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Everything you remember, and some things you don’t

Dragon Ball Z takes me make to the halcyon days of my youth, running home from class to catch the latest adventures of Goku and the Z fighters.  I would watch each episode with bated breath, committing each moment to memory so that I could discus it the next day with friends in great detail.  While I didn’t recognize it at the time, DBZ marked my first foray into the work of anime, a pastime that would shape my future for years to come.  So I quite literally jumped at the chance to watch and review Dragon Ball Z Season Five and reclaim a lost bit of my childhood.  Now, many of you are no doubt thinking to yourselves, “Russ, it’s DBZ.  Perhaps you don’t remember the long and drawn out fight scenes, the bathroom inspired power up stances, or the staring contest that precluded every martial showdown.“ Pish posh I say.  If it was good ten years ago, it’ll be good now!  Right?

Turns out I need to get the prescription on my rose-colored glasses checked. 

DBZ is the genesis of fighting anime, it imposable to watch shows like Naruto, Bleach or One Piece without seeing the path that DBZ blazed of so many years ago.  That said, it is apparent to me now that we have come a long way.  The pacing in Dragon Ball Z really is atrocious, and the show does feature repeated uses of animation frames, a practice used back in the day to keep production cost down.  Despite the fact that Funimation has gone to the trouble of digitally remastering each episode, the age of the show still shows.  In the end, is it really fair to hold the age of this release against it?  It would be like complaining that the Model T didn’t have power windows and AC.  If viewed against contemporary compatriots, DMZ Season Five leaves much to be desired.  But if viewed as a time piece, as a means to see where we’ve been and reminisce: therein lies the enjoyment. 

Dragon Ball Z Season Five is everything you remember, and some things you don’t.  Season five tells the first half of the Cell Saga, with the androids created by Dr. Gero trying to track down and kill Goku, while at the same time the androids are being hunted by another one of the good Doctor’s creations, Cell, who needs the power of Android’s 17 and 18 to achieve his perfect form.  Fearing that even the combined powers of the Saiyans won’t be enough to defeat Cell, Goku, along with Gohan, Trunks, and Vegeta, sequester themselves in the hyperbolic time chamber in order to gain the benefits of a whole year of training in the span of a day.  Will this training be enough to stop Cell’s rampage?  You can assume so, but where is the fun in that?

Remember back in the day when people would tell you that DBZ was too slow, or that watching a character scream at the camera for thirty seconds in order to power up seemed silly.  Well that was true then and is still true now.  There still something about a good old fashioned beat down, and DBZ still brings that to the table if you’re willing to give it a chance.  Bring your nostalgia and pull out your old T-shirts and remember the days long past, even if they aren’t as cool as we remember. 

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