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Dragon Ball Z - Great Saiyaman - Final Round

FUNimation // Unrated // May 10, 2005
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by John Sinnott | posted July 8, 2005 | E-mail the Author
In a nutshell:  Goku's final fate plus the funniest episode of DBZ ever.

The Show:

As the second volume of Dragon Ball Z - Great Saiyman starts, Goku is in a tournament in the after world to determine who is the greatest fighter in the four kingdoms.  He's made it through the preliminary rounds, but he still has to face Pikkon, a person who has been training for centuries.  Of course Goku is no slouch when it comes to fighting and isn't about to give up.

In the meantime, several years have passed on Earth.  Young Gohan has been studying hard with his mother at home and now is a teenager.  Gohan may have traveled across the universe and saved the Earth, but there is one great challenge he hasn't yet faced: high school.  With no schools near his mountain home, Gohan travels to Satan City, named after the person that the world thinks was responsible for defeating Cell, to attend formal school for the first time.

On his way to Orange Star High School, Gohan encounters a police stand off.  Thieves are robbing a bank and are in a battle with the police.  Gohan decides to put a stop to things so he turns into Super Saiyan mode and easily defeats them.  Of course his exploits are the talk of the town and by the time he gets to school, everyone is talking about the 'Golden Fighter' who stopped the bank robbery.

One of his new classmates is Videl, the daughter of Mr. Satan, and she's determined to find out who this new hero is.  Gohan, on the other hand wants to be just a normal kid and is trying to fit in without revealing his true strength.  When he gets to PE though, he doesn't do such a good job of acting normal.
 
This was a great volume.  The first two episodes wrapped up Goku's story nicely.  He's been the focus of the show since the beginning, and it shows him being content training with the best fighters who have ever lived.  Goku couldn't have asked for anything more.

The last show starts the next story arc and is one of the funniest episodes of DBZ.  My two sons and I were laughing out loud through the entire show.  Just the set up, that high school could be a bigger challenge for Gohan than Frieza or Cell, is amusing and they really played this episode for laughs.  When one of the bank robbers aims a machine gun at Gohan and fires at point blank range, the young Saiyan catches all of the bullets (with one hand.)  The look on the robber's face as he drops the slugs onto the ground is priceless.

Things become even more hilarious when he gets to school.  Since he made perfect scores on his entrance exams, the jock of the class starts picking on poor Gohan.  Little does he realize that Gohan has no clue that he's being mean, and that this kid is much harder to hurt than he can imagine.  A great episode that's worth the price of the disc alone.
 

The DVD:

This disc contains three episodes of Dragon Ball Z in its uncut format.  The disc comes in a standard keepcase.  One irritating thing is that FUNimation included a trailer for Grappler Baki before the menu that is unskippable.

Audio:

This DVD includes the original Japanese track in stereo and an English stereo dubs.  I preferred the original soundtrack over the English dubs, though the English actors did a good job.  The English track has different background music added and though it generally fits in well with the show, I liked the original music a bit more.  The sound is very good, there isn't any noticeable hum or distortion, and the range is fine. The dialog is easy to discern and is very clear.  I would have preferred that they had included a 5.1 mix also, like they've been doing with the new Vegeta saga discs, but this is satisfactory.

Video:

The full screen video looks excellent.  The lines are sharp, the colors are bright and solid, and digital defects are nonexistent.  The image is clean and clear.  A fine looking DVD.

Extras:

There aren't any extra features on this disc aside from a series of trailers.

Final Thoughts:

This was a great disc.  I wish that FUNimation would include more than just three episodes per DVD, but these three were excellent shows.  This disc wraps up Goku's final fate quite nicely, and starts the next big story arc with one of my favorite episodes in the series.  Gohan's first day at school is arguably the funniest single episode of DBZ, and it's great to finally own it on DVD.  Highly Recommended.
 

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Highly Recommended

E - M A I L
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