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

[TheGreatness25]

What's even more inexcusable is that FUNi pretty much admitted to it being a mistake by NEVER repeating it again. Not with DB, DBGT, the Dragon Boxes, Kai, or Level the sets... until now, that is. It's just a strange step back.

I like this point a lot. It's not as if FUNimation didn't realize that their cropping was ridiculous. They heard their fans. Then came out with the Dragon Box like, "Ohhh! Now THIS is how it's meant to be seen! Yes, here it is! I know that you put up with our Season Sets but here you go world!" Then the Dragon Boxes didn't sell too well because, fans being fans, decided to try to wait for the prices to drop instead of buying the product. So this made FUNimation think that people didn't give a crap about the Dragon Boxes, so now they started saying, "Well here's this Dragon Box and it's a limited edition type thing and we still have our amazing, super duper, crazy, incredible Season Sets on sale!" And now here we go with this crap.

I would rather they come out with Dragon Ball or GT or the movies in Dragon Box format. They haven't. Why? Because sales for Dragon Box Zs sucked. I blame the high price of the Dragon Box for the die-hards (although it's fully justified because people loved their packaging, etc. plus them even getting the rights to it must have cost a lot of money) and for the more casual fans, if they already had the Season Sets, they probably weren't interested in "double dipping" for the Dragon Boxes. So this leads FUNimation to think that people don't want to double dip, so now they tried blu-ray to make the product "different," although it's not.

Shifting gears just a little bit, FUNimation created the Season Sets at a cheap price for them and released them cheaper than they would have, also being the first real consistent release of the series where you can have the whole thing without looking all over the place for different 3 episode DVDs. The theory is that FUNimation used the Season Sets to gather up a bunch of money to buy the rights to the Dragon Boxes. I think there may be a small chance of the same being applied to this. They're just running rootage they already have (which is really cheap for them) through an upscaling to Blu-ray to put on the market POSSIBLY to get a quick cash-in through it. AFTER that, maybe we'll get them working on the Level sets (or the reincarnation of them). They claimed that the Level sets were just too expensive to continue making, I'm saying maybe this new Blu-ray release will be used the same way the DVD Season Set was released: as a way to raise money to do something better.

I fully expect, 2 years from now, for them to release a, "THIS IS THE WAY BLU-RAY DBZ WAS MEANT TO BE SEEN! OMGGGG FULL SCREEN AND A TRUE FRAME BY FRAME RESTORATION BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!"

What do you guys think? If you look back at my posts from either 2007 or 2008, you'll see that I defended the Season Sets a bit, but I also said that from their standpoint, they give us crap, so they can sell yet another set and tell us how great it is because after feeding us crap, we'd definitely want a good release. That came true with the Dragon Boxes. I predict the same thing happens for the Blu-rays. Oh and I guess they just choose to forget that Dragon Ball, GT, the movies, and...um...THE NEW MATERIAL (Jump Special, Episode of Bardock, reanimated Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, and Battle of Gods) exists. Oh FUNimation, you and your damned Dragon Ball Z...too much.

[VegettoEX]

They haven't. Why? Because sales for Dragon Box Zs sucked.

You don't know this at all. All anecdotal evidence points to the DBZ Dragon Boxes from FUNimation selling exactly what they projected them to sell, as seen by the stock essentially equaling zero these days. That sounds like "selling well" to me. It was a perfect read of the market and consumer base. Spot on.

The Dragon Boxes were a "necessity" to take the place of a product that certain fans weren't happy with (read: the orange bricks). The blue DB bricks and green DBGT bricks have been / are, however, "good enough" for the vast majority of the audience, hardcore and casual alike. They satisfy the vast majority of the vast majority's needs. No need to take risks with remasters and format changes.

DBZ generally sold well enough that FUNimation could take risks and experiment on it (read: release the Dragon Box, try the "Level" restoration, etc.). The other two TV series sell well enough to keep it in-print and slap boxes together down the line, but that seems to be about it.

[TheGreatness25]

No you definitely have a great point, but selling as much as they expected doesn't mean that they sold well. FUNimation seems to underestimate the amount of fans that prefer the Japanese version and proper quality over what they put out, so that's not saying much.

Look at members of this site. This site has die-hard fans. The most incredible Dragon Ball fans in the world. There are PLENTY of people HERE that didn't buy the Dragon Boxes either because of the price tag or that they couldn't find them in stores, or now especially, that their availability and price is laughable. Now it's not that these guys and girls didn't want the Dragon Box. They really did. But they weren't able to capitalize on buying them while they were still easily available. So if you got die-hard fans who didn't even buy the set, what's that say for the rest of their sales? There is a whole market of fans that would have bought these sets had they been avaialble now. Price would drop and instead of $50, the'd go for like $30, and bam, many new people would get them. But they didn't. So that's why I say sales suck. Because even people who really wanted the set didn't get it.

I still say that this Season Blu-ray release is just a lead-in for a "true" Blu-ray transfer.

