FUNimation and Toei announce online streaming of DBZ!

[NeoKING]

You really don't realize how awesome the Dragonboxes are until you go back and watch the Orange Bricks. Also, omg commericals!

Question: Is the footage of the DB and GT bricks as bad as this?

The Green and Blue Bricks look much, much better than the Orange Bricks.

Say, as good as the Dragon Boxes? Ironically, I remember thinking that Funimation's original GT masters were from the Dragon Box, because compared to the original and Blue Water footage... Yeah.

[Sketch]

Well I'll own up to my previous statement that I don't mind either way if they used the Japanese OST because I don't but I will admit a bit of disappointment because I was kind of looking forward to Falcouner. Well, there's clips and full CDs for that should I really want to hear that music I suppose.

This is exactly how the dub with the original music was handled on the DVD. It's such a shame they didn't use Cha La with the dub. I know it's often FUNimation's practice to dub openings for their dubs but they don't always do it and they didn't have to dub Cha La they could have used the Japanese version and should have to begin with.

So it's a shame dub viewers mis out of Cha La, but again that's a song that's a few clicks away. If I watch dubbed episodes on the stream I'm skipping that opening more times than not. It's just freak'n boring. The ultimate uncuts opening was good and the Falcouner opening grew on me but it was one of the weakest songs in his score IMO but both are preferable to the blandness of that.

Well now the only "problem" other than the quality of the dub itself is the footage quality and boy does it ever dance in episode 1 but you gotta get what you can take and uncut DBZ with the original score is certainly a more accurate starting point for new viewers than the edited dub was.

Too bad the dub is still inaccurate and inconsistent as all give out.

By the way, I've yet to crack open one of my 4 Dragon Boxes. Does the dub presentation have Cha La on them?

Either way without Falcouner I have no reason to watch these streams. I'll watch my Dragon Boxes should I get the itch but for now, back to One Piece.

[DB_Fan1991]

By the way, I've yet to crack open one of my 4 Dragon Boxes. Does the dub presentation have Cha La on them?

Cha-La Head Cha-La is used on the English track on the Dragon Boxes.

[Sketch]

By the way, I've yet to crack open one of my 4 Dragon Boxes. Does the dub presentation have Cha La on them?

Cha-La Head Cha-La is used on the English track on the Dragon Boxes.

Halleluljah!

Thanks for the info.

People are saying they hate watching DBZ with commercials but I know what the real problem is, there's no kick-ass Toonami bumpers.

[linkdude20002001]

Say, as good as the Dragon Boxes? Ironically, I remember thinking that Funimation's original GT masters were from the Dragon Box, because compared to the original and Blue Water footage... Yeah.

Actually, if I recall correctly, the original singles looked more like the Dragon Box GT set than FUNi's green bricks. The only "remastering" was making it blurry by grain removal. Eh, who cares. I can't finish DBGT anyways.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Cipher]

Say, as good as the Dragon Boxes? Ironically, I remember thinking that Funimation's original GT masters were from the Dragon Box, because compared to the original and Blue Water footage... Yeah.

Funimation's original GT masters are grainy and dirty as hell. The green bricks look much better.

To answer your question though, no, the green and blue bricks don't look as good as the Dragon Box, but they're very competent. They successfully remove most of the grain, at the cost of some amount of blurring so small you'd never notice it without a side-by-side comparison. They still have visible film damage all over though, which the Dragon Box does not have. Finally, while GT is fine in both these regards, the colors are a bit over-saturated in Dragon Ball (by virtue of Funimation's masters, not their re-mastering process) and the footage is zoomed in as it has been on all previous Region 1 releases.

I'd stand by the fact that, footage wise, they're the best an R1 release has ever looked for either series. The only reason to own the GT singles or the Dragon Ball saga releases are if the lack of GT's next-episode-previews, Japanese credits and title-cards really bother you.

The only reason Z was so ruined by Funimation's remastering is that they cranked up the DVNR to obscene levels (leading to ridiculous amounts of blurring and the disappearing outline problem) and fiddled with the color levels. They'd learned not to do this by the time they got to the movies and the other two series. A little DVNR doesn't hurt, and that's what the post-Z releases got. Just a little.

