Why does FUNimation call it Dragon Ball "seasons"?

[dbboxkaifan]

Dragon Ball Season
Dragon Ball Z Season
Dragon Ball GT Season
Dragon Ball Z Kai Season

I understand that in US the shows are split by seasons, and that's great but this is Japanese animation which were divided by arcs (or sagas, if you prefer) and separating them to "seasons" it just feels so wrong.

I'd probably have bought the blue bricks if they were titled "Dragon Ball Collection One" or "Dragon Ball Part One", I can't stand seeing "Dragon Ball Season One" there.

P.S.: I know that they've got other anime series divided by "seasons" (One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Black Butler, etc)

[TheBlackPaladin]

I understand that in US the shows are split by seasons...

Well, that's why. Easier to understand for U.S./North American customers.

It hasn't really bothered me, to be honest. As long as it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the actual product, I don't particularly care how FUNimation categorizes the show.

[SSJJezter]

Yeah although it is not correct, this is pretty much the definition of 'nitpicking'.

[VegettoEX]

Every time I see someone make claims of "nitpicking", I wonder why they're inserting themselves into a conversation that they clearly have no real interest in and just want to be dismissive about.

I really hope I'm not right on that there, because that literally seems like they're just nitpicking someone else's nitpicking, which goes into this really weird, recursive, awful, downward spiral of nonsense .

One person's "nitpick" is another person's honest question.

[Thanos]

Yeah, probably to fit in with the rest of the TV show DVD sets. Though, it doesn't really work for Dragon Ball, because on several occasions there's really no way to divide it into clear seasons. Either the arcs are split up to unevenly or there's a clear segue from one to the other in a single episode.

[Gaffer Tape]

Here's the thing, though: "season" could be a perfectly legitimate term to be used for American Dragon Ball. The show was dubbed, purchased, and aired in discrete broadcast seasons. So the word COULD apply to such releases. However, FUNimation completely disregards any such division and just slaps on the term arbitrarily so now it means absolutely nothing. To say that they are justified for using the term "season" because Americans are familiar with it... well, honestly, if that's the only logic you need, you could change the name of the show from Dragon Ball to "Cake" because Americans as a whole are more familiar with cake than with Dragon Balls (I know, I've done studies). It seems to me you'd be better served to choose a word that's familiar to Americans AND is actually relevant to the subject matter rather than just a random word. Like how about "volumes"?

[Hujio]

I understand that in US the shows are split by seasons...

Well, that's why.

It may be why they called them seasons, but they most certainly weren't. It's very misleading and really doesn't mean anything, since the "season" box sets are not the seasons as they originally aired on TV, in either the U.S. or Japan. So they're not really seasons, per se, but just simple volume sets with the episodes distributed as equally as possible amongst each volume. This is why I've never cared for the term myself, especially the way FUNimation uses it.

[VegettoEX]

The best example is when the old folks say "Season Three" and we all know what each other means. Dark days. Dark. Dark dark dark days.

But what does that mean for a home release? It sorta lines up in the orange bricks, but not completely.

[SSJJezter]

Every time I see someone make claims of "nitpicking", I wonder why they're inserting themselves into a conversation that they clearly have no real interest in and just want to be dismissive about.

I really hope I'm not right on that there, because that literally seems like they're just nitpicking someone else's nitpicking, which goes into this really weird, recursive, awful, downward spiral of nonsense .

One person's "nitpick" is another person's honest question.

No, no I agree with the fact it is the wrong term, but compared with all the other problems with the 'season' sets this one seems to be quite small. I agree they shouldn't have been named seasons, but then Funimation shouldn't have done a lot of things with those releases and we all already know about that...

[Eddie]

Those sets really should have just been called Volumes, or even Box Set (insert number here). Plenty of other series use these names.

[B]

If they had to use the denotion of "seasons," they should have gone all the way and made every set approximately 20 episodes or so like actual American TV seasons. Of course they wouldn't do that, because then we'd have over 20 seasons, but hey, commit to your lie, right?

