Dragon Ball 16mm 4K Creditless Opening

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This is the opening animation from Dragon Ball (1986-1989) taken from a 16mm print that used to belong to Funimation. It's creditless and the same initial source Funimation used for all their releases before converting their films to digital betacam (digibeta) tapes in-house. We are not sure how these ended up in the hands of people outside of the company, but we think they may have disposed of their original DB prints after transferring to tape.
THIS IS THE VERY FIRST EXAMPLE OF NATIVE 4K DRAGON BALL CONTENT ON THE INTERNET. ANY OTHER 4K UPLOAD IS AN UPSCALE FROM A LOWER QUALITY SOURCE. THIS IS THE REAL DEAL.
The print was scanned in 4K with no image or color alterations before color correction in post. The picture quality does leave a bit to be desired, as this is a 16mm duplicate of a source that was originally shot on 35mm at Toei Animation (openings and endings were usually shot on 35mm while episode content itself would almost always be 16mm), so because of this, what you see here is a little blurrier than what an actual episode would look like. Proof of duplication include signs like sprocket hole imprints being left underneath the print's real sprocket holes, and the top and bottom of the frames blending together. There was no dirt or scratch removal done in this example so what you see is the print's natural state when we scanned it. The audio here is the optical track on the print itself, which sounds better than any DVD release, but obviously does not sound as good as the original broadcast audio.
We are in the very early planning stages of a project with the episodes we currently have which will require some support from the community, but more information on that will come later. Thank you to our sources who so kindly allowed us to borrow their print for this purpose.
For updates about this, be sure to follow our Twitter: / kinekovideo

[@ikaos2519]

Why doesn't this have the Harmony Gold OP???????

[@admirgutic5781]

There is no BRUCE FAULCONER score, this is stupid. OG DB is a comedic prequel to the superior awesome DBZ.

[@VennyRestore]

NO BLT OPENING?!?!

[@Pssybart]

@@admirgutic5781 I wish people would stop viewing Dragon Ball as a "comedic prequel". Dragon Ball is where the series began, and it's evolution into what later became DBZ was gradual. The show deserves as much love from the fans as DBZ. I actually happen to think that Dragon Ball is overall a better show than DBZ. Sure, it takes a while to get to the epic battles and transformations. But it's just a better story, with more creative fight scenes.

[@fish3443]

@@Pssybart piccolo jr vs goku >>>> the entire majin buu saga

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@Pssybart Poor souls!

[@bluesphere7]

This is what happens when you put things into the hands of people who genuinely care

[@kennylauderdale_en]

History in the making.

[@negispringfield6156]

OMG kenny lauderdale I like your videos. glad to see people like you cover classic anime that is usually forgotten

[@rubbershark3833]

Kenny's recent video about this brought me here.

[@kitestar]

He said NOT to come to this channel and subscribe, yet here we are

[@Lucrei.]

Honestly this looks perfect You don't need to apply any filters or extra grain or dnr or anything Just crop it to a nice 4:3 frame and we're golden

[@eljajas4723]

Yeah!

[@cloudusman90]

We're called "Golden KZbinrs" (Golden Frieza, if KZbinrs had the Golden form)

[@unkono]

Better than the dragon boxes

[@CarthusDojo]

This is incredible! Glad this now exists.

[@donossas4975]

Hi

[@VinchVolt]

This feels like the loose video equivalent of when the original broadcast audio was discovered to still exist. Really astonishing to see even just the opening in such good quality after ages of the best-quality versions of OG Dragon Ball being upscales of the Dragon Box DVDs, even if this isn't the *best* possible quality it could've been (not that a 35mm print of the opening would ever resurface outside of Toei's vaults). Really looking forward to seeing what that upcoming Dragon Ball project will entail!

[@FlowerwayForArchiveUse]

rest in peace

[@HipnikDragomir]

I love it when animation is so clean and high res that it's easy to see from characters' edges that they're separate cels.

[@lssjgaming1599]

Imagine if Toei was able to get the show to look this good on Blu Ray and then funimation release it. This is like a crackpipe dream but like this is pretty much exactly what I want from a remaster

[@AlexanderDiviFilius]

Imagine if Toei and Funimation actually cared about Dragon Ball looking (and sounding) like it should.

[@Dragonfire511]

Toei wouldn't do that. They only care for money. Same goes for Digimon, Sailor Moon and Kinnikuman, etc...

[@midoled]

Imagine if Toei didn't have that bad habit of randomly losing the original films and making crappy upscales of their SD masters

[@FreedomFighterAsuka]

Dragon Ball Z is arguably the most popular anime of all time. It baffles me how this show and its predecessor STILL don't have the highest quality home video releases imaginable. It may change one day. One can dream.

[@lunarwolf233]

Oh they're able to make it look this good, they're just cheap and don't care enough since people give them money anyway.

[@Jobenblue]

"We are not sure how these ended up in the hands of people outside of the company, but we think they may have disposed of their original DB prints after transferring to tape. " Are you kidding me, funimation?

