Dragon Ball Z Blu Ray Season sets

[Gian2408]

Hey everyone,

The only version of the regular Z that I had was the orange brick sets, and I decided recently to finally pick up the first two seasons of the Dragon Ball Z blu-ray season sets. Is this release going to be the final release of regular Z or are funimation going to come up again in a couple of years with another "definitive version"? Are the blu-ray sets worth the money?

Also, has Toei Animation ever released Dragon Ball Z on blu-ray or is this a Funimation only thing?

-Gian

[Adamant]

Are the blu-ray sets worth the money?

Not really. It's the same kind of "let's try to make it look like a modern flash animation" nonsense as the orange bricks and looks pretty poor. Cropped to 16:9 too.

Is this release going to be the final release of regular Z or are funimation going to come up again in a couple of years with another "definitive version"?

Nothing announced, though there's nothing wrong with hoping.

Also, has Toei Animation ever released Dragon Ball Z on blu-ray or is this a Funimation only thing?

Apart from the two recent movies, Funimation are the only ones to have released Dragonball Z blu-rays.
Kai is available on bluray if you're into that, though.

[Gian2408]

Thanks for the help

Did funimation correct the same old animation from the orange bricks or did they get new animation/film from Toei?

[VegettoEX]

Did funimation correct the same old animation from the orange bricks or did they get new animation/film from Toei?

As far as we can tell, it's literally the exact same set of film reels as they used for the orange bricks in 2007.

[DB1984]

Did funimation correct the same old animation from the orange bricks or did they get new animation/film from Toei?

As far as we can tell, it's literally the exact same set of film reels as they used for the orange bricks in 2007.

And they claim it's the "Original Japanese Prints". "Original Japanese Prints" my butt.

[sintzu]

Is this release going to be the final release of regular Z ? or are funimation going to come up again in a couple of years with another "definitive version"?

Are the blu-ray sets worth the money?

It probably is for now but don't be surprised if they release something else after Super in a few years.

They are in terms of the episode number on each set but in terms of quality that's up to you to decide.

[Tobi555]

Does this release have episode recaps and episode previews?

[Codarik]

Does this release have episode recaps and episode previews?

Has recaps but no previews.

[Gonstead]

And they claim it's the "Original Japanese Prints". "Original Japanese Prints" my butt.

In a technical sense, they're not wrong. But yeah, definitely not the first gen original masters.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

I am pleased with what I've seen. Yes, on principle, the cropping is bad, and the colors are still off, but it is truly "high-def" though not as large size as the Level sets.

But it is decent, and I enjoy it, as opposed to simply bearing with it like the DVD's they are based on. In principle, it's a "Orange Brick" Blu-ray.

But it is improved.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

I am pleased with what I've seen. Yes, on principle, the cropping is bad, and the colors are still off, but it is truly "high-def" though not as large size as the Level sets.

But it is decent, and I enjoy it, as opposed to simply bearing with it like the DVD's they are based on. In principle, it's a "Orange Brick" Blu-ray.

But it is improved.

It is a major step up. Nowhere near Level set, though, or even the Dragon Boxes.

[OWmyDragonBallz]

Correct me if needed, but wasn't DB Kai remastered directly from the DragonBoxes?

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

FUNimation used a different remastering process than they did on the Orange Bricks, thus the quality of these is much better than found on the Orange Bricks--they did not merely take their Orange Brick remasters and blow them up to HD and call it good. It's also (obviously) in high definition. They also noted that the Orange Bricks had been cropped automatically and some important footage was lost--in the Blu-rays, they manually selected what to crop out so that important features were left intact. It is definitely worth the money. My local Best Buy stocks them for $24.99 and I love them. I would like them to be in their original 4:3 format, but I'm happy with what I have. For any of the haters who think it's the same shit as the Orange Bricks, watch this:

https://youtu.be/ijHfBlL1DHE?t=4m18s (that should start at 4:18 for the comparisons)

EDIT: First comparison in the video above for the lazy

Orange Brick Remastering(DVD)

Spoiler:

Blu-ray Remastering

Spoiler:

Orange Brick Cropping

Spoiler:

Blu-ray Cropping

Spoiler:

[theoriginalbilis]

Both of the releases have virtually scrubbed the video clean to within an inch of it's life, but I definitely agree that the Blu-Rays have the advantage.

[HybridSaiyan]

I own all 9 sets of the blu ray sets and I see nothing wrong with them. I consider them to be a major improvement over the orange bricks. This blu ray release is probably the best thing for fans that prefers the original Funi dub with Bruce. Since I'm not a fan of Kai, these sets are amazing for me.

[Gaffer Tape]

The Blu-rays definitely have advantages over the orange bricks, but it's the home video equivalent of asking if you'd rather have a crushed arm or just a broken arm. You'd probably say the latter is by far the preferable choice, but, truth be told, both suck.

[Metalwario64]

To me, with the Blu-rays, your trading one set of problems for another. The Orange Bricks have some color issues (thankfully most of "season 2" looks better on the Blu-ray footage), but it has its own color issues, and other things like the "selective cropping" causes its own set of problems.

Here are some comparison shots:

Spoiler:

Blu-ray:


DVD:


I took the Blu-ray shot into Photoshop and did some very quick and simple RGB adjustments to it, and that's all it took to get the colors looking good:

Also, the "pan and scan" causes more problems than it fixes. In the scene of Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation, which is a pretty important scene, the camera waves around the screen, causing a nauseating effect:

Orange Brick_______________________________________________________ Blu-ray


That shot didn't need any panning whatsoever for the 16x9 crop. In fact, it cuts off MORE of Goku's hair when he jerks his head back! What the hell was the point of that? It's not just that shot either, that entire scene is filled with unnatural panning like this, and it's a very important and iconic scene.

The cropping isn't consistent either. Selective cropping? Sure...

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Season set:


Orange Brick:


Kai:

The Blu-rays definitely have advantages over the orange bricks, but it's the home video equivalent of asking if you'd rather have a crushed arm or just a broken arm. You'd probably say the latter is by far the preferable choice, but, truth be told, both suck.

That sums things up nicely. Not to mention that I'll try to convince people to avoid purchasing these sets, since FUNimation deliberately went against their polling data due to an idiotic misconceptions that the only reason the Orange Bricks sold so well was because they were cropped and filtered.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

The problems on the BD sets are much less notciable than the Orange Bricks. Those are crap. But does anyone else think FUNimation purposely doesn't make these perfect so that they will never have a "perfect" release that makes all future releases pointless?

[Sayo-chan]

The problems on the BD sets are much less notciable than the Orange Bricks. Those are crap. But does anyone else think FUNimation purposely doesn't make these perfect so that they will never have a "perfect" release that makes all future releases pointless?

They did with the level BD sets, but they cancelled them.

[LordCrumb]

The problems on the BD sets are much less notciable than the Orange Bricks. Those are crap. But does anyone else think FUNimation purposely doesn't make these perfect so that they will never have a "perfect" release that makes all future releases pointless?

I think that way most times..