Dragon Ball Z Double Feature: The History of Trunks / Bardock

I can remember when "THE HISTORY OF TRUNKS" was shown on TV in Japan back in 1993 the buzz on the anime BBS at the time was just message after message of excitement and shock by "DRAGON BALL Z" fans. That excitement was followed by the large attended screenings at anime fan clubs for "THE HISTORY OF TRUNKS", the second special of "DRAGON BALL Z". Seeing the shocked faces of everyone who watched it will always be a lasting memory and this special would become a favorite of mine.

Now nearly two decades later, the first two specials have been released together on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment.

VIDEO:

If there is one thing that is important to remind everyone is that these two animated specials are twenty years old. It's a general known fact that a lot of older anime films, specials and even TV series have not been preserved well. There is only so much that can be done with the original master source, so let's start with the good and the bad. The good is that this is probably the best we are ever going to see "Dragon Ball Z". It's on Blu-ray, hi-def and the picture quality was great for that time and the colors are nice and sharp with it's 1080p transfer. The video was remastered in High Definition and digitally restored and you get a nice wide screen 16×9 transfer. Colors look good for two anime films that are twenty years old.

With that being said, the good news is that the specials fared quite well in its translation to Blu-ray. Because these two were shown on television, you don't get as much scratches or dust. In fact, I saw very little of any scratches or dust which was great considering how old these two specials were. Also, the colors were quite vibrant and was very pleased with the video transfer.

AUDIO:

Like the treatment they have given to their TV season box sets of "DRAGON BALL Z", this Blu-ray disc features Dolby TrueHD, English 5.1 with Japanese or U.S. Music and the original 2.0 Japanese track. I love having been given the choice and although I grew up watching "DRAGON BALL Z" with its original Japanese language, I have to say that the English dubbing for the US "DRAGON BALL Z" is terrific and perfectly cast.

The Dolby TrueHD English 5.1 track is where you are going to hear the difference because of the utilization of the rear channels during the battle scenes. So, it's great to have FUNimation really work the 5.1 track for the Blu-ray release.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Surprisingly there are no special features included on the Blu-ray but there are a good number trailers for a lot of the recent FUNimation DVD and Blu-ray releases.

I may sound a bit biased towards these two specials because I was there to see the excitement by anime fans not long after the special was shown in Japan and to see the anime club viewings in the US so packed with people watching it in Japanese (without understanding what is going on) and to see anime BBS message boards with long threads from "DRAGON BALL Z" fans just discussing their shock after watching the special. It was one of those rare times I can remember so many fans coming together to watch a film that was not subtitled in English (the other was the first "Street Fighter" animated film) and no one really knew what was going on but because the special featured so much action, it was just worth watching.

I've purchased many incarnations of "THE HISTORY OF TRUNKS" and to watch it on Blu-ray and to see how vibrant the colors were and how good it looked for an anime 16-years old, was quite nice.

The same can be said in regards to "BARDOCK, THE FATHER OF GOKU". A special that I watched nearly two decades ago and again, to really enjoy because rarely do the "Dragon Ball Z" storyline go outside of main core of characters and focus on another group.

Not much was known about Bardock but it was great to watch this special again. And again, for something that came out so old, and in this case 19 years ago to look so vibrant in colors and looking so great in Blu-ray is a major plus.

FUNimation Entertainment did another fantastic job on this Blu-ray and it may have a bit of the dust and scratches but it was very minimal. But as a longtime "DRAGON BALL Z" fan, "THE HISTORY OF TRUNKS" is one of those must-own releases. For DBZ fans, these two specials would be a fantastic addition to your anime collection and for a Blu-ray, the price for both one Blu-ray disc is great.

Overall, another action-packed release that is definitely recommended!

I highly recommend buying this. I enjoyed this movie the two movies plots are very well written. If you are a fan of DBZ you will love this.

Buy Dragon Ball Z Double Feature: The History of Trunks / Bardock Now

I'm not commenting on the quality of the 2 movies that come in this set that are totally awesome, but instead i'm going to talk about the presentation. It comes in a beautifully designed steelbox, that you will fall in love immediately, with two dvds of the 2 films and in the background comes a DBZ extraordinary art design.

Read Best Reviews of Dragon Ball Z Double Feature: The History of Trunks / Bardock Here

Any die hard DBZ fan will buy this movie; both features have a great back story and is nice to add to your collection... however:

This review is pretty much copy/paste on my review of: Dragon Ball Z Return of the Cooler / Cooler's Revenge (Double Feature) [Blu-ray]

"Unless you're upgrading it from VHS then don't worry about buying a blu-ray version if you already have the DVD.

Having watched the original DragonballZ on DVDs and despite their best attempts at restoring the original films, the blu-ray version doesn't seem to offer any real advantage to the DVD versions.

You will still notice the film grain throughout the film.

Another issue is given that the original version was made for 4:3 the up scaling to 16:9 didn't really do anything for the film and feels like a cropped/stretched version of the original."

Something I'll add to this review that I didn't mention in the other is as with the picture quality the audio does sound better, but like the picture quality it really isn't that noticeable.

Want Dragon Ball Z Double Feature: The History of Trunks / Bardock Discount?

History of Trunks is a great movie all around, a good tragedy ending in hope (or HOPE!! if you know what I mean). Bardock however seems to have been a subpar dub. I watched both and the details that were omitted or changed in his lines are quite unnecessary. This includes details about him talking about his son (changed to something unrelated like 'Oh I better not waste time'). That's coming from a long time fan of the dub, they just botched this one up. But the original is still there, so it gets credit where due. Oh again for the faint of heart: cropping unnoticeable.

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