The so-called "VHS Revival". Would you want Dragon Ball collector's releases on the format?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So in a bizarre turn of events it was just announced Alien: Romulus will be getting a collector's edition release on.... VHS, that's right. A new movie is being released on the lowest quality video format of all time.

This is not the first time in decades there's been a new release on VHS, and I'm sure it's going to be far from the last. Boutique horror distributor Vice Press has begun experimenting with releasing movies on VHS again, clearly going for the collector's market with such elaborate designs not only on the cover but the tape itself (something I guess wouldn't be as effective printed on a disc):





I personally couldn't see myself ever buying VHS again, even for the novelty, but I've seen a surprising number of collectors embrace it in recent years. Maybe vinyl records have become too mainstream for the hipsters and some bands releasing their music on cassette has had a knock-on effect for home video collectors.

Hell, this is coming from someone who owns a record player. I don't own the Dragon Ball vinyls as I'm holding out for a UK release to support. VHS though? I don't know, I grew up with it but I don't miss reminding tapes or having them stuck in the VCR.

Could anyone else see themselves picking up new Dragon Ball VHS if they looked really nice like the above examples.

It's probably never going to happen, especially with Crunchyroll having the rights in all English-speaking territories as they naturally have a vested interest in streaming and barely promote discs nevermind tapes.

[LostTimeLord]

A new movie is being released on the lowest quality video format of all time.

I don't know about the worst when that GBA Video of Dragon Ball GT exists.

I don't find a VHS clamshell much more aesthetically pleasing than a Blu-ray case, and in any case Dragon Ball is badly suited to the format (being a long runner with dubbed and subbed versions). I imagine that those tapes you linked are aimed at fans who already collect vintage Horror tapes, which are 'enhanced' by the noisy picture quality and no doubt include plenty of films unavailable on modern formats. Most of the English Dragon Ball tapes were released alongside DVDs, and they never even completed the original series because VHS was in its dying days.

Several big studios even tried vinyl-style Blu-ray packaging with the Big Sleeve brand, but those fizzled out after 18 months despite being available in supermarkets at the same time as the standard releases. So I don't think that the resurgence of vinyl will translate to 'retro' movies in any meaningful way.

[MasenkoHA]

For the movies or at least some of them? That could be cool
For the tv series even just DBZ? No. That would be excessive, a money pit on Toei/Crunchyroll and a waste of resources.

[TechExpert2021]

The VHS format nowadays isn't as prominent and popular as it was in the 1980s and 1990s when it was the dominant home video format until the DVD format surpassed the VHS format in the early 2000s. Even with that said, it'd be cool if I could get recorded VHS videocassette tapes of the entire Fuji TV broadcast run of the original Dragon Ball trilogy (DB, DBZ, and DBGT) with the original audio, NEPs, sponsor cards, and commercials intact in high quality (I assume kei17 has taped the entirety of it).

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

For the movies or at least some of them? That could be cool
For the tv series even just DBZ? No. That would be excessive, a money pit on Toei/Crunchyroll and a waste of resources.

I mean anything, so hypothetically it could be just a single movie release on VHS. I agree there's no way a release of the entire series could win fans over, because, as stated that didn't even work in VHS's glory days.

I'd be open to a VHS-style boxset that contained Blu-Rays, but not tapes. Too cumbersome, too much hassle to look for a VCR and then connect it to a modern TV. I'm not one of those guys who collects and doesn't watch stuff, I watch all the discs I buy at some point.

Hey, if nothing else I guess the fact any company is willing to take a chance on VHS tapes again just goes to show physical media is far from being dead .

[MasenkoHA]

I'd be open to a VHS-style boxset that contained Blu-Rays, but not tapes. Too cumbersome, too much hassle to look for a VCR and then connect it to a modern TV. I'm not one of those guys who collects and doesn't watch stuff, I watch all the discs I buy at some point.

See that would be cool. I'm super nostalgic for those bulk clamshell cases but probably would never be bothered to hunt down and buy a VCR just to re-live a shittier home video experience than dvd and blu-ray.

I guess if they were really inclined Crunchyroll could do a VHS re-release of the edited dubs of like the Captain Ginyu and Frieza saga as an experiment for the Toonami purist so they can experience the dub like it's 1999 all over again

[Kulilin]

The original DBZ VHS releases are so cool. I have a couple of the boxed sets, Saiyan Saga and one of the Freeza Sagas I think. I love how each tape forms one segment of artwork that is completed once you collect all the tapes for that season. You don’t see that as much these days.

I think re-releasing the series on VHS would be kind of silly though

[hembro]

as far as modern releases like super/heroes/daima and the movies, I wouldn't prefer them but I do wish they had released movies 11-13 and the rest of the original dragon ball on tape in the states. I didn't have all of the releases but as a kid I was keeping up with them like once a month at K Mart and it was disappointing to me by the time they stopped with the tapes I had all of GT, most of Z and all the movies besides the last couple and missing a big chunk of the last sections of DB.

if they did some kind of reissue of some of the box sets I would consider buying the ones I don't have all of. the spine art was always cool on the funimation tapes. I've wanted to for a long time fill in the gaps in my collection of the uncut tapes anyways to display on a shelf. I still have and use a vcr and in a room in my house I have a giant 40 inch crt (my parents living room tv until i bought them a new tv in 2015) that has a vcr/DVD combo and old video games hooked up to it so in there might be cool to have a shelf like that. as far as actually watching them, there's better ways I have to watch DB but if a new release of something came out I haven't seen on tape I'd watch it there.

[Saiya6Cit]

No.

Not at all.


Not even for nostalgia. It is an inferior format. I mean, I guess many are afraid of remasters being bad... but... I wan to believe they will do it right. And above it all, I want to believe that one day they are going to release DB, DBZ and DBGT in HD fotmat, no censorship version (for fans over the age of 18 with alegend of that on the cover if possible).

I get how the idea seems cool, as cool as a 90s band getting an album in LP Record format. And many Electronic music bands actually do it for the purpose of DJn' I appreciate the design behind it. I get it, Oh believe me I get. But it would not work for dragon ball they way it works for music and movies industry. In my humble opinion of course.

[90sDBZ]

It would be funny if they actually re-released Z on VHS, and it somehow ended up being the best looking release.

It would be cool if they put out the 1996-2003 US broadcast dub on VHS (or even DVD). They could throw in some of the old promos/bumpers, and market it as the OG broadcast that made the show huge.

Also it's cool to see Suspiria getting the VHS treatment. It's a pretty great horror film.

[lansing]

Where do you even get the source to put on the VHS? I have a VCR and I have brought a 50 episodes series and it took like 17 tapes. It's going to take over 100 for Dragon Ball.

[sangofe]

No, why would we want that?

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Man, this makes me feel old. I can remember when video stores (Blockbuster, Movie Gallery.etc) were still a thing in the late '90s/early 2000's and big box stores like Wal-Mart, Kmart (RIP) Target and others still sold VHS copies of movies. It's surprising to see now about 20 years after VHS went all but defunct as a mass produced media format it's now being re introduced in some capacity.

But i don't know if i'd want new releases in this day and age, i still have my childhood collection of Disney animated classic films and anime (Pokemon, Dragon Balll/Z.etc) tapes for nostalgia but i don't see doing it now for what is a long defunct and obsolete piece of video hardware.

[Hellspawn28]

Alien: Romulus is getting VHS release which is a mainstream studio film. So it could be possible if CR decides to put Super Superhero or even episodes of Daima on VHS. I always joked about a bootleg fan sub edition on VHS back when Super was airing. With bad translated fan subs to match the days of anime labs. Like Vegeta shouts out "That's my bitch! How dare you hit my fucking wife" .

[Forte224]

No, because VHS holds no value outside of being nostalgic. Don’t get me wrong, I AM nostalgic over VHS tapes, but not in a way that makes me ever want to own them again. It’s not like a CRT where there is a legitimate reason to keep using one like for classic video games developed with CRT scan lines and low input delay in mind.

[MasenkoHA]

Alien: Romulus is getting VHS release which is a mainstream studio film. So it could be possible if CR decides to put Super Superhero or even episodes of Daima on VHS. I always joked about a bootleg fan sub edition on VHS back when Super was airing. With bad translated fan subs to match the days of anime labs. Like Vegeta shouts out "That's my bitch! How dare you hit my fucking wife" .

Crunchyroll has the opportunity to do something funny and just release the old DBZ Animelab fansub tapes

[TechExpert2021]

So it could be possible if CR decides to put Super Superhero or even episodes of Daima on VHS.

Since both DBS Super Hero and the ongoing DB Daima are in 16:9, Crunchyroll could either release them cropped to 4:3 from 16:9 (the reverse of the 16:9 cropping of the Orange Bricks and Season BDs of DBZ) or release them letterboxed (a la Toei's VHS videocassette releases of the pre-BoG Dragon Ball theatrical films).

[sangofe]

So it could be possible if CR decides to put Super Superhero or even episodes of Daima on VHS.

Since both DBS Super Hero and the ongoing DB Daima are in 16:9, Crunchyroll could either release them cropped to 4:3 from 16:9 (the reverse of the 16:9 cropping of the Orange Bricks and Season BDs of DBZ) or release them letterboxed (a la Toei's VHS videocassette releases of the pre-BoG Dragon Ball theatrical films).

I think I'd puke if they get released on VHS, seriously.

[90sDBZ]

I think I'd puke if they get released on VHS, seriously.

I think the idea is that it would be an optional collectors item. Obviously Blu-ray/4K/DVD would still be there as the standard release.

[MasenkoHA]

It would be funny if they actually re-released Z on VHS, and it somehow ended up being the best looking release.

It would be cool if they put out the 1996-2003 US broadcast dub on VHS (or even DVD). They could throw in some of the old promos/bumpers, and market it as the OG broadcast that made the show huge.

Also it's cool to see Suspiria getting the VHS treatment. It's a pretty great horror film.

I'd say that would make the most sense if Crunchyroll ever went that route. Hell, re-release the original Captain Ginyu and Frieza sagas edited dubs as aired on Toonami as a test run to see if there's even a market for such a thing