Dragon Ball Z-3.7: Androids-Invincible (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Introduction Notes-Previous Saga Info Biographies-Character Featurette-DBZ Web Promo Featurette-Preview Other Sagas DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	81:21
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Daisuke Nishio
Studio Distributor	Toei Animation Madman Entertainment	Starring	Sean Schemmel Christopher Sabat
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$24.95	Music	Shuusuke Kikuchi Chiho Kikuchi Takeshi Ike

    No Match For The Androids (Episode 121): After Vegeta is all-but-killed by Android 18, Trunks steps in to help his father with dire results. This triggers a chain reaction in which all of the Z fighters in the area are beaten to a bloody pulp, besides Kurirun that is, who is too scared to do anything. The Androids then move on to finding Goku, while the Z fighters recover somewhat.

    Last Ditch Effort (Episode 122): In the aftermath of the battle, the Z fighters come to the conclusion that they are all but useless against the Androids. Trunks even reveals that these Androids are many times more powerful than the ones in his altered future, to the shock of Piccolo, Tien, Vegeta and Kuririn. Vegeta then flies off in a rage to improve his power level and Piccolo flies off to see Kami in order to to re-unite with him (in the original Dragonball, Piccolo and Kami were the one being, who then separated with Piccolo being the evil side and Kami being the good side). This will increase Piccolo's power level greatly and may give the Earth a chance against the Androids.

    Closing In (Episode 123): In a useless sub-plot that is obviously filler material, Androids 16, 17 and 18 are chased by a gang of bikers. Nonetheless, it is fun to watch. While that is happening, Trunks and Kuririn prepare to move Goku to a safer hiding place as he is recovering - Master Roshi's island. Kami is still deciding whether he wants to merge with Piccolo for the sake of the world.

    Unwelcome Discovery (Episode 124): With Goku recovering in Master Roshi's house, most of the Z fighters are sitting around with little to do, until the house receives a call from Buruma explaining that she has found a time capsule identical to the one that Trunks arrived in. Trunks, Gohan and Buruma then meet up at the site of the wreck to discover where it came from. The discovery is one that escalates the situation further.

    One thing I must note is that the English version of Kuririn is the most annoying character I have ever come across - I came very close to skipping through all of his lines. Also, Kuririn's voice actor is pathetic. Some of his lines sounded like they were recorded for a documentary since he delivers them so clinically.

    This disc contains four good episodes, and the introduction of Cell, so there is more fun still to come!

Video

    DBZ 3.7 is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is up to the usual high level, only being limited by the condition of the cels. In this case, the cels used for these episodes, in particular the end of Episode 121 and the start of Episode 122, are some of the worst I have seen in comparison to all other DBZ DVDs. On several occasions, such as at 21:55, 21:59, 23:47 and 26:05, the cels show quite significant degradation, to the point where they seem to have broken up slightly.

    Although the cels have degraded in terms of clarity, they have not faded in terms of colour. As perennial as anything can be in this series of DVDs, it is the colour. This one is no different, being one of the brightest discs on offer so far, although this could be attributed to the fact that these particular episodes are quite colourful ones. The pink van is one example that springs to mind.

    Aliasing was a problem with this transfer, being constant in the outlines of the characters for a good part of the episodes. One instance that comes to mind is at 21:13. The print was a tad on the dirty side (again being an age problem) with 22:18 showing one of the worst examples. As usual, grain popped up constantly, like at 20:36, where there is a visible layer of grain on top of the animated characters. Grain was also especially obvious during pans.

Audio

    There is only the one audio track on this compilation of episodes, that being a English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. As no Japanese track was present, I listened to the English track.

    In a cartoon where the dialogue has been re-recorded in English only a year or so ago, what else can be expected but perfection? The track is loud, with the dialogue being the major factor in it reaching such a high decibel level. The quality of the track can be ascertained from Piccolo's voice - it is raspy and distorted (as Piccolo isn't human), but all of his lines can be clearly discerned. 

    A couple of factors come to mind when analysing performance in the area of audio synchronization. Firstly; it is animation, secondly; it is animation that isn't in its original language. Taking these two factors into consideration, actually giving a rating for how well the disc performed in this area is rather pointless. It is the equivalent of reviewing the English soundtrack of El Marichi.

    Music is the normal synthesizer drivel. It is overly obvious and appears when it need not.

    The mix is quite boring. Unlike other, better, mixes that have accompanied some DBZ DVDs, this one shows no imaging effects whatsoever and is very central in the soundfield.

Menu

    A static menu with the cover art as the background, it uses the same template as all the other menus in the series.

Notes - Previous Saga Info

    These are summaries of the Saiyan, Namek, Captain Ginyu, Frieza, Garlic Jnr., and Trunks sagas. Quite interesting if you aren't up-to-date with the series.

Biographies - Characters (10)

    Only useful if you have no idea of who is who in the series, although if you were purchasing this DVD so late into the series I think you would have some knowledge of what happened before it.

Featurette - Dragonball Z Web Promo (00:13)

    This is a very short look through the official website. It is of brilliant quality and looks like it has been captured directly from computer.

Trailer - Preview Other Sagas (1:47)

    The first half of the trailer advertises the Garlic Jnr. Saga (set before this one). The odd thing is that the titles advertised aren't available in Australia and have not been announced either. The second half is just some flashes of Trunks, advertising the first couple of DVDs, even though it has been done somewhat indirectly.

    As always the R1 disc is blessed with the original language track, making it the version of choice. I can only hope that some day these discs will be re-released with Japanese audio.

    Dragonball Z 3.7 is a good bunch of episodes presented on a somewhat lacking DVD compared to other discs in this series I have already reviewed. The lack of new extras only exaggerates this situation further.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall