Why does FUNimation call it Dragon Ball "seasons"?

[dbboxkaifan]

One Piece's R2 DVDs are actually labeled with "seasons"; it would seem Toei doesn't know/care about the actual meaning of the word, either.

To be fair, Toei did this too to Dragon Ball Kai Japanese home releases (BD/DVD). Beats me why the heck they'd include it.

[Gaffer Tape]

As long as they release a decent amount of episodes per DVD/Blu-Ray (13-14 minimum), they can call it whatever they want (collection, season, set, chunk, hoard, cluster, omnibus, etc) as far as I concerned...

That's pretty much where I stand on it. It's hardly like this is the biggest deal of 'misinformation' that has come from FUNi's treatment of the series over the years, so I don't really see it as a big deal myself. It honestly just seems like reaching for yet another thing to complain at FUNi for to me, for the most part.

I don't think it's reaching. If anything, it bothers me more because they've moved outside of just screwing up Dragon Ball and are now just deliberately misusing actual television jargon. Why? Either because, as penguintruth said, because they think their consumers are idiots, or they just want to sound more like professional television. To me it's reminiscent of a little kid putting on his/her parents' clothes to be more adult. If you can't use the term properly, then just don't use it! But don't insult my intelligence by using it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If this was any other television release, and someone paid for what claimed to be the complete season 4 and only got a third of it, they'd be rightfully pissed! But when FUNimation does it, it's suddenly nitpicking?

[90sDBZ]

I'm fine with them being called seasons. In the long run it simplified things and probably helped the sales, particularly for first time fans. I mean just imagine being a newcomer approaching the series for the first time and seeing the DVDs in the shops each labelled by saga rather than numerical order and it's not hard to understand why FUNi labelled them as Seasons rather than sagas.

[Hellspawn28]

Well it's not as bad then Funi did during the late 90's and early 2000's which so many box sets of the same saga just to make more box sets. I remember Funi having a Captain Ginyu box set which was only only two VHS tapes long .

[theoriginalbilis]

Geez, I remember those days. I had to explain to folks that Captain Ginyu Saga comes before the Frieza Saga, but after the Saiyan and Namek Sagas... and that the "Trunks" Saga came after... At least the FUNimation labeling of "seasons" helps to establish chronological order more easily to the consumer. You had to read the back covers of the old FUNi singles to get an idea of what episodes are which; and it certainly didn't help that FUNimation released most of DBZ out of order for their initial DVDs. No "Volume One/Two" or anything...

[OutlawTorn]

I'd probably have bought the blue bricks if they were titled "Dragon Ball Collection One" or "Dragon Ball Part One", I can't stand seeing "Dragon Ball Season One" there.

If that's why you didn't buy them, as opposed to holding out hope for a Dragon Ball Dragon Box, then it's a pretty silly reason not to buy something. The "season" terminology may be inaccurate even by FUNimation's own production of the dub, but it doesn't affect the content.

In the end, whether it is "season" or "collection" or "volume" it's all just a way to sequentially organize the sets. It's not like there's a loud, in your face, announcement at the beginning of an episode shouting "SEASON ONE, EPISODE FIVE!!!" just to annoy people who don't like the "season" designation.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If this was any other television release, and someone paid for what claimed to be the complete season 4 and only got a third of it, they'd be rightfully pissed! But when FUNimation does it, it's suddenly nitpicking?

But FUNimation doesn't say "complete" or anything of the sort, they just use "season" instead of "volume" and they clearly state how many episodes are in each set, so the idea that FUNimation is misrepresenting the contents of the sets is a bit of an exaggeration.

Oh, for the record, the DVD set for the fourth season of Bones is labeled as the "fourth season" but it lacks the first four episodes of the season, which were originally released to pad the truncated third season DVD set. So, despite those episodes being released on the third season DVD it is nitpicking to want those episodes to be on the season set which they belong, especially considering they are on the Blu-ray counterpart? Shout! Factory released the two initial G.I. Joe mini-series as part of the "Season 1.1" boxset, they're totally misrepresenting the content!

There's a bit of a snobbish attitude when it comes to people complaining about the use of "season" because it wasn't divided up that way in Japan. FUNimation's release isn't meant for Japan and it's such a petty thing to argue over. The packaging says "x-amount of episodes from the y-saga" so it should be pretty straightforward. Aren't there better things to stress over (the inaccuracies of the dub, for instance) than the fact that they used "season" on the DVD packaging?

[VegettoEX]

The inaccuracies of the dub were complained about in 1999.

The "season" labeling is more recent/relevant.

Besides, who gets to decide which little aspects are worth talking about? If it's some random person who says, "Nope, you're nitpicking! DONE!" then nothing would ever get discussed ever never ever holy crap all discussions are stupid.

[Super Sonic]

It was just how they labled them. They're not the only company to release seasons in not the way they were done. Warner released seasons 2-4 of Thundercats as "Season 2 parts 1 & 2".

