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Tag Archives: DVDs
Dragon Ball Z Kai: Part One (DVD), Early Review
By Marc | May 5th, 2010

I bet you are wondering why I’m reviewing Kai again…
 

 
I decided since I have both on hand to not leave our DVD only friends hanging without proper caps and a review.  When it is appropriate I’ll be using text from the Blu-ray, but anything that is different for the DVD version (packaging, video quality, audio, etc) will be freshly written.  And as a small note: Any grades I give here will be specific to what is expected or wanted from a DVD, so if a video or audio grade is higher here than it was in the Blu-ray review, it does not mean the DVD is superior. And if you want to read the Blu-ray review first: Dragon Ball Z Kai: Part One (Blu-ray), Early Review Continue reading

Categories: Anime Review, Early Looks, Feature, Reviews
Dragon Ball Z Kai- Color Differences Comparison
By Marc | May 5th, 2010

After doing the review of Dragon Ball Z Kai on Blu-ray I decided to check the DVD.  Very quickly I noticed a difference in colors in the remastered Z footage.  When I showed some screen shots to a friend to find out about the Japanese Kai Blu-ray, he actually ran it over right then so I could take a screen shot for a comparison.
 
I’ll let the image and my notes on it speak for themselves.  Feel free to share.  I didn’t include the Japanese DVD because I don’t know anyone who has it.  Click on it for full size.
 

 
Each version has its own odd quirks and I’m quite sure arguments over which of the three has superior colors will go on for years.  It’d also be interesting to find out who tweaked each version and why any tweaks were made (did Funi tweak their versions or did Toei? If so, why the Blu-ray and not the DVD?)
 
After doing that image comparison, I decided to check the intro, which has entirely new animation. Each one is different in the intro also, but in different ways than in the episode itself, which suggests each intro was tweaked separately from the episode. (Click to see full size)
 

 
For the remastered footage you could argue any of them could be better based on how you feel about color in general, but for the brand new animation, the American Blu-ray clearly seems superior.
 
It’s worth mentioning that a slight difference in brightness between an American disk and a Japanese disk is normal. Japanese and American TVs have different black levels, so tweaking of the brightness is normally done to make them match when being viewed, but this doesn’t appear to be the tweaking that caused these differences (especially since there are three clearly different examples instead of two.)
 
Think I should update the first image with other DVD versions of Dragon Ball Z for comparisons sake?
 
 
Update- I chose to leave the original comparisons up as they are more relevant seeing as they all have the same and proper aspect ratio, but I’ve made an updated version that adds the Japanese DVD into the mix.
 
Thanks to Hujio from Kanzentai for the lossless captures of the proper frames.
 

 
The show content itself is interesting in that there is a slight addition of footage on the side and that (once again) the colors are different.
 
Although frankly the shot of the intro is a bit crazier
 

 
Yeah… it’s pretty terrible. It is definitely the worst of the four in this case. It definitely makes it appear that DVDs from Toei were a late addition to the plan for Kai in Japan, as no care seemed to have been taken with the encode at all.
 
If you’d like to read a review of the Blu-ray of Dragon Ball Z Kai, we actually have one (it is actually what ended up leading to this article.) Feel free to have a read: Dragon Ball Z Kai: Part One (Blu-ray), Early Review
 

 

Categories: Feature
Strike Witches: The Complete Series, Early Look/Review
By Marc | March 19th, 2010

As we’ve heard for many months now, and even longer if you go back to when it was brand new and streaming, there is a war. A war against… pants.
 

 
Strike Witches is arguably the antithesis to the shows we tend to see from Funimation, with not only mass market appeal, but being relatively niche and a centerpiece in arguments in online communities. So let’s check it out… Yeah, I couldn’t think of a good pants line to use here… maybe I’ll put that up as a contest this weekend… Continue reading

Categories: Anime Review, Early Looks, Feature, Reviews
Voltron The Third Dimension, DVDs Coming Soon
By Marc | November 11th, 2009

From days of long ago…
 

 
Voltron in 3d returns…
 
It appears WEP will be doing the Voltron 3d DVDs themselves and selling them via the official Voltron/WEP store.  And the DVDs are… maybe being worked on right now?
 
I’ll update as I get more info.
 

 

Voltron © World Events Productions. All Rights Reserved.
 

Categories: News
Funimation In November
By Marc | August 21st, 2008

Lots of good stuff from Funimation in November. I needs more monies…

Singles
Darker Than Black vol. 1- 11/25/08 – $29.98
Darker Than Black vol. 1 (LE w/ Box)- 11/25/08 – $39.98
Tsubasa vol. 9- 11/11/08 – $29.98
My Santa (recalled last year due to a rating labeling error)- 11/18/08 – $14.98

Movies
Dragon Ball Z Movies 5 and 6- 11/11/08 – $29.98
Vexille (Special Edition)- 11/4/08 – $29.98

Sets and Collections
Black Blood Brothers (Complete): 11/11/08 – $49.98
Case Closed: Season 3- 11/25/08 – $49.98
Dragon Ball GT: Season 1- 11/11/08 – $49.98
Dragon Ball Z: Season 7- 11/11/08 – $49.98
Ghost Hunt: Part 2 (of 2)- 11/18/08 – $49.98
Peach Girl (Complete)- 11/18/08 – $49.98
Sasami: Season 2- 11/25/08 – $39.98
Tsubasa: Season 1- 11/11/08 – $69.98
Yu Yu Hakusho: Season 3- 11/11/08 – $34.98

Blu-ray
Dragon Ball Z Movies 5 and 6- 11/11/08 – $34.98
Vexille- 11/4/08 – $34.98

Then Funimation has some stuff to distribute for Geneon

Singles
Karin vol. 6- 11/25/08 – $29.98
Shonen Onmyouji vol. 4- 11/25/08 – $29.98
Tales of Phantasia (Complete)- 11/25/08 – $19.98
When They Cry vol. 5- 11/11/08 – $29.98

Sets and Collections
Nanoha: Season 1- 11/11/08 – $59.98
Familiar of Zero: Season 1- 11/4/08 – $59.98

Then we have a nice collection of boxsets of stuff rescued (jacked) from Sojitz (ADV)

Sets and Collections
Ah! My Goddess: Season 2- 11/25/08 – $69.98
Coyote Ragtime Show (Complete)- 11/18/08 – $49.98
The Guyver (Complete)- 11/4/08 – $69.98
Pumpkin Scissors: Part 1 (of 2)- 11/25/08 – $59.98
Pumpkin Scissors: Part 2 (of 2)- 11/25/08 – $59.98

Far to much stuff.

Categories: News
Bandai DVDs Don’t Work Remix
By Marc | August 14th, 2008

For the third time now we have a batch of DVDs that seem to work randomly.

I’ve seen plenty of people complain about V.2 of Gurren Lagann (mine works), the new Zegapain, and V.1 and 2 of Code Geass (mine don’t work), and it’s been a few weeks and Bandai despite recalling some, and claiming to ship replacements to stores has been silent to the customers, but no more, Bandai is gonna set things straight and make sure we know what is going on.

After an examination, Bandai Entertainment reported that there are discs circulating with an error during Vol. 2, though the exact extent of the error in the batch is still being assessed. If any consumer is experiencing a problem, please go to http://www.bandai-ent.com/ and in the upper left hand corner there is the standard customer service box which says “Contact our Customer Service.” Indicate the nature of the problem and a replacement disc will be issued. Customers without internet access can call 714-816-9500 and ask for “Bandai Entertainment customer service.”

….Great, thanks Bandai.  You gotta wonder how they have sent replacements out if they don’t know what the issue is (and not mentioning the issues with the other DVD).

Categories: Feature, News
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