The best release of (the first anime of) Dragon Ball

[Fizzer]

It seems like there's an almost unanimous agreement around here that consider the Dragon Boxes the best release of DBZ, and significant proportion of us who hold the opinion that the Level sets would have been the best release had they not been cancelled, but what about DB?

Considering how much better the Blue Bricks are than the Orange Bricks, the praise received by the saga sets, and the criticism that the colour palette of the DB Dragon Box receives, it seems like the playing field for Dragon Ball is much more level than that for Z.

What do you think is the best release for the first series, any why?

[LordCrumb]

I've only seen the original Saga sets (Australia), but based on screencaps posted here, they are better than the Blue Bricks.

[Metalwario64]

I've only seen the original Saga sets (Australia), but based on screencaps posted here, they are better than the Blue Bricks.

If they are, it's only slightly. The footage is slightly zoomed in on the Season Sets, but it's usually overstated and compared to the Dragon Boxes (which have more than the Saga Sets). Plus, the footage is progressive on the Season Sets, so that's something in its favor.

I'm not sure how Madman's encoding was, but for FUNimation's release, the Saga Sets were from a time when FUNimation didn't know how to encode properly, and there was lots of macroblocking. The Season Sets were released after they got a new video guy who did things properly.

[Ajay]

Blue Bricks are pretty much your only and best option for the west although they are zoomed in.

The Japanese Dragon Boxes are the superior release though.

Spoiler:

[dan2026]

The Japanese Dragon Box would literally cost you an arm or a leg.
Assuming you could even find a copy.

[Fizzer]

I've only seen the original Saga sets (Australia), but based on screencaps posted here, they are better than the Blue Bricks.

I thought that, but now that I've heard about the additional flaws of the Saga sets (inconsistent title cards and that one dubtitled episode), I think that puts them below the Blue Bricks in my opinion.

To me, the Saga sets have the best picture quality, and the Dragon Box is the best in terms of all the other bits and pieces. The Blue Bricks don't have any outstanding flaws, but they're pretty basic.

[dan2026]

I'd love to see some picture comparisons between the different conversions.
Could anyone link me to a relevant thread.

[dbboxkaifan]

The best English release of Dragon Ball for me is Dragon Ball despite its flaws.

Flaws being:
* Inconsistent title cards for several amount of episodes (if you watch in Japanese, that is)
* Use of dubtitles for one entire episode in Japanese (made me realise how much FUNimation added script which there wasn't originally)

Below is a comparison which shows Saga Sets x Dragon Box, both are grainy and unzoomed to a certain extent (FUNimation got the masters with less footage for the early episodes).

Here is cropping between Dragon Box, Madman singles, and orange bricks


Later episode (dbox and Funi single. I dont have the season set for these)

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

The Dragon Box and Japanese singles, simply because they're the most complete, with all of the proper opening and ending animations/credits, and NEPs.

The Japanese Dragon Box would literally cost you an arm or a leg.
Assuming you could even find a copy.

Well, there's also the Japanese singles, which use the same video and audio masters as the Dragon Box, and they're all still readily available on CDJapan.

They do cost almost the same as the DBox altogether, though...

[dan2026]

The Japanese Dragon Box would literally cost you an arm or a leg.
Assuming you could even find a copy.

Well, there's also the Japanese singles, which use the same video and audio masters as the Dragon Box, and they're all still readily available on CDJapan.

They do cost almost the same as the DBox altogether, though...

Hmm I didnt actually realise that.
They do cost a pretty penny though.