. I'm not glad they did, but I can understand why they wouldn't want to put too much time and effort for a series they are now done with.

[Cold Skin]

THE BIG "FRENCH KAI DVD PACK 1" OVERVIEW


PACKAGE

On the contrary of what was shown for a while before the release, there is no Toriyama-inspired artwork of Son Goku and Freezer, but only Goku preparing a Kame Hame Ha.
The front cover itself is kept clear of any indication other than the title and the number of DVDs, you have to look at the sides to gather information.

The top side of the package features a synopsis, without particular presentation, just black writings on a completely white background. It states:

"Five years after the 23th world martial arts tournament, Son Goku brings his son Son Gohan to Great Turtle's
island, reuniting with his friends. Suddenly, a frightening warrior named Raditz arrives.
Stating he is Son Goku's brother, he asks for his help to eradicate a planet's population.
Since Son Goku refuses, Raditz immediately kidnaps Son Gohan..."

The bottom of the package shows the bar code, a copyright line written in English, the "Only for sale" message and the logos for Toei Animation, ABGroup and DVD.
It also contains the following info box:

"EPISODES 1 TO 54 / LENGTH: 22h30 approximately
French Version + Subtitled original version / PAL COLORS / ZONE 2 / 9 "DVD 9"
SCREEN RATIO 1.78 / 16/9 WIDESCREEN / STEREO SOUND"

The back cover shows Goku barely dodging Vegeta's blast during their fight.

Both sides of the package contain the same pattern, with the red and blue areas being reversed from one side to the other.
You can see Krilin in his Namek outfit, "EPISODES 1 TO 54" written, the series logo and "Vol. 1" indicated.
One of the side (the one actually belonging to the external package) also specifies "Saiyans Saga & Freezer Saga", as well as "9 DVD".

One of the sides is part of an inner "DVD book" containing all nine DVDs, each one being on a page. You pull the side to get the book out of the main package.
The starting "inner cover" of the book is Goku taking off his head bandage in front of Kame Sennin and Yajirobe, with his ship on the background.
The ending "inner cover" is actually pasted to the last page containing the last DVD, so there isn't an artwork for it.
There is no booklet of any kind included.

Each disc showcases a different character. While some seem logical to show the DVD contents, others are a bit of a surprising choice. Names of arcs also appear on the disc.

DVD 1 - Raditz - Ep. 1 to 6 ("Saiyan Saga")
DVD 2 - Chaozu - Ep. 7 to 12 ("Saiyan Saga")
DVD 3 - Vegeta - Ep. 13 to 18 ("Saiyan Saga & Freezer Saga")
DVD 4 - Dodoria - Ep. 19 to 24 ("Freezer Saga")
DVD 5 - Ghourd - Ep. 25 to 30 ("Freezer Saga")
DVD 6 - Ginyu - Ep. 31 to 36 ("Freezer Saga")
DVD 7 - Freezer - Ep. 37 to 42 ("Freezer Saga")
DVD 8 - Goku (normal form) - Ep. 43 to 48 ("Freezer Saga")
DVD 9 - Piccolo - Ep. 49 to 54 ("Freezer Saga")

The front cover for the book showcases Goku, while the back cover shows the victims of the Saiyans invasion training with Kaio (Bubbles and Gregory are also here).

MENU

After a copyright warning message and the ABGroup logo (both the same than in the movies package), the menu kicks off with the beginning of Kai's opening credits for a few seconds. When Goku starts to charge up the Genki Dama and a blue sparkle takes over the screen, the main menu is revealed instead of the series logo and the opening continuing. Dragon Soul doesn't start from the beginning of the song, but somewhere on the pre-chorus part, it is synchronized so that the chorus kicks in just as the main menu appears.

Although I haven't gone further than DVD 1 for now, it seems the main menu will always showcase the character's render of the associated disc.
Whether or not the menu evolves - for example showing a Namek landscape - is unknown to me as of yet.

The menu uses a render of the Kai intro's sky landscape. It is animated, notably with clouds moving and possibly moving sunshine (but I don't remember as I'm writing this). It is more than enough for the menu to not feel static at all. Short transitions between menus are also present, with the elements from one moving out of the picture and the elements of the next menu moving in (a little mistake is that the same transition is used beyond DVD 1, making Raditz shortly pop up again even when it was another character that was featured). Extracts from episodes are also moving in the episodes menu.

