But that doesn't mean it isn't pretty funny sometimes. Dragon Ball has never had a subtle sense of humor, and it definitely doesn't have one hear. Goku's interminable trip down the Serpentine Road sets up a bunch of goofy one-off episodes, while back on Earth we get flights of derangement like Gohan fighting dinosaurs, Piccolo blowing up the moon, and Yamcha playing baseball.
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Before the Saiyans land, meanwhile, the first 12 episodes of the series have some downright hilarious material. We don't root against these bad guys because they're going to take over the world or whatever, we root against them because they're jerks and they really badly need a good sock in the mush. Villains like Nappa and Vegeta aren't anything fancy, but they've got a sneering, arrogant charisma that makes it so much more fun to watch Goku work them over. This is Dragon Ball on something like a reasonable scale. We hadn't yet been asked to take a man-shaped wad of bubble gum seriously as a world-destroying threat. Goku hadn't yet been elevated to literally godlike power levels. At this point, Dragon Ball hadn't fallen victim to a terrible case of bad-guy inflation, and for that matter good-guy inflation. The 40 early episodes that make up this box set have a lot going for them, too, compared to the later stretches of the series. Sure, it's a goofy, macho, stupid, garishly-colored beat-'em-up cartoon, but a lot of folks would wonder why someone might say that like it's a bad thing. It hasn't become a massive international hit for no reason. The truth of the matter is, millions of people like Dragon Ball Z. There's a cheap shot to be made about using "artistically" and "Dragon Ball" in the same sentence, but that's probably a while past its sell-by date as well. Artistically, though… well, if it's worth saying, it's probably already been said. Economically, the show is still significant – the Dragon Ball cash cow is the reason Funimation hasn't died like a fistful of other American anime publishers.
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At this point, is there anything particularly useful to say about Dragon Ball Z? This Dragon Box is at least the fourth home video version of the series released in the United States.