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this restoration is beautifully detailed and offers some nice choices in the soundtrack options. --Jeffrey Kauffman, Blu-ray.com
for those who grew up with this original version and still love it, the handwriting, as in Reagan days of yore, is on the wall. --Jeffrey Kauffman, Blu-ray.com
for those who grew up with this original version and still love it, the handwriting, as in Reagan days of yore, is on the wall. --Jeffrey Kauffman, Blu-ray.com
Product Description
Brace yourself for the arrival of Raditz! Witness the fall of Goku! And tremble at the moonlit-emergence of young Gohan’s inner beast!
For the first time in any corner of the galaxy, Dragon Ball Z is available in HD on Bluray! This one-of-a-kind collection presents the first seventeen episodes of DBZ in unparalleled picture quality. A team of experts worked around the clock to put the greatest anime in history on the cutting edge of modern technology. This spectacular BluRay version of DBZ is re-mastered from the original film footage – frame by frame – with steps taken to ensure pristine picture quality free from any imperfections. The classic 4:3 format is captured in true 1080p HD with the original, director-approved color scheme! You may think you’ve seen all there is to see in the DBZ universe, but you’re wrong. Take home this seventeen episode collection today, and fire your next Kamehameha Wave in the brilliance of Bluray!
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
This review primarily concerns the HD video quality of the "Dragon Ball Z" Level 1.1 Blu-ray Disc (BD).
This Blu-ray presentation, which features the show in its native 4:3 aspect ratio, is based on a new telecine (the film-to-video process) of 16mm film materials FUNimation has had for a good number of years. What they received from Toei were film prints that are two or three generations removed from the original negatives. Scanning from a film print is not ideal, but sometimes--as in this case--doing so creates pleasing results (and other times, also in this case, it's all anyone CAN do, since Toei never hand anyone their negatives).
Provided for the telecine process was the TAF (telecine analysis film), which specifies what the colors, blacks, and whites should be. This new HD scan reflects what the original animators had made. Unlike the Dragon Box DVDs, colors and saturation look more level with no contrast boosting and the like. Black levels are solid black, reds are more red, etc. This is what the makers of the anime series intended.
Because the series was shot on 16mm film, grain is intense. Grain is what composes the image on film; to remove grain is to remove critical detail along with it (and you obviously can never fully eliminate grain; attempts to remove all traces of "visible grain" result in highly smoothed-over picture quality void of detail). However, since this new HD master was struck from 2nd- or 3rd-generation film prints, additional grain is laid on top. FUNimation handled this with a light grain filtering which largely preserves the grain and does not ruin any of the line art and background painting detail, but does cause the grain to look slightly patchy at times. I would have preferred them to leave the grain alone, but the filtering they did does nothing to ruin the image. What's left is an image that's still intensely grainy, and detail is preserved.
In addition to grain filtering, frame-by-frame dirt, scratch, tape, and other debris cleanup was applied. I applaud FUNimation for handling the ugly bits in this way, rather than applying an automatic noise reduction process which would have undoubtedly destroyed the line art and overall picture integrity. (See the "orange brick" season DVDs to see how NOT to handle dirt and other defects.)
The picture quality is simply beautiful, and it boggles my mind to think that we're viewing "Dragon Ball Z" in this high of quality considering the show was originally broadcast in lo-fi analog video. What's interesting to note is that the opening to each episode was sourced from the first movie, "Dead Zone" (evident by the EIRIN certificate number in the lower right of the title), but that's no problem since it's the same intro as the first number of episodes from the TV series. However, this does make the "standard definition vs. HD restored" comparison in the extra featurette on disc two a bit misleading, since this opening would have been sourced from 35mm, so it's of higher quality than the episodes themselves. The opening and closing do not contain Japanese credits (and the closing features English credits even if you're watching it in Japanese). Reason being is FUNimation were never given film elements for the opening and closing that contain the opticals for the credits. I'll take a "clean" opening in HD sourced from 35mm over a standard definition opening with credits, though it would have been nice for FUNimation to provide the SD opening/closing with Japanese credits as extras. Next episode previews are also missing for the same reason, though again, providing the SD video as an option would have been nice if enough disc space is available.
