One of the most famous and epic shonen series in anime history, Dragon Ball Z follows the exploits of Son Goku, his young son Gohan, and their friends and family as they protect the planet Earth from extra-terrestrial dangers, from the Saiyan prince Vegeta to the monster villian Freiza. Now Funimation has presented what will undoubtedly be the last word on DVD releases for this series: this first set in a series holds episodes 1-42 of Dragon Ball Z, uncut with the Japanese track and video quality that DBZ fans have been waiting for over the years.

Highlights:

Where do I start? No, seriously, where do I start? It's hard for someone who grew up watching this series to pick out the highlights of its first "season", but I shall try. The series starts out with the introduction of Son Goku's young son Gohan, then quickly switches to Goku's fight with his brother Raditz, who in defeat summons two more Saiyan warriors: Vegeta and Napa. As Goku walks the Serpant's Path to meet King Kai, Gohan is trained under the supervision of pseudo-ally Piccolo. Goku takes a little side-trip into Hell itself while his allies climb Karin Tower to be trained by Kami. The full moon arrives and Gohan transforms into a giant ape, and only Piccolo can stop him from destroying everything in his path. Goku starts his training with King Kai, which includes learning the technique Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb), which should sound painfully familiar to those who have seen the climax of the Namek and Maijin Boo arcs. Vegeta and Nappa finally come to Earth, and the battle between the Saiyans and the humans begin! Goku arrives on the scene to take the two warriors down, but Vegeta uses his artificial moon to transform into a giant ape — and then so does Gohan! The battle ends and the Dragon Balls unusuable — but there is another set on planet Namek, which is where our heroes travel to, unaware of the villian Freiza lurking in the shadows of space . . .

Extras:

There are no extras to speak of on the discs themselves. You can see the updated and cleaned-up audio and visual, but there are no trailers or video extras. The box set itself is handsome as hell and contains a Dragon Book, a thin hard volume with an episode-by-episode breakdown of the contained episodes, as well as other goodies, like a timeline showing where the premiere of Dragon Ball Z falls in the annals of history, for those who need something else to remember 1989 by that isn't the Berlin Wall falling down.

Included along with the original Japanese track is also the dub track heard on Toonami's broadcasts, for those fans wishing to relive the nostalgia of dubbed anime back when all we had was Toonami and video tapes and barely anything else.

Overall:

Well, what can I say? Either you love Dragon Ball Z from the bottom of your heart or hate it with every fiber of your being. Nevertheless, only one type of person will be sure to buy this box set: someone who is tired of buying the same series over and over again and is looking for the definitive collection of their favorite anime. Well, this is it. The audio and video has been restored to broadcast-quality and then some, every episode is here from one to forty-two, and there's been no edits so you can see all the spurts of blood and fist-to-fist action like Toriyama intended. The box set is wonderful looking, the little book a gem to flip through, and with forty-two episodes of prime shonen excitement, you will certainly not be bored anytime soon. It may not be the smartest show to come out of Japan, but it is certainly entertaining, and Funimation is now determined to bring every single episode to American shores no matter what. For those who have been holding off buying this series because of how many versions of DVDs there are out there, fear not: soon all you'll need is the Dragon Boxes for the complete Dragon Ball Z experience. That is, unless you miss the Bruce Faulconer score that came with the English dub track originally. Oh, Funimation? You would make a generation of fans so happy by re-releasing the soundtracks in a tidy box set. But I digress . . .

ComicsOnline gives Dragon Ball Z Box Set One 4 out of 5 monkeys under the full moon