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

[Ajay]

Gen, please.

[Roland_ELoG]

No it's like this:

When a good set comes out, we as a whole, buy the shit out of it. But "average consumer" doesn't, and the thing is shitcanned before it gets off the ground. Decent products like the Ultimate Uncut or the Blu-Ray level sets, get cancelled because they're not selling to expectations.

So then they release a version we, collectively, do not want. We can TRY to vote with our wallets, but all that does is fill my shelf with the Raditz fight in twenty different formats.

[TheAldella]

http://www.funimation.com/forum/showthr ... Z-blu-rays
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=56890&page=79
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dragon-Ba ... ray/85277/
http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Blu-r ... 00F9IB1M4/

http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Level ... 005E2YL40/
http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Level ... 005E2YL4U/

What do you think now?

I actually instinctively felt as though that was just members of Kanzenshuu saying their opinion. We are a vocal bunch, after all. XD. Also, sorry if I came off like a jackass, but I really felt it needed to be said, because I viewed most of the anger towards this release was unjustified.

[Gyt Kaliba]

You know...I'm mostly staying out of this since I don't really have a pony in this race, as it were (IE I wasn't interested in buying these regardless of what they looked like), but...okay, I can understand being upset that these sets don't look like you wanted them. I can totally get that. But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

That being said, we still didn't support the level sets the way we Really should have...-sigh-[/size]

To be fair, these Level sets, as good as they look, weren't really released at a good time. Not only were the North American Dragon Boxes finished being released the same year, but prior to the Level sets the last time FUNimation released a remastering of DBZ of their own were the Orange Bricks, so a lot of people had no idea FUNimation had the ability to remaster DBZ so well. And quite frankly, we don't know how well the Level sets sold, so the Level sets being cancelled was probably a result of either laziness, costs, or both.

[TheAldella]

That being said, we still didn't support the level sets the way we Really should have...-sigh-[/size]

To be fair, these Level sets, as good as they look, weren't really released at a good time. Not only were the North American Dragon Boxes finished being released the same year, but prior to the Level sets the last time FUNimation released a remastering of DBZ of their own were the Orange Bricks, so a lot of people had no idea FUNimation had the ability to remaster DBZ so well. And quite frankly, we don't know how well the Level sets sold, so the Level sets being cancelled was probably a result of either laziness, costs, or both.

But they had an elite team of super geniuses at their disposal. They couldn't have been lazy.

[KentalSSJ6]

You know...I'm mostly staying out of this since I don't really have a pony in this race, as it were (IE I wasn't interested in buying these regardless of what they looked like), but...okay, I can understand being upset that these sets don't look like you wanted them. I can totally get that. But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

I see it as many of us are angry because when this is compared to products we got in the past, it looks like a step backwards and more of a cash in. Its pretty much universally agreed here that the Level sets were the best we ever saw the series in aside from those who prefer the Boxes and Kai blurays. And to be honest, these season sets really do look like a bluray upscale of the Orange Bricks. It just doesn't feel like a lot of effort was put into this when compared to past works and its incredibly frustrating to see that happen to a series we all very much love.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

You know...I'm mostly staying out of this since I don't really have a pony in this race, as it were (IE I wasn't interested in buying these regardless of what they looked like), but...okay, I can understand being upset that these sets don't look like you wanted them. I can totally get that. But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

I see it as many of us are angry because when this is compared to products we got in the past, it looks like a step backwards and more of a cash in. Its pretty much universally agreed here that the Level sets were the best we ever saw the series in aside from those who prefer the Boxes and Kai blurays. And to be honest, these season sets really do look like a bluray upscale of the Orange Bricks. It just doesn't feel like a lot of effort was put into this when compared to past works and its incredibly frustrating to see that happen to a series we all very much love.

It's a new transfer/master but man It does come off that way.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

To be fair, these Level sets, as good as they look, weren't really released at a good time. Not only were the North American Dragon Boxes finished being released the same year, but prior to the Level sets the last time FUNimation released a remastering of DBZ of their own were the Orange Bricks, so a lot of people had no idea FUNimation had the ability to remaster DBZ so well. And quite frankly, we don't know how well the Level sets sold, so the Level sets being cancelled was probably a result of either laziness, costs, or both.

But they had an elite team of super geniuses at their disposal. They couldn't have been lazy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... 379cc4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... 3573a7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... f9ed6c.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... affe69.jpg

Yeah, Super Geniuses

[Looneygamemaster]

But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

"Quality is the best business plan." --John Lasseter.

...Of course, he said that before Pixar arguably started losing that quality. So make of that what you will.

[TheAldella]

Yeah, Super Geniuses

Hey now, I was just poking fun at the level sets. Don't go 2007 on me.

[Gyt Kaliba]

But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

"Quality is the best business plan." --John Lasseter.

...Of course, he said that before Pixar arguably started losing that quality. So make of that what you will.

Haha, touche. I'm not saying that they can't strive for something that is quality AND will sale (that's what should always be strived for), but it does get old seeing people under the impression that FUNi, or any company, is in the business of catering specifically to them and their whims, and that any money making should be a secondary concern - cuz that couldn't be farther from the truth.

[ect5150]

... I viewed most of the anger towards this release was unjustified.

How are any of the arguments in the thread unjustified based on the trailer (based on the evidence)?

The thought process that brought us the Orange Bricks a few years back appears to be alive and well in the screen shots from the trailer recently released/pulled. Given that and FUNI's history of the product, I fail to see how you'd come to a favorable conclusion on the new Blurays.

