Where to start? I guess the language is a great place to start. The episodes inside of the Dragon Box are initially in Japanese with English subtitles. I ended up laughing my ass off during the first episode because of this. I will admit that I am an avid DBZ fan, but hearing Goku speak like a little boy who had a professional punter kick him in the crotch was just hilarious. Also, I was so amazed with the differences between the Japanese and English (that I remembered). Unfortunately, I could only take eunuch Goku for three episodes and then I switched to watching them in English (with subtitles). This made the show even better. I not only got to see the Americanized version that I fondly remember, I also got to read the various and multitudinous changes in the script between English and Japanese. It was really one of the best experiences of watching this DVD box set.
A basic bit about the plot; this DVD collection incorporates one of the most well known storylines in the DBZ universe. Cell.
The collection starts out with Androids 19 and 20 destroying the town. The Z fighters, after being warned by future Trunks, are ready for them and begin the fight. Goku is incapacitated and has to leave the fight. All hope looks lost until Vegeta appears to beat down some machines. He goes super-sayan and makes short work of them After this, we find out that Android 20 is actually Dr. Giro who made himself into an android. He is so angry about his loss that he goes and releases the two very unstable androids that are classified 17 and 18. After a long argument, these two kill the good doctor and release Android 16. Android 16 awakens and his only mission is to kill Goku. The other androids decide to help him with this goal and make a game out of it. As they go on a killing spree, the Z fighters move Goku to Master Roshi’s in order to keep him safe. With Goku out of comission, the others have to pick up the slack. To this end, Piccolo goes and talks to Kami about merging together in order to become even more powerful.
While the Z fighters are hiding and gathering their strength, a strange capsule is found in the wilderness. This capsule turns out to be another time machine capsule. Trunks, Gohan and Bulma head to the remote location to investigate, and find something very disturbing. The capsule looks to have been abandoned for quite some time and it looks as though something has burst outward through the hatch. After examining the computer, Trunks learns that the time machine was programmed to return four years ago; and the three Z fighters try to determine who or what came back from the future. As they are heading back to Master Roshi’s Bulma hears about how there are some strange happenings and disappearances going on in Gingertown. The Z fighters debate what is going on and if it is the androids that are causing the disturbances.
Kami is also aware of the problems in Gingertown and agree to merge with Piccolo, becoming the Namek and then the new Piccolo, in order to defend the city from whatever destruction is going on. As soon as Piccolo reaches the city he is face to face with a new strange alien-looking creature, Cell. The creature begins talking to Piccolo and then drains one of the citizenry dry. Piccolo and Cell begin to fight and Cell manages a lucky strike against Piccolo. This looks like curtains for the Z fighter, but through some ingenuity he manages to get time to regenerate his arm. This also lets us learn about Cell’s history and how he came to be. Cell tells that he is another of Dr. Giro’s androids and is the greatest. He came back in time to absorb Androids 17 in order to 18 to gain his perfect form. Piccolo also learns of the secret lab of Dr. Giro. Piccolo then rips off his arm, sprouts a new one and continues fighting. Soon after, Trunks and Krillin (Kurrin) arrive to help in the fight. Cell knows he is outclassed so he beats a hasty retreat. After this, Krillin and Trunks go to find Dr. Giro’s lab and see if they can unlock the secrets of how to defeat the androids.
This is compounded when the Z fighter learn that Cell wants to absorb the androids in order to achieve his perfect form. Here is where the Cell saga begins. He begins to ravage the fighters and they decide that something must be done. Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta decide to go into the hyperbolic time chamber, giving them a year of training in a single day. While this is going on, Cell continues to fight the Z fighters and the androids. Cell and Android 17 begin to fight, and Android 17 begins to get beaten down. The only thing that prolongs the inevitable is the assistance of Android 16. Sadly, even with Android 16’s help Android 17 is not saved from being absorbed by Cell. So now, Cell is in his second form, and what a powerful form it is. When it looks like curtains for the world, the new and improved, Vegeta and Trunks appear. Vegeta begins to show off his new stuff in a mano-a-mano with the upgraded Cell. After slugging it out, Vegeta has Cell soundly beaten; but Cell uses his knowledge of Vegeta to trick him into letting Cell attain his perfect form.
