Review for Dragon Ball: Season 3

Introduction

The last few weeks has seen a strange development on my part. I’ve been pestering the Manga PR rep for Dragon Ball check discs. Season 3 turned up unfeasibly late for review, less than a week before its release date, hence the late posting of this review. That’s not the odd thing though. At the height of Dragon Ball mania in the UK anime scene, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t the franchise for me. I struggled through Dragon Ball Z, and when it came to Dragon Ball GT, it was so bad that I gave up reviewing it halfway through. Never would I have thought that I would actually be eager for, and invested in reviewing Dragon Ball, but that was before the original series started being released in the UK. The first collection of Goku’s first adventures with the 7 starred magic balls surprisingly was fun, the second collection even better. So all of a sudden, when the review discs are late, I wind up getting that itchy sensation of anime withdrawal, a withdrawal only eased by the arrival of Collection 3 for review.


A young girl named Bulma wanted a boyfriend. For some reason, she decided to go looking for the seven Dragon Balls, which when collected summon the eternal dragon Shen Long, which will grant one wish. The Dragon Balls are then scattered to the four winds once more, inert for a whole year before they can be gathered and wished upon again. Her search led her to an isolated mountain, where dwelled a young boy named Son Goku, trained in the martial arts by his late grandfather, possessing a magical staff, sporting a monkey’s tail, and suffering from a ‘time of the month’ that you wouldn’t believe. Goku also had the four star Dragon Ball, his last remaining memento of his grandfather, one that he wasn’t too willing to part with. Which is why he wound up travelling with Bulma as she looked for the other Dragon Balls. But they weren’t the only people looking to have their ultimate wishes granted, there are some other, more nefarious characters out there too.


In the previous collection, a year had passed since the last wish on the Dragon Balls, they have become active again, and it was time for Goku to go and look for his grandfather’s heirloom, the four star Dragon Ball. Only this time, it turns out that the evil Red Ribbon Army is looking for them too, under the orders of Commander Red, to further his dreams of world domination. As this collection begins, Commander Red has tired of Goku thwarting his men at every turn, and is about to unleash the ultimate assassin against him, a man even Kamehameha-proof.


26 episodes of Dragon Ball, plus extras are presented across four discs from Manga Entertainment collecting the Australian releases, The Commander Red Saga and the Fortuneteller Baba Saga.

Disc 1
58. The Land of Korin
59. The Notorious Mercenary
60. Tao Attacks!
61. Korin Tower
62. Sacred Water

Disc 2
63. The Return of Goku
64. The Last of Mercenary Tao
65. Confront the Red Ribbon Army
66. A Real Bind
67. The End of Commander Red


Disc 3
68. The Last Dragon Ball
69. Who is the Fortuneteller Baba?
70. We Are the Five Warriors
71. Deadly Battle
72. Goku’s Turn
73. The Devilmite Beam
74. The Mysterious Fifth Man
75. The Strong Ones

Disc 4
76. True Colours of the Masked Man
77. Pilaf’s Tactics
78. The Eternal Dragon Rises
79. Terror and Plague
80. Goku vs. Sky Dragon
81. Goku Goes to Demonland
82. The Rampage of Inoshikacho
83. Which Way to Papaya Island?

NOTE: Episode 81 is missing the second half. It instead repeats the second half of episode 83, which is a bit of a confusing development, going straight from the gates of hell to a bit of nonsense with a mischievous fox. That’s if you watch it in Japanese. If you watch it in English, it plays through normally. You’ll just have to remember to change audio and subtitles at that point via your player remote.

Picture

This takes me back some. Back when I first started reviewing anime on DVD, it all looked like this, sourced from tape masters of varying condition, and mastered on disc with NTSC-PAL standards conversions. The Australian Madman release that is the source of these discs was made 10 years ago, while the anime itself is from the mid-eighties. It’s a simple but effective animation, which does what it needs to get the gags across. The tape origin shows in the transfer, which isn’t overly afflicted by visible interlacing or blended frames. Then again, the softness of the videotape origins tends to mask all that. You might expect that with as many as eight episodes on a disc, that will tell in the compression, but other than macroblocking being a little more obvious in large expanses of colour, the Dragon Ball discs get off pretty lightly.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 2.0 Stereo English, and what I assume is 2.0 Mono Japanese. Given its vintage, expect a rather thin, and occasionally shrill original language experience with the odd moment of hiss as well. Those early Funimation releases via Madman actually used to come with two subtitle tracks, dubtitles to go with the English dub, and a translated English track to go with the Japanese audio. It’s interesting to see how the anime was re-versioned for the US television audience.

