New Blu Ray sets? Let's compare!

[Googaliemoogalie]

Like most of the Dragon Ball hardcore-super-fan community, I’ve been looking for the perfect (at least close to) release of the anime.
We all know that this is an issue, as Funimation refuses to release a set with what we’ve been asking for.
Earlier this month, I noticed a new SteelBook Blu Ray edition of the Dragon Ball Z series for purchase.
I Googled these SteelBooks for some details but all I could find were some people making a connection to the 30th Anniversary set.

I skipped the 30th Anniversary set because of the bad reviews and reluctance to support Funimation’s decision to constantly sell underwhelming remasters.
I also skipped the Season sets for the same reason.
So since I didn’t have the whole series on Blu Ray, I decided to buy these new SteelBooks.
I’m interested to see what you all think, and hopefully, I can help some other people make decisions based on the info I have here.

I took a few screenshots and I tried my best to match each from the releases I own in an attempt to compare the remastering process.
The screenshots were done on my PC running Windows 10. I used an Asus Blu Ray drive to play all the discs and “Leawo Blu-ray Player” as the program to view the content. I made sure my graphics card wasn’t adding a custom colour profile and I had everything set to default.
Each screenshot was saved in Photoshop as a PNG without compression or interlacing.
So with that out of the way let’s start!

#1 The title




I overwhelmingly prefer the Dragon Box here. I am one of those purest fans who prefer the Japanese title cards and the lyrics written ontop of the intro, Like how it was originally aired!
Notice how Funimation changed the font for the new SteelBox set, a more modern type-face?

#2 That Punch was for Chaozu!




Notice that the Dragon Box is slightly more cropped in! if only by a TINY bit, it's still there! Goku's thumb, waist and Nappa's head
Nappa's skin tone is very different in the Levels set. Seems the SteelBook matches more to the Dragon Box in this frame.

#3 Goku's face



See how Goku's head is cropped a tiny bit in the Dragon Box frame? (His hair on the top right side)

#4 Nappa reeling



Not much to say here

#5 That famous shot.




Ok, so the sky colour. I've heard that Toei mentioned the film was degrading and caused the greenish sky. And this makes sense. The story progressed the fight as starting around noon to late evening. When Piccolo is killed, the reddish-pink sky is the sun setting and the fight with Vegeta takes place from evening to twilight. So the sky shouldn't be green.

#6 Kicked in the Face




Notice that the screenshot of the Dragon Box remaster has what I think is a shadow of the bottom of the top animation cell photographed into the frame. I kinda like that.

#7 Kaio-What???




So this is what I found to be a good example of contrasting colours. Notice how the red aura of the Kaio-ken bleeds into purple over the sky in the Dragon Box frame? This was removed in both Blu Ray releases.

What I've noticed between all these is that, obviously, both Blu Ray releases are of higher resolution than the Dragon Box DVDs. So the frames where detail is lost in wide shots aren't a fair comparison (Vegeta's face in example #5). That being said, It does seem that the Dragon Boxes still have an edge when it comes to purity. If you want the next best thing to owning the film reels, the Dragon Boxes are still the best.
The levels set to me is again, the best of both worlds. With the high resolution and proper grain preservation, we see a lot of detail without harsher blacks around details. The colours are soft and realistic and make more sense than even the Dragon Boxes.
Now the SteelBooks.
The SteelBooks are complicated.
The colours are too saturated and the loss of grain looks like someone used water-colour paint over the animation cels.
The loss of the original title cards with the original Japanese text irks me and I would have loved the "angle option" that give alternative video tracks that Funimation used on their original DVD's and their canceled "ultimate uncut edition" DVD's way back in the 2000s.
The grain looks odd. It seems that some DVNR process was used and the grain was removed. Then it was added back in with some sort of filter. The grain seems to loop and is too perfect for real film.
But at the same time, The video seems to have the same crop factor that was used in the Levels set, and the colour tinting and temperature of the Dragon Boxes, while being brighter than the levels set.

What do you think? Will you be buying these??







Thanks to everyone who read all this! please let me know what you think about this new set . Is it what we should all settle for? Do you think Funimation will bring a better set out again next year?

[mute_proxy]

For me they're good enough, I'll be getting the standard MangaUK editions. When a better version comes out I'll most likely be too old to care, so I'll just have these.

