“The final leg of the ‘DRAGON BALL Z’ series begins with the Majin Buu-saga featuring the most deadly nemesis the Z-warriors has ever faced. 34 Action-packed episodes that turns things up a notch with a battle between Goku vs. Vegita, Super Saiyan level 3 Goku and the introduction of Gotenks! ‘DRAGON BALL Z’ fans…this DVD box set is highly recommended!”
DVD TITLE: DRAGON BALL Z – SEASON EIGHT
DURATION: 800 minutes (34 Episodes total, Episodes 220-253)
DVD INFORMATION: Remastered in High-Definition and Digitally Restored, Widescreen Transfer from Original Japanese Film, Newly Revised English Dialogue, English Voice Track with Original Japanese music, Marathon Play Special Feature
COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment
RATED: TV PG
Based on the manga and created by by Akira Toriyama
Directed by Daisuke Nishio
Series Composition: Takao Koyama
Character Design by Yuji Ikeda
Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
Screenplay: Aya Matsui, Hiroshi Toda, Jun Maekawa, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, Keiji Terui, Masashi Kubota, Reiko Yoshida, Satoru Akahori, Sumio Uetaka, Takao Koyama, Toshiki Inoue, Yoshiyuki Suga
Episode director: Atsutoshi Umezawa, Daisuke Nishio, Hidehiko Kadoda, Hiroki Shibata, Johei Matsuura, Junichi Fujise, Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Kazuhito Kikuchi, Masahiro Hosoda, Minoru Okazaki, Mitsuo Hashimoto, Osamu Kasai, Shigeyasu Yamauchi, Takahiro Imamura, Tatsuya Orime, Yoshihiro Ueda
Featuring the following voice talent:
Masako Nozawa/Zoe Slusar as Son Goku
Masako Nozawa/Hyle Herbert as Son Gohan
Masako Nozawa/Robert McCollum as Son Goten
Takeshi Kusao/Eric Vale as Trunks
Ryo Horikawa/Christopher R. Sabat as Vegeta
Hiromi Tsuru/Tiffany Volmer as Bulma
Kozo Shioya/Josh Martin as Majin Buu
Naoko Watanabe/Cynthia Cranz as Chichi
Mayumi Tanaka/Sonny Strait as Kuririn
Ryo Horikawa/Christopher R. Sabat as Piccolo
Yuko Minaguchi/Lucy Small as Videl
Hirotaka Suzuoki – Tinshinhan
Tohru Furuya – Yamucha
Miki Itou/Meredith McCoy as Andrid No. 18
Daisuke Gouri/Don Brown as Mr. Satan (Hercule)
Michael Dobson as Supreme Kai
The forces of good and evil have converged upon the planet Earth, and the fate of the universe hangs in the balance! The evil wizard Babidi has traveled across the galaxy on a quest for revenge, hoping to fulfill his father’s thwarted dreams of universal domination. Meanwhile, the Supreme Kai has come to enlist the aid of the Z-Fighters in an effort to prevent Babidi from completing his plans and awakening a monster of unimaginable terror – Majin Buu!
As Goku and the Z-Fighters descent into Babidi’s lair, they are confronted by an army of powerful minions, led by the Demon King Dabura himself! Can our heroes resist the wizard’s dark magic and battle their weay through this host of villains before time runs out? With each passing second, more energy is gathered for the sleeping Majin Buu. And should this creature of pure evil be awakened, all life-everywhere-will be extinguished!
The eighth season of “DRAGON BALL Z” is here with 34-episodes of non-stop action and utter destruction of the planet Earth. This season now continues with the final leg of the popular “DRAGON BALL Z series”.
At the end of the seventh season, the Z-Warriors gathered for the latest World’s Martial Arts Tournament. But we learn that Babidi and his minions were there for one thing, to capture enough energy to revive the biggest threat that the universe had faced many, many years ago…that threat is known as Majin Buu.
Now the Z-Warriors do what they can to stop this new threat. Here is a brief summary of what to expect from Season Eight:
Disc 1:
- Episode 220 – The Wizard’s Curse – The Z-fighters search for Babidi’s minions who have managed to capture Gohan’s energy.
- Episode 221 – King of the Demons – Piccolo and Krillin make their move against Dabura (The King of Demons) who is assisting Babidi. Meanwhile, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Supreme Kai enter Babidi’s spaceship.
