Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Funimation Entertaiment has had a long and at times somewhat contentious history with Dragonball Z. In the interests of preserving some semblance of bandwidth on this site, a total recounting of all of the many releases of Dragonball Z in its various iterations won’t be repeated, with the sole exception of Dragonball Z: Level 1.1 and Dragonball Z: Level 1.2. Those releases were supposed to augur a total release of the original series (291 episodes) in its original form, albeit now with significantly improved and restored video and audio. Sales were tepid at best, and Funimation abandoned the release schedule after the first volumes, leaving fans irate and disconsolate in about equal measure. Now several years later, Funimation is back up at bat, releasing what I assume is the same set of restored masters, albeit this time reframed in 1.78:1, perhaps in a hedge against more tepid sales, since at least this way the product can be licensed for broadcast to HD networks which now insist on a widescreen aspect ratio (my, how times have changed—remember when 1.33:1 was so-called “full screen”?). How this will sit with consumers is anyone’s guess, but I would point to the furor raised when The World at War did this very same thing a few years ago. Maybe a new world war is about to break out in the anime universe.

Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There's little doubt that most of the conversation about this new release has revolved around the rejiggered aspect ratio (now in 1.78:1, courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p transfer). As far as these things go, this reframing has been handled relatively well, though there are some obvious anomalies like missing tops of heads on characters at times. However, here's something new to discuss: where's the grain? This new release has been rather liberally scrubbed of any "offending" grain, something that gave the few "Level" releases their naturally filmic quality. There are also rather strange stabilization issues on this release, with a noticeable jiggliness between frames that tends to affect the edges of objects, so that they appear to move incrementally or have slight warping or bending tendencies at times. (I'd compare this to telecine wobble or gate weave, except that it only affects objects within the frame, rather than the entire frame itself.) There's no doubt that this has been cleaned, for the image is spotless. Colors are also exceptionally bright and vivid, but this presentation has virtually no connection now to its film source elements, and so I cannot in good conscience give it a higher score (and some may think I've been too kind with 3 stars).

Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio options on this release appear to be exactly the same as those I covered in my Dragonball Z: Level 1.1 Blu-ray review, so I'll simply repeat those observations here:

FUNimation has provided three lossless offerings on this Blu-ray, the English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with the original Japanese music, the original English language broadcast version (with broadcast version music) in Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and the original Japanese track (with Japanese music) in Dolby TrueHD mono. For the bulk of my watching, I opted for the 5.1 mix, as the synth heavy, proto-pop "stylings" of the broadcast version's music weren't as much to my personal liking as the 5.1's original Japanese music. Add to that some very smart and fun surround repurposing, without attendant fussiness or gimmickry, and the 5.1 track is the clear winner here, at least for those who want a fairly consistently immersive experience. Fidelity is top notch on this track, and the battle scenes are filled with slams, punches and crazy sound effects that ping pong around the surrounds with abandon. There's some great LFE in many (if not most) episodes, and the music is very well represented as well. Dynamic range is exceptional on this track, though truth be told, Dragon Ball Z tends to work at a fairly consistent hyperbolic level most of the time. The Japanese language track sounds noticeably muffled compared to the two English tracks, most likely due to age and the original recording environment and techniques.

Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Upcoming Special Feature Sneak Peek (1080p; 5:00)


• Textless Opening Song (1080p; 1:51)


• Textless Closing Song (1080p; 1:41)


• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:41)

Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My hunch is Funimation is once again going to engender the wrath of DBZ fans with this release, but they may be able to craft an "escape clause" with this rejiggered version which will be licensable to various broadcast (and streaming) outlets. Personally, I wish they simply would have continued with the preferable (in my not so humble opinion) "Level" sets.