I think I heard that somewhere as well. However, "In motion, the Funimation singles are terrible. The grain and damage is excessive, and it's aggravated by terrible encoding and macroblocking all over the place."

If I recall correctly, I was actually the one who said this in a previous thread. I own most of the GT singles, as well as the recent "Complete Series" set. Don't be fooled by screen shots. The singles are terrible once they start playing. Funimation's re-master is much more watchable.

People are saying they hate watching DBZ with commercials but I know what the real problem is, there's no kick-ass Toonami bumpers.

"Sometimes it's darkest just before dawn."

EDIT--

Hence the reason why I quoted it.

I knew you weren't trying to pass it off as your own. I was just pointing it out.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Choujin Daizenshuu]

That's... not true at all. It's not like the film spontaneously combusted after it was digitally scanned. Remember that the film used to create what eventually become the orange bricks was itself a new film print separate from what they had been using up until 2007, so that means they had two physical sources (one likely digi-beta) before the Dragon Box masters came into the picture.

In all honesty, my argument that the original master copies given to FUNimation being permanently screwed over through the company's DVNR process to help create the Orange Boxes is based off of various posts by user kakugo from the AnimeOnDVD boards. This guy had been heavily criticizing FUNimation's Orange Box releases by going through specific details on the very nature of the company's remastering process. Here are links to the threads where he talks about the major setback that FUNimation caused for the Dragon Ball Z property as a result of the Orange Boxes. They're pretty technical but a real eye opener.
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.p ... all+Season
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.p ... all+Season
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.p ... all+Season
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.p ... all+Season

Uh, no, some random American company licensing a Japanese series doesn't suddenly make it more illegal to watch digital copies. They're just as completely illegal as they've always been.

I'm aware that unauthorized digital copies are, were and always will be illegal. The point is, Adamant, that when a series is unlicensed, pro-fansubbers have the argument that they need to provide digital copies to viewers to let them see what the show is about because the show isn't available legally yet in their respective country and so that the viewers themselves can make up their minds on whether the show is worth investing their hard earned dollars for in the future. Today's buyers are more discriminative in their tastes for anime and I find that perfectly understandable, even if the providing method is illegal. That's where the gray area comes in. However, when said show is licensed, that show now has a local accessibilty to R1 viewers through legal means either by company uploaded streams or DVD rentals. To continue to watch fansubs on a show that had already been licensed is officially a black and white issue. At this point, you're disregarding the legal alternatives to watch your favorite show and the company that has licensed it. I hope I made that clear.

As for the Dragon Ball Z streams:

No access for Canadian viewers. Thanks for nothing, FUNimation.

[MarcFBR]

That's where the gray area comes in.

No, it doesn't. It isn't a gray area, it's just a way for people to give themselves an excuse.

Either download or don't, but don't sit there trying to convince anyone it's somehow a gray area.


And they aren't more discriminate, they just swallow it wholesale and move on.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[VegettoEX]

Choujin Daizenshuu:

I tried looking through the links you provided, but they're linked to just general threads and not specific posts. I can't really sit and search through hundreds of pages hoping to find something.

I understand what you're getting at, and we've likely done the exact same thing said other forum user has done. I mean, we've broken down trailers with each set of "lies" to showcase how the thing was falsely constructed. Been there, done that.

What I'm getting at is that just because the orange bricks were made, that doesn't mean that what they had prior no longer exists. When I fax someone something, the piece of paper I put in doesn't cease to exist. When I photocopy something, the machine doesn't eat the original any only provides the copy back to me with a haughty laugh.

When FUNimation made the orange bricks, the film they used to make it still existed. I'm sure it was in pretty shitty shape and it would be relatively unusable without some other sort of clean-up (keeping it as far away from Steve Franko as possible), but it's still there somewhere. And so are the tapes they used for TV and the VHS/DVD singles long before that. Those are all still there. They exist.

What we've all agreed on, however, is that it's extremely unlikely FUNimation would go back and do anything else with the DBZ TV series because they've made the orange bricks. I think we can all agree that were Kai not to exist, we'd be seeing Blu-ray versions of the orange bricks right now. They're going to get their money's worth out of them, which makes the most perfect business sense in the world.

No-one should be (and I assure you that none of us are) surprised or shocked by this decision. We're still pretty damn disappointed in it since we had hoped to have seen the last of those abominations, but eh.

