Your Perfect DBZ Release

[supersaiyan3]

It seems like with every release, there's always something off about it that just makes it tough for me to actually sit down and watch it--even though I love the show. The Dragon Boxes are only DVD quality and compressed at that. Kai has pretty shoddy animations and went though the whole music scandal. The Levels are are incomplete and even with the new Season Sets, the old dub is unbearable once you reach a certain part of the show. So for a long time, I've had DBZ releases which are all good in some regards, but pretty shitty in others. I set out to fix that.

For the audio, it had to be the Kai dub. No way around that, it's the only way to get a faithful dub with well-developed voices in English. I used the Team Faulconer score because I like the constant music and it just seems more emotive and closer to my musical preferences. One of the member's here at Kanzenshuu already went through the work of aligning the Faulconer score to the Kai dub and posted the audio, so that saved a ton of work. I wish I remembered their name so I could give them credit for their work, but sadly I couldn't find it in a forum search.

For the footage, I used the new season set blu-rays because it's in HD and looks good in my opinion. Some of you now hate me because I said that, but I'm one of those people that doesn't mind the zoomed-in picture. Sure stuff gets cut off sometimes, but the zooming does help to bring out some detail. And it's hardly worth mentioning, but sometimes those extra pixels on the sides do help. Ultimately, I just think the bold colors and lack of grain go well with the fast-paced Kai dub.

Combining that, here's what I came up with. Sorry for the watermark, but I didn't want people to blatantly steal DBZ. Still, it looks like YouTube is going to block the videos...

DBZ Kai Episode 56 w/Season Sets Video and Team Faulconer Score - First Half
DBZ Kai Episode 56 w/Season Sets Video and Team Faulconer Score - Second Half

I had to match up close to 30,000 frames just for this one episode, so it would be a full-time job to try and do this for all the Kai episodes (not to mention issues with new animations and episodes where the Faulconer score isn't available), but this one episode represents to me the closest I'll ever get to a "perfect" Dragon Ball Z release. I will say that even with what I came up with, there is filler that was left out of Kai that I'd prefer to be kept in, the lip flaps don't match the dub exactly, and I still prefer Nadolny's Gohan, so even my best attempt isn't even perfect in my opinion

Most of you will disagree and despise my idea of an ideal release because of the score and aspect ratio and probably the language too, so I ask you all, what would your perfect release be? Would you be able to pick-and-choose your favorite parts from the current releases, or is there nothing out there that would satisfy your standards? Or, is there a release out there that you already think is perfect and doesn't need improvement? We all have different preferences on this stuff so I'm curious what you guys would need to be totally satisfied with a DBZ release.



Also for anyone that's interested, I posted a side-by-side comparison of the DBZ Kai episode and the corresponding footage from the Season sets (this was the setup I used to make sure frames lined up for the actual video). I accidentally exported it using highly compressed video (my bad) but it's still interesting to see the differences in shakiness, framing, colors, and animation.

DBZ Kai / DBZ Season Sets Comparison (Kai Episode 56 - First Half)
DBZ Kai / DBZ Season Sets Comparison (Kai Episode 56 - Second Half)

[Hellspawn28]

I think Kai with Dragon Box quality would be great with a lot of behind the scene features would be nice. I hate how bare bones that the DBZ home video releases are. I know more stuff on the disc will boost up the price, but I would like to see what into the making of these episodes and how the producers of the show at Toei did help get the show running from 1989 - 1996. I know someone will be like "Just use Google to look up things" when you can't always find everything on the web. Criterion does a great job on their DVD features with film historians going to full detail of the history of the movie. Imagine if DBZ DVD's had those level of features. One reason why I love the Ultimate Uncut vol. 1 DVD is because of the bonus features.

[CashmanX]

A bluray release that uses animation rescanned from the cels with the original Japanese broadcast audio.

Basically impossible now.

[supersaiyan3]

Didn't even think of bonus features. It would be great to actually see what went into making the show by Toei. I'd even be up for a full-fledged documentary about the making of DBZ if it were done right. It seems like the special features that Funi has been putting on their recent releases aren't even about the history of the show, just about the history of Funimation.

[superrayman3]

For me, my "Perfect DBZ release" would be Toei's original film negatives scanned at 4k and downscaled to 1080p with FUNimations frame by frame remastering and color correction, all episodes have their "Original" opening and ending sequences, all clean opening and ending sequences, and for audio the original Japanese Broadcast audio obviously, as well as both a faithful redub of the series with Kai quality acting and the original english dub to get the best of both worlds.

