Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Two |  | Actors: Sean Schemmel, Christopher R. Sabat, Sonny Strait, Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa
Studio: Funimation
Category: DVD
List Price: $59.98
Buy New: $45.39
as of 9/5/2010 07:08 CDT details
You Save: $14.59 (24%)
New (6) from $45.39
Seller: goHastings
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 14,494
Format: Full Screen, Color, Box set, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), Japanese (Original Language), English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Discs: 6
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1000 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.7 x 1.8
MPN: 704400022418
UPC: 704400022418
EAN: 0704400022418
ASIN: B002Y0KR7A
Release Date: February 16, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Funimation Prod Inc Release Date: 02/16/2010 Run time: 1000 minutes
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 The Greatest dragon ball Z release ever! February 21, 2010
TRUST (Northridge, CA USA)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
I used to be one of those individuals that would criticized the dragon box because of the lack of Bruce Faulconer music and because the price was significantly higher. Since I'm a fan of the series I couldn't help myself and I found my self pre-ordering the first Dragon Box to find out what the big deal was. I knew deep down that I wasn't gonna be to happy with the Japanese music.
Once I received the box I realized how incredibly well packaged everything comes. It already made the orange bricks look cheap and I had yet to open the box. The dragon box was about the size of two orange bricks (remastered sets) and the smaller boxes inside were beautifully build. The booklet that's included with the set is very handy when watching the episodes and its hardcover and not held together with a single staple like in the orange bricks.
The quality of the video is superb, its near perfect and the colors are beautiful. I found my self looking at all the vivid colors and seeing detail I had not seen before. It was truly like watching a different version of Dragon ball Z. This is the way Dragon ball Z should have been released from the start!
Now on to the music, when I first started watching the series I wanted the American music! Since I couldn't have it, I just stop complaining and decided to watch it and appreciate it. I found my self loving the Japanese music. Before I knew it I just couldn't go back to the American version. It's almost like watching an entirely new show. Try the Japanese music and it will grow on you after each episode.
I also want to mention that I did own the orange Bricks, but now that I own the First dragon box I've sold all the orange bricks on Amazon.
Now as a conclusion if you have the orange bricks, sell them and get your self the real definitive Edition. Watch the series the way it was originally intended. For those who don't own the Dragon Box, don't give the box bad review's, just because you didn't acquire this version first instead of the orange bricks. This is the best release of Dragon Ball Z to date! Appreciate its release! Buy the dragon box you wont regret it.
The Dragon Box shows you the series as originally intended and you won't miss the American music.
Dragon Box Volume 3 May 4, 2010!
Until we meet again guys!
For those who are still curious about the quality and aren't completely sure whether they should make the jump, well check out my youtube channel I posted up two videos demonstrating the quality of the first dragon box. Search for xxtrustxx on the search menu in youtube.
Some people need to understand something November 30, 2009
J. Paul (McDonough, Georgia)
42 out of 56 found this review helpful
Okay, we all know that the dub score isn't on this set. I am just as disappointed as other dub fans, but you have to understand, Funi is aiming these sets at another audience for once and wants to preserve quality. So just shut up and accept it instead of giving 1-star reviews to a product that wasn't meant for you in the first place. I don't necessarily agree with Funi's decisions and would rather have a release that satisfies all audiences, but regardless, we've been catered to for years so we should let the fans of the Japanese version have a release they can be proud of. We're lucky we got a dub in the first place as Funi made this release so that fans of the Japanese version can just watch the show as it was meant to be seen.
(btw, this is jjgp1112, daizex users)
Thank you once again, FUNimation February 22, 2010
Christopher D. Jacobson (MN, USA)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
This DBZ Dragon Box series is an exciting thing. I've been a fan of DBZ since I first saw it on syndicated television in the mid to late '90s. (You could say I was a fan of the series even earlier, about '95 or '96 or so, since I also watched the first thirteen episodes of Dragon Ball when that first aired in the States.)
Ever since becoming a fan of DBZ and having just around that time discovered the Internet, I searched for the series on Yahoo! and came up with a website which displayed many of the changes made in the US--all of the censorship, reworked music, and all of that. Since then, I've been clamoring for Dragon Ball Z, uncut and subbed with the original music.
