Dragon Ball Z: The Ascended Cut (W.I.P.) [Saiyan Saga released!] (BD 4:3 Hi-10 1080p)

[songohan619]

Btw, would love to hear clips of the mixed voice-acting!

[Masquerade]

Btw, would love to hear clips of the mixed voice-acting!

Will post some samples of the next episode when its done, sure (I should've done that from the start).

BTW, nothing's set in stone but this might become a dual-audio release. There's a group of people who expressed interest in cutting a Japanese dialog track around this edit. Just a possibility. It hasn't lifted off the ground yet.

[Masquerade]

Sample of the next episode:

https://streamable.com/jzak8

Full ep should be up this weekend.

[oblivioncth]

I basically make an account here to say JESUS CHRIST THIS IS BASICALLY EXACTLY WHAT I WANT AS A Z EXPERIENCE AND I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS IS REAL. I will be following this hardcore, and thanks a ton for deciding to tackle this massive undertaking.

The only bit of this that scared me at first was how you originally said you were gonna drop Nadolny at the Android Saga. I know you said you aren't doing that now but I just wanted to give a BIG plus one for asking to keep her because my favorite part of the series is the Android Saga/Cell Games Saga, with particular focus on Gohan. While I know a good amount of people weren't actually a huge fan of her doing Gohan despite liking her for kid Goku, I loved how they were the same actor as it gave this sense of heritage and was like watching kid Goku all over again but on another level. I'll be honest its like a fetish, watching the SSJ2 transformation and other iconic scenes related to Gohan in that part of the show just doesn't do it for me at all unless its her, so that would be epic as hell if you kept going with what you said you are now.

Thanks again for this great project.

[Masquerade]

I basically make an account here to say JESUS CHRIST THIS IS BASICALLY EXACTLY WHAT I WANT AS A Z EXPERIENCE AND I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS IS REAL. I will be following this hardcore, and thanks a ton for deciding to tackle this massive undertaking.

The only bit of this that scared me at first was how you originally said you were gonna drop Nadolny at the Android Saga. I know you said you aren't doing that now but I just wanted to give a BIG plus one for asking to keep her because my favorite part of the series is the Android Saga/Cell Games Saga, with particular focus on Gohan. While I know a good amount of people weren't actually a huge fan of her doing Gohan despite liking her for kid Goku, I loved how they were the same actor as it gave this sense of heritage and was like watching kid Goku all over again but on another level. I'll be honest its like a fetish, watching the SSJ2 transformation and other iconic scenes related to Gohan in that part of the show just doesn't do it for me at all unless its her, so that would be epic as hell if you kept going with what you said you are now.

Thanks again for this great project.

Arigato!





The former has been up for a while. The latter has been finished for a few weeks, however I was playing with encode settings to find a way to preserve the grain of the Level Sets without introducing artifacts (which has been a problem with previous episodes). File size is slightly bigger, but I'm happy with it as it's as close to archival quality as I can get. Now I can go back and re-encode all the episodes in peace.

I have two episodes left in this cut of the Saiyan Saga (Spirit Bomb Away! and Mercy), both of which will be released in a timeline of a couple months or so since I have to deal with working around a shit-ton of Gohan and reinstating all the SFX back into the mix. However, I've found the episodes of the original DBZ after that have like 90% of the SFX in the center channel with the voices and separated from the music, which should make this a HELL of a lot easier and give me a weekly release schedule.

[Masquerade]

Haven't updated this in a while thanks to a mix of procrastination and waiting for word on an Blu-ray series release by Toei (just so I can have a consistent video source from Namek and onwards), but here's a sample comparison video for this project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFeOkDTDF0Y

First is the original, 2nd is Kai, and 3rd is my edit.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Okay, this is neat but how is this not considered piracy?

[Masquerade]

Okay, this is neat but how is this not considered piracy?

Much like other works in this sub-forum which are also fan edits and not the original unaltered work, I'm not posting hosting links or where to find it here, so this operates under a grey area in the TOS.

[Masquerade]

Upon the announcement of the new DBZ boxset from Toei & Funimation, this project's been postponed until those release.

This does not mean I have to go back and edit the episodes I finished thankfully (which is the entirety of The Saiyan Saga and first few Namek episodes so far) as I could just replace the current files in each Premiere Pro project with the new release.

The Level Sets were great, but when using any footage to re-edit something (even if it's a raw .ts file from the disc itself), exporting that causes a generation loss. Then, re-encoding that 6 GB file down to a manageable 1GB MKV file for the public causes yet another generation loss. Due to the extreme amount of grain present on the Level discs, such encodes were impossible to make without looking like slightly pixellated dogshit on a screen bigger than 40". However, from what we've seen of the new footage used that will presumably be on the new Toei / Funi sets, they look a little cleaner with (while not too much DNR since that's one of the problems with the current mass market Funi BDs) enough DNR for me to make a high quality encode of my series re-edit. This is why the project's been suspended for a while, but should start back up May-ish.

[ThePerfectName]

Now that you know the new boxset is a double cropped of the blu-ray set are you just going to continue using the dragon boxes for this project?

[Scsigs]

Now that you know the new boxset is a double cropped of the blu-ray set are you just going to continue using the dragon boxes for this project?

It's NOT a double crop. People keep confusing this. It's the video from the season sets before the cropping (they had copies of the episodes this way because the cropping was done last) just zoomed in a bit.