The only major gripe I have with the HD video are that the episode title cards are only in English. Seems that FUNimation threw alternate angles out the window long ago. I always appreciated seeing the Japanese title cards on my "Dragon Ball" Saga DVDs, so this feels like a major step back to me. The English translations of the original titles are a whole lot more interesting to me than the English dub titles, and on top of that, I find the Japanese title cards to be much more aesthetically pleasing (despite not being able to read the kanji). Hopefully it's a problem that will be rectified on future sets. However, it's not such a major gripe that it will prevent me from purchasing future sets even if the original cards aren't provided. The video quality is otherwise astounding, so I'll happily but begrudgingly suck it up if things continue this way.
There are three Dolby TrueHD audio options: original Japanese mono, English with Japanese music 5.1, and English with redone American music stereo. The Japanese mono is one channel; I think I would have preferred 2.0 dual mono, though purists may have issue with that. I believe there's no reason to be truly disappointed with any of the tracks; those who prefer the English dub with American broadcast music may gripe that the track is only 2.0, but at least it's lossless, when it wasn't even included on the Dragon Boxes at all.
"DBZ" Level 1.1 on Blu-ray is the finest this show has ever looked on video BY FAR, and will continue to be the standard of quality until Toei Animation scan and restore the original camera negatives (which, given their track record, they may never do). If you're on the fence and you're a videophile, buy it, buy it, BUY IT!
This Blu-ray presentation, which features the show in its native 4:3 aspect ratio, is based on a new telecine (the film-to-video process) of 16mm film materials FUNimation has had for a good number of years. What they received from Toei were film prints that are two or three generations removed from the original negatives. Scanning from a film print is not ideal, but sometimes--as in this case--doing so creates pleasing results (and other times, also in this case, it's all anyone CAN do, since Toei never hand anyone their negatives).
Provided for the telecine process was the TAF (telecine analysis film), which specifies what the colors, blacks, and whites should be. This new HD scan reflects what the original animators had made. Unlike the Dragon Box DVDs, colors and saturation look more level with no contrast boosting and the like. Black levels are solid black, reds are more red, etc. This is what the makers of the anime series intended.
Because the series was shot on 16mm film, grain is intense. Grain is what composes the image on film; to remove grain is to remove critical detail along with it (and you obviously can never fully eliminate grain; attempts to remove all traces of "visible grain" result in highly smoothed-over picture quality void of detail). However, since this new HD master was struck from 2nd- or 3rd-generation film prints, additional grain is laid on top. FUNimation handled this with a light grain filtering which largely preserves the grain and does not ruin any of the line art and background painting detail, but does cause the grain to look slightly patchy at times. I would have preferred them to leave the grain alone, but the filtering they did does nothing to ruin the image. What's left is an image that's still intensely grainy, and detail is preserved.
In addition to grain filtering, frame-by-frame dirt, scratch, tape, and other debris cleanup was applied. I applaud FUNimation for handling the ugly bits in this way, rather than applying an automatic noise reduction process which would have undoubtedly destroyed the line art and overall picture integrity. (See the "orange brick" season DVDs to see how NOT to handle dirt and other defects.)
The picture quality is simply beautiful, and it boggles my mind to think that we're viewing "Dragon Ball Z" in this high of quality considering the show was originally broadcast in lo-fi analog video. What's interesting to note is that the opening to each episode was sourced from the first movie, "Dead Zone" (evident by the EIRIN certificate number in the lower right of the title), but that's no problem since it's the same intro as the first number of episodes from the TV series. However, this does make the "standard definition vs. HD restored" comparison in the extra featurette on disc two a bit misleading, since this opening would have been sourced from 35mm, so it's of higher quality than the episodes themselves. The opening and closing do not contain Japanese credits (and the closing features English credits even if you're watching it in Japanese). Reason being is FUNimation were never given film elements for the opening and closing that contain the opticals for the credits. I'll take a "clean" opening in HD sourced from 35mm over a standard definition opening with credits, though it would have been nice for FUNimation to provide the SD opening/closing with Japanese credits as extras. Next episode previews are also missing for the same reason, though again, providing the SD video as an option would have been nice if enough disc space is available.
The only major gripe I have with the HD video are that the episode title cards are only in English. Seems that FUNimation threw alternate angles out the window long ago. I always appreciated seeing the Japanese title cards on my "Dragon Ball" Saga DVDs, so this feels like a major step back to me. The English translations of the original titles are a whole lot more interesting to me than the English dub titles, and on top of that, I find the Japanese title cards to be much more aesthetically pleasing (despite not being able to read the kanji). Hopefully it's a problem that will be rectified on future sets. However, it's not such a major gripe that it will prevent me from purchasing future sets even if the original cards aren't provided. The video quality is otherwise astounding, so I'll happily but begrudgingly suck it up if things continue this way.
