| The
original author of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, was a man who has made
something very big out of something very simple. Each battle of Dragon Ball
follows the same storyline, Good fighter (Insert Goku, or any of his crew)
fights the bad guy/s in a battle that can last up to 6 episodes. A lot of
buildings get destroyed, planets are endangered, posturing pads the gaps and
Goku’s crew go up power levels. The only thing that changes between battles
are the environments they take place, the protagonist’s costumes and the
fighting moves. So considering the lack of depth to this show, Dragon Ball
has been an amazingly successful series.
When
I realized that I was going to be reviewing the newer “GT” version of Dragon
Ball I was interested to see what had been updated. In the end I realized that
very little had been updated except a darker hip hop style opening to make
things sound a little more ominous and slightly updated animation. The
character designs are the same, the animation is still cutesy eye catching
stuff, and the plots is exactly the same.
The
show is very easy to watch, and if you just want something to veg out in front
of, then Dragon Ball GT is the one for you.
You
may be wondering why I am only reviewing these oddly numbered DVD’s, and that
is because this is all that we were given. *Editor's Note - we concur with
Sacha's comment here and the series was good enough that we would have scored
it higher had we a more complete picture of the series, however with the huge
gap missing, there were plot sequences that could not be explained or
accounted for.*
Each
DVD has 3 episodes which are summated as follows:
1:
Affliction.
Goku has been transformed back into his childhood form (complete with
supernaturally large hair) and he has been caught by the evil Dr Myuu. Trunks
and Goku are being scientifically experimented upon and the only one that can
save them is Pan. Pan is of course captured, and it’s once again up to Goku to
save the day.
Goku
faces off against the Mega Canon fighting forces and predictably defeats them.
He then has to fight General Rilldo, who he beats easily. Just when Goku
thinks the day has been saved, General Rilldo joins his body with the Mega
Canon Fighting Robots and transforms into something even more powerful. 82
minutes PG
7:
Annihilation.
Goku has been transformed into his highest power level possible, Super Saiyan
4, and is on the verge of beating his long time nemesis, Baby. Just as he is
about to finally destroy him, Baby transforms himself into a giant gorilla
thanks to the help of his trusty assistant Bulma, and becomes more powerful
than Goku.
Goku’s trusty friend Old Kai hatches a plot to help Goku and just as things
start looking grim…. 62 minutes PG
8:
Salvation.
Goku
is about to be destroyed as all his power has been depleted when his offspring
arrive to save the day. They recharge Goku, and a mighty predictable battle
ensues, in which Baby is finally destroyed. Once the dust settles the heroes
realize that the earth is going to explode, and a mass relocation to the
nearby planet Tuffle ensues. Piccolo, having some sort of link to the black
Dragon Balls, decides that he will die with the earth so that the Black Dragon
Balls can never again be used to harm the earth. Just as everything seems like
it might move onto a new plotline, the announcer for the series states; “and
things on earth were once again back to normal….. or where they??”
62
minutes PG.
Normal television viewing, no options for
different formats.
The features themselves
were clear with animation that runs as smoothly as a baby’s proverbial. The
characters are simple, with costumes that make them stand out, but there is
still the problem with half crescent shaped eyes that take up a quarter of the
face. The show itself is very easy to watch from any distance and it has some
great broken city-scapes. Half the action on DVD 7 + 8 looks as though it
was lifted straight from Godzilla, but it still looks good.
English or Japanese, no Dolby signal.
The soundtrack to these
series is reliant on heavy guitar riffs to evoke that guttural angry feeling
in the viewer. The translation into English is top notch as is the English
written translation.
This is pretty standard with a basic
menu, and a small amount of extras. What they did do right, was to have
character profiles, something that not enough other titles do.
Each DVD had:
Character Profiles- profiles on the main
characters
Madman Propaganda- 3 trailers of upcoming releases Budokai 2 Playstation Game
Trailer on DVD’s 7 +8.
Textless Opening- on DVD 1 only | 
