Product Details

• Format: Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 7
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: January 22, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1573623997
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,868 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

These 13 episodes recount Goku's first adventures and introduce some of the main characters from the phenomenally popular comedy-adventure. A small boy from another planet, Goku commands superhuman strength, but he was raised by an old man who taught him to use his powers only to fight evildoers. Goku stumbles onto Bulma, who is trying to assemble the seven enchanted Dragon Balls so she can wish for a boyfriend. The naive boy and the hot-tempered girl join forces to collect the magic spheres. They enter into a quarrelsome alliance with Oolong, the shape-shifting pig; Yamcha, the dashing bandit (who wants the Dragon Balls to wish away his shyness around girls); and Yamcha's metamorphic familiar Pwar. The heroes don't realize they're competing for the Dragon Balls with the pint-sized Blue Meanie, Emperor Pilaf (who plans to use the Dragon Balls to rule the world), and his two ninja flunkies, Mia and Chao. The wild card in the conflict is Roshi, a lecherous old man who is a master of extraordinary martial arts techniques. This version of the comic action series has been heavily edited, which infuriates some fans, but it still offers plenty of elaborate fights and slapstick comedy. "Curse of the Blood Rubies" is a "feature" that consists of recut chunks of the first four episodes on the discs, combined with sections of the "Legend of Shenlon" adventure. The evil King Gurumes is oppressing his people and digging up his once-fertile realm to obtain the fabulous Rubies. He wants the Dragon Balls to wish himself free of the insatiable gluttony that has transformed him into a bloated monster, and will do anything to obtain them, which brings him into conflict with Goku, Bulma, and company. Although the film contains nothing but reused footage, the story doesn't fit into the overall Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z continuity. Rated 5 and older, but more appropriate for ages 8 and up: minor nudity, toilet humor, and cartoon violence. --Charles Solomon

From the Back Cover

Dragon Ball is the story of Goku, a brave, innocent young boy with incredible powers who is plunged into a mystical adventure that is played out in exotic lands filled with noble warriors, beautiful princesses, shape-changing monsters, armies of ruthless villains and a kooky old wise man.

TAPE 1 - Full-length feature: "Curse of the Blood Rubies"
TAPE 2 - Episode 1: "Secret of the Dragon Ball" & Episode 2: "The Emperor's Quest"
TAPE 3 - Episode 3: "The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi" & Episode 4: "Oolong the Terrible"
TAPE 4 - Episode 5: "Yamcha the Desert Bandit" & Episode 6: "Keep an Eye on the Dragon Balls"
TAPE 5 - Episode 7: "The Ox-King on Fire Mountain" & Episode 8: "The Kamehameha Wave"
TAPE 6 - Episode 9: "Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch" & Episode 10: "The Dragon Balls are Stolen"
TAPE 7 - Episode 11: "The Penalty is Pinball, Episode 12: "A Wish to the Eternal Dragon" & Episode 13: "The Legend of Goku"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A look back into the history of DB in America, October 13, 2001

By 

Julian Grybowski (New York State, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (DVD)

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.

98 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Children shmildren, September 19, 2001

By 

ChrisV82 (South Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (DVD)

Dragonball is a really funny series, so I was very much looking forward to buying the DVD...until I saw it was only available edited and dubbed. WTF? I know the DB series, especially the original, are very popular among children. But there are many fans over 18 that would just like to enjoy the series without the nonsense editing. Have two versions - one edited English dub only, and one bilingual uncut. And I mean UNCENSORED as well as uncut. Give people the option to choose. I really don't get it. Doesn't Funimation WANT money?

And another thing, what is the deal with certain parents demanding that DBZ and DB be edited? Did you perhaps not realize it is insanely violent? Just because it vaguely resembles Disney doesn't mean it has that same level of child friendly quality. And since when did we start editing cartoons? Why was Wiley E. Coyote and Popeye good enough for my parents to watch, but now all of a sudden I can't see it uncut? Where's Mighty Mouse to save us from this nonsense?

This whole censoring garbage has gone too far. Did you know that Crystal Communications recently banned songs from their radio stations that are anyway even remotely related to NY's WTC attacks? Everyone from Megadeth to Buddy Holly. Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" is banned! Ridiculous!

Oops, I started ranting. To sum up: DB is funny. DB on DVD censored is NOT funny.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars the severly edited episodes, January 5, 2004

By 

Shaun O'Donnell "Shaun O'Donnell" (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon Ball - The Saga of Goku - Boxed Set (DVD)

After watching this one can tell that this was not the recent releases done on cartoon network. If anything after watching this it brings back the thought that this was once released years ago in a severly edited format. Not to say that this is bad or anything because for the most part the story arcs are still there. However the most comedic elements of these episodes like when goku first heres about a bath and Bulma has to bathe him, or the severe pervertedness of Master Roshi are all edited out and replaced with dialouge that is corny or removed entirly. This is an allright set at the right price, and good for little kids. But for fans who have been getting the sagas that funimation has been releasing as of late, I would not bother.