There are three Dolby TrueHD audio options: original Japanese mono, English with Japanese music 5.1, and English with redone American music stereo. The Japanese mono is one channel; I think I would have preferred 2.0 dual mono, though purists may have issue with that. I believe there's no reason to be truly disappointed with any of the tracks; those who prefer the English dub with American broadcast music may gripe that the track is only 2.0, but at least it's lossless, when it wasn't even included on the Dragon Boxes at all.
"DBZ" Level 1.1 on Blu-ray is the finest this show has ever looked on video BY FAR, and will continue to be the standard of quality until Toei Animation scan and restore the original camera negatives (which, given their track record, they may never do). If you're on the fence and you're a videophile, buy it, buy it, BUY IT!
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
Yes. Funimation has indefinitely postponed the Dragon Ball Z Blu-Ray restorations (though not Kai). This is a sad day indeed. Apparently there is a technology or other issue. But Level 1.2 was the last, though there might be advance copies of 2.1 floating around.
But as of Jan 2012, this restoration project has been indefinitely postponed (likely cancelled)!
I just thought everyone would like to know before buying the available copies and then not having the rest of the set coming out anytime in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, DBZ Kai is what I have been purchasing. It does chop out a lot of the filler content, but it holds true to the DBZ story that Akira Toriyama created and intended before Toei started stretching the series out longer. The restoration on the Kai Blu-Ray is pretty amazing for the most part. I understand it is a simpler restoration process, but watching on a 46" TV from my PS3, the show looks great. And they kept the 4:3 ratio.
But for DBZ Level (insert # here)? You Fail on this one Funimation! I will delete this review when they announce they are producing the rest of these sets.
But as of Jan 2012, this restoration project has been indefinitely postponed (likely cancelled)!
I just thought everyone would like to know before buying the available copies and then not having the rest of the set coming out anytime in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, DBZ Kai is what I have been purchasing. It does chop out a lot of the filler content, but it holds true to the DBZ story that Akira Toriyama created and intended before Toei started stretching the series out longer. The restoration on the Kai Blu-Ray is pretty amazing for the most part. I understand it is a simpler restoration process, but watching on a 46" TV from my PS3, the show looks great. And they kept the 4:3 ratio.
But for DBZ Level (insert # here)? You Fail on this one Funimation! I will delete this review when they announce they are producing the rest of these sets.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
(NOTE: Amazon's date states October 17. On that date, I wrote a different response. On December 17, I've created a review of this release, so this was actually written on the later date.)
Update 6/9/12: Unfortunately, Funimation suspended all
future releases of DBZ Blu-rays in January 2012 due to Restoration financing. It's a shame because these Blu-rays are the best way to watch DBZ. Now that those aren't being continued, and the Dragon Boxes are becoming out-of-print, the only option is the cropped Orange-box versions... please continue the restorations, Funimation.)
At first, it was skeptical. Funimation making the Blu-rays of the series before Japan does? New HD masters done by Funimation? This was the company that gave us the Orange Box sets that had cropped images and controversial picture quality. It was all justified when they released the Dragon Box, a replica of the Japanese DVD-Boxes which was considered the ultimate way to watch Dragon Ball Z... it no longer isn't.
Yes, believe it or not, the new Blu-rays made by Funimation are actually the BEST way to watch DBZ, period. The Dragon Box, what would've been considered the Ultimate Edition, actually had its colors changed abnormally and grain reduced (now, these masters were done for the purposes of DVD).
Instead of Funimation using the HD masters that would be used for the Orange Box sets, they went back from scratch and did an all-new frame-by-frame restoration. The difference from the new and the old masters is that grain is finally shown, the colors are untouched, the telecine wobble and jutters have been greatly reduced, and most of the dirt shown on the Orange Box DVDs have been reduced significantly to near-Dragon Box restoration... though, not entirely, but never distracting.
Those that expect modern Anime picture quality will probably not bother seeing this... or reduce the grain themselves with their TVs, as DBZ now looks like what film should look like... and I couldn't be happier. DBZ clearly has never looked better.
