Dragonball Season Two (Digitally Remastered)   Starring (voice): Hiromi Tsuru, Masako Nozawa, Daisuke Gouri, Eiko Yamada and Hiroko Emori Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £34.99 MANG6019 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 07 July 2014

Dragonball: Season Two, continues the release of the uncut show, with this four disc collection covering episodes twenty-nine to fifty-seven of the run of one hundred and fifty-three. The show is presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio and the print is remarkably clear, given the age of the show. The animation style is often humorous, but some audiences may find it a little basic, especially compared to more modern shows.

The discs continue the story of the search for the seven magical balls, which actually means a continuous diet of gags and fighting which wrap around and sometimes obscure the main storyline. This release begins the Red Ribbon Army Saga, which originally ran from 1986 to 1987. From episode 46 it continues into the General Blue Saga (1987), which is completed in the set. It’s a nice way to release the show as you get two complete sagas with no annoying truncation of the story between sets.

So, with fighting temporarily over, Goku sets his sights on finding the orbs which once belonged to his grandfather which sets him on the road to confrontation with Red Ribbon Army. As with the rest of the show this means fights with ever increasingly potent fighters, culminating in a boss fight. Goku is not alone and is aided, sometimes by his friends.

The Toei Animation Dragonball franchise was amazingly successful, between this series and the Z series, the show ran for ten years, including a large number of spin-off films. This is probably the first season at its best, with a fine balance between humour and story, before the jokes started to repeat and the plot lines reused to the point of abuse. There are two audio tracks on the set, the original Japanese and the dub, although be aware that the dub is not a translation of the Japanese, rather it represents an English interpretation, so the same scene could end up with different meanings. I suppose you could consider it a strange bonus as you can watch the show twice to spot the divergences in the English version.

The first disc (eps 29 – 36) contains some character profiles, twelve in all. These consist of drawings of the individual characters, accompanied by a paragraph of information. The disc also contains trailers (3 min, 32 sec) for Area 88 and Panyo Panyo.

Disc two (eps 37 - 45) has another collection of character profiles, disc three (eps 46 – 51) has more character profiles and trailers (3 min, 09 sec) for Beast Wars Transformers and Battle of the Planets.

The last disc in the set, disc four (eps 52 - 57) has trailers (2 min, 31 sec) including a repeat of the Panyo Panyo and a new one for Kimba the White Lion as well as more character profiles.

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Charles Packer