Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.

Moderators: Kanzenshuu Staff, General Help

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:17 pm

Just like I did with the first Vizbig collection of the Dragon Ball manga, I have now completed the Z portion of the manga, thus completing the entire Dragon Ball manga in Vizbig format.

And, just like I did with the first ( http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... 71&start=0 ), I will now do a review of the second portion of the manga in the Vizbig format. I will also talk about the first portion (or the entirety of the Dragon Ball manga in this format) whenever it might be pertinent.

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 they are in english. They have larger frames than the regular volumes and normally each VizBig volume has 3 original volumes included or more (in "omnibus" fashion).
For more information on this particular format you can view this link: http://www.viz.com/news/newsroom/index.php?id=64

This review will reflect mainly upon the Dragon Ball Z Vizbig collection. For those of you who don`t know, the original japanese manga is called simply Dragon Ball and has 42 volumes. However, Viz divided the manga in two portions. The first one contains the first 16 volumes and is called Dragon Ball. The other is called Dragon Ball Z and contains the remaining volumes.

Front Covers:

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Back Covers:

ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Spine art:

Image

The Volumes Index (click to view):

DBZ Vol 1 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index1.jpg
DBZ Vol 2 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index2.jpg
DBZ Vol 3 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index3.jpg
DBZ Vol 4 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index4.jpg
DBZ Vol 5 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index5.jpg
DBZ Vol 6 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index6.jpg
DBZ Vol 7 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index7.jpg
DBZ Vol 8 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index8.jpg
DBZ Vol 9 Index: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... index9.jpg

I will divide this review in topics to make it easier to read.

1 - Size

This release has the peculiar characteristic of being larger than any other english Dragon Ball edition to date.
While the standard manga is about 7.4 x 5 inches (or about 18.8 x 12.4 cm), this edition is about 8.7 x 5.8 inches (or about 22 x 14.7 cm).

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.

Its also interesting to note that they have about the same size as the Japanese "Perfect Edition" Kanzenbans, which is a very high quality release of the manga, except in thickness since the Vizbigs collect more material in one volume than one Kanzenban volume does.

Also, regarding the Vizbigs` thickness, its also interesting to note that each Vizbig volume has less thickness than the corresponding volumes of the regular release. For example, DBZ volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Viz`s regular edition have a collective thickness of about 1.7 inches (or about 4.3 cm) but DBZ Vizbig 1, which collects them, has a thickness of about 1.4 inches (about 3.6 cm). This basically means more shelf space.

There might be those who won`t like the size of this edition because its heavier then regular volumes and etc. I`ll admit that it depends on personal preference. But I like it. :mrgreen:

2 - Quality of paper and print

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 of the regular editions. I much prefer this kind of paper.

The print is also, overall very good.

P.S. I forgot to mention in my review about the first collection that the print has less quality in some of the first chapters, but it quickly picks up. In this collection (Dragon Ball Z) this doesn`t seem to happen, as far as I noticed.

3 - Color pages

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 (they were printed in black and white like the others). These colors are the original colors used by Toriyama in the original chapters. However, it does not have all the original colored pages available in color (unlike the Kanzenban, which has them all).

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 indeed.

But just how many color pages and chapters were left in color in the Vizbigs?

I`ve counted them to find out and made a few statistics with the results:

DB VizBig Collection overall statistics:

Fully colored pages ( 51 out of 79 = 65% kept )
Red and Gray Scale pages ( 182 out of 305 = 60% kept )
Combined color pages ( 233 out of 384 = 61% kept )

-

DBZ VizBig Collection overall statistics:

Fully colored pages ( 62 out of 86 = 72% kept )
Red and Gray Scale pages ( 204 out of 252 = 81% kept )
Combined color pages ( 266 out of 338 = 79% kept )

-

Combined DB and DBZ VizBig Collections overall statistics:

Fully colored pages ( 113 out of 165 = 68% kept )
Red and Gray Scale pages ( 386 out of 557 = 69% kept )
Combined color pages ( 499 out of 722 = 69% kept )


Conclusion: most of the color pages are there and the DBZ collection even has a higher percentage of colored pages kept than the DB collection.

It is my personal opinion that its a shame that they didn`t include all of them printed in color. But having most of them, despite that not being a perfect score, its pretty damn good, especially since the other english releases of the manga don`t have any.

Here is an example of a fully colored panel:

Image

P.S: it should be noted that quite a few of the colored title pages are not featured in color in the Vizbigs. However, almost all of them are present in Daizenshuu 1, which Viz has already published in a virtually perfect release. That release is a must have, so, if you don`t have it, go get it while you have the chance. Thanks to it, and besides all the other great things that exist in the book, you will also own quite a few colored title pages that are not in the Vizbigs.

