Anime Boo Saga - Majin-Boo
Alright, I see if I pointed every single bit of wrong there is with the Boo Saga, I'll take forever, so let me just make it short:
All The Accounts of Plot-Induced Stupidity
Bulma forgetting the Dragon Radar. Sending Trunks to fetch it, but not telling him where she put it. Gohan missing to catch the earring and only staring like an idiot while Majin Boo absorbs him. Vegeta coming back with a body, only to have a cheated wife argument with Goku because he didn't use SSJ3 with him. Goku and Vegeta breaking the earrings because Saiyan pride or whatever. Dende and Kibito forgetting to go to Namek and use the Dragon Balls, with Vegeta having to remind them several episodes later. The fact nobody even thinks about using the Mafuba to seal Boo.
And of course, Dragon Ball Z wouldn't be Dragon Ball Z without the all-time classic: None of the characters bother to finish off Majin Boo when they have the upper-hand, preferring to taunt him and toy around him until it's too late because they "Want him to feel the same humiliation his victims felt." Five minutes later, they're getting their asses kicked and saying "If I had known you were this strong, I would've finished you off." (And yes, that's an actual quote, repeated several times by several different characters)
All The Accounts of Things That Make No Sense
Majin Boo can apparently break through dimensions by screaming in rage, something that shocks even Boo himself. Later on, Gotenks can also do that. Speaking of Gotenks, he also reaches SSJ3 without any training or explanation... again!
Oh, and Vegitto becomes a piece of candy... and the candy fights back... and the candy titles itself "You're getting your ass kicked by the strongest piece of hard candy in the universe!"
And yes, that's another actual quote. What kind of hard drugs was Toriyama on when he wrote this arc?
All The Pointless Stuff That Happens
By far, this arc is the most padded and pointless there is in Z. Actually, scratch that, it's the most padded and pointless there is in the entire franchise. It has almost 100 episodes, but hardly 10 of them matter. The "story" wastes so much time introducing new elements that amount to nothing in the end that it feels like a giant arc of canon filler.
Gohan being built up as the new protagonist, Gohan training with the Z-Sword, Goten and Trunks learning Fusion, Super Saiyan 3 and its full five minutes of pure screaming, Old Kaioshin and his ridiculous hours-long power-up sequence, Gotenks, Mystic Gohan, Vegitto, Tenshinhan showing up for like five minutes, the toilet humor adventures inside Boo's body, Goku powering up for an entire minute while Vegeta holds Boo back... And how many of these elements actually amount to anything? None of them.
At the end of the day, it's freaking Goku and his Genki Dama who saves the day. Not Fusion, not Gohan, not SSJ3, not Vegitto... absolutely nothing of what the story builds up comes to fruition, which makes you feel like you just wasted your time watching a big pile of 100 episodes of nothing.
The Glorious, Glorious Ending
Goku asks one of the gods of the universe to revive Boo as a normal human. And surprisingly, this normal human can catch up to him when nobody else could. Oh, so after spending the vast majority of your story mistreating the humans characters and excusing it with "They're no match for the Saiyans." Now you're telling me this bland-ass kid can match up to Goku? Fuck you, Toriyama.
Oh, but it gets better: Goku decides to abandon his family, including his little granddaughter who loved him very much, to go train this random-ass kid. Why? Because "One day, Oob, you will grow up strong so I can fight you? Isn't that amazing? Dedicating your entire life to fighting someone stronger than you are?"
Meanwhile, every single other character in the background cries because of Goku leaving, including Chichi, his wife. The End!
...
Just where the hell is Freeza's humiliating beating on Goku?
Final Thoughts
Seriously, what the actual hell was this arc? With the sole exception of a few select moments like the Great Saiyaman Saga, Mr. Satan bonding with Boo, and the Super Genki Dama throwback with all classic characters and locations, ''everything' about this arc is pure garbage. It's stupid, it's extremely padded, it makes no sense, and it's too crazy even for Dragon Ball standards.
It really feels like Toriyama was either drunk or using some very heavy drugs when he wrote this. I don't know, maybe his plan all along was to make the story so godawful that his editors would have no choice but to cancel Dragon Ball forever? Whatever the case is, this arc is a stain. GT was better than this.
Rating: 0/5
Anime Boo Saga - Majin-Vegeta
Before venturing into Babidi's spaceship, Shin reveals the reason why he recruited Goku's crew: Apparently, Babidi's magic is so strong that anyone with the slightest bit of evil in their hearts will fall prey to it. And somehow, nobody predicts Vegeta, the guy who sends a death threat to everybody every 5 seconds, would have any evil in his heart. Of course, that require the main characters to be smart in the first place.
Vegeta's Un-Redemption Arc Round #3
So, Vegeta, obviously having evil in his heart, is possessed by Babidi and starts throwing a massive tantrum to fight Goku. When Goku doesn't want to, Vegeta goes and kills hundreds of people, some of which came dangerously close to be his wife and friends... but that's before the story reveals Vegeta was never possessed at all and just used Babidi to get stronger.
The funniest is the character reactions, including Goku's "Vegeta, how could you?!" Yeah, he just slaughtered a village of innocent Namekians, laughed about it, swore he would become the next Freeza, threatened to kill you multiple times, threatened to kill Bulma if she killed Gero before he developed the Androids, let Cell absorb No. 18 and become Perfect, among numerous other things. Who could even imagine Vegeta would ever do such a thing? Toriyama sure loves to pretend Vegeta is already redeemed when he never was.
And then, comes the kicker: Vegeta, after wasting everybody's time and willingly giving his energy to Majin Boo just so he could fight Goku, grows a heart out of absolutely nowhere, knocks Goku out cold and goes to challenge Majin Boo alone. I'm sorry, what the hell just happened?!
In the end, Vegeta sacrifices himself to absolutely no effect, with Piccolo even reminding the audience that this would be his final death, because evil people lose their bodies and memories and get reincarnated as other life forms. (Man, I'm glad Super isn't canon, right?)
The Dragon Balls Don't Matter Anymore
After Vegeta kills people, the rest of the cast try to find the original Dragon Balls. Bulma is sad that her husband is a mass murderer who killed hundreds of people on a temper tantrum, but Yamcha comforts her with the following line: "Who cares? That's what the Dragons Balls are for! :D"
I guess that sums up Z's sense of tension pretty well: The Dragon Balls went from the focus of the show to a mere plot device that nullifies whatever bit of consequence there is left. Who cares if people die? We'll just resurrect them anyway. Shen Long used to have rules against reviving people twice and Porunga used to have rules against reviving multiple people at once, but by the end of the show, those rules are discarded.
What makes it even funnier is that not even an episode goes by and they all start freaking out and screaming in pain because they think Vegeta, Goten, Trunks and Gohan all died. Let me reuse Yamcha's phrase: "Who cares? That's what the Dragons Balls are for! :D"
Final Thoughts
So, let's recap: Vegeta goes from sorta-good-but-mind-controlled, to not-mind-controlled-just-likes-evil, to killing people and throwing tantrums just to fight Goku without caring about Majin Boo, to not wanting to fight Goku and wanting to be good and defeat Majin Boo.
In the end, all he accomplished was waste everybody's time and provide more plot-induced stupidity. It's clear why Akira did it, there was no damn way Goku/Gohan/Vegeta wouldn't defeat Babidi if he didn't make Vegeta evil. But the problem is that he kept zig-zagging between Vegeta being mind-controlled and not-mind-controlled, which made the whole thing nonsensical.
Also, when you have a line in your show that literally says "Who cares? That's what the Dragons Balls are for! :D" Then you're basically telling me there's no reason to keep watching.
Rating: 1/5
Anime Boo Saga - Before Majin-Vegeta
Here's a bit fun of trivia about my time watching this show: I had dropped Z after finishing the Android Saga and skipped straight to GT and Super. After a while, I decided to come back to Z and finish what I had started, convinced that the worst had already passed and the Boo Saga couldn't possibly be any more terrible than the Android Saga... I was wrong.
The "Sailor Moon" Episodes
The story begins after another time-skip, Gohan must live through an ordinary high school student life while keeping a secret identity as a super hero and getting into Unresolved Sexual Tension with Mr. Satan's daughter.
These first few episodes are perhaps the best of the entire arc and are just delightful to watch. This series spends so much time being so dark and gloomy and focused on non-stop fighting, there was hardly ever any time to breathe and let the characters enjoy themselves. Sadly, it doesn't last long and all goes downhill once the main "plot" (if I can even call it that) kicks in.
"He's just standing there... Menacingly!"
Suddenly, there's a tournament. Goten and Trunks can become Super Saiyans, without a single shred of explanation, training or build-up. It kinda makes you wonder, if it was that easy, how come Kid!Goku never managed to do it? It gets worse: Piccolo is then matched up against Kaioshin, the God above the God of the Four Gods... Because of course, Dragon Ball needed more.
