All ‘Dragon Ball’ Movies Are Getting A Brand-New Remaster

Fans are going crazy for the newly remastered Dragon Ball movies, with American audiences dying to get a look.

Last week, Twitter went crazy for screenshots of Toei Animation’s remastered versions of the 19 existing Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z movies. Fans put the stunning stills side by side, showing how the images had been balanced and softened, and made generally more reminiscent of the original series.

The screen shots went viral, with everyone from full on animation aficionados to casual viewers noting the profound difference in quality.

Fans in the U.S. flocked to the replies of these posts, desperately asking how they could get their hands on these new versions. Unfortunately, it does not look like there’s an easy way just yet. The new remasters are streaming on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video in Japan. As it stands, they have not been made available overseas yet.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. With Dragon Ball’s ongoing resurgence in popularity through Super and the upcoming Broly movie, the remasters could make it to American markets sooner or later. Fans will simply need to wait for Toei to put the English audio — or, at the very least, subtitles — into the product.

One fan even explained his theory that Toei was working toward a remaster of the entire Dragon Ball series, with the possibility of a blu-ray release sometime in the near future.

“Toei seems to be rolling out a brand new remaster of the DB movies on both Netflix and Amazon,” they wrote. “There is also a ‘Supposed Blu Ray’ on its way with perhaps broadcast audio.”

When asked to cite a source for this prediction, they posted a quote.

“‘All the movies have got optical audio, but I think it’s gonna be changed for the supposed future Blu-ray release.’ – Kei,” they wrote. “Thats of course not 1000% hard evidence. But if anyone has a clue what Toei could be doing with their audio, it’s him of course.”

At the very least, fans in the U.S. can look forward to remastered versions of three Dragon Ball Z movies coming to theaters this fall. Toei Animation has teamed up with Fathom Events to host screenings of some classic anime movies ahead of this December’s premiere of Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

The events begin with Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, which will be playing in select theaters from Sep. 15 through 17. After that, fans can look forward to a double feature, playing the remasters of Fusion Reborn and Bardock – The Father of Goku, only on Nov. 3 and 5.

Tickets are already available on the Fathom Events website.