Yep another review thread! This was originally started on the old boards but I only progressed 3 episodes in and there wasn't much point in progressing them so here I am. Reviews will be every day (more or less) now that I'm no longer sleeping in a living room (my room was wrecked by a burst water pipe - something like that anyways)But enough with my problems and on to the dub's!

Episode 1: The Secret of the Dragon Balls

I have got to be honest - I hate pilots. I mean sometimes… they crash planes!

Ok so terrible jokes aside I rarely like the first episodes of TV shows. Sure they might have an interesting and compelling plot but they never seem to feel right, it’s almost as if the writers are taking baby steps before a few episodes down the line they’ve become confident enough to walk.

- Akira Toriyama - One day he'll learn how to walk.

Why do I dislike this episode? Not only because it has freaking Tiffany Vollmer in a starring role but because the plot is simplistic, too simplistic, and there isn’t a whole lot going on. Madness I hear someone cry (this is why I shouldn’t write reviews in an asylum), there’s a bloody dinosaur on the loose and we find out about magical spheres and there’s a talking fish and…

Basically this episode feels very by the book, there’s an organized plot, one thing happens after another with the occasional break and the groundwork is laid; we’re told things and there’s a generic “battle” at the end - it’s basically a tutorial for a game if you will. Not that I don’t like tutorials but we all just want to skip them don’t we?

Now I’m watching (or at-least attempting to) the dub. Let it be said I’ve laughed at the dub in the past but really I don’t find it all bad. The music is pretty good (Faulconer’s), I like the voices and admittedly I have laughed at so called comedy moments. However there are a few negatives already and here they are.

I seriously dislike Tiffany Vollmer’s Bulma - her voice is just annoying and I can’t stand her screaming. In normal circumstances I might have been able to see past this because this is of course episode 1 but considering FUNimation dubbed Z before this well I can’t exactly forgive and forget. That’s about the only real negative I could find, there are a few nitpicks but they’re not really worth going into.

Positives are Stephanie’s Goku who I think does a commendable job and it’s by far my favourite voice of hers though considering the only other significant character she portrays is Gohan is it any wonder why? Favourite voice so far would definitely have to be the narrator (Brice Armstrong) who takes the approach of a grandfather sharing a story with his children (well that’s how I view it at-least).

- In voicing stakes Goku sounds a hell of a lot better than his son. Well until Z Kai anyways.

Some minor things are Bulma offers to let Goku touch her fanny (does this mean something else in American? I should hope so because Goku’s what 12 - a bit too young if you ask me) and hooray for a Pilaf cameo because I love that guy and I find him to be criminally underused (jeez the guy only got a flashback in Z which must have spanned a few seconds at most).

- If Bulma goes to outrageous lengths to get just one ball imagine what she'll do for two!

I’m not going to be commenting on the story as much this time round but I definitely appreciated the humour and the Dragon Balls are really cool at this stage because they come across as so magical and they’re re not being used to resurrect everyone and their gran every five minutes. Originally I thought Goku was the son of Dr Gero and he received the tail because he experimented on him (this was before I knew he was an evil wrinkled freak who wanted world domination) - I still manage to laugh at that more than I do at some recent episodes of the Simpsons.

This for sure was a good episode and even though some may argue that TV shows get progressively worse as they progress I for one think that Dragon Ball will only go onto be a hell of a lot better.

Score: 7/10

Right something I’ve neglected to mention (only because I’ve just thought of it) is to do reviews in the style of characters. I got this idea (well to be precise stole) from the Mark watches and reads website where Mark sometimes does reviews in the styles of characters whilst expressing his opinions. Coolest thing ever right? Now I won’t be doing any reviews as if they were written by Hedwig but I will be doing them as if I was say Vegeta or Satan or Cell. They won’t be for every review but I will do them frequently. So here we go - episode 2 is written as if I were Goku. Just to clarify it probably won’t end up anything like Goku because I have no naïve tendencies and I’m not that well versed in the character, and also Goku can’t write but let’s just see. Spelling mistakes are intentional.