What makes this extra terrible is that Piccolo, sensing this god's Ki (Man, I'm sure as hell glad Super isn't canon... right?), withdraws from the battle and Shin goes on to be one of the most useless characters ever, having little to no relevance in the story and doing nothing but freak out all the time.
"Oh no, Videl is being smacked... Let's do nothing!"
Next up, Videl is put against Spopovich. Whatever notion I had that Videl was a smart character went down the drain here. She keeps hitting him, at one point snapping his neck, and never once considers simply dragging him off the ring. "Man, hitting him repeatedly isn't working, what should I do? I know, I'll hit him more!" Predictably, it ends terribly for her.
While Videl receives one of the worst beatdowns in the entire show, the other characters all watch and stop Gohan from intervening, because apparently, the tournament is more important than Videl's life. "Don't worry about her Gohan. No matter what happens, she'll live!" Says Goku while Videl is having her head crushed.
Why does nobody intervene? Why doesn't the announcer disqualify Spopovich for clearly trying to murder Videl? Why does Gohan do nothing for so long? Man, the sense of morality of this fucking show.
Plot-Induced Stupidity Round #2
Gohan is then matched up against Kibito, Shin tells the other characters that no matter what happens, they should not intervene. They ask why and Shin explains that he intends to use Gohan as a bait so he can find Babidi. The other characters laugh and tell him there's no need to do that, because they can either ask Uranai Baba or use the Dragon Balls to locate him. And so, Shin kills Spopovich and Yamu before they even have a chance, Uranai Baba reveals the location of Babidi and Shin kills him as well, The End!
...At least, that's what would've happened if Shin had a brain. But since he doesn't, Babidi gets more than half the energy he needed to revive Majin Boo. Way to go, Shin!
As if that weren't enough, Gohan, Goku and Vegeta all enter Babidi's spaceship despite Shin's warnings that it was a trap to steal their energy. There, they meet enemy after enemy who Shin freaks out and swears to heaven are the most powerful beings in the whole universe, shortly before the main cast kills them with little to no effort.
Goddammit, Piccolo. You withdrew against this, you oughta be ashamed of yourself.
Final Thoughts
The first few episodes are nice enough, but once the story starts proper, it's just a repeat of the Cell Saga, plot hinging heavily on character stupidity and Worf Effect to progress. If anything, these initial episodes at least have a sense of coherence and stakes, which will all be lost promptly.
Rating: 2/5
Anime Android Saga - Cell Games
The good news is that the worst part of this entire saga is already done with. The bad news is that what comes after is not that much better.
A Tournament... Not Really
So, Cell decides to make a tournament, because he's looking for a purpose in life or something. In actuality, it's really just a battle against Goku, no one else participates. On one hand, I like it that they're cutting to the chase, but on the other hand, the entire setup to this arc was pointless and what could've been used to give the other characters some time to shine is now wasted.
It's at this point the single worst character of the anime is introduced. So far, every character in this arc has been incompetent, annoying and/or stupid, but never a combination of all three. Meet Mr. Satan: A character that has no right to exist in this story. I hope you like his joke of watching explosions and Ki blasts flying around and trying to explain them with "It's a trick!" Because from this point on, you will be hearing it every 2 goddamn minutes.
Goku fights Cell, destroys most of his body, including his head, but Cell regenerates. Goku then suddenly gives up and tags with Gohan, who proceeds to get the shit beaten out of him while his father just watches with this huge shit-eating-grin on his face. Apparently, Goku wants Gohan to get super angry, so he'll become Super Saiyan 2 and kill Cell.
There's only two problems with this: Goku is a terrible parent and never realized his son doesn't like fighting, and he throws Cell a freaking senzu bean. I reiterate: Goku absolutely deserved a humiliating beating like Vegeta's on Namek.
Ass Pulls... Ass Pulls Everywhere!
Enraged by the death of No. 16, a character he's had less than 10 seconds of interaction with, Gohan becomes Super Saiyan 2. I don't like the reason for why it happens, but it's a great transformation, with the bombastic "Unmei no Hi ~Tamashī tai Tamashī~" playing in the background.
Too bad becoming Super Saiyan 2 comes with a boat-load of stupidity. "But I want to humiliate him so he can feel the same fear-" This is so Freeza Saga, just kill him already. Gohan punches Cell, Cell pukes No. 18 (because of course she's intact and can perfectly fit inside him) and reverts back to his imperfect form, before revealing he has a nuclear warhead inside of him and taking Goku with him.
