Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[mikezilla2]

the sooner this Steaming pile of Crap gos out of print the better !

i want to see a proper release of the remastered films

and looking to see what comes after this Set ....

[Scsigs]

the sooner this Steaming pile of Crap gos out of print the better !

i want to see a proper release of the remastered films

and looking to see what comes after this Set ....

I don't know if THAT'LL happen. FUNi already has their own remasters, which aren't really that bad minus the specials being forced cropped to widescreen, on top of everyone who wants DB on BR already having those discs.

Also, the 30th is already out of print, minus the UK release. It was a limited crowd-funded thing that they're not putting out again to keep demand high for an actual release from them in 4:3. It's already out of print.

[Tylerman29]

I don't know if THAT'LL happen. FUNi already has their own remasters, which aren't really that bad minus the specials being forced cropped to widescreen, on top of everyone who wants DB on BR already having those discs.

Also, the 30th is already out of print, minus the UK release. It was a limited crowd-funded thing that they're not putting out again to keep demand high for an actual release from them in 4:3. It's already out of print.

Yeah honestly the specials are like orange brick levels bad...the Toei version is like night and day. The movies are passable but still they are from that orange brick era of gross. The only way I see us getting the new remasters is in a "collectors" movie set but FUNi will probably cheap out and do their own tweaking. They really don't have much of a reason to license Toei's. Unless they have a change of heart and start catering to the hardcore fans properly.

[Scsigs]

Spoiler:

I don't know if THAT'LL happen. FUNi already has their own remasters, which aren't really that bad minus the specials being forced cropped to widescreen, on top of everyone who wants DB on BR already having those discs.

Also, the 30th is already out of print, minus the UK release. It was a limited crowd-funded thing that they're not putting out again to keep demand high for an actual release from them in 4:3. It's already out of print.

Yeah honestly the specials are like orange brick levels bad...the Toei version is like night and day. The movies are passable but still they are from that orange brick era of gross. The only way I see us getting the new remasters is in a "collectors" movie set but FUNi will probably cheap out and do their own tweaking. They really don't have much of a reason to license Toei's. Unless they have a change of heart and start catering to the hardcore fans properly.

I mean, they DID license the Dragon Box masters in 2009, which NO ONE thought would happen since they had their own remaster. You also have to take into account the fact that masters can be EXPENSIVE to license. That's the reason they took several years to finally rerelease Cowboy Bebop & Outlaw Star. The animation company/studio made HD masters for them years ago, but it took a while for FUNi to either appropriate the funds necessary or the price of them to come down enough to feasibly license them for international release. Either that, or the studio didn't want reverse importation, so they put an embargo on when people could license & release the masters, which were between 2-3 years from the Japanese release. This happens all the time with home releases of other shows & movies all the time as well, but the usual time for that is a year or 2, especially if the show or movie is new.
Granted, Toei has been, for the last 2 DB movies, VERY enthusiastic with getting them out with as many foreign language dubs & subs in international movie theaters as possible, so maybe they wouldn't have them wait that long if they showed interests, but I think FUNi understands the position they've put themselves in with DB. So many releases already put out in the US. If you don't have 1 of said release by now, you're either not into DB, or you're boycotting FUNi until they get their act together, or you were late to the party on the best release like some of us & are still waiting for a good substitute. I would gladly buy new BRs with the Japanese masters (if they don't have the censorship or green tint like the streaming versions, even more so), but we have to wait a bit for them to do so.

[Tylerman29]

I would gladly buy new BRs with the Japanese masters (if they don't have the censorship or green tint like the streaming versions, even more so), but we have to wait a bit for them to do so.

Yeah I think you may be right. There is sort of a "lag time" for releasing older properties' material. My gut tells me we will get proper releases of all this DB stuff ONE DAY (Maybe I'm being TOO optimistic). I think it may have to be sort of a "refresh" of releases like we had in 2007-2010 with all their "remastered" branded season sets and movies. I have a suspicion we might see a similar wave soon; bringing all the series and movies up to more modern standards (with better remastering tech and better care). Although the 30th set is strong evidence against this line of thinking unfortunately...hopefully they learned something.

I wouldn't be shocked if a re-release of Dragon Ball happens this year or next.

[Scsigs]

I would gladly buy new BRs with the Japanese masters (if they don't have the censorship or green tint like the streaming versions, even more so), but we have to wait a bit for them to do so.

