So, I`ve decided to write a review/dissection of this edition so that everybody knows exactly what its advantages and disadvantages are, regarding other editions.
For those of you who don`t know what the VizBigs are, they are re-releases of manga in a different format. They are published by Viz and are written in english. They have larger frames than regular volumes and each VizBig volume has 3 original volumes inside (the last DB one has 4 however).
For more information on this particular format you can view this link: http://www.viz.com/news/newsroom/index.php?id=64
This review is only about the Dragon Ball VizBigs. I left the Dragon Ball Z VizBigs out on purpose because they are not all published yet, unlike the Dragon Ball ones (for those of you who don`t know, despise the original japanese manga being called only Dragon Ball and having 42 volumes, Viz divided the manga in two portions, containing the first one the first 16 volumes and being called Dragon Ball while the other is called Dragon Ball Z and contains the remaining volumes).
So lets begin...
First of all, I will post the covers, back covers and spines of all the VizBigs:
Front Covers
Back covers
Spines
EDIT:
These are the full contents of each VizBig Volume in order (which I forgot to add previously)
DB Vizbig 1
- Cast of characters.............. 6
- Volume 1.............. 11
- Volume 2.............. 184
- Volume 3.............. 368
- Title page gallery.............. 538
- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner.............. 573
- Author notes.............. 575
DB Vizbig 2
- Cast of characters.............. 6
- Volume 4.............. 10
- Volume 5.............. 188
- Volume 6.............. 360
- Title page gallery.............. 533
- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner.............. 570
- Author notes.............. 575
DB Vizbig 3
- Cast of characters.............. 6
- Volume 7.............. 10
- Volume 8.............. 184
- Volume 9.............. 356
- Title page gallery.............. 527
- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner.............. 564
- Author notes.............. 567
DB Vizbig 4
- Cast of characters.............. 6
- Volume 10.............. 10
- Volume 11.............. 189
- Volume 12.............. 364
- Title page gallery.............. 536
- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner.............. 564
- Author notes.............. 567
DB Vizbig 5
- Cast of characters.............. 6
- Volume 13.............. 10
- Volume 14.............. 184
- Volume 15.............. 356
- Volume 16.............. 528
- Title page gallery.............. 726
- Author notes.............. 768
/EDIT
Now I will divide the review into two categories with itens which I will then elaborate.
ADVANTAGES
1 - Larger panels
2 - High quality paper
3 - Some pages in color
4 - Very cheap
5 - Less censored than some previous editions of Viz
6 - All the VizBigs side by side occupy less in thickness than the corresponding regular editions, despite having a larger frame
7- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner included
DISADVANTAGES
8 - More censored than some previous editions of Viz
9- Uglier front cover art
10- Compared to the kazenkan, not all pages are in color, and the ones who aren`t, are printed without color, which results in them looking worse than the simple black and white manga
Now, I`m going to elaborate on each of these itens:
1 - Larger panels
This release has the peculiar characteristic of being larger than any other english Dragon Ball edition to date.
While the standard manga is 5 x 7-1/2, this edition is 5-3/4 x 8-5/8.
That allows the manga to have larger panels than the previous editions. The result is bigger art.
Personally I find that awesome. Its a different experience reading the manga in this size and overall I find it more pleasing.
There might be those who won`t like the size of this edition because they are more heavy then regular volumes and etc. I`ll admit that it also depends on personal preference. But I like it.
2 - High quality paper
This edition is printed in a very nice high quality paper. Its a paper that its not either thin or thick, but it looks and feels somewhat resistant.
Besides that, the paper is white, which allows it to beautifully contrast the black and white of the manga much more effectively than the grayish paper color.
I much prefer this kind of paper.
3 - Some pages in color
One of the appeals of this edition is the colors it possesses on some pages and chapters, which weren`t available on previous english editions. However, it does not have all the pages available in color (that the kazenban has, which is the perfect edition of the japanese manga).
This fact has enraged some fans who expected all the pages to be in the edition.
But we can not deny that some pages are better than none. And the ones which are there look very good.
But just how many color pages and chapters were left in color in the Vizbigs?
In the first 16 volumes of the Dragon Ball manga there were 29 chapters which had at least one page in color. The Vizbigs left 16 in color.
Lets analyze the matter further.
