Post by Iyouboushi on Aug 20, 2009 19:40:42 GMT -6
In a surprise announcement, FUNimation has announced during a panel at Otakon that they would be releasing the first of seven "Dragon Box" sets for Dragon Ball Z.
If you don't remember or have no idea what the Dragon Box sets are, allow me to briefly try to explain.
Unlike here (and I suppose in Europe), in Japan the DBZ series never saw a video release (DVD, LD, VHS). In 2003 Toei began releasing the entirety of the TV series and movies on DVD in a new remastered version. In the video they basically went frame by frame and remastered it all, removing dirt, damages, doing re-alignment, etc. This was the Dragon Box set. It was available pre-order only and cost over $600 a set (there were two), and later released as individual DVDs containing six episodes a piece. Of course Japan went on to release Dragon Box sets of all three series as well as one for the movies.
FUNimation always got the short end of the stick, never being allowed to have the Dragon Box set footage (until now!) and always had to make do with whatever they had. And they've done some strange stuff with it, such as make it faux widescreen (in those dirt cheap season sets they were releasing).
So it's big news that Toei has finally allowed FUNimation to have access to the Dragon Box footage. As such, FUNimation is stating that this is "the definitive presentation of the series" and rightly so (at least until Kai comes out
).
Some more details:
Part One will retail for $79.98, and contain episodes 1-42 in 4:3 aspect ratio
Each set will come with an 80-page, hardcover book
The set defaults to Japanese.
Box 1 artwork:
If you're looking at the price tag going "holy crap that's expensive for 42 episodes" just remember that if you wanted to order the individual Dragon Box dvds that they would cost nearly $40 for six episodes (or around $280 for the same amount of episodes you're getting for roughly $80) and you wouldn't be getting subtitles (and potentially a horrible English dub track).
I find this pretty cool. I might have to pick up a few when they get to the later episodes that I actually would like to have on DVD.
If you don't remember or have no idea what the Dragon Box sets are, allow me to briefly try to explain.
Unlike here (and I suppose in Europe), in Japan the DBZ series never saw a video release (DVD, LD, VHS). In 2003 Toei began releasing the entirety of the TV series and movies on DVD in a new remastered version. In the video they basically went frame by frame and remastered it all, removing dirt, damages, doing re-alignment, etc. This was the Dragon Box set. It was available pre-order only and cost over $600 a set (there were two), and later released as individual DVDs containing six episodes a piece. Of course Japan went on to release Dragon Box sets of all three series as well as one for the movies.
FUNimation always got the short end of the stick, never being allowed to have the Dragon Box set footage (until now!) and always had to make do with whatever they had. And they've done some strange stuff with it, such as make it faux widescreen (in those dirt cheap season sets they were releasing).
So it's big news that Toei has finally allowed FUNimation to have access to the Dragon Box footage. As such, FUNimation is stating that this is "the definitive presentation of the series" and rightly so (at least until Kai comes out
).Some more details:
Part One will retail for $79.98, and contain episodes 1-42 in 4:3 aspect ratio
Each set will come with an 80-page, hardcover book
The set defaults to Japanese.
Box 1 artwork:
If you're looking at the price tag going "holy crap that's expensive for 42 episodes" just remember that if you wanted to order the individual Dragon Box dvds that they would cost nearly $40 for six episodes (or around $280 for the same amount of episodes you're getting for roughly $80) and you wouldn't be getting subtitles (and potentially a horrible English dub track).
I find this pretty cool. I might have to pick up a few when they get to the later episodes that I actually would like to have on DVD.