The EMBARRASSING Failure of Dragon Ball Z Home Releases
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2023
- The embarrassing failure of Dragon Ball Z has a long unfortunate history. Everything from the Orange Bricks to the Orange Boxes and even the famous 30th Anniversary disaster... It's all here in agonisingly depressing detail. So join in on the misery as I cover the entire history of DBZ. Uncovering why and how one of the most famous and successful series in the world has yet to have a competent home releases.
MUSIC USED
M1706 (DBZ)
Dvorak's Symphony No.9 but Kazooed to death
M1805 (DBZ)
Battle Point Unlimited (DBZ)
Lavender Town (Pkmn)
Goku SSJ3 in Faulconer minor (Cover by Jeffrey Middelveld)
M725 (DBZ)
M811 (DBZ)
M817 (DBZ)
M1307 (DBZ)
M1315 (DBZ)
Bonus Room Blitz (DKC)
M1510 (DBZ)
Mr.Satan (DBZ)
M126 (DB)
Let's Get Out There (DBZ)
TWITTER: / totallynotmark
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This is what we get for supporting the official release...
Oh, crapbaskets...
I'll just keep supporting the unofficial release then
Ironic af!
Just pure incompetent bunch working on these sadly
It's not that hard...support the official release when it's good, and don't when it's shit. It doesn't need to be all or nothing.
@@Goomyx1492 Voting with your wallet fails when they don't even care about giving you a good product in the first place.
TFS: "please support the official release!"
Mark: "No."
Japanese lawyers don't f*k around 😂
It's hard to when the official release can't get its shit together.
I mean, why would Mark ask people to support Toei after what they did to him?
Made me laugh XD
@@HawkatanaRefresh my memory, what happened?
Geekdom 101 did an excellent talk on this subject for the Plastic Power podcast. One of the worst bits is where he reveals that a fan actually offered Toei the original broadcast audio for free so they could have it for future releases, and THEY TURNED IT DOWN. The fact that they’ve consistently screwed up every time is enough to make one think they’re doing this on purpose.
Yea, that's why I don't agree with him giving a C+ for the Dragon Box. 1. The Falconer score wasn't in the original Japanese box set. 2. The original Japanese audio (not muffled one) wasn't found until a couple of years ago.
@@Sammmmmmmm617 The Dragon Box has its own problems though. While it's probably the best (complete) release North America has gotten, it has severe discoloration issues that weren't color corrected and the English dub with Kikuchi score has mixing issues. If you only care about the Japanese version though, it's good and all, but the fandom obtaining original high quality broadcast recordings has rendered that obsolete too. Still a good set, but not as good as it could be. To me the best part of the Dragon Box is how beautiful the set's physical boxes look. Easily the best looking set and that's saying a lot. Orange bricks were trash but look great on a shelf and the same uniformity was carried over to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT (with good releases though).
WHAT?!?! Why would they even turn that down? Like what POSSIBLE reason could they have for turning down ORIGINAL broadcast audio for FREE that they themselves don't even have anymore?
@@MultiKool13 Pride or laziness.
Thats insane, rich peoples brains dont work
Given just how huge and iconic Dragon Ball Z is, it baffles me how it still has no home releases that are completely accurate to the original broadcasts. Weird thinking about how I somehow never noticed how bad the orange boxes were as a kid, I have no idea how I missed that
As a kid you were just happy to be able to watch dragon Ball and own your favorite anime. I still have all the orange boxes and blue boxes and even though they suck I love them for allowing me a poor kid back then to experience my favorite show.
So if you were a kid when the orange bricks came out, how do you even know what the original broadcast looked like other than internet pics, no way you were watching back when it originally aired
@@mania4270 he never said he did.
@@robertwatts7894 so why be mad at something he wasn't even there to experience. That's a gen z being mad at George Lucas for the special edition star wars rereleases. Just comes off as someone just repeating the same thing they heard rather than experience
@@mania4270 Yea I've never seen what the original broadcasts look like. I just think its sad that we still don't have a release that was accurate to it, so people (myself included) have a warped perception of what the series is meant to look like. A series as huge as this should have an option to see it in the best quality possible.
I get where you're coming from, yea I haven't seen the original broadcast myself and am relying on information from others. I just want to have the opportunity to watch Dragon Ball as it was meant to look.
The Level sets are the epitome of the right thing at the wrong time. It’s really a shame because they put a lot of effort into it
I think the level sets look extremely ugly and am very surprised that the AB Groupe UPSCALE looks much better than a real HD scan (the level sets).
@luluuu548 I mean to be fair given that the level sets only had 3rd generation masters it was pretty impressive. AB Groupe sweeps tho, hope they make Z and GT and those masters are used worldwide but based on the newest DBZ re-release by Crunchyroll just being the old Blu Ray season sets that were cropped and DNR'd to hell, I highly doubt they will do it
Those came out when Kai was still airing. A bit of a short sighted timing from Funi's part.
@@KremBotop Kai was airing, the Dragon Boxes were just completed in the west, and the Orange Bricks were still selling. It really was horrible timing
@@luluuu548 You people just say anything. How tf are the level sets ugly? This is why we get stuck with shit releases
13:51 Its quite amazing how for the buu saga the orange bricks looked so much better than the blu ray. Its like they went backwards and made it worse and worse
The Orange Bricks in the Buu saga pretty much looked almost like a widescreen DVD transfer of what you could imagine the Level Sets to look like if they made their way to this part of the show.