Yeah I think you may be right. There is sort of a "lag time" for releasing older properties' material. My gut tells me we will get proper releases of all this DB stuff ONE DAY (Maybe I'm being TOO optimistic). I think it may have to be sort of a "refresh" of releases like we had in 2007-2010 with all their "remastered" branded season sets and movies. I have a suspicion we might see a similar wave soon; bringing all the series and movies up to more modern standards (with better remastering tech and better care). Although the 30th set is strong evidence against this line of thinking unfortunately...hopefully they learned something.

I wouldn't be shocked if a re-release of Dragon Ball happens this year or next.

Yeah. However, FUNi wouldn't feel the need to do endless rereleases or countless attempts to "remaster" Z if Toei would just do it already themselves. They don't "remaster" any of the other shows & any Blu-Rays of older shows they're allowed to release are usually with masters they get from Japan. It gets really weird with the fact that they had the first 98 episodes of Kai in 4:3 when they could've used the 16:9 versions on the home releases, since it makes the Z home releases look like thee cheap cash grabs they are/were. Until Toei put the money & effort into it, we'll continue to get nothing but flaming dogshit garbage.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I would gladly buy new BRs with the Japanese masters (if they don't have the censorship or green tint like the streaming versions, even more so), but we have to wait a bit for them to do so.

Yeah I think you may be right. There is sort of a "lag time" for releasing older properties' material. My gut tells me we will get proper releases of all this DB stuff ONE DAY (Maybe I'm being TOO optimistic). I think it may have to be sort of a "refresh" of releases like we had in 2007-2010 with all their "remastered" branded season sets and movies. I have a suspicion we might see a similar wave soon; bringing all the series and movies up to more modern standards (with better remastering tech and better care). Although the 30th set is strong evidence against this line of thinking unfortunately...hopefully they learned something.

I wouldn't be shocked if a re-release of Dragon Ball happens this year or next.

Yeah. However, FUNi wouldn't feel the need to do endless rereleases or countless attempts to "remaster" Z if Toei would just do it already themselves. They don't "remaster" any of the other shows & any Blu-Rays of older shows they're allowed to release are usually with masters they get from Japan. It gets really weird with the fact that they had the first 98 episodes of Kai in 4:3 when they could've used the 16:9 versions on the home releases, since it makes the Z home releases look like thee cheap cash grabs they are/were. Until Toei put the money & effort into it, we'll continue to get nothing but flaming dogshit garbage.

That's why i went ahead with getting the Dragon Boxes as long of a process as that had been, because i just don't have any faith in FUNi at this point will actually legit try and give us a release of Z that's not DNR'ed to oblivion or cropped to fake widescreen.

[HakkaiBills93]

Until Toei put the money & effort into it, we'll continue to get nothing but flaming dogshit garbage.

i wouldn't be confident using "Until" like it will happen for sure, Toei are not very well known to remaster 16mm films for long series in True HD, that's even why they made dragon ball kai in the first place.
even Hokuto No Ken HD remaster have been released into sd bluray.

Toei is used to do "cheap" remaster, and why would they bother rescanning the series into HD? it's not like if people were not buying upscale, it's even the opposite. How much people are happy with funimation last garbage release and claim it all over the web? how much people buyed the season set before?
In japan How much people have buyed saint seiya bluray? sailor moon ones?

like i said and i will claim it until the end and i know that i am really right: " as long as trash people keep on supporting atrocious products, it will NEVER CHANGE and will even goes worst and worst"...
But people are allways in their dream .
Even if i am not the only one saying that, Who was right about selecta bluray? me
for 30th set? me
People should use their brains (at least if they have one) and buy glasses

[Arteaga4K]

As dumb as this might sound FUNimation is really still our only hope of a proper release. Toei is even more unlikely to re-release the entire series again and even if they do, can't guarantee it'll be that much better than what FUNimation puts out, they've proven to be just as disappointing (and in some ways, even lazier than funimation). I wonder how much it'll cost them to get their hands on the original film masters.

[Robo4900]

As dumb as this might sound FUNimation is really still our only hope of a proper release. Toei is even more unlikely to re-release the entire series again and even if they do, can't guarantee it'll be that much better than what FUNimation puts out, they've proven to be just as disappointing (and in some ways, even lazier than funimation). I wonder how much it'll cost them to get their hands on the original film masters.

