Dragon Ball Z Season 4, most of this set is really more of the same. Presented in wide-screen format, the screen crops off some of the top and bottom picture, while revealing more of the sides. It fits perfectly on a widescreen television, and even looks decent on a standard television. The film transfer itself is very good. The original framerate has been restored so the animation looks a lot more fluid. The difference is definitely noticeable. The colors have been restored and while the grain has been cut back considerably, it still isn't perfect.
The biggest flaws in all these sets are the vulnerability of the packaging. It isn't too uncommon for discs to get scratched or for the box to come apart and the damages done are sometime irrevocable. When releasing a series as popular as this, Funimation really should've been smarter with the packaging. As usual there are no extras to speak of, some textless songs and trailers.
Storywise season 4 is a transitional stage. It starts with the filler saga about the return of Garlic Jr. an immortal villain from the first DBZ movie. It's actually a pretty good saga that has some nice fight scenes and overall does a good job at filling in the space until the next major event. It's the first step in showing how Gohan inevitably has to step up to take his father's place as leader of the Z-Fighters.
After that is about two episodes that encompass the `Trunks Saga'. Rather short for a self-titled story arc no? Anyways Freiza survived his fight with Goku and comes to Earth rebuilt as a cyborg along with his father King Kold. The Z-Fighters panic to assemble a team to resist the icy tyrant but they are beaten to the punch by a mysterious teenage Super Saiyan. I can't say I like the way Frieza and his father are beaten so easily by this young new character. They should've put up a better fight, but alas. The new character dispatches the alien invaders and invites the other Z-fighters to accompany him to meet Goku upon his landing planet side.
After the main character finally returns, Goku and the new Super Saiyan have a one-on-one conversation. We learn that the young boy is a fighter from the future named Trunks, the son of Bulma and Vegeta. He travels to the past because in his time the world is destroyed by the Androids, artificial beings created by the maniacal Dr. Gero. With this startling revelation Trunks gives Goku some medicine to make sure he doesn't die of a radical new heart virus that will strike him before the Androids arrive, so that Goku can help in the battle. The Z-fighters each begin their own special training to prepare for the appearance of the androids.
Three filler episodes are all that separates the Trunks Saga from the beginning of the Android Saga. Three years pass and the Z-Fighters assemble to battle the androids. Goku's heart virus takes him out of the action early, and Vegeta arrives just in time to save him. Revealing that he has finally become a Super Saiyan as well, Vegeta makes short work of the first android. After a lengthy and `suspenseful' chase scene, the second android is cornered and defeated rather soundly by Piccolo. However Trunks arrives and announces that the androids they are fighting aren't the same as the androids from his time. Bulma adds to the revelations by announcing the android who escaped Piccolo is actually Dr. Gero. Another race sequence begins as the Z-Fighters search out Gero's lab, while the evil doctor himself does the same.
Inevitably Gero activates his other two androids, but 17 and 18 quickly turn against and kill the doctor. They proceed to activate another android that even Trunks did not know about, 16. Vegeta proceeds to challenge the androids himself and has a spectacular fight with 18 but in the end the Saiyan Prince falls, along with all the other Z-Fighters. Only Krillin stays out of the fight, but surprisingly the Androids don't kill any of them. Instead they continue with their primary mission of assassinating Goku, who's still recovering from his heart virus.
Before the Z-Fighters can figure out what to do about androids 17 and 18, another menace arises. That struggle will begin in the next season.
Get more detail about Dragon Ball Z: Season Four (Garlic Jr., Trunks, and Android Sagas).
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