Dragon Ball GT: Evolution offers fans something familar, yet new!

Please keep in mind, there is some overlap between this review and my review of Dragon Ball GT: Revolution. Since these DVDs present two volumes within the same series, the animation and audio are nearly identical. As such, the main difference between these reviews is in the story and extras portions. I apologize for this overlap, but it seems like the most logical course to take.

Dragon Ball GT: Evolution
List Price: $24.95
Studio: Funimation
DVD Release Date: February 3, 2004
Run Time: 100 minutes
Video: Fullscreen (Standard) - 1.33:1
Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), and English Subtitles

For years Goku and the Z Fighters have relied upon the power of the Dragon Balls to maintain peace and order throughout the universe. But the Dragon Balls are changing. With each wish made on the Dragon Balls, a dark, hidden force gains power by flooding the positive energy in the Dragon Balls with more and more negative energy. As a result of the misuse of the Dragon Balls, seven evil dragons are born each with unique destructive powers!

Feeling responsible for this new threat, Goku sets off with Pan and Giru to confront the Shadow Dragons one by one. Each dragon must be destroyed in order to regain the Dragon Balls and return them to their original state. But the most powerful dragon, Sin, absorbs all seven Dragon Balls, creating the ultimate villainous force! Goku must rally the entire universe in order to save it one final time!

DVD Features:
• Character Biographies
• Textless Songs
• Trailers

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INTRODUCTION
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Dragon Ball GT is set 10 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z. Early on in the series, Emperor Pilaf returns and obtains the Dragon Balls. He summons the Dragon and wishes that Goku would be a child once again. After his wish is granted, the Z Fighters have to journey to reclaim the Dragon Balls and return things to normal. Volume 11 and 12 of the series picks up after the Z fighters have succeeded in finding all of the balls and ushers in the third Saga of the series, The Shadow Dragon saga.

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STORY - Rating: 7 (out of 10)
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I was actually somewhat surprised, as far as the story goes. While the plot is still not up to par with many other series, it shows a vast improvement from the previous Dragon Ball titles. The series is still highly action orientated, but the story is more integral to the series rather than simply serving as an after thought. While it is possible to start watching the series in the third saga, it is helpful to have an understanding of what happened earlier in the series. In fact, the events in The Shadow Dragon saga are directly caused by the events of the Baby and Super 17 sagas. The increased importance of humor was also nice to see. I especially like how the Five-Star dragon was defeated as well as the wish (it was the first wish made during the Dragon Ball series) that spawned the Six-Star dragon.

The Shadow Dragons
After finally obtaining all of the Dragon Balls, the Z Fighters realize that something is wrong with them. All of the ball are the wrong color and cracked. Hoping that a wish to restore the Earth to it’s former self will restore the Dragon Balls as well, they try to summon the Eternal Dragon. Unfortunately, instead of summoning the Eternal Dragon, a black cloud comes out of the cracks and reveals an evil dragon. He steals the balls and unleashes seven more dragons, each tied to one of the seven balls. The Z Fighters then discover why the dragons were unleashed. Now Goku must set out to stop the dragons and restore the balls before the Earth is destroyed.

The Two-Star Dragon
Against Goku’s wishes, Pan follows him on his quest to stop the evil dragons and regain the Dragon Balls. She brings Giru, a small cowardly robot who acts as a dragon radar, along on their journey. It isn’t long before the three meet the first of the seven dragons, Haze Shenron. Haze is a dragon of pollution and is slowly destroying everything with his toxic mist. It turns out that the dragon is not physically strong, but a side-effect of his toxins helps him to overcome this fact.

The Five-Star Dragon
After regaining the Two-Star ball, Goku and Pan continue to a nearby city that has been abandoned because of an electricity absorbing slime. It doesn’t take long to discover that this slime is the result of the Five-Star dragon, Rage Shenron. Despite his small stature, Rage Shenron proves to be an even more difficult foe than the previous dragon.

The Six-Star Dragon
The Six-Star dragon, Oceanus Shenron, is not like the other dragons Goku and Pan have encountered. At first, her actions don’t seem entirely evil. The village she has taken up residence near actually worships her as a god since she provides them with all the fish they need and more. She also masks her appearance and appears as an attractive blue faced woman. Of course, this simply hides the truth as her actions are actually causing more harm than it first appears. Goku fights against Oceanus, but soon is overpowered by her air attacks. This leaves Pan as the only one capable of shifting fight in their favor.

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ANIMATION - Rating: 6 (out of 10)
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There isn’t anything overly surprising in the area of animation. If you are familiar with either Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z, you should have a good idea of what to expect. In fact, they have numerous flashbacks to wishes and other events that occurred in both of the previous series. The overall animation is fairly average. There isn’t anything spectacular about the quality of the animation, but it isn’t bad by any means. The images are clear and easy to follow most of the time. Although, the animation can look more dated than it actually is at times.

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AUDIO - Rating: 5 (out of 10)
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The series can be viewed in English or Japanese and with or without subtitles. While the voice acting in the English version is not bad, I seriously recommend watching the Japanese version. In most cases, I preferred the Japanese actors to their English counterparts. In addition to sounded better overall, the Japanese actors tended to be less annoying then the English ones. The English dubbing also had problems in how the story was translated. While retaining the overall plot, also failed to stay as true to the original as they could have. In the event that you prefer to watch the English dubbing, at least turn the subtitles on to get a better idea of the changes that were made. While I did like a few the changes that were made, most of the time, the changes hurt the feel of the scenes. This was especially true of the opinion sequence. The Japanese opening, in addition to sounding better, had much better visuals. I didn’t like the English version of the opening at all, especially since the song was changed to a rap song. Needless to say, there was a huge difference in the look and feel of the two versions, so it’s definitely good to check them both out.

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EXTRAS - Rating: 1 (out of 10)
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I was very disappointed with the extras included on the DVD. While I do enjoy watching the trailers, it sad when the trailers end up being the best extra on the disc. The only other extras that were included were a few short biographies and a textless song. If you want to play the textless version of the English opening, you have to have the language setting switched to English. If you want the textless version of the Japanese opening, you have to have the language set to Japanese. I liked the fact that they included the option to view switch between the two versions this way. The biographies included only Goku, Trunks, Pan, and the Dragons from each volume. As a result, the only change to the biographies is which dragons are included on each disc.

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OVERALL - Rating: 5 (out of 10)
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While this series has improved in many areas since Dragon Ball Z, this release still leaves much to be wanted. The almost non-existent extras are a huge blow for this release. The plot is still not the most involved or compelling story out there and when combined with the average visuals and audios, Dragon Ball GT could have seriously benefited from additional extras. Unfortunately, with this lack of attention, I feel the title is better suited for rental rather than purchase, especially considering the price per volume and the lack of good replay value.