Hilarious In Hindsight / Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball

Major Metallitron knew before anyone.

• When Yamcha first gets a glimpse of the titular Dragon Balls, he confesses that he thought they'd be as big as dodgeballs. Come the Namek Saga in DBZ, we get introduced to a second set of Dragon Balls that happen to be roughly around that size.
• Commander Red is voiced by Kenji Utsumi in the Japanese version, and desires to become taller. Utsumi later voices a Stalinist rogue GRU Colonel, yet later ends up defeated by someone who looks a heck of a lot like a tall version of Commander Red in Metal Gear Solid 3.
• Yamcha hides from Bulma after saving her during the Rabbit Gang incident with Puar telling his master that "She likes you." in the English dub. The little blue cat with flight abilities says that. For a bonus, Dragon Ball Online would later reveal that Puar was born from an egg.
• The scene where Pilaf blows a kiss to Bulma in the Pilaf Saga becomes hilarious when his Japanese voice actor, Shigeru Chiba, ends up voicing another silly villain who has a huge amount of somewhat Yandere-esque traits towards his nemesis. And the villain's nemesis, Terra Branford, has an alternate costume that gives her a slightly similar appearance to Bulma.^note In case anyone's curious, the alternate costume was based on her field sprite in her original game.
• In the 13th episode Oolong says this line:
  "So what's the deal, is Goku some kind of alien?"
• The anime shows Sergeant Metallic/Major Metallitron scanning Goku, and English text reads "LOOK ALIENS" pointing to Goku, along with text from Alien to the right. This was years before Akira Toriyama decided Goku was of extraterrestrial origin.
• The Adventure Special reveals that Ranfan, a contestant from the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, has a husband named Trunks, over three years before the actual Trunks was introduced.
• During the King Piccolo Saga, the titular villain declares May 9th as Piccolo Day.^note This is changed in the dub - there, he declares it to be May 13th. Then May 9th gets recognized as Goku Day instead.
• In the Red Ribbon Army Saga, Goku gets antagonized by a ninja named Murasaki.
• General Blue has this line: "And just when we were starting to have fun. Oh well I guess we're just going to have to go to the abridged version."
• In the beginning where Goku met Bulma, after she told him about the Dragon Balls, she wants to wish for a prince. Guess who ended up in her life in DBZ?
• Bulma said that when Goku was older, he was going to find her breasts impressive. 25 years later, he tells Old Kaioshin about Bulma's impressive breasts.
• To prove his identity after growing a lot, Goku shows his friends his hair and says "Who else has hair like me?" As shown in the page image for Strong Family Resemblance, his father and second son have hair like him.
• Wendee Lee and Michael McConnohie have appeared in the Harmony Gold dub of the first Dragon Ball movie. Now both are back in the Bang Zoom! Entertainment dub of Dragon Ball Super, and for bonus points, Lee's voicing Bulma again.
• When confronting Tambourine about Krillin's death, Goku gets so mad that his hair, including that on his tail, stands on end. This won't be the last time Krillin gets killed by somebody voiced by Ryūsei Nakao, either.
• Krillin's assertation that "marriage means his life is over" and insistence that his definition is the more accurate one during the Piccolo Jr. Arc becomes hysterical considering he ends up in one of the most loving and stable relationships in the entire series with Android #18.
• Commander Red wanted the Dragon Balls to wish himself taller due having been endlessly mocked for it, and for that he assembled the most powerful army on Earth. Frieza, who leads what used to be the most powerful army in the universe, eventually decides to find Earth's Dragon Balls to wish himself five centimeters taller after being mocked for it behind his back by some of his soldiers (he originally wanted immortality but two stints in Hell convinced him immortality wasn't worth it). Sounds familiar?
• Many a fan has pointed out that Lunch's transformation into the blonde, tough-as-nails, actionized personality Bad Lunch makes her resemble the Super Saiyan transformations that would become iconic to the series following her departure from the cast.

