Dragonball Z Revisited: Introduction

 “A journey that began long ago, in a place neither near nor far...

A story of heroes, passed down through the ages...

Until now. This is our story. These are our heroes.” - Dragon Box DVDs

What can you say about Dragonball Z? If you ask people about it, responses range from “Never heard of it” to “Don't really care for it” to “Isn't that the show where it takes five episodes for anything to happen?” to “It's over 9000!” to “I absolutely love it”. I was about eleven or twelve when I first got into the series. It was during the stage in my life when I was mostly watching cartoons, and I heard this show advertised and never had an interest in checking it out. I eventually gave it a go, and was surprised to find that I really liked it. I think, back then, it stood out to me because it wasn't like any of the other cartoons I watched; the story wouldn't be resolved within twenty minutes, each episode was just a small part of a much bigger plot. Also, it was the only show I knew where the characters would actually grow older. But that was me when I was twelve, and it was my first exposure to a series that actually told a long-running story. How does it hold up now that I'm twenty-three?

I'll get the obvious out of the way first – this series totally holds up. I love it just as much as I did back then. Something I have found interesting though, is that different parts of the series hold up differently. That is more what these blog posts will look at – which parts of the series are as good as I remember, which are better and which are worse. It will also note significant differences between the original Japanese version and whichever English dub I happened to watch the episodes in (seriously, we've had at least four different dubs over here!)

Before I go any further, I should enlighten any readers who are unfamiliar with this series. If you 're already caught up on your Dragonball history, feel free to skip to the last paragraph. Dragonball was originally a Japanese manga series that ran for 42 issues, written by Akira Toriyama. It followed the adventures of Goku and his friends, and their quest to protect the titular Dragonballs from falling into the wrong hands. These seven magical orbs, when gathered together, could summon a powerful dragon who could grant a single wish. Despite its name, the series focussed less on the Dragonballs and more on the group of friends brought together by a love for marital arts. Proving popular with readers, Dragonball was adapted into an animé which ran for a total of 444 episodes. However, in the animé, the story was divided into two series. After episode 153 of Dragonball, the following 291 episodes bore the title Dragonball Z. In Japan, this didn't make much difference, as the entire series aired in order, but in English speaking countries, it's a little more complicated.

When Funimation Productions first picked up the rights to Dragonball in America, they dubbed the first 13 episodes and aired them on TV. Ratings were poor, but rather than leaving the series, they instead turned their attention to the more action-oriented Dragonball Z. Their 26-episode adaptation of the first story arc was picked up by Cartoon Network, and gained a number of fans. This means that the vast majority of English-speaking fans were first exposed to the series through Dragonball Z, me included.

Something I will say about the series; all the English dubs have aged terribly. With awkward line deliveries, painful dialogue, unfitting music and nonsensical censorship, I really cannot say anything good about any English version of the series. When I started buying the series on DVD, I switched to the original Japanese version, and it is just superior in every way. There is no way the series would have aged so well if I had stuck with the English version.

Dragonball Z has seen something of a revival recently. In 2009, Toei Animation began airing a 'refreshed' version of the series, condensing the episodes, replacing the musical score and re-recording the dialogue. This version of the series was named Dragonball Kai, and ran for 97 episodes, but did not cover the final arc of the series, so essentially cut down 194 episodes into 97. Obviously Funimation licenced it in America, but distributed it under the name Dragonball Z Kai. I haven't properly watched this series yet, but from what I have heard of the English dub, it is very good, and I think I would actually choose to watch Kai in English rather than Japanese.

Over the past few years I have been collecting the American Dragon Boxes – Seven DVD sets compiling the entire Dragonball Z TV series (in fact, one of the main reasons I didn't buy Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One on release is because it coincided with the release of Dragon Box 7). I was intrigued to find that the episodes roughly coincide with how the series aired on English TV, so I get an odd sense of nostalgia from them. I will make this clear- this is NOT a review of the Dragon Box sets, but a review of the episodes contained within them. I will note which episodes I will be covering in each review, providing a brief story outline and discussing I liked and what I didn't like, and where the Japanese and English versions differ. I am putting a spoiler warning on this entire series, as I want to discuss the story and characters in a lot of detail, and I can't do that if I'm worried about saying too much. So with that said, my next blog post will cover Dragon Box 1. I won't do these one after the other, as I like to vary my blog posts, but I will try at do one a month for the time being.

p.s. If you're interested in knowing more about Dragonball Z, the two best sites for more information are Daizenshuu EX and Kanzentai. If you're looking to get into the series, but don't know whether or not you will like it, then I have a few recommendations. One would be to stream a few episodes online and see if you like it. Another would be to check out Dragonball (Z) Kai, as it is shorter and probably a little less overwhelming. The other option is to watch TeamFourStar's parody series Dragonball Z Abridged – it's well written, absolutely hilarious and keeps enough of the story intact that you can probably get a feel for whether or not you will like the series.