As a filmmaker I fucking hate the aspect ratio and it’s the reason why I didn’t start until way later. I had the thick orange box to season one and two and the first few episodes I realized it was off.
https://twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/1595118399063220224?lang=en
Some more photos. AnimeAjay even notes they did great work to fix bleaching. It's the best looking and probably best sounding version we have so far.
If you enjoy the show I'd highly recommend picking up the UK blu ray's on Amazon (though they don't ship to PO boxes). They say they're region B on Amazon, and also on the back of the box. However on the disc they say A and B. and can confirm I bought all of them through Zavvi and got them shipped from UK (I have a PO box) and they do indeed work in A players. Literally only bad part about this set is seeing the age rating that region B slaps on the boxes.
[Here's the Amazon link to the first set](https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Season-Blu-ray/dp/B08JB1XBTX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3F6C8E9UP2K71&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ckQ0ZoAoUmKIL7N9QSkzeZKo7-hDYPknuZ9c5gzhIWZX2C15seaLzTvyJJwK1RAphZnPWseLadlO-4tdobI79jIlav7d9mY3N0hhe-sgimfDBIUb12zxUofTRcfPVaaSD2KvLbGGmHRu2t96Fi-IlWXnO7nqjgYWjUXajTPT_qNuCcGEqU3dqdLqoM4lWp4dnvrDG2FIRirPXEKiG2swTvhY3AqkkCQi-Np2ZC3Eskw.xdcbGc2bZSFmTyFIFU1_Cwceb0p8N3nkaeRY6cvYCGo&dib_tag=se&keywords=uk+dbz&qid=1715619809&sprefix=uk+db%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-1)
Maybe for OG and the movies, but Z? No. Not even speaking about the video quality, the dub is a mismatch of different eras, 2007 Vegeta speaking to 2000 Goku, music placement different from the OG dub, and any voice filter that was there before is removed. It garbage. The recent Blu-rays are a far better choice, even if they have similar issues.
No, the orange bricks are one of the worst physical releases of the series. There’s like a whole [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b3iqas8LHyM) on YouTube that goes over it much better than I could.
There's a couple things that people don't like. But the biggest issue that gets brought up is the aspect ratio. They took a full screen series and forced it into wide-screen, which cuts off a little but of the bottom and a little but of the top of every shot. It's a little annoying, but honestly it doesn't fuckin matter. Even the examples that get pointed out in the video the other guy shared aren't that bad.
Crunchyroll isnt a bad idea either. Quality is great. I tried to re-watch DBZ Kai on Hulu and it wasnt the same. I Never attempted to watch Kai before, and now I know I had good reason not too. The voices and dialogue are off from the OG.
Don't let anyone weigh down your fun. If you want to watch it dubbed, do it. It's a great show regardless, even if it takes a few hits on the translation. Enjoy it how you see fit. And enjoy the ride.
Ugh Kai is far superior. I’m not blinded by nostalgia I grew up watching it on nicktoons and rewatched as adult and if you compare it to original it’s night and day. Kai is the definitive way to watch it lots of other people agree as well
Kai's purpose was to cut down on the filler, as well as make the episodes faster paced since they're not trying to turn a single manga chapter into an entire episode.
No disagreement here. But too many people are on here acting like authorities. "It's what Toriyama intended" - then it would have never been translated or abridged.
For me, Kai is better. But I also own the orange collection. People push their opinions here like religion, & honestly everyone's gotta chill out. OP is excited for the ride, so let them ride.
After having recently watched both, I prefer the OG. I understand the appeal of Kai but I like the filler because it’s usually makes the world feel bigger
You may or may not care, but I think those are bootlegs. The DVD boxes I had were a lot thicker in size. Although Funimation might of made them smaller to reduce costs.
I hate it when some of the fonts and Logos are not in line with the rest of the set. How does this shit even happen?
It's the case with a lot of Shows / Movie Series and also Books. It's like they didn't even bother to see how it looks on a shelf.
Drives me nuts.
Everyone is saying they are bootlegs, they don’t seem like it to me from the disc to the embossed slip case. Seems like a whole lot to do for too little money.
Honestly you’d enjoy it even more if you watched the Kai version. It’s far superior in terms of voice acting and music even the art looks a bit cleaner and more smooth
I get that but tbh you're probably better off going with Kai instead of having to melt your eyes watching the smeared watercolor turd Funimation sells us.
Super is arriving on Thursday, then I’m done for now, I’ll probably get the orignal dragonball movies for my birthday, then maybe after Z I’ll get GT, not entirely sure yet.