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Spoiler:

As dumb as this might sound FUNimation is really still our only hope of a proper release. Toei is even more unlikely to re-release the entire series again and even if they do, can't guarantee it'll be that much better than what FUNimation puts out, they've proven to be just as disappointing (and in some ways, even lazier than funimation). I wonder how much it'll cost them to get their hands on the original film masters.

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

It's really a crying shame they care so little about putting out an acceptable release considering how many of them have been near unwatchable garbage. It got to the point where i just thought "screw it" and bought the Dragon Boxes because they aren't going to make a release which is any better than that quality wise, and i know they have their flaws coming from 17+ year old 16/35mm film transfers but even then still beats out FUNi's crap releases. I'm not holding out hope at this point of them finally coming to their senses and giving the fans who do care about the series what they want, a release that isn't DNR'ed to oblivion and cropped to fake widescreen. It really sucks how they've had so many chances over the years and yet woefully dropped the ball each time. We don't have an average joe proper remaster readily available in 4:3, heck i would've settled for a straight release of the Ultimate Uncut/singles masters (albeit better encoded) on the Orange Bricks rather than the cropped and smeared version that came out back in 2007.

[Robo4900]

Spoiler:

As dumb as this might sound FUNimation is really still our only hope of a proper release. Toei is even more unlikely to re-release the entire series again and even if they do, can't guarantee it'll be that much better than what FUNimation puts out, they've proven to be just as disappointing (and in some ways, even lazier than funimation). I wonder how much it'll cost them to get their hands on the original film masters.

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

It's really a crying shame they care so little about putting out an acceptable release considering how many of them have been near unwatchable garbage. It got to the point where i just thought "screw it" and bought the Dragon Boxes because they aren't going to make a release which is any better than that quality wise, and i know they have their flaws coming from 17+ year old 16/35mm film transfers but even then still beats out FUNi's crap releases. I'm not holding out hope at this point of them finally coming to their senses and giving the fans who do care about the series what they want, a release that isn't DNR'ed to oblivion and cropped to fake widescreen. It really sucks how they've had so many chances over the years and yet woefully dropped the ball each time. We don't have an average joe proper remaster readily available in 4:3, heck i would've settled for a straight release of the Ultimate Uncut/singles masters (albeit better encoded) on the Orange Bricks rather than the cropped and smeared version that came out back in 2007.

Here's the thing: The OBs actually just being the UUE/single discs re-pressed, maybe with slightly re-authored menus to conform the episode numbering to uncut... That would've honestly been PERFECT!! Those masters are perfectly nice masters for DVD, they'd already have everything ready so it'd be a cheap release, meaning it wouldn't cost the fans much, and it'd mean no stupid partial redub, and shitty audio remix. Would've been great.

But instead, they were total idiots. Maybe they did honestly think what they were doing was making things better. Clearly, though, they had no idea how to do any of that properly. Allegedly, they gave some weird orders, time restraints, and budget restrictions to the guys handling the remastering; they wanted no grain, they wanted widescreen, etc. Utter idiocy.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Spoiler:

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

It's really a crying shame they care so little about putting out an acceptable release considering how many of them have been near unwatchable garbage. It got to the point where i just thought "screw it" and bought the Dragon Boxes because they aren't going to make a release which is any better than that quality wise, and i know they have their flaws coming from 17+ year old 16/35mm film transfers but even then still beats out FUNi's crap releases. I'm not holding out hope at this point of them finally coming to their senses and giving the fans who do care about the series what they want, a release that isn't DNR'ed to oblivion and cropped to fake widescreen. It really sucks how they've had so many chances over the years and yet woefully dropped the ball each time. We don't have an average joe proper remaster readily available in 4:3, heck i would've settled for a straight release of the Ultimate Uncut/singles masters (albeit better encoded) on the Orange Bricks rather than the cropped and smeared version that came out back in 2007.

Here's the thing: The OBs actually just being the UUE/single discs re-pressed, maybe with slightly re-authored menus to conform the episode numbering to uncut... That would've honestly been PERFECT!! Those masters are perfectly nice masters for DVD, they'd already have everything ready so it'd be a cheap release, meaning it wouldn't cost the fans much, and it'd mean no stupid partial redub, and shitty audio remix. Would've been great.

But instead, they were total idiots.