"It is evolving, just backwards"
no blu ray in look ebtter in buu arc then orgne bricks waht you tlaking about iv see it sde by side
@@ssjgotenks2009The Season Sets backgrounds look like watercolor and the colors and skin tones are way too bright. The Orange Bricks look a lot better in the Buu saga as while they are more black crushed, the colors are mostly really good and the grain actually is retained at this point.
Also, learn how to write in English cause this is really embarrassing to read.
@@DJ792YT reminds me of beyblade burst from hasbro 😂😂😂
It's behavior like this that drive people to piracy.
I believe that Funimation has the Perfect Dragon Ball Z Film Masters in their possession but they will never release them to the public because they know that once they do this they won’t be able to sell anymore DVD’s or Bluerays after that.
I mean, they could just start reprinting and reselling them till the end of time, though
"They cured cancer but they'd rather sell chemo"
And your evidince for this is
@@coolguychapman6685 it’s just Common Sense My Friend, say You owned a Multimillion Dollar Company like Funimation that produces Anime Films wouldn’t You say it would be in the best interest of Your Company if You also had the Original Masters of those films Your producing locked up in a vault somewhere especially a series that makes most of the profits for Your Business like DBZ?
100% BULLSHIT the biggest anime in human history can't release properly. The botched releases are sinister as hell.
All these years watching clips on youtube i thought everyone who uploaded them just decided to mess with the contrast and saturation. The fact that this is what the official release looks like is a mindblowing revelation
🤡
I was just thinking the same thing. I thought they were trying to avoid copyright.
@@homarruiz4346 🤡
@@jsmithers. 🤡
@@jsmithers. I hope you make it through whatever has you acting out like this🙏
AB Groupe did an incredible job with OG, time will only tell how they continue to remaster
Depending on how well they do DBZ (assuming they do) as well as the OG remaster, I can see many people buying them just to rip the video and sync it with their preferred audio tracks.
@Madara8989 I know for sure I will probably do that. Would love to attempt something like that with the Edited dub to test my video editing skills by recreating the edits
@@Madara8989 I'll probably syn subs and the blue water dub if they ever finish.
We can only hope they are licensed for use in the NA market.
@@Madara8989 That's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm gonna import the sets officially, and see if I can figure out something for subtitles since my Japanese isn't amazing. AB Groupe deserves every penny for going so far to lovingly restore DB
Just a heads up
The awful HD Blu Ray versions of DBZ are marketed as "Amazon Exclusive" versions now and are the most common versions you'll come across in stores and online, including Walmart.
They go under different names with alternating artwork, namely (generic) "The Complete Box Set" and "seasons 1-9"
They won't let Orange Brick die.
Walmart Blu-rays are
repacks of the 2013 cropped
Blu-ray season sets. They use
the same exact discs from
those releases, the image. quality
suffers due to automated
Digital Noise Reduction and
cropping to make. it look
widescreen.
The Amazon exclusive is a far superior remaster.
You're talking about Blu-rays then suddenly say the orange bricks won't die. How are they connected exactly?
This comment saved me $130 bucks
@@princeharbingerare you sure?
@@CrispyHulk1 the blu rays use the orange brick versions.
The Level Sets they released were the best quality home releases, ever. It was everything that longtime fans had been asking/waiting for.
Unfortunately, because Funimation had already over saturated the market with prior inferior quality home releases such as the Orange Bricks or halfway decent quality releases like Dragon Box sets, the Level Sets were quickly cancelled due to poor sales..because not a lot of people were willing to spend more of their money on yet another DBZ home release.
I'm still sad about the loss of the Level sets. Even just being a B across the board by Mark's rating is alright because it's literally was the best home release for me. Not to mention that the later blu-ray releases that Funimation would later put out ARE AN ABOMINATION BY COMPARISON just makes the loss even more painful
RIP Level Sets
R.I.P Level Sets
I think the "level set" marketing was weird too. Like I didn't understand what that meant. I knew it must be analogous to "seasons" but I think most casuals might not understand what they were purchasing and passed on them
Does this mean that you had to buy all of these to get the footage? You're doing Kami's work
He gets financial gain from making UA-cam videos
To be fair, most of these home release tips are available online. It’s how people have been able to make AMVs for years
I doubt it, these releases are easily available on the High Seas my friend 😉
Nah, 20:52 LMAO
he bought them off nyaa for the amazing price of 0
Anybody notice he changes the quality of his character to the quality of the given release each time he grades one? Small details but I love it.
I also caught that after one or two segments, and I respect the effort put in by Mark & his team
Just want to note that as a GT fan I decided to go out on a limb and obtain one of the old DVD singles (the ones ending in "-ion"), and I have to say I notice a pretty massive difference between that and whatever is on Crunchyroll. Maybe its a difference in the film grain removal but for some reason it really is night and day to me.
Hi is crunchyroll's version bearable? I'm considering buying a VPN because I live in Europe. And already got a subscription too the service.