[@admirgutic5781]

Well, that was a standard procedure back then. Since funimation was only the distributor they had no use for the film. Only the creators of the show would keep the original film prints.

[@parotaku]

Incredible work! Thanks for sharing how 'raw' 16mm 4K should look without DNR & digital sharpening!

[@Acobolan]

This would slap with some original broadcast audio

[@zacharyrollick6169]

Beautiful. If only you could get your hands on 35mm film of the whole series. That would be beyond amazing.

[@Kamestyle]

I'm glad I came across this video! Incredible work! 👍

[@MarxPopstar69]

As a huge art nerd, just looking at the backgrounds of this opening makes me gush extremely hard, LIKE YOU CAN SEE EACH INDIVIDUAL STROKE OF THE WATERCOLOR N SHIT, ITS SO BEAUTIFUL

[@japantoanime773]

I'm having a heart attack. You guys are quality beasts.

[@cemeteryhill]

This is amazing!! Thanks so much!! This series has been through so many alterations over the years this is such a treat.

[@Nate-ll4do]

Oh yeah, this fuckin rules.

[@remembrance9134]

God that's immaculate. You guys keep producing fantastic work and work

[@Lori_P89]

You know it looks phenomenal when you're noticing previously overlooked animation errors! I wouldn't want them fixed though, I think that's part of the fun!

[@icky_sticky_mars]

came back to this after seeing how DB looks on crunchyroll, christ almighty is it bad wish we could finally get a good release of it

[@polygon.fiction6514]

I'd take an uncropped/unrestored scan of DB and DBZ like this over any Funimation release. I've bought DBZ in its entirety twice already and already missed out on the 4:3 Blu-rays when they were first being released... somehow I didn't even hear about them until over a year after the first one went on sale, and by then, 2-3 of the steelbooks were already OOP. "Limited Edition".... ugh.... and they still weren't free of DNR, and still slightly zoomed in despite being in 4:3 apparently.

[@cloudusman90]

When will we see the OG DB ending reel and DBZ and DBGT OPs and EDs in film reels?

[@gameguy021]

They just released the OG Dragon Ball Ending Reel.

[@TylerAStinson]

Love how you can see all of the little imperfections. It’s rough and dirty and that’s why I like it

[@kiddkrool]

Great work as always!

[@RexTenomous]

Honestly, that audio blew me the f*ck away; I was not expecting that.

[@A_Weegee_Board]

The bald head sheen on Roshi has never looked more glorious

[@KGBeast.]

This is beautiful

[@2ndVaultOfHanksterman]

I seriously hope the second version of this opening also exists creditless on 16mm too. Would absolutely love to see that!

[@KinekoVideo]

Apparently Toei lost the master for it (not sure if this is true). Only Harmony Gold got that creditless. So I doubt we will ever see that full OP creditless.

[@admirgutic5781]

@@KinekoVideo I knew this info beforehand and I'm still sad.

[@TUZOIVAN16]

Vamos a buscar las esferas del dragón.

[@NeedaBettrName]

Rest easy, Toriyama ❤

[@KidneyFailureGaming]

Woah this is excellent. Keep posting these more. We can finally get 4k Dragon Ball episodes in no time. Just need patience.

[@oddone_]

Thank you for your hard work and resourcefulness. Watching this on an OLED was a religious experience.

[@mitpoker7319]

This is gold. Can't wait for iKaos to eventually encode one of these. Broadcast JP Audio, redone English dub, 4k rescan, and better subtitle fonts.

[@vannity8]

My childhood this Pokemon and Digimon 😢😢😢😢ah those golden days take me back pleaseeee 😢😢😢😢😢😢

[@LobsterJim]

Rest in peace

[@Brodensson]

If even one clip of opening 2 with the credits exists in this quality I would totally spend however long it took to paint the credits out of the frames one by one. I was doing this a while back but decided I would be extremely sad if I did it and then a 1080p or 4K version ever became available, so I stopped. But I always said that if a super high quality source became available I would actually finish the job. I've recently just gone over the Levels Blu-Rays and extracted creditless DBZ openings 1 and 2 (I removed the watermark in the corner) as well as Opening 3 using the R2J Dragon Box creditless opening 3 to fill the void. Also did We Gotta Power and We are Angels colour correction on the creditless, but obviously only 480p. Was going to colour correct Dragon Ball opening 1 when I saw this, so I've decided now to just wait. Again, if any of these scans of openings and endings with the credits were available, I would 100% make it creditless. Heck, If enough people were interested, you send 40 people a scene each, and they each remove the credits from their part, put it back together, bam, you have creditless.

[@admirgutic5781]

I'm pretty sure for DBZ creditless versions do exist as an extra on funimation r1 D-Box. But whydo you want to remove the Japanese text anyway?

[@DIRECTEDBYH]

wow this is the most interesting thing I've ever seen on the internet

[@Go.el_Hadam]

Thank you 🙏

[@balljoint5853]

What a luxury. Thank you

[@magiblot1]

1:00 There's a glitch on Goku's neck

[@cyberdrivetv5871]

Super sharp quality

[@MitchellHang]

How’d you get your hands on this? Considering this was sourced from Funimation after all. Also they likely use Betacam, not Betamax (that’s an outdated home media format).

