Dragonball Z #1 : Arrival Pioneer 80 minutes English Dubbed 04/13/1999

I was never a HUGE fan of the whole Dragon Ball thing, but it did give me something good to watch on Sunday mornings while evading the brainwashing by the Catholic church. The trick was to tell your parents you were going to the 10 o'clock mass when they went to the seven, then leave the house, sneak back in and up to your third floor, take the small TV put it on the bathroom sink, then plug it in to the outlet next to the mirror and watch it while sitting on the toilet.** But let's be honest, those days are long gone, though Dragon Ball Z does still serve a unique purpose. It gives you something fairly interesting to watch when you're bored and by yourself, or it gives you something to shout over when you're in a group of guys. Five years after it was on network television the reason I watch it is still the same, I've got nothing else to do and I like seeing guys beat up. Though I have friends into it, I'm going to be honest, I'm not really a fan of the show. What do you do when you're bored at home? Flip on the TV and watch a rerun of Full House, one of the worst TV shows to ever air on American television. Instead of the hilarious hijinks of Jaleel White and Reginald Vel Johnson, we're given three guys in a big house with a bunch of girls. Was there ever an Urkel-bot on Full House? Do you even need another reason why it sucked? The point I'm trying to make is that Dragon Ball Z isn't really a great show, or even a good one in my opinion... but it's not horrible and a good way to unwind when you want to see people and things blow up.

 

Why is this disc sucks from a technical standpoint. One chapter stop per episode. It's done in movie format so it shows the opening, then all four episodes, then the ending. It's also English dub only. If that doesn't just scream craptacular then what does? Much akin to their Pokemon releases Pioneer has really sucked this one up. It's WAY too long a series to be getting put out three episodes on most discs and no original language? I think they just assume that the only people who want to buy this are the ones who only know of it as an American TV show. They, of course, could not be more wrong. It's stupid to make an assumption like that with such a niche market like DVD was at the time, I'm sure most people would be like "Hey, I remember that show" maybe pick up a couple discs for nostalgia. Of course, they just completely abandon the show's HUGE fanbase who would've gladly bought the discs for $30 with TWO episodes on them as long as the Japanese with unadulterated subtitles were included. Instead they're offered this trashy dub where people don't "die" they just "go to another dimension".

 

So what's the story? All the people from the original Dragon Ball are getting together for a nice little reunion. It's been a long time and they're all meeting at the house of Master Roshi. There's Krillin (or Kuririn), the short guy, Bulma, the girl and of course Master Roshi. Then there's Goku, the strong guy with the heart of gold who happens to be the savior of the world who kinda lost his memory as a kid and has no real idea of the awesome destructive power he has the potential to unleash. You see, Goku is a Saiyajin (spelled it right!) who was sent to Earth as a child to destroy it, but a knock on the head made him forget all of that. Now his brother Raditz has come to find out what the hell's wrong with him and why he hasn't killed all the inhabitants of the planet. According to Raditz the Saiyajins are kind of like planet brokers, they find a place suitable for a client to stay then they send their warriors in to kill all those bothersome people in the way of their sale. With a target as weak as Earth all they needed was one baby.

 

So now Raditz is here to bring Goku back, and if Goku doesn't want to help he's gonna kill him and take care of the job himself. Of course, Superman...(I mean Goku) resists and Raditz steals Gohan, the son of Goku and his wife Chichi. The imperative he gives to Goku is to destroy 100 of the planet's species by the next day***, or the kid dies. Of course, Goku can't give in, but he also can't fight Raditz alone, this is where Piccolo comes in. Besides being a big green badass and possibly the same voice actor as Wolverine from the X-Men show, Piccolo is the guy who was trying to take over the world before Raditz got there... and there's no way he's gonna let his title go to some monkey tailed upstart from the planet bumblefuck. Let the battle begin!

**With BOTH seats down, I try not to mix anime and bodily functions.

***Yeah, right.