No one really loves the Orange Bricks, and those that due usually cite the reason as they like the domestic music score over the original broadcast score and/or voice actors. Okay... that's valid, but we can have multiple audio tracks for all opinions here. Not true for the video track.

Is it possible some of the YouTube compression and re-compression is possibly causing some quality loss - sure, so I'm willing to change my opinion if they release screen shots ahead of time. But YouTube doesn't cause THAT much loss. And again, given their history of the product treatment I'm willing to bet money that we're not wrong.

Plain and simple, I was hopeful since they tried Bluray again, but the trailer and screenshots posted here are a big letdown.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

But seeing post after post of people literally saying 'Wow, way to go FUNi! How DARE you base a product on a previous product that sold well! How DARE you put making money on a higher pedestal than quality, just like a BUSINESS does!' is making my head hurt very, very much. Oiii.

People who have basic technical knowledge feel the same kind of pain when they see ridiculous level of picture degradation done on purpose. FUNimation is even paying money for this process - this is the biggest nonsense.

We have no data on which we could base our speculations about 4:3 vs 16:9 sales today. The only thing we have is the internet and it tells us that 80% of fans are mad only about cropping - let's wait till more people will see the new trailer...

If FUNimation will admit that they are just a bunch of uneducated ignorants who doesn't care about basics of movie making and quality of their products - I will leave them in peace.

[MarcFBR]

We have no data on which we could base our speculations about 4:3 vs 16:9 sales today. The only thing we have is the internet and it tells us that 80% of fans are mad only about cropping - let's wait till more people will see the new trailer...

If FUNimation will admit that they are just a bunch of uneducated ignorants who doesn't care about basics of movie making and quality of their products - I will leave them in peace.

We have the fact that stores keep ordering them, over and over and over (with Wal-Mart requesting custom repackagings.) Not to mention the fact that even people here are admitting when they show friends and family, that their friends PREFER what Funimation is doing. Calling them ignorant doesn't change it's what the audience wants. People keep arguing Funi should do what the audience wants. People here aren't the only audience.

And as for 'the internet'. We have a handful of people on a few forums, who at best have done a poll that has 20ish votes for 4:3.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

*Sorry for the late reply, this thread moves hella fast.

One of the most enduring (and popular on YouTube) scenes will suffice for a Kai vs Broadcast dub comparison.

"Whatashameyou'renotafractionastoughasyou'dliketobelieve. It's easy enough to tell from the few moves I've seen that all anyone need do is avoid the node on your palm."

That may be a word for word translation, but that's kind of my point. I studied Japanese literature while getting my (useless) degree, and the thing I came across time and time again were "exact translations" that used the same verbiage as the original but conveyed none of the same emotion, and "loose translations" that changed the verbs and word order but matched the tone of the original perfectly."

I think Sabat covered that up nicely, but it is a thing. The best part is that the original Z dub actually did this just fine a lot more than people seem to remember.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

And as for 'the internet'. We have a handful of people on a few forums, who at best have done a poll that has 20ish votes for 4:3.

And 4 for 16:9 I see that you are "selectively cropping" information which you like What about blu-ray.com? What about amazon? What about comments? What about things like "Was this review helpful to you?" or "green bars" here?
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12353

Some of the fans are speaking, some of them are clicking.

If this is so obvious, why they cannot just admit that they don't care about quality of their product?

[B]

I might not have much credit here, having browsed this forum offline forever, but it seems to me you're all over-thinking this in the worst way possible. FUNimation are making the smartest decision to crop these and make them more recent. That's what everyone but the members of this forum seems to enjoy

Except "everyone" does not enjoy that. If you can find anything on the internet about DBZ fans prior to 2007, dub or sub or Big Green enthusiast, clamoring for it to be cropped at the top and bottom and to have the colors washed out, I will eat the shorts I am wearing.

Here is the thing. The deciding factor in all of this. The Orange Bricks were Dragon Ball Z packaged in one complete collection. The first of its kind. Sure, you could collect the old singles, but then you're left with a voice cast change if you're a dub fan, and the first 53/67 episodes were never released subbed to begin with until the (cancelled!)Ultimate Uncut editions, and eventually the Orange Bricks. And because of that, it sold well. There were no other factors in this. Nobody who was already a fan at that point was complaining that the show didn't look "more recent." This is nothing but FUNimation placing their nose where nobody ever dreamed they would place it, because who on Earth would ask for them to do this? The Orange Bricks were marketed as these definitive sets and people ate it up because Dragon. Ball. Z.

I probably sound extremely repetitive, and that is because I'm trying to think of smallers ways I can break down the same thought/sentence and am coming up empty. Whatever footage FUNimation had available to them prior to being "remastered" would have sold like hot cakes if they were packaged in simple-to-follow, affordable sets. And people around these parts are upset because it's happening again and there's no reason for it. There was no reason for the Orange Bricks to be that bad, of course, but it's 2013 where FUNimation should've learned something! The casual fan, the type of person who bought the Orange Bricks, does not care. The casual fan will buy it the way it's supposed to be presented. Who are these sets for?

Put another way, Kai's dialogue sounds like it was written too much. Like an author that keeps going back over the same sentence to add better words, or change the word order to give it a smooth cadence. The result, when voiced, is somewhat hypnotic. But it leaves me with no real sense of what was just SAID.

This is probably the most serious case of mental gymnastics to excuse poor dubbing I've ever seen.

[TheAldella]

This is probably the most serious case of mental gymnastics to excuse poor dubbing I've ever seen.

I think I love you. Just saying.

[KentalSSJ6]

They revealed the Kikuchi score was gonna be on here right?