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

[eledoremassis02]

I just noticed there is no water on namek lol. I understand why they did that, but it looks weird lol

[B]

There's no way that's right.

[PhoenixEX]

As much as i'm digging how the box arts connect, as a standalone purchase that random Goku's leg on the lower left looks so odd...

[dbboxkaifan]

Hey guys I just wanna let you know that season 2 is on amazon and apparently the aspect ratio is also 4:3 like with season 1 (even though it's really 16:9)

http://www.amazon.com/Dragonball-Z-Seas ... y+season+2

You should never trust Amazon's technical product details because they tend to be very inaccurate.

As much as i'm digging how the box arts connect, as a standalone purchase that random Goku's leg on the lower left looks so odd...

It's going to be like the Dragon Box Z Collection, i.e, connecting all boxes will form a long picture. Pretty cool to bring that idea back.

I'm not gonna pre-order Season 2 until they drop it down to $24.99 or so.

[ect5150]

You should never trust Amazon's technical product details because they tend to be very inaccurate.

The only thing I trust from Amazon is the prices (which are usually great) and shipping. If you are going to grab this set, go ahead and pre-order it from Amazon. If the final price is higher, they'll give it you for the pre-order price.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

You should never trust Amazon's technical product details because they tend to be very inaccurate.

The only thing I trust from Amazon is the prices (which are usually great) and shipping. If you are going to grab this set, go ahead and pre-order it from Amazon. If the final price is higher, they'll give it you for the pre-order price.

Agreed, ordered my Season 2 so Max I'll pay is £25 (plus shipping) hopefully it'll go down by release date.

[dbboxkaifan]

So I went ahead and pre-ordered, the final price is £25 whereas Season 1's £20, so £5 more isn't a deal breaker to me.

I do hope that Amazon puts a stop to the fake reviews on DBZ Season 1 and now, Season 2 on Blu-ray. Leave that for those who're going to receive and then review it.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

So I went ahead and pre-ordered, the final price is £25 whereas Season 1's £20, so £5 more isn't a deal breaker to me.

I do hope that Amazon puts a stop to the fake reviews on DBZ Season 1 and now, Season 2 on Blu-ray. Leave that for those who're going to receive and then review it.

Did you get another ridiculous delivery estimate?

[dbboxkaifan]

Delivery's estimate is March 14, 2014 - April 3, 2014.

Amazon's probably wrong again because this estimation is quite a long stretch because normally it takes 1-2 weeks.

By the way, I'm watching the Orange Bricks on Hulu (via HotSpot Shield Free) and honestly the picture quality isn't really as bad as people make it out to be, but OB's Season 2 probably looks horribly as many claim.

Spoiler:

[Kuwabara]

Why are people even humoring the idea of buying this shitty release? Where were you when the Levels came out? I've supported every single FUNimation release of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Dragon Ball GT because I love the franchise. That said, even I can't justify buying cropped bullshit again. The only reason I swallowed my pride and bought the Orange Bricks was because I thought it would be the only uncut, complete, bilingual release of the series. Then the US Dragon Boxes came out. Never again.

VegettoEX, I know for the sake of having an informed opinion you've likely already pre-ordered a copy of Season One on Blu-ray. I implore you, cancel it. Wait for a used copy and buy that. That goes for the rest of you as well. I'm just as curious about how this release is going to turn out as everyone else, but that doesn't mean I'll let FUNimation profit directly off of me just so I can have the "privilege" of dissecting a subpar release. Speak with your wallets.

And before anyone brings up the idea of the profit from these releases going toward a better release later on, is there any actual evidence of the Orange Brick profits going directly toward releasing the US Dragon Boxes? I can't help but think of this theory as the, "Toriyama was going to end it at Freeza" of Dragon Ball home video releases. I'm way more inclined to think they simply released them out of guilt for putting fans through the Orange Bricks (Not enough guilt to stop making money off them though lol!)

[OutlawTorn]

49 Volumes each 2,000 YEN (not the exact price) comes down to 98,000 which in Dollars is $980 or Pounds £608.

Compare that to these DBZ Blu-rays which run for more or less $25 and since there'll be nine volumes it'll be $225 (£139). Even if I didn't own the Dragon Box Z collection I'd still go with the DBZ Blu-rays because they're a lot cheaper and I couldn't see myself buying 49 DVDs.

My point was the R2 singles are 4:3 and properly remastered. That option is disappearing at an alarming rate over here in R1.

That's because the consumer is essentially proving FUNimation's point for them. The Levels, while not 100% perfect, were 4:3 and contained just about everything needed to satisfy every type of fans, minus Japanese title cards and next episode previews. Despite being sold for a reasonable price based upon the cost to produce them, their sales did not justify continued production.

We can argue any and all of the reasons for that, but what it all comes down to is people didn't buy them.

