Dragon Ball Z Vol-7: Back From the Dead (1989)
Released by: Funimation
Animation Production: Toei
Running Time: 75 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

It’s no secret we hold Dragonball Z in very high esteem around these parts, this is a terrific series no matter how you cut it. While it was allowed to over-saturate the anime TV market for a couple of years, the show is one of those classics that stands the test of time and repeated viewings, especially in its original, unedited, Japanese form. That’s not to put down the English dubbing efforts of Funimation, which for the latter part of the series were darn good, but rather to highlight the unbelievable job the original cast did in bringing these characters into our world.

So now let’s step into volume 7 of Funimation’s re-release of the first story-arch in the series, which finally sees the light of day state-side in unedited form!

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 7th volume in Funimation’s release of Dragon Ball Z features uncut versions of episodes 19 through 21 in the series, which include:

Episode 19: Defying Gravity
Goku has finally arrived at Kaio-Sama’s planet at the end of Snake Way. Will Kao agree to train our hero so that he may stand up to the invading Saiyans? The future of planet Earth depends on it.

Episode 20: Goku’s Ancestors
Goku’s training under Kaio-Sama is proving fruitful, but there is still much work to be done! While taking a break from training Kaio fills Goku in on the history of his people, the Saiyans and how they evolved into a powerful race of warriors for hire.

Episode 21: Counting Down
This is it! Today the Saiyans arrive on Earth and their powers are beyond anything our heroes could have imagined! Goku’s training is over and he has been wished back to life, but it will take time for him to get back to Earth via Snake Way! Can he make it back on time? The fight for humanity begins now!

Of the recent Dragonball-Z releases we have reviewed here, this one if probably the most fun yet, thanks to it being made up of some particularly crucial episodes that setup the big fight that starts with the next set of episodes. The main highlights here are, Goku’s training, the historic overview of the Saiyan race and the continued training everyone on Earth is undergoing to help them take on the Saiyans.

Of these Goku’s training is by far the most interesting. Set up in a way reminiscent of old Martial Arts films, Kaio-Sama has our hero undertake a series of strange tasks to help mold his body and mind into the shape they’ll need to be in to master his ultimate techniques. These exercises include Goku chasing down Kaio’s monkey, Bubbles as well as his friend Gregory, a cricket that can fly at very fast speeds. Normally these would be easy challenges for Goku, but due to the increased gravity of Kaio’s planet (10 times that of Earth) this proves to be much more than Goku bargained for. In fact it takes him weeks to completed just these two easy tasks.

It’s in the middle of all this training that Kaio-Sama sits down with Goku and fills him in on exactly who the Saiyan people are. This proves to be an interesting look back at the origins of Goku’s people and how they evolved from a fairly primitive people to one of the universe’s most powerful warrior races. With this information in mind Goku is re-invigorated to continue his training and prevent the Saiyans from bringing about the same destruction the brought to countless other worlds.

Parallel to all this is the continued training of everyone else on Earth, with a specific focus on Gohan and Piccolo, whose work is now finally starting to pay off. There is a lot less character/plot development on this end, but that’s in part due to the sudden arrival of the Saiyans to Earth, which catch everyone by surprise. Now the stage is set for our fighters to test their skills and learn whether all their work up to this point was worth the effort they put into it.

There’s really not that much character development that takes place in these episodes, but the writers did a good job setting up the character of Kaio-Sama to become an integral part of Goku’s world in future storylines. The setup for the upcoming battle is also excellent, skipping forward in time and sparing us many months of our hero’s training, instead opting to drop us in on the final day when he checks off every technique he’s learned from Kaio during this time. I’m sure they could have gotten an entire season off of that timeframe so I’m just glad they skipped over it!

With the large focus on Goku here there isn’t much time spent on everyone else for most of these episodes, but by the end of “Counting Down” everyone starts popping back in as the Saiyans arrive and the Dragonballs are combined to summon the dragon. This unfortunately is where the three episode per DVD format kills you. As the two invaders get out of their space pods, it all comes to such a sudden end it hurts. Hopefully Funimation will consider throwing in more episodes per disc in the future, but being marketing guy in the real world myself, I can see why they opted with this format.

On the technical side, these episodes of Dragon Ball Z come 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