[samuraix123]

Hey can I go off topic for just a tiny second I didn't want to make another topic. But I have plans on saving up for this http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Battle-Blu ... f+the+gods
I should get it paid off in 3 or 4 months. it should stay at the price between 80 to 100 bucks right? because anymore than that and I'll pass even though I want it bad in my collection.

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... =7&t=20803
Pretty sure you've even mentioned picking that up in this thread (the one I linked, not the thread you're reading this message in) before.

On a side note, I'd suggest picking that up from CD Japan. Right now it doesn't look like there are any new copies available on the listing you posted.

Haha Sorry about that I forget a-lot of the posts I make

[DBZGTKOSDH]

They haven't. Why? Because sales for Dragon Box Zs sucked.

If the sales of the DBoxes sucked, then we would still be able to easily buy all 7 of them.

[TheGreatness25]

They haven't. Why? Because sales for Dragon Box Zs sucked.

If the sales of the DBoxes sucked, then we would still be able to easily buy all 7 of them.

I'll counter that with, if sales of the DBoxes didn't suck, then they would produce more and cash in rather than go back to their cheap, pretty cruddy Season Sets.

This whole, "The Dragon Boxes are a limited edition release!" issue didn't arise until a few DBoxes in. I'm sure it has something to do with sales. If they sold well, then a company would have to be stupid to not keep going with it. Instead, they pumped them out so they wouldn't get hate from whoever started buying them, and that was it, they moved on and entirely separated themselves from the project. So you tell me what you think happened.

[rereboy]

They haven't. Why? Because sales for Dragon Box Zs sucked.

If the sales of the DBoxes sucked, then we would still be able to easily buy all 7 of them.

I'll counter that with, if sales of the DBoxes didn't suck, then they would produce more and cash in rather than go back to their cheap, pretty cruddy Season Sets.

This whole, "The Dragon Boxes are a limited edition release!" issue didn't arise until a few DBoxes in. I'm sure it has something to do with sales. If they sold well, then a company would have to be stupid to not keep going with it. Instead, they pumped them out so they wouldn't get hate from whoever started buying them, and that was it, they moved on and entirely separated themselves from the project. So you tell me what you think happened.

Like it has been said, it sold at least what they projected it to sell, proven by the fact that its out of print pretty much everywhere (except at insane prices).

If it had sold less than projected, they would have over produced their product, so it would still be easily in stock.

At most, you could argue that the demand for it wasn't enough to justify a re-release, and that's it.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

This whole, "The Dragon Boxes are a limited edition release!" issue didn't arise until a few DBoxes in. I'm sure it has something to do with sales. If they sold well, then a company would have to be stupid to not keep going with it. Instead, they pumped them out so they wouldn't get hate from whoever started buying them, and that was it, they moved on and entirely separated themselves from the project. So you tell me what you think happened.

The DBoxes were limited because the Japanese DBoxes were also limited.

[TheGreatness25]

The Japanese Dragon Box masters weren't limited because they released DVDs with exactly the same footage.

It may just be a case of FUNimation underestimating its fan base. If anything, supply is less than demand because there are die-hard fans that would love to buy them but can't now. Low sales are still low sales even though they were "projected."

But if they didn't feel that people didn't appreciate this release, why wouldn't they use this footage for future projects instead of going back to their own? They don't feel that fans give a crap.

I recall reading somewhere that sales were "as projected," but didn't warrant continuing producing the Dragon Boxes. That, to me, says that sales suck. Just because the sales were EXPECTED to suck doesn't mean that they didn't suck. That's like saying, "When I make a movie, I expect 100 people to see it." If 98 people see it, yeah that was pretty much as projected, but it doesn't mean that my movie sales didn't suck. If they made a small amount of Dragon Boxes, then they should have always been sold out. They weren't. They were really easily available in the beginning. So the fact that their small amount of DBoxes didn't get gobbled up right away shows that there was no need to produce more, so why would they?

[dbboxkaifan]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You can't expect a release of this grand quality to keep coming out if people aren't going to pay for it.

Would I prefer something like the DBZ Levels rather than 16:9 AR remastered? Yes definitely, but I never touched the Levels due to owning the Dragon Boxes Z and it felt too early to get DBZ again.

[VegettoEX]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You keep essentially blaming the victim.

Again, they were announced TWO MONTHS after the Dragon Boxes finished up. TWO MONTHS after the previous "here's the best we can give you, and it's everything you asked for" product came to us.

The fact that ANY copies sold was a miracle. You just said it yourself in your final sentence. Don't blame people for not supporting a product that was very close to redundant based on what they JUST purchased.

[TheGreatness25]

See, that doesn't apply to me. I supported every Dragon Ball related product that FUNimation ever put out. The only thing I didn't buy was the repackaged double features (you know, the white and orange covers) and the double feature Blu-rays...because I bought the double feature DVDs. I bought the Level sets. And I feel like an idiot for doing so because now, the same as with the Ultimate Uncut, it's, "Well I know you bought that, but we stopped production on it and we'll re-release it a bit worse. Here comes the Raditz and Vegeta story YET AGAIN for the 10,000,000th time!" If you add up how many "Saiyan Saga" releases we have for this very reason of restarting something shortly after it's released, then it's hilarious.