4 - Censorship

Let`s get something straight before talking about the Vizbigs regarding censorship. The manga of Dragon Ball has never been released in its entirety uncensored by Viz. Ever. So, the Vizbigs also have censorship.

But there are different levels of censorship. Some editions were badly censored and others only have minor censorship.

So, which level of censorship do the Vizbig have? Well, there are editions with even less censorship out there than the Vizbigs, but the Vizbig`s censorship is also minor.

Since this is also a matter of personal opinion, I think the best thing to do is to show you all the censorship that exists in this edition (sorry about the quality of some scans):

DB censorship:

Image

(This panel is only an example of what they do whenever a middle finger appears. There are more, but instead of listing them all, I`ll just use this and tell you that this or something like this happens everytime a middle finger is drawn in that fashion. Also, the dialog of the uncensored panel is a fan translation, its not official, pay no attention to that detail).

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

(This is a Mr popo example. I only put this one as an example because this happens every time he appears. Their censor his lips to make him look less similar to a sambo. This way they try to avoid racial implications).

DBZ censorship:

Image

(This particular panel is not from the DBZ portion, but it still gets the point across that this also happens in the DBZ portion, not just in the DB portion. Everything I stated about it previously still holds true here).).

Image

(This particular panel is not from the DBZ portion, but it still gets the point across that this also happens in the DBZ portion, not just in the DB portion. Everything I stated about it previously still holds true here).

Image

(Their guns are altered to make them look less realistic. There are other panels with them but its pretty much the same thing. Every gun these two guys had was altered to look less realistic)

Image

(It was altered to make it look like #17 killed him with his hand rather than with his gun.)

Image

Image

And... Thats it. This is all the censorship there is on the Vizbigs. Too much for you? Only you know. Personally I think that its a shame that the censorship exists but its not too intrusive and its rare and minor. Both collections combined make up a 42 volume manga and this is all the censorship there is. I can live with that just fine.

EDIT: I forgot to mention something. In black characters with big lips (besides Mr. Popo) Viz also likes to color their lips into the color of their skin. Unlike Mr. Popo, they keep the lips but they change their color. And this is true in both DB and DBZ Vizbig collections. This is a very minor edit and almost no one notices it. But since I promised you this included all the censorship, I thought it was best to mention it. At the time I made this review, I completely forgot about these edits, since they are so minor.

Here is an example:

Image

So, now, I believe this is truly all the censorship the Vizbig have.

5 - Presentation

The covers of the Vizbig are not that great looking but they are Toriyama art. I do however like the back covers and the spine art, but they could have done a better job.

6 - Contents

Besides the volumes themselves, this edition also includes the title pages of the chapters and sometimes some extras like art that appeared in the Shonen Jump magazine or some of the original Taukonbon covers. These extras are not consistent however and only exist in some volumes. The Toriyama`s volume comments are included along with its art. The "Toriyama ask me anything corner" is also included in the first collection (DB collection). The Vizbigs do not include, however, some of the unique art that some taukonbon volumes had and they don`t include the Taukonbon original spine art (but Viz`s Daizenshuu 1 has it, along with all of the original Taukonbon covers and a lot more art. If you don`t have it, buy it).

As for the final chapter, two great things could have happened in this release. It could have had the Kanzenban ending (the kanzenban has a few extra pages in the final chapter) or it could have had the final chapter presented totally in color, something that its even rarer than the Kanzenban ending and that is only included in the original Shonen Jump issue that had the last chapter and in Daizenshuu 2, which was never translated to another language I believe (at least for english it wasn`t).
In reality, neither happened. At least not fully. The final Vizbig volume presented most of the final volume in color but not all of it. It left two color pages in black and white and one of them is one of the two exclusive pages of the original ending. To see it in color would really be something special and pretty rare as I`ve explained. The other exclusive page of the original ending was left in color fortunately, but this page is not as rare as the other one since its included in Daizenshuu 1, which Viz has already released (its the final page of the chapter where Toriyama says goodbye).
In conclusion, it was a shame, but that is hardly enough to destroy the merits of this release. It merely failed to bring us something truly unique. It would have been great and it would have made this release even better, but that does not diminish the release and its merits in my opinion.

7 -Translation and dialog

There are a few name changes, some little tweaking in the dialog, but in the end this is what you need to know: its virtually the same as the dialog in the other Viz editions and Herms considers that the translation Viz used should get 7 stars out of 10 if he were to rate it, which is pretty good. A Viz line might not be literally equal to the original line but what it means and implies is virtually always correct.

