Dragonballz: It Does Tend to Drag-on a Bit! (Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 (DVD))

Member Name: garrymac

Product:	Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 (DVD)
Date:	12/07/02 (1287 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great action scenes, Rewarding to long term viewers

Disadvantages: Sometimes a long break between the fight scenes, Some cheesy dialogue

Ok so you're interested in a little show called DragonballZ huh? Well let me tell you, I ADORE this show for a variety of reasons which I will go into later on but first of all let me just warn you that if you are looking for a show you can watch every once in a while and still know whats going on then I suggest you look elsewhere. This is NOT Sunset Beach! This is DragonballZ and you're either in it for the long haul or you're not in it at all. UNDERSTAND? Good.

DragonballZ is a animated series based on a popular comic, both of which originated in Japan. This type of Japanese animation goes mainly by the name of Anime although as it grows increasingly popular it is adopting several other names such as 'Japanimation'.

The show focuses on a select group of fighters from Earth and a mix of other planets, called the Z fighters, who fight to save the world from evil supervilians who would easily destroy the earth if they were not there to prevent it.

The storylines in the series take place in long terms or 'sagas' as they are officially known. In each saga a new villian or group of bad guys is introduced although to compensate for this the Z fighters usually find a new ally or are able to increase their abilities which helps them to conquer over evil in the end.

The length of the sagas in DragonballZ can range from short (usually about 9 or ten half hour episodes) to extrememly long (sometimes up to around 40 episodes or more) and a lot of the sagas usually lead directly into one another. As I mentioned earlier you have to stick with the show all the way throughout the different sagas to understand whats actually going on and it's probably best to have watched it from the very start.

The show airs on Cartoon Network and they usually show the complete sagas before leaving you without a Z fix until the next saga arrives.

Although this cartoon is really aimed at kids I tend to find the ac
tion as maybe a little bit to violent for anyone under the age of 10 as some of the scenes can have death tolls that would make Robocop look like the Teletubbies.

There is normally a basic formula to a DBZ saga and it is as follows:

Z Fighters are warned somehow of an impending evil which will arrive either very soon or in a few years.

Z fighters train to increase their strength and skills in order to defeat or prevent the new evil.

Evil arrives and Z fighters start what is usually a long winded battle and despite most of them being killed, one of the group usually finds some way to increase their power to defeat the enemy.

Z fighters undo all of the previous damage using the Dragonballs.

Whats that? Oh, 'What are the dragonballs?' I hear you ask. Well the dragonballs are basically 7 magical orbs which when brought together summon an all powerful dragon who can grant the person who summons him 2 wishes. The only terms the dragon has is that the summoner can only make the same wish once in a lifetime and that it has to be at least a year before he can be summoned again and this is where the show gets it's title from.

I highly recommend that you check DagonballZ out as it provides great entertainment for young and old alike. The fight scenes between the characters are simply amazing to watch and it really could be thought of as just like wrestling except the characters all have superpowers and it's more realistic (NATCH!).

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