- Episode 222 – Vegeta Attacks – Babidi unleashes his first monster to take on Vegeta.
- Episode 223 – Next Up, Goku – Babidi unleashes his second monster to take on Goku.
- Episode 224 – Battle Supreme – As the Z-fighters have their work cutout for them against Babidi, at the World’s Martial Arts tournament, Android No. 18 goes against Mighty Mask and Mr. Satan.
- Episode 225 – Eighteen Unmasks – Android No. 18 finds out the true identities of who is behind Mighty Mask. Meanwhile, Babidi unleashes his third opponent…Dabura.
DISC 2:
- Episode 226 – Pay to Win – Android No. 18 now advances against the final match against Mr. Satan. Mr. Satan knows he is no match for No. 18 but the android is willing to cut a deal with him.
- Episodes 227 – Heart of a Villain – Gohan must now go against Dabura
- Episode 228 – The Dark Prince Returns – Babidi manages to use Vegeta’s hatred and negative energy against him and turn him into a Majin, fueling his anger against Goku and making him more powerful.
- Episode 229 – Vegeta’s Pride – Vegeta now a Majin wants a battle against Goku but Supreme Kai says that in order to fight Vegeta, Goku must battle him first.
- Episode 230 – The Long Awaited Fight – The Saiyan battle between Vegeta and Goku.
- Episode 231 – Magic Ball of Buu – While Vegeta and Goku are fighting each other, Gohan and Supreme Kai must do what they can to stop Babidi.
Disc 3:
- Episode 232 – Buu is Hatched – While Gohan tries to destroy the nesting area of Majin Buu, he ends up making it hatch.
- Episode 233 – The Losses Begin – When Buu comes out of his shell, he is revealed to be an overweight pink being that likes to have its share of fun. Dabura is not thrilled about Buu and thus provokes him. Gohan then tries to fight Buu.
- Episode 234 – The Terror of Mr. Buu – Goten and Trunks find out that Piccolo and Krillin have been turned into stone. Dabura returns to fight Buu!
- Episode 235 – Meal Time – Vegeta takes a cheap shot against Goku, knocking him out. Now Vegeta has his attention on Buu.
- Episode 236 – The Warrior’s Decision – Vegeta fights Buu with all he can!
- Episode 237 – Final Atonement – With Vegeta trying to do all he can to defeat Buu, Buu seems unstoppable. Vegeta decides the only way to put an end to him is to sacrifice himself.
Disc 4:
- Episode 238 – Evil Lives On – The aftermath of Vegeta’s sacrifice
- Episode 239 – Find the Dragon Balls – Due to the aftermath, Bulma and others decide to go on a search for the Dragon Balls.
- Episode 240 – Revival – Goku knows that the only way to defeat Buu is if he uses the Art of Fusion but with Vegeta gone, the only two capable of possibly fusing are Gotenks and Trunks.
- Episode 241 – Global Announcement – Babidi is not thrilled that Piccolo, Goten and Trunks have left the battlefield and because they did, he has threatened the world that Buu will kill everyone until the three come back to face him and Buu.
- Episode 242 – Learn to Fuse! – Goku begins his training of Gotenks and Trunks to learn the Art of Fusion.
- Episode 243 – The Z-Sword – Gohan continues his training from the Supreme Kai to learn the legendary Z-Sword.
Disc 5:
- Episode 244 – Race to Capsule Corp. – A mother whose sons lost in the Jr. World’s Martial Arts Tournament gives information to Babidi about Capsule Corp.
- Episode 245 – Super Saiyan 3 – As Trunks hurries to find the Dragon Ball radar at Capsule Corp., Goku must stall Babidi and Majin Buu and thus begins his transformation to Super Saiyan 3.
- Episode 246 – Buu’s Mutiny – Super Saiyan 3 Goku goes against Majin Buu.
- Episode 247 – The Fusion Dance – With Trunks successful in obtaining the Dragon Ball Radar, Goku goes back to train Gotenks and Trunks the Fusion Dance.
- Episode 248 – Goku’s Time is Up – With Goku now preparing Gotenks and Trunks, Buu decides to build himself a home and cause more destruction and death.
Disc 6:
- Episode 249 – Return to the Other World – With Goku’s time on Earth now over, he must go back to Heaven. Meanwhile Gohan continues his training.
