"DragonBall Z & Z2" OST: Review/Discussion

Discussion regarding any musical aspect of the franchise, from game soundtracks to BGM to remixes. Upcoming & classic CDs, reviews, where to find them, and more!

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"DragonBall Z & Z2" OST: Review/Discussion

Post by VegettoEX » Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:13 pm

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http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=KDSD-42
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-8252251

So there's a story behind my picking up the CD.

It was sent from CDJapan via registered mail, which means there needs to physically be someone there to pick it up and sign for it. Of course, I'm at work when the mail comes, so there's no-one here to take the package. Mail person leaves a slip saying it can be picked up at the post office. The post office that's closed before I get off of work. Great. Typically I'd have to wait until Saturday (it was first attempted to be delivered on Wednesday) to pick it up... but being the raging fanboy I am, that ain't gonna happen. Lunch break today I hop in my car and haul ass back down to Cranbury. Stuffing my turkey sandwhich down as I drive south, I get stuck behind school bus after school bus. Takes me over half an hour to get down to the post office. ARGH. I managed to get down and back in exactly an hour. Heh. Score one for Mike.

Of course, I popped in the CD on the way back to work. Loudly. While my rips from the PS2 games really have been as good as they can get, there's something to be said for the full-quality, uncompressed version playing off of CD. There's a good deal in "Kusuburu Heart..." that I'd never heard before, and it was only through a very loud car stereo that I heard it :D.

The music on the disc is a mixture of music from the first game, the second game, and seemingly un-used tracks. Starting around track 10 and sporatically throughout the rest of the disc, there's a great deal of music I'd never heard before. Ever. Now, it's quite possible that over two years later I don't remember the music from the first game that well, but some of it sounds like it's left-over material from, say, "Final Bout"... I just don't recognize it.

Cramming music from two games together, there's an incredible deal of music they left out. I was really hoping to get all of the "Dragon World" stage music (especially stage 7's jazzy awesomeness), but it was not to be. That's not to say I don't enjoy the CD; it's quite great. You'll recognize a lot more than you don't.

So... Tower of Power. They've got some songs listed on the CD. Namely "Soul Vaccination," "Soul With a Capital 'S'," and "Only So Much Oil in the Ground." Now... uhh... I've heard those songs before, as performed by Tower of Power. These are not those songs. These are tracks I recogize from the games, and in no way resemble the actual Tower of Power songs. Did they just randomly assign pre-existing Tower of Power song titles to new DBZ game songs? WTF? Totally weird.

Now, the back of the CD case is interesting... the official Japanese titles are on the left, with English... "titles"... on the right. But they're not necessarily translations. As we all know, "Go for it !" is not a translation of "Kusuburu Heart ni Hi o Tsukero" :P. English is extremely prevelant throughout the packaging, though... seems to be both "cool" and obvious that there'll be a good deal of American fans importing.

But then there's the bonus DVD, which is what most of us were looking forward to the most... ^_~

Amainzgly, it loaded right up in both my computer and DVD player no problem. Haven't checked to see if it has any region coding AT ALL, but it certainly loaded without having to hack the players. Neat! There's no menu; it's just a straight video. It's somewhat poorly shot and even more poorly compressed, but it's fun none-the-less. In general, there's more English than Japanese (and the English is subtitled in Japanese!). Over-all, it's more video set-to-music than actual dialogue and conversations. It starts out with a quasi-music video to the short version of the opening theme. It goes on through a bit of introductions to the various recording performers (Hironobu Kageyama, Steve Lukather, etc.). There's a mini music video with in-game footage, as well. There's a ton of obvious "timing" (just like in our amateur anime music videos), which was cute and fun. The disc ends with another quasi-music video to the full version of the theme, showcasing each performer and their musical abilities.

And Hironobu Kageyama dancing and singing out in some ghetto, somewhere. Not sure what's up with that.

Anyway, below would be a few images from the DVD. It's relatively short, but certainly fun to watch... and definitely makes you feel all hardcore-fanboy :P.

Looking forward to the next few CD releases...!

So let's discussing. Who all picked it up? Whatcha think?

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Last edited by VegettoEX on Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SuperFusion » Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:30 pm

I'm just wondering if the CD contains both the english and japanese opening main themes?

