Dragonball Z Season Nine (Digitally Remastered)   Starring (voice): Masako Nozawa, Ryo Horikawa and Hiromi Tsuru Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £34.99 MANG6008 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 21 October 2013

The fight with Majin Buu continues to rage across the surface of the planet, causing untold destruction of a level which even the Z-fighters are finding it difficult to handle. Their only hope appears to lie in the Fusion Technique, but for this to occur Goku will have to join with and old adversary, Vegeta...

Dragon Ball Z: Complete Season Nine (1995 - 950 min) continues the Z tale with episodes 254 to291, spread across six discs. These were censored when first shown, so the set shows the uncensored versions, for the very first time. This season represents the end of the original anime franchise.

The end story plays out over the final episodes with the Z-fighters facing a villain, in Buu, who might just beat them all, even with their powers combined. There is the usual surfeit of fighting to be had, so much so, that if it was removed the show would have been truncated by about a half. But then that’s why fans love the show, the fights are generally well choreographed and by now the characters have imbedded themselves with the audience.

The presentation is still that strange cropped 16:9 widescreen version, which works for the most part, but there are still the odd occasions when the cropping is obvious. The overall quality of the picture is fine, if you take into account the age of the show, but it hasn’t been restored.

Audio remains the same with the inclusion of three audio tracks, the newer 5.1 English dub with the original Japanese music track, the American 2.0 dub and the original Japanese 2.0. The set contains few extras.

The show is divisive, either you love the endless fighting or you don’t, but then its influence on the whole genre cannot be so easily dismissed.

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Charles Packer