Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (1997) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First of all, let me say this: If you're planning on getting this set to see the version of the first 13 episodes that aired Cartoon Network, you're sorely mistaken. These episodes were dubbed in 1995, and are fairly different from the newer incarnation. Not only are they heavily censored, but they are dub-only, and the discs are poorly encoded to boot. Funimation can't release an uncut version of the of these particular episodes, because KidMark still holds the rights to them. However, since the 1995 dub only went to episode 13, the remaining 140 episodes of Dragon Ball can be found uncut in the other "_____ saga" DVD sets.
First and foremost in the differences between the new and old dubs: the music. Although the redub from Funimation uses the original Japanese score and English arrangements of the original themes, this uses its own score. The theme's kinda catchy, and reminds me a bit of the ending theme to Mystical Adventure (movie 3), but the music in general reeks of a generic "American cartoon" quality that doesn't fit the series too well. It's mainly this that gives it a feel quite apart from the new version.
Then there's the voices. Some of them will seem familiar to you if you've seen the first two dub seasons of DBZ, or live in part of the world that shows the International DBZ dub instead of Funimation's. In general, they're pretty good, but hard to get used to after all these years of hearing Funimation's voice actors in these roles. The pronunciation that this dub used for "Kamehame-ha" gets pretty annoying, too.
The scripts are fairly accurate outside of the censorship (which there's a lot of), but there are also the classic jokes-that-fall-flat typical of anime dubs aimed at children. Also worthy of note is that many of the lines from this dub carry over into at least the edited version of the new one, though there are some changes in the redub to bring it in line with the rest of FUNimation's releases.
Censorship in this set is, for the most part, roughly equal to that of the version showed on Cartoon Network. It's in different areas, though. Cut-wise, a little more of the video is left in, but it's made-up for in some completely ridiculous use of digital paint and bad script rewrites. There's even some extra footage thrown in the first few episodes, and added recaps in most of them (since true previous-episode recaps didn't really start until about episode 22 or so).
One example of the goofy censorship in this version: Goku catches a fish in the first episode. In the re-dub seen on Cartoon Network, Goku is naked, though much of the scene is cut. In this version, all of the scene is left in, but Goku is wearing very poorly-drawn digital underpants. One major digital censor that carries over into the newer edited version is the use of American dollars on the fishing pole in episode 5 to catch Oolong (instead of Bulma's panties); you may notice that, when the episode airs on Cartoon Network, Goku dives into the water nude, but is suddenly wearing underpants when he surfaces, due to the re-use of some (but not all) of the older dub's footage for that one scene.
The feature "Curse of the Blood Rubies," though touted as a "pilot" for the series, is actually a dub of DB movie 1, "Shenron no Densetsu" ("The Legend of Shenlong"), with some footage from episode 2 thrown in. I'm not quite sure why this was done, though it was probably either to replace a very perverted scene or just balance out the amount of cuts from the film... probably both.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend getting this if you like Dragon Ball for its off-color and oft-perverted humor; the newer "saga" DVD sets will suit you fine. The jury is still out as to when these 13 episodes will appear uncut on DVD, but even so, only get this set if you're really itching to see what Funimation intended all of the Dragon Ball franchise to be like when they first set out to dub the series: a mere shadow of its original self, aimed squarely at kids far too young to appreciate Akira Toriyama's quirky sense of humor.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (1997)

The first 13 episodes on a two-disc set. 1. Secret of the Dragon Ball, 2. The Emperor's Quest, 3. The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi, 4. Oolong the Terrible, 5. Yamcha the Desert Bandit, 6. Keep an Eye on the Dragon Balls, 7. The Ox-King on Fire Mountain, 8. The Kamehameha Wave, 9. Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch, 10. The Dragon Balls Are Stolen, 11. The Penalty Is Pinball, 12. A Wish to the Eternal Dragon, 13. The Legend of Goku; Curse of the Blood Rubies

Click here for more information about Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (1997)