The Dragon Ball series, at least in terms of how things played off in America, is one of those franchises that has always been somewhat prominent in our culture, whether it be from the actual episodes themselves being aired, to parodies and online memes of the series being created. And while such may not be a bad thing, it does prevent most American fans, or even just average joes that have heard of the series, to not be attached to it in a nostalgic value. On one occasion, I actually remember a cIassmate of mine being surprised that the series ended once I brought it up to him last year. I guess in the public eye, Dragon Ball has just always been around and as such could never really be considered as something old-school at all.

Enter the Dragon Box.

In a nutshell, American distributors of the Dragon Ball series, Funimation, has made multiple releases of the series, one of the latest being in the form of orange brick-styIe "Season Sets."However, upon finding that the release had the episodes cropped from the original fullscreen to a widescreen format, many people (myself included) put a boycott of sorts, refusing to purchase any of these latest releases. Regardless of such, though, many casual fans were willing to pick up the sets, not really caring for how they watch the episodes as long as they were well... the episodes in one form or another. But with the older releases becoming harder to pick up and with such a crappy alternative, I felt like it would be at least 10 more years until a respectable release came around.

Nevermind.

Early this year, Funimation announces that they were able to get their hands on the Dragon Box masters of the series. What's a Dragon Box, you ask? Imagine those fancy remastered 50 year anniversary special collector's edition releases that Disney does with their older movies... but for DBZ. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. Almost immediately after the announcement (and checking around to make sure Funimation didn't screw around with anything), I pre-ordered the darn thing. Finally, a Dragon Ball release I can be proud of when I look at it up on my bookshelf. Now all that's left is to wait... for three months.

Well as of approximately three hours ago, that wait is finally over.

Just the thought of having something that was originally meant for a limited release in Japan just astonishes me.

One thing I wanna get out of the way when dissecting this beast of a release is that I can totally understand why people who gave in and bought each and every one of the previous releases is ticked about this release even existing in the first place. But honestly, this is Funimation we're talking about—the same people that did three releases of Yu Yu Hakusho even though they really could have stopped at two. It's always been about a waiting game when it comes to their releases. Is it my fault you pulled out too soon?

Another I should bring up is who the release is really aimed at: the "hardcore fans." Funi even goes as far as using the term in their unveiling of the release as well as on the packaging itself. But what do they really mean by this? Well, it's simple enough when you go through the makeup of this particular release. The attached guide book refers to characters and attack names using the Japanese versions of the names. Voice actors mentioned are only from the Japanese cast. Heck, even the default setting is to the Japanese track with English subtitles. So yeah, sorry hardcore dubbies-with-dub-music-track fans, this ain't for you.

I've only had the set for a couple hours, but flipping through the basic stuff, this release was everything I expected it to be. It's like an early Christmas gift... or an early birthday gift, in my case. Geez, I was so pumped to give a thorough dissection of everything, too, but I'm just all excite-ified out. I would be sad about that, but c'mon... I've finally got my mitts on a Dragon Box.

Related Links:
DaizEX: Funimation Dragon Boxes Feature
DaizEX Forum Discussion: FUNimation Dragon Box Z #1 (In-Hands) Discussion
My Photobucket
FUNi's YouTube Teaser Video

(woot!)

In the now 4+ (still can't believe I've been able to keep this whole blogging thing on a somewhat regular basis) years I've been blogging on this here website (er, "websites") one thing has always been a constant: school. Whether it be having to catch up on summer reading, being glad about getting a free period with friends or just goofing off after classes, school has always just been one of those things that has been a constant in my blogs. That said, welcome to the third annual petewrigley first-day-of-school blog.

In a nutshell: I'm now carpooling with the sister, being dropped off to my college as she goes on her way to her graduate school (don't wanna brag, but :coughcough:Stanford:coughcough: ). So far, we've ended up with quite the irregular schedule since trying to synch up our schedule's isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. It's a work in progress, I guess.

As for actual school stuffs I was pleasantly surprised to find that I met nearly every person I wanted to meet to get off on a good first day of school. First off would be the chica who'd use me an' the old roomie's room last year as a temporary dumping ground for her stuff. Now joining her ranks as a commuter, we were actually able to make some solid conversation for once. I guess one can only go so far with awkward conversations these days.

...though on the topic of awkward conversation, I must say that when I feel like it, I can be an awkward conversation master. Case in point: reuniting with the rest of the building. I get a text from one of the guys telling me to stop by as I was already on the way to the building, hoping someone would be around so I could get access to the building (still waiting for the heads of whatever to do something or other on my card so I can get in the building like old times). And with exception to the sudden room shuffle, I was pleased to see that if anything, the place actually upgraded. For one, practically my entire posse from last year has all decided to room in said building, making for an easy hang-out place. For another, the new freshmen seem chill enough to not be all that big of a problem... if any.

...but I digress. Upon entering the self-designated "hang out" dorm room and seeing the entire gang back together was sure a sight for sore eyes. The band has finally reunited; the series is back from hiatus; whatever way you wanna think of it as still ends up as a definite positive. As we begin jumping from random topic to topic, barely even mentioning anything about the summer itself, it felt like nobody even left. It was just good times all around, really.

I'd say more, but like always, it seems like I've blogged myself out for the moment. Until next time, and in the case that you really need your fix of snarky petewrigley comments, feel free to further e-stalk me over on the twitter under the username "DaemonCorps" (I just gotta approve of you to make sure no wackos are stalking me like they may or may not be doing on this here site already). It's like a blogging site for the ADD... whose population has apparently dramatically increased since the days of old.