I thought FUNimation were going to deliver with the season sets they released a few years ago, but they botched the job entirely by "remastering" the video in the most awful way imaginable: in addition to the drastically cropped framing (to create a faux-widescreen ratio--I'm BIG on original aspect ratio as it affects cinematography and composition), careless and unwatched DVNR was applied, a process which is intended to eliminate dirt and scratch marks that are present on the film being scanned, but when used so carelessly, it can do devastating things to video, especially animation, where lines of art are "erased" (that is, the lines are read by the program as scratch marks, so it takes color and other visual information surrounding the lines and then covers over the lines with this information, causing lines of art to disappear, particularly quick/fast-paced animation). To make matters worse, the colors and lighting are all blown-out and faded. (I'm not too familiar with technical terms; this could be due to contrast boosting, but I'm uncertain.)
FUNimation have finally delivered with this Dragon Box series, porting the expertly restored video masters from Japan. THIS is what I've wanted all along; I never bothered with bootleg fansubs back in the day because of poor quality tapes transferred several times over. With the video on these sets, you get a good amount of natural film grain (something that should NEVER be done away with entirely [or even at all if I had my way], particularly since important detail IS ALWAYS LOST when you do so) that really gives it an authentic look. It really does look like an anime from the '80s/early '90s, and to this fan, that is a very good thing indeed.
A lot of people appear to be complaining about these DVD releases for a variety of reasons, many of which seem silly to me. I'm not certain how much more compression would need to be applied to all the audio tracks and perhaps the video to add an additional audio track (many appear to prefer the US dub music, which is not present on these sets), but if adding an extra track noticeably degrades the quality of what I want to watch and hear, then I'm A-OK with the US music not being included--particularly since it's inferior and also not the original music. Does nobody care about original intention and preserving art anymore?
Many who complain about these Dragon Box sets also don't seem to see a reason for them--they comment that the video on the season sets FUNimation released earlier is "good enough." Well, it's certainly not good enough for me, and I'm thankful that FUNimation are releasing these now, and I hope that they don't compromise on future releases to try and please everybody. These Dragon Box sets SHOULD have been what FUNimation released initially, rather than jerking everyone's chains, but they've chosen to make poor decisions and milk the series for all they can get. This, however, is one DVD release series that I will give in to, for this is what I've WANTED all along, and I will pay the premium price for what I see to be a premium product line.
The packaging is also quite nice, and as I mentioned on my DBZ: Dragon Box Z, Volume One review, I ponder if it's modeled after the Japanese Dragon Box sets. High-quality materials, two digi-books which house the DVDs, nice artwork, and a book that contains episode descriptions, where everything is listed in a right-to-left reading format, which is what makes me wonder if it's similar to what the Japanese fans got years back.
So, if you don't know Japanese (that is, if importing the Japanese DVDs would be practically worthless to you) and are looking for Dragon Ball Z the way it's MEANT to be seen and heard--at long last, these are the DVDs to buy!
Rediscovering the Freeza arc in Dragon Box 2 is a delight. February 16, 2010
Torioda (Maplewood, NJ)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Given all the past dramatic turnabouts and FUNimation's rocky DBZ history, the Dragon Boxes has proven once again its overall superiority of the original DBZ series in DVD format.
PICTURE: Fantastic remastering from the original 16mm film from Toei. The "genuine" copies, so to speak. Not much different from what I've said in my previous review. There is one minor gripe, though. I've noticed some shaky cam movement in some of the episodes. I don't know if this has do with some frame alignment issues that existed in the original films or a remastering error. In any case, it's a minor issue that doesn't greatly affect the quality of the picture. When it does happen, it can become quite glaring, but it's over just as quickly.
AUDIO: The Japanese mono is a great as it could ever be. Shunsuke Kikuchi's operatic 80s Kung-Fu/Shaw Brothers-like score compliments the age and content of the material. Often offering the same or similar pieces on a loop episode after episode, it can becoming a bit glaring, but it suits the material just fine. There's enough "breathing space", so to speak, between each piece that the mood it evokes in each particular scene is quite effective. Examples being when Vegeta is told by Kiwi/Cui that Freeza is after the Dragon Balls in Namek or when Vegeta is closing in on Gohan and Kuririn's/Krillin's ki suspecting something's afoot. The Japanese cast, whether you love or hate Masako Nozawa's performance as Son Goku, is strongly and consistently supported by a much stronger supporting cast. Nods go to Ryo Horikawa as Vegeta and Ryusei Nakao as Freeza. Their evil characteristics are perfectly portrayed and the interaction between them is often snide and tense.
