Dragon Ball Z Double Feature – The History of Trunks / Bardock the Father of Goku — anime — guest dvd review
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Dragonball is perhaps one of the most popular anime series in the US, if not the most popular. Originally aired in 1989 in Japan, it was the TV adaptation of famed manga creator Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball. Toriyama created nearly 200 chapters for his manga that were finally collected into 42 volumes. The franchise has spurned an immense fan-base and consists of three separate anime series.
Drazon Ball Z is the second anime series broadcast in the franchise and was first aired in 1989. The series followed the last 30 volumes of the manga.
During the broadcast of the show in Japan Toei Animation created two TV specials as fillers in the Dragonball series. The two specials followed alternate story-lines in the DBZ universe and were titled “Bardock, The father of Goku” and “The History of Trunks” both are set in the past and the future respectively. The two DVD’s are essentially the uncut TV specials as aired in Japan. As usual the anime style and music are reminiscent of the DBZ series, and this set should be highly desirable to Dragonball fans.
The first DVD titled Bardock, the father of Goku, is an interesting watch for all DBZ fans. Its almost a prelude to the series. It tells the story of Bardock who is the father of Goku, and chronicles his end on Planet Vegeta. In this story line all the Saiyans work for Freeza, the super villain of the DBZ universe. The Saiyans job at that time was to be sent to other worlds and to destroy them. On a mission like this, Bardock encountered one of the beings on the planet curses him with the “gift” of the future. Because of this, Bardock then began to have visions of the future. As exciting as this sounds, these future visions are mostly clips of Goku from the actual timeline of Dragon Ball Z. What is more interesting is the fact that this DVD also tries to cover Prince Vegeta’s early years. To DBZ fans Vegeta is the ultimate villain in the DBZ universe and this feature gives us some insight into his formative days. However, in the end, this special is nothing special. There now having been more than a dozen DBZ movies being made this special struggles to be unique but ultimately seems like just another episode.
The second special, titled The History of Trunks, was first aired on February 1993 and released between episodes 174 and 175. This TV special deviates from the TV series running at that time, taking place in an alternate timeline. The story is set in the future and for some reason does not give any reason for the deviation from the original plot. The story takes place as if it is a regular episode in a series and opens with the death of Goku, who is seen suffering from a heart ailment that kills him, leaving behind Gohan. The story flash forwards 13 years to a time when earth is ravaged by two androids (#17 and #18) who inflict wanton destruction on earth. Of course, being The History of Trunks, the story also shows him as a teenage boy who cannot, as of yet, turn Saiyan. Goku and Trunks both fight the androids, and finally Trunks is left trying to beat the Androids alone. In case you are wondering if all this really is a history of Trunks, I would have to say no. The ending is inconclusive and akin to the end of any series episode — it ends abruptly, leaving the audience to wait until the next week’s episode to find the conclusion. However, in this case there is no next week.
The DVD’s
Despite their discontinuous time lines and somewhat superfluous stories this two disk collection is a must have for all DBZ fans, simply because this is one of the TV specials that The US never received.
The DVD’s themselves are attractively packaged and the case itself is made of metal. The case also has one of the newer printing technology where the graphics are printed directly onto the case, giving it a high quality look. The sound options too are pretty good. In a departure from many Japanese animes that are broadcast in the US, this DVD collection comes with Japanese Audio, English Audio and English Audio with Japanese music. Unlike many anime shows that I insist on watching in Japanese, this is one where I am too used to the English voice acting to enjoy the Japanese. However the English track with the Japanese music is a great go-between. The Japanese soundtrack is definitely better than the English language only tracks which have a techno, dance beat.
Technically this is one of the newer DVD that are adapted form an original HD source. So while it may not be HD quality it is very well adapted to be played on upscaling DVD players on Bigger screen TV’s without nasty pixelation. All in all the two are a good watch and a good buy.
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