8 - Price

This is the great selling point of this edition (pun intended). Its price is pretty much unbeatable and that is a great advantage when we are collecting a 42 volume manga, especially if we are buying it online where its price tends to be even lower. Its much cheaper than the regular edition and its even cheaper than the box sets of the regular edition.
But despite this great price, it also has a great quality/price ratio. Its not perfect, but like it was stated, it has high quality paper, most of the color pages and bigger frame. Its a shame about the censorship and some color pages missing, but if that doesn`t bother you that much, or you simply don`t think those details are enough to be worth spending a lot more money, then this release is for you, even if in the future a english Kanzenban release is available (since it will surely be much more expensive).
Compared to the regular and existing editions, the Vizbig is hands down better due to its multiple advantages.

Conclusion:

I`ve already said most of what I wanted to say in this last point about the price. Its also a shame about the final chapter but even without it, this release is pretty awesome.

Overall I would give this release 8,8 stars out of ten. (You all know what a 10 is).

And now, to end this review, a full shot of the complete spine art of the two collections:

Image

Click here to view it uncropped and in full size: http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/ ... ection.jpg
Last edited by rereboy on Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:18 am, edited 13 times in total.

User avatar
Great Saiyaman I
Regular
Posts: 726
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:34 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Great Saiyaman I » Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:31 pm

Great review! I thought the last review covered everything, but you covered quite a few more things. Also, Vol. 9 Vegetto artwork is amazing. :D
-The Great Saiyaman
Herms wrote:
Nex Carnifex wrote:Herms can you translate the whole thing
No.

Greenman
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 495
Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:20 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Greenman » Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:07 pm

Nice review. :)
Great Saiyaman I wrote:Also, Vol. 9 Vegetto artwork is amazing. :D
While I like the VizBigs, I don't really care for the spine art. Or their looks in general, actually. I think it's the red/black/white aesthetic. It just looks unpleasant. It doesn't help that the front covers and spine images consists solely of Goku by himself. The back covers look great though, with the different characters and color.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:10 pm

Greenman wrote:Nice review. :)
Great Saiyaman I wrote:Also, Vol. 9 Vegetto artwork is amazing. :D
While I like the VizBigs, I don't really care for the spine art. Or their looks in general, actually. I think it's the red/black/white aesthetic. It just looks unpleasant. It doesn't help that the front covers and spine images consists solely of Goku by himself. The back covers look great though, with the different characters and color.
It doesn`t look THAT great simply because its unimaginative. I would have killed for them to have done something like they did with the Vagabond Vizbigs:

Image

Now THAT is great (awesome, epic, etc). When the collection is finished it will look even more amazing. And I`ve seen them live. They look even better than they do in the picture because they are much bigger.

But I do like the spine art of the DB/DBZ Vizbigs and the fact it shows Goku`s evolution. It simply could be better and more imaginative.

User avatar
xzero
Regular
Posts: 672
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:18 am

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by xzero » Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:50 pm

I haven't gotten out to Borders to pick up my Vol. 9 yet, but I'm loving the Vegetto spine art on that volume. It mirrors the art from the first volume of Dragon Ball perfectly, and makes sense in context (4 volumes with Goku's gi colored white, followed by 5 volumes with it red/orange wouldn't have looked as nice IMO).

I have my set on a shelf with my Dragon Box DVDs and a plush SSJ Goku separating the Dragon Ball and DBZ volumes. It'll be nice in a day or two when I get out to Borders and procure that last volume. This is the first manga that I've ever owned the complete set, and it's great that after however many years, Viz finally finished releasing the Vizbig volumes.

Piccolo Daimaoh
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 5407
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:49 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:43 am

Awesome review, rereboy! The only problem I have with the VizBigs is their size (especially DB volume 5). They take up a lot of space in your backpack or suitcase when travelling. The censorship doesn't bother me one bit, though.

User avatar
Piccolo Daimao
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 8749
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:23 am

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Piccolo Daimao » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:41 pm

Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:Awesome review, rereboy! The only problem I have with the VizBigs is their size (especially DB volume 5). They take up a lot of space in your backpack or suitcase when travelling.
How many volumes (as in, from the original tankoubon) are in each of the VizBigs?
Holden Caulfield in [b][i]The Catcher in the Rye[/i][/b] wrote:I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

User avatar
dbgtFO
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 7941
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:07 pm
Contact:

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by dbgtFO » Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:53 pm

Piccolo Daimao wrote:
Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:Awesome review, rereboy! The only problem I have with the VizBigs is their size (especially DB volume 5). They take up a lot of space in your backpack or suitcase when travelling.
How many volumes (as in, from the original tankoubon) are in each of the VizBigs?
If you look closely, you can see that there is an amount given on the bottom of the spines. The highest amount compressed into one is 4(DB vizbig 5) while the lowest amount is 2(like DBZ vizbig 9). So it's different from book to book.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:07 pm

