Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Martinrock]

Who cares that Funimation focus is the U.S. market? I really tried to explain but I'll stop there. I will try to explain more clearly for those who did not understand ...
Dragon Ball has had a huge impact around the world in equal proportions or almost. So into the U.S., there is a wide enough fan base to let him give rein to his desires. Ie: speak! Not to control the company! Just to be heard! And I speak for myself who purchased the DBZ Funimation, not French fanbase obviously

Because that is the way business works.

You aren't part of their market. There just being a 'fanbase' doesn't mean anything. What means something to their products is who may or may not buy it.

Their sales market is North America (more specifically the USA in general when it comes to DBZ.) The popularity of the show, and any fanbase that exists because of it, does not matter to them, outside of potentially being able to go 'look how popular it is' in marketing materials.

It's nice that you've imported their release, but you aren't part of their market, and very few people do that (and you live in a market they legally aren't allowed to deal with) so it doesn't really mean anything.

Forget Fanbase. I will not contact Funimation and say "I am French, I live in Paris in the 7th district and I would ...." It is email, single way to communicate with them quickly. But you did not seem to understand me when I say there is a lot of fans. I say that in the U.S. there are probably a lot too. Period. It is better here?

[KingofWisdom]

I guess all we can do now is wait and see if FUNimation pulls their patented, "Sorry about that last release, here's the proper one!"

[qjz123]

Forget Fanbase. I will not contact Funimation and say "I am French, I live in Paris in the 7th district and I would ...." It is email, single way to communicate with them quickly. But you did not seem to understand me when I say there is a lot of fans. I say that in the U.S. there are probably a lot too. Period. It is better here?

But that's the thing if there really were that many fans who want a 4:3 proper blu ray release then the level sets would have never been canceled.

[MarcFBR]

Forget Fanbase. I will not contact Funimation and say "I am French, I live in Paris in the 7th district and I would ...." It is email, single way to communicate with them quickly. But you did not seem to understand me when I say there is a lot of fans. I say that in the U.S. there are probably a lot too. Period. It is better here?

You realize if you send an email it's not that hard to figure out where you are and/or figure out if you are using a proxy or mass emailing them right?

And emails at this point don't matter.

They released Blu-rays to fan specifications, and people didn't buy them. Emails telling them how we want it do not matter at this point, they tried that, and people did not buy them.

[Martinrock]

Forget Fanbase. I will not contact Funimation and say "I am French, I live in Paris in the 7th district and I would ...." It is email, single way to communicate with them quickly. But you did not seem to understand me when I say there is a lot of fans. I say that in the U.S. there are probably a lot too. Period. It is better here?

But that's the thing if there really were that many fans who want a 4:3 proper blu ray release then the level sets would have never been canceled.

Honestly, do you think the market study was based on something very concrete except a miserable survey?

"Flower Mound, TX – January 26, 2012- FUNimation Entertainment, has officially confirmed they have suspended production of all future planned Blu-ray releases of Dragon Ball Z including Level 2.1 scheduled to be released on March 27, 2012.


Blu-ray editions of Dragon Ball Z went into production based on fan demand, however due to technical challenges of restoring from the original film frame by frame, we are unable to continue these releases by way of this process. FUNimation will be re-evaluating the current process and researching more efficient methods of restoration."

Who can say whether it is true or false?

[Martinrock]

Forget Fanbase. I will not contact Funimation and say "I am French, I live in Paris in the 7th district and I would ...." It is email, single way to communicate with them quickly. But you did not seem to understand me when I say there is a lot of fans. I say that in the U.S. there are probably a lot too. Period. It is better here?

You realize if you send an email it's not that hard to figure out where you are and/or figure out if you are using a proxy or mass emailing them right?

And emails at this point don't matter.

They released Blu-rays to fan specifications, and people didn't buy them. Emails telling them how we want it do not matter at this point, they tried that, and people did not buy them.

I beg you to believe me that any commercial company that sells a product listens to the major needs of his customers. When it receives multiple calls, vivid and urgent requests from a large number of people (or IP), maybe 100, 500, 2000 spread over a certain period of time, it takes into account because it doesn't know if there was a consensus, so it extrapolates proportionally to its customer base so that it can meet the demand and sell its products. YES or NO?

[MarcFBR]

I beg you to believe me that any commercial company that sells a product listens to the major needs of his customers. When it receives multiple calls, vivid and urgent requests from a large number of people (or IP), maybe 100, 500, 2000 spread over a certain period of time, it takes into account because it doesn't know if there was a consensus, so it extrapolates proportionally to its customer base so that it can meet the demand and sell its products. YES or NO?

You're misunderstanding my point, possibly because of translation issues.

My point is, they DID listen to fans, and fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required.

Therefore, they waited to revisit it until they could do it at a level they felt could work. And that level does not involve aiming specifically at fans, but rather at the mass market.