I skipped the 30th Anniversary set because of the bad reviews and reluctance to support Funimation’s decision to constantly sell underwhelming remasters.

So since I didn’t have the whole series on Blu Ray, I decided to buy these new SteelBooks.

These are the 30th anniversary editions repackaged though

[samuraix123]

I actually really love the new cases a lot and since I have both the Dragonboxes and the 30th set, I will not be buying this. AGAIN.
I can't keep buying Z over and over and over from Funimation. I've paid more than my dues when it comes to supporting the Z portion of the series. Honestly, I feel nobody will ever be 100% satisfied with any release that is ever released ever. to them, the colors are gonna be off, too much or too less grain, it's not color corrected enough for them, etc. I'll stick with the 30th set and Dragonboxes from now on.

[dragonmagico]

Personally I wont be buying, since I already have the dragon box. but if you dont have that this is the cheaper way to do it and still have 4:3. not perfect, but ya know if it makes you happy and works well enough thats all that matters.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Well, they are ok albeit still a ways from truly being a great release as far as currently available options go but still definitely better than the Orange Bricks and Season BD's aspect ratio wise, though seeing as i already have the Dragon Boxes i'm pretty much covered in terms of DBZ at this point unless something better comes along down the line.

I'd rather they didn't DNR and oversaturate the footage to oblivion, though at least it's 4:3 this time so still it's a step in the right direction.

[Ajay]

No, I'm not settling for a smeared, over-sharpened, over-saturated mess of a release that added fake grain and left things uncropped in an attempt to mask their nonsense and appease "hardcore" fans. "Good enough" can fuck off. Do it right (as you've shown you can do!) or don't do it at all. It's been decades, and they're still as shitty as ever. Heck, the ancient DVD singles have more detail in the Cell arc.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I too will be purchasing the Manga UK edition (well I have, it still hasn't arrived at my door). This set is perfectly serviceable all things considered. The framing is quite good, finer details are still destroyed by the DNR, but then again no in print release will give you that detail so for anyone who wants to support Z legally this isn't a bad way to do it. TOEI may never do a remaster that's better, and Funimation's next release will likely be only marginally better again so no point waiting a few years if you really want to own the series.

[Matches Malone]

I'm not settling for a smeared, over-sharpened, over-saturated mess of a release that added fake grain and left things uncropped in an attempt to mask their nonsense and appease "hardcore" fans. "Good enough" can fuck off.

I don't think it's a matter of fans being OK with them as much as being tired of waiting. It's has been over 2 decades since Z ended and we still don't have an accurate release, so at this point fans have just given up and are taking what's being offered.

[dragonmagico]

I'm not settling for a smeared, over-sharpened, over-saturated mess of a release that added fake grain and left things uncropped in an attempt to mask their nonsense and appease "hardcore" fans. "Good enough" can fuck off.

I don't think it's a matter of fans being OK with them as much as being tired of waiting. It's has been over 2 decades since Z ended and we still don't have an accurate release, so at this point fans have just given up and are taking what's being offered.

For some people yes, but we've seen that some people are indeed ok with it. which is bigger, I honestly am not sure if I want to know. but there is a mix.

[kemuri07]

No, I'm not settling for a smeared, over-sharpened, over-saturated mess of a release that added fake grain and left things uncropped in an attempt to mask their nonsense and appease "hardcore" fans. "Good enough" can fuck off. Do it right (as you've shown you can do!) or don't do it at all. It's been decades, and they're still as shitty as ever. Heck, the ancient DVD singles have more detail in the Cell arc.

I see posts like this, and I'm like..am I missing something? The blu-ray sets? Absolutely agree. I own the Buu saga sets cause they were on sell and ooh boy I can tell what hot garbage they are even with my virgin eyes.

But the steel books? They get the job done. And for a majority of "fans," good enough is fun. I think people waiting for Funimation to finally release this perfect idea of physical release are gonna be waiting forever.

[LettuceJUMP]

Thank you for the post.
To me, I like the up tic in resolution and the 4:3 aspect ratio.
The orange bricks and season sets were unwatchable to me and I have been missing an HD way to watch original Z. This does the trick. I would prefer a dragon box hd or a completed level set but because neither exist I’ll take these.

