Product Details

• Actors: Sean Schemmel, Christopher R. Sabat, Sonny Strait, Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa
• Format: Full Screen, Color, Box set, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Japanese (Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Dubbed: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Funimation
• DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010
• Run Time: 1000 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002Y0KR7A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,567 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Originally produced in limited quantities in Japan, the incredibly rare Dragon Box has long been the ultimate prize for the most avid Dragon Ball Z collectors. Now this coveted collection has been reproduced for the first time in the United States, giving hardcore fans the definitive Dragon Ball Z experience.

The battle to harness the power of the seven Dragon Balls explodes in vivid detail like never before. The Dragon Box two features episodes 42-83, remastered and restored frame by frame, rendering the legendary action in pristine clarity. Each episode is presented in Japanese with the complete opening and closing credits and includes the original episode previews.

Truly the essential edition for Dragon Ball Z purists, this set isn’t an addition to your archive – it is your archive. Your wish is finally granted. The Dragon Box is here.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you once again, FUNimation February 22, 2010

By Christopher D. Jacobson

Amazon Verified Purchase

This DBZ Dragon Box series is an exciting thing. I've been a fan of DBZ since I first saw it on syndicated television in the mid to late '90s. (You could say I was a fan of the series even earlier, about '95 or '96 or so, since I also watched the first thirteen episodes of Dragon Ball when that first aired in the States.)

Ever since becoming a fan of DBZ and having just around that time discovered the Internet, I searched for the series on Yahoo! and came up with a website which displayed many of the changes made in the US--all of the censorship, reworked music, and all of that. Since then, I've been clamoring for Dragon Ball Z, uncut and subbed with the original music.

I thought FUNimation were going to deliver with the season sets they released a few years ago, but they botched the job entirely by "remastering" the video in the most awful way imaginable: in addition to the drastically cropped framing (to create a faux-widescreen ratio--I'm BIG on original aspect ratio as it affects cinematography and composition), careless and unwatched DVNR was applied, a process which is intended to eliminate dirt and scratch marks that are present on the film being scanned, but when used so carelessly, it can do devastating things to video, especially animation, where lines of art are "erased" (that is, the lines are read by the program as scratch marks, so it takes color and other visual information surrounding the lines and then covers over the lines with this information, causing lines of art to disappear, particularly quick/fast-paced animation). To make matters worse, the colors and lighting are all blown-out and faded. (I'm not too familiar with technical terms; this could be due to contrast boosting, but I'm uncertain....)

FUNimation have finally delivered with this Dragon Box series, porting the expertly restored video masters from Japan. THIS is what I've wanted all along; I never bothered with bootleg fansubs back in the day because of poor quality tapes transferred several times over. With the video on these sets, you get a good amount of natural film grain (something that should NEVER be done away with entirely [or even at all if I had my way], particularly since important detail IS ALWAYS LOST when you do so) that really gives it an authentic look. It really does look like an anime from the '80s/early '90s, and to this fan, that is a very good thing indeed.

A lot of people appear to be complaining about these DVD releases for a variety of reasons, many of which seem silly to me. I'm not certain how much more compression would need to be applied to all the audio tracks and perhaps the video to add an additional audio track (many appear to prefer the US dub music, which is not present on these sets), but if adding an extra track noticeably degrades the quality of what I want to watch and hear, then I'm A-OK with the US music not being included--particularly since it's inferior and also not the original music. Does nobody care about original intention and preserving art anymore?

Many who complain about these Dragon Box sets also don't seem to see a reason for them--they comment that the video on the season sets FUNimation released earlier is "good enough." Well, it's certainly not good enough for me, and I'm thankful that FUNimation are releasing these now, and I hope that they don't compromise on future releases to try and please everybody. These Dragon Box sets SHOULD have been what FUNimation released initially, rather than jerking everyone's chains, but they've chosen to make poor decisions and milk the series for all they can get. This, however, is one DVD release series that I will give in to, for this is what I've WANTED all along, and I will pay the premium price for what I see to be a premium product line.