The episodes menu will show three of them at times, complete with the official French title, the first part being written in yellow, the second part in red (echoing the original Dragon Ball Z logo).
Chapters are made to separate episodes in the following parts, so that you can skip to the next:

PREVIOUSLY...
OPENING
FIRST HALF
SECOND HALF
ENDING
NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

If you have selected it from the episodes selection screen, the end of an episode will pop you back to the episodes menu instantly (there are no sponsor presentations, nor the little 5 seconds logo before the "Previously" part). Luckily, on the contrary of the movies package, you don't get stuck watching the unskipable long-version ABGroup logo at the end - except if you have selected the very last episode, so it's better to manually get back to the menu for the sixth episode on each disc - or the warnings in all languages (as is often seen in various DVDs).

The versions menu doesn't set apart the language and subtitle, just like for the movies package: you either choose the new French dub, or you have the Japanese audio with subtitles, those are the only two options given, and the ones that will interest most people.

VISUAL CONTENT

As you may have noticed, and without any surprise, it is the international Dragon Ball Z Kai name which is used as a logo and in the dub as well.

You may have also noticed that this is the "smart widescreen" version, which allows you to have your modern TV screen filled without losing resolution and without losing any relevant information since the cropping has been handled carefully so as to select the relevant areas of the original pictures that should be kept on screen. Pictures that could not go through that "smart widescreen" process without losing relevant elements were redrawn to be extended as you probably already know.

On the contrary of the movie package, the visual master used is solely for the French market, with French title cards, French writings on the opening and ending, and French voice actors appearing in the ending instead of the Japanese ones. While this is a surprise as far as the comparison with the movies package goes (which used the Japanese visual master with DVD subtitles when needed), it's no surprise when compared to other anime nowadays: we're now used to see anime aired in France having fully French masters with French credits.
Since it uses the French master, subtitles translating Japanese writings (such as Bulma's word on the door or the Tenkaichi Budokai writings) appear as naturally more beautiful subtitles than the DVD-encoded ones and are part of the video itself.

Visually, this might not be HD, but as far as the DVD format goes, it is hard to imagine a better quality.
Being used to the HD version, I expected to have a disgust grin when seeing the first "standard resolution" pictures: absolutely not, the image might not be up to Blu-ray standards, but it remains surprisingly, incredibly beautiful, a pleasure to watch that will never make you say "ouch, that was quite ugly compared to HD", and visually the best Dragon Ball release so far in France. I am still stunned right now about how amazingly gorgeous it looks for a "mere DVD".

AUDIO CONTENT

No surprise there, the soundtrack is the "Kai Kikuchi" one from A to Z, both with the French and Japanese dub.

The new French dub is a revolution compared to the famous (for bad reasons) old one.
The scenario is correctly translated, and some sentences will take French viewers offguard for sounding so natural they likely heard their friends and family throw such a line.

The voice actors for main characters are largely the same than before, but this time directed correctly and taking their interpretation much more seriously than back then.
Some voices such as the one for Piccolo will please long-time fans, while newcomers who never heard his voice before will likely take some time before liking it and understanding that despite being a completely different take on the character than in the original Japanese or the American dub, it actually works fine too.

However, we have only one dub for both the "kids' channels" version and the "normal" version, meaning there had to be a compromise.
It was chosen that nothing would be altered (death is sometimes mentionned in a disguised way, but many times it is mentionned in a straightforward manner too, so this was apparently not a case of censorship), except for toning down the insults so that the characters never say anything that would belong to the "profanity" category, or even anything that would be too "slang". They will use toned-down versions like "idiots", "fools", "damn", etc...

Due to retirements and the fact that some of the old voice actors have died since the original Dragon Ball Z dub, some voices were replaced, most notably Krilin and Kaio.
The new ones are a nice fit (I would even say "awesome" for Kaio, for he actually made me having "silent laughters" a lot - meaning smiling with my mouth wide open like a dumbass - when even the original Japanese made me just smile closed-mouth style). But because nostalgia has such a power over many people, it is also unavoidable that some fans will be hugely disappointed by those changes.

Names of people, items and special moves are - as usual with French dub for anime productions - translated (or kept as they were translated back then).
Great Turtle, Magic Cloud and other names were kept for the general public to be able to understand.
Names for all special moves had a new French translation which is - on the contrary of the old dub - kept constant throughout the entire show. The translations are quite clever, being more or less based on the original meaning, while giving it a stylistic spin to make it more classy to French audience (one would have found a simple "Energy Ball" or "Kaio's Special Move" not appealing enough). Here are translations of the names:

Change = Permutation
Genki Dama = Energy Orb
Garlic Ho = Garlic Cannon
Kaioken = Kaio Aura
Kienzan = Energetic Saw
Makankosappo = Evil Piercing Beam
Masenko = Demonic Flames

SUBTITLES

While I only wanted to watch the subtitled version out of curiosity to begin with, I found it to be incredibly - really incredibly - appealing, and will undoubtedly watch the whole subtitled version too.