Dragon Ball Z

• From Z onward, plenty of villains like to make a Badass Boast along the lines of "I am the strongest in the universe!", which always seems somewhat believable at the time, but as time progresses and Power Creep sets in, quickly becomes more and more laughable.
• Funimation got a lot of flak for their Orange Brick releases, especially for the cropping to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio. Then Kai's TV broadcast and all versions of Kai: The Final Chapters did the same thing.
• Fans of the Japanese version of Bardock - The Father of Goku weren't pleased with the Funimation dub. The added Dub Text made Bardock more sympathetic, regretful of his past actions, and he does show real love for his son in the end. In the original text, Bardock is very amoral and doesn't care about Goku at all until he sees a vision of Goku fighting Frieza. Come Minus, Akira Toriyama's version of Bardock is more like the dub, including him having a loving wife and him actively saving his son's life by sending him to Earth.
• Fans love to portray the Farmer with a Shotgun as an unstoppable force that curbstomps every major character in the franchise. Now with the release of Resurrection F, the idea of Dragon Ball characters being grievously wounded by conventional firearms isn't so far-fetched thanks to Sorbet nearly killing Goku with a standard ray gun.
• In the early days of the franchise's Western presence, a Pojo magazine explained how fans wanted an uncensored version of DBZ so they could hear Goku say "Damn!", among other things. In the uncut dubs of DBZ and Kai, Goku says it on a near-Once an Episode basis.
• When Goku contemplates permanently fusing with Gohan, he wonders if he'll have to go to high school after this. Cue Dragon Ball Evolution, where Goku is a high school student with hair similar to Gohan's.
• All the Space "X" jokes from DBZ Abridged, especially those tied to Jeice, got a lot funnier with the full-color release of the manga where Toriyama revealed the Ginyu Force's backstories — and Jeice's says that he played Little League baseball back on his home planet.
• Enma states that he sent Dabura to Heaven because he would have enjoyed Hell too much. The first ever appearance of Hell in the manga is revealed to look like an episode of the Teletubbies had a baby with A Troll in Central Park. Now his Sickeningly Sweet schtick from the anime makes a lot more sense.
• Dr. Gero claimed that he didn't think Goku would become much stronger after the Saiyan Saga given his age. This is hilarious given that in the Super manga, Goku claims that 80 years old is still considered fairly young for a Saiyan.
• Gohan's assurance to Videl on learning about ki when he said that a toddler can do it. Funny now that their future daughter Pan was able to complete that feat as a baby in Super.
• Frieza's Latin American voice actor, Gerardo Reyero, has voiced Superman and one of his most well know roles is Captain Hero, a parody of Supes. Goku did fight Superman!
• In one episode of the English dub, Gohan refers to Piccolo as "My Big Green Uncle". This becomes even more hilarious when you realize that there were some cheesy English dubs of DBZ called "The Big Green Dub" because in that dub, Piccolo is renamed Big Green.
• Masako Nozawa's Vocal Dissonance as Son Goku was "corrected" in the English dub by giving the character an obvious adult male voice. In Digimon Tamers, Nozawa would voice another manly warrior character "grown up" from an adorable child form — Dukemon (Gallantmon) — only this time, the character did retain his childlike voice in the English dub and was mocked for it. On a related note, while Goku's Japanese voice actress is known for voicing an Iconic Sequel Character Digimon, his most famous English voice actor is known for voicing an Iconic Sequel Character Pokémon (Lucario).
• In the Buu Saga, when Majin Vegeta challenges Goku for a fight, Supreme Kai tries to reason with Goku, and when that doesn't work, he tells Goku that he'll have to kill him if he wants to fight Vegeta. A moment later, Goku actually raises his hand, fully prepared to blast him to smithereens. Come Super, it is revealed that the lives of the God of Destruction and Supreme Kai are tied, meaning Goku came dangerously close to not just killing Supreme Kai, but Beerus as well.
• In the Otherworld Tournament, Goku fights a giant caterpillar man named Caterpy.