The packaging is also quite nice, and as I mentioned on my DBZ: Dragon Box Z, Volume One review, I ponder if it's modeled after the Japanese Dragon Box sets. High-quality materials, two digi-books which house the DVDs, nice artwork, and a book that contains episode descriptions, where everything is listed in a right-to-left reading format, which is what makes me wonder if it's similar to what the Japanese fans got years back.

So, if you don't know Japanese (that is, if importing the Japanese DVDs would be practically worthless to you) and are looking for Dragon Ball Z the way it's MEANT to be seen and heard--at long last, these are the DVDs to buy! Read more ›

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest dragon ball Z release ever! February 21, 2010

By TRUST

I used to be one of those individuals that would criticized the dragon box because of the lack of Bruce Faulconer music and because the price was significantly higher. Since I'm a fan of the series I couldn't help myself and I found my self pre-ordering the first Dragon Box to find out what the big deal was. I knew deep down that I wasn't gonna be to happy with the Japanese music.

Once I received the box I realized how incredibly well packaged everything comes. It already made the orange bricks look cheap and I had yet to open the box. The dragon box was about the size of two orange bricks (remastered sets) and the smaller boxes inside were beautifully build. The booklet that's included with the set is very handy when watching the episodes and its hardcover and not held together with a single staple like in the orange bricks.

The quality of the video is superb, its near perfect and the colors are beautiful. I found my self looking at all the vivid colors and seeing detail I had not seen before. It was truly like watching a different version of Dragon ball Z. This is the way Dragon ball Z should have been released from the start!

Now on to the music, when I first started watching the series I wanted the American music! Since I couldn't have it, I just stop complaining and decided to watch it and appreciate it. I found my self loving the Japanese music. Before I knew it I just couldn't go back to the American version. It's almost like watching an entirely new show. Try the Japanese music and it will grow on you after each episode.

I also want to mention that I did own the orange Bricks, but now that I own the First dragon box I've sold all the orange bricks on Amazon....

Now as a conclusion if you have the orange bricks, sell them and get your self the real definitive Edition. Watch the series the way it was originally intended. For those who don't own the Dragon Box, don't give the box bad review's, just because you didn't acquire this version first instead of the orange bricks. This is the best release of Dragon Ball Z to date! Appreciate its release! Buy the dragon box you wont regret it.

The Dragon Box shows you the series as originally intended and you won't miss the American music.

Dragon Box Volume 3 May 4, 2010!

Until we meet again guys!

For those who are still curious about the quality and aren't completely sure whether they should make the jump, well check out my youtube channel I posted up two videos demonstrating the quality of the first dragon box. Search for xxtrustxx on the search menu in youtube. Read more ›

48 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Some people need to understand something November 30, 2009

By J. Paul

Okay, we all know that the dub score isn't on this set. I am just as disappointed as other dub fans, but you have to understand, Funi is aiming these sets at another audience for once and wants to preserve quality. So just shut up and accept it instead of giving 1-star reviews to a product that wasn't meant for you in the first place. I don't necessarily agree with Funi's decisions and would rather have a release that satisfies all audiences, but regardless, we've been catered to for years so we should let the fans of the Japanese version have a release they can be proud of. We're lucky we got a dub in the first place as Funi made this release so that fans of the Japanese version can just watch the show as it was meant to be seen.

(btw, this is jjgp1112, daizex users)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent DBZ release...BUT.... August 29, 2011

By DBZ_Dude

Ok, so I put this review together not to discuss the actual quality of the show. We're all well aware that this is the most concrete Dragon Ball Z release to date. I do however want to warn you guys that the overlapping disc setup can cause potentially disc damaging scuffs. Not scratches, but it seems that they get scuffed from chaffing in the cases. I had to buy a secondary copy of Volume 2 (all my others with the exception of 6, which amazon replaced for me with no problems were fine). My best advice to prospective buyers is to go out and maybe buy a pack of jewel cases and store them separately from the actual boxes so they don't have to share the same crawlspace. I have all the Dragon Boxes neatly displayed on my shelf with the jewel cases/discs right beside them and have had no problems since.
With this particular volume no longer in print (so it would seem), I figured I would give a heads up to all the collector types out there who do their best to keep their DBZ collection as close to pristine as possible.