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

[Kuwabara]

Well, all these releases were coming out within a few years of each other. It's not unreasonable to think people would be picking that stuff up over time. Hell, I was pissed when the Dragon Boxes were announced because I blew all my money on the orange bricks. Then when I waited for the prices to drop, they disappeared.

I've already said everything I can say on that front. For anyone who waited for the one release to buy, the Levels should have been it.

[KingofWisdom]

But most fans of the series would have been buying what we had been getting prior to the Level sets, because why would FUNimation give us something better?

[Kuwabara]

...I can't spell it out any more than I have.

[KingofWisdom]

Casual fans were never going to pick it up despite the marketing. Too pricey compared to the orange bricks. The Kanzenshuu community is also a small one. We couldn't have sustained the release, even if we were fearing its cancellation.

[kei17]

Mike...were you drunk? LOL

It must be people at FUNi who are drunk because they'd not announce a huge pile of shit like this if they're sober.

[MarcFBR]

Mike...were you drunk? LOL

It must be people at FUNi who are drunk because they'd not announce a huge pile of shit like this if they're sober.

History has generally shown that letting anime fans dictate business decisions is what brings a company to it's knees and knocks it out of business.

That's not to say anime companies aren't fan friendly (frankly, they listen to their fans more than most businesses.) I will forever say they made the right call businesswise, regardless of what we as fans think.

[KingofWisdom]

I don't blame FUNimation for cancelling the Level sets, but just because those weren't viable doesn't mean this new release is okay. I understand that FUNimation's masters are of low quality, but I really wish they'd stop with the redundant releases.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

My dream/alternate timeline: American DBZ fans only get 3 options to choose from, the market was never oversaturated with DBZ releases, the Orange Bricks, Ultimate Uncut DVDs, and the Season Blu-Ray sets were never made, the 16:9 AR fiasco has never been, FUNimation gives time in between each release,

(1999-2005)
1. FUNi's single DVDs (catered mainly for the American dub fans, for those who want the exact same thing they saw on Toonami, no redubs, no removed sound effects from Cakemix Studios, US-broadcasted NEPs, and Bruce Faulconer music).

(2009-2011)
2. N/A Dragon Boxes (catered to the original dub fans, a straight (albeit more affordable) port of the original Japanese Dragon Boxes, that comes with a complete/legit English redub that mimics the original Japanese script, options for subbed and english dub (with japanese music only), and all of the other goodies that made the DBoxes loved)

(2014-?)
3. The Level Blu-Ray sets (pretty much a fusion between the single DVDs and the Dragon Boxes, catered to both the Japanese/American fanbase, all in one complete package, in Blu-Ray level set quality, options for the original FUNimation dub, the Remade FUNimation dub from the DBoxes, English subbed, with both Bruce Faulconer and Kikuchi scores, and releases in the same exact format as the Dragon Boxes as separate volumes).

[UltimateHammerBro]

That only happens in Earth 616.

[dbboxkaifan]

This release, on the other hand, isn't bringing anything new to the table.

Yes it is. It's in 1080p HD on Blu-ray and looks really good rather than the crap that they put on the OBs.

[AgitoZ]

Yes it is. It's in 1080p HD on Blu-ray and looks really good rather than the crap that they put on the OBs.

Not it's not and most things are better than the Orange Bricks.

[sumpter360]

Yes it is. It's in 1080p HD on Blu-ray and looks really good rather than the crap that they put on the OBs.

Not it's not and most things are better than the Orange Bricks.

Well, FUNimation still hasn't released any loseless screenshots, or uncompressed video clips so we can't really 100% know how it'll turn out. Sure, the 16x9 is certainly not ideal, but if done correctly, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever.

I'm most excited to own a home release of the series with the Faulconer dub (assuming they don't cancel these sets before we get to that point in the series). That dub was my childhood!

[Metalwario64]

This release, on the other hand, isn't bringing anything new to the table.

Yes it is. It's in 1080p HD on Blu-ray and looks really good rather than the crap that they put on the OBs.

It's only better in terms of lines not disappearing. Even then that ceased to be a problem after Season Six. Also, S6 and up have lots of grain intact, which alone makes them look way better than this detail starved footage.

Even blurry S1 retains more background details than the new remaster, which only looks better in terms of lineart, and even then looks highly artificial.

[Roland_ELoG]

I can't help but feel like some people here (not naming names) haven't actually looked at the screenshot comparisons.

[KingofWisdom]

People complained about the Orange Bricks having oversaturated colors, but these are even worse in that department. I guess all this time, the saturation just wasn't intense enough on those bricks.

I'm most excited to own a home release of the series with the Faulconer dub (assuming they don't cancel these sets before we get to that point in the series). That dub was my childhood!

Well, you can get the entire OB collection for under $200. Same audio track. I doubt the Blu-Ray Season audio tracks have actually been remastered in any way.

[Gonstead]

You could also track down the old singles, which AFAIK are even cheaper.

[Roland_ELoG]

You could also track down the old singles, which AFAIK are even cheaper.

They are not. Mainly because of shipping, but with the recent price drop on Da Bricks they are far and away cheaper. Some of the singles are rarer and thus more expensive (30+ USD for some of the Cell Games discs).

Also: they have been kicking around between warehouses for so long most of the discs have popped out of the cheapo DVD keepcases and are scratched all to hell when you get them. Why no, I don't speak from experience. What could you possibly mean?

[Beji]

It depends on how much the remastering process hinders how the video looks ( Even though it should be helping), I may pick this up... I mean we had "our" release when the Dragon Boxes came out, and they were out for a long time.. Even though 16x9 sacrifices something as long as the camera has whats most important in the frame for 99% of the shots I don't think it will be the end of the world. The option of both soundtracks on there with a possibility of a higher quality than the Orange Bricks doesn't seem too bad and would probably be an option over popping in a Dragon Box disc which aren't "color corrected" and only having one soundtrack, which some people on here consider the only soundtrack . Though that initial trailer looks like this might be a flop, if there is an improvement in video I would get this to watch with the more casual fan.

I only feel the fundamental problem is the future generations that watch dbz will not have access to a 4:3 release and may be missing out on something they would prefer more. This "why aren't we getting a Blu-ray 4:3 release that is remastered". It would be a lose-lose, people would be complaining that the first level remaster was better and that this is just the orange bricks in 4:3 or it would be the 16:9 like it is now. Though the level sets were a tease, I feel we have had access to a more than good enough complete release.

[KingofWisdom]

This "why aren't we getting a Blu-ray 4:3 release that is remastered". It would be a lose-lose, people would be complaining that the first level remaster was better and that this is just the orange bricks in 4:3 or it would be the 16:9 like it is now.

At least then it would be two possible improvements over the one (lack of disappearing lines). Maybe they'll try another 4:3 release once the Orange Brick crowd stops making them money.

[Roland_ELoG]

Do you want to see the original Star Wars? Do you have a VHS player?

This is the future of Dragon Ball Z!