I can't comment on the English dub, but I've heard that there were some lipsynching/ audio issues with alignment of the film on the first Dragon Box. Not having the US Broadcast track is also a big disadvantage considering the majority of dub fans would want it more so than the original score. I simply can't understand why FUNimation just didn't leave the dub as is. Was it to make amends for the show's treatment? In any case, this leaves a dub that very few people like from what I understand of the community.
CONTENT & PACKAGING: The second Dragon Box includes episodes 43-84. That's 42 episodes spanning from the Fake Namek filler through Freeza's final transformation. Watching these episodes were both a delight to rediscover and dreadful to watch reminding me of DBZ's often stereotypical and infamous pacing. The Freeza arc is the second most gulity of this (the Cell arc being the first). It's pretty much where the various transformation stages took place often spanning episodes, in this case five, and sometimes even taking up half the episode. While DBZ's archaic nature of massively epic and long "power-ups" is mostly true, it doesn't detriment the quality of the series. It can fun and dreadful at the same time, depending on your outlook of the series. Eventually it all pays off leading to the both epic and dreadful fight of Son Goku vs. Freeza (which took about 10-15 episodes) in the next Dragon Box set. There's a payoff, but you must have Zen-like patience.....or the fast forward button. The Ginyu Special Forces episodes are fun and well paced for the most part. Goku coming in beating the crap out of ReaCoom, Jheese, and Butta is probably one of the best moments in the series. Well animated, well acted, and well timed.
Dragon Box 2 also contains Cell arc Vegeta as designed by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, character designer for the TV series, and Dragon Book vol. 2. This set is very Vegeta-centric in its episodes and seeing as how that was the only Vegeta design available from the original Dragon Box prints, perhaps FUNimation just thought it to be best. The Dragon Book includes more character profiles, relationship charts, episode guide, design works and new Dragon Column featurettes as "Impressive Words", phrasing some of the best lines in the series, "Son Gohan's Animal Adventure", listing the animals Gohan encountered through out the series, and more. Overall, the slick replication of the original Dragon Box prints and Dragon Book tidbits is a little more than icing to the cake, often educating newcomers and fans alike of the Dragon World.
OTHER THOUGHTS/CONCLUSIONS: As I feared, the Bardock TV special wasn't included with this set considering it aired alongside these episodes. Since FUNimation considers both the Bardock and Trunks TV specials as "features" perhaps they will be included with the Dragon Box The Movies prints they also purchased, but that remains to be seen. Overall, the set is as fantastic as the previous one. Unless you're really enamoured with the US Broadcast Music, this set is really the highest recommendation for DBZ viewing. It's just unfortunate these won't sell well enough due to lack of US Broadcast Music and various prior releases. I also fear for its future considering the acquisition of Dragon Ball Kai from FUNimation. It might greatly affect the future of the Dragon Boxes. In any case, get them while they're still around.
The second action-packed volume of "Dragon Ball Z" via "Dragon Box Z" is here! March 10, 2010
Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The second volume of the Dragon Boz features episodes 43-84 on six DVD's. The DVD's are numbered Disc 7-12 in this latest volume.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"Dragon Ball Z" via this "Dragon Box Z Vol. 2 set contains episodes featured in standard definition (4:3 aspect ratio). The colors are much different than the previous box set where colors were deeper and more pronounced, the colors of the series features its original presentation as it was in Japan and of course, restored frame by frame in which the previous season was not. Personally, I don't have a preference to which is better but if anything, this set is for the hardcore fans who preferred the original Japanese presentation.
But for a series that debuted back in 1989, you have to acknowledge how good the transfer was for this restoration. Granted, there is a "Dragon Ball Kai" currently airing in Japan in High Definition but for this release, considering it's 20-years-later, for the diehard fans who have wanted these episodes in its original presentation for so long, Pony Canyon definitely did a very good job on restoration and again, great to see FUNimation Entertainment bring this box set to the US.