Then, he comes back, inexplicably learning Instant Transmission and regenerating back to his perfect form even stronger than before, "because Saiyan." Apparently, he can regenerate himself as long as his head isn't blown off (it's happened before) and his cells apparently remember his perfect form (they didn't before) hence why he's now back as Super Perfect Cell.
(repeatedly bangs my head against a wall) Why won't this end?!
The Surprisingly Good Ending
There is a giant beam-of-war between Gohan and Cell, the other characters try to help, but they're all shit at it. Until Vegeta, growing a heart for Trunks out of literally nowhere, is powerful enough to distract him. Gohan kills Cell, and this insufferable unending battle finally comes to a close. The characters try to resurrect Goku, but Goku decides to stay dead, because Gohan has already surpassed him and because Goku only brings trouble to Earth.
You know, if the series actually ended here, I wouldn't complain. Vegeta decides to quit his annoying quest for battling and becomes a better person, Trunks saves his future, Goku realizes he's a selfish asshole who puts everyone in danger... Despite the rest of the arc being trash, this is a perfectly good and touching ending that ties everything up nicely.
Final Thoughts
I liked the ending, and I liked the transformation into Super Saiyan 2... that's it.
This arc was terrible, it kind of felt like it was going to get better when No. 17 and No. 18 were introduced, but then goes straight back to awful when Cell takes over. You can feel in every scene Toriyama writing himself into a corner and pulling something out of his ass to get himself out. Mostly, it boiled down to "things happen because character acts like an idiot."
As for Cell, I didn't like him as a villain. He had a great, terrifying setup, but not much else. He lacks the affable personality of Freeza and the Androids, so he's not much fun to watch. He succeeds not out of competence, but because everyone else is incompetent and stupid. He literally breaks the rules of the universe and bends the script in his favor to get more and more powerful without justification. The show kinda tries to pretend it's going to make him deep with that whole "searching for a purpose in life" aspect, but then the show reveals his true purpose was always "destroy the universe."
Nothing in Dragon Ball was worse than this arc for me. Not GT, not Super, nothing.
Rating: 1.5/5
Anime Android Saga - Imperfect Cell
Alright, so No. 17 and 18 have been awesome villains, and the show has been doing a great job building up Cell's introduction, this means it'll keep that level of quality... right?
Plot-induced Stupidity
Piccolo fuses with Kami, declaring "I'm no longer Piccolo, I'm a Super Namekian who long forgot his own name." Piccolo then meets Cell and finds out he's been drinking people. Alright, that's hella disturbing, one good point for Cell. They fight, and Piccolo loses rather pathetically. So much for "Super Namekian."
Now, here's a part I hate. You know how Cell had this great, mysterious buildup? He ruins all of it by having this long exposition dump and revealing his goals to Piccolo, because "Oh, you're gonna die anyway, might as well tell you everything I'm going to do!" Luckily for Cell, the heroes are just as stupid and they let him escape.
Cell Makes No Sense
According to Cell, he comes from a timeline where A) Trunks did not intervene with the past and the Z-Warriors died to the Androids, with Goku dying of heart failure. B) Trunks did intervene with the past, which allowed Gero to collect Freeza's cells from his sliced body. C) Everything that happens in the Future Trunks' timeline at the end of this saga happens the exact same way, with the only exception that Trunks died on his way to go back to celebrate his victory with the heroes.
Toriyama's established rules for time-travel are simple: You can't travel to the future, you can only travel to the past of the timeline you're in, which will in turn generate another timeline. Cell breaks those rules, coming from 3 different timelines that have very different histories.
Even More Plot-induced Stupidity
Now begins a long, painful sequence where other characters try to stall Cell from absorbing the Androids while yelling at them to run the fuck away, and... they don't. They just stand there, watching like idiots, completely and perfectly still, for all of 4 episodes.
Tenshinhan and Goku in particular keep teeling themselves "There's nothing I can do!" for the same 4 episodes. Hell, Goku 'punches Gohan for trying to intervene. But then, No. 17 is absorbed, and both Goku and Tenshinhan conveniently remember that yes, there was something they could do: Instant Transmission and Kikouhou.
New!Vegeta also decides to be an idiot and plays with Cell, while Trunks just stands back and watches, because although he's more powerful, he "doesn't want to hurt his dad's ego." Seriously? Vegeta's ego is more important than the future? Until the very last moment, in which Vegeta lets Cell absorb No. 18 and fights with Trunks to let it happen.
Trunks tries to stop it, but he's a little too late. He even gets up-close to No. 18 and tells her to run away. Dude, why not blow her up right now in 1s like you do in the future? I understand No. 18 will get redeemed, but this makes no sense.
