Dragon Ball Z Uncut: Vegeta Saga 1: Box Set (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Featurette-Dragon Ball Z: Rebirth Featurette-A New Look Featurette-Clean Opening and Closing Trailer-Bonus Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	975:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	?
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Daisuke Nishio
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$99.95	Music	Bruce Faulconer Shuki Levy Kussa Mahchi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   Dragon Ball Z is THE shonen anime, a series which set the standard for long-running animated serials in Japan, following on from the successful children-oriented series Dragon Ball. Picking up where that left off, the show follows the adventures of Goku, a good-hearted young martial arts expert with unknown alien origins, who has started a family with his wife Chi Chi and fathered a bright, strong young son named Gohan. Since beating King Piccolo at the Tenka'ichi Budōkai, the evil offspring Piccolo has been training privately hoping to return one day to defeat Goku, meanwhile Goku's friends have continued to live their lives in peace. All seems well until an alien warrior claiming to be Goku's brother crashes to Earth, and Goku and Piccolo are forced into uneasy alliance in order to take on the murderous psychopath. Goku is promptly killed - and in front of his son and friends no less - and the warrior is defeated, but not before he can reveal that two more stronger warriors are on their way to Earth, hoping to conquer and claim the legendary Dragon Balls for themselves. Forced into quickly picking up the pieces from Goku's demise, everyone bands together to train in the hope of defending the Earth from this oncoming threat.

   The universe of Dragon Ball Z is not too different from our own, set in a slightly more futuristic time period with some mythological changes. At the core of this mythology is the Dragon Balls, seven mysterious objects created by the Guardian of the Earth and hidden all around the planet. When the Dragon Balls are united, the dragon Shenlong can be summoned to grant any wish, from unlimited riches to bringing people back from the dead. Although often the motivation for the villains of the series, the Dragon Balls rather function as a fascinating macguffin - the real heart of the piece involves the characters developing and growing, and the epic fight sequences, in which the long-training characters fight to the death with the larger-than-life Id-driven villains.

   Although most well known for the lengthy fights, Dragon Ball Z is filled with interesting, likeable characters and would not work without them. Each character is given their own arc, and they engage and grow as the plot progresses - consider the series a male soap opera, without the associated lowbrow stigma. At the heart of the show is Goku, a genuinely good-hearted individual who fights only to protect others, and who likes to see the good in others, but often pays for this innocent view of the world. His young son, Gohan, has also been shielded from the world's cruelty, but is forced to become strong when Goku is violently killed, and he is forcefully taken under the wing of Piccolo. Piccolo is, for lack of better description, an absolutely wonderful character - initially a violent, self-serving and distrusting monster, he is forced to take on the role of father figure for young Gohan in order to protect the Earth and himself, and as the series progresses, becomes uncomfortably a part of the extended family. His character develops with compassion, and this leads to an act of brutal self-sacrifice - it's really no surprise that so many creators of other anime identify Piccolo as their favourite character - he's both badass, and representative of what can be done with good storytelling.

   And good storytelling is really what Dragon Ball Z is all about. Some pacing and continuity issues aside, the series runs long, powerful arcs that carry a lot of depth as well as sensational action. The suggestion that embracing multiculturalism, mixing and breeding with others of different background and culture, is the only way we can stand against those who wish to destroy us is particularly interesting; likewise, the show has no illusions about the often deeply unpleasant nature of humanity, but rather believes that there is something worth fighting for. At the same time, each of the villains in the series represent different elements of the Id and of masculine power (it's no accident that the primary antagonists of the first saga appear to be exactly the same species as humans except for having monkey tails, which cause them to revert into pureblood beast at full moon, and that the protagonists of the same race, Goku and Gohan, "outgrow" theirs over the course of the series) and they meet their demise in clever ways that actually make sense, never betraying the internal logic of the show.

   It's also tremendously ballsy, and has no issue depicting brutality and bloody deaths. Despite the fact that characters can be reincarnated through use of the Dragon Balls (though only once), the death of characters still carries heavy weight and disastrous consequences, and important characters often meet brutal demises. It's not the stuff of your average children's cartoon, and in Japan Dragon Ball Z was not considered a children's cartoon at all - the evolution from the very child-oriented Dragon Ball into the more mature themed sequel series is evident throughout the first saga, as minor childlike characters are left behind and a darker, more corrupt world is imagined. This is a violent show, featuring a fair degree of bloodshed and destruction, even against children. At the same time, the show features a lot of humour, that ranges from being occasionally scatological and slapstick, to much more serious moments of dark humour.