I don't blame the time of announcement on it. People are used to getting Dragon Ball content every few months. You finish one release going right into another. I don't really see anything wrong with that as long as the product isn't identical. And if it is, then it would sell the same two months after the Dragon Boxes as it would a year later because by the time the new thing comes out, it has been a couple of years since these same episodes have been released.

[samuraix123]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You can't expect a release of this grand quality to keep coming out if people aren't going to pay for it.

Would I prefer something like the DBZ Levels rather than 16:9 AR remastered? Yes definitely, but I never touched the Levels due to owning the Dragon Boxes Z and it felt too early to get DBZ again.

I honestly can't blame them though. even though I supported it along with many of my friends, not everyone is like some of us where we almost have to buy each new release. *Looks at VegettoEX* many people on here who got their Dragon-boxes have their perfect release. and even though I try to get each new release that comes out, I know that I'm a small percent? Funimation is over-saturating the market with Dragonball stuff and I couldn't blame someone who just got through buying Kai, then the Dragon-boxes, now their looking at the level sets

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

What do you guys think? If you look back at my posts from either 2007 or 2008, you'll see that I defended the Season Sets a bit, but I also said that from their standpoint, they give us crap, so they can sell yet another set and tell us how great it is because after feeding us crap, we'd definitely want a good release. That came true with the Dragon Boxes. I predict the same thing happens for the Blu-rays.

That's not a problem though; the Funimation Dragon Boxes were a labor of love (Which is why they can sell selectively- they had an intended purpose) to a part of the fanbase that Funi did not need to cater to, some of whom had already bought the Orange Bricks in spite of their better judgement anyway. If we really want to phrase this as a war of attrition, Funimation could have continued to wait those people out. Most of us who hadn't bought any or all the sets would probably have cracked. They didn't, at least for a time. Point being I don't see how the DBoxes were part of a grand master plan.

The Level Sets only dilute this further because Funimation ran the process in reverse; so far in reverse, in fact, that close to 1.1's release we had multiple people on this forum contemplating keeping the DBoxes as collector's items. Because the Levels were good enough to merit it. Even if you put the Levels as the Ultimate Uncuts to the Blu Season's Season Sets (We can do that now! ), I don't know what the Blu-Ray Dragon Box coming to the rescue is going to be.

See, that doesn't apply to me. I supported every Dragon Ball related product that FUNimation ever put out. The only thing I didn't buy was the repackaged double features (you know, the white and orange covers) and the double feature Blu-rays...because I bought the double feature DVDs.

And you're a better fan than a lot of us.

I bought the Level sets. And I feel like an idiot for doing so because now, the same as with the Ultimate Uncut, it's, "Well I know you bought that, but we stopped production on it and we'll re-release it a bit worse.

And we feel your pain.

[snaku]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You keep essentially blaming the victim.

Again, they were announced TWO MONTHS after the Dragon Boxes finished up. TWO MONTHS after the previous "here's the best we can give you, and it's everything you asked for" product came to us.

The fact that ANY copies sold was a miracle. You just said it yourself in your final sentence. Don't blame people for not supporting a product that was very close to redundant based on what they JUST purchased.

And Kai was still being released on Blu-ray at the time if I recall correctly. Oversaturation is a word I'd use to describe DBZ home releases at the time.

[Roland_ELoG]

Staring down the barrel of a whole new set of Dragon Ball Z discs, and a Blu-ray player, and a nicer TV...

... any man would have done what I did. B| If I'd known then what I know now, maybe I wouldn't have turned tail, but even a hardcore noir detective like me can't be right all the time.

[MarcFBR]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You keep essentially blaming the victim.

DBZ fans get 100 times the stuff any other anime does in the USA. DBZ fans being the victim in any proposition isn't quite right.

[MarcFBR]

Something about cropping (it fits also to this topic):



1. 4:3
2. 16:9
3. Proper (Unfortunately, round corners are not HD, so we will never see a release like this...)

They cannot properly frame the top or the bottom of the image without showing round corners. They will definitely not show them. What does it mean?

Do you actually know how video production and framing works, or are you attempting to be facetious? Because the more you post (and your example) really suggests you don't know what you are discussing.

[kei17]

Here's an example of "proper framing".

[Super Sayian Prime]

I've been noticing that a lot of people here and at Amazon praise the DBZ Level Blu-rays but here's the problem; Very few of you actually bothered to support it which without it led to its death.

You keep essentially blaming the victim.

DBZ fans get 100 times the stuff any other anime does in the USA. DBZ fans being the victim in any proposition isn't quite right.

You act as though getting 100 times the stuff as normal franchises is something we should be grateful for. It's Dragon Ball's popularity that encourages horrible releases like the Orange Bricks and these Blu-Rays. If Dragon Ball was just another anime franchise Funimation would've waited until Toei's eventual HD release was complete.