History SeriesContinuityError / DragonBall

* In the anime version of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Captain Ginyu returns and mentions as having been on Earth as the Namekian frog. That means that he must have been on Earth when it was destroyed by Kid Buu. Apart from the fact that he couldn't have been revived by the Namekian Dragon Balls (as they explicitly wished for only whose who are not evil to be resurrected), it makes no sense he wouldn't mention being killed in his backstory or why he would be restored in the Namekian frog's body. Not present in the movie or the manga versions of the story.

* Gohan had a tail as a child, yet neither Goten, Kid Trunks, nor Pan had/have one, with the implied explanation that Human/Saiyan hybrids ''don't'' have tails. Out-of-universe, the running theory (possibly confirmed) is that Toriyama simply ''forgot'' that they were supposed to have tails, and just [[{{Retcon}} ran with them not having them]]... but there's a small chance that this may instead be a case of FridgeBrilliance.

As a well-known {{Long Runner|s}} written by a [[Creator/AkiraToriyama notoriously forgetful writer]] who freely admits he [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants writes by the seat of his pants]], it's not surprising that the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' franchise has its fair share of continuity errors, whether it be from a mistake or a {{retcon}}. Likewise, the writers in charge of the anime series have made mistakes from time to time in the series, either in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' or the [[NonSerialMovie Non-Serial Movies]]. If the fans notice these mistakes, they are likely to either bash the anime writers for messing up, or give a FanWank explanation.

* Due to filler in ''Z'' having introduced what happens after death before Toriyama had completely explained it, there ends up being two conflicting ideologies for what happens in the afterlife. The Toei filler version is more close to a Western view of the afterlife, with a Heaven and general Hell, while Toriyama's is more of a Buddhist view with a purgatory, reincarnation, and more personalized Hells, as well as there being a process of draining you of all your evil if you were bad in life. Both end up clashing in the Buu Saga, due to Toriyama finally explaining more of how death works in the series, but Toei kept to their version for filler scenes. This also creates a contradiction within ''Kai: The Final Chapters'', which was part of a series created to be more close to the manga, since the kept in a few of the Hell scenes from the Buu Saga that showed the villains in Hell watching Goku fight Buu for no reason. It creates a further contradiction for ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection 'F']]'', which shows Frieza in a personalized Hell rather than the general one from ''Z'', which confused many fans who didn't know about this discrepancy.

* Cell states his offspring, the Cell Jr., have the same powers as him. Yet, when they are killed by Gohan, they don't regenerate at all. This was corrected nearly 30 years later in the manga of ''Manga/DragonBallSuper'', where they were revealed to have survived, but were tamed by Android 17 to help him with his ranger activities.

* When Dende first displays his HealingHands, Vegeta angrily questions Krillin if they knew Dende had that power all along, to which Krillin responds that he didn't, because if he did, he'd have asked Dende to heal Goku instead of [[PutOnABus sticking Goku into a healing tank for a prolonged period]]. This seems to neglect that in an earlier panel, Frieza's ship (where the healing tank is) is shown to be at max only a few miles from where they are when they learn this fact--so there's no reason Krillin wouldn't send Dende back to heal Goku ''now''.

* During the Frieza saga, the ''Bardock'' special was airing during this time, and Bardock was given visions of Goku's early childhood to his adulthood. And then his final vision is seeing Goku on Namek facing Frieza. Only, Frieza was in his first form which Goku never saw, since he only saw his final form. This can be attributed that the anime hasn't reached the fight with Frieza and the special was released between episodes 63 and 64.

* Gohan had a tail as a child, yet neither Goten, Kid Trunks, nor Pan had/have one, with the implied explanation that Human/Saiyan hybrids ''don't'' have tails. Out-of-universe, the running theory (possibly confirmed) is that Toriyama simply ''forgot'' that they were supposed to have tails, and just [[{{Retcon}} ran with them not having them]]. This one ''may'' potentially be justified as tails being a recessive trait in hybrids, and needing to be inherited from both parents; all pure-blooded Saiyans have tail genes, but due to its vestigial nature, it's '''extremely''' rare for a human to have a tail (with less than 30 known cases since 1884). If this is the case, then Gohan inhereted vestigial tail genes from Chi-Chi, which were enough for his Saiyan tail genes to latch onto and develop a tail. Otherwise, it's pure continuity error.

