The groundbreaking shonen anime series Dragon Ball Z is centered around the adventures of Son Goku and his half-Saiyan son Gohan, as well as their various friends and family, as they fight the aliens who continuously threaten the fragile peace on planet Earth – whether it be warriors from the planet Vegeta or maniacal overlords bent on gaining immortality.  In the second Dragon Box released by Funimation, containing episodes 43 through 84 as well as the original Japanese score and both Japanese and English language tracks, the focus of attention story-wise is on the planet Namek – also known as the birthplace of Piccolo and Kami – where everyone is trying to find the second set of Dragon Balls.  Son Goku and the others want to bring back their friends killed by the Saiyans, the villainous Lord Frieza wants immortality and Vegeta wants whatever will make him stronger than Frieza.  It's a race to the finish and Frieza is putting everything he's got into summoning the Dragon and making his own wish for eternal life – but not if Goku has anything to say about it!

Highlights:

The box set starts off with Bulma, Gohan and Krillin finally arriving at Planet Namek – only to find both Vegeta and Frieza are already there!  With their spaceship totaled, the three of them are stranded on Namek until Goku arrives in his rebuilt spaceship from his childhood planet, which will take quite a bit of time.  Gohan and Krillin witness first-hand the cruelty of Frieza and his minions as they torture the Namekian people for their Dragon Balls – but the Namekians aren't as docile as suspected, and put up one heck of a fight.  Still, the powers of the Nameks are not enough, and many of them are killed by Frieza's men so they can retrieve the Dragon Balls.  Vegeta, also on the trail for the mystic items, launches an all-out war against those working for Frieza, taking on his cronies from pink-skinned Dodoria to the seemingly beautiful but vicious Zarbon.  On King Kai's planet, the warriors that Vegeta and Nappa killed – Chaozu, Yamcha, Tien, and Piccolo – begin their training so they can become as strong as Goku, despite Kai's warnings that Frieza should not be aggravated lest they bring his unending wrath.

Meanwhile, with the help of Dende, a Namekian youth Gohan saved from Dodoria's wrath, the Z Team is able to meet the Eldest Namek and find the last Dragon Ball to be found; he not only hands the ball over to our heroes but taps into some of the potential power hidden within them.  Frieza, dissatisfied with his cronies' work, summons the Ginyu Force to Namek to help him in his cause as well as take down Vegeta, whom after his fight with Zarbon is able to manipulate himself back into Frieza's ship to be healed up before blasting his way out of the ship in order to take down Zarbon once and for all – but not before taking five of the Dragon Balls with him.  Vegeta ends up battling Gohan and Krillin for the other two Dragon Balls, but the Ginyu Force arrive and interrupt their fight – and it soon becomes a three against five battle royale.  Frieza gets his hands on the seven Dragon Balls but finds out the hard way that he doesn't have the password to summon the Dragon.  The Ginyu Force is soon taken down by a new arrival, much to the relief of Gohan and friends – Earth's greatest defender, Goku, has finally landed on Namek and is more powerful than ever.  Eventually, the great Namekian dragon Porunga is summoned, wishes are made and the battle for the planet as well as the universe begins.  It's everyone versus the awful might of Frieza, and if Frieza wins, it will only spell out the end of the world as well as our beloved heroes' lives.

Overall:

Out of all the story arcs in Dragonball Z's long and colorful history, it can be argued that the Namek Saga and Frieza Saga are at the top of the list.  It is the largest in scope – ranging from Earth into the far expanses of space – and contains the most story lines, including many held over from the previous Saiyan Saga.  The destruction of Planet Vegeta, Piccolo's origins as well as the origins of the great dragons and the Dragon Balls and the true identity of Frieza, who before these episodes had only been vaguely referenced by the more unsavory characters of the cast. This is also the part of the series with some of the more memorable fights, from Vegeta's battle with Zarbon to the fight against the Ginyu Force, not to mention the final battle against Frieza in all of his many forms.  Sadly, the most epic fight of this Saga – Goku versus Freiza – is not included in this box set.

Now that Dragonball Z has overcome its growing pains from separating itself storywise from the first series, it gets back to its shonen roots with more power-ups and more hidden techniques than ever before, to the thrill of its viewers.  But it never loses its charm, and the action is tempered by Toriyama's quirky and sometimes downright naughty sense of humor.  King Kai's first test for his potential students is a good example of this (and Tien is the angriest stand-up kung fu comedian I have ever seen, I swear), as well as many of the scenes during Goku's recovery in hospital, the Saiyan desperate to leave and go to Namek with his friends. The art is simple but effective, further enhanced by Funimation's enhancing treatment to the original cels as well as the audio.  Action scenes go on for long stretches of time but never get boring as the characters pull out all the stops with a seemingly endless bag of tricks, from Krillin's clever use of Tien's signature move to Goku using a Kamehameha to escape from an exploding star in the middle of outer space.  Yes, Dragonball Z can be terribly unrealistic at times, and they sure take a long time to finish their fights, but it rides high on fun and adrenaline and cannot be beat when it comes to wasting an afternoon or two watching some old-school shonen anime, the kind that puts current Weekly Shonen Jump kings like Naruto and Bleach to shame.  And with forty-two episodes in one box set at a fair price, Toriyama fans can't go wrong picking it up.

ComicsOnline gives Dragon Ball Z Box Set Two 4 out of 5 power levels on a scouter

This set is available for purchase at Amazon!