Oh, and Kuririn destroys the remote, because of true love or whatever. He knew her for like 10 seconds, and knows little about her other than the fact she's female and she wants to kill his best friend, she's a good person I say!
Predictably, No. 18 is absorbed. Cell becomes perfect and kills everybody, The End. Or at least, that's what I wish would happen.
Final Thoughts
There's nothing positive I can say here. Cell had a good buildup, but then he instantly ruins it by delivering that gigantic info dump. The heroes then take all of this precious information and do nothing with it. The storytelling is once again reduced to "and then things happen, because someone is an idiot."
Rating: 1/5
Anime Namek Saga (Freeza) - The Death of Dragon Ball's Quality
I will just remind everybody of one important thing before I start this review: I'm not really a fan of this series and haven't had contact with it for 15 years. This is not the viewpoint of a Dragon Ball fan, this the viewpoint of an anime-loving adult who's casually watching this in 2022 and judging it based on its own merits.
Now, while Dragon Ball Z can be enjoyable and has been very enjoyable during the Saiyan Saga and during the beginning of this Saga... what it does during this segment is painful. Pacing, logic, character intelligence and storytelling just fly out the window the minute the third part of the Namek Saga begins.
Setting Up The Trends
After the fight with Ginyu, Goku is left extremely wounded and, since he conveniently didn't bring enough senzu beans with him, he has to stay incapacitated healing inside a pod for half of the segment.
During the same time, Vegeta starts feeling sick for... reasons... and decides he's gonna take a nap. I'm not entirely sure what the hell just happened, but this very convenient event gives the heroes time to grab the Dragon Balls, sneak out, and make their wish before Vegeta gets his immortality granted and kills everybody.
You know, it's great seeing characters still treat Vegeta logically. They know he's a murderous, remorseless psychopath who will betray them on a whim as soon as he gets what he wants. This is just about the last time the characters will treat him as such.
And so, they get to wishing. The first wish is to bring Piccolo back to life, so the Earth Dragon Balls will also be restored and so they can resurrect everybody else. Okay, sounds reasonable enough. Up until this point, nothing inexcusably stupid has happened yet, but then...
Their first wish alerts both Vegeta and Freeza, who are now fast on their way to kill them. The heroes panic, when suddenly, Piccolo asks to have the second wish be teleport him to Namek so he can fight Freeza himself, because he wants to avenge his people or whatever... who he states on multiple occasions he doesn't give a damn about.
Okay, this is a terrible idea. In Piccolo's defense, he tells them he's been training in Kaio-sama's planet, which is complete bullshit. Piccolo outright refused to train. And even if he did train, he would only get as powerful as Goku was during the Saiyan Saga, in other words, not nearly enough by a huge margin.
But, against all logic, common sense and at complete risk of ruining the entire reason why they went to Namek in the first place, they grant Piccolo his wish. Now, they have only one wish left, and the kicker is... Piccolo wasn't teleported to their exact location, so they plan to use the third wish to teleport him there. I don't know, but maybe "teleport us the fuck away from Namek so Freeza/Vegeta won't kill us" is a better option.
Things are ruined when Vegeta arrives and demands to have his immortality granted, though, threatening to kill Dende if he doesn't get it. Now, one important thing to remember: Wishes must be made in Namekian language, a language Vegeta doesn't understand. Dende could've simply told Porunga "teleport us the fuck away to Earth" or "teleport Vegeta to the sun" or even "teleport Piccolo right here" like they were originally planning. And actually, that's exactly what happens 15 episodes down the line.
In an amazing display of plot moved by further character stupidity, Dende decides to grant Vegeta his immortality, no questions asked. When the Dragon Balls suddenly and very conveniently become inert, so Vegeta can't have his wish granted either. Vegeta is very angry and about to kill the shit out of everybody, until Freeza arrives... Dun dun duuuuuun!
Longest... Fight... Ever!
I'm not entirely sure what happened behind the production of the show during this time, most people say what happens here happens because the anime caught up with the manga, so they were forced to do some... questionable things with the pacing. In other words, the show's pacing simply dies during this segment.
There are lots of reused footage, recap episodes, characters talking and starting at each other back and forth for long periods of time, heavy use of flashbacks for things that happened the previous episode, and in one instance, of things that happened a few minutes ago in the same episode.
