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Like many, I am discouraged by FUNimation's decision to release DBZ as a 'widescreen' presentation. I have looked into the best way to appeal to FUNimation as a customer, and have come up with the following:

It's gonna take tangible proof of a problem for FUNimation to change anything. A lot of tangible proof. Online petitions and complaints on message boards do little if anything. The internet grants us anonymity, which is a double-edged blade in cases like this. To have your stance taken into consideration, you must prove you exist.

To help in this case, I have written a letter that everyone is free to use. It addresses our concerns in an intelligent, straightforward manner. All you need to do is fill in your name and contact information, If you want to customize it go ahead but keep in mind this is a professional complaint. Keep it civil, intelligent and to the point.

All letters should go to:

Funimation Entertainment
Attn: DBZ Brand Manager
6851 NE Loop 820, Suite 400
Ft Worth, TX 76180

I can't guarantee our efforts will result in a change, but at the least we will be heard. If you post in any other communities or have friends or family who may be interested, please pass the word on. Keep in mind that this letter campaign benefits not only DragonBall Z, but reminds FUNimation that we don't want to see any anime altered in this manner ever again.

Thanks,
Corey

No interest here?

-Corey

No bumping your own thread. I was going to lock this, but because I agree with you, you've been very polite thus far, and I like that you've taken a mature approach, I'm going to let you off with a simple warning.

I apologize. I had made sure to read "teh rules" but saw nothing about bumping one's own thread. In either case, most forums follow a "once a day" standard, but if that's not that case here I'll be sure not to do it again.

I was just worried that my post would be lost below the "lol if anime was reel what kind anime you want??!1" types of threads ;p

-Corey

i dont really mind that its in wide screen. i myself have a widescreen tv to get the best quality.

im just happy that they are realaseing so much at a time for less money.

Season 1 - 39 episodes - 34.99(Best Buy)
Single discs - 3-4 episodes - 19.99(Best Buy)

im glad i waited.

Kalvarius wrote:

i don't really mind that its in wide screen. i myself have a widescreen tv to get the best quality..

This isn't a matter of preference and it doesn't matter if you have a widescreen TV. You're still losing 20% of the footage. DBZ was animated back in the late '80s when all TV shows were animated in fullscreen. It was always meant to be animated in fullscreen but Funi is using widescreen as a new commercial gimmick to make the set more appealing to Joe Suncoast. They think if they slap the word "widescreen" on their sets that it's going to encourage more casual buyers to buy the set because widescreen is the current hot new buzzword movie companies like to throw around these days. But because DBZ was originally animated in fullscreen, 20% of the footage has to be cropped for Funi's new fake widescreen release, so even if you have a widescreen TV, you're still losing 20% of the original footage, then Funi has the nerve to lie to the fans that this is the way DBZ was "meant to be seen" when DBZ was never animated in widescreen to begin with. It's not about whether or not people prefer widescreen over fullscreen. I'm sure many DBZ fans would love to have it in widescreen if it was supposed to be presented that way. But this is a matter about presenting DBZ in its original and proper aspect ratio which is fullscreen, not widescreen. And it doesn't matter if you have a widescreen TV or not. You're still losing 20% of the original footage. Also, just because you don't mind it being in widescreen doesn't mean everybody else does. The world doesn't revolve around you. Funi should still at least allow the customer the ability to choose between a fullscreen release or a widescreen release. That's why most movie companies release both a fullscreen version and a widescreen version. Hey MajinVejitaXV, maybe you should submit a rant about Funi's widescreen release of DBZ to Answerman. Most of the ANN users check the Answerman rant weekly and even some people who don't read the forums may still read the Answerman rant, so that would be a good way to bring more attention to the problems with this set to anime fans. Also, even if you don't like DBZ, you should still voice your support for the original aspect ratio release of DBZ. Because if Funi gets away with this kind of stunt, then other anime companies might start doing the same with other series and you wouldn't want to have the same thing happen to your favorite show, would you?