Now, they are releasing them cropped with a less desirable remastering process, allowing them to sell more episodes per set at a lower price, and people are actually talking about picking them up despite disagreeing with the decision to crop the picture. It doesn't matter what reasons people are selling themselves as for why they are going to buy them, what they are doing is voting with their wallet that they agree with the product FUNimation is putting out. FUNimation does not care about any of the caveats people will put into place with their purchase, all they care about are the sales numbers. So, those who are buying the blu-rays are essentially saying to FUNimation "16:9 good! 4:3 bad!" simply by not taking the option to refuse to support the release.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for and if people really have such an entitlement complex that they feel they should receive everything dirt cheap regardless of what it cost to produce the product, then they deserve whatever subpar product they get.

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

[kei17]

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

There is definitely no possibility of that actually happening. Vertical cropping is strongly hated there and I don't know any unnecessarily cropped to 16:9 home video releases of old shows in Japan. The Japanese don't like "cinematic feeling" as much as the U.S. people seem to do.

[Fulicer]

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

There is definitely no possibility of that actually happening. Vertical cropping is strongly hated there and I don't know any unnecessarily cropped to 16:9 home video releases of old shows in Japan. The Japanese don't like "cinematic feeling" as much as the U.S. people seem to do.

As a curiosity, what did they think of movies being cropped to 4:3 (during the old days, before HD)?

[ect5150]

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

There is definitely no possibility of that actually happening. Vertical cropping is strongly hated there and I don't know any unnecessarily cropped to 16:9 home video releases of old shows in Japan. The Japanese don't like "cinematic feeling" as much as the U.S. people seem to do.

As a curiosity, what did they think of movies being cropped to 4:3 (during the old days, before HD)?

I would be surprised if it was much of anything since I believe they were shown in the theatre first in 16:9.

[The Jackal]

Why are people even humoring the idea of buying this shitty release? Where were you when the Levels came out? I've supported every single FUNimation release of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Dragon Ball GT because I love the franchise. That said, even I can't justify buying cropped bullshit again. The only reason I swallowed my pride and bought the Orange Bricks was because I thought it would be the only uncut, complete, bilingual release of the series.

Same here. I was excited when I heard they were releasing the series again on BluRay, but that all changed when I learnt it was 16:9. Such a wasted opportunity.

[Roland_ELoG]

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

There is definitely no possibility of that actually happening. Vertical cropping is strongly hated there and I don't know any unnecessarily cropped to 16:9 home video releases of old shows in Japan. The Japanese don't like "cinematic feeling" as much as the U.S. people seem to do.

Am I right in thinking there isn't as much interest in purchases of older shows in Japan? I tend to think the US has a much bigger nostalgia market.

[superrayman3]

As for a potential HD release from Toei, with how lazy and complacent they have been with licensing the 16:9 FUNimation DVD footage through-out the English speaking market, how can any of us be so sure they won't take a look at how the cropped footage has been selling better than the 4:3 footage and produce a cropped version of their own?

There is definitely no possibility of that actually happening. Vertical cropping is strongly hated there and I don't know any unnecessarily cropped to 16:9 home video releases of old shows in Japan. The Japanese don't like "cinematic feeling" as much as the U.S. people seem to do.

As a curiosity, what did they think of movies being cropped to 4:3 (during the old days, before HD)?

I don't think they had to worry about pan and scanning to 4:3 a whole lot because if memory serves me right, the Japanese used the original theatrical 16:9 footage and letterboxed when needed for most of their releases, although I could be wrong about that.

[Fulicer]

I don't think they had to worry about pan and scanning to 4:3 a whole lot because if memory serves me right, the Japanese used the original theatrical 16:9 footage and letterboxed when needed for most of their releases, although I could be wrong about that.

I was talking about in general, not the DB movies.

[B]

My point was the R2 singles are 4:3 and properly remastered. That option is disappearing at an alarming rate over here in R1.

That's because the consumer is essentially proving FUNimation's point for them. The Levels, while not 100% perfect, were 4:3 and contained just about everything needed to satisfy every type of fans, minus Japanese title cards and next episode previews. Despite being sold for a reasonable price based upon the cost to produce them, their sales did not justify continued production.

We can argue any and all of the reasons for that, but what it all comes down to is people didn't buy them.

...

Ultimately, you get what you pay for and if people really have such an entitlement complex that they feel they should receive everything dirt cheap regardless of what it cost to produce the product, then they deserve whatever subpar product they get.

Wow. People who don't want a shit product have an "entitlement complex," but if I point to extremely legitimate reasons why those people did not go for the Level sets, "we can argue any and all of the reasons for that, but what it all comes down to is people didn't buy them." Excellent. You have completely boxed out anything anyone could say on the matter. All hail FUNimation. I'll shut up and you take my money.

[dbboxkaifan]

If FUNimation had continued with the DBZ Level Blu-rays I'd buy them, or better yet repackage them in Collection/Part/Seasons because 17 sets is a bit too much (JPN Dragon Box Z Singles go over 40+).

I'll be getting these DBZ 16x9 AR Blu-rays and I'm fine with it because I already own the Dragon Box Z Collection and I do appreciate trying to do something different rather than the same.