Rating  - Another good season set
Dragon Ball Z is the one greatest anime series ever created. With its action-packed universe and compelling storylines, Akira Toriyama's magnum opus has never failed to please. This is the latest season set FUNimation has released of the series.
This set picks up where the last one left off. Goku has defeated Frieza, and the Z-Fighters have returned to Earth. Goku is alive, but has opted not to return to Earth, instead continuing personal training in the vastness of space.
An old foe, Garlic Jr., has escaped from his Dead Zone prison. Using a black mist, he turns all of mankind into vampiric zombies. It's up to Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo to work together to defeat this returned threat... but how will they contend with an IMMORTAL foe?
It doesn't stop there. Frieza somehow SURVIVED his battle with Goku, and has come to Earth seeking revenge. But upon Frieza's arrival, a mysterious youth comes to their aid. Will he be a match for the tyrant who has conquered numerous galaxies?
Three years later, following extensive training, the Z-Fighters find themselves face-to-face with the Android threats that were announced to them by the mysterious young man who helped them before. It isn't long before our heroes, even with all their training, find themselves outnumbered - and Goku is bedridden with a heart virus! How will the Z-Fighters win against what could be their greatest challenge yet?
The DVD set is divided amongst six discs, and contains the Garlic Jr., Cyborg Frieza, Android Training, and Android Sagas. The picture has been subjected to digital noise reduction, and the set includes a booklet of character profiles and episode listings.
Obviously, if you're new to the Dragon Ball franchise, you'll want to start with the Season One box set, but if you're already a fan, you'll enjoy these episodes. I won't lie, this is one of the weaker box sets, it's basically everything that links the Frieza and Android/Cell Sagas. The Garlic Jr. Saga has some good moments, but it's ultimately an anime-only filler that contributes nothing to the overall storyline. The Android Training episodes fare similarly (Chi-Chi wants Goku to get a drivers license despite the fact that she was seen driving in an early episode of the series?) Even the Android Saga itself gets off to a rough, slow start. But amongst the filler and obligatory slow-moving plot progression stuff, there is some great moments, namely the battle with Cyborg Frieza, and the introductions of Androids 16, 17, and 18 - and the battles with them that follow. These aren't the best episodes of the series, but some of them ARE key moments in the series.
One of my personal favorite features of the set is the Marathon feature. FUNimation includes a feature in these sets that allows you to view all of the episodes on each disc from start to end with no interruptions from intros/outros/recaps/etc. This is an extremely handy feature I wish more TV shows on DVD had.
Like earlier Dragon Ball Z season sets, the picture has been cropped at the top and bottom (this was done due to excessive grain and damage to the original source), and it has been subjected to the digital noise reduction process. Obviously a lot of fans, myself included, were disappointed to see the picture get cropped. While the digital noise reduction doesn't do as thorough a job cleaning up the image as you'd hope, it IS the best these episodes have ever looked. In other words, it's a "give and take" scenario. You lose some of the picture you could see on earlier full-frame DVDs (and there ARE a few gaping moments that will really make you question FUNimation's decision), but on the good side, you gain some picture on the sides, and the image quality is superior to all earlier DVD releases.
Sound quality is similar to the earlier sets. English audio quality is fantastic, but the dub is still translated poorly and the voice cast is hit and miss. On the other hand, the Japanese audio quality is poor, showing its age, but it does feature a well-translated subtitle track from Steven J. Simmons that lets you experience the series as originally intended. Is Dragon Ball Z EVER going to get its Japanese audio remastered?
Additionally, like the earlier sets, you have the option of watching the English voice cast played against the original Japanese audio.
Disappointingly, the next episode previews aren't included. But they weren't in any earlier season set, so it's no big surprise.
No special features are included here unless you count the trailers and the same textless opening/closing sequence all other sets like this have had. On the good side, the set does include a booklet similar to the earlier sets, with character profiles and an episode guide, making it handy to go right where you need to go on the DVDs.
It's another good set. If you're a fan of the series and don't already have these episodes, you can get them all here for one low price. Cropping issues aside, this is a great set, and a good value, especially compared to the older DVD releases.
Highly recommended to any fan of Dragon Ball Z.
Rating - DBZ season 4
Good continuation of the series. The extra footage and un-edited version from the original japanese version, unlike the american version shown on TV, is nice to see.
Rating  - Trunks Remastered!
Trunks never looked better! Increase you're ultimate DBZ collection with the set featuring the boy from the future, the return of the demon from the Dead Zone, and the 'terrible' androids!
Rating - Another Great Season
I loved this season also. But it got 4 stars and not 5 cause when i receive this season in the mail the 5th disc was just laying around int he package with a few scratches and found that the clasp to hold the dvd in was broken so i need to be careful so that it doesn't get messed up any more that it is. But i recommend that if your a fan of DBZ to get all the seasons and watch them all in order. It will prolly bring back memories.
Rating - It only gets better from here....
I've been watching this series over & over for about 10 years now, and must say that this is the beginning of the BEST story line in the series. Once Cell enters into the series, you'll know what I mean.
VIDEO QUALITY - Ignore the bad reviews. You won't even miss anything that was cropped out of the original print. Only the top & bottom 5% portions were cut, so NOTHING VITAL IS MISSING. I would have preferred they left the frames intact, but the original copy was too badly damaged to get a better digital quality from those sections. The reviewers who say otherwise are just not understanding the procedures needed to take to transfer film to DVD code (in layman's terms).The image is MUCH better than the previous video releases (U.S. OR Japanese).
SOUND QUALITY - While the claim to keeping the original Japanese audio overlayed with the English voice cast is true, I think they could have / should have kept the same Opening track in Japanese as well (known as "Cha-La-Head-Cha-La"). Instead they replaced it with a guitar track that doesn't really keep the timing well with the opening sequence. Otherwise, the sound has been cleaned up and sounds much smoother than previous releases did.
SPECIAL FEATURES - The marathon feature is great, being able to watch every episode on each disc right after one another, without the credits or opening sequences. Being able to watch it in Japanese with (badly translated) English Subtitles is nice as well. However, that's about it. I think Funimation could do a LOT better with the features, like adding in interviews with the Voicing cast, some studio outtakes, etc. There are only previews of other Funimation releases to look at, nothing else.
OVERALL - Great if you are only interested in the series, and looking for better video and sound. If you want cool special features, you'll have to get Japanese release DVD's (which also means a DVD player that supports that Region Code for DVDs), which is also a crap-shoot.
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