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Answerman - Why Do Funimation's Dragon Ball Z Re-Releases Look Like That?

....Yeah that's kind of what I already said. Battle Points was likely changed out for something else in Kai because of it blatantly copying parts of The Murder of Love by Propaganda.

What the hell should I even buy?!

The real question is when "fans" say the show doesn't "look right" I have to wonder what they are comparing it to. How many people have owned, or watched 4:3 versions of DB and DBZ?

I suppose most people who would buy the highest cost collectors edition of this type would likely own 20+year old versions of the show, but anyone in their early twenties would likely not want to bother with anything but a widescreen version.

You can tell that it's the film elements because the Dragon Box, made from Toei's remaster of PROPER film elements, looks better. But it's in SD. 16mm straight from the camera may look OK, but after a generation or two, it looks like crap. I still have my old 16mm projector, and I never use it, because the last time I busted it out and projected something, I was aghast at how blurry, dirty and grainy it looked. It's simply not up to current visual standards.

Animorphimagi wrote:

The real question is when "fans" say the show doesn't "look right" I have to wonder what they are comparing it to. How many people have owned, or watched 4:3 versions of DB and DBZ? I suppose most people who would buy the highest cost collectors edition of this type would likely own 20+year old versions of the show, but anyone in their early twenties would likely not want to bother with anything but a widescreen version.

All those in their early 20s who don't want to see the full picture, know nothing about original/intended ratios, and aren't bothered by subpar video quality, sure.

Certainly there are people of all ages who fall on either side of that spectrum. There was a vid on YT of some 6 year-old kid complaining about the nature of this release (I'm sure his opinion was formed with the help of his teen brother, but still).

And to answer your question, considering the decades when DBZ was most popular, and that it's only been America in the last decade or so that's cropped it (not counting Kai), the number of people who have watched DBZ in 4:3 would likely be orders of magnitude higher than those who have watched it chopped. DB has never been chopped to 16:9 as far as I'm aware.

"Welcome" to anime fandom, btw, where both it and the world existed before you did, and don't take their cues solely from your own limited experience.

I'll brought a Dragon Ball (OG DB + Z) box set if only said box contain the original japanese broadcast audio (in stereo) and image 4:3 top notch quality.

I don't think Toonami had shows in 4:3 in 2002 did they?

Animorphimagi wrote:

I don't think Toonami had shows in 4:3 in 2002 did they?

Outside of whatever movies they aired at the time, everything was 4:3 still.

Funimation didn't even start chopping DBZ up until 2006, so that's the earliest Toonami could've shown it in 16:9, and even then I'm not sure that they would've bothered obtaining the new masters from Funi for quite some time. Do they show DBZ in 16:9 even now (or the show at all? I haven't had cable for about 15 years, lol). And what of their other shows when they go retro? I don't imagine they would be cropping FLCL and Cowboy Bebop themselves to convert them to widescreen, do they?

Even ignoring the plagiarism controversy they replaced the OST elsewhere because it wouldn't mesh with Kai due to all the cuts and speed ups for the new pacing.

Original: https://youtu.be/Kz0HONneZmc?t=82
Kai: https://youtu.be/nv9eDNZJEZU?t=39

You can see they sped up those scenes so Unmei no Hi wouldn't fit the scene like it did in the original, so it got replaced. That's why I don't recommend Kai to anyone, all that 'filler' was how the show was designed and everything revolves around the original pacing. I find the original Z scene much more powerful.