@@espen759 the Crunchyroll versions are the digital remaster versions for DBZ I don't recommend because they kinda redubbed and ruined scenes if you are lucky enough to find them get the singles
@@FinalStrifeXIIIand alot of recent editions have this stupid added dubbing where they add a ton of pointless dialogue to fill dead air so scenes can't breathe anymore because someone's CONSTANTLY yaking away in the background it's infuriating.
@@NinjaTyler yeah especially with z when Goku kills kid Buu originally it was silent when he after he says looks like it's the end of the road buu it's a darn shame so now after he says those lines instead of the music playing it says when I first met you you were like a child that didn't know any better
Just as a heads up:
Germany started putting out a Blu-Ray Release this year (after a quite competent DVD release a while ago) which seems to be really good as well. Most likely they use the same stuff France did (as our dub came from France as well). They have 3 of the OG Dragon Ball volumes out so far. I have two of those, but haven't had the time to look into it - According to reviews though it seems like it's really, really good. It's distributed by Crunchyroll over here.
Man oh man, I remember begging for those orange boxes and never getting them as a kid. Parents did me a favor 🤣
I dunno, I'd still have been super stoked to experience the anime as a kid, quality be damned. We only got the manga back in the day here in Norway, so while that were certainly the better option in retrospect, I still greatly envied the rest of the world back then.
They are still fine
Just a joke, the quality doesn’t matter that much especially as a kid. It’s still the same show
I still have the orange boxes and I'm glad I was able to watch dragon Ball z whenever I want growing up. I watched bootleg films from a man selling DVDs on the side of the street I can handle a washed-out dragon Ball z when I was 12
A lot of videos are just made for content. Growing up with vhs, each release was an upgrade of the last. Previous releases were so dark that it was hard to see anything. Each release also did not finish sagas. The orange bricks were made not only to resolve previous releases not finishing arcs but also resolving the dark picture issue. It was the best release at the time and also had sub and dub for lots of episodes
Please cover the other releases from dragon ball to GT to Kai. The world needs to truly know what they're dealing with.
Yes!
my friend gave me a complete box set for GT and I'm really curious where it stacks up lol
The blue brick DB is what I have. Wonder if they suffer the way the orange bricks do.
@@AshleyWilliamsN7 they’re not as bad.
From the Dragon Ball Z single VHS tapes in the late 1990s and early 2000s all the way through the steel books of Dragon Ball Z DVD sets in early 2020s. Funimation done terribly bad with the grain and the cropping issues for over 2 decades. So hopefully I think Crunchyroll will do better, and you still have the voice cast members from Funimation that are still intact. So I hope they can release a better Dragon Ball Z DVD and Blu-Ray sets in the future. Same can be said for the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT sets as well.
Dragonball Z truly is the Star Wars of anime. Not just because both are extremely influential fiction and have been referenced in Pop culture for decades, but also because both franchises are a massive pain in the ass to watch as they were originally intended.
Bro, i mean this in the most respectful way possible and i do appreciate the knowledge you shared, that being said, i remembered running to my aunt's house in the evenings to watch Dragonball through the window on the side of the road, and running back to my house during commercial breaks like 300 feet, i had chores i had to do and for dragonball I was just happy to watch 10 mins total, the freeza fight was so intense for me, i loved it, (this was back in Mexico) i did buy the orange boxes but never paid attention to all the details as u pointed them out, I'm with you on the respect they ought to have to the original source, no question about that, and thanks for the video
Dragon Ball's treatment in the west is tragic as a whole, and it's a complete crime that the fanbase has grown up being led to believe these poor releases were presented to respect the accuray of the original visual intent of the show. Here's hoping that the phenomenal work by AB paves the way to a competent and accurate release in the west, and that people can be informed enough to refrain supporting the drivel we've gotten these past decades
Most of that same fanbase don't even have respect for the original music & voices of the show.
That's true. In some Z dub vs Kai dub comparison, I've often seen people complaining about Kai not looking super bright and oversaturated. And I also saw many DBS fan drawings in "Z art style" that were clearly based on the Season Sets awful remaster.
I remember those titles that claimed “REMASTERED 4K [HD]” but they were just the orange bricks and even more zoomed in.
@@jp3813 Unfortunately most of those “fans” don’t even know the original composer passed away a few years ago.
@@dystopianfuture1165 Worse than that, many have trashed his work in order to put Faulconer on a pedestal. What's funny is that they'd also complain about Kai ruining the "original". The latter being the version that starts w/ the repetitive song "Rock the Dragon".
I bought the level sets because they were AMAZING, I was so heartbroken when they were discontinued. Even when Funimation does it right they do it wrong.
Never trust Funimation. I remember buying one of the VHS back in the 90s because it said Uncensored on the box, only to find out it was censored AF.
@@dangerousdays2052lol
The best version of Dragon Ball Z is the iKaos version, also known as Seed of Might. It’s a fanmade version, and is available in certain places online.
It is the only release which features all surviving dubs, and the higher-quality Japanese broadcast audio which was omitted from the Dragon Box. It has two releases, with one based on the Levels Sets for the first season, and another where video was based on a stacked mix of the Japanese and U.S. Dragon Box releases to include more detail than either.
This is so real
I like how your little avatar/sona/whatever you call it has different colors, grain, cropping, etc depending on which one you're rating. Nice touch.
Even if that group can't get together with rights holders in other regions at the very least I hope they're able to go through the entire franchise. OG DB, Z, hell even GT.
