Dragon Box Z: Volume 01

So, on the last episode of Dragon Ball Z, FUNimation released the DEFINITIVE EDITION of Dragon Ball Z DIGITALLY REMASTERED IN HIGH DEFINITION. Yeah, right.

My main problem with their previous release, despite the fact that it wasn’t really remastered (how do you remaster betamax tapes?) was that they chopped off some of the top and bottom of the original framed animation to make it wide screen. That is a no-no for any film-buff (you wouldn’t buy a full screen movie for this same reason -you aren’t seeing the whole picture as it was intended).

Nevertheless, FUNimation passed this release off as DBZ as it was meant to be seen. Fanboys cried foul and the casual fan apparently didn’t care less (the orange bricks sold like gangbusters).

Fast-forward to November 17th, and the elusive Dragon Box is available in America!

What is a Dragon Box, you ask? Well, while FUNimation was pimping their gimped DBZ release, Toei Animation (the folks who animated DBZ…try to keep up!) pulled their film masters (yeah, ACTUAL masters) out of cold storage and cleaned them up for a DVD master. They cleaned the glue and grime off of the film and re-framed the shots. However, they released DBZ in two separate (expensive) sets. Really, these sets were like $1,200 each. The price, not to mention the fact that they had no dub subtitles meant that the American DBZ fan was out of luck…

…Until now.

Now, to be fair, I’m sure the fact that the previous DBZ set sold like crack enabled FUNi to acquire this gem, so from now on we’ll just let bygones be bygones.

Enough back story…on to the set:

This thing is a real beauty. Emulated after the original Japanese Dragon Boxes, this one retains all the aesthetics. The boxes are smaller (literally, and in episode count) and they are broken down into consumer-friendly (read: cheaper) volumes. The first one stretches from episode 1 to 42 (that means it goes a little bit into the Namek Saga).

Picture quality is great. You may notice grain, but it’s meant to be there. It shows the film’s subtle nuances and displays every detail that FUNimation’s photoshop filters blurred out of the previous release.

Sound is as good as it can be. The only Japanese track that exists for DBZ  is in mono, so there’s no overcoming that. The English dub is included with the original Japanese score and a 5.1 mix. Complaints about character casting aside, it makes the Japanese track sound like poop (I still rock it for nostalgia though!).

We are also treated to a Dragon Book that includes episode summaries, character descriptions, and various other pieces of artwork and information. The actual DVD menus are no-frills, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

All in all, this is an excellent release. There should be seven releases to coincide with the seven Dragon Balls, and I will be purchasing every one. As the insert packaged with the set proclaims, “this isn’t an addition to your archive, this IS your archive.” If you are a fan of DBZ, even at $79.98, this is a no-brainer. If you bought that orange brick crap, ebay it and grab this asap. Short of re-drawing the entire series, it doesn’t get any better than this.

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