DBZ Videos - Where Are They?

I live in England, therefore I am used to getting everything a long time after the Americans. This includes films, computer games, and even cards. The one thing that annoys me by this though, is the fact that the DBZ video’s haven’t even been released over yet.

There is an avid Dragonball Z following over in England, as me and many of my friends are great fans of the fantastic series. Whilst the fandub distributors may be few, the support is extremely large. Many people tune in at 5pm every day, just to watch an episode in the Frieza saga for the 5th time. That is the extent of its popularity; it allows Cartoon Network to get away with constantly showing the same episode until every line has been memorized of every one.  This is incredibly annoying, but it is what is expected, as people will squeeze as much as possible out of everything. Well, I’m not here to moan about that, the new episodes have finally come in the form of the android saga. This is great news for the English DBZ community, and sure to be a great success with the fans.

I think that you’ve all probably grasped the premise of how popular DBZ is over here in England, and most would have caught on to as why I am writing this. We should have the videos bought out over here, and that’s at the very least, preferably the DVDs too. I have e-mailed FUNimation regarding this issue countless times, but it warrants no reply, and I doubt that they’re even thinking about it.

I appreciate that the videos weren’t released in America until around half way through the Cell saga, which admittedly, we’re a long way from. I don’t know if I can wait this long, especially not for the DVDs, which are going to be awesome. They have produced the tapes and DVDs, and all the remains is to change the encoding and distribute them over here. I can honestly say that I’d buy most of them (Except some of the Frieza ones, I seen them way too many times), so would a lot of other people, meaning that the profits would be even larger than they are now. Surely it would be of concern to them to do this, as it would raise interest in DBZ, when people see the video cases at the shops, and wonder what this new ‘cartoon’ is about.

I hate the way in which they’re waiting, it’s driving me mad. I have enough saved up to buy all of the released DVDs in America, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t play on my English system, and besides, the shipping charges are ludicrous. Would it be so much of an effort to FUNi to give permission to send some of these to our fair country? It would be profitable, and an intelligent business decision, what’s there to stop them?

Ok, credit given where it’s deserved. They’re doing a great job of bringing them out in America, and maybe they have their hands full, but haven’t they got someone in charge of nationwide marketing, or a job description similar to that? I find it hard to believe. In fact, just thinking up things that FUNimation are handling well in bring DBZ to our English TV sets is hard. I have been forced to download low quality fandubs/subs from the internet just to see some of the episodes, and they looked incredible, and will do so even more on my TV screen.

I know what you’re all probably thinking – what bought this on? Well, I saw Digimon advertised on TV earlier, saying how some third-rate video with them in has been released. I hate this anime series, and think that it is ranked even lower than pokemon, which it is really just a cheap rip off of.  It’s ridiculous; DBZ is so much better than Digimon, yet we have to wait until we can see our videos on our TV. I’m not sure about the English following of these two shows, but I do know that people around my age and older would easily take the DBZ videos every time. Only the youths would prefer Digimon, the ones who cannot afford videos, and the ones who can only try and convince their mums to buy them. As long as they don’t see the latest ‘Bob the Builder’ compilation video, then this anime series will probably be one of their top choices. I’m talking about primary school children here, and let’s face it, more money is to be gained by the older generation, the people with more money.

Basically what I’ve been trying to say is that DBZ is an awesome series with a vast array  of supporters over here in England, yet it hasn’t generated the respect it deserves, not being allowed a video release, or a DVD one just yet. If it is to coincide with the American schedule start, then we will have to wait months for these privileges, which the masses overseas would have had for around half a year by then. FUNimation, this is ridiculous, just bring your DVDs and videos over here.