As for the sound department, behold, big upgrades have occurred. The 5.1 English-with-Japanese-music and the 2.0 American Broadcast audio (the 2.0 track dropped out in the Dragon Box for optimal video presentation.) are presented for the first time in lossless Dolby TrueHD, but the bigger surprise here is that the Japanese audio is now lossless. This is the first time that the Japanese audio has been given this treatment, as all previous releases would provide compressed audio for the original language of this show. That's not to say that I hate the dub (though I'm not a fan of the American Music), but giving the original what it deserves is a plus.
NOTE: The original Japanese theme can only be heard in the Japanese Audio, despite the English 5.1 having the Japanese music, as was the case in the orange box sets. In the Dragon Box, it was corrected. The reason for bringing back the error is unknown.
Now, that is not to say that the Dragon Boxes were a waste of money. In terms of DVD representation, it clearly is the best to watch the show possible, provide the best detail and colors (though inaccurate). In terms of faithfulness, well, I have to declare the Blu-ray the winner... but I do have further opinions on the comparisons.
The plus side for the Dragon Boxes is the inclusion of original Japanese text, "next-time" previews and booklets that contain Episode guides and a few bonus bits in the book. This is not the case for the Blu-rays, as it's just English Text (the opening credits were not translated, but instead, textless), and previews and Episode guides are gone, just an Episode list of the Funimation English titles... thankfully, other than the Booklets, these are minor changes.
The one negative side for the Dragon Box is what the Orange box had that the Funimation Dragon Box didn't have (yet the Japanese Dragon Box had): Marathon Mode. Don't want to deal with the opening/closing theme and last time previews every time? The Marathon Mode (or Story Mode in Japan) gets rid of all that, as it presents the story continuously (except for switching discs).
Strangely, Funimation dropped the Marathon mode for the Dragon Box (Why? Reason: When you select the Japanese track on the menu, you get the next-time previews. When you select the English track, it goes to another title and removes the next-time previews... why couldn't they have Sean Schemmel provide the narrations for those previews? Would've kept the marathon mode if they did that... but I digress)
What's even worse is that no chapter break is given between "last-time" and the beginnig of the episode. That means that I have to fast forward and possibly miss a few seconds of the episodes after fast-forwarding... no excuse on leaving out a chapter at that position.
Now, with all of the complaining on this one negative aspect, should this apply to the Blu-ray? The good news is: the Marathon mode's been brought back.
As far as which version to get, it depends. If you only have a DVD player, go for the Dragon Box. For those who have the Blu-ray player, there should be no reason to not upgrade. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, so you can't go wrong. Highly Recommended.
Update 6/9/12: Unfortunately, Funimation suspended all
future releases of DBZ Blu-rays in January 2012 due to Restoration financing. It's a shame because these Blu-rays are the best way to watch DBZ. Now that those aren't being continued, and the Dragon Boxes are becoming out-of-print, the only option is the cropped Orange-box versions... please continue the restorations, Funimation.)
At first, it was skeptical. Funimation making the Blu-rays of the series before Japan does? New HD masters done by Funimation? This was the company that gave us the Orange Box sets that had cropped images and controversial picture quality. It was all justified when they released the Dragon Box, a replica of the Japanese DVD-Boxes which was considered the ultimate way to watch Dragon Ball Z... it no longer isn't.
Yes, believe it or not, the new Blu-rays made by Funimation are actually the BEST way to watch DBZ, period. The Dragon Box, what would've been considered the Ultimate Edition, actually had its colors changed abnormally and grain reduced (now, these masters were done for the purposes of DVD).
Instead of Funimation using the HD masters that would be used for the Orange Box sets, they went back from scratch and did an all-new frame-by-frame restoration. The difference from the new and the old masters is that grain is finally shown, the colors are untouched, the telecine wobble and jutters have been greatly reduced, and most of the dirt shown on the Orange Box DVDs have been reduced significantly to near-Dragon Box restoration... though, not entirely, but never distracting.
Those that expect modern Anime picture quality will probably not bother seeing this... or reduce the grain themselves with their TVs, as DBZ now looks like what film should look like... and I couldn't be happier. DBZ clearly has never looked better.
As for the sound department, behold, big upgrades have occurred. The 5.1 English-with-Japanese-music and the 2.0 American Broadcast audio (the 2.0 track dropped out in the Dragon Box for optimal video presentation.) are presented for the first time in lossless Dolby TrueHD, but the bigger surprise here is that the Japanese audio is now lossless. This is the first time that the Japanese audio has been given this treatment, as all previous releases would provide compressed audio for the original language of this show. That's not to say that I hate the dub (though I'm not a fan of the American Music), but giving the original what it deserves is a plus.