Holy cow, I was stunned at the dramatic improvement the AB Group's audio track was.
I want this release so bad
And remember that AB groupe productions was the same company that gave us the Big green dub, now they are doing wonders.
@@christopher4249 It’s like Funi and AB are opposites of each other, Funi should stick to dubbing and AB should stick to distribution/remasters lmfao
@@christopher4249 there remasters make them super space warriors compared to funis attempts
That AB Group one was genuinely awesome to see. I REALLLLLLY hope they do an English release with the same quality
Rather ironic that it's the "Big Green" company. But better than the "Saiya People" company, needless to say. It does sound great, and I'm glad the most I've ever bought were a couple of the VHS releases.
@@hitkid2456the “saiya people” company is Speedy Video in Malaysia. The reason it’s so bad is that Speedy is simply just a video store chain, they wanted to sell a dubbed releases of DBZ but didn’t have the rights from (at the time) Pioneer and Saban. To get around this, they had in house staff (that’s right, the retail staff) dub their releases. They had no masters either for the BG music so simply just had to cut the audio during speech parts to include their own audio!
In a world where a group of fans managed to upscale the original film negative of the Super Mario OVA to 4k and released it on youtube for free, funimation has no excuse anymore. If they want to charge money, they have to be better than the pirates.
Seed of Might is the easy answer.
Imagine being one of the most popular and beloved anime in the world, but for some reason they won’t give you a proper home release
Easy it's a money grab
As if it was treated right before the home releases w/ all the censorship, character altering lines, replaced music, etc...
@@darthkage2163if they release a good one, they can’t sell you another one later.
Dbz is overrated af
@@adrenalinex4 That is the Majin seal talking.
as a french I'm really proud rn. We are REALLY placing quality as our number 1 priority when it comes to things like this and I truly hope we will be able to release a perfect home release of DBZ
French people are very passionate about art. Even Ubisoft sometimes!
It's inspiring
Hopefully they do english dub or else its useless.
I personally think the singles are the overall best choice. It's just a shame they're so hard to get now. The good presentation, the inclusion of the jp and us audio tracks, the lack of problems, and they even got extra features like cool menus and such. If we got those except everything uncut and uncensored. It would be perfect
I have the Complete Australian Dragon Ball Z Madman Singles Boxsets up for sale if Your interested? Which is the Best way to watch the series in My Opinion.
Where would I even get it
I was VERY close to buying that first Blu-Ray set on Amazon but I'm so glad I ran into this video before that could happen. There is not many things in life that I care for perfection, but DBZ unfortunately requires it.
Tom and Jerry also has that "no release is really that good" problem. All of the original 114 haven't even been released offically since the laserdisc in 93.
The Warner Archive Popeye Blu rays on the other hand, are probably the best animation releases on Home media. All that grain intact reveals just how sharp the image was. so much so you start to see little mistakes in painting and what not.
🤡
@@jsmithers. you fr
@@thedrunkguyfromthecornerst8164Cry 🤡
@@jsmithers. 🤡
@@jsmithers.This is why abortion should be legalized lol
This has been a major sore spot for me since the 90s, so glad to see you bring attention to this.
The muffled cries of the captive DB fanbase might finally reach the outside world.
With how Funi treats the series, it's always felt like we'd need to go to actual war before any of this changes lol
Imagine wanting war over some drawings 🤡
@@joshuarichard6827You don't understand metaphor.
Bro your channel is the gold standard for content like this imo. Great work man
I watched Tony StrongStyle's old near one hour video on the topic a while back and now I've watched this one too. Glad to know there's a ray of hope with an actual good product in people's hands with the new DB release.
Who knew the guys who ended up making the Big Green dub of all things would be responsible for the best looking home release of Dragon Ball to date.
We don't know for sure AB Groupe produced the Big Green dub. It's never really been clarified
Kami works in mysterious ways…
@@mikefromireland Still, the french are responsible for ruinning Dragon Ball in Europe (they're the ones who came up new terms like 'space warriors') but are now going to save it. They're totally redeeming themselves.
@@aerogun18 German dub of DBZ was a bliss. Cha la Head Cha la (in German however), Kikuchi OST, mostly uncensored, completely unaltered and very based.
Thank you Mark for flashing out the AB Groupe efforts, as a person who watched France release of Dragon Ball with Polish voice-over I have to buy sets from them.
Great stuff TNM! Thank you for being informative. Had no idea of my orange box sets where that bad..... Crapbaskets
I am happy that Kai exists, because you can get an accurate well-made version with a good English dub, but if you want the original, it is pretty bad.
I want Kai voice acting and high quality with a Faulconer music score and all of the scenes that were censored or removed in later versions.
@@iwasanMBTInerd Kai didn't remove or censor much. It still has all the blood, and it has more swearing than the uncut version of Z in English.
@@iwasanMBTInerdidk about scene removals but there's a guy on r/brucefaulconer who is currently in the process of redoing all of kai with faulconer's music. not just slapping it in there either but actually editing it to make sure it fits. which is why it isn't done yet, but you can keep up to date on it there. he's also done the entirety of super this way too.
@@dankerbell Wow I gotta see that
@@iwasanMBTInerdI watched his and it is great. My definitive edition for now.
I love how your avatar is timed to match the quality of each dvd release.
