The sequel series, Dragon Ball Z was arguably the most well received of Toriyama's Dragon Ball programs. With a whopping 291 episodes under its belt collecting individual volumes of the series would no doubt be a daunting task. Equally challenging would be the quest to catch each episode on TV. The problem with going down that road is the fact that the episodes have been censored for the American audience so you're not exactly getting the whole picture. If you have waited patiently for a full block of episodes that featured uncut content then FUNimation has the ticket you've been searching for.

It feels like just yesterday I finished watching the first season of Dragon Ball Z, otherwise known as the Vegeta Saga. With 39 episodes under its belt already the next wave of Goku's adventure has finally arrived. This time around the ante is upped and the action is even more intense. Before we get into what this volume offers let's take a look at what transpired in the first season.

Well, for starters Son Goku came back as an adult and father (to Gohan). Everything seemed to be right with the world but if you've ever seen Dragon Ball before you know that peace doesn't last very long. A crazy guy from space, Raditz, shows up yammering on about how he's Goku's brother, how they are Saiyans, and how the planet is doomed. Naturally they fight and Goku eventually wins but the interesting part here was that he teamed up with Piccolo to do it.

At the end of the fight Goku died and began his long journey across the Serpent Road to become more powerful for when he's brought back from the dead. In the meantime Piccolo began training Gohan in the ways of a warrior and to be more self-sufficient. Gohan goes through the amazing transformation from annoying and whiny baby to ass-kicking fighter in a matter of months. All of these pieces fell into place as the remaining two Saiyans come to Earth to begin its destruction. After a big hullabaloo the dust settles and our heroes emerge mostly victorious. The season ended with them traveling to Piccolo's home world, a place called Planet Namek.

This second season picks up virtually where the first one left off and includes the Namek and Captain Ginyu Sagas. Goku is incapacitated in the hospital and Piccolo is left for dead. The Namekian Dragon Balls are the only thing that will bring him back to life. Meanwhile Vegeta has healed himself after being let go by Goku and is headed to Namek as well. Even more terrifying is the fact that a powerful, nigh-immortal alien named Freeza has the same ambitions and he's bringing some goons along for the ride.

What happens next, for a good chunk of this season, is the quest to grab some balls. Each village on Namek harnesses a Dragon Ball and with three forces vying for their power it's a mad race to get to them first. With his amazing powers and abundant supply of henchmen, Freeza easily grabs some of the Dragon Balls. Vegeta is hot on his trail though and thankfully isn't focused on destroying our heroes at this precise moment. He has more important things to deal with and learns that it was Freeza who destroyed the Saiyan homeworld.

The bad guys fight each other some more and constantly trade possession of the Dragon Balls. The good guys get in their own fair amount of scrapes as well while using the Dragon Radar to track down as many Balls as they can.

Quite honestly, I liked the story elements that these episodes offered but this whole back and forth thing with the quest for the Dragon Balls grew very tiresome with extended viewing. The plot felt like it had been stretched a little too thinly and the resolution didn't come around quickly enough. Plot developments were few and far between and most of these battles took just a little too long to get through. Still, there were a few interesting things that came from this portion of the show.

A Namekian elder awakened the fighting potential within Krillin which made him noticeably stronger. Also Goku miraculously recovered after being given a special bean. This brought the power back to the good guy's side and the tides began to shift despite the fact that a sinister being known as Captain Ginyu showed up. Once that happens queue up more fighting and a slight shift in personality for one of the major villains.

With 35 episodes of Dragon Ball Z the second season certainly packs a punch. A good portion of these episodes are a blast but somewhere in the middle the pacing really begins to slow down. Still, character development is top notch and it was nice to get a chance to see the second-tier heroes receive an abundance of screen time.

Admittedly I was never a big fan of Dragon Ball Z prior to sitting down to watch these uncut collections. I found the Americanized version to be too childish due to the editing and the plot too hard to follow because episodes hardly aired in sequence. The second season brings more to the table and continues the trend set by the first with 35 butt-kicking episodes complete with great development. Sure some of the content this time around is flawed but it's still a solid release overall.

If you're a fan of Dragon Ball Z you already know that FUNimation has cropped the original 1.33:1 image and churned out a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer in the process. The promise was put out there that more would be gained and it would give the show a nice theatrical appearance. While the image does carry a certain cinematic flare now there are times when it's glaringly obvious that sections were chopped off. Newcomers may not recognize it as easily as fans but even I, with my limited exposure to the show, spotted a few areas that made me question the decision.

As far as the content itself you can expect a mixed bag of quality. Sometimes the colors appear vibrant with a wide palette though there are quite a few spots where the show looks washed out. Other nitpicky flaws such as grain, dirt, and scratches also appear throughout the 35 episodes here. With all of that being said, I do have to say for a show this old it looks very good. Compared to other anime from this timeframe the care taken to clean up the image here is definitely appreciated.

Overall the video quality on this DVD is tough to gauge. For starters, the cropped anamorphic widescreen does little improve upon the presentation. I mean, I love widescreen anime as much as the next guy but why mess with a classic and present it in a manner that wasn't intended? Other than that controversial subject matter the image quality here is very good with noticeable effort towards cleaning up the original print.

Dragon Ball Z season two includes audio quality mostly identical to what came before it. This means that you can expect the original Japanese Mono track and a track for English stereo and surround. I enjoyed the original Japanese track the most and listened to that for much of my viewing. The English dubbing has always sounded cheesy to me and therefore it is a "must avoid" while watching in my opinion. There are some out there who would rather deal with the English dub and not bother with reading flawed subtitles. To each their own I suppose.

As far as the quality is concerned what is here is fine but not groundbreaking. The 5.1 English track certainly offered more immersion during battle sequences with some ambient noise kicking in at times. The stereo and mono tracks were noticeably lackluster in the technical presentation but all around the sound quality was crisp and clean.

The first season offered some extra material but this time around there are just textless animations and some trailers. Another booklet is included with the set that features character profiles and episode summaries but that's nothing more than you could find on the web if you Googled Dragon Ball Z.

The second season of Dragon Ball Z provided another good look at what is considered by many to be the epitome of anime. The uncut version of the show with original Japanese dialogue adds quite a lot to the experience versus what you'd get with the edited English version. The same turn offs persist with the cropped widescreen presentation though if you're not a purist and you simply want the best looking picture quality this release is your best bet.

The 35 episodes here which feature the Namek and Captain Ginyu Sagas do tend to drag quite a bit at times. The story progression is mighty slow though I did appreciate the attention paid to characters other than Goku and Piccolo. The episodes here aren't quite as good as what we found in the first season but in the end I'm going to strongly recommend this release.

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