* In Episode 109 of the anime, during the Tournament of Power, Krillin states that the Spirit Bomb cannot be used by a Super Saiyan, as their hearts are polluted by rage and a Spirit Bomb requires a pure heart. This contradicts both the original story (where Goku fired a Spirit Bomb against Kid Buu as a Super Saiyan) and even another anime-only ''Super'' sequence (Trunks subconsciously gathering energy for his "Spirit Sword" as a Super Saiyan). It seems that Hiroshi Yamaguchi confused one of the NonSerialMovie climaxes with an event from the main series. At the end of ''[[Anime/DragonBallZSuperAndroid13 Super Android 13]]'', Krillin says the same thing; this was well before the fight with Buu, so the writer of the film Takao Koyama didn't know it at the time. It could be argued that Goku only needs to be in his base form to gather the energy, as the Spirit Bomb he used against Buu was complete when he transformed, and he similarly turned into a Super Saiyan Blue when Jiren began pushing back the completed Spirit Bomb.

* After killing Jeice, Vegeta reasons that he's becoming a Super Saiyan, and smugly states that this is what Frieza feared most, hence why he killed the Saiyans before one could manifest. Except Vegeta was surprised to learn that Frieza feared the Saiyans when a desperate Dodoria told him earlier, and Dodoria also told him that Frieza feared [[ZergRush an army of Saiyans ganging up on him]], not a singular warrior. The latter reason was also given in the Bardock special, but is abruptly never mentioned again after Vegeta states that Frieza's true fear is a Super Saiyan.

* When first summoning Porunga in the manga, Krillin is shocked to learn that the Namekian dragon grants three wishes. But Dende already told him this earlier. This was in fact the whole basis of his and Gohan's decision to team up with Vegeta: that they could each get a wish if they managed to gather the balls before Frieza.

* Due to filler in ''Z'' having introduced what happens after death before Toriyama had completely explained it, there ends up being two conflicting ideologies for what happens in the afterlife. The Toei filler version is more close to a Western view of the afterlife, with a Heaven and general Hell, while Toriyama's is more of a Buddhist view with a purgatory, reincarnation, and more personalized Hells, as well as there being a process of draining you of all your evil if you were bad in life. Both end up clashing in the Buu Saga, due to Toriyama finally explaining more of how death works in the series, but Toei kept to their version for filler scenes. This also creates a contradiction within ''Kai: The Final Chapters'', which was part of a series created to be more close to the manga, since the kept in a few of the Hell scenes from the Buu Saga that showed the villains in Hell watching Goku fight Buu for no reason. It creates a further contradiction for ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrection Resurrection 'F']]'', which shows Frieza
in a personalized Hell rather than the general one from ''Z'', which confused many fans who didn't know about this discrepancy.

* There is a timeline inconsistency with how long Belmod has been a God of Destruction. In the manga, Belmod states he has been a God of Destruction for around 300,000 years, but in the same chapter, it states he was around for a Hide and Seek tournament between all the gods of destruction, which, according to Whis, was before Shin became a Supreme Kai. According to the timeline, Shin has been a Supreme Kai for at least 5 million years, meaning that by all means, Belmod should've be older than simply 300,000 years. This is a continuation of a plethora of problems concerning Shin's age; he says he's older than 5 million in the original manga, [[http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/saikyo-jump-june-2014-issue-twel-buu-mysteries/ but Toriyama]] stated in 2014 that Supreme Kais only live for around 75 ''thousand'' years. So the manga was probably treating that as a retcon. Then, to make things even more convoluted, the manga went back to the original "5 million years ago" timeline in the Moro arc, via the narration of a flashback to when Buu fought the Supreme Kais.

* After Ten Shinhan breaks Yamcha's left leg, he has a cast on his left leg in the manga. However, when he arrives to Goku and King Piccolo's battle, he has his cast on his right leg, and it remains on his right leg until it heals. Presumably, Toriyama forgot which leg was broken after only having to draw Yamcha from the waist up while he was in the airplane.
* A rather minor one. Vegeta states his new armor during the Freeza Saga (the one without shoulder guards) is an old model, but we are never shown any armor like this one during the ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku Father of Goku]]'' or ''Dragon Ball Minus'' specials. This was fixed with Beets of ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly''.

