Cheap Dragon Ball Z - Season Two (Namek and Captain Ginyu Sagas) (DVD) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Dragon Ball Z - Season Two (Namek and Captain Ginyu Sagas)

Dragon Ball Z remastered
Quick Facts: I'm 27, been a fan of Dragon Ball Z since 1999, and a fan of anime since 1992. I'm very picky about uncut anime, and I always prefer the original aspect ratio. I dislike English dubs as most any anime fan does. This is my first review of a DVD. <
> <
>Video: FUNimations claims this is a widescreen transfer from the original video. Dragonball Z fans are screaming the original video was cropped to make it widescreen. I've spent the last 2 days with WinDVD and Photoshop to confirm or disprove this. Anyone who does image editing knows that cropping a 4:3 image to 16:9 can be really dramatic. After watching 67 episodes of this new release from FUNimation, I wasn't completely convinced about the transfer being cropped from it's original 4:3 aspect ratio. Dragonball Z fans are correct to say the widescreen transfer is cropped, but they also would need to admit to that the 4:3 broadcast we fans know and love was also cropped! The widescreen transfer has extended video on the left and right that was cropped for the original 4:3 TV broadcast some 18 years ago. A time when 4:3 televisions were standard. In recent times, 16:9 televisions have taken over, and we're much more widescreen oriented. The original animation aspect ration I got when I was done sizing and layering the images over each other from the 4:3 and 16:9 gave me a 16:11 aspect ratio. This my Dragon Ball Z fans... Seems to be the ORIGINAL size. 16:11 though won't look all that great on any TV set. Also makes sense though since animators make the original larger so when transferring the animation to video, there's room to play with so you don't have random spots missing on the sides, top and bottom. So if you have to ask yourself if this is a legitmate 16:9 transfer or some 4:3 cropped (cut/edited) video, the real answer is... It's a legimate 16:9 transfer. Both the 4:3 and the 16:9 are cropped from the original... In the end, it depends on personal preference. <
> <
>The video was supposedly cleaned up, and the colors remastered. Personally, For the most part, I see an increased brightness on the video, which actually does look better. They did clean up the video and removed grain and video noise. All in all, the remastered picture looks better compared to the original DVDs that FUNimation released. <
> <
>Audio: I can't say much about the sound quality since I'm using my computer for the time being. Just moved, and have yet to hook up my home theater again. FUNimation is releasing this with 3 settings. The original Japanese language and music. Nothing seems to have changed between the original DVDs and this release. For those who watch DBZ subbed only, I see no change at all. The second option is the English dub with the Japanese music. This is actually quite interesting, and I give credit for this addition! In this rare instance, I have always like the dubs for Dragon Ball Z, so having the option to watch it with the original music is great. If that isn't enough though, this new way to watch the series is in Dolby Digital 5.1. Then there's the third option which is the English dub with the US music done by Bruce Faulconer in stereo. I guess doing this in 5.1 would have taken too much time. <
> <
>The dub was also redone for whatever reason. After comparing the original DVDs vs the new ones, the older ones sometimes seem a bit more consistent with what was originally being said. One quick example would be this... <
> <
>Japanese Audio: Vegeta "I suppose" <
>Original English Dub: Vegeta "I guess so" <
>New English Dub: Vegeta "Shut up!" <
> <
>Why FUNimation went out of the way to do a whole new dub, I have no idea... This seems to be wasteful of production time, or maybe they can't use the original dub anymore. Why FUNimation does anything at times is beyond my understanding. They have time to redub the series, but they can't make the English dub with the US music in 5.1... <
> <
> <
>The menus on these discs are light years ahead of the original DVDs FUNimation released, with much more chapter points, and the MARATHON option which allows you to watch all the episodes on a disc straight through without the opening/closing between the episodes. More like watching a movie than episode after episode, having to skip after each one. <
> <
>The packaging of the discs in the case is rather nice. Seems upon collection the series, you can line them up for a large "DRAGONBALL Z" title! Each season comes with a small booklet with character information, episode information, etc. <
> <
> <
>Also want to note that according to FUNimation, this video was remastered on HD 1080/24p. This doesn't mean the discs are HD and can optimize the new HDMI 1.3, but it does show that 1080/24p mastering is being done, and we're probably not far off from seeing this much more commonly done and seeing HDDVDs with actual 1080/24p video as TVs are now coming out with HDMI 1.3. <
> <
>I hope this information helps people looking to possibly buy this series or in the case I'm in, buy it again for the remastered video and widescreen version. Also much more compact compared to dozens of standard DVD cases! <
> <
>Giving this 4 stars. Why not 5? Because there is still room for improvement. The new dub doesn't always seem to fit, and in comparison to the actual translation of what was being said, it's like comparing black and white. FUNimation was always lousy about the dub translation, and there's little excuse for rebubbing the series and making it just as poor as the first time around. Making the English Dub with Japanese music 5.1, but the US music in 2.0 is another point away from me. While this doesn't change anything for me, if they had the time to redub and upscale to 5.1 for the Japanese music, it seems to me they should have taken the time to upscale the US music track too. Lazy? Additionally, they should have some slight explanation of the widescreen transfer included. The extras on the discs are meaningless. <
> <
>For the price these new box sets go for... It's an unbeatable deal for the series and Dragon Ball Z fans.

---

Great Saga. It rocked!
I watched all six discs over the weekend it was great. Digitaly remastered looks fantastic. Can't wait for the next saga to come out digitally remastered. Cheers Guys!

---

Almost Perfect DBZ Box Set
The only flaw in this set is the fact that the episodes are not presented in their original aspect ratio. The series was initially filmed on 16mm film, with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. For TV, VHS, and early DVD releases, the episodes were presented in the close-enough television ratio of 1.33:1. <
> <
>In making these Dragon Ball Z box sets, FUNimation decided to crop the image in a unique way: they chopped off the top and bottom of the picture in each frame and left the sides alone, thus converting the picture to a widescreen format, which I'd guess at 1.85:1. Their official reason for this was that the top and bottom of each of the thousands of frames per reel were damaged, and that this solution to the problem was the easiest. <
> <
>It was also the stupidest. <
> <
>FUNimation could easily have obtained better transfers from Japan, the country that recently remastered all of their Dragon Ball series and released them on Region 2 DVD boxsets (titled "Dragon Box"). This problem does not necessarily affect the user's enjoyment adversely. This, however, is the only major flaw on these two Dragon Ball Season sets. <
> <
>The picture looks great, the colours seem balanced, and the audio is crisp. In addition, the English audio is uncut. The American dubbed audio is the highlight of this set, since the voices presented are those that people living in North America have grown accustomed to hearing, notwithstanding the fact that the voices originally heard in these two seasons have been rerecorded with the voice actors used after the middle of the Frieza Saga to perpetuity. <
> <
>Furthermore, the video, despite being cropped, is uncut in that it is devoid of television edits. All blood, mild swearing, broken bones and severed limbs remain. <
> <
>It is hoped that FUNimation will eventually be able to release the entire series of Dragon Ball completely uncut. In the meantime, at least three of these sets are coming out this year, the next on Sept. 18. Moderately priced, they're worth every penny. <
> <
>In all, I rate this box set, as it's predecessor, a 4 out of 5.