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It's bumming me out there is no good way to own Dragon Ball Z on home video.

dan2026

Member
Funimation has really dropped the ball with their DBZ releases.
How is it possible there is no decent current release?
The only ones seem to be,


SEASON SETS (“ORANGE BRICKS”)

Cropped.
Poor image quality.

BLU-RAY “SEASON” SETS

Again cropped to 16:9
Even worse picture quality due to bad DNR.

“DRAGON BOX” SETS

Not cropped.
Amazing picture quality
But completely out of print and expect to pay with pints of your own blood if you manage to find them.


What a mess. And what a poor showing on Funimations part.
(I don't count 'Kai' here as that's really a separate show with its own issues)
 
As someone who owns all of the Orange box sets, I don't remember them being cropped on my tv. I remember reading about this in the description at the time but iirc my tv displayed it just fine.
 

Lagamorph

Member
I love the orange boxes for the fact that you can have the re-dubbed uncut dialogue but with the Falconer soundtrack.
 

Snaku

Banned
The blurays aren't perfect, but they are the best you're gonna get for now. While yes the picture is cropped like the orange bricks, it's not a straight dead center crop like the bricks. They went scene by scene and adjusted it so that important information wouldn't be lost. Also while they did use a lot of dnr, the picture is still way better than the bricks.

While the Dragon Box does have great picture that retains a lot of detail, they completely fucked the colors up. The blurays are the closest you'll get to the original broadcast colors. The blus also have all the audio options you could possibly want.
 
It's saddening that both Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon (along with many Toei productions) will probably never have proper remasters.
 

HaakonHaakonsen

Neo Member
Also the Dragon Box set only has the Japanese score and the color timing runs magenta.

Growing up with the Faulconer music, I can't watch DBZ any other way.

Funimation nailed it with the bluray "Level" sets, but discontinued it after poor sales.

Fortunately DBZ has a massive fan community, so you can pretty much find unlimited fan edits that combine any video version with whichever audio version you prefer. For my digital collection, I have the dragon box video with the current blu ray audio. I've heard people are working on re-color correcting the dragon box video, which would be a huge plus. I also hope someone is working on a decent upscale.
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Since the show is highly edited for time and pacing I have no idea how the Faulconer score could even be implemented. Plus Kai is a completely different show.

It doesn't have to even be Kai. It could be the original show just with better quality. Even the orange box doesn't have the Faulconer score if I remember correctly.

Plus I'm sure it could be edited to fit Kai better.
 
Is there a set or version with the English dub but original Japanese music? I'm not sure if that's also in Kai, but I do like the idea removing the padding with Kai.
 

dan2026

Member
Is there a set or version with the English dub but original Japanese music? I'm not sure if that's also in Kai, but I do like the idea removing the padding with Kai.
Yeah that's also the Dragon boxes.

I don't know how people like the America rescore. I have nostalgia too but that music is awful compared to the original.
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah that's also the Dragon boxes.

I don't know how people like the America rescore. I have nostalgia too but that music is awful compared to the original.

I simply don't like the original. Not hard to comprehend when obviously you have your preference as well. DBZ is a spectacle and to me the Faulconer score better elevates that spectacle.
 

Malajax

Member
Is there a set or version with the English dub but original Japanese music? I'm not sure if that's also in Kai, but I do like the idea removing the padding with Kai.

You can do this with all of the current releases. Even Kai, which would probably be recommended for you due to the padding issue.

Very happy I have all of the dragon box sets. Jumped on them all immediately. I think I waited a bit on the third or fourth set and it was out of stock right after I bought it. Knew not to wait anymore.
 

dan2026

Member
I simply don't like the original. Not hard to comprehend when obviously you have your preference as well. DBZ is a spectacle and to me the Faulconer score better elevates that spectacle.
Fair enough.

I still don't understand why Funimation insist of cropping most of their releases.
You are loosing about 20% of the picture!

That the Dragon Boxes are the only real option but as rare as gold dust is super sad too me.
I wish there was some way I could get them without morgaging my soul.
 
Kai is the only and best way to watch DBZ. It gets rid of the crappy Faulconer score and redoes the voice acting so It's actually good. It's cropped too, but it's done manually to preserve info and not just a center cut.
 

Galang

Banned
I think Kai is pretty much perfect actually, but I'm still bummed at how long it took to get the buu saga in English.. Has it finally started airing?
 

dan2026

Member
Kai is the only and best way to watch DBZ. It gets rid of the crappy Faulconer score and redoes the voice acting so It's actually good. It's cropped too, but it's done manually to preserve info and not just a center cut.

Half right. The original Kai series isn't cropped. (Up too Cell Saga)
But when they later did the Kai version of the Buu saga, they did decide to crop it.
And messed the colour up too boot. Why I couldn't tell you.
 
The thing that really pisses me off about the cropping is that anyone who wants wide-screen could literally just have their TV zoom in to the original 4:3 image and get the same results as the orange bricks, at least.

So people who just want a non cropped version are punished because people are too lazy to press a few buttons on their remote.
 

Lynd7

Member
You are correct. I am thankful I got back into DBZ just before the Dragon Boxes came out, that's the only good release. Funi should just re-release those in slim packaging.
 

VDenter

Banned
I am with you OP. Still waiting for a reprint of The Dragon Boxes or something better. I refuse to buy the garbage Orange Boxes or the terrible Blu Ray releases.
 
Ironically, DVD sets for the original Dragonball are easy to get, relatively affordable, and still pretty good. Staggers me that it isn't the same with Z.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
I read this thread title and thought it was gonna be about VHS

HA!

So did I. To this day I still don't known what Brolly should look like, all the bootleg chinatown VHS tapes I brought in the 90s make him look like he has purple and green hair.
 

sensui-tomo

Member
just for the sake of curiosity, has the blue ocean dub of kai seen a dvd/br release ever? (stuff past that arc when funimation took over the dub in the USA)
 

dan2026

Member
The Blu-ray's really are an utter disgrace.
Look at this shit! Look how much detail has been destroyed!

dbz_season1_bluray_screenshot_31.jpg

Yeah I agree with this. There are fans right now who are color correcting the green tint on the Buu saga and editing back in the score from the prior Kai arcs

Now this I am interested in. Any links to this project?
 

Krammy

Member
Tell me about it! The manga also has similar problems in the West, with no version being perfect (either mistranslations, censorship, or missing colour pages).

Dragon Ball media is fucking impossible to get right.

On-topic, the level sets were literally the best video media I've seen for Dragon Ball and they were shit-canned after the Saiyan Saga because the poor sales couldn't recoup the cost of decently remastering the series. It's a damn tragedy!

EDIT: Laughing at people saying Kai is the best. It has a lot of good going for it with the redub and shortened length, but the redrawn scenes look so out of place and kill the whole package for me.


Yikes!
 

VDenter

Banned
Oh how i wish the Orange Bricks had flopped so they would have never cropped the show again for the future releases.
 

dan2026

Member
Some of the redrawn stuff in Kai looks better than others.

Benefits of Kai as I see it: (not counting cropped and green tinted buu saga)
Vastly better pacing
Redone Japanese voice recordings to replace the old mono.
Redone dub
Actually affordable and in print
Probably the best video quality.

Its not perfect. But with Dragon Ball nothing ever is.
 
I have a funimation box set on blu ray that isn't cropped and looks phenomenal.

I'm pretty sure they cancelled them after only a few sets released because they were too expensive to make but the quality was gorgeous.
 

ERotIC

Banned
Yeah that's also the Dragon boxes.

I don't know how people like the America rescore. I have nostalgia too but that music is awful compared to the original.

I prefer the tone that the American score sets. It actually differentiates between the comic and dramatic set pieces.
 

dan2026

Member
I have a funimation box set on blu ray that isn't cropped and looks phenomenal.

I'm pretty sure they cancelled them after only a few sets released because they were too expensive to make but the quality was gorgeous.

This is one of the great tragedies. That might of been the best DBZ release ever.
Then they cancelled it and did the cheap shitty versions instead.
 

Durden77

Member
The Blu Ray's are pretty great. It isn't some noticeable crazy crop or anything, and quality is fantastic. The audio options are also wonderful.

Put it to you this way, as someone that is extremely nostalgic and pretty picky about that nostalgia with DBZ, I love them. I feel like the people that shit on them haven't actually seen them and just read blimey on the web.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
meh, I have an annual subscription to Funimation. $5/month and I have the complete works of DB and hundreds of other shows. Not sure which versions they have up.. but there are both dubbed and subbed.
 
meh, I have an annual subscription to Funimation. $5/month and I have the complete works of DB and hundreds of other shows. Not sure which versions they have up.. but there are both dubbed and subbed.

Where I get annoyed is that because of existing licensing deals, Funimation won't let me watch those in the UK.
 

Lynd7

Member
The Blu Ray's are pretty great. It isn't some noticeable crazy crop or anything, and quality is fantastic. The audio options are also wonderful.

Put it to you this way, as someone that is extremely nostalgic and pretty picky about that nostalgia with DBZ, I love them. I feel like the people that shit on them haven't actually seen them and just read blimey on the web.

It's obvious they are bad from looking at a single screen, people who care about video quality notice this stuff right away and are bothered by it.

Making a 4:3 show cropped to be 16:9 is also really dumb, you just lose the information.
 

Lagamorph

Member
It doesn't have to even be Kai. It could be the original show just with better quality. Even the orange box doesn't have the Faulconer score if I remember correctly.
You're not remembering correctly. The orange box has the Falconer score, it's just not the default audio track.


Where I get annoyed is that because of existing licensing deals, Funimation won't let me watch those in the UK.
And yet nobody in the UK streams DBZ.
I just use a VPN and subscribe to the American Funimation service.
 

zulux21

Member
I think Kai is pretty much perfect actually, but I'm still bummed at how long it took to get the buu saga in English.. Has it finally started airing?

not only has it started airing in english, it's fully out in english on dvd/blu ray.
 
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