The first thing I'd like to mention is, the distribution of this DVD is not by Al-Wadi Co. like the previous releases. It's by a new company called Joy Art Production which apparently, is the current owner to Anime licensing and home distribution across the Middle East. All what I found was a Facebook page, but it is ((And I don't understand why)) in Indian! But this is what they got to say:
So, it seems there are changes coming to the anime industry in our neglected region. So, how did affect this release? Let's see.With the experience and dadiction and hard work of founder Mr.Hassan Aldardari ,our company is able to be the exclusive distributor of the biggest library of home video Animation.
Mr.Hassan is also very proud to announce the release of Manga animation work..(The Japanese Gigantic publishing industry representing a 3.6 billion dollars in Japan in 2007,and 175 Million in US and Canadian market only in 2008)
This release would be for the first time ever in the Middle east Starring our children's most Favorite cartoon characters and series ( Conan "6", Naruto "2",Dragon Ball Z 2,One piece 2,Bakugan,Black cat ,slam dunk 2 ,and so much more) in Arabic language for the joy of our children.
Packaging and First Impressions:
As you can see, Joy Art Production is going to release the series as singles instead of full sets. This is the first volume, and it's just one DVD disk with four episodes. The episodes are labeled 1-4 instead of using the original episode count. Kinda like how US TV shows revert back to episode 1 with each new season. Now, the episodes included in the disk are episodes 54 to 57 using the original count.
Now, you obviously remember how terrible the cover art of the old releases. But in this release, it looks good! It actually looks like an official release and not a bootleg. Yeah it's the wrong timeline when it comes to the episodes available, but it's not like no one had done the same thing!
Moving on, the DVD case comes inside a slip-cover. Again, it feels a lot like a legitimate release. This company seems to know how to handle their business despite it being fairly new. I forgot to mention... I bought it for 30 Dirhams. That makes about 8 US Dollars.
Contents and Video Quality:
Let's move now to what's inside the DVD. The video plays straight to this menu.
It starts out with just that little monitor, but one by one, other things start showing up and the background is animated. You can only choose one of the four episodes displayed under the monitor. No alternative dubs nor subtitles.
The opening theme is the same as the old one, but they've changed the scenes to highlight the current arc. The ending credits uses the footage of ZENKAI Power ending theme, but uses the same opening theme which make it unfitting. You can watch the opening right here.
In the old version, instead of using episode titles, they use numbers like "Episode 30" etc. In this release, they use actual episode titles, and this is the title screen used. It's the same one for all the episodes.
And now to the thing that we all waited for... episode quality! Al-Wadi Co. had a really bad reputation with their releases filled with terrible VHS-esque video quality. But not anymore folks!! The video quality here is one of the best!! Let's compare it with FUNimation's Dragon Box release.
Joy Art:
DBox:
As you can see, it's a bit saturated and darker than the Dragon Box version. But it's not that significant. Check out these other examples: ((Upper- Joy, Lower- DBox))
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As you could tell, unless you look really closely at each picture, you can't tell the difference between the two versions. That's how awesome this release is! The video quality is leagues above the shit brick we had before!
The New Dub:
Of course. Since this is a new release, I should mention a thing or two about the dub.
About the voice cast. The majority remained the same, but there were some changes. Let's talk about the most important one first.
As you all know, the original voice actor of Goku had passed away back at August 26th, 2009. For the new dub, he is voiced by Rafet Bazo. This voice actor is well known for voicing young, happy-go-lucky energetic teenage boys. He also voiced Yamcha and Kai in the first dub. Non Dragon ball roles include Brock from Pokemon, Ace Ventura from the cartoon series (In an interview, he said that was his favorite role). He also took some serious roles like Kenshiro from Fist Of The North Star, Sasuke from Naruto, and Rokawa from the first season of Slam Dunk.
Now, as Goku, he was actually good considering his personality and the voice actor's experience with similar roles. He only appeared for a short while during the episodes. And so, I can't give my full credit till he starts fighting the Ginyu Force. But overall, I didn't dislike it.
Other cast changes were for Kuririn, Zarbon, and Kai. Kuririn got what I could call "annoying girl voice", Zarbon got a deeper voice, and Kai got a "very wise old man" voice. Kinda like Joji Yanami's narrator voice.
For the general dub script, I didn't pay that much to it. So, I can't give a full opinion on that. Only the time will tell us weather they've fixed their older mess-ups or not.
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And that's the end of the review. I'll try and contact the company to see if they can provide me with dates for their upcoming releases in the future and if there's a way to purchase them online or not.
So, in the end, I say I'm satisfied with this new release. It's obviously a big improvement compared to the older releases. All what's left is including a subtitled Japanese track and it'll be one of the best!
I give this product 9/10.