Gotta appreciate the little details like that which further illustrates your point in a humorous way.
It's crazy how one of the most popular animes of all time hasn't been properly seen by like half of the people who watched it.
Way more than that at this point since there’s constantly more people watching it for the first time
especially since its had so many releases, you'd think it would've been perfected by now. But AB gives me hope, and if they partner with the english rights holders then we might finally get a definitive dragon ball home release.
My nostalgia refuses to let me see it any other way than the original😅
Look, most people haven't even seen OG dragon ball at all, it's not surprising that most people haven't seen it in any decent quality.
@@TBurr030 *“The original…”*
Thank you I’ve been trying to find a good explanation of this for awhile. I spent like 150 on the blu ray set and thought it was good. I just hadn’t watched dbz in like 10 years so it will hold me over until I can purchase an actual good release. I might purchase the 2019 collectors just to watch it without the crop because now that I know it will bother me. Dbz was my childhood even though I didn’t get to watch it that much. Anything I saw of it, I immediately loved. Thank you for this video even though it has made me a little sad.
As someone who bought into the level sets, and still own both, I'm so bummed that they were discontinued. I was working at Best Buy at the time and grabbed up the first two as soon as they released, and I waited forever for volume 3, but then I saw the discontinuation announcement...
I owned the orange bricks, and they were shit, then I bought the widescreen Blu-ray set and sold that, and I have the newest Blu-ray collector's set, and I don't think they're as bad as people make them sound, but they could be better, sure.
Dragon Ball's film elements have faded because they most likely have used some sort of derivitive of the Eastmancolor process, which is known to fade red over time. Earlier processes like Technicolor actually have their elements mostly pristine due to the more careful (yet more expensive) process involved. It's why old Hollywood films still look quite good when restored.
Okay mr original trilogy
why is so much of old Dragon Ball/Z green as well?
@@joelanderson4899 He has no idea because he's just parroting some stuff he read on a Star Wars forum
@@balljoint5853 lol
AnimeAjay has made a video that talks about the awful AWFUL home releases of Dragon Ball with the worst one being the Orange Bricks which is a fitting name since it feels like someone took original, well coloured bricks and painted them an ugly, Orange color that hurts the eyes, kinda like Naruto's first outfit.
Naruto’s always worn the same color of orange, I will say though the orange and black looks better than with blue
Orange is my favorite color 😢
@@myonman1 Yeah his second outfit is kinda better than his first one which looked just horrible with bright orange, blue and white around the collar area that made his pre-Shippuden outfit look really awful, mainly because the black color work better for orange and as such it look a bit better.
However that's not saying much given how terrible Naruto's first outfit and the fact that, disappointingly, his second outfit looks way to similar to the first one but with more black color in the upper area. A better outfit for the first half of Shippuden would be an orange sleeveless coat, a black shirt, orange pants, black boots and black gloves while the one during and after The Pain Arc is is the same but with all clothes are black with orange lines.
@@TerribleTake Sorry about that. To be fair Orange can look cool if used correctly with the right color and outfit such as Deathstroke The Terminator.
@@stefanradebach2889 I mean everyone’s outfit in shippuden is pretty much a slight alteration of their pt1 look other than maybe Sasuke, Choji, Temari, and Hinata
Please Make Another Video Like This
I Absolutely Loved Hearing You Talk About Z's Releases
I Wanna Know What You Have To Say About The Original Dragon Ball's And GT's Releases
Maybe Even Super's?
I Honestly Didn't Even Know That GT Being So Red And Z's Skies Being Teal Was Inaccurate
Hey Mark, love the video, as frustrating as it is to realize how screwed we've been all this time in terms of releases. I noticed that the DBZ blurays have a new release out that came out just last week,
Not sure if it's a reprint of the exact same ones that have been available for years, or they made some improvements, but I thought I'd let you and anyone else know if you didn't. If so, would you or anyone else be able to check it out and see if there is a difference?
They're reprints.
@@TheReelSketchman they arent, they have way better visuals, in 4:3 and great audio, you can listen to it with the english dub/ japanese sub with the japanese audio/bruce score
As I a DBZ Home Release I can confirm we are failures
Wait, you are really broke and homeless?
Edit: turns out it was poorly phrased and was re-edited to correct that.
Feeling bad for you Home Release People. You deserved better.
Still have no idea what he's trying to say after the edit
It's a shame us Dragon Ball fans can't get a competent release of the show, maybe one day. Also, I liked the detail with your little character matching the style of each of the home releases.
well, the fans did them, even if would've been cool to have official good releases
Thanks for making these type of videos very informative
Orange boxsets are the best other than the cropping. Choice of bruce falconer music or original music. Or english and japanese dubs. The original funimation voices are amaazing. The brightness I didn't even notice :^) best intro song ❤
Are you telling me the group responsible for Big Green is the group that is doing the absolute best re-release to date???
I guess the Old Bastard finally did something right.
Good on you, Old Bastard.
They're not.
Well done on this video. The home releases had so much criticism that I wanted to see for myself for a long time.
Thanks very much for this deep dive on everything. I was THIS close to dropping an unreasonable sum on the steelbook blurays, but thanks to you I'm going to hold off because it looks atrocious.