* When first summoning Porunga in the manga, Krillin is shocked to learn that the Namekian dragon grants three wishes. But Dende already told him this earlier. This was in fact the whole basis of his and Gohan's decision to team up with Vegeta: that they could each get a wish if they managed to gather the balls before Freeza.
* When Dende first displays his HealingHands, Vegeta angrily questions Krillin if they knew Dende had that power all along, to which Krillin responds that he didn't, because if he did, he'd have asked Dende to heal Goku instead of [[PutOnABus sticking Goku into a healing tank for a prolonged period]]. This seems to neglect that in an earlier panel, Freeza's ship (where the healing tank is) is shown to be at max only a few miles from where they are when they learn this fact--so there's no reason Krillin wouldn't send Dende back to heal Goku ''now''.
* After killing Jeice, Vegeta reasons that he's becoming a Super Saiyan, and smugly states that this is what Freeza feared most, hence why he killed the Saiyans before one could manifest. Except Vegeta was surprised to learn that Freeza feared the Saiyans when a desperate Dodoria told him earlier, and Dodoria also told him that Freeza feared [[ZergRush an army of Saiyans ganging up on him]], not a singular warrior. The latter reason was also given in the Bardock special, but is abruptly never mentioned again after Vegeta states that Freeza's true fear is a Super Saiyan.

* At first glance, the anime adaptation of King Vegeta's unseen rebellion against Freeza appears to make sense given what we know of the manga incidents, but the way it's presented contradicts ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku''.
** In the special, little Vegeta is on another planet when he is told about the destruction of Planet Vegeta. In the anime, he is on Freeza's ship, and somehow never noticed that his father and other Saiyans were killed off.
** Freeza somehow appears to kill both King Vegeta and Bardock at the same time on two different rooms.

* Due to filler in ''Z'' having introduced what happens after death before Toriyama had completely explained it, there ends up being two conflicting ideologies for what happens in the afterlife. The Toei filler version is more close to a Western view of the afterlife, with a Heaven and general Hell, while Toriyama's is more of a Buddhist view with a purgatory, reincarnation, and more personalized Hells, as well as there being a process of draining you of all your evil if you were bad in life. Both end up clashing in the Buu Saga, due to Toriyama finally explaining more of how death works in the series, but Toei kept to their version for filler scenes. This also creates a contradiction within ''Kai: The Final Chapters'', which was part of a series created to be more close to the manga, since the kept in a few of the Hell scenes from the Buu Saga that showed the villains in Hell watching Goku fight Buu for no reason. It creates a further contradiction for ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrection Resurrection 'F']]'', which shows Freeza in a personalized Hell rather than the general one from ''Z'', which confused many fans who didn't know about this discrepancy.

* When facing Rilldo, Son Gohan transforms into a Super Saiyan... despite the fact that the Ultimate/Mystic transformation unlocked to him by Old Kai in the Majin Buu Saga is supposed to have his fighting capacity maxed at all times. This is explained in and ''Resurrection [='F'=]'' and ''Super'' as him being out of practice as a fighter, so he's not able to reach his full power anymore unless he trains again... which only makes his showing in ''GT'' look even worse retroactively because that series claims that Gohan ''did'' keep up with his training after ''Z''--[[InformedAttribute something that doesn't match his on-screen actions and performance in the slightest]].
* Another mistake from the Super 17 Saga is the fact that, when Goku faces Freeza and Cell and kills them in Hell, they respawn. A plot point from the Buu Saga is that if Kid Buu killed Vegeta when he was already dead, he would [[CessationOfExistence cease to exist]].

* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'', we have a look at Bardock's final stand against Freeza before being obliterated by his Supernova. While the image is clearly a homage to the ''Father of Goku'' special, there are two details that contradict his manga appearance: the lack of his iconic bandana and his armor having a right shoulder pad. This is because the aforementioned special gave him a different armor design than ''Super'', and Toriyama copied the former design for his manga. Why he changed its design for ''Super'' is unknown.