- Episode 250 – Out from the Broken Sword – Goku joins the Supreme Kai to observe Gohan’s training. But while Gohan goes through his final test, something happens to the Z-Sword.
- Episode 251 – Gotenks is Born – With Piccolo now training Gotenks and Trunks, the two must now fuse!
- Episode 252 – Unlikely Friendship – As Mr. Satan becomes the Earth’s last defense against Majin Buu, the two develop a friendship. And Buu has a new pet dog.
- Episode 253 – I Kill No More – Majin Buu starts to listen to Mr. Satan about no killing, while a pair of thugs aim to kill Buu but end up killing something else instead.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“DRAGON BALL Z” season eight was aired in Japan during the mid-90’s. For these episodes to be nearly 15 years old, FUNimation did the picture quality some justice by remastering the series. By working with Video Post & Transfer, they used the original Japanese film masters and transferred them using a Spirit DataCine and passing through a Digital Vision DVNR1000 to remove film grain and then using a Teranex VC6000 video computer for DNR (digital noise reduction) to remove thousands of instances of dirt, scratches and debris.
The video footage signal was then ran through a da Vinci 2K Plus color system to make sure the color is very close to the original Japanese film prints. After color correction, the final media was then transferred via Sony’s HDCAM (high definition digital tape) and created in 1080p HD at 24 frames per second.
So, what we get is a very clean transfer (note: A transfer that would make it even much more cleaner and colorful if presented in Blu-ray) on DVD and the best looking transfer of the episodes in the US thus far.
Audio is presented in three audio tracks. English voice track with original Japanese music via 5.1 surround, English voice track with TV broadcast music stereo and Japanese voice track with original music and in mono.
As mentioned in my previous reviews, I have watched “Dragon Ball Z” when it was first aired in Japan and have rented every episode and have watched it in Japanese. But until I started reviewing the FUNimation Entertainment box set releases of the series, I have really enjoyed the English dubwork. I felt the series was well-cast and truthfully, with the original series in mono and hearing it in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, it’s hard to go back and listen to the series in mono.
But the great news is that you get the three different audio tracks to suit those with different audio preferences.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
No special features are included but the FUNimation Entertainment trailers.
With over 200+ episodes, here we are with the beginning of the final chapter of the “DRAGON BALL Z” series and if you thought the Frieza and Cell sagas were fantastic, the Majin Buu saga and where it will go from here is quite amazing.
No villain in “DRAGON BALL Z” has looked as cute and nonthreatening as Majin Buu but yet has managed to slaughter a millions of people and really put the Z-Warriors in a position that they have never been in before.
The high points of this season is the fact that you get a long awaited battle between Goku vs. Vegeta, you get the Super Saiyan level 3 transformation of Goku but then we get to see the fusion technique.
Each episode has a very good storyline that it’s quite easy to watch episode after episode and find yourself watching a marathon of 2-3 discs because the episodes were quite enjoyable and action-packed. I also, have to say that there are no filler episodes and each episode, you’re going to get hardcore battles and just non-stop action. It’s what you would expect from a series such as “DRAGON BALL Z” and nothing less.
Vegeta fans will definitely enjoy his character transformation but most of all his redemption. The first half is very Vegeta intensive and in Japan, many people wanted more of him and they got it. So, to see a powerful Vegeta going against Goku was awesome.
The series manages to weave in every character close to the Z-warriors that we have known from the series in this eighth season, which is very cool.  And also, for Hercule/Mr. Satan fans, you will actually get to see him in action as well.
But it’s the instability of Majin Buu’s character which is quite interesting. Because of the way this being is made, unlike Frieza and Cell, the ability to continually regenerate, makes him nearly an unstoppable character. His look and demeanor is nothing like we have seen in the first 200-episodes and to see him kill people for the sake of hunger or for enjoyment to hear things go “boom”, makes Majin Buu an interesting but moreso, a deadlier villain than any villain that has appeared on “DRAGON BALL Z” thus far.
“DRAGON BALL Z” fans will definitely not be disappointed with this latest box set. Again, every episode is full of action and also, six discs with 34-episodes all for a great price. Again, the price of this box set was the nearly the same cost of two or three DBZ DVD’s with only two episodes several years ago. You definitely get your money’s worth.
“DRAGON BALL Z – SEASON EIGHT” is highly recommended for the DBZ fan!