The second season moves the plot forward... and stalls
Ever since the late 1990s, one has really been unable to think about anime without thinking of Dragonball. Mostly because it's airing in America has proven so prolific, it's popularity among anime fans is pretty much the same as it's popularity in Japan. However, it's been treated more than a touch differently.
Back when it was first released in America, Dragonball Z was heavily censored and changed - all to meet regular network standards, and Funimation's original licensing deal granted them use of the voice talent from Ocean, a group better known for their Gundam dubs these days. However, as time went on, Funimation changed their deal and had to provide voices on their own (though Canada and the UK still had the Ocean dub, for some bizarre reason). Thus, there was one bizarre discontinuity between the earlier episodes and later episodes - with some characters sounding drastically different. Finally, that's changed.
The second season boxset for Dragonball Z from Funimation, this 'season' moves the plot ahead to the planet Namek, with Gohan, Krillin and Bulma doing their best to collect the Dragonballs in order to resurrect their friends killed at the hands of Vegeta and Nappa. However, Vegeta's overlord Frieza has also landed at Namek for the same reason... only he desires immortality. And what of Vegeta, who no one can quite figure out? Can Goku get to Namek before his son and best friends die?
Continuing the trend from the first season box, the entire lot of episodes that Ocean covered have been re-dubbed by Funimation. Almost everyone who voiced a character in the Namek saga has been brought back to reprise their roles, and standouts in this respect are Sonny Straight as Krillin and Chris Sabat as... just about everyone. A personal like of mine was the re-take of Jeice being smacked in the nose by Goku, the resulting scream coming out like a little woman.
However, the redubbing stops for a lot of characters around episode 69, because that's where Funimation first started their dub. Sean Schemmel, who no longer works directly with Funi, leaves us with his early-and-kinda-bad Goku (as well as his 'angry Goku' Nail) - and several voices done by Chris Sabat are left completely alone, despite how jarring the change is (and the fact that Sabat continues re-recording Vegeta's lines). Sonny Straight also continues redubbing Krillin, though this is probably because he still works with Funimation (though why Chris Sabat didn't redub ALL of hic characters still mystifies me).
Also like last time, the option to watch either in the Original Japanese, American dub and music or with the Japanese music and American dub remains. Once again, the new music crafted for the pre-Funimation-dub-era episodes just doesn't seem to fit, but this problem is solved for me once the 'old' Funimation dub episodes return.
The series is again rendered into Widescreen and cleaned up via the same method, however the lack of unique choices in camera angles just leaves this feeling like little has changed. It's not bad, but this is more of a problem with the episodes themselves than a problem with the remastering.
30 bucks MSRP for 35 episodes on 6 discs? Yeah, that's a great deal. However... again, there's a complete lack of extras on these discs. It's a little worrying, considering Funimation has had some great bonuses for their other releases.
But if you're a DBZ fan, it's still worth it. For everyone else... it's Namek. Take that into account.Read full review