• When Mr. Satan wants to convince the world he defeated Buu, he gets him to have his picture taken while lying on the ground, saying it's "the latest style of picture taking". That's right: Toriyama unintentionally predicted planking.
• Justin Cook started voicing Dende for the Funimation dub just a handful of months before the dub of YuYu Hakusho began airing in the United States. This can make the respectful dynamic between Dende and Piccolo, voiced by Christopher Sabat, amusing given how Cook and Sabat would have an entirely different relationship play out as Yusuke and Kuwabara, respectively. Even funnier is during the climax of the Chapter Black Saga of Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke transforms into his berserk form, which resembles the Super Saiyan 3 form, but once he regains control of his body, he retains the mass of hair, making him look like a leaner version of Raditz. Cook provided the voice of Raditz as well.
• Chuck Huber voices a black haired bad guy, who has a twin sister and was initially an enemy to The Hero, but eventually underwent a Heel–Face Turn. So, is this character in question Android 17 or Hiei? Said twin sister even ends up being the Love Interest of The Rival turned best friend of The Hero!
• Nail and Piccolo fusing to fight Frieza. Nail was voiced by Sean Schemmel and Piccolo by Christopher Sabat, i.e. the voice actors of Goku and Vegeta. Looks like Goku and Vegeta fused way before the Buu Saga!
• A panel of a page◊ of the manga during the Cell Saga has a guy wearing a straw hat with exposed arms, who looks very similar to Monkey D. Luffy, years before One Piece was created.
• Fat Buu pulls a genuine Heel–Face Turn but then starts going back to his murderous ways when his pet dog is shot by two men with guns^note The dog actually survives and is healed by Buu and his truly evil side only surfaces once his Only Friend Mr. Satan is shot by one of them. Who knew this concept can be turned into an action movie one day!
• In one episode of the Saiyan Saga, King Kai tells Goku the origins of the Saiyan race's rise to power, how they gained their technology by stealing it from the planet Plant, home of the Tuffles race, and dealing with another group of aliens to start the Planet Trade business. Not only is there no mention of Frieza having involvement in any of that, but then King Kai says that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a god who was angry at the Saiyans and called forth a disaster (the meteor) that wiped them all out. It ended up seeming like King Kai just lied to Goku to keep him in the dark about Frieza's existence so that Goku wouldn't want to challenge him. Years later, we find out about Beerus, this universe's God of Destruction, and that he'd arranged for Frieza to wipe out Planet Vegeta because he was angry at the Saiyans. Perhaps King Kai had heard more truthful details than anyone realized.
• A green, reptilian creature who starts life as a fetus and gradually evolves into 3 more forms as it collects cells, the last one being its "perfect" form...fittingly enough, Zygarde also happens to be a Dragon type Pokemon.
• The Cell Games Reenactment has all the characters portrayed as mascot-suited actors, despite most of them being human looking or humanoid. This is exactly how the costumed promotional Goku and Vegeta characters are portrayed in Real Life.
• Cell consumes Android #18 through his tail and regurgitates her through his mouth, which resembles the brief trend in South Park where everyone starts eating through their rectums and defecating through their mouths.
• The Ocean dub had Vegeta claim that Bardock was an average fighter, but a brilliant "scientist". In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, there are Saiyan scientists, but Bardock isn't one of them.
• Dub-related example: it seems auditioning for Captain Ginyu will land you a more prominent role - Sean Schemmel originally auditioned for the part, but wound up with Goku. LittleKuriboh would later audition to play Ginyu in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, and wound up playing Frieza.
• All the Ocean Dub's lines about people who die being "sent to another dimension" became retroactively funny due to the isekai anime boom of the 2010s, which mainly involve people dying and being reincarnated in another world.