Piccolo Daimao wrote:
Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:Awesome review, rereboy! The only problem I have with the VizBigs is their size (especially DB volume 5). They take up a lot of space in your backpack or suitcase when travelling.
How many volumes (as in, from the original tankoubon) are in each of the VizBigs?
DB Vizbig Volumes 1 to 4 and DBZ Vizbig Volumes 1 to 8 -> 3 original volumes each

DB Vizbig Volume 5 -> 4 original volumes

DBZ Vizbig Volume 9 -> 2 original volumes

If you look closely at the back covers of the volumes, you will see that the first thing they state (at the top of the back cover) is which Viz volumes they collect (you can check the back covers of the first collection in my other review. I put the link for it at the start of this review).

nathantheguitarist
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1519
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:37 am

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by nathantheguitarist » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:18 pm

Isn't the final volume really big? A better example would be how many chapters they each cover or just how many pages they have. 9 doesn't look that small compared to the others even though it's only 2 volumes.
In a ditch somewhere

User avatar
dbgtFO
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 7941
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:07 pm
Contact:

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by dbgtFO » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:20 pm

nathantheguitarist wrote:Isn't the final volume really big? A better example would be how many chapters they each cover or just how many pages they have. 9 doesn't look that small compared to the others even though it's only 2 volumes.
That's because of vol. 41 & 42 having several more chapters than previous volumes, explaining why only 2 was needed for the final volume.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:24 pm

nathantheguitarist wrote:Isn't the final volume really big? A better example would be how many chapters they each cover or just how many pages they have. 9 doesn't look that small compared to the others even though it's only 2 volumes.
I`ll add the complete index of all the volumes later. That`s the only important thing that is missing.

And the reason why Volume 9 is not that small is because the last two dragon ball volumes are bigger than the rest.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:46 pm

I`ve added the links to the complete index of all the volumes to the review.

They are pretty big, so I only left their links. Here, however, I will put them directly:

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
Puto
I Live Here
Posts: 2668
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 3:40 am
Location: Portugal, Oeiras

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Puto » Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:58 pm

Satan City is called Herculopolis in the Viz manga? Seriously? :/

And "Zeta Sword"?
Blue wrote:I love how Season 2 is so off color even the box managed to be so.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:17 pm

Puto wrote:Satan City is called Herculopolis in the Viz manga? Seriously? :/
If they changed his name to Hercule it would be somewhat "stupid" to leave it as Satan City.

User avatar
StarRot
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1076
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:19 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by StarRot » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:19 pm

Herculopolis
Really? Really? It sounds like a God damn STD.
I understand why they changed it from Satan City .. but still.

User avatar
Piccolo Daimao
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 8749
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:23 am

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Piccolo Daimao » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:20 pm

Puto wrote:Satan City is called Herculopolis in the Viz manga? Seriously? :/

And "Zeta Sword"?
Well, because his name is (the H-word) in the Viz manga, they can't be inconsistent and leave it as Satan City. Although I do wish they would've called it (the H-word) City; Herculopolis just sounds off.

As for Zeta Sword...I don't know. Maybe they didn't want it to be so similar to the series' name?
StarRot wrote:
Herculopolis
Really? Really? It sounds like a God damn STD.
Named after (the H-word), what with all the girls he'd have on him. :lol:
Holden Caulfield in [b][i]The Catcher in the Rye[/i][/b] wrote:I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

rereboy
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 10262
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:42 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by rereboy » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:23 pm

Honestly... Herculopolis or Hercule City or even Z-sword or Zeta sword... What does it really matter? Its basically the same thing.

Piccolo Daimaoh
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 5407
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:49 pm

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:34 am

Piccolo Daimao wrote: As for Zeta Sword...I don't know. Maybe they didn't want it to be so similar to the series' name?
"Zeta" is the name of the Greek letter that corresponds to the Latin letter, "Z". I don't agree with the change, though.

User avatar
MCDaveG
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 5633
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:54 pm
Location: Prague, Czechia
Contact:

Re: Dragon Ball Z VizBig Manga Dissection/Review

Post by MCDaveG » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:38 am

Eeeeeh, I was redirected here since I thought there are english Kanzenbans and this is probably the closest...... thing..... to them :(
I thought the censorship, edits, dialogues will be much much much better then in Tankobon format and I'm vastly dissapointed.
These books are really awful in my opinion.
FighterZ: Funky_Strudel
PS5: Dynamixx88

Post Reply