Dragon Ball Z Vol-6: Doomed Heroes (1989)
Released by: Funimation
Animation Production: Toei
Running Time: 75 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Catching up with our review pile here I thought I take a stab at the latest Dragonball Z DVD release by Funimation, which follows up on the heels of my last review for the series. In that DVD Goku was working his way up through Snake Way to meet Kaio-Sama and meeting many denizens of the netherworld along the way. As he did this his friends and his son were working hard themselves, training for the battle that lies ahead against the Saiyans.

With the episodes in this newest release the writers of the show decided to spend some more time focusing on Gohan and the other fighters, with Goku only coming into center stage at the end of episode eighteen. So what happens in these stories? Let’s find out.

Story

"Earth's top warriors enter into Hami's Pendulum Room where the past, present and future exist simultaneously. After their eventful trip back in time, the fighters realize a terrifying reality as the two Saiyans speed ever closer to Earth. Meanwhile, Gohan continues his own martal arts training under the watchful eye of Piccolo, but a strange transformation takes him over, causing the young Saiyan to rampage out of control." -- DVD Box

Review

This 6th volume in Funimation’s release of Dragon Ball Z features uncut versions of episodes 16 through 18 in the series, which include:

Episode 16: Plight of the Children
After washing ashore Gohan runs into a small group of orphan children, who lost their parents to a tsunami some years ago. This small band welcomes our hero in and show him their way of life which is a routine made up of two main components, stealing food from street vendors in a nearby town and fighting off a child services agency that wants to bring them in to an orphanage. Will Gohan stick around long enough to help these kids out?

Episode 17: Pendulum Room Peril
Kuririn and the other fighters training for the upcoming battle are doing everything they know how to do to get ready, but they would like even more special training. This leads them inside the Pendulum Room in Kami’s tower, where the past, present and future exist simultaneously. Here they will run into two Saiyans who may give them the challenge of a lifetime.

Episode 18: The End of Snake Way
Gohan and Piccolo are still hard at work on their training, but when Goku’s old space orb begins projecting an image of the moon onto the sky the Namekian will find himself helpless to fight Gohan’s giant form. Meanwhile Goku finally reaches the end of Snake Way, will Kaio-Sama accept Goku as his martial arts student?

The last Dragonball Z DVD we checked out last week was for the most part a collection of stand alone stories connected by two main plot points, Goku’s pursuit of Kaio-Sama and the Earth Warrior’s training with a special emphasis on Gohan and Piccolo’s training. Here we start off on a similar note, with episodes sixteen and seventeen being mostly filler/self contained stories that continue to build on some of the major story points described above, but that for the most part choose to divert our attention with smaller side stories. With episode eighteen things start falling back into place as Gohan and Piccolo pick up their training and Goku finally reaches Kaio-Sama.

Episode sixteen is the largest departure from the main story and tone of the series thus far, putting Gohan in an almost “Lord of the Flies”-like situation as he joins a small band of orphans who are at odds with the local child services agency and local merchants from whom they steal their food supplies from. The episode is not without merit, but it really felt like a complete departure from everything we’ve experienced up to this point. Thankfully by the end of the story as Gohan spots his house he realizes that he has to re-focus on his mission and once more leaves his home, side by side with Piccolo, who is itching to see how Gohan has improved over the past 6 months.

Episode seventeen shifts things up a bit by bringing Kuririn and the rest of the gang to the center stage. Over the past months they’ve been training hard, but have finally reached a point weere additional help is needed to get them to the next level. This is offered to the group in the form of the Pendulum room, a place where all that was, is and will be converge. Inside it our fighters confront two Saiyans, whose powers dwarf even the best combined efforts our heroes have to offer. Right from the start of the story you can tell that this is going to be a self-contained plot that is only designed to get our character motivated, but that in mind, it’s still entertaining and seeing the characters engage in battle again definitely spices things up. The interaction between our heroes also builds on their relationships and comradely, which they need to strengthen if they are to beat the Saiyans as only they’re combined powers with Goku, Piccolo and Gohan may be strong enough to stop they’re incoming enemies.

Finally, with episode eighteen the main story at long last gets back on track with Goku, Gohan and Piccolo. First up Gohan and Piccolo are hard at work with their training, with Gohan doing better than expected, albeit he still needs more discipline to his approach. The big surprise here is that Goku’s capsule, the one that brought him from space, activates itself and projects a moon onto the night sky, which causes Gohan to grow to his giant ape form (which is typical of all Saiyans), a state that provides him with near unstoppable power. This leads to an all out battle between Piccolo and Gohan that will have Piccolo in awe at the power contained within Gohan’s small frame.

The second half of the episode takes us back to Goku who has finally reached the end of Snake Way and Kaio-Sama’s home, a small planet floating high above the end of Snake Way. Upon arrival Goku is surprised by the unusually strong gravitational pull this place has, but in his typical fashion he just goes with the program. Now, with his arrival the question is whether Kami-Sama will provide him with the training our hero needs in order to save his planet. Of all the episodes in this DVD this one is by far the best one with Goku’s encounter with Kaio-Sama, being the highlight of it and a tremendous point to setup the stage for what is to come next.

This DVD was overall pretty good, episode sixteen aside, but more than anything it primes you for what’s next, which is the beginning of Goku’s training under Kaio-Sama and the strengthening of Gohan under Piccolo’s watchful eye. Personally I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting to see the next set of three episodes. Maybe by then we’ll get more than 3 episodes per disc, which just go by too fast.

On the technical side, these episodes of Dragon Ball Z comes to us from the early 90’s, so they’re a little dated in terms of animation style and quality, but the show is still quite beautiful to look at, not to mention that nothing beats Toei’s classic hand drawn animation! As far as I’m concerned this is the pinnacle of the studio’s animation efforts (well this along with all the super robot shows from the 70’s and early 80’s). The frame rate is smooth and the color palette is filled with many bright pastels, so visually, it’s very pleasant to the eye. Visual effects are for all intents and purposes limited to energy attacks.

In the audio department this show is just amazing with music that will stick in your head all day and that will make you cheer during the exciting battles that the series is known for. I can’t get enough of the original Japanese background music and theme songs, what else could I say! In the voice acting department I can’t imagine a better cast for this series, especially on the Japanese dubbed soundtrack side. Very, very good in this front!

On the DVD front this is another nice release from the folks at Funimation that features a terrific video and audio transfer of the show. In the audio front the original Japanese soundtrack is included alongside two English dubbed tracks (one of which is encoded in 5.1 surround sound). Extras are limited to a trivia section, previews for other Funimation releases and a small fold out brochure inside the DVD box with the company’s release schedule for the next couple of months and info on several of their properties.

Final Thoughts

Another fun Dragonball Z outing. Recommended for all anime fans an Dragonball Z fans. It’s nice to finally see these episodes unedited, the way they were meant to be seen.

Jeffrey Couto