[Ashura]

It's for ease of marketing, and makes them seem value packed to most consumers. Part 1 seems incomplete, season 1 seems complete. When you say 'this is season 3 of 6' to a consumer, they get that. It's the third in the set, half way through the series. When you say 'this is part 8 of the Buu saga,' normal average people don't have any idea what that means. For us, it doesn't really matter if they call them seasons or not, so long as we clearly know the order of the volumes. We know what happens when, how much filler there is, and on and on. For other people -- especially fresh viewers -- they have no idea the Freeza Saga happens before the Buu Saga.

There's a similar deal with people talking about anime cours. People get bent out of shape when you call them seasons, but really that's the easiest shorthand you can give even though it's not ~exactly~ the same thing.

[theoriginalbilis]

As long as they release a decent amount of episodes per DVD/Blu-Ray (13-14 minimum), they can call it whatever they want (collection, season, set, chunk, hoard, cluster, omnibus, etc) as far as I concerned...

[JulieYBM]

If they had to use the denotion of "seasons," they should have gone all the way and made every set approximately 20 episodes or so like actual American TV seasons. Of course they wouldn't do that, because then we'd have over 20 seasons, but hey, commit to your lie, right?

Or they could release the series by original broadcast year. 'Dragon Ball: The 1986 Episodes' or 'Dragon Ball Z: The 1989' episodes. Of course such would mean that each box set is about fifty episodes, but it'd work out.

Well, assuming FUNimation would be willing to finally treat the franchise as being as old as it is...

[Gyt Kaliba]

As long as they release a decent amount of episodes per DVD/Blu-Ray (13-14 minimum), they can call it whatever they want (collection, season, set, chunk, hoard, cluster, omnibus, etc) as far as I concerned...

That's pretty much where I stand on it. It's hardly like this is the biggest deal of 'misinformation' that has come from FUNi's treatment of the series over the years, so I don't really see it as a big deal myself. It honestly just seems like reaching for yet another thing to complain at FUNi for to me, for the most part.

[B]

If they had to use the denotion of "seasons," they should have gone all the way and made every set approximately 20 episodes or so like actual American TV seasons. Of course they wouldn't do that, because then we'd have over 20 seasons, but hey, commit to your lie, right?

Or they could release the series by original broadcast year. 'Dragon Ball: The 1986 Episodes' or 'Dragon Ball Z: The 1989' episodes. Of course such would mean that each box set is about fifty episodes, but it'd work out.

Well, assuming FUNimation would be willing to finally treat the franchise as being as old as it is...

I would have been more than okay with this setup.

[Hellspawn28]

I never like the term seasons for Dragon Ball. It's annoying that people call the Cell saga as Season 4 or Season 5. Just call it the Cell saga since DBZ always been know to have four sagas only.

[penguintruth]

Funimation's cynical belief that the costumer is an imbecile. They even have the temerity to release shows that were never even aired on American TV, or haven't aired in ages, in "season" sets. One Piece, for instance.

"Saga" also bothers me.

[SSJJezter]

As long as they release a decent amount of episodes per DVD/Blu-Ray (13-14 minimum), they can call it whatever they want (collection, season, set, chunk, hoard, cluster, omnibus, etc) as far as I concerned...

That's pretty much where I stand on it. It's hardly like this is the biggest deal of 'misinformation' that has come from FUNi's treatment of the series over the years, so I don't really see it as a big deal myself. It honestly just seems like reaching for yet another thing to complain at FUNi for to me, for the most part.

Yeah this is basically what I was saying. We all know Funimation have made massive mistakes with the series, compared to those, this isn't such a big deal. And most fans, probably everyone on here, will refer to them as arcs or sagas anyway.

[B]

Funimation's cynical belief that the costumer is an imbecile. They even have the temerity to release shows that were never even aired on American TV, or haven't aired in ages, in "season" sets. One Piece, for instance.

"Saga" also bothers me.

One Piece's R2 DVDs are actually labeled with "seasons"; it would seem Toei doesn't know/care about the actual meaning of the word, either.