I know right, if only that had been the direction they went with for the season sets back in '07 because they still would've sold just as well and we would have an affordable 4:3 release on store shelves right now. But no, they just had to cater to the whims of those people who want the image to fill their widescreen TV's and a misguided notion that the image must be totally degraded and over processed to make the series something it's just not.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Spoiler:

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

It's really a crying shame they care so little about putting out an acceptable release considering how many of them have been near unwatchable garbage. It got to the point where i just thought "screw it" and bought the Dragon Boxes because they aren't going to make a release which is any better than that quality wise, and i know they have their flaws coming from 17+ year old 16/35mm film transfers but even then still beats out FUNi's crap releases. I'm not holding out hope at this point of them finally coming to their senses and giving the fans who do care about the series what they want, a release that isn't DNR'ed to oblivion and cropped to fake widescreen. It really sucks how they've had so many chances over the years and yet woefully dropped the ball each time. We don't have an average joe proper remaster readily available in 4:3, heck i would've settled for a straight release of the Ultimate Uncut/singles masters (albeit better encoded) on the Orange Bricks rather than the cropped and smeared version that came out back in 2007.

Here's the thing: The OBs actually just being the UUE/single discs re-pressed, maybe with slightly re-authored menus to conform the episode numbering to uncut... That would've honestly been PERFECT!! Those masters are perfectly nice masters for DVD, they'd already have everything ready so it'd be a cheap release, meaning it wouldn't cost the fans much, and it'd mean no stupid partial redub, and shitty audio remix. Would've been great.

But instead, they were total idiots. Maybe they did honestly think what they were doing was making things better. Clearly, though, they had no idea how to do any of that properly. Allegedly, they gave some weird orders, time restraints, and budget restrictions to the guys handling the remastering; they wanted no grain, they wanted widescreen, etc. Utter idiocy.

The way they went about the remastering process for the Z season sets in particular was just about as poorly handled as possible with no clear thought or effort, and clearly despite the loads of BS that was repeated over and over in the trailers for the Orange Bricks it clearly didn't need to be done. Taking what they already had previously and touching it up a little would have been good as is. There wasn't really a need for the image to be center cropped with 20%-25% of the overall picture removed to an aspect ratio it was never intended to be viewed in, nor the grain being completely removed and thus the detail being smeared to hell. If only what i'd mentioned in the previous post had been what they used instead of the horrendous garbage of the final release, then we wouldn't have this unfortunate lack of a proper 4:3 version and only those awful releases available now.

[Arteaga4K]

As dumb as this might sound FUNimation is really still our only hope of a proper release. Toei is even more unlikely to re-release the entire series again and even if they do, can't guarantee it'll be that much better than what FUNimation puts out, they've proven to be just as disappointing (and in some ways, even lazier than funimation). I wonder how much it'll cost them to get their hands on the original film masters.

It's possible Toei might someday release... An upscale of the Dragon Box footage.
TBH that's the best we'll get from them. So yes, I agree that Toei are not going to help us.

But Funimation are never going to do it right. Yes, they could do it. They have the raw masters. But they're not going to release that shit. If there was any chance of them doing it, that's what the 30th set would've been.
Fact is, if Funi cared what the fans thought, they'd have listened 25 years ago, when the sub fans complained about their inaccurate dubbing. They'd have listened 20 years ago, when the dub fans didn't like the cast replacement. They'd have listened 15 years ago when the fans wanted them to finish releasing the Ultimate Uncut DVDs. They'd have listened 10 years ago when the fans wanted a proper release of the whole thing that people can actually own (Dragon Boxes don't count; they were collectors' items imported from Japan and released right in the midst of about five other releases of the "Z" era, released in ridiculously limited quantities at a ridiculous pricepoint), they'd have listened 5 years ago when people hated the Season BDs. And they'd have listened last year when the fans wanted the raw, cleaned-up Level-esque masters, not the shit 30th anniversary masters that we got.

At this point, Funi have consistently shown over their 25-year history with the franchise that they don't give a shit what the fans actually want. And at this point, the fans in general are so fed up, pretty much everyone's given up. Everyone kinda knows that either you settle for one of the already-out shitty releases that are about as good as things'll get (the next release in 5-10 years will be marginally better in some token way that won't matter, but you'll have to pay through the nose; it won't be worthwhile. And it'll probably be cropped next time around), or you admit to yourself that the only people who'll do it right are the fans, and you get some kind of "fan remaster" or something, similar to how Star Wars fans tend to watch the Despecialised/4k77/4k83 versions of the original trilogy these days.