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Post by VegettoEX » Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:56 pm

No; this particular release contains ONLY the short vocal version of the DBZ2 opening theme. The CD single to be released next month will contain at least the full-length vocal versions of both the DBZ 2 & 3 opening themes. It's traditional for CD singles to also have karaoke versions, so it might have the instrumentals, as well.
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Post by Timo » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:02 am

I would buy them, but I don't have a credit card. Just Pay Pal. :?
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Post by Fuujin » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:31 am

Meh, I expected something more. I think I'll go with the rips instead.
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Post by SS Kakarot » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:20 am

My package also arrived yesterday, from CDJapan.
It's just Budokai music in my opinion, plain and simple.
Not the best CD ever, but not the worst one either, and that's a good thing. :)

The DVD wasn't that special though, it only takes about 23 minutes, and there are no Menu's. :(
Plus you didn't get to see much of DBZ, just the same guys, walking around not doing much, over and over, while Budokai music is playing on the background. :?

In conclusion, the CD is great for the collectors, or big time Budokai fans, but they could have done a better job with the DVD.
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Post by Sun_Wukong » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:23 am

So, are all the major BGMs we hear constantly on the OSTs? Some of those just get stuck in your head.

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Post by Entropy » Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:25 pm

The CD arrived today and I listened to it after college.

A lot of the music is fairly filler and not something you would genuinely listen to as a piece of music.
When it's good however it reaches the same heights as the Complete Song Collections, possessing the same charged/jumpy feel.

The DVD I have yet to look at properly.

I'll form a more detailed review later.

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Post by Mugenmidget » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:10 pm

Wow...so not even all of the tracks are on there?

In that case I think I'd rather have the option to just buy that DVD. :lol:

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Post by majinboogc » Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:31 am

I would have liked the complete soundtrack but it is still very awesome. I dont know why but I loved the DVD.
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Post by CloakBass » Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:27 am

Woulda been nice if they had the actual game intros on the DVD. Just so I could pay around with it(lower the tone =P), but the DVD itself seems to be worth it just to see Kageyama act goofy.

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Post by Mugenmidget » Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:32 pm

So... Tower of Power. They've got some songs listed on the CD. Namely "Soul Vaccination," "Soul With a Capital 'S'," and "Only So Much Oil in the Ground." Now... uhh... I've heard those songs before, as performed by Tower of Power. These are not those songs. These are tracks I recogize from the games, and in no way resemble the actual Tower of Power songs. Did they just randomly assign pre-existing Tower of Power song titles to new DBZ game songs? WTF? Totally weird.
Guess who decided to follow this up?

I really think you need to listen to the "Tower of Power" and Budokai versions again. ESPECIALLY on "Only So Much Oil in the Ground." There are too many similarities that it's hard to believe you missed them.

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Post by VegettoEX » Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:26 pm

Yeah, I have to agree.

I listened to a couple songs again, and I think I was paying too much attention to the vocals, and didn't notice the similarities. One of them's especially close, but at least one of them is pretty darn "remixed" by Kenji Yamamoto from the original version. Forget which ones, though. ^^;;
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Post by Mugenmidget » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:34 pm

VegettoEX wrote:Yeah, I have to agree.

I listened to a couple songs again, and I think I was paying too much attention to the vocals, and didn't notice the similarities. One of them's especially close, but at least one of them is pretty darn "remixed" by Kenji Yamamoto from the original version. Forget which ones, though. ^^;;
Yeah, there's plenty of remix to be found. But they definately have their roots.

Budokai 2 makes me really appreciate just how little oil we have in the earth. :wink:

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Post by SS Kakarot » Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:45 am

Just thought I'd post this here, the cover for DBZ3:

Image

The tracklist can also be found on Amazon Japan!
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Post by SaiyaJedi » Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:13 pm

SS Kakarot wrote:Just thought I'd post this here, the cover for DBZ3:

[image]

The tracklist can also be found on Amazon Japan!
I already have them both on the Video Game CDs page; just haven't updated the main page about it yet. :P
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Post by SS Kakarot » Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:56 pm

D'oh! :o
Sorry about that! :wink:
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Post by yamiiguy » Sun Mar 13, 2005 8:24 am

is there any word on the password thats coming with the Budokai 3 soundtrack?

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Post by VegettoEX » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:00 pm

yamiiguy wrote:is there any word on the password thats coming with the Budokai 3 soundtrack?
Yeah. There's no password. Thus ends the "word". :)

Oh, and please pay attention to your grammar.
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Post by yamiiguy » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:16 am

ok thanks i'll try to pay attention to my grammar but i'm only a nine year old kid and i thought it was going to contain another password for the Japanese version?

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