[Masquerade]

Now that you know the new boxset is a double cropped of the blu-ray set are you just going to continue using the dragon boxes for this project?

It's not really double cropped, but it's not acceptable either.

I'll be mixing color-corrected Kai and Dragon Box footage together for Namek onwards. Hopefully I could update my graphics card so I can export the finished 24 episodes soon (ignore the export rant I did a few posts back, I found the right export settings).

[ThePerfectName]

Any updates on this? Also if there is anyway for us to help with the process?

[Masquerade]

Namek folder added. New episode is up.



Aight, now that all the Saiyan Saga is done and the first of Namek is loading onto Google Drive and I can finally go on a forward trajectory with this thing, I’mma place some more minor details about this project here. Speak some truth:

- As stated in the OP, the first 23 episodes of this cut uses Level Set footage, but it’s been very slightly de-grained. The reason for this is halfway through Episode 24, the Level Set footage runs out. From there I switch to a combination of Kai and Funimation’s 30th Anniversary Set, which I think I did a pretty good job with matching the color timing with (and also adding a 3% Gaussian blur to the 30th so that annoying edge enhancement is gone). The Kai and 30th Anniversary Set combo will continue up until Buu. From that point to the end, the project will switch to 16:9 with color corrected Final Chapters footage (which while I’m not a fan of cropping anything originally shot in 4:3, Kai: TFC actually makes up for what’s lost on the top & bottom with extending the sides by an equal amount) and the 2013 Blu-ray (which suck ass but I’ll try similar techniques with it like I’m doing with the 30th footage).

In terms of the specifics of what filler this project is cutting out / leaving in:

SAIYAN [Done]

Keep:
- Goku goes to Hell (albeit cut down slightly in my edit)
- Princess Snake
- Arlia
- Gohan & the robot
- Yamcha's stadium intro
- Gohan running away & joining orphans (cut down to 1 episode instead of 2)
- Pendulum Room

Erase:
- Gohan & the friendly dinosaur
- 99% of Launch scenes
- Tien at waterfall home
- Dueling Piccolos (this one hurt me, but there was no space)
- Holographic moon projection
- Goku's eventually-retconned ancestry
- Yajirobe dicking around Saiyan landing pods
- Fight padding

NAMEK / GINYU [W.I.P.]

Keep:
- Goku vs. needles
- Goku escaping hospital to train
- Goku and Gohan moment alone before the latter leaves to Namek
- Friends or Foes?
- Goku vs. hurtle towards star
- Vegeta in the tank
- Frieza attacking Guru's hideout

Erase:
- Fake Namek
- Fight padding


FRIEZA

Keep:
- Destruction of Vegeta backstory

Erase:
- Everything else (including Bulma & Frog Ginyu)


GARLIC JR.
[Keep, but cut from 10 episodes down to 7 to improve pacing]


TRUNKS / ANDROIDS

Keep:
- Mr. Shu
- Goku learns to drive

Erase:
- Fight padding (if you didn't get it by now, most of the show's filler is the fight padding)


CELL

Keep:
- Select Time Chamber moments

Erase:
- Everything else

Add:
- Oh Shit!


GREAT SAIYAMAN / WORLD TOURNAMENT

Keep:
- All of Other World Tournament
- Gohan's first date
- Saiyaman movie set

Erase:
- Everything else


BABIDI / BUU

Keep:
- Vegeta's original atonement left entirely intact

Erase:
- Everything else


FUSION / KID BUU
[All filler erased]


Obviously leaves us with more episodes than Kai does, but will still cut DBZ down to 200 episodes or something instead of 291.

[Scsigs]

I disagree about keeping the Hell filler, since it doesn't line up with how Toriyama depicted Hell later on.

[Masquerade]

I disagree about keeping the Hell filler, since it doesn't line up with how Toriyama depicted Hell later on.

Eh. I don't put too much stock in what a lot of Super does, so to each their own.

[Although Dabura was sent to Heaven as a personalized version of that hell in the DBZ anime, so it's not like they were too far off to begin with.]

[sangofe]

Is this dub only?

[Scsigs]

Eh. I don't put too much stock in what a lot of Super does, so to each their own.

[Although Dabura was sent to Heaven as a personalized version of that hell in the DBZ anime, so it's not like they were too far off to begin with.]

I mean, it's not just Super. The Buu Saga first clarified what happens to bad souls in the afterlife, with the purification thing. Res F, which was written by Toriyama himself, then showed that there are personalized Hells for people if they're bad enough, which was later shown again in Super in the TOP arc, which the outline for that show's arcs were written by Toriyama as well, so that depiction of Hell IS 100% canon in DB.

[Masquerade]

Is this dub only?

Dub w/ rearranged Faulconer score (i.e. There's some silence!).

Being I don't know Japanese and it'd be 12 steps harder to edit around, no JP version right now (although as stated in the OP if anyone wants to cut and smash together JP audio sources for DBZ and Kai around my edited video, be my guest).

The Buu Saga first clarified what happens to bad souls in the afterlife, with the purification thing.

Your memories are wiped and you become an empty vessel, yes. Not too far off from mindless clouds floating around.

I mean the way the Hell episode was edited in my version was to be easily skippable (same with any other filler I decided to keep), so you could easily just, like, not download that specific episode.

[Masquerade]

Episode 26 - Plans For Departure uploading to folder:



Consists of #37 & ½ of #38 of the original / ¾ths of #18 in Kai.