Dragon Ball GT

• In the episode where Earth is evacuated, Goten talks with a delinquent voiced by Christopher Sabat. Funimation was referencing YuYu Hakusho with both characters being voiced by YuYu Hakusho actors.
• In the English dubs from DBZ, they made up a line in which Vegeta joked that he got stronger by doing push ups and drinking milk (Ocean dub) or juice (Funimation dub). In the Blue Water dub of GT, Goku claims the reason for his strength is doing several push ups so now we know the difference between the two fighters.
• The meme of Base Kid Goku being more powerful than any previous Super Saiyan looks downright funny now that Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' have had Goku absorb the power of a God and master it to the point that his base form is now far more powerful that he ever was as a Super Saiyan 3 and possibly 4. Really, it could help explain it.
• One of the biggest complaints about the series was how Gohan was downgraded to the point of not using his Ultimate form and relied on becoming a Super Saiyan. There was also an uproar about Goku beating Gohan in his base form. Come Resurrection 'F' and Super, Gohan can't use his full power anymore because he slacked off too much and Goku's base form is way stronger than Gohan ever was even with his massive power-up.
• Frieza being curbstomped effortlessly by kid Goku becomes even more amusing after Resurrection 'F' made Frieza one of the most powerful villains in the entire series. Granted, base form Goku would still kick final form Frieza's butt, but Frieza received a new form in that movie that gave Goku a far greater challenge.
• During the battle with Oozaru Baby-Vegeta, Goku has Pan, Goten, Gohan, and Trunks restore his energy so he can defeat Baby-Vegeta. With the release of Battle of Gods and the revelation that the Super Saiyan God ritual involves five pure hearted Saiyans giving one their power, this means that if not for Vegeta being used by Baby as his host, they could have unintentionally performed the Super Saiyan God ritual with the exact same characters who did so in the film (technically speaking Videl was pregnant with Pan at the time).
• Lex Lang voiced Gohan in the video game Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout. He would later voice Goku in the Bang Zoom dub of Super.
• The German dub of GT renamed the Black Star Dragon Balls as the Super Dragon Balls. Take a wild guess what the next new set of Dragon Balls to be introduced into the series canon would be named.

Dragon Ball Z Kai

• Colleen Clinkenbeard was often mistaken as the voice of Gohan due to her role as Monkey D. Luffy. No guesses as to who she voices in Kai.
• Toei removing Team Four Star's audio from their scene can be this when you take into account that several other alternate language dubs of The Final Chapters based their scripts and translations off of the English dub, notably the Latin American Spanish dub, which included the rewritten script for that scene. Effectively, those dubs have a reference to translation errors they never had.
• If you allow Lilith to finish off Handsome Jack at the end of Borderlands 2, then this won't be the first time Gohan obliterates Cell.