[Ajay]

I just have no patience for this company whatsoever anymore. You're right, I don't blame people for giving up on waiting for a perfect release, but I'm not remotely ashamed to say I'd rather people resort to acquiring a good release from other places than support Funimation's total and utter disrespectful garbage.

Broadcast audio, refined subtitles, fixed up Dragon Box footage, every possible dub - all at your fingertips. Am I going to invest in a 1TB HDD and do that or give a shitty company several hundred dollars? Pretty obvious answer. I've supported this franchise enough over the years that I don't even feel a little bit guilty. Fuck that. Like you've all said, they've had 20 years to get this right, and they still haven't.

I wouldn't be so angry about this set if they didn't literally dangle perfectly acceptable shots of their raw footage side-by-side with their "remastered" version and try to pass off doing the right thing as some special fucking treat for hardcore fans. Their efforts would be laughed out of the room of any serious restoration company.

That is the most infuriating thing. They can do less work and produce a better set. Such a ludicrously boneheaded company. Bothers the hell out of me that people indulge their crap.

The frustrating thing is they're absolutely 100% aware. Manga UK watched my two videos on this set, and Funi has seen them. One of them cared enough to ask around for better options, and let me tell you, it sure wasn't Funimation. They know what they're doing, and it just feels like they're going to drip feed improvements until another format comes around that lets them shill some more releases all over again.

I'm so over it at this point.

[VanceRefrigeration]

I see posts like this, and I'm like..am I missing something? The blu-ray sets? Absolutely agree. I own the Buu saga sets cause they were on sell and ooh boy I can tell what hot garbage they are even with my virgin eyes.

But the steel books? They get the job done. And for a majority of "fans," good enough is fun. I think people waiting for Funimation to finally release this perfect idea of physical release are gonna be waiting forever.

These 30thA/Steelbooks use the same type of filtering as the Season Blu-rays so I don't see how one is hot garbage but not the other. And I agree that there will never be a perfect release, but we really need to correctly define what's "perfect" and what's "good enough", as fans don't really have a good reference point when it comes to Dragon Ball releases.

A perfect release would be from a nice 4k HDR scan of the negatives with manual cleanup, maximized framing, all of the Japanese footage as it originally aired, and colors that look like we're watching animation cels come to life. It would have minimal filtering that preserves the grain and doesn't fundamentally butcher the artwork. We'll probably never get this.

A "good enough" release is something like the Levels. It's 3rd generation film so doesn't quite have the detail of the negative. The colors are decent but still with some tinting, poor dark detail, and a somewhat faded look. It preserves the grain, but there's a bit too much compared to the negative. And it actually had good cleanup work done to it, though it's missing some things like Japanese title cards and previews for the next episode. So they're fine. Acceptable. Watchable. Good enough...but unfinished. The Dragon Boxes are also good enough....kind of, but they're of course in SD, with poor colors, and not being sold.

Basically, the best we've ever gotten is "good enough", and that's all we want and realistically expect from a company like Funimation. And it's something that they haven't been willing to put out, even though it would take almost no effort from them at this point.

[Googaliemoogalie]

I'm not settling for a smeared, over-sharpened, over-saturated mess of a release that added fake grain and left things uncropped in an attempt to mask their nonsense and appease "hardcore" fans. "Good enough" can fuck off.

I don't think it's a matter of fans being OK with them as much as being tired of waiting. It's has been over 2 decades since Z ended and we still don't have an accurate release, so at this point fans have just given up and are taking what's being offered.

Yea this is me. I own the VHS set, Regular DVD set, The Ultimate (before canceled), The Orange Bricks, The Dragon Boxes, The Levels (before canceled) and now these SteelBooks. (I also bought the Rock the Dragon set)
I have bought too many of Funimation's releases, and none of them are as good as what VIZ would do for series they have the rights too. Is Funimation screwing around with us? Who knows. After these SteelBooks, I probably won't buy another set until Toei releases one with the original RAW audio track. IF that ever happens.

[jjgp1112]

I just have no patience for this company whatsoever anymore. You're right, I don't blame people for giving up on waiting for a perfect release, but I'm not remotely ashamed to say I'd rather people resort to acquiring a good release from other places than support Funimation's total and utter disrespectful garbage.