There is also the fact that the climactic fight with Freeza lasts for over 30 episodes, thirty. Most anime would have their climaxes happen under 5 episodes, 10 if we're being generous. But Dragon Ball comes to prove other anime has nothing on it and stretches things out to hell. Even Kai, the supposedly "better-paced" version of the anime, has this fight reduced to 18 episodes. Still not good enough.
Meanwhile, Piccolo, now realizing he's stupid as fuck and shouldn't have made the wish to be teleported to Namek, not only because he's complete cannon fodder, but also because it put the whole mission in jeopardy (And yes, he does realize it and says it out loud. I love it when Akira Toriyama is self-conscious about his writing), finds a dying Nail in the middle of nowhere.
Piccolo and Nail decide to fuse, because that's the only way they'll ever be more powerful than Freeza... My question is: How?! Piccolo's power-level is, at best, not more than 20k, Nail's is not more than 50k. Freeza's second form is over a million, but fused Piccolo can still keep up with him? How does that make any sense?! 20,000 + 50,000 = 1,000,000???
Even then, it doesn't work, because Freeza transforms again and the whole fight becomes another race to see who can last longer until Goku arrives. Poor Piccolo, he had one episode of competence before being shoehorned straight back into cannon fodder.
During the whole mess, Vegeta has the brilliant idea to open a hole in his chest, expecting Dende to heal him, fully intending to abuse the Zenkai Bullshit. You know, in paper, this does sound like a brilliant idea. The characters can just grab a bag of senzu, shoot themselves to death and heal themselves until they get to an absurdly high power level.
Surprisingly, it doesn't work. Seems like even Akira realized how easy it is to abuse this plot-point and put an end to it. The Zenkai does show up a few times again in the rest of the series, but it's not nearly as egregious as it is in the Namek Saga. So, good on Akira for finally putting an end to this.
"Please, Feel Bad For Vegeta!"
After fooling himself into thinking he became stronger, Vegeta challenges Freeza to a fight. The result is one of the most humiliating curb-stomps in the whole anime. And it's just so, so cathartic to watch. Vegeta has spent so much time being an annoying Smug Super that watching him having a lesson in humility is delicious.
"Are you satisfied now, Vegeta? (smack) You 'Nothing In My Brain But Fighting' Stupid Saiyan? (smack)" Also helped by how Freeza is an incredible villain who keeps rubbing it on Vegeta's face. You know, if Goku was on the receiving end of a beatdown like this in Super or even in the Android Saga, I wouldn't complain.
The only problem with this sequence is because Akira Toriyama starts what I like to call "Please, Feel Bad For Vegeta." What I mean by that is: Both anime and manga start trying, very hard, to make you feel sympathetic towards Vegeta. "Look at that, Vegeta is shedding tears for the first time in his life, I feel so bad for him!" (And yes, that's a piece of dialogue lifted straight from the Japanese version)
Now, a little bit of history on Vegeta: He was initially designed to be a throw-away villain. He would die during the Saiyan Saga, crushed by Oozaru!Gohan. However, due to the character's popularity, Akira allowed him to live a little while longer. I don't have a problem with this, since Vegeta contributes so much to the Namek Saga, but I do have a problem with the way Vegeta is utilized from this point on.
The intent of the author is very clear, Vegeta has become too popular with the fans to simply kill off, so he's planning on redeeming Vegeta and integrating him into the main cast. I wouldn't have a problem with this... if Vegeta actually had a decent redemption arc. I have commended Toriyama on making a good redemption arc for Piccolo, citing it as one of the best in his work, but Vegeta's is easily one of his worst.
Instead of having Vegeta atone or reflect on his sins, like slaughtering an entire village of innocents or gleefully committing genocide with or without Freeza's influence, both anime and manga instead opt to make you feel sad for Vegeta by having him get brutally beaten down by Freeza. Moving speeches about how Vegeta did everything Freeza ever told him to do, how his race was treated terribly despite being loyal, none of that really worked for me. Specially when you recall lines like this:
"I don't care about what happened to my planet, my friends, my race or even my parents. All that matters to me is getting stronger and reaching immortality so I can enjoy fighting for eternity!" (Vegeta to Dodoria, Japanese Version)
I have a lot more to say about Vegeta's shoddy "redemption arc", but I'll get into that later.
Several Episodes of Fooling Around
So, Goku arrives and feeling sorry for Vegeta (because why not), declares he will beat Freeza once and for all. He also tells the others to stand aside and not intervene, because of course he does. What follows is a bunch of episodes with Freeza playing around with Goku and smugly declaring he's not even using 100% of his true power.