It sounds very gloom and doom, but this is our reality: Neither Toei nor Funimation are ever going to do this properly. I hope Toei one day come to their senses and do nice, Amazon movie-esque remasters of the entire 508-episode run of the series, but I'll be honest -- it's more likely for CBS to go and remaster Star Trek: Voyager from its 35mm negatives than for Toei to remaster Dragon Ball. It's just not gonna happen.
And Funimation are content to put zero money or effort into re-re-re-releasing the same masters with the same shitty filtering applied over and over again with only marginal, token "Improvement", to massive returns on their shitty investment from ignorant people who'll buy anything with "HD" and/or "Limited Edition" on it. They're not going to give us a proper remaster of the series, ever.

Yes, Funimation probably are our only hope of getting a good release. But in this case, it's about the same as a stray wolf being your only hope of getting your sheep back.

Agreed, but at least the dub cast improved over time and (for the most part) are more faithful these days. Can't say the same for the home releases, it really is sad a franchise this popular can't get a proper home release that isn't obscure or hard to buy. But with all the backlash the 30th anniversary sets got, my mind is hopeful that Funimation knows better not to apply the same remastering process they've used since 2013 again. The fake grain they added last minute kinda backs that hopeful idea up a little.

[Robo4900]

Agreed, but at least the dub cast improved over time and (for the most part) are more faithful these days. Can't say the same for the home releases, it really is sad a franchise this popular can't get a proper home release that isn't obscure or hard to buy.

Indeed.
Realistically, the home video and dubbing side are two entirely separate entities under the one company. The dubbing side is actors and directors who have a legitimate love for the work, the show, the fans, and their craft. The home video side is the money-grubbing business side that doesn't care about anything but profits.

But with all the backlash the 30th anniversary sets got, my mind is hopeful that Funimation knows better not to apply the same remastering process they've used since 2013 again. The fake grain they added last minute kinda backs that hopeful idea up a little.

Nah. There were backlashes against the OBs and the 2014 Blu-rays too. And I'm not convinced they added the fake grain as a response to the backlash. In the unlikely event that they did, the only reason they would've done it is so that people who say "It's been degrained" can easily be countered with "but there is grain in the picture, look!"

And... Was this set even a failure? It didn't sell all 6000 possible copies, but they got enough sales to produce the set, and with the sheer lack of effort put into this, they'll have made massive profit margins off this thing.
It's a win-win for them; it did well enough that they once again have made great money off a shitty release, but it sold poorly enough as far as an outside look is concerned that they can put out the next set cropped and say that 4:3 doesn't sell (see also: The logic of "previous releases with DNR have sold well, so we elected to DNR the new sets too").

Funimation don't give a single shit about giving the fans what we actually want.

[Arteaga4K]

True, but usually the backlash extents only to the most hardcore of fans. The backlash the 30th anniversary sets got was the first time I saw it extent even wider (I remember around april I was seeing new videos on YouTube not to buy it for a week or two straight). They might've made a profit still but the fact that all 6000 of these didn't sell right away (nevermind at all) still speaks volumes. I don't think these will be the last home release, especially if like you said the entire series exists somewhere in level set quality. Those "raws" did seem a little too clean to me

[KBABZ]

I don't think these will be the last home release

I can see one more if we're lucky. A set for a 200+ episode box set in the Crunchyroll age is a very hard sell to both customers and the people who have to make it.

[Matches Malone]

I can see one more if we're lucky. A set for a 200+ episode box set in the Crunchyroll age is a very hard sell to both customers and the people who have to make it.

Crunchyroll may be an issue, but not as big of an issue as trying to sell something that you've already released countless times. At this point they probably have a better chance at selling a Blu-Ray version of the original DB instead of pushing Z for the 10th time.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I can see one more if we're lucky. A set for a 200+ episode box set in the Crunchyroll age is a very hard sell to both customers and the people who have to make it.

Crunchyroll may be an issue, but not as big of an issue as trying to sell something that you've already released countless times. At this point they probably have a better chance at selling a Blu-Ray version of the original DB instead of pushing Z for the 10th time.

I don't know. The fact Funimation has released Z so many times and only OG Dragon Ball twice, the last of which being a full decade ago speaks volumes as to how much more the former sells in comparison to the latter. I want OG Dragon Ball on Blu-Ray as much as the next person but I do feel were a vocal minority.