Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Two

This DBZ Dragon Box series is an exciting thing. I've been a fan of DBZ since I first saw it on syndicated television in the mid to late '90s. (You could say I was a fan of the series even earlier, about '95 or '96 or so, since I also watched the first thirteen episodes of Dragon Ball when that first aired in the States.)Ever since becoming a fan of DBZ and having just around that time discovered the Internet, I searched for the series on Yahoo! and came up with a website which displayed many of the changes made in the US--all of the censorship, reworked music, and all of that. Since then, I've been clamoring for Dragon Ball Z, uncut and subbed with the original music.I thought FUNimation were going to deliver with the season sets they released a few years ago, but they botched the job entirely by "remastering" the video in the most awful way imaginable: in addition to the drastically cropped framing (to create a faux-widescreen ratio--I'm BIG on original aspect ratio as it affects cinematography and composition), careless and unwatched DVNR was applied, a process which is intended to eliminate dirt and scratch marks that are present on the film being scanned, but when used so carelessly, it can do devastating things to video, especially animation, where lines of art are "erased" (that is, the lines are read by the program as scratch marks, so it takes color and other visual information surrounding the lines and then covers over the lines with this information, causing lines of art to disappear, particularly quick/fast-paced animation). To make matters worse, the colors and lighting are all blown-out and faded. (I'm not too familiar with technical terms; this could be due to contrast boosting, but I'm uncertain.)FUNimation have finally delivered with this Dragon Box series, porting the expertly restored video masters from Japan. THIS is what I've wanted all along; I never bothered with bootleg fansubs back in the day because of poor quality tapes transferred several times over. With the video on these sets, you get a good amount of natural film grain (something that should NEVER be done away with entirely [or even at all if I had my way], particularly since important detail IS ALWAYS LOST when you do so) that really gives it an authentic look. It really does look like an anime from the '80s/early '90s, and to this fan, that is a very good thing indeed.A lot of people appear to be complaining about these DVD releases for a variety of reasons, many of which seem silly to me. I'm not certain how much more compression would need to be applied to all the audio tracks and perhaps the video to add an additional audio track (many appear to prefer the US dub music, which is not present on these sets), but if adding an extra track noticeably degrades the quality of what I want to watch and hear, then I'm A-OK with the US music not being included--particularly since it's inferior and also not the original music. Does nobody care about original intention and preserving art anymore?Many who complain about these Dragon Box sets also don't seem to see a reason for them--they comment that the video on the season sets FUNimation released earlier is "good enough." Well, it's certainly not good enough for me, and I'm thankful that FUNimation are releasing these now, and I hope that they don't compromise on future releases to try and please everybody. These Dragon Box sets SHOULD have been what FUNimation released initially, rather than jerking everyone's chains, but they've chosen to make poor decisions and milk the series for all they can get. This, however, is one DVD release series that I will give in to, for this is what I've WANTED all along, and I will pay the premium price for what I see to be a premium product line.The packaging is also quite nice, and as I mentioned on my DBZ: Dragon Box Z, Volume One review, I ponder if it's modeled after the Japanese Dragon Box sets. High-quality materials, two digi-books which house the DVDs, nice artwork, and a book that contains episode descriptions, where everything is listed in a right-to-left reading format, which is what makes me wonder if it's similar to what the Japanese fans got years back.So, if you don't know Japanese (that is, if importing the Japanese DVDs would be practically worthless to you) and are looking for Dragon Ball Z the way it's MEANT to be seen and heard--at long last, these are the DVDs to buy!

Usually I am entirely against posting a review of a product before it has even been released. That being said, there are few sad and bitter individuals who neither purchased the previous box, nor plan on purchasing this or any of these phenomenal sets in the future. These individuals have ignorantly bestowed a single star upon their "reviews" for want of a dated English music track to go along with their dated English dub. This particular group has already been catered to multiple times over the past several years. Prior releases which DO feature the old dub score include both individual volumes and boxed "season" sets. These individuals and their misguided "reviews" need to be counter-balanced. Why have they done this? Simply put, they either don't understand or don't appreciate the purist nature of these sets or the fact that they are not meant to appease fans of the English dub.The Funimation Dragonboxes are(and always have been)intended to be more or less a replication of the remastered Japanese Dragonbox releases from years prior. This release is both a gift and a response to the thousands of fans who have wanted to see their favorite anime presented as it was originally broadcast in Japan with the best picture quality possible and in its original aspect ratio...without having to spend thousands of dollars importing (if they could FIND them) the original sets from Japan.Fans of the dub argue that there is enough room left on the DVD to incorporate an extra uncompressed music track without having to compromise either the video or audio quality of the original. Honestly, that may be true. It may also be wishful thinking from a group of angry people too lazy to read subtitles and hate Japanese music. I honestly don't know what 1.5GB of space can hold and honestly it doesn't matter when you get right down to it. The fact of the matter is that the inclusion of the English dub was an afterthought from the folks at Funimation and originally it wasn't slated to be part of the Region 1 Dragonbox releases AT ALL. Dub fans should consider themselves lucky that they are able to enjoy such a beautiful release at such a great price for 42 episodes AND have their unfortunate dub/adaption audio track included as well. Why taint it with synthesizer music from the dark days of edited anime?I definitely understand the need for nostalgia, but that is what the previous releases of this series were meant for. The Dragonbox = STAUNCH PURIST and that is a 5 star product in my eyes! So please, do yourself a favor and treat your senses to the beauty of the Dragonbox before it's out of print (which it WILL be) and gone forever. Just say NO to the orange bricks. You won't regret it, I promise!

Although this set is expensive, I'd say it's worth the money. This is a great set. And as the cover may suggest, it does tend to focus a lot on vegeta, more so than any other dragon box.these episodes are some of many that really started making dragon ball z the most popular anime in America. That being said, if you liked the music you heard from the ocean dub and fun Imation dubs, they are nonexistent here. You'll only have the Japanese music, with Japanese voice cast or English voice cast, and of course subtitles for Japanese audio. Personally, I like the original Japanese better. The music is not harsh or annoying, as I do find that the English dub music is. I mean really, when I'm watching an awesome show like dragon ball z, I don't want to hear bad metal. I want to hear something that fits the show.Now about the crop. The orange brick season sets and the blu ray season sets both crop the picture of the show to fit it into a 16:9 picture, or your now-standard tv. But dragon ball was almost never filmed in a 16:9 format, meaning that if you buy the orange brick season sets, you're getting part of the picture but not all. Not to mention that lots of the color is overly-brightened and it looks awful. The blu ray sets I hear, are even worse with even bigger picture loss. If you buy the dragon boxes, you'll be getting the complete, most definitive picture quality you could possibly get from any U.S. Dragon ball z DVD box set release. Not to mention the lovely box set itself, which is made of chipboard box, with DVDs that have a different character for each disc, and the very nice accommodation of the "perfect guide" including episode summaries, character profiles, character designs, and little extras as well.Get this release!!