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, I for one would be checking what episodes are on each disc before I buy them anyway, I don't know that any naming system would help me there. "Season" doesn't definitively tell me anything, nor "Volume" (especially if it's not clear how many volumes there are), nor "Saga." Every time a new home release comes out it's like, "Okay, off to Right Stuf I go to check the episode count........okay, now off to Wikipedia I go to check what part of the story those episodes correspond to....okay, back to Right Stuf again to buy this."

[Gyt Kaliba]

I don't think it's reaching. If anything, it bothers me more because they've moved outside of just screwing up Dragon Ball and are now just deliberately misusing actual television jargon. Why? Either because, as penguintruth said, because they think their consumers are idiots, or they just want to sound more like professional television. To me it's reminiscent of a little kid putting on his/her parents' clothes to be more adult. If you can't use the term properly, then just don't use it! But don't insult my intelligence by using it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If this was any other television release, and someone paid for what claimed to be the complete season 4 and only got a third of it, they'd be rightfully pissed! But when FUNimation does it, it's suddenly nitpicking?

Right off the bat, I want to express that I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong or anything, just in case it came off that way, or will, or whatever. I agree with what VegettoEX pointed out that it is a worthy discussion point, and no one side can say the other is wrong really.

So, yeah. Just wanted to throw that out there, that this is all just my own personal opinion.

To me, I think you're right in that they're just trying to sound more like professional TV - I just don't really see it as a bad thing. And again, so long as I can own the product, I've never really been one to care what the official name of a release is. They could call it 'Dragon Ball: Super Deluxe Box of Win Volume One Episodes 1-31 Extravaganza-za-za-zaaaa!' and if it's something I wanted to own, I'd buy it. So to me, I just don't really get why it's such a big deal if the term they're using is technically inaccurate. But again, that's just me - if it actually does bother others, they're more than entitled to their opinion, but I just can't see 'why' myself..

And as far as other releases claiming to be full releases but not being, there is plenty of that out there. It's my understanding that much of what we have of The Muppet Show released on DVD is actually cut down from what originally aired due to music rights. Or over on the DVD releases of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 80's/90's, there were two episodes from a later season flat out skipped over, only to get shoved as an 'extra' on the final release. This error wasn't corrected for the huge box 'full series' release either. So looking to stuff like that, I guess I'm just happy when the entire show is present and in order, really.

Thinking on it though, let me pose this question then. If they actually wanted to call it 'Seasons' and go by what that 'actually means' for the series, then there'd only be seven sets instead of nine, right? (I'm actually surprised they didn't go that route to begin with, cuz of the Dragon Balls and all.) But they didn't want to have releases with THAT many episodes in them maybe...so would there be a similar outcry if we'd gotten a series of smaller releases labeled things like 'Season One: Volume One' and so on and so forth, so long as they actually matched up with how it originally aired here as seasons?

[Gaffer Tape]

Thanks for that opening. While I wasn't getting heated and certainly didn't think you were, it's always appreciated to have a friendly reminder that we're all happy and awesome and to keep things in perspective that even if we're talking about things we're passionate about, we don't slip up and mistakenly start directing that passion at the person instead of the topic. So thank you.

I agree that things like box art, naming, etc., doesn't really bother me either. I believe I've said before somewhere that, while the Dragon Box presentation, the books, etc., made it even more awesome, I would have jumped at the chance to own the Dragon Box footage with subtitles if it had been presented in a questionably moist paper bag. However, I do take issue with purposely propagating misinformation and ignorance, and this is what I feel this is. There are so many words you could use that are synonymous with what we're talking about: volume, collection, release, part, group, chunk. Some I would choose over others, but all could potentially work. Season, however, is not remotely synonymous with any of those things. And I'd say that the desire to make it sound more like "professional TV" was the same kind of mindset that got it chopped up into 16x9. It's all just marketing bull: remastered, widescreen, season. And so while I generally agree that what's in a name isn't all that important, sometimes it can be, and the season sets are a woefully sad example of that.

And while this isn't directed to you specifically, I have seen a lot of posts seem to make the assumption that the only two choices seem to be "season" or "saga," and that season makes things a lot clearer than saga does. I have to agree with that... but those aren't the only two choices. It's not like there isn't anything between the incomprehensible-to-non-fans Ginyu Saga and Season 3. And FUNimation has done it before. Going all the way back to the first Dragon Ball DVDs, sure, they referred to them by saga, but there was also this wonderfully convenient numbering system on the spine. It didn't have a word associated with it. It just said, "3" or "9.1," but that's really all you need to do. The Dragon Boxes went with volume n, with the episode numbers directly below. Pretty simple stuff, although I admit it doesn't do a great job of telling casual fans what part of the series it is. And I also want to add that it has nothing to do with whether or not there are seasons in Japan because there were seasons in America, and these aren't it.