[obiwan23s]

The fact that they're streaming the Orange Brick "remaster" aside, I still think this is pretty damn cool. DBZ has a special place in many people's hearts, including the hearts of those who simply may not have been able to afford the cost of whichever box set release they prefer, be it Orange Brick or Dragon Box. I'm sure this will come off selfish but I like that they didn't stream the DBox master as it allows the physical boxes to retain their exclusivity. However, both sub and dub are available streaming and anyone wanting to watch the show in their preferred format can do so for free on DBZ.com. I know that by now anyone wishing to own DBZ, whether legally or illegally, probably already has their copies (or for us DBox folks, is still in the process of obtaining their copy) but this effectively picks up all the stragglers. Solid move for FUNimation and I can only see this as a good thing for DBZ fans. Unfortunate that Canada is blacked out but maybe FUNi will change that soon.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

You really don't realize how awesome the Dragonboxes are until you go back and watch the Orange Bricks. Also, omg commericals!

Question: Is the footage of the DB and GT bricks as bad as this?

The Green and Blue Bricks look much, much better than the Orange Bricks.

Meh. I don't care if the ratio has its judgment. It can fit better than any bricks IMO as the DBoxes.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

No, it doesn't. It isn't a gray area, it's just a way for people to give themselves an excuse.

Either download or don't, but don't sit there trying to convince anyone it's somehow a gray area.

If you mean it in the legal sense, it isn't. From a consumer perspective, it is. Most consumers, especially the people I've seen on the Anime News Network boards and anime clubs I've visited over the years insist on the "try before you buy" ideal because they want assurances that the show they watch is worth their future purchase. Even the president of my anime club strongly believes in this. He has digital copies but he also has the DVDs for the shows that he originally downloaded insisting that this helped him towards his purchase. He's not denying that it is against the law but he states that he will not buy anything blind just because it is anime.

And they aren't more discriminate, they just swallow it wholesale and move on.

You need to elaborate on this. I don't know what you mean.

No-one should be (and I assure you that none of us are) surprised or shocked by this decision. We're still pretty damn disappointed in it since we had hoped to have seen the last of those abominations, but eh.

Honestly, Vegetto, I just wish FUNimation would apologize for their inconveniences. It would make them 10x the company in my view.

[Vegeta1056]

Toonzaki now streaming DragonBall Z.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Checked Toonzaki. Canadian viewing is blocked.

Lemme bring up that press release again:

FUNimation Entertainment and Toei Animation Announce Online Streaming of Dragon Ball Z

Anime Leaders to Stream Episodes of Iconic Anime Series

Flower Mound, Texas – January 3, 2011 -- FUNimation® Entertainment and Toei Animation Co., Ltd. have entered into an agreement giving the American anime leader exclusive rights to the U.S. and Canadian online streaming of the studios’ signature animated series “Dragon Ball Z.”

Starting Saturday, January 15th at 7:30 PM CDT preceding the One Piece simulcast at 8:00 PM CDT, FUNimation will stream the series from its beginning via the official Dragon Ball Z website www.dragonballz.com in addition to www.dragonballzkai.com , www.funimation.com and FUNimation partner site www.hulu.com.

FUNimation will offer its professionally-produced, uncut, English-tracked and English-subtitled adaptations of the hugely successful series beginning with the first episode as well as other chapters of the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z Kai.

“We are pleased to offer the first legal streaming of this seminal anime series,” said Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment. “Dragon Ball Z and One Piece are the crown jewels of our digital content strategy and we are proud of the diverse selection of series that entertains established fans and new ones as well.”

...what the hell...

[Vegeta1056]

Toonzaki has been having a problem with that with all of there shows. They're still trying to figure out what to do about it.

[NeoKING]

Okay, seeing the series in Japanese like this makes me appreciate Kai. I've been watching the first few episodes and it's so long and boring. I feel the same way I did when watching Naruto Shippuden. I think it's the soundtrack. I just... can't get into the Kikuchi track here. But why not? I sure as hell loved it in the movies(granted I've only seen 1-3 in Japanese) :/.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Kai seems to be grabbing more people nowadays than the original release. Makes me wonder if the original series will still be relevant in the future if this continues, even if it does have fillers.