To this end, Cell finds Android 18 hiding and goes after her. He is much too powerful for her and manages to absorb her and attain his perfect form. Now Cell is finally complete, and Vegeta joins the fight again. This time the outcome is quite different and he is soundly trounced by Cell. Trunks finally steps in and tries to protect his father and defeat Cell; even though he is afraid that this will quite hurt his relationship with his father. Trunks continues to put up a valiant effort, but he is finally defeated by Cell. Cell tells him that he will let Trunks and the others live for 10 days until a tournament occurs. This tournament will be a one-after-the-other battle where Cell will take on all comers until finally he defeats everyone or someone manages to kill him. Here is where the box set ends; with Cell making the announcement and the Z fighters training up for the tournament.
Enough of the recaps, let’s get to where the dragon box shines, quite literally. The packaging of this DVD set alone, prove just how much of a special edition this DVD box is. Every case is beautifully decorated and covered with shiny, metallic purple. There are also a lot of amazing imagery present in these boxes as well. Not only on the outer shell, but each DVD holder and special booklet have the same level of detail on each cover. These covers are stylized with amazing images on each side as well, including the golden dragon. It just looks amazing. This is combined with key characters making appearances on the top of the DVD’s themselves.
Speaking of DVD’s the content in this series was pretty bare boned. Each of the six DVDs only contained the set number of episodes and the very basic of features. Pretty much this was you can chose between English or Japanese and if you want subtitles or not. That was pretty much the extent of the DVD menu choices. The good news was that the menus were easily navigable and they got you to said menus with one trailer per DVD.
However, the Dragon Box didn’t leave you bonus-feature loving fans out in the cold. There are no DVD extras, but there is an amazing booklet included with the over 40 episodes. This booklet has so much in it that I do not even know where to begin describing it. Before I try though, I should warn you this booklet reads in a Japanese style, as in from right to left in terms of items of interest. I open the cover, the face of the dragon is staring at me almost as if it is protecting the secrets locked inside. After we get through the title and table of contents, there is a brief description of profiles from the four major characters: Vegeta, Goku, Gohan and Trunks. After this is a character relationship chart. I doubt you will need it, but the chart is still a really cool feature. It not only describes the Z fighters, but also the androids as well.
This is followed by the “perfect guide” of the episodes in this box. The guide includes the title of each episode along with a brief description about what each will be about. Included in this section are randomly placed pieces of information. These are quite interesting, if not necessarily “important” to the storylines. Also, there are “close-ups” of what the Dragon Box thinks are fun and important. For example, one of these is a close-up on the different stages of Cell.
Of course, after this comes concept art. What would a collection like this be without a few conceptual drawings from the DBZ creators? Not complete, that’s what. This art includes so many different styles of concept art its astounding. These not only include detailed black and white character concepts, but vehicle and item concept art as well. On top of this fact, placed throughout this section are special and rarely seen pieces of concept drawings complete with descriptions. This included color ideas for characters and comparison charts. There are also a number of details described in here about how and why the different colors were chosen.
After watching the Dragon Box, I was pretty happy with its quality. Not only are the box and art awesome, but the quality of the episodes seems to have undergone an improvement as well. For all of the DBZ fans out there this box set is a must have. I only had two major problems with this set. The first one is a constant in the television genre. In between every episode, or cut scene, the credits played. I would not have minded it after the first show and the last, but it just got bothersome after watching 44 episodes back to back. Secondly, the cutoff of the episodes was annoying. The box states that it is the Cell saga, but the episodes stop at the Cell Tournament. I did not get to watch the tournament, and to me that is a very important part of the Cell saga. In all though the series and set was pretty good, and caused me to want to re-watch some of the future episodes in a DBZ marathon.