There’s no question that Dragon Ball Z is one of the most popular anime of all time. As a result, it is a staple in the collection of any serious anime collector who buys their hobby on home media. If you are an anime fan who bought anime on one of the various video formats throughout the years, chances are you have at least one Dragon Ball Z DVD or VHS in your home somewhere. What is far less common are fans who own the entire series.
While the show has become more affordable as time goes on thanks to season sets, at one point the show was sold three to four episodes at a time. Considering that there are 291 episodes in the show, 13 movies, and a few specials, how much WOULD it cost a fan of Dragon Ball Z to own the entire series on home media back in the day? The final costs may surprise you (especially if you grew up streaming the series on Funimation Now or Crunchyroll).
Dragon Ball Z on VHS
The first American format to receive Dragon Ball Z was VHS. With these tapes, it largely depended on whether or not you wanted to buy the series uncut or edited, as which version you bought would determine the price you would pay. Pioneer released the first 17 tapes in an edited-only format, and no uncut release of these episodes exists on VHS. At the time, many fans felt this was all the Dragon Ball Z they were going to get, so it wasn’t uncommon for fans to have all these tapes, as they were all fans had for years. At $14.95 a tape, it would cost a fan $254.15 for the first 53 American episodes of Dragon Ball Z. A pretty penny for a kid in the 90s.
Later, Funimation would release the rest of the series in both edited and uncut formats on VHS. This amounted to 69 tapes. If you bought the tapes in the edited format at $14.95 a tape, these 69 tapes would set you back $1,031.55. Throw in the edited-only Pioneer VHS tapes, and the entirety of Dragon Ball Z in edited form on VHS would be $1,285.70. If you decided to buy the series uncut, that would be $19.95 a tape, so you would be out of pocket $1,376.55 for just the Funimation tapes and $1,630.70 if you bought the uncut tapes with Pioneer’s edited-only release.
The 13 movies were also released in edited and uncut releases at $14.95 and $19.95 respectively. So, if you were buying the edited versions, the movies would set you back $194.35 for a total of $1,480.05 if you included the series. If you wanted the movies uncut, you’d be paying $259.35 for just the movies and $1,890.05 if you wanted the movies and the series itself. Overall, Dragon Ball Z was not an inexpensive show to collect in the days of VHS.
Dragon Ball Z on DVD
In some ways, Dragon Ball Z on DVD was more expensive (but less complicated) when it first release. With the exception of Pioneers edited only DVD’s, all of the DVD’s were bilingual and uncut, meaning that fans could choose whether they wanted to watch the show in Japanese or English. These discs cost $29.95 across the board (movies and all). If you wanted the entire Dragon Ball Z TV series on DVD, you would be shelling out $2,575.70 for the show, $389.35 for the movies, and $2,965.05 for the entire thing.
This is where things started to change though, as after the initial release was complete, Funimation would revisit the series in box set form. They would re-release the series in orange brick box sets at $49.95 a season. With 9 seasons available, it would only cost Dragon Ball Z fans $449.55 to own the entire series.
A much easier pill for fans to swallow. Sadly, these DVDs are notorious for their low quality and picture cropping, so many fans hated them. Funimation would address these concerns with the ‘Dragon Box’ releases, which were premium collector sets of the show that were uncropped and filled with extras.
These collector sets were priced at $69.95 each with (an appropriate) 7 sets released. This meant that if you were a Dragon Ball Z fan who wanted the series uncropped and in the best presentation possible, you would be shelling out $489.65, just a LITTLE bit more than the orange bricks whose transfers were of questionable quality (on a side note, these sets are out of print and VERY expensive now, so the cost of owning them will be a LOT higher these days).
Dragon Ball Z Today
With the BluRay and digital editions, buying all of Dragon Ball Z is much simpler AND much cheaper. If you want all of Dragon Ball Z in the cropped widescreen format, it will cost you a total of $404.82. If you want it in the original aspect ratio, it will cost $539.82. In both cases, you’ll be buying 9 sets. Digital options are also available from various retailers for various prices (depending on whether or not you want the series in English or Japanese). Of course, this is by no means a foolproof guide.
We’re well aware that in all the above scenarios you would likely be paying less than retail price (and if you threw in Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, and the various movies, the cost for the franchise could significantly increase). Nevertheless, one of the reasons Dragon Ball Z thrived on TV was simply because it has always been pricey to own the entire anime (and it’s a price few kids were willing to pay). These days you can likely own the entire anime franchise for less than what Dragon Ball Z alone cost on VHS back in the day, but is it still too pricey for consumers today? What say you dear reader: do you have the entire Dragon Ball Z anime on one of these various formats or are you content to spend $9.99 a month for Crunchyroll instead?