USA DVD Releases

[DNA]

Hi guys, so I was checking the websites "Home Video Guide" for American releases but I'm still a bit confused, unsurprisingly.

So, I've got the Dragon Box Z and I would love to eventually get the rest of the series and movies in a good format. This is what I gathered:

Dragon Ball's Blue Bricks are a good choice, faithful to the original Japanese version.
Dragon Ball GT's Green Brick is also a good choice, also faithful to the original, has the entire series and the TV Special.
Dragon Ball Kai Blu Ray Season Box sets are faithful too.
Dragon Ball Z TV Specials have no faithful release.
Dragon Ball Z Movies have no faithful release.
Dragon Ball Movie Four Pack is... okay I guess?

Where's Battle of Gods and Resurrection F? And I suppose there is no release for Goku and Friends Return, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans and Episode of Bardock.

Did I get everything right? Am I missing something? Are there better choices?

[Soppa Saia People]

The two disc DVD sets for Dragon Ball is very slightly better then the Blue Bricks.
IIRC the old DVD sets for GT have the NEP.

[Theophrastus]

Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was included as a bonus with the Raging Blast 2 video game, I believe.

[Doctor.]

Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was included as a bonus with the Raging Blast 2 video game, I believe.

And Episode of Bardock was included as a bonus on DBZ Kinect.

[VegettoEX]

Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was included as a bonus with the Raging Blast 2 video game, I believe.

Correct, and Episode of Bardock was included with Dragon Ball Z For Kinect. They're not standard DVD/Blu-ray releases, and you can't just pop them in any normal player (and on top of that, the Kinect peripheral is required to even navigate the menu to watch its respective special feature)... but they technically WERE given international releases in some capacity.

Dragon Ball Z TV Specials have no faithful release.

I wouldn't say that. FUNimation's original DVD releases had JP title cards on the alternate angles, eyecatches, JP credits, uncropped, etc.

[DNA]

The two disc DVD sets for Dragon Ball is very slightly better then the Blue Bricks.
IIRC the old DVD sets for GT have the NEP.

Slightly better how?
And well, losing the NEP is sad but I'd rather have a boxed set than a bunch of unorganized DVD's.

Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was included as a bonus with the Raging Blast 2 video game, I believe.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one. I already have it.

Correct, and Episode of Bardock was included with Dragon Ball Z For Kinect. They're not standard DVD/Blu-ray releases, and you can't just pop them in any normal player (and on top of that, the Kinect peripheral is required to even navigate the menu to watch its respective special feature)... but they technically WERE given international releases in some capacity.

Ehh... Whilst true, having to buy the game and the Kinect peripheral is a hefty price to pay for it.

I wouldn't say that. FUNimation's original DVD releases had JP title cards on the alternate angles, eyecatches, JP credits, uncropped, etc.

I see, so those are good choices then.

So there are no good releases for the movies then? That's... pathetic really. After the Dragon Boxes I would assume those would be a main selling point.

[Gaffer Tape]

I wouldn't say that. FUNimation's original DVD releases had JP title cards on the alternate angles, eyecatches, JP credits, uncropped, etc.

Actually, the original DVD releases for them did not have eyecatches. In fact, the Trunks special added a wipe or dissolve of some kind in between Trunks's SSJ transformation and the next scene to hide where the eyecatch would have been. But everything else? Definitely.

[VegettoEX]

Ah crap, you're right! And now I specifically remember calling out how smart that was as an option if they weren't going to have the eyecatches!

[Kuririn Fan]

I wouldn't say that. FUNimation's original DVD releases had JP title cards on the alternate angles, eyecatches, JP credits, uncropped, etc.

Actually, the original DVD releases for them did not have eyecatches. In fact, the Trunks special added a wipe or dissolve of some kind in between Trunks's SSJ transformation and the next scene to hide where the eyecatch would have been. But everything else? Definitely.

What are alternate angles?

[VegettoEX]

What are alternate angles?

It was a spec in the DVD technology that allowed two different "angles" (think two entirely different video streams) to be contained within the same video file. Think of a concert where one angle is the full, wide shot of the band while the second angle is a close-up on the lead singer, and you could switch between them on the fly with your remote. In the early DBZ DVDs, when you selected the Japanese audio track, it would set the alternate angles to show Japanese title cards (instead of English ones) and Japanese credit sequences (instead of English ones). This allowed them to include everything together.

