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The Dragon Ball franchise has been around for nearly
30 years now. Akira Toriyama, also known for his work on
numerous video games and other series, created a classic
for the ages when he put the first volume of the Dragon
Ball manga into Shonen Jump magazine in 1984. Like many
manga series, it inspired an anime adaptation. ***
Dragon Ball is the anime adaptation of the first half
of Akira Toriyama's manga series. This is the very beginning,
featuring Goku as a naïve young child, traveling the world
and meeting many of his friends for the first time - many
of whom start off as enemies. As he grows, Goku discovers
the secret of the Dragon Balls, trains and fights in martial
arts tournaments, and squares off against villains bent
on world domination and destruction. ***
Dragon Ball is the first in the Dragon Ball Trilogy,
followed up by Dragon Ball Z (the second half of Toriyama's
manga, usually revered as the best of the series) and Dragon
Ball GT (an anime-only series that gets a mixed review from
fans. ***
With Dragon Ball Z so wildly popular, it can be easy
to overlook the first series. This is a shame, as it is
no less excellent. This is the show when it was in a simpler,
more episodic format - where the action was still all there,
but humor and lighthearted situations were more plentiful.
This is long before the days of episodes drawn out powering
up, and characters being wished back from the dead until
the cows come home. In fact, many fans prefer this series
over Z. ***
The original Dragon Ball has a convoluted release history,
though nothing near as bad as Z's history. The first 13
episodes were originally released on DVD by a company called
Kidmark, which was the children's division of a company
called Vidmark (which has since been acquired by Lionsgate.)
These releases were dub only and edited. Circa 2003, FUNimation
released uncut “saga” sets for the entire original Dragon
Ball - but the first 13 episodes were still missing since
Vidmark (and subsequently, Lionsgate) held the rights. Finally,
in 2009, Lionsgate lost the rights, so FUNimation began
doing “season set” releases for the original Dragon Ball,
which included those first 13 episodes uncut for the first
time. ---
Image And Sound:
FUNimation must have heard the fan outcry on the complaints
about the Z series, because the original Dragon Ball sets
are presented in the original 4:3 ratio, with no cropping
or annoying noise reduction. These could very well be the
same transfers Toei used on the Japanese Dragon Box sets,
though I can't verify this since I don't own those. But
the show looks very good, and these transfers are, if nothing
else, a slight step up from the old Saga sets. ***
Sadly, the audio on the Japanese track is still fairly
weak in comparison to the quality that was given to the
dub. The dub version of the original Dragon Ball is more
accurate and appealing than that of the Z sets, though I
still have my quibbles here and there. I'll be sticking
with the Jap audio, but that's just me.
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