The problems continue here, as episode 73, The Devilmite Beam, lacks translated English subtitles for the Japanese track, and instead merely repeats the dubtitle track again. The problem with Dragon Ball is that the English adaptation is so different from the Japanese original that the dubtitles on many occasions fail to make sense, not even syncing up with the Japanese dialogue. (Apparently some of the other episodes lack dubtitles to go with the English dub, but I haven’t personally checked this out.)

Extras

The discs present their content with animated menus, and there is no Marathon Mode. Oddly enough, Dragon Ball doesn’t need it, with its short, gag filled stories, with a couple of very agreeable (in Japanese) theme songs. You can tell from some of the shows trailed on the discs that they are sourced from a vintage release from Madman.

Disc 1 offers nine character profiles of regulars and arc specific guest characters, Australian trailers for Beast Wars: Transformers Season 1, and Battle of the Planets: Collection 1.

Disc 2 also offers nine character profiles, and trailers for Kimba the White Lion: Deluxe DVD Edition, and Panyo Panyo Digi Charat Volume 1.

Disc 3 has 9 more profiles on it (updated this time for the main characters as well), and trailers for Beast Wars, Transformers Season 1, and Battle of the Planets: Collection 1.

Disc 4 has those 9 profiles again, and a trailer for Panyo Panyo Digi Charat Volume 1.

Conclusion

Dragon Ball works best when all of its characters are engaged. It’s the interactions between Goku, Bulma, Muten Roshi, Kuririn, Yamucha and the others that are so enjoyable. There isn’t a lot of that as the Red Ribbon Army Saga concludes, particularly in the first few episodes. It’s just Goku, by himself, battling bad guys and defending the innocent. No matter that it’s all canon material, there just isn’t as much comedy happening, and for the first 7 episodes in particular, it felt as if I was watching Dragon Ball Z. That’s despite the important introduction of Oopa and his father Bora, the ascent of Karin tower and the introduction of the sage cat Karin, offering an opportunity for more training. You get the important elements of the Dragon Balls being able to bring someone back to life, an imperative that drives Goku through most of this collection, and the first mention of the restorative Senzu beans.


Things pick up for the final episodes of the Red Ribbon Army arc, as Bulma, Roshi and the other decide, in some cases reluctantly, to join Goku at the Red Ribbon Army HQ to lend a hand. Not that the little tyke needs it, as he’s well on his way to achieving God-battling power already at this point, and the world’s strongest army finds him to be more than a handful.


The best part of this collection is the Fortuneteller Baba Saga, as it turns out that Goku is one Dragon Ball short of pulling off the show’s first resurrection, and it’s even hidden from Bulma’s dragon radar. They need the talents of a prognosticator to find it, and Roshi suggests Baba. Of course Baba charges through the nose for her talents, and anyone wanting a discount will have to fight in a tournament against her five champions. As usual, these opponents are tougher than any Goku have faced before, and he gets Yamucha and Kuririn to help him. The show goes the Hammer Horror route for this set of fighting opponents, although it’s more like a combat version of Abbot and Costello Meet...


What makes this arc so enjoyable is that it’s played mostly for laughs. The elaborate way in which the Invisible Man is confounded is hilarious. It’s because Baba is no villain, she’ll be a recurring character as the story continues, and her interplay with Roshi is fantastic. This arc also ends on a really heartfelt moment too, showing that Dragon Ball can wring a few emotions as well as prod the chuckle muscle.


Next up is another Tenkaichi tournament, but Goku has to go into training first... for three years! Fortunately three years just take five episodes, enjoyable stand-alones through to the end of the collection. There’s a bit of Seven Samurai (or One Goku) to begin with, a classic kung fu tale of rival schools to follow, while the Rampage of Inoshikacho is notable for introducing a certain three-eyed character and his floating friend.


The Fortuneteller Baba arc is the most fun I’ve yet had with Dragon Ball, but the Quality Control failure on this collection is lamentable. These particular discs have been out for years in Australia, the dubtitle issue on episode 73, and the missing second half of episode 81, when playing back in Japanese have all been known about. Google and ye shall find. Manga didn’t Google, while Madman supplied the seven year old broken masters instead of fixing them. It’s a woeful effort on both parts.