   Across the first six discs of this series is the complete Saiyan Saga (each season of the series is called a "saga", prefaced with the villain or location of the run) and I adore it; this is a particularly strong, well animated series, and with this new uncut version it is clear that this show was not intended for children. Additionally, this first saga sets the scene and tone while evolving from the former series, making it a good access point for newcomers, as well as a pleasing release for fans. I could write essays on Dragon Ball Z and am overjoyed at a release like this finally making it to Australian shores.

Video

   This is where the set begins to get really controversial - the original anime was broadcast in 1.33:1, not widescreen. In creating this new version of the show for release, FUNimation went through a lengthy expensive remastering process in which the Japanese masters were converted to digital 1080p video and then cleaned up and cropped to create the transfer seen here, removing a part of the top and bottom and re-adding footage to the sides to create widescreen.

   Having viewed the series both in the original broadcast aspect ratio and the widescreen here, I can say that FUNimation has done quite a good job with the transfer. Although there are still a lot of film artefacts in these releases, there is very little grain and the colours themselves are bright and powerful. The widescreen looks very good on a HD set, giving the show a more cinematic feel (which is particularly nifty during the large-scale epic fight sequences), but occasionally feels a bit off when it is clear that the cinematography is wrong for this aspect ratio, like when the tops of heads are cut off. This is, fortunately, rare, and overall I am satisfied with the look of this set. There are some other minor issues, such as small lines appearing briefly due to the process used to clean up the sets, but this is rare and isn't going to drag anyone out of the viewing experience.

   This is an unusual case, I feel, in that reaction to the set will ultimately come down to personal opinion rather than actual quality - although I am well aware that there are cleaner releases of the series available elsewhere, the set does look very good like this. Whether or not you will take to this is really personal preference, and the FUNimation site has plenty of previews showing off the new footage vs. the old footage to help you make up your mind.

   The English subtitle track that plays with the Japanese soundtrack is not perfect, featuring some occasional grammar issues and spelling mistakes, as well as the occasionally completely incoherent sentence. But for the most, it retains the spirit and tone of the original dialogue with good translations - I just wish it was, well, perfect. Anime fans in Western countries tend to be spoiled by fansubs which are done by actual fans of the series, capturing the exact translation and tone in perfectly structured phrases and sentences - why can't these groups be hired for the DVD releases? Regardless, these subtitles get the job done, even if it isn't ideal.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Let's go over this bit by bit - to begin with, this is the very best English audio of the series that has been released. The 5.1 sound is very atmospheric, utilizing the full surround in the majority of scenes and then going crazy with the subwoofer during the fights and explosions (of which there are many). Fans who grew up with the original FUNimation dub will be pleased that all the original voice actors are here, and a lot of the dialogue has been redubbed to fit the newly uncensored cut of the show, and the addition of the Japanese soundtrack gives the show a more pure form. The mix is very well done, with all the lines syncing and everything perfectly audible.

   The second soundtrack is the original FUNimation dubbing, complete with the awful soundtrack that the show was first broadcast in English with. For completion sake, it's nice to have it here, and it's a pretty decent stereo mix, but it pales in both quality and depth to the new 5.1 soundtrack. Fans who listen to the 5.1 with the far superior Japanese music will never ever want to go back to this.

   Finally, and disappointingly, the Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, which many of the fans will be hanging out for, isn't nearly as good as I'd hoped for. It's basically a mono mix distributed across the two channels, and doesn't sound nearly as loud or atmospheric as either of the two English mixes. There's no real surround here, and while everything is perfectly audible, this wont cut it in a proper high end home theatre. I have no information on the Japanese releases, but I imagine they have to be better than this.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Animated Menus with Sound

Dragon Ball Z: Rebirth (5:21)

A New Look (3:06)

Textless Songs - Opening Song (1:50), Closing Song (1:39)

Trailers - Anti-Piracy (0:31), Naruto Volume 6 (1:46), Yu Yu Hakusho - Ghost Files Collection 5 (1:06), Initial D Collection 3 (0:39), Le Chevalier Volume 1 (1:41), Burst Angel Complete Collection (2:41), Fate/Stay Night Volume 1 (1:40)

24-page booklet with episode summaries, character descriptions, and a DBZ timeline

   The video and audio are both controversial, due to the big changes converting the original 1.33:1 to widescreen, and the quality of the different audio choices - it is entirely personal preference as to how fans will feel about these.

   There are few extras, unfortunately limited to the process of creating this latest DVD set rather than looking at the actual creation and ideas of the series.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall