Aight, now that all the Saiyan Saga is done and the first of Namek is loading onto Google Drive and I can finally go on a forward trajectory with this thing, I’mma place some more minor details about this project here. Speak some truth:
- As stated in the OP, the first 23 episodes of this cut uses Level Set footage, but it’s been very slightly de-grained. The reason for this is halfway through Episode 24, the Level Set footage runs out. From there I switch to a combination of Kai and Funimation’s 30th Anniversary Set, which I think I did a pretty good job with matching the color timing with (and also adding a 3% Gaussian blur to the 30th so that annoying edge enhancement is gone). The Kai and 30th Anniversary Set combo will continue up until Buu. From that point to the end, the project will switch to 16:9 with color corrected Final Chapters footage (which while I’m not a fan of cropping anything originally shot in 4:3, Kai: TFC actually makes up for what’s lost on the top & bottom with extending the sides by an equal amount) and the 2013 Blu-ray (which suck ass but I’ll try similar techniques with it like I’m doing with the 30th footage).
In terms of the specifics of what filler this project is cutting out / leaving in:
SAIYAN [Done]
Keep:
- Goku goes to Hell (albeit cut down slightly in my edit)
- Princess Snake
- Arlia
- Gohan & the robot
- Yamcha’s stadium intro
- Gohan running away & joining orphans (cut down to 1 episode instead of 2)
- Pendulum Room
Erase:
- Gohan & the friendly dinosaur
- 99% of Launch scenes
- Tien at waterfall home
- Dueling Piccolos (this one hurt me, but there was no space)
- Holographic moon projection
- Goku’s eventually-retconned ancestry
- Yajirobe dicking around Saiyan landing pods
- Fight padding
NAMEK / GINYU [W.I.P.]
Keep:
- Goku vs. needles
- Goku escaping hospital to train
- Goku and Gohan moment alone before the latter leaves to Namek
- Friends or Foes?
- Goku vs. hurtle towards star
- Vegeta in the tank
- Frieza attacking Guru’s hideout
Erase:
- Fake Namek
- Fight padding
FRIEZA
Keep:
- Destruction of Vegeta backstory
Erase:
- Everything else (including Bulma & Frog Ginyu)
GARLIC JR.
[Keep, but cut from 10 episodes down to 7 to improve pacing]
TRUNKS / ANDROIDS
Keep:
- Mr. Shu
- Goku learns to drive
Erase:
- Fight padding (if you didn’t get it by now, most of the show’s filler is the fight padding)
CELL
Keep:
- Select Time Chamber moments
Erase:
- Everything else
Add:
- “Oh Shit!”
GREAT SAIYAMAN / WORLD TOURNAMENT
Keep:
- All of Other World Tournament
- Gohan’s first date
- Saiyaman movie set
Erase:
- Everything else
BABIDI / BUU
Keep:
- Vegeta’s original atonement left entirely intact
Erase:
- Everything else
FUSION / KID BUU
[All filler erased]
Obviously leaves us with more episodes than Kai does, but will still cut DBZ down to 200 episodes or something instead of 291.