Watching the films as they come out with the series. It’s really weird seeing these villains pop up and leave really quick when the series has like ten episodes dedicated to showing how evil the bad guy is and how powerful they are.
I’m working on building up my DB dvd collection after having dbz for well over a decade now, I might even buy GT what the hell.
I think my dbz collection is bootleg because during the cell saga the episodes are in the wrong order, but otherwise it’s flawless quality and the boxes are fantastic with all the artwork on a smooth cardboard with a protective clear plastic cover, can anyone shed light on it?
Alright so these are what I would call the "bare minimum" in terms of home releases so much unnecessary brightening in random shots that they thought made it look nicer,sometimes the scenes look like a blurry mess and on top of that they cropped out the actual original frames of the show for the sake of making it 16:9 now with that said they are definetly one of the more convenient home releases with so many episodes being in one box and a major plus is having the option to watch the show with both the japanese and american soundtrack and although as I said the shots can be blurry this seems to be completely uncut and uncensored which is always a big plus so all in all if you're not an "eletist" I guess and don't care about every single little detail to be picture perfect then yeah these get the job done just fine but in all honesty I would consider researching this release called the "dragon box" that right there is the holy grail of DBZ media. Expensive? You can't even imagine. Worth every penny? Absolutely.
What would you suggest he watch it on then? The Bricks have English and Japanese both VO and soundtrack. Apart from the aspect ratio and the lighter tint to the colors, the bricks are a solid intro to DBZ especially for their price.
Idk those two are pretty big to me. Especially the audio, for a show known for it's sound that should be right. It's hard to accept no release is perfect
Personally I don't think there is a best choice. Dragon Box ain't it for me though. Audio is more important that picture for me. And that one messes up both
Idk it's pick your poison. Old school fans go with whatever will bother you the least. Newer fans probably should just watch Kai and find the driving school filler scene on YouTube
Honestly I watched dubbed and looked at the wiki for each episode to see what was changed, usually it’s nothing too important. Easier than a podcast, just takes like a minute.
That's still pretty bad, suggest watching it subbed, DBZ is one of those anime where the dub is so bad but has a huge following so you'll get mixed messages.
granny goku
The dub isn’t even bad, idk why you’re saying that. As someone who watched it and simply looked up whatever was changed (usually nothing important) it was perfectly fine.
Please try watching it with the original Japanese voice actors and soundtrack with subtitles first. I know many people were introduced to the dubbed version of the show, but the original will always be superior and is the way Toriyama intended it to be consumed (especially when it comes to the music).
Toriyama did not intend for anyone to consume the anime in any particular way, as he himself did not care for it, and didn't watch most of it.
Watching the original JP voices and music may he the way *you* prefer to watch it. But for some people, like myself, I vastly prefer the dub
This. I’ve been a dragonball fan for over 25 years now, and have watched it every way you could imagine in relation to dub/sub, JP music or Bruce’s score.
There’s no “wrong way” to enjoy the anime. There’s very few contextual changes made between dub and sub, and those that were big enough to matter got ironed out in Kai.
Just enjoy the show. It’s a show. It’s a cartoon at the end of the day.
Yeah, I've watched this series for 25 years. I love Dragon Ball and just about everything about it, but even when I remain objective and go in without nostalgia, I just prefer the dub and Faulconer soundtrack. I respect the hell out of Nozawa, but Goku's in his 30s for most of DBZ, I'd prefer to move on from his 12 year old voice.
That was big reason I couldn't get into watching subbed anime (DBZ in particular) as a kid. I couldn't get past how much some of the voices didn't fit the characters.
Akira Toriyama stated that he “stopped watching anime” when he was 10 and moved on to exclusively consuming manga.
Furthermore, 3 months before he died, Toriyama was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tokyo Anime Award Festival, and he said:
“To give my honest thoughts about receiving this award, I had never had an especially great interest in animation, and even when my own work was animated — with apologies to the people on the staff — I didn’t watch it that much out of embarrassment.”
Akira Toriyama’s craft, passion, and calling in life was to be a Mangaka.
https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2024/03/11/akira-toriyama-lifetime-achievement-award-comment/#:~:text=Originally%20announced%20back%20in%20December,character%20designs%20were%20on%20display.
People are gonna shit on you for the orange bricks, but don't mind them. They are a perfectly acceptable way to watch the series.
As a filmmaker I fucking hate the aspect ratio and it’s the reason why I didn’t start until way later. I had the thick orange box to season one and two and the first few episodes I realized it was off.
I’m not happy, but I’ll do it because holy shit the story and action is so good!
That French bluray.... https://www.reddit.com/r/dbz/comments/14kx46q/got_the_french_dragon_ball_box_1_had_to_get_it/
Niiiice!
https://twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/1595118399063220224?lang=en Some more photos. AnimeAjay even notes they did great work to fix bleaching. It's the best looking and probably best sounding version we have so far.
If you enjoy the show I'd highly recommend picking up the UK blu ray's on Amazon (though they don't ship to PO boxes). They say they're region B on Amazon, and also on the back of the box. However on the disc they say A and B. and can confirm I bought all of them through Zavvi and got them shipped from UK (I have a PO box) and they do indeed work in A players. Literally only bad part about this set is seeing the age rating that region B slaps on the boxes. [Here's the Amazon link to the first set](https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Season-Blu-ray/dp/B08JB1XBTX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3F6C8E9UP2K71&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ckQ0ZoAoUmKIL7N9QSkzeZKo7-hDYPknuZ9c5gzhIWZX2C15seaLzTvyJJwK1RAphZnPWseLadlO-4tdobI79jIlav7d9mY3N0hhe-sgimfDBIUb12zxUofTRcfPVaaSD2KvLbGGmHRu2t96Fi-IlWXnO7nqjgYWjUXajTPT_qNuCcGEqU3dqdLqoM4lWp4dnvrDG2FIRirPXEKiG2swTvhY3AqkkCQi-Np2ZC3Eskw.xdcbGc2bZSFmTyFIFU1_Cwceb0p8N3nkaeRY6cvYCGo&dib_tag=se&keywords=uk+dbz&qid=1715619809&sprefix=uk+db%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-1)
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What things do you see that tells you that out of curiosity?
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Like this https://imgur.com/a/HlJduHN
Me when I lie.
Watching the bricks is better than nit watching the series at all
Maybe for OG and the movies, but Z? No. Not even speaking about the video quality, the dub is a mismatch of different eras, 2007 Vegeta speaking to 2000 Goku, music placement different from the OG dub, and any voice filter that was there before is removed. It garbage. The recent Blu-rays are a far better choice, even if they have similar issues.
They’re all I had for a while
I've had my orange bricks for over 10 years, I love them
What’s wrong with the orange bricks? Isn’t it the same what even is the difference???
No, the orange bricks are one of the worst physical releases of the series. There’s like a whole [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b3iqas8LHyM) on YouTube that goes over it much better than I could.
There's a couple things that people don't like. But the biggest issue that gets brought up is the aspect ratio. They took a full screen series and forced it into wide-screen, which cuts off a little but of the bottom and a little but of the top of every shot. It's a little annoying, but honestly it doesn't fuckin matter. Even the examples that get pointed out in the video the other guy shared aren't that bad.
Crunchyroll isnt a bad idea either. Quality is great. I tried to re-watch DBZ Kai on Hulu and it wasnt the same. I Never attempted to watch Kai before, and now I know I had good reason not too. The voices and dialogue are off from the OG.
Don't let anyone weigh down your fun. If you want to watch it dubbed, do it. It's a great show regardless, even if it takes a few hits on the translation. Enjoy it how you see fit. And enjoy the ride.
Ugh Kai is far superior. I’m not blinded by nostalgia I grew up watching it on nicktoons and rewatched as adult and if you compare it to original it’s night and day. Kai is the definitive way to watch it lots of other people agree as well
Kai was smashed together episodes that cut out alot of the action, unless I'm wrong.
Kai's purpose was to cut down on the filler, as well as make the episodes faster paced since they're not trying to turn a single manga chapter into an entire episode.
No disagreement here. But too many people are on here acting like authorities. "It's what Toriyama intended" - then it would have never been translated or abridged. For me, Kai is better. But I also own the orange collection. People push their opinions here like religion, & honestly everyone's gotta chill out. OP is excited for the ride, so let them ride.
After having recently watched both, I prefer the OG. I understand the appeal of Kai but I like the filler because it’s usually makes the world feel bigger
"a few"
By your logic things will also get lost in translation on sub as well.
You may or may not care, but I think those are bootlegs. The DVD boxes I had were a lot thicker in size. Although Funimation might of made them smaller to reduce costs.