On the contrary of the movies package, the subtitles are not here during credits to translate the lyrics.

It is meant to fit with the new French dub, but the language can remain quite slang at times, much "cooler" on the way some characters speak. Profanity and insults are also less restricted, as it includes instances of "shit", "jackass", "bastard" and else...
It will keep the same vocabulary for characters and special moves (Magic Cloud, Great Turtle...).

The translation itself is incredibly professionnal, much more than it was for the movies package.
Interpretations of the Japanese meaning are right on spot - clearly understanding precisely what every single line is supposed to bring to the scenerio - and sentences are formulated with a constant, rich vocabulary and many well-chosen expressions of our language. While our language seems a little dull to me most of the time, just one episode (now I've seen three) was a reminder of how beautiful and stylish French lines can be too. It's been a while since I've seen such a professional translation, I would say this translation is to the series what the Kanzenban translation is to the manga: worth living the story all over again!

Since Japanese is a very different language than ours or English, viewers might not be able to distinguish if what is being said is just a shout, a grunt or an actual word really meaning something. Therefore, since the audience can be very unfamiliar to the language, hesitations in the middle of names and repetitions will appear on the subtitles, when it is usually not deemed necessary on subtitles for English-language products (judging it's a waste of the viewer's reading time since he can easily hear there was an hesitation or repetition).

Subtitles even go as far as carefully obeying that professional rule according to which a subtitle must not overlap from one shot to another for better fluidity in the viewer's perception of the intended visual montage for the material being translated!

A little oddity (although it is not really a flaw) is that subtitles will not appear to translate the title pronunced by the narrator at the beginning since it is already written in French on the visual master, BUT it will appear when it is pronunced during the next episode preview despite being already written on the video, sometimes with a slightly different translation.

Anyway, if a French fan doesn't buy it for the new dub or for the Kikuchi score, he may want to buy it for the subtitles. Simply an astonishing level of professionalism on the job, which alone can make you watch the whole series all over again!

[funrush]

Wow, that's a really nice box set.

[dbboxkaifan]

So it has black bars top and bottom?

PAL's resolution is 720x576 which does a fine job for 4:3 AR films/series but 16:9 may suffer.

[Cold Skin]

So it has black bars top and bottom?

PAL's resolution is 720x576 which does a fine job for 4:3 AR films/series but 16:9 may suffer.

Not on a widescreen, unless the bars are 1 milimeter long (which can happen sometimes). It is full screen on an HDTV.

I don't know enough about PAL and NTSC, film format and all, but only the colors used for the encoding are described as PAL on the box, and when playing it, it is indeed full screen on a widescreen, but will have black bars on a 4:3 TV (which is not part of the image but just "emptiness" covered by the TV system, unless your DVD player is set to zoom in when playing widescreen videos (which will make you lose resolution as if zooming with your TV).

[sangofe]

Thank you for your review. I assume these subs are "polished versions" of what was on TV? And are there timing errors like GameOne had?

[Cold Skin]

Thank you for your review. I assume these subs are "polished versions" of what was on TV? And are there timing errors like GameOne had?

I don't know if they are the same than the TV subtitles since I haven't seen them, but I can check it out if you give me one specific subtitle you could identify as a GameOne subtitle.
I've already seen with series like Scrubs or How I Met Your Mother that TV subtitles have a different translation than the DVD ones, they are apparently not handled by the same company or person (and I'm not talking about the "hard of hearing" subtitles which are just shortened versions of the dub lines, but really the translation subtitles when the series is viewable in original version).

As far as the timing goes, as of episode 3, it's simply perfect, not only being totally in sync, but avoiding to overlap from one shot to the next!

[kei17]

How about the playback speed? Is it 4% sped up?

[sangofe]

Thank you for your review. I assume these subs are "polished versions" of what was on TV? And are there timing errors like GameOne had?

I don't know if they are the same than the TV subtitles since I haven't seen them, but I can check it out if you give me one specific subtitle you could identify as a GameOne subtitle.
I've already seen with series like Scrubs or How I Met Your Mother that TV subtitles have a different translation than the DVD ones, they are apparently not handled by the same company or person (and I'm not talking about the "hard of hearing" subtitles which are just shortened versions of the dub lines, but really the translation subtitles when the series is viewable in original version).

As far as the timing goes, as of episode 3, it's simply perfect, not only being totally in sync, but avoiding to overlap from one shot to the next!

Hmm, you're almost making me want to buy this. I want BluRays, though. Avoiding overlaps is a basic thing to do, though... (I do subtitles in my spare time)...