Why are most people complaining about Funimation's 16:9 cropping in DBZ but not Toei's 16:9 cropping in DBZ Kai?

[TheRed259]

I could be wrong but I get the impression that while many people complain about Funimation's 16:9 cropping in Dragon Ball Z, I don't see them complaining the same way about Toei Animation's cropping in Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Do you also believe that this true and if so, what is the reason?

[JulieYBM]

Having been voted by the entirety of the eight billion people on the planet as the representative of everyone's opinions on the matter: it was stupid to crop older animation for Dragon Ball Kai, but at the same time, Dragon Ball Kai is also an entirely separate television series, and therefore does not require that it be in 4:3 to be a proper preservation of Dragon Ball Kai. Dragon Ball Z is a 4:3 television series, therefore cropping it is not a proper way to preserve the work (and also was clearly done poorly).

[VegettoEX]

We did, though — 15 and 10 years ago when it was relevant to discuss those specific things (the TV broadcast and Boo arc, respectively).

Kai was also its own separate thing, however, and didn’t replace the original product. The cropping of the actual original product is more significant and has had long-lasting ramifications for the franchise worldwide, and therefore gets referenced and discussed infinitely more often.

[GhostEmperorX]

They were the ones who set the example like the amateurs they were. And then somehow or other it rubbed off on Toei.
Simple as that, really.
The home release of the latter (Dragon Boxes) didn't feature any such cropping though. If they did, that would be a massive cause for complaint too.

[coola]

I'd say that ugly green tint Toei likes to apply in some releases, is also a problem.

People were probably didn't complain about Buu Saga Kai as much, because by that time, Kai was already forgotten, and it barely cut any filler...

[GhostEmperorX]

I'd say that ugly green tint Toei likes to apply in some releases, is also a problem.

That as well as how completely short sighted they are in general is an issue that affects way more than just DB, even spilling over into the main Toei company's material.

[TheGreatness25]

I've never seen Kai cropped (except for the Boo arc, of course), but I recall that I laughed about how Kai was shaping up like a mix of Funimation's treatment of Z: replacement score, cut out scenes, censorship, cropping.

To be fair, as far as I know, though, Toei was conscious of what they were cropping and didn't have the bottom half of someone's face cropped while they were speaking, for example. And if they couldn't get a good crop, they'd reanimate the frame. At least, that's what I've always thought.

Again, I only saw Kai on Blu-ray in 4:3.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I've never seen Kai cropped (except for the Boo arc, of course), but I recall that I laughed about how Kai was shaping up like a mix of Funimation's treatment of Z: replacement score, cut out scenes, censorship, cropping.

I'd argue Kai from day one was TOEI giving Dragon Ball Z the Saban treatment:

• Condensing the series into fewer episodes through cutting
• New musical score
• Voices replaced (yes I know its not exactly like Saban Z it's similar in the sense original lines and performances are being redone, albeit with the same cast)

To be fair, as far as I know, though, Toei was conscious of what they were cropping and didn't have the bottom half of someone's face cropped while they were speaking, for example. And if they couldn't get a good crop, they'd reanimate the frame. At least, that's what I've always thought.

Both Funimation's 2014 Blu-Rays for Dragon Ball Z "seasons" 7-9 and Kai The Fibal Chapters were manual crops, from what Inaware.

In any case neither did it well:

[TheGreatness25]

Both Funimation's 2014 Blu-Rays for Dragon Ball Z "seasons" 7-9 and Kai The Fibal Chapters were manual crops, from what Inaware.

In any case neither did it well:

It's hard to do it well when you have to chop vertical pieces off of the image. I can kind of see the rationale and can kind of see that if someone was brand new to the series and had no idea what it was supposed to look like, that they just wouldn't know any better and wouldn't notice how bad the cropping was.

It was harder with Kai because they wanted it to be a new and fresh thing (in a weird way), so I can see why they felt it needed to be cropped to actually feel like a new thing. But then again... it wasn't a new thing. The only real thing they could've done was reanimate the thing and they didn't seem willing to do that.

Anyway, I think the best thing that came out of Kai was the chance for the Funimation dub to redeem itself. Otherwise, I kind of feel like Kai was unnecessary. If that was Toei's way of releasing DBZ on Blu-ray, I would rather they just put 100% effort into a great Blu-ray transfer than whatever this was. If they wanted to redub it because of the audio quality, fine, but I really wish it wasn't chopped up and didn't have those awful redrawn frames.

[GhostEmperorX]

I've never seen Kai cropped (except for the Boo arc, of course), but I recall that I laughed about how Kai was shaping up like a mix of Funimation's treatment of Z: replacement score, cut out scenes, censorship, cropping.

What's also hilarious is that out of the many Toei IP's to get the hack job treatment in the US at any point in time, DBZ is the only one that they went back and did something similar to.
Truly something else, this franchise.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

What kinda surprised me at the time was that the 4:3 version of Kai 1.0 is what got released here over a decade ago both in the Part volumes and subsequent season sets, because given what they did with butchering the aspect ratio of the original source series just three years earlier i almost half expected FUNimation to release the widescreen version but lo and behold that ended up not being the case. I assume it was mostly if not all due to the materials that they recieved from Toei when initially licensing the show for broadcast and home release circa 2009 which were the original uncropped fullscreen masters, though granted in Japan it was released as such on Blu-ray while the single DVD volumes were the cropped 16:9 version like as was aired on TV. AFAIK only a few select regions outside of Japan recieved the widescreen edition whereas most places including the U.S. were given the 4:3 version for home video and otherwise.