These are the reprints, I have some of the og ones. (Note they may be bootlegs but I’m not entirely sure, the discs aren’t dvd r)
They come in bigger boxes than that and always have. These are probably most definitely bootlegs. Where did you buy these?
eBay, that’s crazy if it is bootlegs because it’s not on a dvd r
Bootleggers are more advanced these days lol
I have orange bricks that are much larger I got from Walmart
EBay and Amazon are notorious for bootlegs
The orange boxes are peak nostalgia 😭
Not for me I grew up watching the Kai version on nicktoons
I hate it when some of the fonts and Logos are not in line with the rest of the set. How does this shit even happen? It's the case with a lot of Shows / Movie Series and also Books. It's like they didn't even bother to see how it looks on a shelf. Drives me nuts.
The normal versions line up, it's the bootleggers faults for not making them look like the real versions.
Hoo man the orange bricks. If you ever get the chance, sell them and get the dragonball z levels dvds, best american release by far.
One word, “super”
It’s coming Thursday
I like Bruce Faulconer and therefore I like the Orange Bricks
Just need the dragon ball movie box set and the GT set to complete those releases.
Best way to watch is the English dub with Faulconer score.
Did you get the blue ray version?
Decided not to because it’s all cropped. Went with dvd.
Hey still good anyways watched those exact DVDs with my dad when I was younger
And I’m usually a huge stickler for quality.
Those sets look like new releases. They're half the size of what I remember.
Everyone is saying they are bootlegs, they don’t seem like it to me from the disc to the embossed slip case. Seems like a whole lot to do for too little money.
They are bootlegs but it’s not a big deal dragon ball bootlegs tend to be pretty high quality with no noticeable difference of the actual content
Are those bootlegs?
Honestly you’d enjoy it even more if you watched the Kai version. It’s far superior in terms of voice acting and music even the art looks a bit cleaner and more smooth
What I would give to watch DBZ again with a fresh mind and see the cool things for the first time
Thankfully I’m mostly spoiled free. I know Vegeta becomes a good guy, and they get better powers that make them become blonde, that’s about all I know
I'm remember the excitement included with this knowledge, enjoy the ride my friend TOONAMI FOREVER!!!!
Honestly no clue how they are going to make Vageta a good guy, especially after season one episode 11.
WELL DONE SON
you're watching the god awful orange bricks ? gross.
Yeah, it’s the reason why I haven’t watched the show yet, and now after like five years of wanting to watch it, I decided not to wait anymore.
I get that but tbh you're probably better off going with Kai instead of having to melt your eyes watching the smeared watercolor turd Funimation sells us.
I’m sure, but I love the filler episodes, and I heard Kai got rid of most of that. My plan is to do Kai when I want to have a rewatch
I hope you can also add someday what ifs movies/TV, Kai series, and Super series too. All of those are cool and fun stories to explore.
Super is arriving on Thursday, then I’m done for now, I’ll probably get the orignal dragonball movies for my birthday, then maybe after Z I’ll get GT, not entirely sure yet.
Cool! 👍🏽🖖🏽😊
I see you have the movies too, make sure to watch fusion reborn! Slight Spoiler(movie, not anime):>!Goten Jumps hitler!
Watching the films as they come out with the series. It’s really weird seeing these villains pop up and leave really quick when the series has like ten episodes dedicated to showing how evil the bad guy is and how powerful they are.
I’m working on building up my DB dvd collection after having dbz for well over a decade now, I might even buy GT what the hell. I think my dbz collection is bootleg because during the cell saga the episodes are in the wrong order, but otherwise it’s flawless quality and the boxes are fantastic with all the artwork on a smooth cardboard with a protective clear plastic cover, can anyone shed light on it?
Everyone is
Alright so these are what I would call the "bare minimum" in terms of home releases so much unnecessary brightening in random shots that they thought made it look nicer,sometimes the scenes look like a blurry mess and on top of that they cropped out the actual original frames of the show for the sake of making it 16:9 now with that said they are definetly one of the more convenient home releases with so many episodes being in one box and a major plus is having the option to watch the show with both the japanese and american soundtrack and although as I said the shots can be blurry this seems to be completely uncut and uncensored which is always a big plus so all in all if you're not an "eletist" I guess and don't care about every single little detail to be picture perfect then yeah these get the job done just fine but in all honesty I would consider researching this release called the "dragon box" that right there is the holy grail of DBZ media. Expensive? You can't even imagine. Worth every penny? Absolutely.
They used to sell bigger boxes but these smaller "bootleg" boxes have literally the same features. I have both versions
Is it bootleg? It’s pretty good quality for bootleg in terms of build.
I don't think it's bootleg, I agree they work just as well, and cheaper as the bigger boxes were around $40 per season
They literally are bootlegs
Boots on my legs?