[Martinrock]

And emails at this point don't matter.They released Blu-rays to fan specifications, and people didn't buy them. Emails telling them how we want it do not matter at this point, they tried that, and people did not buy them.

The purpose of all this is whether you exist or not.

[MarcFBR]

The purpose of all this is whether you exist or not.

I see three possibilities here.

1- Bad Translation.
2- Someone here is crazy.
3- You want to get into some sort of existential debate, but this is neither the time nor the place.

I will attempt to explain how business works in image form, since text doesn't seem to be getting through (likely because of translation.)

Funimation wants this

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Funimation is a huge corporation and as such their only real concern is their bottom line. They didn't crop the Blu-Rays to be mean. They did it because they decided that presenting the series in this way would maximize their potential for profit. MarcFBR is right. The people on this forum are no longer their target demographic. They made an attempt at releasing the series in 4x3 on Blu-Ray with the Level sets and clearly that release wasn't profitable or they would have kept it going. I'm sorry for everyone that was counting on the promise of this release, but such is business. No amount of spamming is going to get them to change their mind at this point.

This.
Cutting out 20% but still releasing it with the levels quality is still a possibility, I still think the in house will be doing the remastering but cutting 20% over 291 episodes worth of work.

And judging by those prints they're pretty bad at the top/bottom, would like to see how the Dragon Box masters look in those areas.
I would also like to know how messed up season 2 was I mean c'mon it was seriously too bright. This was also the start of DBZ, and it's possible seasons 2-3 were the worst of the sets (they looked the worst out of the 9) but season 2 was just horrible looking.

A Trailer should give us some indications of how these will look, I'm still betting these are the levels (at least up to 2.2) in 16x9 and selectively cropped like Kai was.
I've also looked through some of my old singles and the namek-freeza parts of dbz are the worst... Yea I watched what I had of it, which was up to the end of the freeza fight.
By judging from those singles it's pretty clear why 16x9 is used, these would also be THE MOST EXPENSIVE SEASONS if released in 4x3 just to make a profit as $30 would not cut it for the amount of work required.

I do hope TOEI releases a blu-ray set but with color correction but that's asking to much, we'd see it from Funimation before TOEI and completed but who knows.

[Martinrock]

I beg you to believe me that any commercial company that sells a product listens to the major needs of his customers. When it receives multiple calls, vivid and urgent requests from a large number of people (or IP), maybe 100, 500, 2000 spread over a certain period of time, it takes into account because it doesn't know if there was a consensus, so it extrapolates proportionally to its customer base so that it can meet the demand and sell its products. YES or NO?

You're misunderstanding my point, possibly because of translation issues.

My point is, they DID listen to fans, and fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required.

Therefore, they waited to revisit it until they could do it at a level they felt could work. And that level does not involve aiming specifically at fans, but rather at the mass market.

I translated it myself this may be why! On the profitability, It's about the best answer to the market. It's a product that responds to a need with an appropriate price policy that generates a profit. Are you sur that fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required? This is a serious possibility, but with what has been achieved with DragonBox, I am not sure. It is clear that trading company is based on a rate of return but be sure that when there is an infatuation about a product, an infatuation expressed, there is always an answer. Good or bad but unambiguous.
When you want something, you don't wait and hope foolishly that we give it to you, you act.

[qjz123]

Funimation wants this

[Martinrock]

The purpose of all this is whether you exist or not.

I see three possibilities here.

1- Bad Translation.
2- Someone here is crazy.
3- You want to get into some sort of existential debate, but this is neither the time nor the place.

I will attempt to explain how business works in image form, since text doesn't seem to be getting through (likely because of translation.)

Funimation wants this

2 Yeah I look at your avatar.

[MarcFBR]

I translated it myself this may be why! On the profitability, It's about the best answer to the market. It's a product that responds to a need with an appropriate price policy that generates a profit. Are you sur that fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required? This is a serious possibility, but with what has been achieved with DragonBox, I am not sure. It is clear that trading company is based on a rate of return but be sure that when there is an infatuation about a product, an infatuation expressed, there is always an answer. Good or bad but unambiguous.
When you want something, you don't wait and hope foolishly that we give it to you, you act.

If fans were buying the prior Blu-ray sets at a profitable rate, they would still be doing them.

And the reason I have no plan to act isn't because I don't hope foolishly, but rather that, it didn't work 2 years ago the way they were doing it. They aren't going to be foolish enough to do it again. The American Anime landscape is filled with companies who made bad business choice after bad business choice, and they are gone. This choice might not be the right choice for us as fans, but it's the right choice for Funimation as a company, and frankly, for DBZ as a brand.

[qjz123]

I translated it myself this may be why! On the profitability, It's about the best answer to the market. It's a product that responds to a need with an appropriate price policy that generates a profit. Are you sur that fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required? This is a serious possibility, but with what has been achieved with DragonBox, I am not sure. It is clear that trading company is based on a rate of return but be sure that when there is an infatuation about a product, an infatuation expressed, there is always an answer. Good or bad but unambiguous.
When you want something, you don't wait and hope foolishly that we give it to you, you act.