After realizing he can't beat Freeza, Goku bets it all on the Genki-Dama. So, Goku raises his arms and this amuses Freeza, because he thinks Goku is dancing and never bothers to look up in the same direction Goku is looking. But after he does, the other characters finally join in to stall for time. So, Goku throws the Genki-Dama and Freeza dies, the end... Not!
The Super Saiyan Transformation
Determined to have another 10 episodes of pointless battles where the characters just fool around each other, the show reveals Freeza has survived. Freeza then not-kills Piccolo with his one-hit death ray. I say "not-kill" because Piccolo contractually can't die for the sake of the plot, otherwise this entire mission would be in vain and the audience would realize the characters are massive idiots for wasting a wish on bringing him to Namek.
Then, Freeza proceeds to kill Kuririn and this triggers Goku's explosion of anger into The Legendary Super Saiyan and... it kind of blows.
I know I'm in the vast minority here, but watching this episode for the first time ever, I don't see what's the big deal here. His hair color changed and he got a massive power boost, that's it. I mean, yes, there was an entire section of foreshadowing behind it, but I didn't feel like the buildup paid off very well. The transformation simply happens and it's over before you know it. "Wait, that's it? That's the transformation?"
Admittedly, knowing the reason behind the transformation's concept does help in making me feel like it's not a big deal: Akira simply got tired of coloring Goku's hair, so he created Super Saiyan. Now, he doesn't need to color the entirety of Goku's hair, he only needs to do the linework, and he saves on black ink!
Regardless of my feelings towards the Super Saiyan Transformation, what follows is also not good.
"This Planet Will Explode in 5 Months- I Mean, Minutes!"
Furious at Freeza for killing Kuririn and swearing revenge, Goku starts doing the same thing Freeza did in the first half of this segment: Fool around him. He demands that Freeza power-up to 100% so he can "humiliate him the same way he did with every single person he ever killed."
In a better-paced, less incredibly stupid show, I would let that pass without a single complaint. But considering this is Dragon Ball Z, it's just another nail in the coffin of whatever good qualities this arc still had. Freeza takes an entire episode to power-up, and even after that, Goku still continues to wipe the floor with him. That's when Freeza pulls the biggest bullshit ever said in anime and in manga: "This planet will explode in 5 minutes!"
No, despite what fan justifications will tell you, this is not an exaggeration. This is not the characters fighting at super-sonic speeds, and this is not Freeza lying to save face. Toriyama meant what he said when he wrote the line "5 minutes." Bulma's spaceship confirms the planet had 5 minutes left. So yeah, this is purely Toriyama's lack of foresight and desire to torture his audience with more pointless battling.
Meanwhile, Mr. Popo gathers the Dragon Balls and resurrects the dead Namekians, then Kami makes a plan with Guru and Dende to use Porunga to relocate everyone else but Freeza to Earth. But Goku declares in all fury that he wants to stay too, because he wants to "avenge Kuririn" or whatever. In that moment, Freeza almost gets his wish granted, but Dende, suddenly having grown a brain and knowing Freeza can't speak Namekian, makes the wish to teleport everyone away successfully. Yes, it was that easy to have avoided this entire mess.
Even More Episodes of Fooling Around
You know how it goes, Goku and Freeza keep fighting on Namek, throwing technique after technique at each other to no effect, while everybody waits patiently on Earth for Goku to return and Kaio-sama keeps reminding the audience that "This time for sure, Namek will explode this episode!" for at least 5 more episodes.
The Namekians notice one of their tribes are missing, and that's when Vegeta proudly declares that he was responsible for that, that now that Freeza and Goku are dead, he's free to take over the universe and become the next Freeza, laughing maniacally... a threat which nobody takes seriously.
You see, that's the biggest issue I have with Vegeta's "redemption." He never redeemed, he's still a terrible person and a remorseless psychopath, but the characters start acting like Vegeta became a non-threat overnight because of that awful "moving" beating he got on Namek. Every time Vegeta does something terrible or threatens to kill somebody, they just look at him funny and let him be.
In one specific filler instance in the anime, Vegeta starts trash-talking Goku. Gohan tries to defend his father's honor and subsequently gets his ass beaten by Vegeta while Piccolo just watches on the sidelines without doing anything and Bulma just looks at him funny... I have no words. You better get used to the new routine of "Vegeta Does Something Shitty > Nobody Does Anything About It", because it'll become much, much worse.