Cream rises to the top. Hopefully ABGroupe's excellent DragonBall release succeeds internationally and they go on to give Z the same treatment. From there fans will pair the English dub with the video even if companies don't.
Dang man I was just at my Blockbuster about to buy the whole set. Thanks for warning me first! Guess I gotta go to my DVD guy for DBZ.
Here in Brazil DBZ was missing from all streaming services until 2020, this videos kinda made me wonder if this whole DVD situation was a factor in this.
Parece que não tem nada a ver, afinal teve o relançamento do Grupo PlayArtes em 2012/a Globo segurando os diretos ate 2017
Considering that last release was done by AB Groupe, there's hope they might do a full Big Green-style redub of all Dragon Ball content. I for one vouch for Ed Marcus and Paul Bandey to come back to voice Master Roshi, Freezer, Vejituh or just generally lend their voices to the half of the characters that won't be voiced by David Gasman. Damn, I really hope Ed Marcus is still alive, his work on the Big Green dub was pure gold.
Totally support this. That dub is a comedic masterpiece
Fuck that.
Just out of curiosity (and not knocking on you or anything) but does that spelling of Vegeta come from a specific country? Because I know in Japanese it’s “Beji-ta”. Anyway just curious
@@jaguarnero thats how they pronounced in the Big Green Dub. Ve-jit-uh instead of Ve-geet-uh
@@jaguarnero It's like saying the word Vegetable, but without the "ble" so I can't really blame them for going with that pronunciation. Vegeta/Bejita sounds cooler.
Dragon boxes + mono broadcast audio is my favorite way of watching. Of course the level sets for the first 39 episodes.
Damn, I was thinking about importing the orange bricks when I was younger, because the German release was so expensive. I am glad that I didn't.
We are currently also getting the AB Groupe release of Dragonball (3 volumes atm) and DBZ after that.
So looking forward to this!
Who do we need to hold hostage in order to make that AB Group partnership a reality for English release?! 😂 I don't even care to have it dubbed. Just give me high quality original audio and subtitles, all that beautiful visual grain w/out cropping and I'm a happy guy 👌🏼
Signed, a desperate 1st edition blu-ray set owner 😥
This is kinda funny you just posted this now, my boyfriend and I were talking about color issues and cropping on home video releases for anime, film, and TV, and Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon naturally came up due to how fucked the colors are on official releases for both and the infamous orange bricks for DBZ. I honestly have no idea why they dont take more care into making these shows the best possible presentation possible as these shows are iconic, so its sad to see them give half assed or terrible releases. Like just now instead of rereleasing the Steelbooks in a plastic case version and replacing the old Funimation season sets in circulation, Crunchyroll basically just took the old season sets and added their logo to it so we get another stupid cropped oversaturated release with egregious DNR. Hopefully we may get that French release though but I doubt it
This has made me realize I'm happy Funimation has gone down. Thank god DB and DBZ are on Crunchyroll now. I do wonder how it is in comparison to the home releases.
I love the Orange Bricks, and wouldn't want DBZ on home video in any other form, but I definitely acknowledge their faults.
I read it " the embarrassing failure of dbz " and i was ready to type PARAGRAPHS of text
I'm sure Mark would be mostly positive about DBZ especially if he's reviewing the manga
@@Ash_Wen-li ikr it seemed odd bc i watched his anime ranking vid and he spoke so highly about dbz
@@Ash_Wen-li ye. Dragon Ball Z has a lot of go to material. The manga I would say definitely has better stuff. But I would argue that the anime has done better to other characters such as Gohan.
Me too XD
I know you didn't have time in this video, but...i would be completely down to watch a follow up for DB and GT releases. I, honestly, didnt even know either one got releases in english outside of the blue and green bricks (not counting the old VHS releases).
Australia got a release of DB refered to as the "yellow bricks" or "banana bricks" slight step up from the blue bricks. And considered "good enough" by most.
3:13 one thing overlooked here: the Ultimate Sets were NEVER finished. They were very unceremoniously cancelled for the orange bricks. Thx Funimation. F in availability indeed! Also, sad to know that Dragon Ball isn't given proper respect in Japan either. Shame on you, Toei.
Mhmm and then they cancelled the Level Sets too!
I was actually kinda shocked they released the whole show in 4:3 with the new blurays so I was like, you know what given your track record that's actually a fairly decent release
Still a long way to go for that perfect release though, and we shouldn't be treated this way as a fanbase
@@Braylon1997 yes and that's completely Funimation's fault
Oh no. You pointed out the audio issue with the Dragon Box and now I can't not notice it. You've cursed us all.
This was a great video.
It's actually heartbreaking how Dragon Ball - one of the biggest and most important series in the anime & manga sphere - is treated in its home release.
AB Groupe did god's work with their release. And because our re-release of Dragon Ball in Germany came after AB Groupe's we hoped soooo badly to get similar good quality but it wasn't meant to be. Instead we got afaik the incompetent Selecta Vision release.
I only hope that future releases of Dragon Ball take a page of AB Groupe's book and finally, finally release Dragon Ball how it deserved to be released.
Thank you for making this more widely known.