It was a bit flaky and not super-widely-used. There was generally an awkward one second pause or so as it then switched from the alternate angle of the title card back to the regular, single-angle of the episode itself. Moving forward, FUNimation abandoned alternate angles and started using just a single video stream with translated title cards, credit sequences, etc.

[Luso Saiyan]

Ehh... Whilst true, having to buy the game and the Kinect peripheral is a hefty price to pay for it.

Not quite. If you only want the special, you can extract the file from the game's DVD. I did it. No need for conversion either. It's a 720p WMV file.

[DNA]

Ehh... Whilst true, having to buy the game and the Kinect peripheral is a hefty price to pay for it.

Not quite. If you only want the special, you can extract the file from the game's DVD. I did it. No need for conversion either. It's a 720p WMV file.

Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of buying the game in the first place?

[Gaffer Tape]

Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of buying the game in the first place?

Not if your purpose for buying the game is to watch the special...

[Luso Saiyan]

Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of buying the game in the first place?

Not if your purpose for buying the game is to watch the special...

Exactly. Hence the "if you only want the special".

[B]

Dragon Ball Z Movies have no faithful release.

Is this right? I've never heard anything about the original, out-of-print FUNimation releases being super-terrible. Of course, they don't look like the DBOX sets(which FUNi is apprently sitting on...?) but I thought they were at least passable. I own the Movie 5 and Movie 13 singles, so I guess I could check for myself...

I do believe you are correct, however, in your estimation of their current double feature/steelbook case releases, though, since those were put under the same "remaster" as the Z bricks. That's probably what you meant to begin with and I didn't catch it.

[Hellspawn28]

Battle of Gods and Resurrection F have good home video releases. The blu-rays are in 1080p HD and are no different the blu-rays from Japan the last time I check.

[DNA]

Well, as far as I can tell, there is no release of the movies with the original Japanese audio, in their original video format with subtitles released by Funimation. Like you said, I'm sure they have access to Dragon Box The Movies, just slap the already done subtitles on them and release the damned box.

Question: Does Funimation not have legal access to any of the new features we've been discussing?

• Goku and Friends Return
  Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans
  Episode of Bardock
  Battle of Gods
  Resurrection F

Unless some of these have been released but the website hasn't been updated.

[Gaffer Tape]

Battle of Gods and Resurrection F have good home video releases.

Not if you actually want to watch them in Japanese.

[Kuririn Fan]

Battle of Gods and Resurrection F have good home video releases.

Not if you actually want to watch them in Japanese.

What do you mean? Because of the english covers of the songs?

[B]

Well, as far as I can tell, there is no release of the movies with the original Japanese audio, in their original video format with subtitles released by Funimation.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me can comment on the aspect ratio hooplah regarding the movies(something something matte, something something Gohan's missing Masenko-ha), but FUNimation has definitely put out all fifteen Dragon Ball fims plus the three TV specials with the option to watch them in Japanese and subtitles by Steve J. Simmons(I'm unsure about the four original DB films, though. Those may have been Clyde Mandelin). Here's Kanzenshuu's rundown. The first list, "Individual Disc Releases" seems to be FUNimation's best efforts with the films. As I said, I own the individual releases of Movie 5 and Movie 13.

Question: Does Funimation not have legal access to any of the new features we've been discussing?

• Goku and Friends Return
  Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans
  Episode of Bardock
  Battle of Gods
  Resurrection F

Unless some of these have been released but the website hasn't been updated.

FUNi doesn't have the JSAT or EoB. PtEtSS was released subtitled on the video game Raging Blast 2, so it's not covered in the Home Video Guide. The guide also does not seem to cover the two new films, but they definitely were released uncut with Japanese audio and in the proper aspect ratio. The only caveat is that the Japanese songs featured in both films are "Engrish" versions sung by the original groups themselves. The Japanese/R2 releases do not do this. Obviously, this is a Toei/Fox/record company thing, and not something FUNimation had any say in(I hope...?).