Thursday July 21, 2011 at 04:00 pm by Rojas
Dragon Ball Z Sees November Release on High-Definition Blu-ray Disc™ Format
Flower Mound, TX (July 21, 2011) – FUNimation® Entertainment is announcing that it is bringing the first installment of the anime phenomenon Dragon Ball Z to Blu-ray disc for the first time this fall.
Among the most prized in the FUNimation catalog, the studio has used the newest technology available to remaster in high-definition and digitally restore the 291 episode series.
FUNimation worked with Dallas-based ANDTRANSFER for the digital film transfer. FUNimation previously worked with the post-production house to remaster the series for the season set releases on DVD. The transfer was performed by nationally-recognized colorist Steve Franko and supervised by FUNimation, which then finished the rest of the restoration process.
Today’s state-of-the-art systems offer tools that allow restoration teams to make a wide range of repairs and focus on more difficult tasks which, in the end, deliver a clean product that faithfully presents the original version and measures up to the high-quality standards of HDTV and Blu-ray.
Once again, the Dragon Ball Z series was digitally transferred from the original Japanese 16mm film frame by frame at 1080p. Developments in restoration software gives mastering artists more to work with when they apply tools to even out film grain and remove fading, film cuts and other visual anomalies. As a result, the viewer will see brighter, clearer colors, less variance in quality between scenes, and a sharper image.
“Working with a very old and fragile source film presented a number of challenges for the restoration process,” said Gen Fukunaga, CEO and president at FUNimation Entertainment. “Our purpose was to restore the series as accurately as possible, to what it must have been like to see it when it was originally mastered, and preserve the charm of the animation. After all, it is of a particular time and place.”
After debuting in 1989, Dragon Ball Z has become an iconic anime series. The franchise has sold more than 25 million DVD and Blu-ray discs in its lifetime, becoming the best-selling anime series of all time.
Dragon Ball Z is the explosive sequel to Dragon Ball. The series follows the adventures of Goku and his son Gohan as they team up with their friends to battle evil forces throughout the universe to protect their beloved planet Earth. The first season covers the Vegeta Saga and chronicles the introduction of one of Dragon Ball Z’s main characters, Vegeta.
This restored edition also features the original U.S. voice actors as well as the original FUNimation soundtrack – all in lossless Dolby® TrueHD.
Dragon Ball Z Level 1.1 includes the first 17 episodes on two discs with over 400 minutes of action and among the extras included on this release is a feature that looks at the restoration and remastering processes.
Dragon Ball Z Level 1.1 will be available at major retailers nationwide on November 8, 2011.
Visit the official Dragon Ball Z website at http://www.dragonballz.com/
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Comments
If it is going to be 4/3 resolution then I will get it, otherwise I will be sticking with the Dragon Boxes. I don't like part of the picture cropped away.
What the hell?! This is reeeeaally annoying and I don't understand! Don't get me wrong though, I'm not pissed off because they're remastering it AGAIN; that's okay, and I welcome it, better is better. What upsets me is how they release it 17 episodes at a time!!! I have bought all the orange bricks and I would be willing to sell them to go towards the blu ray, but it's going to be SO MUCH GODAMN MONEY! It's not fair, when they release an old series for the umpteenth time, (especially one that is 291 episodes), they should not release it in such short bursts. It's going to take forever, be a lot of money, and doesn't help out the fans; it's a slap in the face.
Also, I agree with what GWOtaku said.
A trailer like the Yu Yu Hakusho one would be perfect for people that think this might be the Orange Bricks but on blu-ray.
I don't see why you guys are complaining.
If you don't want it, don't buy it.
This is PERFECT for me.
It will have the look of the Dragon Boxes (maybe even better), but with the Bruce Faulconer music, which is what I want.
I wanted the Orange Bricks because it has the music I want, but because it had so many problems, I decided not to get it.
Then I decided to get the Dragon Boxes. But I HATE the Japanese music, and can't sit through 9 seasons of a show with horrible music.
I decided to wait until a Blu-ray release, but I had no idea it would be announced so fast.
So to some people, like myself, this is perfect. I'm extremely pleased with what FUNimation is doing with Dragon Ball Z. This is what you call variety.
Everyone wins.
It will be awesome as soon as this release is done then they will release DBZ on 3d Blu Ray its already been foreseen it will happen lol!! Sorry Funi but until you announce the Dboxes of Db and even terrible GT you got all the money out of me for Dragon Ball that you are going to well after 3 more Kai sets and at least 3 more Dboxes since i know that they are Dboxing the movies and i forgot the two Kai season Sets I will buy so that i can have a consecutive release with all of the Kikuchki score if they do change the musical score of course lol!!!
Yeah Fail... I don't see how you can justify releasing the same series over and over again. I'm already buying KAI and the Dboxes as they come out, why would I need to buy it a third time. What you should be doing is Licensing One Piece.
How about the company spends more money on throwing cash at the One Piece deal instead of retreads? Also, the D.Gray-Man seasons!
Okay, what's with all the "milking" crap? No one is forcing anyone to buy anything here. If any DBZ fan wants to buy this, how are they being "milked?" It's their choice and they've got a bunch of options to buy something else!
We have Kai ob Blu-ray. Kai is the definitive Dragon Ball Z. AND it's on Blu-ray. So I have my Dragon Ball Z in it's definitive edition. If I ever wanted to watch the old, cheesy english dub and filler infested anime, I would watch my Dragon Boxes.
FUNimation, you have already stated that Kai is better than Z, multiple times. Why are you still releasing the original? Because you love milking the fans for every penny they have. Do we really need to see the series again on Blu-ray? Kai on Blu-ray is probably the best the series is ever going to look. Guys, this is not going to be so revolutionary. This will most likely be the Orange Brick sets, but just transferred to Blu-ray. Do you guys remember those sets? The ones that cropped 20% of the screen? The one's that had colors and lines often disappear? THIS is what you fanboys are drooling over? Get over yourselves.
This news came just in time I just sold my dragon ball z dvd collection. all 9 seasons and movies. Now lets hope they put the American music into it. And lets hope they put them on 50gb disks. The DBZ movies that where put onto blu ray was compressed onto a relay small file and the video quality relay suffered because of it. I wonder if they will give an aspect ratio option. I know that some movies on blu ray give an option between 16:9 and 4:3. they would need double the blu rays to do that without loss of quality. (at anime expo) One thing that I heard as a suggestion to Funimation a couple of years ago was a mix and match audio. Pick a spoken language like Funimations English, Japaneses or even Ocean Dub then pic the music; Japaneses, Funimation or Ocean music, to go along with the dub. It would please all fans and thanks to the magic of blu ray it could easily be done. Iv seen a tv show on blu ray with 9 sound tracks witch is exactly the amount of tracks that they would need to do it (If they include Oceans work). It would be a huge selling point.
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