I've been telling people about this problem for so long and it's so much to explain and it usually falls on deaf ears.
you know why?....cuz WE ARE SPOILED BEYOND COMPREHENSION. We didnt CARE about no dang "lines" being missing or "Sounds being altered" back when we were JUST getting into the series'. We appreciated even GETTING A SHOW AT ALL. "knowledge" is such a fking double-edged sword because WE get it, and take advantage of it in the worst ways. We see what something was, and complain that it doesn't look the same way it did ALL THESE YEARS LATER. if those lines that are missing bothers yall so much, go READ THE MANGA the way it was originally intended to be received. if u want to hear a weird Asian lady voice over....go do that. if u care THAT MUCH about the score.....look up the songs on here. point im tryna make is 👆THIS is why we ALL say "ppl are soft nowadays" cuz yall do stuff 👆LIKE THIS. WHEN ARE WE GONNA GROW UP?? IT'S A CARTOON. WE'RE 👉GROWN ASS MEN👈 FIND A SOLUTION and STOP CRYING 😂😂😂
@@home9dog2blue199evolving backwards, are we?
This video actually is great compared to a lot of other stuff on this channel. It tries to be more objective and grounded than being the usual subjective opinionated videos that are common on this channel. Grew up watching DBZ as a 10+ year old kid during the end of the 90s and early 00s, will forever love it and hopefully never forget it.
Yes. I've kept my single-dvd releases from the good old days (though I don't have the whole series that way,) and while I'll gleefully recognize that they're not perfect, it's impossible for me to find any other version that I enjoy as much. Faulconer's score is indispensable, and gives every scene a greater emotional weight, and while the voice acting can be pretty off-putting at times, I genuinely liked the way each character's voice sounded. If only they could have released the show like that, but without chopping some of the episodes apart, it would have been, for me, the ideal DBZ experience.
I feel like faulconer’s score is hit or miss tbh. Cool in some parts, but out place for others.
@@Lyy0n
Suit yourself. Some tunes are definitely better than others, but I can't think of a single tune by Faulconer that I consider inferior to the original Japanese tracks.
Same here man im only missing ginyu frieza and trunks saga. I know ginyu and trunks will be easy to get but frieza will be a pain in the ass to get and also think they are the best and most faithful to what I saw as a kid.
@@nathanpoertner
It's too bad we don't know each other in person. I'm only missing part of the Androids arc and onward.
At this point, I don't trust neither Funimation nor Toei to give us a proper remaster of the show. AB Groupe had to go out of their way to painstakingly remaster Dragon Ball, but the effort was well worth it as all I've heard regarding their remaster is high praise. Funimation has repeated shown they only care for holding the licenses, even if the show they grab can be a massive disaster in various ways (the Interspecies Reviewers fiasco being high on that list)
They also threw Vic under the bus to virtue signal.
yet many fans seme to trusty toei of db were to be reebot we all knwo toei wood ruin it with blood hate carp
@@dansmith1661 It wasn't virtue signaling. In fact, I don't even think they believed all that bs. If anything, I think those vindictive five were looking for an excuse to "KickVic" out of voice acting and found one in the convenient form of the #MeToo movement.
@@dansmith1661 ..Vic committed sexual assault.
Multiple people came out with stories about him doing shit like that, and while Vic has tried to sue the people that came out against him under Defamation, the case was overruled, as well as his multiple attempted appeals, due to the fact that he couldn't actually prove that his victims were lying about the fact he assaulted them. And even after the fact he's shown to be nothing but a creep. Like not wearing pants on a livestream with a bunch of women and "accidentally" reaching up and lowering the camera to show him in boxers only to then get kicked off afterwards.
Im not a Crunchyroll/Funimation fan at all but Vic is an awful person.
@@gspandem1204 I don't believe hearsay or women.
The level sets were the chosen ones! The were ment to bring balance to the home releases, not leave it in darkness!
Nerd
@@joshuarichard6827Nerds are cool.
@@_PuppetMaster86Nerd.
@@Drooook nerd.
@@Drooook Ok, shotgun pfp....
F***king tool
😎😎😎 👌
I bought the Orange bricks up to Season 7 and had recently learned that they were a bit poor quality wise, so i was looking to purchase the Steelbook series Season 8 and 9. watching this video and learning that the Steelbooks are also terrible really made me sad 😭
Steelbooks are excellent, outside of a little too much DNR/loss of grain. I would recommend them, especially if you’re coming from the orange bricks and have an HDTV.
The french AB Groupe broadcasting group is also known to dub english with poorly-written scripts and voice acting. And you know what they are known as: The "Big Green dub".
"I just need to have a clear conscience."
I still have all my 90s & Early 2000s VHS DBZ tapes & their DVD variants with both languages lol they make me happy cause of the Nostalgia & the fact I can watch both Dub & the original Japanese but it’s funny how I never really noticed all this stuff till social media haha hope 1 day they can make an S tier looking Blue Ray copy like that French set
People were happier before social media
@@guyanesegal3166Social Media/outrage_culture ruined so many things. Actively gives people reasons to be upset for viewership
@@spaceaustrailia5895 we can still have a right to be mad dawg, it says alot about a company for them to not even to be able to properly preserve their work and the fans gotta do it for them
@@spaceaustrailia5895 I don't know man, asking for a good product that you pay for isn't really something revolutionary here
The VHS tapes are probably (and unironically) the best quality you can watch the series in
After seeing the shorts I hoped you’d make a full vid on this. It’s actually crazy that they released them like this 😂
This is a great and interesting video, is there any way to check in wich condition the original film of shows like dbz is currently? I'm very curious.