As for audio, this is where things are a bit different from the original Japanese audio presentation. Because FUNimation Entertainment had to include the English dubbed audio, instead of using the 448 kb/s audio, they went with 96 kb/s. This may upset fans who wanted a higher bitrate but because its important to attract those who are prefer English dubs and make the set even more marketable, the English dub had to be included. With that being said, I've grown up watching the Japanese audio and typically, I prefer to watch anime in Japanese BUT with "Dragon Ball Z", I have always felt that the English dub was among the best out there and the voices just sound right for the characters.
But the intention for this box set was for those who wanted the Japanese audio. Personally, it's a preference that I would rather have 5.1 surround versus mono or stereo soundtracks. And when I do, I typically set my receiver to stereo on all channels since I have a 7.2 setup. But fans will be happy that they get the original Japanese audio for the complete episode, previews for the next episode, opening and ending theme and you get Hironobu Kageyama's "Cha-La, Head-Cha-La" instead of the Falcouner score.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Dragon Box Z Vol. 2 doesn't come with any special features but it comes with cool packaging and an awesome booklet. What we have is a yellow slip case box with Goku on the front, unlike the season box sets which were gateway folded, the DVD's are presented in two foil covered DVD cases and are presented in Japanese style with the first disc on the right hand side and the two discs on the left.
Also included is a hardcover 50-page booklet titled "Dragonbook" in Japanese style which has information on each character, episode summary, fashion and design works collection are featured. It's a pretty solid presentation for the hardcore fans and I have to admit, looks way cooler than the previous orange box sets.
JUDGMENT CALL:
For the most part, this DVD box set is definitely worth it. But before fans who have bought the original single volumes and then the season box sets go on a tirade of having another version of "Dragon Ball Z" released, the main thing to remember is that those who have been vocal from the start were the diehard fans. They wanted the original 4:3 aspect ratio, they wanted the original Japanese presentation and the could care less about the English dubs and the Falcouner score.
Personally, the season box sets are still solid for those who are not so demanding. This box set is primarily for those hardcore fans and FUNimation Entertainment are giving those fans what they wanted for so long and I see that as quite admirable because they invested in bringing this release stateside and preparing it for the American consumer. And for those not familiar with those season box sets, well the good news is that the English dub is featured as well.
Do I have a preference on which I like better? Well having watch both...and enjoying the season box sets, I am actually content with both but I will have to say that "Dragon Box Z" has a much cooler packaging presentation and about 6-8 more episodes but you will be paying about $15 more. So, it's really up to you if it's worth it. Personally, if you just want to see the episodes and prefer to watch it with the English dubs, the original season box sets can be found for a great price these days and were solid releases to begin with, it was just not to the liking of those who wanted the original Japanese presentation.
This box set was created for those who wanted "Dragon Ball Z" to be presented how it was in Japan and they have waited a long, long time for it. So, I look at these box sets as fans are now getting the best of both worlds and now those fans should be happy. Now the only thing is left will be the Blu-ray fans who will be clamoring for "Dragon Ball Kai" ("Dragon Ball Z" minus the filler episodes, remastered with new intro and vocals all re-recorded) and want their HD fix and truthfully, I can't wait to see how gorgeous the series will look whenever it is released in the US especially with lossless HD Japanese audio, but for now, don't expect DBK to come out in the US anytime soon. Your good with the original season box sets or the Dragon Box set. Again, both are solid releases.
In terms of the the episodes featured in this volume, the Freeza saga is possibly the longest saga in the "Dragon Ball Z" series (especially if you include the Planet Namek series) as the majority of the episodes focus on Vegeta, Gohan, Kuririn and Bulma. There are a good number of battles and Vegeta fans will surely love this volume as he takes on Freeza's henchmen and then the battle against the Ginyu Force begins. As for Goku fans, you'll have to wait until vol. 3 because the battle between Goku and Freeza is coming up soon! And definitely one of my favorite story arcs of the "Dragon Ball Z" series.
Overall, for its presentation, 40+ episodes in its original presentation, remastered and its' cool packaged content... for those hardcore fans who have waited this long, "Dragon Ball Z - Dragon Box Vol. 2 is highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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