Dragon Ball Z first came to the US in its cartoon form in 1996.  The only problem was that these shows were sanitized for American audiences with any hint of blood cut or swearing cut out.  That made the shows run a little short, so episodes were spliced together to make sure that they'd run the proper length.

Then in early 1999, Pioneer started releasing this series on DVD.  The only problem was that the weren't putting the original Japanese episodes out, they were releasing the edited US TV versions.  I suppose they thought that the only people who would watch them were kids.  The entire first two story arcs were released in that format.  FUNimation took over after that and continued the series, and their releases were uncensored happily, but that still left the first dozen and a half DVDs in cut form only.

Now FUNimation has decided to go back and re-release the early Pioneer discs in their uncut form.  If you've been holding off getting these discs, wait no longer.
 

Raditz, one of the few remaining Saiyans, has landed on Earth and kidnaped Gohan, Goku's son.  He wants Goku to join him in being a mercenary, destroying all of the life on inhabited planets so that they can be sold to the highest bidder and terraformed to their needs. To rescue his son, Goku is forced to team up with his greatest enemy, Piccolo.

Even with Piccolo, defeating Raditz is easier said than done.  In their initial encounter, Piccolo loses an arm, and Goku gets thoroughly trashed.  Raditz is extremely powerful, and could theoretically destroy everyone on Earth, but Goku comes up with an idea that will defeat the alien at great cost to himself.

Though Raditz is conquered, he has the last laugh.  He is able to signal his Saiyan comrads to let them know about the powerful fighters on Earth.  They are more powerful than Raditz, and will destroy the Earth as soon as they can make it to the planet, in a year's time.

This was another good disc.  The fight with Raditz is short and sweet by DBZ standards.  The end of the battle is quite surprising the first time you see it, and really adds to the drama of the series.  This definitely has a different feel than the original Dragon Ball, with higher stakes and a grimmer feel.

One of the things that makes this series so good are the fight scenes.  The battles are very kinetic even though the animation isn't the greatest.  With quick cutting and a lot of close ups, they create fast and furious fight scenes that are very exciting.

This disc sports a new opening and closing animations with a heavy metal tune thrashing for the opening, and an odd new-age type music for the closing in the English dubs.  I'm not sure why they changed it, and I liked this less than the other versions.  Aside from that, this is a great release.

This disc contains the next three episodes of Dragon Ball Z in its uncut format.  The disc comes in a standard keepcase.  One interesting item of note is that viewers have the option of having English or Spanish menus.

Audio:

This DVD has four audio options: the original Japanese in stereo, English and Spanish stereo dubs, or an English 5.1 soundtrack.  I preferred the original soundtrack over the English dubs, though the English actors did a good job.  The English track has music added to the background, and though it fits in well with the show, I liked the more Spartan sounding original track.  The sound is very good for a show of this age, there isn't any noticeable hum or distortion, and the range is fine.  There was a problem with the 5.1 English dub though; the music was mixed too high in relation to the dialog.  At normal listening levels the music sounded fine, but the voices were very soft.  If you turned the volume up so that the voices were at a good level, the music was blaring.

Video:

This show is pretty old, being first broadcast in Japan in the late 1980's, but the image looks good for the most part.  The colors are bright and the lines are tight.  Just like the first volume, there is a good amount of mosquito noise in the first episode, but the other two shows looked better.  There was still a fair amount of noise, but it was only distracting on the first episode.  There was a minor amount of print damage, just an occasional white speck, but this was fairly rare.  Overall a nice looking disc.

Extras:

After all of the bonus features that were on the first volume, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more offered on this disc.  The only bonus items on this disc are a DBZ trivia contest and a series of trailers too.  I especially miss the nimbus cloud that identifies scenes that were originally cut.

Final Thoughts:

This volume is one of my favorites in the series.  The fights are exciting and not drawn out, and the plot really moves at a quick pace.  There are a lot of fantastic elements that are introduced like King Yema and Snake Way.  I was disappointed that the extras were on the skimpy side, but I'm still very pleased with this release.  Highly Recommended.