As SHIT as the orange bricks are, they were what allowed me to finally watch the whole series start to finish. And the character/episode guides were great. Definitely the worst release but I'll always have a certain amount of nostalgia for them lol
Witnessing Orange Bricks makes me wish I did get hit by an orange brick in the face. I just want to forget everything about that.
Lol
I have the orange bricks and I never noticed the difference I like the orange bricks tho idc what anyone says
The first video I saw of yours was the long video going over this a couple years ago or so. Honestly, at this point I think they just need to hire you and put you in charge of it. I don't think we'll see a good remaster unless it's from someone with as much passion as you have, Mark. Keep up the videos.
My only regret in life is not being informed enough in 2011 about the level sets (also, I was kinda of broke in those years 🤣). I'm 100 percent sure that if supported and continued they would be the one and only way to watch our most beloved anime franchise.
I've watched the entirety of Dragon Ball/Z/GT including all the movies on multiple different anime sites and I was always confused as to why it was never consistent in audio, picture quality, and colors. Certain episodes had the original BGM while others had the Bruce Faulconer score. I realized this because I could have sworn I remembered Dragon Ball having bloody moments at times but since it was my first time watching the series since the Toonami days I never noticed I was watching a censored version of it. It's been a few years and I've been thinking about giving the series another go and this video finally shed some light as to why it was always inconsistent.
Love the video. Was curious for awhile on how those French Dragon Ball Blu-rays looked like. That's cool to hear they look great, and have restored audio as well!
Been very interested in a video like this since ive seen your youtube shorts and super happy to see it come to fruition
I think I had a download of the Level Sets years ago but couldn't find them again, hopefully now I finally know what to look up to find them again. I loved having both soundtracks to choose from on the fly.
Welp, like you said, it's mine, and I own it. The orange box, despite its flaws, suits me just fine. I'm happy to have Falconer audio and really never noticed the aspect ratio problems.
Great video Mark! I wonder how you choose to watch the series now...
ua-cam.com/video/7q9HJJFgrtA/v-deo.html
Man, some of the shots of the original footage actually made me want to boot up the show again.
Dragon ball and the original Star Wars trilogy shaking hands meme for both having cursed home releases
is there something similar to the Star Wars 4k77 project for Dragon Ball? In the sense of combining all the best aspects of each home release together to make the perfect version?
seed of might version it's probably the best you can get
I had Season 1 of the Orange Bricks, and when I got my Dragon Boxes in 2020, I pitched the former so hard, the discs broke in the box!
Perfect video showcasing all the issues that have happened over the years. Frustratingly, Funi/CR keeps putting out the Blue bricks despite the existence of the 30th set. They’re about to re-release them with the CR branding. There were recent 3-in-1 sets at Walmart, also Blue Bricks.
I’d love to see a follow-up that goes in-depth into the other releases for DB, GT, Kai, and the movies.
Its so sad that fans have had to go through and make there own definitive editions. The fan remaster of DB is amazing. All the effort that's gone into finding HD audio is astounding.
And then Toai turns them down for some reason!? Like, they were just going to give you HD audio! Why turn that down?
heck if Toei messaged them like "hey can we package this and sell it?" i think they would let them.
@@ghoulchan7525 I mean they fucking own it
Why would they ask when they can just demand it?
@@OHHHHUSBANT I'd say they can't really. Toei is selling them the exploitation rights since the version being sold is not a version in Toei's possession but work has been done on it. If they were just selling the version Toei is giving them, they could demand it.
@@StephOMacRules that's not how Jp laws work lmao
It's absolute bullshit because Jp copyright is somehow worse than American copyright laws
@@StephOMacRules It's not in their possession but it is covered 100% by their legal copyright for the series, and all imagery and audio it entails.
The fans having the audio means nothing, since they don't own it in the eyes of copyright law.
I won’t give Funimation any money until they give us the perfect DBZ set that the fans rightfully deserve.
Funimation doesn't exist anymore
@@JEFFMAN90 that’s false
This is very sad to see...but as someone looking to get back and give a watch again, what's the best option to watch it in 4:3 with decent sound and quality? (besides piracy -- I might resort to that, though), cause I'd love to put it on my TV
Well, I guess for the moment, AI upscaled and color corrected Dragon Box footage is as good as it's gonna get for now. At least those fan projects and AB Groupe's efforts (redeeming themselves from their error heavy french dub that was detrimental to several euroean dubs of the show. Though at least we got Big Green out of this) are done with enough care, and include the fabled Broadcast Audio to boot.
As a Hungarian, you have no idea how bizarre the DBZ intro is.
Honestly, I wish youtubers would talk about other dubs from other countries in the fandom. We could share a lot of experience with it. Still miffed we never got Kai. And now we never will because we lost our only Goku.
R.I.P Lippai László (1959-2022)
One thing that would've been cool to mention about the Orange Bricks, is most DBZ clips with a million views or more are from the orange bricks.
apparently it's because they are so crappy youtube's auto content filter just doesn't recognize them
Why did Funimation get away with it for so long? Because they were effectively a monopoly.
It would be interesting to see Mark could dig up what ended up happening with Kai and the Buu saga