Dragon Ball Z Season 2 Blu-ray Review
The second season of “Dragon Ball Z” is now one of the show’s best.
In season 2 of “Dragon Ball Z,” fans get to witness the Namek and Captain Ginyu Sagas (which are comprised of episodes 40-74). The season begins with Gohan, Bulma and Krillin venturing to Namek in order to get help in finding Dragon Balls. Frieza and Vegeta, meanwhile, are separately looking for the Dragon Balls as well. While all of this is going on, Goku is training with Yamcha and Tien (and a few other characters as well) in order to become more powerful. Things become ugly for our heroes on Namek when Frieza and his Ginyu Special Corps team (Guldo, Jeice, Recoome, Burter, and Captain Ginyu) begin to stir up trouble and attack Namekians. Will Goku reunite with his family and friends in order to combat Frieza and company? What will Vegeta decide to do when he comes face to face with Frieza?
When people talk about filler in DBZ, you can point to season 2 as a prime example. Sure, you get explosive action (primarily against the Ginyu Special Corps. Members) which IS the main appeal of DBZ, but from a story perspective, the season leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does the season conclude with a cliffhanger, but the battle against Frieza continues to rage on into season 3. Worse than that, however, is the fact that it takes 26 episodes for Goku to get to Namek. By the time he does arrive, there’s only a few episodes left before the season ends! Say what you will about “Dragon Ball Z Kai,” but that series had a much tighter pacing when it came to the events of season 2 as we didn’t have to witness so much time wasting.
Thankfully, season 2 is not without merit. Not only is the exploration of Namekian culture a great benefit to fans of the series, but the character evolution of Vegeta proves to be the season’s greatest selling point. Seeing a pissed off, stronger Vegeta going crazy on villains before eventually teaming up with Goku and company for the first team is simply a joy to behold. He simply steals every scene he is in.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1.78:1 1080p. How does it look? Your opinion of the video quality will depend entirely on how you feel about the lack of the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. If you don’t mind the widescreen presentation, fans should be pleased by the colorful prints. Yes, the hi-def transfer is not without flaws, but it’s still generally well done.
Audio Tracks: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (Broadcast Version) and Original Japanese Mono. How do they sound? The 5.1 track offers the most depth and the Broadcast track is fine, but the Japanese track is a bit rough. I know many purists will want to play this track, but don’t expect great quality here as it clearly sounds like a product of its time.
Extras:
* Trailers for “Akira,” “Eureka Seven AO,” “Fairy Tail,” “Robotics;Notes,” “One Piece,” “Appleseed XIII,” “Wolf Children,” “Serial Experiments Lain,” “Aquarion EVOL,” Anime Classics and Funimation.com.
* U.S. trailer for “Dragon Ball Z.”
* Opening and closing songs.
* “Justin Cook Shares His Headshot Collection”- Production Director/Voice Actor Justin Cook talks about his work on DBZ and other cast members over a series of pictures of himself and other cast members. An odd, but original extra.
* “Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Sean Schemmel”- The fast talking voice actor who portrays Goku talks about his life, career, Goku, voice acting and DBZ. Interviews with fans and other Funimation employees are also included. A very well produced extra.
* “Inside Dragon Ball Z: Interview With Christopher R. Sabat”- Following the same format as the Schemmel interview, this interview with Sabat (the voice of Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, and others) is even better. It’s nice to see Funimation branching out and doing great extras like this.
Overall Thoughts: If you simply must own every “Dragon Ball Z” Blu-ray release, then by all means pick up the season 2 set. Otherwise, I’d stick to the “Dragon Ball Z Kai” season 2 set instead.
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