Every story must have a beginning and Dragon Ball is no exception. Before there were super Saiya-jin level 20 billion and an entire season devoted to five minutes, there was a little comedy story loosely based on A Journey to the West. Here is where we first meet Goku, Bulma, Oolong, Yamucha, Muten Roshi and Chi-Chi in a more comedic and fairy tale-like show that may not please all Dragon Ball Z fans but is quite entertaining on its own.

Since the video rights of the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball are caught in somewhat of a snag in the States, Funimation has not been able to release them uncut. In Austrailia, however, things are a different story. Working on a sublicense through Funimation Madman has released all the FUNI Dragon Ball sets much to the delight of those down under as well as importers worldwide.

The first thing I should mention is that these sets are not an alternative to the US sets. Since Madman licensed these through Funimation, any gripes you have on the American sets are present here plus one. These discs are encoded to fit the dimensions of the PAL video system and thus are incompatible with most American DVD players including those that are Region Free. If you plan on watching these on a computer with region free capabilities, you should be okay, otherwise make sure you have PAL to NTSC conversion as a feature on your region free player before buying this.

Despite all the issues, I still recommend this set. Dragon Ball is a great show which is sadly overshadowed by its sequel series. Yet when given a chance on its own it's a lot of fun.

Labels: Anime, Comedy, Dragon Ball