[songohan619]

DragonBall Z Kai BluRay with the Yamamoto Score and the Funi Kai Dub... which I have xD Yay me!

[dbboxkaifan]

All of the three series with the Level HD quality but honestly I've already lost my interest and decided to move on to other aspects of the franchise.

This is what I've got for the four:

DB - Saga Sets (Collections 1 & 2)
DBZ - Dragon Box Z 1-7 & Levels 1.1, 1.2
DBGT - Single Sets 1-21
DBK - Part BDs 1-4

It's all right if it never happens because it's probably just a pipe dream (Dragon Ball's going to be 30 years old on December 3 and there's been no announcement of any of the three series for a proper HD remastered on Blu-ray) .

[Kid Buu]

The Dragon Box with Marathon Mode. I don't like "Cha La Head Cha La" and the recaps are really long. Not to mention the Dragon Boxes I own don't let you skip the recap without going to the second half of the episode. It's really annoying.

[sangofe]

Couldn't agree more.

A bluray release that uses animation rescanned from the cels with the original Japanese broadcast audio.

Basically impossible now.

[Dbzfan94]

DBZ Kai quality dubbing, with the voices of the Z dub, and Faulconer music.
For visuals, probably Blu ray Season Set colorsbut in 4:3. I know it's impossible lol:

More realistically, the Level Sets being fully released, as that had 4:3 with English music.

[El Diabeetus]

Kai quality dub, with even more corrected termimology and correct pronunication. Retain the Kai recasts and recast Kaioh, Recoome and maybe Majin Buu (the fat one), probably more for pre Z DB. Would also have Goku retain more of 'hick' speaking and have him not talk intelligently. I still think he speaks a bit too well spoken. Although, Schemmel in Battle of Gods, has the character 100% down. So, it's more of a script thing. Have characters refer to him as Son.

4:3, Blu-tay Level Set quality without crushed blacks and Broadcast Japanese audio since for most of the episodes it's the best quality we'll get. Would use the (either tape or laserdisc audio, whichever format it was). Where it's crystal clear quality. I think parts of episode 227 was one that Kei posted as an example and movie 6.

[FortuneSSJ]

It already happened. Its called Dragon Boxes.
It has everything I wanted: All openings and Endings, Next Episode Preview and Good Quality wihtout bad editing.

[xmysticgohanx]

levels quality and japanese + us score

[MajinMan]

Blu-ray level quality, good special features, redubbed with kai quality, accurate script, ability to switch scores(bruce, kikuchi), Japanese and English languages. Imagine DBZ in Japanese but with Bruce Faulconer music

[JackyBoi99]

Dragon boxes on blu ray, with minor colour correction and the original Japanese broadcast audio.

Aniplex... Buy the rights and do it, I don't care how much

[dbboxkaifan]

Dragon boxes on blu ray, with minor colour correction and the original Japanese broadcast audio.

Aniplex... Buy the rights and do it, I don't care how much

> People complain about prices being too high
> Then want Aniplex to handle DBZ

It just wouldn't work for the market in the west because customers have become accustomed to FUNimation's low prices so much so there'd be consumers leaving 1 star ratings on Amazon.

[JackyBoi99]

Dragon boxes on blu ray, with minor colour correction and the original Japanese broadcast audio.

Aniplex... Buy the rights and do it, I don't care how much

> People complain about prices being too high
> Then want Aniplex to handle DBZ

It just wouldn't work for the market in the west because customers have become accustomed to FUNimation's low prices so much so there'd be consumers leaving 1 star ratings on Amazon.

That's true unfortunately :/, also the demand for something like what I mentioned wouldn't be high enough.

F#%k...

[dbboxkaifan]

Just look at the review section of Kill la Kill, while people want it they're not willing to pay a ridiculously high price for only 9 or less episodes.

FUNimation's great for the most part when they're not trying to remaster series/films on their own.

[TheKingOfKamehamehas]

If Aniplex handled DBZ, it would probably cost a little more than $1,000 just to complete Dragon Ball Z.... I am not even going to get into DB,GT, and movies.

[SupremeSSJ]

ill be happy with color corrected Dragon Boxes(the rest from Funi) if possible. Just release them already.