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

[eledoremassis02]

I also noticed that they aren't using the move opening anymore. I wonder what that was about

[Metalwario64]

Wow... That's season one DVD bad... There's so little detail left in those backgrounds...

Funny enough, I took some Blu-ray images and saturated and denoised them a few weeks ago, and they the result is freakishly close to the actual upcoming product:


I also showed the new footage to my Dad, and he said it was "beautiful", but he also said the shots with grain were good too. I think that also reinforces the point that these would be successful even if FUNi just dumped their raw footage onto Blu-rays. It's like their old preconceived notion that just because they happened to dub Dragon Ball Z improperly at first, that they had to keep making those changes because it was only successful because of those changes. They're having that exact same mentality with these new Blu-rays, thinking incorrectly that the success of the orange bricks was due to the cropping and bleaching of the footage.

[eledoremassis02]

Or even DVD. Crop it a bit in 4:3 (not even necessary). It would blow the Dragon boxes away (video wise). Or at least they can produce there own Dragon Boxish sets (minus NEP *if they don't have them*)

[qjz123]

Guys this is just a compressed trailer the level sets didn't look good in their trailer either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOIjpES-dkw

[Ajay]

Guys this is just a compressed trailer the level sets didn't look good in their trailer either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOIjpES-dkw

That's a 720p trailer reuploaded to YouTube where it's compressed again after the initial and god knows how many compressions. The one we saw was 1080p and straight from their own site so the only compression was their initial form. Sure, the bitrate is low and you can see that during the heavy motion but in static scenes, if there was grain present, you'd see it. There wasn't and it looked bad.

[qjz123]

Guys this is just a compressed trailer the level sets didn't look good in their trailer either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOIjpES-dkw

That's a 720p trailer reuploaded to YouTube where it's compressed again after the initial and god knows how many compressions. The one we saw was 1080p and straight from their own site so the only compression was their initial form. Sure, the bitrate is low and you can see that during the heavy motion but in static scenes, if there was grain present, you'd see it. There wasn't and it looked bad.

Here's the level sets trailer on Funimations site http://www.funimation.com/shows/dragon- ... -ray/anime it look just as bad as the one on youtube. I remember when Funimation first released the level sets trailer their were people bashing on it saying it didn't look good only to be shocked when the product came out. I just saying you should wait for an official review or some uncompressed screenshots before you jump the gun.

[eledoremassis02]

I just saying you should wait for an official review or some uncompressed screenshots before you jump the gun.

True. My main concern is DNR, cropping (even if it's selective you can't save all the shots). The Color isn't too bad. I hope it's a big improvement over season 2 orange brick. I might just get that to replace the DVD.

One thing I was thinking about is how they don't mention the "enhanced" Japanese Audio. I know this is catered to casual English dialogue fan but you'd think it be like "Hey Japanese fan. we're thinking of you too!"

[Ajay]

Hrmm, that's fair enough regarding grain. It could potentially have the same grain levels as the movies which, whilst I personally don't like it, I know they're considered acceptable by most.

It's more the saturated colours and over contrast that bother me the most.

[Metalwario64]

Hrmm, that's fair enough regarding grain. It could potentially have the same grain levels as the movies which, whilst I personally don't like it, I know they're considered acceptable by most.

The high quality trailer showed the original footage's grain perfectly fine.

They scrubbed this clean. What's worse is that seasons six and up had the grain restored, so those DVDs will look better than the Blu-rays when we get the Boo-arc scrubbed clean.

[dodge2461]

So, what I got from that trailer was that what fans want from Funi is BS, and the hackjob they're doing is 'the future'.

SEEMS LEGIT.

[Gonstead]

As if I didn't want this release already, now it's all but 110 %confirmed for me I'm not gonna buy it.

[eledoremassis02]

I just figure out what it reminds me of. Ever take an image and run it trough and automatic vector maker.

[Ajay]

Funnily enough those were the only two shots that made me go 'Hrm, that's not awful'.
They just look like their cels prior to being shot.

EDIT: I should also add they do look very digital which interestingly enough, also manages to highlight why the redrawn animation in Kai looked so bad. These had multiple stroke thicknesses whereas Kai's redrawn shots were near enough the same width for every line.

[NessMudkip]

I seriously cannot believe this is actually a thing. I find it utterly bewildering that after how much everyone bitched about the Orange Bricks, FUNimaion would release a 4:3 show in 16:9 again. I find it very hard to believe that the votes for 16:9 outnumbered the votes for 4:3 on the survey. Personally, I think FUNimation are eventually going to release DBZ again in 4:3 on Blu-Ray, hoping that some fans who wanted to see it this way would have caved and bought the 16:9 sets too. I have no evidence for that but like I said, I find it very hard to believe that the survey was the reason behind this, and I don't know what else it could be.

[eledoremassis02]

Funnily enough those were the only two shots that made me go 'Hrm, that's not awful'.
They just look like their cels prior to being shot.

There something so weird about it. I don't know if it's the colors or what. I'm having a disconnect with it being produced in the 80's

[Kendamu]

They're head and shoulders above the Orange Bricks. There's no doubt about it. Even if they're not what we want, they're not the horrible auto-corrected crap passed onto us in 2007.

[JEFFMAN219]

Just seen the trailer and it doesn't look that bad. I might sell my three dragon boxes so I can buy these blu ray sets

[TheSonofKakarrot]

I'm sure this has been said already but the fact remains guys is that we, the "hardcore" fans, blew it. FUNimation did give us a product that we wanted and we failed to support it. I'll be honest and say I can't even be mad with their decision because I didn't support the level sets (bought the Dragonbox's).

We are the minority. I'd bet my entire years rent that these things are top 10 sellers on amazon for several months.

Again, I'm somewhat upset as I do like many parts of the dub/english music and was hoping to at some point own a definitive set with 3 versions but I was one of those that failed to buy a single level set.

[eledoremassis02]

They're head and shoulders above the Orange Bricks. There's no doubt about it. Even if they're not what we want, they're not the horrible auto-corrected crap passed onto us in 2007.

I feel so too. Thats why I might get Namek....

Can anyone post screen shots of Piccolo and Goku from the Orange Bricks that match the ones I posted a few posts above?

[ShadowDude112]

I was talking to my friend about this today and how it was weird. He made the joke that since I was a fan I would buy it, which, did make me laugh. The greatest comment he made was that he referred to this is "cut uncut Dragon Ball Z". Which literally couldn't be a truer statement. Since I made the comment of how they're calling this release uncut but we're missing 20% of the footage. Way to go FUNimation. I couldn't buy the Level Sets because I had just got that Dragon Boxes and wanted to finish watching those and assumed the Level Sets would sell well. Now we get these sets and it's like, I just don't get it. Now we have to deal with, what? 2 years of a completely inferior release? Because FUNimation can't decide if it wants to treat Dragon Ball Z with respect, or just make releases that are just awful. They treat none of their other properties like this. Not even the original Dragon Ball or GT. Just Z gets treated like crap. It doesn't make any sense. Why is it just with this one specific show? This makes so little sense. You'd think they'd have learned from 2007, but no, they're going to do this. The worst part? It's going to sell really well and that confuses the shit out of me.