“Captain Ginyu” marked the departure of home distribution by Pioneer, and instead all further home video releases would come right from FUNimation, themselves. These discs also mark the beginning of the bilingual releases of Dragon Ball Z (both English and Japanese audio), with translations provided by Steven J. Simmons. The first disc, Assault, has two video tracks because the English and Japanese audio could not quite be lined up exactly due to FUNimation’s censoring of seasons one and two off-setting so many episodes. From volume 19 to the end of the series, however, all discs are perfectly synched and can have their audio switched at will.
Both “Captain Ginyu” discs have an incorrect animation for the opening theme, “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA“. The animation used is that from the first Dragon Ball Z movie (released as “Dead Zone“; the correct animation at this point should include a scene with Nappa and Vegeta walking through fire. This one includes credits to the movie one insert song, “Tenka’ichi Gohan“).
The title cards and subtitles always default to the English versions, even when “Japanese” is selected via the menus. The correct versions do exist, and instead need to be selected manually with the remote’s “Angle” and “Subtitles” buttons.
Minor swearing in the Japanese script is censored to words like “darn,” and character names are in their English-dub forms (for example, “Krillin” and “Frieza”). This censoring is abandoned after these two discs; all other dialogue is translated accurately.
Despite now lining up perfectly with the beginning and ending of corresponding episodes per the original Japanese broadcast, FUNimation stuck with an episode numbering system based on the edits made in their original version of seasons one and two. Due to this, the original run of their dub would end up having 276 episodes, as opposed to the original’s 291.
The demand for a proper release of Dragon Ball Z on DVD may have been more than anticipated by FUNimation in 2000, as many retailers (such as RightStuf) were unable to fill orders upon release and had to place a significant amount on back-order.
FP-03000
TV Series Volume #18 – “Captain Ginyu: Assault”
- 1 October 2000
- Released
- English / Japanese
- Dialogue
- 4:3 Standard / Uncut
- Format
FP-030017
TV Series Volume #19 – “Captain Ginyu: Double Cross”
- 1 October 2000
- Released
- English / Japanese
- Dialogue
- 4:3 Standard / Uncut
- Format