Dragon Ball Z: Level 1.1 hits stores this Tuesday, November 8th. Since this is the first time the original Dragon Ball Z is launching on Blu-ray, Funimation painstakingly restored the series frame by frame (and the results are stunning). Check out my review of Level 1.1 here.
Episodes: Level 1.1 contains episodes 1 – 17 of the original edit of the series (please note that this includes the original edit only, not the Kai version that has already been released on Blu-ray). Given all the audio options you can watch through the episodes at least three different ways. This release does not include the Next Episode previews, but honestly I prefer my anime without these previews so this choice was fine with me.
Audio: You can opt to watch in English or Japanese. If you watched the series on Cartoon Network, then I highly suggest going back and watching it in English again (Let’s face it, Dragon Ball Z’s awesome voice actors are the ones that took dubbing in North America to the next level!). Your options are:
DOLBY TRUE HD: English Dialogue with Japanese Music 5.1
DOLBY TRUE HD: U.S. English Broadcast Version 2.0
Original Japanese Mono: (With or without English subtitles.)
If you want, you can change the audio and subtitles at any time during the episode and check out the differences between the Japanese and English versions. It’s really neat for fans like me who enjoy both the Japanese and English versions of the series! My recommendation: put the English Dialogue with Japanese Music 5.1 on your surround sound system and blast it so your neighbors can hear every epic “Kamehameha!” as if you were with our heroes on the battlefield (they’ll love you for it, I promise.).
Picture: Clear, crisp, and beautifully restored. You can see the grain detail in the color and that’s exactly how it’s supposed to look (if you don’t believe me, try pulling out any anime VHS you’ve got sitting in your closet, this remastered version is so much sharper!). The transfer of 16mm film to 1080p HD has not only preserved the original, director-approved color and classic 4:3 aspect ratio – it has also created a picture that looks much better than when we first saw the series on television in the 1990’s (for anyone who’s curious, Dragon Ball Z first aired in Japan on April 26th, 1989).
For me, it was great to watch this in the classic 4:3 aspect ratio – and it looks fine on today’s HD Televisions (I still have my tube TV for classic console gaming, so I actually tested this theory by playing the disks on both units with my PS3). Your HD TV will automatically letterbox to the proper size and it looks great.
The Bonus/Disk Features include:
The Marathon Feature: Watch all the episodes on each disk seamlessly with just one click! This connects all the episodes together so you can power through each of the two disks. Personally, I recommend this feature be viewed with a group of friends and your favorite beverages and snacks. I had a blast watching disk one in Marathon Mode – I hadn’t sat down and watched the original series from the beginning since it was on Cartoon Network, so this was a pretty epic occasion for me! You still might want to click through each intro/ outro sequence – but this is easily done on a PS3 (or your Blu-Ray player of choice). During Marathon Playback, you can summon up a small menu bar in the left corner of the screen and switch between episodes, audio, and subtitles at any time without having to return to the main menu.
Textless Openings and Closings – a great way to enjoy the art and editing in the intro and outro.
The Remastering Featurette is a neat way to see the painstaking process that these episodes had to undergo in order to be restored to HD quality. The side-by-side comparison of un-restored and re-mastered footage is pretty amazing! Check out this short clip from the Featurette:
Given the to-be-continued style that the Featurette ends in on the blu-ray, it looks like we’ll get a peek at more behind the scenes goodies with each upcoming Level.
Character Profile Card: Each release comes with a collectible character profile card. Level 1.1 comes packaged with Vegeta, and it’s printed with Chris Sabat’s signature and profile as well. It’s a very cool collector’s bonus!
All in all, this set is going to be a must-have for anime collectors out there who will enjoy seeing the series beautifully remastered to HD. I definitely recommend it to fans of the series and to those who need to watch it for the first time – set the disk to Marathon Mode and enjoy!
For more Dragon Ball Z goodness, check out Big Shiny Robot’s recent NYCC 2011 Interview with Chris Sabat, Justin Cook and Sean Schemmel about the Blu-ray, Kai, and more! You can also check out the trailer for the upcoming 1.1 Blu-Ray release on Funimation’s website.