NOTE: The original Japanese theme can only be heard in the Japanese Audio, despite the English 5.1 having the Japanese music, as was the case in the orange box sets. In the Dragon Box, it was corrected. The reason for bringing back the error is unknown.
Now, that is not to say that the Dragon Boxes were a waste of money. In terms of DVD representation, it clearly is the best to watch the show possible, provide the best detail and colors (though inaccurate). In terms of faithfulness, well, I have to declare the Blu-ray the winner... but I do have further opinions on the comparisons.
The plus side for the Dragon Boxes is the inclusion of original Japanese text, "next-time" previews and booklets that contain Episode guides and a few bonus bits in the book. This is not the case for the Blu-rays, as it's just English Text (the opening credits were not translated, but instead, textless), and previews and Episode guides are gone, just an Episode list of the Funimation English titles... thankfully, other than the Booklets, these are minor changes.
The one negative side for the Dragon Box is what the Orange box had that the Funimation Dragon Box didn't have (yet the Japanese Dragon Box had): Marathon Mode. Don't want to deal with the opening/closing theme and last time previews every time? The Marathon Mode (or Story Mode in Japan) gets rid of all that, as it presents the story continuously (except for switching discs).
Strangely, Funimation dropped the Marathon mode for the Dragon Box (Why? Reason: When you select the Japanese track on the menu, you get the next-time previews. When you select the English track, it goes to another title and removes the next-time previews... why couldn't they have Sean Schemmel provide the narrations for those previews? Would've kept the marathon mode if they did that... but I digress)
What's even worse is that no chapter break is given between "last-time" and the beginnig of the episode. That means that I have to fast forward and possibly miss a few seconds of the episodes after fast-forwarding... no excuse on leaving out a chapter at that position.
Now, with all of the complaining on this one negative aspect, should this apply to the Blu-ray? The good news is: the Marathon mode's been brought back.
As far as which version to get, it depends. If you only have a DVD player, go for the Dragon Box. For those who have the Blu-ray player, there should be no reason to not upgrade. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, so you can't go wrong. Highly Recommended.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's very good
The only thing i dont like about these dragonball episodes, is that the aspect is 4:3, where i would have liked it more in aspect 16:9 even though it not the original aspect like... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mathias
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything I've ever wanted in a DBZ Blu-ray
The scan is beautiful, and this is, in my mind, the definitive set for anyone looking to preserve DBZ for themselves in their personal library.
Published 12 days ago by metroidfan220
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome
I have all the DB.DBZ,and DBGT that has ever come out in America. This just adds to my collection. I'm glad they are putting them out on Blu-ray. Looks great in high res.
Published 29 days ago by Pen Name
5.0 out of 5 stars
DBZ.. in HD
I really enjoyed this, watched it a few times over and I have to say that some of the episodes just didnt get the love that others did when they retouched it, but it is all still... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Neverdweller
5.0 out of 5 stars
DBZ IS AWESOME
I LOVE THE WHOLE BLURAY SETUP! THE EPISODES ARE AWESOME! THE ONLY THING I DIDNT LIKE IS THAT IT WAS PRETTY GRAINY, BUT ITS WAS STILL REALLY CLEAR. Read more
Published 14 months ago by PROJECKTCHAOS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looks better than i thought!
The main reason i held from buying for this long was because the price dropped a little..Funimation did better than i thought,the animation looks good for it's age,hopefully they... Read more
Published 15 months ago by BIGJOEJGDE
1.0 out of 5 stars
CANCELED
As much as i ;ove DBZ and want to have them on Blu-ray Dont buy these sets Funimation Suspends Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray Production.[...]
Published 15 months ago by james
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not really HD, don't buy this yet.
Just to inform those on the fence about this release, it is not true HD. If it was, it would be 1920x1080p resolution, which is 16:9. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Z. Carmichael
5.0 out of 5 stars
So Amazing!!
The Quality of the video is so awesome!
It felt like old times but powered up lol. It was well worth buying.
It felt like old times but powered up lol. It was well worth buying.
Published 16 months ago by Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dragon Ball Z - Even Better in HD
I loved Dragon Ball Z as a kid. I would watch it every day in Cartoon Network. I ordered Level 1.1 as a Christmas present to myself, and it has made me fall in love with Dragon... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Devon