Broadcast audio, refined subtitles, fixed up Dragon Box footage, every possible dub - all at your fingertips. Am I going to invest in a 1TB HDD and do that or give a shitty company several hundred dollars? Pretty obvious answer. I've supported this franchise enough over the years that I don't even feel a little bit guilty. Fuck that. Like you've all said, they've had 20 years to get this right, and they still haven't.

I wouldn't be so angry about this set if they didn't literally dangle perfectly acceptable shots of their raw footage side-by-side with their "remastered" version and try to pass off doing the right thing as some special fucking treat for hardcore fans. Their efforts would be laughed out of the room of any serious restoration company.

That is the most infuriating thing. They can do less work and produce a better set. Such a ludicrously boneheaded company. Bothers the hell out of me that people indulge their crap.

The frustrating thing is they're absolutely 100% aware. Manga UK watched my two videos on this set, and Funi has seen them. One of them cared enough to ask around for better options, and let me tell you, it sure wasn't Funimation. They know what they're doing, and it just feels like they're going to drip feed improvements until another format comes around that lets them shill some more releases all over again.

I'm so over it at this point.

Probably the biggest insult to me, besides everything you just laid out, is the fake grain - that, to me, was an absolute middle finger. It was some sort of half-assed olive branch that really felt like some weird gaslighting attempt.

So you DVNR the footage to remove the grain to the point of making it look like Crayola Oil Pastel colors...but then you toss fake grain ON TOP of the artifical grain, thereby defeating the purpose (after saying DVNR was a MANDATE!!!!!). That just revealed what an insulting, half-assed sham of a release it was, and why I am absolutely convinced they just used the "restored" full-frame Blu-Ray masters, fixed the digital tape at the bottom of the frames, and then sold the fans wolf tickets.

Our only hope is Toei, and even then we better hope they don't censor the content and then say it's okay because they put a warning that it would be censored. Or of course, drop a Green Tint Bomb.

What a joke.

[Googaliemoogalie]

I too will be purchasing the Manga UK edition (well I have, it still hasn't arrived at my door). This set is perfectly serviceable all things considered. The framing is quite good, finer details are still destroyed by the DNR, but then again no in print release will give you that detail so for anyone who wants to support Z legally this isn't a bad way to do it. TOEI may never do a remaster that's better, and Funimation's next release will likely be only marginally better again so no point waiting a few years if you really want to own the series.

Which is the MangaUK release? Do you have a link?

[Googaliemoogalie]

I just have no patience for this company whatsoever anymore. You're right, I don't blame people for giving up on waiting for a perfect release, but I'm not remotely ashamed to say I'd rather people resort to acquiring a good release from other places than support Funimation's total and utter disrespectful garbage.

Broadcast audio, refined subtitles, fixed up Dragon Box footage, every possible dub - all at your fingertips. Am I going to invest in a 1TB HDD and do that or give a shitty company several hundred dollars? Pretty obvious answer. I've supported this franchise enough over the years that I don't even feel a little bit guilty. Fuck that. Like you've all said, they've had 20 years to get this right, and they still haven't.

I wouldn't be so angry about this set if they didn't literally dangle perfectly acceptable shots of their raw footage side-by-side with their "remastered" version and try to pass off doing the right thing as some special fucking treat for hardcore fans. Their efforts would be laughed out of the room of any serious restoration company.

That is the most infuriating thing. They can do less work and produce a better set. Such a ludicrously boneheaded company. Bothers the hell out of me that people indulge their crap.

The frustrating thing is they're absolutely 100% aware. Manga UK watched my two videos on this set, and Funi has seen them. One of them cared enough to ask around for better options, and let me tell you, it sure wasn't Funimation. They know what they're doing, and it just feels like they're going to drip feed improvements until another format comes around that lets them shill some more releases all over again.

I'm so over it at this point.

If Manga UK has a better set, which one would it be? I wouldn't mind taking a look at those (I have pretty much every big release that Funimation vomited out and I want to see a competent one!
I can add screenshots to my original post too.
I truly want to see a set that beats my Dragon Box sets. I also don't think Funimation IS NOT capable of producing good Dragon Ball. It's even apparent with their refusal to correct their lame dub scripts, and translation choices. They seem to double down every time someone complains and we get another set with the word "Freeza" printed on the front or some dumb "Special Beam Cannon" puns.
I also would love a Dragon Ball set with remasters from the Hunt for the Dragon Balls to the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budokai. I know that would never happen.