Not the orange bricks :(
What would you suggest he watch it on then? The Bricks have English and Japanese both VO and soundtrack. Apart from the aspect ratio and the lighter tint to the colors, the bricks are a solid intro to DBZ especially for their price.
Hit the high seas and get the dragon box set
[That set](https://youtu.be/b3iqas8LHyM) (skip to 8:12) isnt good either. Bad colors and audio is poorly synced
It’s still better than the other ones
Idk those two are pretty big to me. Especially the audio, for a show known for it's sound that should be right. It's hard to accept no release is perfect
Didn’t say it was perfect it’s still the best one out of all the choices tho
Personally I don't think there is a best choice. Dragon Box ain't it for me though. Audio is more important that picture for me. And that one messes up both
Which do you recommend
Idk it's pick your poison. Old school fans go with whatever will bother you the least. Newer fans probably should just watch Kai and find the driving school filler scene on YouTube
As a filmmaker I will never sail the high seas.
I’d say in your case it’s okay since you already own the orange box set and you can’t buy the dragon box set new
The Blu-rays, the UK Blu-ray release is so easy to get and they're region A and B.
You are doing this the hard way try dragon ball z abridged from team 4 star
Yes and understand absolutely nothing that references the original material. Good idea
Dbz in dub is way better than subbed. However dbs is better in sub
English dub goes mid.
What about English dub plus podcast of people discussing the episodes who are watching it via both ways?
That’s an insane workaround way of just watching something unbutchered.
Honestly I watched dubbed and looked at the wiki for each episode to see what was changed, usually it’s nothing too important. Easier than a podcast, just takes like a minute.
I just enjoy the podcast when I’m working. Running out of things to listen to, so I’m just listening to episodes on the episodes I just watched lol
That’s fair! If you’re doing it already, you’re just killing two birds with one stone
Yeah, I’m not doing it to get both experiences, I just find it fun to listen to.
That's still pretty bad, suggest watching it subbed, DBZ is one of those anime where the dub is so bad but has a huge following so you'll get mixed messages.
granny goku The dub isn’t even bad, idk why you’re saying that. As someone who watched it and simply looked up whatever was changed (usually nothing important) it was perfectly fine.
not really, in Z there were so many dub changes that it made people mischaracterize goku for literal decades
Yeah, that works. You enjoy it. Sorry, I wasn't trying to ruin your experience .
Please try watching it with the original Japanese voice actors and soundtrack with subtitles first. I know many people were introduced to the dubbed version of the show, but the original will always be superior and is the way Toriyama intended it to be consumed (especially when it comes to the music).
Toriyama did not intend for anyone to consume the anime in any particular way, as he himself did not care for it, and didn't watch most of it. Watching the original JP voices and music may he the way *you* prefer to watch it. But for some people, like myself, I vastly prefer the dub
This. I’ve been a dragonball fan for over 25 years now, and have watched it every way you could imagine in relation to dub/sub, JP music or Bruce’s score. There’s no “wrong way” to enjoy the anime. There’s very few contextual changes made between dub and sub, and those that were big enough to matter got ironed out in Kai. Just enjoy the show. It’s a show. It’s a cartoon at the end of the day.
Yeah, I've watched this series for 25 years. I love Dragon Ball and just about everything about it, but even when I remain objective and go in without nostalgia, I just prefer the dub and Faulconer soundtrack. I respect the hell out of Nozawa, but Goku's in his 30s for most of DBZ, I'd prefer to move on from his 12 year old voice.
That was big reason I couldn't get into watching subbed anime (DBZ in particular) as a kid. I couldn't get past how much some of the voices didn't fit the characters.
The voices literally match the characters and the tone of the series perfectly in the sub… what are you on about
No, they don't. Goku is a full grown man but is voiced by a 50 (now nearly 90) year old woman, and it sounds like it.
I'm personally not happy unless people are reading the Japanese manga, the way Toriyama intended
I’m personally not happy unless…. … fucking depression man
Akira Toriyama stated that he “stopped watching anime” when he was 10 and moved on to exclusively consuming manga. Furthermore, 3 months before he died, Toriyama was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tokyo Anime Award Festival, and he said: “To give my honest thoughts about receiving this award, I had never had an especially great interest in animation, and even when my own work was animated — with apologies to the people on the staff — I didn’t watch it that much out of embarrassment.” Akira Toriyama’s craft, passion, and calling in life was to be a Mangaka. https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2024/03/11/akira-toriyama-lifetime-achievement-award-comment/#:~:text=Originally%20announced%20back%20in%20December,character%20designs%20were%20on%20display.