Title: Dragon Ball Z season on Blu-ray
Director: Daisuke Nishio
Producer: Gen Fukunaga
Author: Akira Toriyama
U.S. Distributor: Funimation
Release Date: Dec 31, 2013
Format and Length: Blu-ray; 39 ep
Genre: action
Industry Age Rating: 13+
Overall Personal Rating: A-
Similar Series: Naruto; One Piece
Synopsis:
Five years have passed since the World Martial Arts Tournament that concluded the Dragon Ball series. Goku has settled down to a quiet life with his wife Chi Chi and their son Gohan. While having a reunion up with his old friends Krillin, Bulma and Master Roshi, who he also has not seen in five years, a man calling himself Radditz shows up referring to Goku as “Kakarot” and saying that he should have destroyed Earth years ago. Radditz explains that he is Goku’s older brother and that they are both of a race of people called the Saiyans from another planet. He then kidnaps Gohan saying that unless Goku decided to join him once again as a Sayain, he would never see his son again. The fight with Radditz ends up a draw, as Goku does defeat him but was himself mortally wounded in the fight. But before Radditz died, he revealed that two more Sayains would be headed for earth, both much more powerful than he and would arrive in just one year. With that information, Earth’s guardian Kami instructs Goku to seek training with King Kai in the afterlife and Piccolo takes Gohan to prepare him. Once they arrive, the Sayians, Nappa and Vegeta, will give Goku and his friends the most difficult challenge they have ever faced.
Commentary:
Well, what all is there to say? It is Dragon Ball Z. It is a classic that has been released onto Blu-ray. What more can be asked for? Well, it turns out quite a bit actually. There were several noticeable animation errors that, when the series was originally released, would be understandable and could be overlooked. But now, especially this being a Blu-ray release, those animation errors could have been easily fixed. There was a point when Gohan’s hand was not even attached to his body and another point when Yaijirobe’s mouth was flashing over and over from how it should be to completely transparent. Back when the series was originally released, such errors would have been forgivable. But such errors now could be so easily fixed even with a re-release, they should not have been there, or at least not been so obvious. Especially since the box it comes in advertises it as “…a frame-by-frame restoration process to remove any blemishes…”
The series itself though is exactly how you remember it. The classic series that still holds up, even 20 years later. It was very enjoyable to re-watch season one of Dragon Ball Z, even if watching all 40 episodes took forever. There are still several episodes that are really unnecessary that Dragon Ball Z is often criticized for, however, it felt like those episodes were hardly noticeable especially if the series is marathoned in few sit-downs.
Overall Grade: A-
While the series itself is very good and still holds up to the quality it had when it originally was released, there were some blatant animation errors that just should not have been there.
