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

[Kuwabara]

Um... do some of you guys not realize that the random people are supposed to represent all the Earthlings donating to the Spirit Bomb? It looks like there's going to be a bunch of them spread across all the Boo arc covers.

I get the idea, it just isn't excuted very well... If they really wanted to do this right, most of the Genki Dama should have been placed in the top middle of the Season 8 cover, with some overlap on the Season 7 and 9 covers. The people donating energy should have been grouped on the bottom of each cover, straight up and down. It'd be really neat if Super Saiyan Goku was off to the top right of the Season 9 cover striking the iconic farewell pose before Kid Buu dies. The last idea is clearly too natural and obvious to actually be attempted by corporate entities involved with Dragon Ball, but I can dream.

There are two problems with this approach:

1. I have no idea who would be in the middle of the Season 9 cover since it would be weird to have Vegetto and Goku on one cover or have Gohan or Vegeta on another cover within the same arc.

2. The bulk of the Genki Dama being charged up would be on the Season 8 cover, even though it doesn't actually happen until Season 9.

Of course, these issues shed light on a completely different problem entirely; having a continuous design like this is really hard to do well, so they shouldn't have even tried it in the first place if they couldn't do it right.

[B]

Of all things to complain about, the covers? Sure these Blu-Rays have problems, but I don't think the covers are that big a deal.

I wouldn't like these covers even if there was nothing wrong with the video on these sets, to be honest. They just seem "off" both in premise(landscape shot!) and character anatomy.

[dbboxkaifan]

Um... do some of you guys not realize that the random people are supposed to represent all the Earthlings donating to the Spirit Bomb? It looks like there's going to be a bunch of them spread across all the Boo arc covers.

Except the only earthlings who can manage bukujustu are Kuririn, Ten, Yamucha, Gohan, Trunks, Videl, Oob and Goten (might be missing someone else) so those earthlings in the cover shouldn't really be like that because they can't fly, nor the the ones on the bottom (yet they are in weird angles too).

The ginger human gives the idea that he's the one in control of the Genki Dama rather than giving energy for it.

[Gyt Kaliba]

While I agree that the covers are open to being critiqued, I do think some of you are taking this a little too...seriously. I mean, both previous releases of the series - DVD Season Sets and Dragon Box sets - both just had one character over a blank background that was whatever the color theme of the release was (blue for the DB sets, orange for DBZ, greenish/yellow for GT, yellow for the Dragon Boxes), and I don't remember anyone complaining about how the characters were floating in a void or anything then. A nice cover is always a nice bonus of course, but it's not the product itself.

...Granted...the...product itself in this case is pretty abysmal, so...um...yeah...okay, I got nothing.

[kei17]

While I agree that the covers are open to being critiqued, I do think some of you are taking this a little too...seriously. I mean, both previous releases of the series - DVD Season Sets and Dragon Box sets - both just had one character over a blank background that was whatever the color theme of the release was (blue for the DB sets, orange for DBZ, greenish/yellow for GT, yellow for the Dragon Boxes), and I don't remember anyone complaining about how the characters were floating in a void or anything then. A nice cover is always a nice bonus of course, but it's not the product itself.

...Granted...the...product itself in this case is pretty abysmal, so...um...yeah...okay, I got nothing.

People are complaining about the quality of art rather than designs. Also, I do remember folks complaining about the terrible cross-eyed Vegeta back in 2007.

[MagicBox]

So, aside from the covers, let's recap what we've just learned.

"Season" Seven Release Date: 09/16/14
"Season" Eight Release Date: 10/28/14

There's no way these aren't getting completed by year's end. I expect "season" nine by mid-December.

"Season" Seven Bonus Features:
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Justin Cook"
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Nathanael Harrison"
"Dragon Ball Z Card Game: Past, Present, And Future"

"Season" Eight Bonus Features:
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Kyle Hebert"
"Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Kara Edwards"
"Dragon Ball Z: Coming To America"

We've known about "season" seven's extras for a little while. Nathanael Harrison is an audio mixing engineer for the FUNi dub, for those of you who don't recognize the name. We've only got one "season" left. Anybody got a wish list of what interviews or featurettes they'd like to see on the final volume?

[Valerius Dover]

I take it that interview with Stephanie Nadolny never happened?

[Kuwabara]

While I agree that the covers are open to being critiqued, I do think some of you are taking this a little too...seriously. I mean, both previous releases of the series - DVD Season Sets and Dragon Box sets - both just had one character over a blank background that was whatever the color theme of the release was (blue for the DB sets, orange for DBZ, greenish/yellow for GT, yellow for the Dragon Boxes), and I don't remember anyone complaining about how the characters were floating in a void or anything then. A nice cover is always a nice bonus of course, but it's not the product itself.

...Granted...the...product itself in this case is pretty abysmal, so...um...yeah...okay, I got nothing.

The Dragon Box covers are mainly good because of how great Nakatsuru's art is, and the lack of anything else around the art and logo really draws attention to them and makes them pop. The DVD Season Sets have some weird art and character choices here and there, but I'd still say they're way better than the clusterfuck Blu-ray covers. As for people taking the subject seriously, I don't see why it shouldn't be. We're talking about products that, in the grand scheme of things, are contributing to Dragon Ball's visual identity.

The cropped video is one thing. I get it, mainstream consumers are now conditioned to want it and it sells. It's really stupid, but whatever. But the covers are bad too!? The fact that one of the most popular anime series in America still suffers through such amateurish promo art is nothing short of astounding to me. I can just imagine all the snobs who don't know anything about the series looking at these covers and going, "What's with all this stupid bullshit all over the place, what's even happening here? Why does anyone watch this crap!? All my friends say it so I will too, DBZ makes NO sense! "

[dbboxkaifan]

People are complaining about the quality of art rather than designs. Also, I do remember folks complaining about the terrible cross-eyed Vegeta back in 2007.