Last edited by undeadben on Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

I decided to pop in a disk. Since I bought it I may as well have a look. The wide screen format isn't all that bad and when I stop to consider that I paid 25.99 for 39 episodes it makes it even harder to complain. I'm not gonna get them all at that price, I pre-ordered season 2 at 37.49 which is still an incredible price when I consider I just spent $109 for only twenty-six episodes on another series and that was on sale. So for these prices I'm not going to complain a lot about the ugly orange and black economy box, the widescreen or anything else Funi decides to give me along with the episodes.

Aside from that this is the first time even I am going to see all 291 episodes on DVD, or heck, the first time I have seen all 291 episodes, I'm only on the first disk and I've already spotted footage I've never seen before. So they remastered and upconverted to wide-screen. Bah. I watched the first 160 something episodes in Spanish on a TV with rabbit ear antennas picking up a so-so signal from a city in Mexico across the border, it wasn't until later that I started watching some on Cartoon Network and borrowed my friends' DVDs. So to me, they can make the screen as wide as they want and cut off from the top and the bottom, it still looks a hell of a lot prettier than when I first saw it.

Add to that; I don't know what was on the original disks when DBZ was first being released but this has got some pretty neat features. English audio with the Japanese soundtrack in 5.1, U.S. Broadcast version in stereo, and of course original Japanese. And on top of that you can either play all the episodes one by one or it has this neat "marathon" feature that skips all the opening and ending credits between episodes.

So I'm not going to say I'm glad I waited, I actually would have bought the original edited version DVDs if I had money back then, but for these prices I'm not gonna say anything about the wide-screen, which was actually upconverted from the original film. There are too many other benefits with these sets, most importantly the insane prices for the amount of episodes.

ETA: Another nice bonus: I think the subs were re-done too. I haven't seen a lot of DBZ subbed but from what little I remember this seems to read better.

if you dont like it in widescreen then dont buy it. get the old box sets. just cause you dont like it doesnt mean that others won't like it as well.

Kalvarius wrote:

if you don't like it in widescreen then don't buy it. get the old box sets. just cause you don't like it doesnt mean that others won't like it as well.

I think you missed the point of Kouji's post. He is not upset because he does not like the wide-screen format, he is upset that Funi has taken an existing product and changed it, modified it into something it was not originally. And that in the process content has been lost. While my post was my opinion that I don't mind this particular release due to cost benefits, I am not in disagreement with him or the opening post.

I also do not like to see something that I think is good tampered with. I don't know how old you are, but I saw the both the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from Star Wars when they were first released in theatres and I loved them. When I could, I got copies of all three films on VHS and to this day still watch those several times. Actually now that I reflect I wish I had either made copies or had enough money to purchase additional sets back then because the quality is really starting to degrade on my copies. However, the reason I still watch these old VHS when there is a remastered T.H.X. VHS set that I also own, and a re-remastered DVD set, that I also own, and a newly re-re-re- or however many re-mastered DVD set, is because Lucas tampered with them. I do not want to see Hayden Christensen next to Alec Guinness and Yoda at the end of my beloved movies, along with a slew of other added "bonuses' that I also disliked.

It's the same principal here. And yes you can very easily say, "well, go buy the old sets if you don't like it." However this is where the original problem began. The first episodes released were edited versions which cut the series down to the 276 episodes that most of us DBZ fans have seen in the US. This is uncharted waters, all 291 uncut episodes available for the first time to us, and Funi cuts them to make them wide-screen. Like I said in my prior post, it's not that I like it, it's that I'll put up with it in this case for the price.

And I also agree that in this case fan support really might make a difference. The reason being that if enough fans speak out, then it would make a lot of financial sense for Funi to stop upconverting this series. From what little I know sort of working in the industry, this 'taking original film and re-mastering it and converting it' is not a cheap process. I'm sure Funi thinks they are giving the fans what they want by spending the extra cash to make it wide screen, not being evil and dirty and trying to ruin it for us. If they see enough people are not only unsatisfied but upset about it, I am positive they would be more than happy to stop spending the extra money to make it wide-screen.

Edited because this forum filters T H X, without spaces, to 'thanks,' so I added periods.

Kalvarius wrote:

if you don't like it in widescreen then don't buy it. get the old box sets. just cause you don't like it doesnt mean that others won't like it as well.

