I got DBZ Season 1 a couple of days ago when I found it at wal-mart for around 30 bucks. Now DBZ is a show I hate to love and love to hate, I blame the Cartoon Network for that. Back when it was still new state side they showed the dang thing 3 to 4 times a day, which wouldn’t be bad considering the show has over 250 episodes, but they showed the same 20 over and over in till I vomited and wouldn’t go back in till they finally put some new stuff out. Now that Funimation is releasing it on DVD at a fairly affordable price, 39 episodes for 30 dollars is less then a dollar an episode and that’s a pretty good price for an anime.

Story
If your unfamiliar with the world of DBZ then you should know that it is a spin off of a series called Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball was set in a fantasy world were we have futuristic cities, and then vast wilderness filled with Dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters. The series followed Goku a young kind hearted boy with super strength and a monkeys tale has he go out on adventures to find the 7 dragon balls, for if you find them you get to call the dragon and make a wish.

Anyways DBZ follows a now grown up Goku and rather then explore this magical world the series is more interested in how much it can blow up at a time with over the top action scenes and eye candy flashy moves.

Anyways season 1 set contains all episodes of the Sayian saga uncut. In this season begins with Goku going to Master Roshi’s to show off his young son Gohan to his friends but an evil alien named Raditz crashes the party. Raditz has the same type of tail Goku had when he was a kid and Goku learns the truth about his origins, it seems that he is an alien called a Sayian and was originally sent to earth to kill all of it’s inhabitants so the sayains could sell it to the highest bidder. But something went wrong and Goku forgot his mission and became a kind hearted young boy. To get Goku to go along with the Sayians plans Raditz kidnaps Gohan and tells Goku to kill 100 humans if he ever wants to see his kid back. Goku instead teams up with his old enemy Piccolo and together the two fight Raditz for Gohan. In the end the only way to defeat Raditz involves Goku sacrificing himself to Piccolos special beam cannon. But Piccolo spills the beans to Raditz that Goku is not gone for good because they can use the dragon balls to wish Goku back to life. It seems it was a trick Raditz was in contact with the only 2 other sayains left alive after there planet exploded and they are now headed to earth to make a wish, and there much more powerful then he is. They only have one year to train, Piccolo decides to train Gohan because of a hidden power that resides in the boy, meanwhile in the after life Goku travels along the perilous snake way to reach King Kai’s so he can receive special training from the martial arts master.

And that’s just in the first disc to boot. Now this is a new uncut version of the show that is different from when it was first shown on Cartoon Network. So no worries about hearing the phrase “sent to another dimension” from the sayian Vegeta when he kills someone. But there is more to the new cut several episodes originally left out are now in the show including an episode were Gohan befriends an old robot.

This is of course both good and bad because while a lot of the stuff that was cut out is good stuff, there are quite a few that seem to bog down the pace of the show. It should be note that with the new cut that the show is just as much about Gohan has it is about Goku and he is the character who receives the most growth. He starts off different from what we saw Goku has a child while Goku was brave if a little naïve boy. Gohan is smart but he starts off has a cowardly crybaby and we see him mature into a warrior similar to that of his father.

The DVD
The new DVD’s sets are coming out are remaster for high definition that Funimation is doing, they are now also shown in wide screen. And what a difference to, the first season especially is not known to be good looking but watching this DVD set it’s hard to tell the episodes are over 20 years old. This is has to be the best video quality for a TV series I have seen on DVD yet. We also have 3 types of audio to choose from, the original English TV release, English with Japanese music, or we have the original Japanese in the original mono. I have to say I went with the English dub mostly, but then I usually like mine dub and you can tell that the Japanese audio is starting to show it’s age compared to the English dub sound tracks. Has for special features there two quick short features about the restoration process, they seem more of a way to keep whiny DBZ fanboys from crying rather then telling anything informative about the process with reassurance that nothing was changed about the show in this DVD release. There are trailers for other Funimation releases, text less opening and closings, has well has a book that tells character bios and episode descriptions.

Final Recommendation.
DBZ isn’t the best anime I have seen but it’s still a great anime and now that the CN is done running it into the ground by showing the same episode 5 times a day it’s not a bad time to collect the season sets. Season 2 is also all ready out in stores and I plan on purchasing it in the near future.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older