To this day I still hate the art of the Orange Bricks' Season 1, Season 3 and Season 7 due to the use of the characters they picked (Piccolo for the Great Saiyaman arc & Tenkaichi Tournament?!) or how they looked like (Vegeta cross-eyed).

I take it that interview with Stephanie Nadolny never happened?

It may have been recorded but FUNimation ultimately didn't include because of some controversy.

[samuraix123]

Just got season 5 in the mail! I'm just on season 2 right now haha it's taking me a bit to get through these at the moment.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Just got season 5 in the mail! I'm just on season 2 right now haha it's taking me a bit to get through these at the moment.

I haven't seen Z seen since its broadcast all those years ago. And I'm craving S6 so bad right now lol

[Tatakae!!Ramenman]

Why didn't they release all 3 covers at the same time like last time? It's like they just suddenly realised(I don't know how to spell reallised) that when you have a continuing image on the covers, you can build some anticipation with people waiting for the next cover instead of showing somebody exactly how it's going to look. Also this cover art is pretty poor considering how much time the artist had to make it. I like the concept, but not the actual art. Wouldn't it be cool if funimation went back to using screenshots from the anime as the actual covers?

[samuraix123]

Anybody who hasn't bought these sets but are wanting them now would be a pretty good time to get them. Funimation is having a buy 3 get 1 free sale! that includes these sets!
http://www.funimation.com/sale?utm_medi ... override=1
Quote they posted on Facebook

FUNimation is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary with a "Buy 3 Get 1 Free" Summer Sale on FUNimation.com. When you purchase 3 items including Dragon Ball Z titles, you will get a 4th item, of equal or lesser value, absolutely FREE.
Use promo code “CAKE3” at checkout.
But wait! There's more! Details: http://funi.to/1n1LEeB

[JEFFMAN219]

Anybody who hasn't bought these sets but are wanting them now would be a pretty good time to get them. Funimation is having a buy 3 get 1 free sale! that includes these sets!
http://www.funimation.com/sale?utm_medi ... override=1
Quote they posted on Facebook

FUNimation is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary with a "Buy 3 Get 1 Free" Summer Sale on FUNimation.com. When you purchase 3 items including Dragon Ball Z titles, you will get a 4th item, of equal or lesser value, absolutely FREE.
Use promo code “CAKE3” at checkout.
But wait! There's more! Details: http://funi.to/1n1LEeB

Thats not really a good deal in my opinion. Each blu ray set costs like 33 bucks plus tax so you are not really saving that much money.

[samuraix123]

Well I mean, it's kinda a good deal in the fact that you don't have to pay 30 bucks for the free one lol saves you 30 bucks

[Kingdom Heartless]

Sure, there are oddities, but I like the covers to these sets overall. I also like the concept of having a bunch of normal people contributing to the Genki Dama on the cover, though I'll admit it could have been better executed.

I kind of hope they don't show the Genki Dama on the 9th set, because of the explosion of rage that would occur.
(I am aware that the Genki Dama is already partially visible).

[dbboxkaifan]

Thats not really a good deal in my opinion. Each blu ray set costs like 33 bucks plus tax so you are not really saving that much money.

By the likes of RightStuf and Amazon spending $30+ isn't really much of a save as they're mostly paying you more for it.

All "season" covers put together from left to right should look quite interesting despite their obvious flaws.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

Of all things to complain about, the covers?

For those of us who endured this same fiasco in 2007 and have already exhausted our energy to complain about cropping and poor restoration techniques, the covers (and bonus features) are the only interesting things left to bother discussing.

Oh geez, don't get me started on that whole 2007 disaster, that was terrible, lol.

It's not so much you guys discussing about the covers, but more so the way some of you guys are doing so. I understand that the artwork on these covers aren't exactly up to par to some of you, and believe me when I say that I agree. But at the same time, I feel like some people forget that this is a budget release, and I really, really doubt that taking time to produce good looking covers was a thought in anyone's head over at FUNimation, especially when they know that a lot will like the way they look anyway. Like I said I'm not a fan of these covers either, but I'll gladly take these over the dull and bland ones found on the DVD Season Sets.

[90sDBZ]

Well I for one think these covers look great. They're all well drawn, have a lot going on and are very colourful. They've clearly put a lot of effort into them. Someone mentioned before how Yamcha and Tien never make the covers but they were both on the Season 2 cover and Tien was also on Season 5.

Also I noticed that the promo art for Blu Ray Season 8 is the same as UK Orange Brick Season 8.

[Ajay]

and I really, really doubt that taking time to produce good looking covers was a thought in anyone's head over at FUNimation

Oh, it was definitely a thought in their heads. They were bigging up the fact they had someone in Japan (whoah!) working on the covers for them. Read the Kanzenshuu interview where they answered our questions. They specifically say, 'we knew we wanted to do something special with the packaging'.

It may be a budget release but that doesn't negate the need to point out clear flaws with the product; especially when they went out of their way to be so boastful about working with 'the art team at Toei'.

We wanted artwork that was diverse enough to use for more than just Blu-ray covers; something that we could use to provide awesome looking posters, merchandise, convention experiences, and much more.

They were going all out on this artwork. They wanted something really damn good for multiple uses and unfortunately, they've been stuck with some really awkward and poorly composed pieces that really don't reflect their aims.