Back to your specific post, though, yes, I am aware that other home releases have been subject to alteration, and that does bug me too. Sadly, contractual issues that were made long before home video release was even a thing comes into play. And, yes, like you, I'm thrilled the Dragon Boxes are as close to the original as it is, and all I have to concern myself with are relatively trivial concerns like the NEPs being out of order or lacking the original movie previews, etc. I admit I was a bit concerned with the Yamamoto scandal that it might end up affecting certain other Dragon Ball songs, like Battle Point Unlimited. Can you imagine if future releases had to get rid of stuff like that?

To answer your question, though... well, first, there were six seasons, not seven.

Season 1-Saiyan Arc
Season 2-Freeza Arc through ReaCoom's defeat
Season 3-Remaining Freeza Arc, Garlic Jr. Arc
Season 4-Cell Arc
Season 5-Anoyoichi Budoukai, Boo Arc through Vegeta's death
Season 6-Rest of series

And, yes, I've always maintained that, with the often variable episode count (compare the 35 episodes [originally 26!] of season 1 to ~70 of season 4!) and sometimes extremely large episode counts that they were pretty screwed on the whole season front to begin with. But, yes, if they had wanted to use the label that badly, I would have been perfectly happy with the use of it if they'd felt the need to chop it up into clearly labeled parts in order to make a more consistent release.

At the end of the day, I consider it to be a "relatively minor" problem, and as I said in my Complete Dragon Box Collection Review, if something like that had been the only problem, I would have still grumbled about it but snatched them up immediately. And like I also said, I'm kinda glad they were that bad as it allowed me to hold out until the Dragon Boxes came out!

[FindKenshi]

The inaccuracies of the dub were complained about in 1999.

Yeah, they were... a little too much.
Heh.

Does anyone here know (or happen to be) any of the people responsible for the website "DBZ Uncensored."


They laid it on real think, leading US fans on that the Japnaese version of the show was.. well, extremely dark and gritty. Now, in this age, we know it was lighthearted and the like.. and in fact, the seriousness and grittiness of the story is widely rejected by Kanzenshuu'ers. Even though parts of the story without a doubt ARE serious and dark... I still miss the old late 90's fan perception which was perpetuated by DBZ Uncensored as well as the fan websites of the era, which would have you believe that DBZ was something children in Japan probably weren't allowed to watch.. it'd have given them nightmares.

The fan community still is a close knit environment.. we have people who were part of Super 5 fansubs on this forum, do we have any DBZ Uncesored ppl? I want to meet one.

[Gaffer Tape]

I'd say Chris Psaros was more responsible for attempting to lift up Dragon Ball to the status of a revered work of art, comparable to the films of Miyazaki, than he was for making it a dark and brooding Spawn-like story.

As for the presence of DBZ Uncensored folk, Psaros has not been active in Dragon Ball for many years. One of our members, Castor Troy, has been kind enough to host the site on his own website (http://dbzu.3gkai.com) and even managed to contribute a new piece of content: an interview with Psaros 10 years after he closed down the site.

Aside from that, user GS7X7 was one of the members of the DBZ Otaku Alliance, the site that hosted DBZ Uncensored immediately after it closed down, as well as one of the contributors to DBZ Uncensored 2, a sequel site hosted on the DBZOA, which attempted to continue where Psaros left off.

[Ringworm128]

It really doesn't bother me, for all I care they could call them chapters.

[Gaffer Tape]

They could call them "chapters" as far as I'm concerned too. They could call them anything... except seasons, which really doesn't apply.

[dbboxkaifan]

It really doesn't bother me, for all I care they could call them chapters.

I'd very much like "Dragon Ball: Chapter One" over "Dragon Ball: Season One".

If they really wanted to be faithful to the meaning of season like he said, they'd have to split 20/23 episodes per season box.

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, actually 35-70ish episodes per season. While an American season is usually around 22-26 episodes, there is no hard, fast rule defining how many episodes a season is. It's simply the amount of episodes produced at any one time or aired within a broadcast year (ex. the fall '97-spring '98 season). And in Dragon Ball Z's case, its season 1 was 26 episodes (cut down from the original 35) while its 4th season was around 70 episodes.

[saiyanprincess]

Now i would love for Funi to release a dvd/blu ray combi of each volume. I know it's unlikely to ever happen, but i have just imported the Fairytail combo seasons from US, and i'm so far loving the fact I can play them anywhere around the house - The high def pictures look amazing!

[dbboxkaifan]

Now i would love for Funi to release a dvd/blu ray combi of each volume. I know it's unlikely to ever happen, but i have just imported the Fairytail combo seasons from US, and i'm so far loving the fact I can play them anywhere around the house - The high def pictures look amazing!

FUNimation had the chance to do a BD & DVD Combo Pack with the Dragon Ball Z Kai "Season" sets but they didn't because they knew with Dragon Ball they can make more money off of it.

By the way, Fairy Tail is upscaled to 1080p not high-def.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm surprise Funi didn't put all of the orange bricks into one big boxset yet.