Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. You watch something as a kid, you think it's kinda cool, you leave it alone forgotten in the recesses of your memory until you're an adult 15 years later, and suddenly, that thing you thought it was so cool turns out to be one of the worst things you have ever seen in your life.
In Dragon Ball Z's defense, it wasn't originally meant to be so long and padded. The producers picked the letter Z to allude to the fact they were ending the show, if interviews are to be believed. But Z was neither short, nor it was the end. It just kept going, and the more it went, the more the story kept deteriorating and my patience ran short.
I have said Z has a pretty strong beginning and I stand by that. The opening to the Saiyan Saga all the way to the end of Namek is fantastic. It feels like a story is happening in real time, the characters are developing and maturing, there are stakes and a sense of hopelessness that just can't be replicated in the last two arcs, and the Dragon Balls are still the main focus of the series.
Sadly, as soon as the Android Saga kicks in, the story takes a nosedive in quality and never quite recovers. Random things just start happening for no reason, with barely any connection or logical explanation. Cell just straight up shows out of nowhere, creating a massive time-traveling plot-hole, and he keeps getting new abilities like regenerating himself from complete obliteration and instant transmission, even though that should've been it for him.
The story also starts relying way too much on characters acting stupid and prideful, to the point you finish the series only hoping that they all die slowly and painfully. One of the worst examples is Vegeta, who feels like he's going to develop every single arc, but then regresses back into base character as soon as the next arc begins:
Vegeta hopes Goku and Gohan become Super Saiyan in the Namek arc to defeat Freeza, only to go back to hating them in the Cell arc. Then, Goku dies in the Cell arc and Gohan surpasses him, and Vegeta quietly accepts this and vows to never fight again. Then, he's back to hating them in the Boo arc. Then, same thing happens, to the point Vegeta kills hundreds of people only to fight Goku, only for Vegeta to grow a heart out of nowhere, be redeemed and acknowledge Goku is #1... Until both GT and Super put Vegeta back on Square 1.
Is this supposed to be character development? I wonder why the hell do people like the sheer obnoxious mess that is Vegeta to the point Toriyama resurrected him multiple times just so his fans would shut up. On interview, Toriyama has mentioned he doesn't like Vegeta very much, which I can relate to, but also find quite strange, considering the amount of focus he puts on this character.
And then, there's Goku. In the beginning of Dragon Ball, Goku was supposed to be this innocent pure-hearted kid until Toriyama retconned him into a fight-loving alien who only saves the world by pure accident in Z. It's a retcon that doesn't really hurt him that much when he either spares Freeza or Vegeta, but my problems with Goku start the moment he keeps abandoning his family to go train elsewhere and not stopping the Androids, Majin Boo or Vegeta when he has a chance simply because he wants a good fight.
The quality of the fights in the series also suffer, slowly departing from martial arts to "Who can get the next transformation out of their ass to win." Even if the Namek Saga was guilty of this by introducing the Zenkai bullshit and Freeza's countless transformations, it still managed to avoid it by having Goku keeping up with Freeza due to the fact he trained rigorously. But then, training in Dragon Ball Z becomes utterly pointless, as the characters train 3 years to prepare for the Androids and it amounts to nothing, along with the multiple training montages in the Boo Saga, which also amount to nothing.
I really don't want to say Dragon Ball Z sucks, but the latter 2/3 of the anime is genuinely godawful and nigh-unwatchable. It makes clear that the franchise was already running way past its course and Akira was getting tired of it, which makes sense considering he's been at it for almost 10 years. I just wish he would've stopped earlier like he planned to, so I could still look back at this series with good eyes.
Dragon Ball Z - As a Whole
Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. You watch something as a kid, you think it's kinda cool, you leave it alone forgotten in the recesses of your memory until you're an adult 15 years later, and suddenly, that thing you thought it was so cool turns out to be one of the worst things you have ever seen in your life.
In Dragon Ball Z's defense, it wasn't originally meant to be so long and padded. The producers picked the letter Z to allude to the fact they were ending the show, if interviews are to be believed. But Z was neither short, nor it was the end. It just kept going, and the more it went, the more the story kept deteriorating and my patience ran short.
I have said Z has a pretty strong beginning and I stand by that. The opening to the Saiyan Saga all the way to the end of Namek is fantastic. It feels like a story is happening in real time, the characters are developing and maturing, there are stakes and a sense of hopelessness that just can't be replicated in the last two arcs, and the Dragon Balls are still the main focus of the series.
Sadly, as soon as the Android Saga kicks in, the story takes a nosedive in quality and never quite recovers. Random things just start happening for no reason, with barely any connection or logical explanation. Cell just straight up shows out of nowhere, creating a massive time-traveling plot-hole, and he keeps getting new abilities like regenerating himself from complete obliteration and instant transmission, even though that should've been it for him.
The story also starts relying way too much on characters acting stupid and prideful, to the point you finish the series only hoping that they all die slowly and painfully. One of the worst examples is Vegeta, who feels like he's going to develop every single arc, but then regresses back into base character as soon as the next arc begins:
Vegeta hopes Goku and Gohan become Super Saiyan in the Namek arc to defeat Freeza, only to go back to hating them in the Cell arc. Then, Goku dies in the Cell arc and Gohan surpasses him, and Vegeta quietly accepts this and vows to never fight again. Then, he's back to hating them in the Boo arc. Then, same thing happens, to the point Vegeta kills hundreds of people only to fight Goku, only for Vegeta to grow a heart out of nowhere, be redeemed and acknowledge Goku is #1... Until both GT and Super put Vegeta back on Square 1.
Is this supposed to be character development? I wonder why the hell do people like the sheer obnoxious mess that is Vegeta to the point Toriyama resurrected him multiple times just so his fans would shut up. On interview, Toriyama has mentioned he doesn't like Vegeta very much, which I can relate to, but also find quite strange, considering the amount of focus he puts on this character.
And then, there's Goku. In the beginning of Dragon Ball, Goku was supposed to be this innocent pure-hearted kid until Toriyama retconned him into a fight-loving alien who only saves the world by pure accident in Z. It's a retcon that doesn't really hurt him that much when he either spares Freeza or Vegeta, but my problems with Goku start the moment he keeps abandoning his family to go train elsewhere and not stopping the Androids, Majin Boo or Vegeta when he has a chance simply because he wants a good fight.
The quality of the fights in the series also suffer, slowly departing from martial arts to "Who can get the next transformation out of their ass to win." Even if the Namek Saga was guilty of this by introducing the Zenkai bullshit and Freeza's countless transformations, it still managed to avoid it by having Goku keeping up with Freeza due to the fact he trained rigorously. But then, training in Dragon Ball Z becomes utterly pointless, as the characters train 3 years to prepare for the Androids and it amounts to nothing, along with the multiple training montages in the Boo Saga, which also amount to nothing.
I really don't want to say Dragon Ball Z sucks, but the latter 2/3 of the anime is genuinely godawful and nigh-unwatchable. It makes clear that the franchise was already running way past its course and Akira was getting tired of it, which makes sense considering he's been at it for almost 10 years. I just wish he would've stopped earlier like he planned to, so I could still look back at this series with good eyes.
Rating: 2/5