Dragon Ball Super

• In the 'who's the better father debate, Goku or Vegeta', fans of Vegeta make it a point to say that despite Vegeta's flaws he never 'abandoned' his family like Goku apparently did. Then came Episodes 16 and 17 and Vegeta left his family to train for six months. Made even more ironic when Bulma not only complained about this, but about the fact that Vegeta hardly cared for Trunks when he was a baby, which plenty of people tend to forget. He seems to have made up for this so far in the Universe Survival Saga's beginning, where he refuses to spar and/or fight TWICE just to be at Bulma's side now that she's heavily pregnant with Bra. Even if it's a Foregone Conclusion that Vegeta will be on the frontlines anyway, considering what's at stake with the universes, his decision to train and fight anyway is more understandable.
• In Dragon Ball, one of the lessons Master Roshi taught Goku and Krillin was when to rest, and he forced them to take naps in the middle of the day. Goku didn't like it because he thought other people will grow stronger than him while he slept. Master Roshi assures him that even great fighters needed to sleep. Decades later, Whis tells Vegeta that one of the reasons he falls behind Goku is because he works too much and doesn't allow his body to relaxed, something Goku had mastered (a bit too well).
• When Sorbet commented that Tagoma is stronger than the Ginyu Force, Tagoma smugly says that he surpassed all the fighters of that generation. Not even an episode later, he got body jacked by Captain Ginyu.
• In the dub of Resurrection F Gohan says he didn't tell Goten and Trunks about Frieza because knowing them, they would try to challenge him to a duel. Here, that's exactly what Gotenks does.
• Gohan's fans complaining that he stopped training to raised his daughter and to take care of his wife, making him a wasted character. This coming from the same fanbase that regularly bash Goku for choosing to train over spending time with his family. His exclusion from the Universe 6 arc also stung some fans hard. The irony of course being that fans often called Goku a bad father for forcing Gohan to fight during the Cell Saga. Goku explicitly leaves the decision in Gohan's hand this time and is supportive of his decision to prioritize his work.
• The Resurrection 'F' Saga concluded at the same time as the Frieza Saga of Kai on Toonami.
• In Dragon Ball Z, Dr. Gero claimed that he didn't think Goku would become much stronger after the Saiyan Saga given his age. Never mind that Goku was only 28 during the Android Saga (and he lost a year from being dead, making him physically 27), which is still around the physical prime of a normal human, this is hilarious given that in Super Vegeta tells Goku that Saiyans remain young until they hit 80.
• During the Resurrection F Arc, Goku laments that Frieza had to be unrepentantly evil because he thinks that Frieza would have been the perfect sparring partner. Come time for the Universe 6 arc, one of Goku's opponents is Frost, who is Frieza's Polar Opposite. Then they find out that Frost is just as bad, if not worse than Frieza, since he's a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who starts wars to 'save' people and gain good publicity. Goku just has no luck with Frieza's clan.
• The memes about U6 being the good universe became hilarious after the revelation Frost is an evil bastard like Frieza.
• Episode 43 had Goku develop an injury that temporarily prevents his ki from functioning. He should NOT see a proctologist for that.
• The introduction of Goku Black, originally referred to in spoiler material as "Black Goku", considering the series has a very large Periphery Demographic among African American fans, complete with Original Characters of such nature. And then in the dub, when Goku proper travels to the future the humans think he's the genocidal god seeking to kill them and are about to attack, leading to Trunks to yell a line that given what had been going on in the US during the time period, sounds quite intentional. "Don't shoot! This man isn't Black!"
• "DON'T COMPARE HIM TO ME!! I'M ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LEVEL!!!! If you don't drop your insolence, I'll turn you into space dust!" This is Beerus talking to Goku about Zamasu. Guess what Beerus later does...to Zamasu.
• There are quite a few moments in Dragon Ball Super related to Dragon Ball Multiverse that invoked this reaction, with plenty of examples.
• In DBZ, after Goku has asked Chichi if Gohan can help train against Cell, the scene plays like a just-offscreen goodbye kiss, or least an implication of such. Come Episode 60 of Super, however, and it's revealed that Goku has never kissed Chichi on the lips - Exact Words may still be in play, as Chichi's cheek-kissed him in DB if nothing else, but it certainly puts a new twist on that moment. In the Super manga, Goku outright says that he has never kissed Chichi period - Exact Words again since that doesn't mean she never kissed him.
• When Resurrection 'F' (which was unnamed at the time) was given the vague tagline: The worst wish in history and the beginning of despair; many fans thought that the worst wish was someone wishing for Goku to become evil. This was backed by Super Saiyan Goku having a smug smirk on the poster. Now, someone really did use the Dragon Balls to make an 'evil Goku'. In this case, a rogue Supreme Kai switched bodies with Goku, creating Goku Black. Even more cruelly ironic, the creation of Goku Black really was the worst wish in history and the beginning of despair since his birth started the end of Future Trunks' timeline. Which makes this double as Harsher in Hindsight.
• Many years ago, there was a rumour of a new Dragon Ball series called Dragon Ball AF. Even while it was fake, a lot of people fell for it, and it received a fan following, including a fan comic made by Toyotaro himself. The villains of his comic were Xicor, an evil clone of Goku who obtained his own transformation, created by a rogue Supreme Kai. Come The Future Trunks Saga, and we got an evil version of Goku working together with a rogue Supreme Kai. This becomes even more hilarious in the Super manga were Toyotaro actually copies himself and gave Black Xicor's personality and copied panels from his own comic in Chapter 22.
• Trunks' new Super Saiyan form, "Super Saiyan Rage," becomes this when one either plays, or watches a let's play of, DBZ: Legacy of Goku II for Game Boy Advance, where Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transform was incorrectly labelled as such.
• "Super Sand Lesbian" from this masterpiece has gotten a lot of attention due to shipping between Caulifla and Kale, who both happen to be Super Saiyans.
• Caulifla's blind jab at the Pride Troopers as being "wimps". For context, Universe 11 has the highest mortal level out of any of the competing universes in the Tournament of Power. Prior to the start of the Tournament, Toppo (a God of Destruction contender) made his and his teammates' potentially powerful presence known by being on par with Super Saiyan Blue Goku. Furthermore, he points out that his power is still well below that of Jiren. Cut to the gathering of the participating universes, minutes before its start, and the Pride Troopers appear with an intimidating level of Ki presence. It instantly attracts the attention of Universe 7's Goku and Vegeta, and Universe 6's Cabba as a force to not to be taken lightly. Caulifla, meanwhile, smugly disregards them as nothing to be too concerned about, and chastises Universe 7 for fearing them. While it initially appears that Caulifla would eat her crow after witnessing Jiren forcing Super Saiyan Berserk Kale out of her rampage with ease, it turns out that this display of power isn't shared equally amongst the Pride Troopers. With the combined efforts of her and a controlled Kale, along with the assistance of Androids #17 and #18, they ring out five Troop members (6, counting SSJ Berserk Kale's prior ringing out of Vuon) with relative ease in a short span of time. Meanwhile, at the time, Universe 6 has all their members accounted for and Universe 7 only has one casualty (Krillin, eliminated by a Frost cheap-shot).
• People were comparing Ribrianne and the Maiden Squadron to the Magus Sisters from Final Fantasy IV, due to similar appearances. However, this becomes a bit like this when Hermila and Prum actually use a strategy very similar to them (one user targets a fat character that's used as a shield to attack the other fighters).
• Early fan theories about Kale, and later Caulifla, made them out to be one of one the same character. It was only when Episode 92 revealed that they were two, different characters. Funny enough, with Episodes 113-115 building up and revealing their Potara fusion into Kefla, they would finally be right.
• A very obscure image on DeviantArt that was around since 2009 has very similar features to Goku Black, including a dark outfit and pinkish hair for Super Saiyan Rose.
• When the Tournament of Power was first announced, a hoax about Gohan attaining a new white-haired Super Saiyan form with the power of the angels became a meme anticipating the appearance of "Gohan Blanco". In a case of Older than You Think, the infamous Dragon Ball AF fan comic (which itself ironically took its name from a hoax about a new season of Dragon Ball; the "AF" standing for "April Fools") had a Super Saiyan 5 form in which Goku takes on white hair for his transformation as well. While Gohan doesn't gain a new form in the Tournament, Goku's Mastered Ultra Instinct form◊ is pretty much a white-haired Super Saiyan God that's related to the angels. Introducing "Goku Blanco"!
  • And in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Gohan does end up getting a new form with white hair, called "Gohan Beast".
• A "Super Dragon Ball Heroes" commercial showed small clips from Super, including outright revealing Fusion Zamasu before his debut. However, at the beginning of the Tournament of Power, it showed what were seemingly the final three in a clean arena: Goku, Frieza, and Jiren, with Frieza charging in at Jiren (who effortlessly blows Frieza away) and Goku fighting against Jiren. Before Android 17 was revealed to have survived his "self-destruct" attack, these three would have been the final three warriors. And that's not considering the fact that Android 17 ended up being the absolute last fighter in the Tournament of Power.
• The reveal of Bulma's replacement seiyuu after her previous one passed away becomes this due to two reasons:
  • Vegeta gains blue hair in Super Saiyan God. So does Sailor Mercury.
  • And once upon a time, a certain NSFW fanwork of dubious quality existed, which was a Sailor Moon and DBZ crossover.
• It's fairly common for comparisons to be made to Goku and Superman, especially on the English side, which makes James Marsters' casting as Zamasu in the dub this. Guess whose arch enemies it was that he previously portrayed a decade prior?
  • Not to mention he also played King Piccolo in Dragon Ball Evolution, who is also green with pointy ears and Goku's arch-enemy.
• Beerus is purple, feared throughout the galaxy and wipes out half a planet's population. Where else have we seen that?
• The Big Bad of the Future Trunks Saga is a God formerly associated with a group who believes in guidance through inaction, and rebelled against them when they did nothing regarding the mortals' growing chaotic nature, thus sought after a forbidden power in order to enact the Final Solution so they could reboot the universe in their own "perfect" image. Pretty Cure fans would probably get a kick in realizing that Star Princess Ophiuchus of Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is basically Zamasu in all but name.
• Whis' seiyuu, Masakazu Morita, also voices Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. In the Thousand Year Blood War anime, Kōichi Yamadera, Beerus' seiyuu, voiced Quilge Opie, who ends up getting curb-stomped by Ichigo, meaning that Whis easily trounces Beerus once again.

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