Background:

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.

Series Synopsis:

Goku is a Saiyan, a race of the greatest fighters in the galaxy.  He's lived on Earth since he was a tot, and is peaceful and kind.  Unfortunately another Saiyan, his brother, came to Earth to destroy everyone living there.  Goku and his greatest enemy Piccolo team up against this common enemy They manage to destroy him but not before the Saiyan could signal three more of his race to Earth and at the cost of Goku's life.

The Saiyan's will arrive in one year, so Krillian, Yamcha, and the rest of the gang only have a short time to train and hone their powers to defend the Earth.  Piccolo decides to rain by himself but takes Goku's son Gohan in order to turn him into a fighter too.  For the first step of the training: leaving Gohan in the wilderness to fend for himself.  Meanwhile, the dead Goku is in the afterlife heading to King Kai's in order to get special training from the master before he is wished back to life with the Dragon Balls.
 
This volume:

Goku has slipped up and fallen off of Snake Way trying to get a piece of fruit.  Now he's facing two ogres who won't help him get back on track unless he can defeat them.  Of course for Goku, that's not too much of a challenge.  A lighter episode that's pretty funny.

Next, after getting back on Snake Way, Goku discovers a castle that he mistakes for King Kai's.  It doesn't belong to the martial artist though, but Princess Snake.  She wines and dines Goku but isn't the most cordial guest because she tries to eat him too.

The volume finishes up with an episode that wasn't shown in the US (for the most part.)  Gohan has an adventure out in the wilderness when he discovers a nice sandy beech, and a Sabertooth Tiger.  Also in this episode, Piccolo spars with the only sparing partner who can keep up with him: himself.

This was another fun volume.  The pace picks up a bit and the episodes with Goku are pretty funny.  His battles with the ogres in the first episode are very comical since he's way out of their league.  His good natured attitude is very endearing too.

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.  There is some mosquito noise in all of the shows, but it wasn't as bad as the first episodes on the previous two discs.  Those had more noise for some reason and FUNimation seems to have solved the problem.  There was a minor amount of print damage, just an occasional white speck, but this was fairly rare.  Overall a nice looking disc.

Extras:

FUNimation has included some bonus items on this disc.  There is a DBZ trivia contest, though most of the questions come from later in the series.  There is also an episode of Mr. Stain on Junk Alley, an odd CGI series that's worth watching.  They still don't have the nimbus cloud that identifies scenes that were originally cut.  That was my favorite feature on the first disc.

Final Thoughts:

This is another great volume of DBZ episodes.  There was a good amount of new material on this disc, including most of the third episode.  The series is moving at a good pace, even with the added material.  If you enjoyed this show on TV, you owe it to yourself to see it the way it was meant to be seen.  A high Recommendation.