Episode 2: The Emperor’s Quest

Too-day I discovered a butt on a chest.

The reeson I have no fournolege of them is beecause not only am I a chiledd but also I was raised by an ellederee man who sounded a lot like Christopher Sabat who seemeningely had no friends, girls or otherwise.

What doo I make of them? They’re strange, perhaps even stranger than the people living inside the teevee and the which who produces houses and motorcycles from her pocket. In fact too-day has been strangerer than usual. I learnt about the seven magic Dragon Balls (I pitay the Dragon) which can grant wishes and also I had my first bath which was weerd.

- I'll just let this image speak for itself.

Something else is that this Bulma doesn’t have a tail like my grandfarter - no idea why. Maybe she’s an alien or something or maybe it’s because she has 2 weird things on her chest instead; either way it’s a shame because tails can come in pretty handay, they can help wash you and catch fish and also compensate for things that I won’t mention.

I couldn’t really find any floors with the day beecause it was veray funnay and admittedly my own naiveness made me laugh. I also made Bulma crack up by the looks of things as I found a hole in her the next morning that made my eyes explode. I also met a nice tertle who wants to go to the biach and I uhgreed to help beecause I am nice like that.

- Goku's going to be in a whole lot of trouble when Bulma discovers her underwear has been removed.

Apparently some blue guy is also searching for the balls but I’m not too bovvered because I eat Smurfs for breakfast. And wolves, yeah the part where I defeeted the wolves and the giant bird was cool.

Score: 8/10

Episode 3: The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi

Let’s pretend this episode is a badly conceived porn flick for a moment. The nimbus cloud would probably be an euphemism for something and Roshi would probably want more than a look at Bulma’s underwear. Thankfully (I joke) we don’t have to pretend much as Roshi is perhaps more perverted than the average fat slob of a director who sits behind the camera and tells girls to strip.

- Master Roshi: the greatest pervert who ever lived.

The great thing about Roshi though is he’s actually entertaining. Sorry fat director man but seeing you eat cream cakes and bark at strippers aint very fulfilling.

Roshi is perhaps one of my all time favourites in the Dragon Ball universe because of how funny he is - he’s one of the few perverts in the world whose hilarious. Mike McFarland does a sterling job in the role and his laugh is like the greatest thing since cupcakes. Not as enthusiastic about turtle sadly but it’s turtle - he gets what 10 minutes of screen time in the entire show.

Don’t have a bloody clue what the bear dude’s called so let’s just call him Bear Thief and unsurprisingly he get’s a generic voice but I wasn’t really expecting much from a sword wielding animal. Goku kicks his ****pretty quickly though and Bulma and he progress onto the beach which is where things really slow down.

I love the scenes on the beach but all that really happens is Goku gets a magic cloud, Bulma flashes and gets a Dragon Ball in return and then Roshi leaves. Ok so that’s more than what happens for literally half of the Namek arc in Z but it’s actually entertaining unlike seeing Vegeta massacre Nameks - oh who am I kidding that’s epic too.

- Seeing Bulma's good stuff is better than the deaths of countless green people - always remember that.

There isn’t a whole lot to talk about in terms of the dub that I haven’t done already apart from I really like the opening and ending themes in English. The rest well, it was ok, I thought it was pretty accurate and there were no random songs about cat food slapped in the middle so I guess this qualifies as a good episode. Trying not to talk about the plot too much but oh my gosh Pilaf threatening the alligator was priceless.

- The alligator's finest moment.

And to those sceptics who says the shade wearing alligator isn’t vital to the plot well…

You’re probably right.

Score: 9/10

Just a heads up - I'm not watching 3 series on the trot. Dragon Ball, One Piece and Naruto. Dragon Ball Reviews will be Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Naruto Reviews will be Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One Piece will be Saturday,Monday,Tuesday,Thursday and Friday. Hope that helps