[@ikaos2519]

>We are not sure how these ended up in the hands of people outside of the company, but we think they may have disposed of their original DB prints after transferring to tape.

[@12me91]

they probably used digibeta, not batacam. betacam was only really used until digibeta took off in the early to mid 90s. Both are component but digibeta doesnt degrade in the same way analog tape does

[@KinekoVideo]

This was a typo on our end. Fixed, thanks!

[@EmmyTheFox]

I don't know what to say, but thank you would be one of them, if it wasn't because I'm in a public space I would have cried like a baby.

[@pascalthiele6903]

Holy grail!

[@AcevedoVideoStore]

This looks amazing.

[@asphaalanx]

Thanks for your hard work. This looks brilliant.

[@GabePickles3837]

My god, this is amazing!

[@ruegenthedragon]

i think i found my new favorite aesthetic today

[@fungo6631]

This was the opening that was seen in the Junior TV Italian dub.

[@TVsFenwick]

Amazing work!

[@POWERMAXUM]

Simply Amazing!!!

[@ShonenTrash]

Beautiful.

[@AkiraTheMetalHead]

It should be noted that Toei still has all the 16mm Film masters of this TV Series. The only film or tapes that were destroyed were the duplicates that was sent out to tv networks as well as funimation for dubbing. So yeah Toei can rescan and remaster any one of their anime series, they just choose not to. How is it that the old theatrical movies of the Super Sentai series (A Live action tv series made by Toei, most of it's footage is used in Power Rangers) got a Blu-Ray remaster via rescan is beyond me.

[@Mihakun]

Amazing finding. Do you, by any chance, plan to upload the raw scan (in order to avoid KZbin compression)?

[@hzubovi1]

Excellent work. I hope every episode gets a 4k remaster

[@OmegaAero2K8]

Very rare find

[@RanmaAR]

Awesome!

[@LesCritiquesduMaSQuE]

Looking like a dream. ✌

[@loganjones4650]

Its beautiful!

[@infamous8541]

Way to go

[@user-thiaguin491]

Awesome

[@CTangeloe]

Is there a way to view without KZbin compression?? A download link maybe???

[@olimphus26]

Turn it up to 4k, youtube doesnt compress that much in 4k

[@CTangeloe]

I think the main issue was the fuzziness, but realized that it was just because this is a 16mm transfer on the og opening, ur right. I’d still like if there was a downloadable version tho... 😞

[@schwarzorn4774]

@@CTangeloe I assume it's cuz the openings and endings are probably blurrier than the actual episode content. Like the flashback content seems to be.

[@Chainedetheprolol]

@@CTangeloe keepvid to download

[@Zulkio]

🥰

[@GR8FLMD3AD]

❤

[@NYRavage]

Good stuff.

[@polygon.fiction6514]

This is incredibly niche, but I would love to have the 90's Sonic OVA scanned in HD somehow... but I'm sure the print/negative are lost to time.

[@zenvisx]

How did you do this I wanna use dis type of film like on my amvs did you use ae? Like how

[@PieStudios]

Extremely based based :menzathonk:

[@admirgutic5781]

Do you like eggs?

[@PieStudios]

@@admirgutic5781 yes.

[@Oddyzation]

Based.

[@ayerooown]

This is fucking great do you guys have the ending too?

[@KinekoVideo]

Still gotta work on that but will upload when we do!

[@ayerooown]

@@KinekoVideo nice!

[@zamirmatiasayquipaoymas2637]

@@KinekoVideo subiran la serie completa? eso estaria bueno

[@KinekoVideo]

@@zamirmatiasayquipaoymas2637 No tenemos la serie completa, desafortunadamente.

[@zamirmatiasayquipaoymas2637]

@@KinekoVideo es una pena este es un muy buen trabajo

[@SONICBOOM1889]

Nice!!!!

[@uonlywish500]

i wish we had the same but it's dragon ball Z

[@samuel-wankenobi]

Dragon Ball z gets all the re-releases give some love to the original for once

[@marcoscervantes2883]

Is that great condition

[@diegovera6858]

HERMOSO

[@SMEARGLEX75]

I want to hear this in LatAm Spanish Dub now.

[@OmegaAero2K8]

How do you get this

[@vtcabbit]

funimation could never

[@LOrca77]

Do you have the original film prints of the Fist of the North Star Movie (1986)?

[@admirgutic5781]

They most likely don't have it.

[@ILoveSonicandLeafy2K12]

Non Warped or Warped...

[@japantoanime773]

Crediless Ending ? ....

[@henryd98]

Oh god Oh fuck

[@rereddi2257]

OK guys ok... hot take: the english intro is just as slappin'

[@TheChrisPavon]

BRUH

[@primusvsunicron1]

Z and GT please

[@admirgutic5781]

It's possible to find the DBZ on film but GT will never be found.

[@randomvids2846]

me when no 60 fps: sad