These are all the chapters in color that exist in these 16 volumes:
001 / 002 / 003 / 004 / 005) (019 / 025 / 033 / 040 / 044 / 045 / 048 / 055 / 057 / 062 / 070 / 075 / 081 / 086 / 093 / 106 / 110 / 121 / 130 / 149 / 155 / 163 / 178 / 187
These are the ones that the VizBig left with color:
Vizbig 1
001 / 002 / 019
(3 chapters out of 8 = 37,5% effectiveness)
Vizbig 2
044 (but 3 pages were left without color) / 045 / 057 (but 4 pages were left without color)/ 062
(most of 4 chapters out of 8 = around 50% effectiveness)
Vizbig 3
075 / 081 / 106
(3 chapters out of 5 = 60% effectiveness)
Vizbig 4
110 / 121 / 130
(3 chapters out of 3 = 100% effectiveness)
Vizbig 5
149 / 155 (but one page is left without color)/ 178
(most of 3 chapters out of 5 = around 60% effectiveness)
In total, around 55% of all the pages in color are left in color. So most of the color pages are there, which is a very good thing.
Here is an example of a Vizbig color page (full color)
4 - Very cheap
This edition is a very cheap edition. The total retail price of the 5 volumes is $89,95.
The retail price of the Dragon Ball manga box set (which is a box with all the first 16 volumes of the regular editions) is $114.99. This box is already cheaper than all of those regular volumes sold separately, but all the Vizbig volumes manage to be $25,04 cheaper.
5 - Less censored than some previous editions of Viz
Viz is known to censor some bits of the Dragon ball manga. However, how much it censors has been inconstant throughout the editions.
Viz has never released the Dragon Ball manga 100% uncensored. There are tiny bits which were censored in all the editions. But there are at least 3 different editions with 3 different censorships.
I will give you an example:
This is a scan of the most uncensored english edition there is.
And this is a scan of another edition:
As you can see its much more censored. Even the nosebleed and what they are saying is altered.
And this is the scan of the Vizbig (sorry about the poor quality of the scan):
As you can see, although it is censored, its censored to a much less extent than the previous one, and the censorship is not too intrusive.
This holds true to all the censorship that exist in the Vizbigs editions.
There is little censorship, the censorship that exist its not intrusive and unless you already know, you cant tell its censored, and except for one occasion, it never sacrifices the original meaning or intent.
That one occasion is the one time bulma shows pilaf the finger. Instead of her middle finger being distended its the index finger which is distended, which kills the original intent. Here it is:
This the worst of the censoring in the VizBig and the one thing that kind of bothers me, because it kills the oriaginal meaning.
Besides that, they only censor full nudity (bulma`s and some maganize`s with bath bubbles and very well inserted bras) but they don`t censor bulma`s butt or Goku`s penis (because he`s too young and underdeveloped to be taken sexually).
In the text, they sometimes tone slightly down what is being said. Instead of a "feel" there is a "see" but it really is so minor that I can not call that censorship. Besides, they never sacrifice the original intent or meaning while doing that.
Conclusion: the censorship in the VizBigs stands in the middle. Its not as uncensored as some previous editions which showed nudity, but its less censored than some previous which were censored to exclude the nudity and etc.
Besides that, the edits are very well done and not intrusive at all, and the original intent (including all the sexual intent) is pretty much always preserved.
If you don`t care about seeing actual nudity and the "bulma`s finger thing" doesn`t really bother you, this is the release for you.
6 - All the VizBigs side by side occupy less in thickness than the corresponding regular editions, despite having a larger frame
More shelf room. `Nuff said.
7- Akira Toriyama`s "ask me anything" corner included
It wasn`t included in previous editions. Here`s a scan from Vizbig 1:
8 - More censored than some previous editions of Viz
The existing censorship might not be that bad, but it is still censorship, and there are editions with less censorship.
9 - Uglier front cover art
I like the back cover art and the spines, but I admit, the front cover art ir rather dull. Uglier than the regular ones.
10- Compared to the kazenkan, not all pages are in color, and the ones who aren`t, are printed without color, which results in them looking worse than the simple black and white manga
This disadvantage only exists if we compare the Vizbigs to the kanzenban.
However it is a shame that not all the pages are in color, and the ones who aren`t, because they are printed without color, look worse than the rest of the manga. At least in my opinion.
So it really is a shame that they aren`t all in color.
Overall I give good remarks to this release. Despite its flaws, the price, the color, and the size, are "must have" points to me.
I would give this release 8,8 stars out of ten. (You all know what a 10 is).
Btw, if you want to know how good the translation is, its on the same level as the ones from previous editions. Their translation is good but not perfect. Herms said once on this board that he would give 7 stars out of 10 to the Viz translation, which is not bad at all. All the original meaning and intent is pretty much always there.
It's cool from the other pictures to see it uncensored.