Your assuming that a 16:9 blu ray release being bad is a general consensus, while it may be to people on this site it isn't the same for the mass market. There is a huge divide between hardcore Dbz fans(people on this site) and the general american fan base. Normally when a company like Funimation releases a product that you don't like, you choose not to support it and eventually when they realize that it isn't selling well they bend to the will of the consumer but the desires of the hardcore fans and the mass market are very different. Look at the orange brick season sets for example while many people on this site consider them to be Funimation's greatest blunder to the mass market they're great. The orange bricks were and continue to be a huge success for Funimation. So while the people on this site might decide not to support this new blu ray release because they deem it to be unsatisfactory odds are that it'll be well received by the mass market.

[Martinrock]

I translated it myself this may be why! On the profitability, It's about the best answer to the market. It's a product that responds to a need with an appropriate price policy that generates a profit. Are you sur that fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required? This is a serious possibility, but with what has been achieved with DragonBox, I am not sure. It is clear that trading company is based on a rate of return but be sure that when there is an infatuation about a product, an infatuation expressed, there is always an answer. Good or bad but unambiguous.
When you want something, you don't wait and hope foolishly that we give it to you, you act.

Your assuming that a 16:9 blu ray release being bad is a general consensus, while it may be to people on this site it isn't the same for the mass market. There is a huge divide between hardcore Dbz fans(people on this site) and the general american fan base. Normally when a company like Funimation releases a product that you don't like, you choose not to support it and eventually when they realize that it isn't selling well they bend to the will of the consumer but the desires of the hardcore fans and the mass market are very different. Look at the orange brick season sets for example while many people on this site consider them to be Funimation's greatest blunder to the mass market they're great. The orange bricks were and continue to be a huge success for Funimation. So while the people on this site might decide not to support this new blu ray release because they deem it to be unsatisfactory odds are that it'll be well received by the mass market.

It is very likely, 16/9 goes better on a flat screen. But again do you know the amount of sales of the orange brick season? It would be interesting to know the opinion with a poll.

[MarcFBR]

But again do you know the amount of sales of the orange brick season? It would be interesting to know the opinion with a poll.

Sales numbers aren't public, but we do know a few things.

1- It's kept DBZ in the top selling anime franchises year after year.
2- Wal-mart has requested custom packaged versions twice thus far (it's twice I believe... one was two season packs, and then half seasons last year right?)
3- The orange bricks are consistently near the top selling anime DVDs on Amazon, regardless of sales of other products, or new anime releases.

These aren't members of the fandom keeping sales like that consistently, that's mass market sales.

[KingofWisdom]

Well, it's no secret that the orange bricks have been flying off the shelves since they came out. I doubt the sales figures are posted up anywhere, but keep in mind that, again, the Level sets would not have been cancelled if sales were good enough. It doesn't really matter what the fan minorities think anyway, because the majority of the North American DBZ fans prefer cheaper sets, regardless of the product's quality. If these widescreen sets do well, maybe that could help even out the costs of remastering more Level sets. All we can do is hope and wait, because money talks.

[Martinrock]

I translated it myself this may be why! On the profitability, It's about the best answer to the market. It's a product that responds to a need with an appropriate price policy that generates a profit. Are you sur that fans did not buy it at a rate that would have equated the profitability they required? This is a serious possibility, but with what has been achieved with DragonBox, I am not sure. It is clear that trading company is based on a rate of return but be sure that when there is an infatuation about a product, an infatuation expressed, there is always an answer. Good or bad but unambiguous.
When you want something, you don't wait and hope foolishly that we give it to you, you act.

If fans were buying the prior Blu-ray sets at a profitable rate, they would still be doing them.

And the reason I have no plan to act isn't because I don't hope foolishly, but rather that, it didn't work 2 years ago the way they were doing it. They aren't going to be foolish enough to do it again. The American Anime landscape is filled with companies who made bad business choice after bad business choice, and they are gone. This choice might not be the right choice for us as fans, but it's the right choice for Funimation as a company, and frankly, for DBZ as a brand.

Stops to raise the profitability when you don't even know the cost and profit margin. Please. The right choice, we'll see.
if it does not seem too ontological for you, I think the best move would be to inquire about supply and demand of the DBZ sets and help them to make the best choice.

[MarcFBR]

Stops to raise the profitability when you don't even know the cost and profit margin. Please. The right choice, we'll see.
if it does not seem too ontological for you, I think the best move would be to inquire about supply and demand of the DBZ sets and help them to make the best choice.

They stopped doing the Level sets because it wasn't profitable, and with this new method they clearly believe they will be profitable.

Likely much cheaper remastering.
Double the episodes at roughly the same price.

Seems like a winning product to me. I don't need to see the exact numbers to look at it from a point of business logic.