[samuraix123]

I've already thrown my 2 cents into the conversation but I feel like typing a bit a tonight. Now, I don't know how everyone feels about the new remasters for the Gundam blurays but man....When I watched that bluray of G Gundam on Bluray it was incredible. compared to my DVD there is a night and day difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UjFz7C ... =nozomient

And I kept thinking, Why is it Dragonball Z. the gateway anime of my generation, Lord only knows just how many fans there are....can't get a decent release haha I mean, I stopped trying to ask why at this point. I wouldn't take a 1000 dollars for my Dragonboxes because I enjoy them and think they are the best complete release and I know I would want them back 1 day so unless I absolutely needed the money due to an emergency, they aren't for sale. I always wanted to see Trigun series get a good bluray remaster but I don't know if that'll ever happen. I still have the old Pioneer DVDs lol

[Googaliemoogalie]

A perfect release would be from a nice 4k HDR scan of the negatives with manual cleanup, maximized framing, all of the Japanese footage as it originally aired, and colors that look like we're watching animation cels come to life. It would have minimal filtering that preserves the grain and doesn't fundamentally butcher the artwork. We'll probably never get this.

Basically, the best we've ever gotten is "good enough", and that's all we want and realistically expect from a company like Funimation. And it's something that they haven't been willing to put out, even though it would take almost no effort from them at this point.

EXACTLY. I'd be very happy with what you said a perfect release is. Obviously, Funimation will want the revenue from a 4k HDR release of the series. But I bet they'll be based on these remasters. So this perfect release probably will not happen. unless there is some change in the way Funimation is run.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I just have no patience for this company whatsoever anymore. You're right, I don't blame people for giving up on waiting for a perfect release, but I'm not remotely ashamed to say I'd rather people resort to acquiring a good release from other places than support Funimation's total and utter disrespectful garbage.

Broadcast audio, refined subtitles, fixed up Dragon Box footage, every possible dub - all at your fingertips. Am I going to invest in a 1TB HDD and do that or give a shitty company several hundred dollars? Pretty obvious answer. I've supported this franchise enough over the years that I don't even feel a little bit guilty. Fuck that. Like you've all said, they've had 20 years to get this right, and they still haven't.

I wouldn't be so angry about this set if they didn't literally dangle perfectly acceptable shots of their raw footage side-by-side with their "remastered" version and try to pass off doing the right thing as some special fucking treat for hardcore fans. Their efforts would be laughed out of the room of any serious restoration company.

That is the most infuriating thing. They can do less work and produce a better set. Such a ludicrously boneheaded company. Bothers the hell out of me that people indulge their crap.

The frustrating thing is they're absolutely 100% aware. Manga UK watched my two videos on this set, and Funi has seen them. One of them cared enough to ask around for better options, and let me tell you, it sure wasn't Funimation. They know what they're doing, and it just feels like they're going to drip feed improvements until another format comes around that lets them shill some more releases all over again.

I'm so over it at this point.

Infuriating, ain't it? We know they are in fact capable of good releases with the multi gen film materials they have rough though they may be as the sadly shelved Level sets showed, but instead choose to use crap DNR filters and oversaturating/sharpening because they have some boneheaded misguided idea of how the show should look. This is a series which was produced in a time when the vast majority of animated productions were still being animated on cels by hand, and the screwing around with the image that FUNi constantly indulges in butchers the intended presentation.

The return to 4:3 was a step forward to some degree, but it still doesn't change the fact that this still isn't the best even though i will say this is an improvement over the Season BD's and especially the Orange Bricks. As stated above, i had went through quite a time in getting the Dragon Boxes over the course of four years. Much the same as with me getting the '06 Limited Edition sets of the Star Wars original trilogy a few years back, seeing as there doesn't look to be a high def restored version of them coming on the horizon and so even though they are mastered from old non anamorphic, letterboxed Laserdisc transfers done back in 1993 it's the best available non fan made/bootleg release of the pre '97 versions of the films.