1) Go back and re-read my post because you obviously skipped it. I did not say that this was a matter of preference. I said this was a matter of having DBZ in its proper original aspect ratio, which is fullscreen. You don't take any movie or TV show and present it in an aspect ratio other than its original aspect ratio because of the issues of cropped footage. You don't like it when companies take widescreen movies and TV shows and release them in fullscreen, do you? What makes you think companies should take fullscreen TV shows and movies and release them in widescreen when that's not the original aspect ratio? 2) There are no old box sets. The only previous uncut DBZ DVDs that are available are the single volumes and Funi discontinued those before they released all the episodes uncut, so this is the only way to collect all the uncut DBZ episodes. 3) We have just as much right to discourage other people from buying this set just as much you have the right to encourage them to buy it. What makes you think that you have the right to tell other people what they can and can't buy but what we can't just because you like it? Furthermore, I never said anywhere in my post that people shouldn't buy this set. I myself still plan to buy it despite the fact that I hate that it isn't being presented in its original aspect ratio (note that I said "original aspect ratio", not fullscreen or widescreen) because this is the only way for me to see "uncut" DBZ. I've been waiting years to see it and it's available finally at an affordable price, but that doesn't mean I can't voice my complaints about this release and show my support for a proper original aspect ratio release of uncut DBZ (the true way it was meant to be seen) while encouraging others to do the same. Also, this is not simply an issue that only concerns the DBZ fandom. This is an important issue that concerns anime fandom as a whole because if we let this one idiotic stunt slide by with DBZ other anime companies might start doing the same and release anime shows in their incorrect aspect ratio just to jump on the "widescreen" bandwagon or even release George Lucas-style special editions of anime shows just to make anime DVDs more appealing to Joe Suncoast.

Kalvarius wrote:

i don't really mind that its in wide screen. i myself have a widescreen tv to get the best quality.

im just happy that they are realaseing so much at a time for less money.

Season 1 - 39 episodes - 34.99(Best Buy)
Single discs - 3-4 episodes - 19.99(Best Buy)

im glad i waited.

I am also glad that they are releasing more episodes in their Season 1 box set, rather than buying single discs that contain about 4 episodes. Not only does it save me a lot of money, but also the amount of space as well. Because if I were to have bought each DVD to complete the entire Dragon Ball Z series, I would run out of room on my DVD shelf.

So I am all for this re-release, and I think it's great that they're also releasing Season 1 in Wide screen. I just bought a nice Samsung 46" LCD TV and love watching anything and everything in wide screen so you can get to see as much as possible.

Rozzer wrote:

so you can get to see as much as possible.

I think the point here though is that you're seeing LESS because FUNimation cut out a massive chunk of the top and bottom parts of the picture and only compensated with a small bit of left and right overscan. The only way you'd see "as much as possible" of DBZ is if FUNimation had kept it in its original for-television aspect ratio.

Widescreen where there was originally widescreen is fantastic. Forcing widescreen where it didn't exist is about as awful and damaging as forcing fullscreen where it doesn't exist when airing theatrical movies on television, and FUNimation seem to have forgotten that and foolishly figured "widescreen is superior, even where it's not supposed to exist."

well when i buy it i will judge for myself if its good or not. i still have a couple dvds to compare it to. so until tuesday im still excited.

Nagisa wrote:

Widescreen where there was originally widescreen is fantastic. Forcing widescreen where it didn't exist is about as awful and damaging as forcing fullscreen where it doesn't exist

Excellent point, I guess I was unaware that forcing widescreen marginally ruins the original. But I'm willing to sacrifice what little you're unable to see, just for the fact that Season 1 is a complete 6 disc DVD set. But I can also understand how others would hate to see FUNimation "ruin" the series by digitally remastering it.

Rozzer wrote:

But I can also understand how others would hate to see FUNimation "ruin" the series by digitally remastering it.

The thing is, digitally remastering is one thing, gleefully chopping off a significant portion of the screen (last I heard it was what, 15-20%?) is entirely another. You can do the former without having to do the latter, which is what people are so upset about. If FUNimation had simply improved picture and audio without hacking off major parts of the picture, they'd be hailed as gods among men right now instead of being reviled as villains like it was 1997 all over again.

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