Namek Finally Explodes
After fighting Freeza for a good while, Goku declares "he's satisfied enough, you gave me a good fight." Man, Kuririn must be seething in the afterlife watching this, it was never about avenging Kuririn, was it? Freeza doesn't take this well and attacks Goku one final time, eventually slicing himself in half.
Freeza then starts pleading for his life, for which Goku responds with "Your life?! What about everyone else's lives?! What about everyone else you killed?!" If only he had that attitude with Vegeta, I mean, the guy is the whole reason they're on Namek, but Goku treats him like "He's a good guy and I owe him a fight :D" Oh, that's right, Vegeta's "redeemed" now... I forgot.
But being a merciful, pure-hearted idiot, who Toriyama insists to all heaven he's "really a selfish asshole who only saves the world by mere accident", decides to give Freeza some of his energy. Freeza wastes no time in trying to kill Goku again and Goku decides to finish him off for good... apparently.
And so, Goku desperately tries to find a way to escape Namek, but fails, apparently exploding alongside the planet... Until the other members of the cast decide to use the Dragon Balls to try to revive him, but then it's revealed Goku never actually died and he's willingly leaving the probably traumatized Gohan on Earth to go train god-knows-where.
Again, Goku absolutely deserves a humiliating beating like Vegeta. Oh, I know, I know, I can already hear the Dragon Ball fanboys coming to me and telling me "But Goku is supposed to be a selfish asshole." Sorry, that doesn't make the character any more likable.
Final Thoughts
I think it would be easier to list what I liked about this segment than the bad. Freeza is a fantastic villain. I mean, sure, he's merely a born-evil ultimate evil type of villain, but his personality is what makes all the difference. The sheer aura of malevolence and hopelessness he gives, the affable way he treats his enemies, the brutal beating he gives Vegeta, it's all just so delightful.
...And that's about the only compliment I'll give this segment. Everything else, I thought was a travesty. The writing took a massive nosedive, the characters became more annoying and incredibly stupid, the pacing became unbearable and I left this arc feeling like maybe having everybody die on Namek wasn't such a bad thing after all. I'm sorry, Dragon Ball fans, but I really don't like this segment.
But fear not, despite my negative feelings about this portion of the story, if compared to what comes next, the Freeza Mini-arc is a freaking masterpiece. Next up is (shudders) the Android Saga.
Rating: 2/5
Anime Android Saga - No. 17 and No. 18
Despite my big distaste for this arc in general, I will give it this: The episodes where No. 16, No. 17 and No. 18 are the main villains, I usually consider to be the best and the peak of this arc. It does help that the previous and the following episodes are all terrible, but I do consider this mini-arc to be greatly enjoyable by its own merits.
The Real Villains... For Now
Trunks comes back to the past and tells the heroes that No. 19 and No. 20 were not the actual Androids on his timeline (let's quietly pretend the manga didn't say otherwise), the real ones are then unveiled: No. 17 and No. 18, who waste no time in killing Gero's old ass and challenging the heroes directly.
I love No. 17 and No. 18, they are miles better than both the previous Androids and Cell in terms of design, menace, competence, motivation and personality. No. 18 showcases how deadly they are by single-handedly beating the crap out of Vegeta while No. 17 makes it clear he's even stronger than her. That's how you set up a villain.
The fight between No. 18 and Vegeta is simply fantastic, great choreography and great characters to be paired up against each other. Vegeta getting a lesson in humility is always a treat to watch, especially if it's Post-Namek!Vegeta we're talking about. Also, female representation in Dragon Ball is very rare, so I accept No. 18 with open arms.
Chichi's Likable Again
Every once in a while, the anime will stop to show Goku suffering from the heart disease while Chichi and Yamcha give him the medicine. I really enjoy these tiny little bits of filler, it shows that Chichi actually does care for her husband, a far cry from when she ran past his broken body in the Saiyan Saga without a care.
Something Worse Is Lurking
While No. 17 and No. 18 drive around enjoying nature in their game to kill Goku, Bulma and Trunks are shocked to find out there's another time machine abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Even Trunks doesn't know what the hell happened. Also, something is lurking around the city making people vanish without leaving a trace.
Alright, I don't really have many positive feelings about Cell, but this is a great set-up. There is an air of mystery and dread in these episodes that just can't be replicated any other time in this arc. It's such a shame when the actual reveal turns out to be such a letdown.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, in an arc where everybody acts like an obnoxious idiot, this set of episodes easily shines through. The villains are lovable, the fight scenes are incredible, the story advances at a pleasant pacing, and the storytelling doesn't boil down to "and then things happened because somebody was an idiot." It's a complete winner.
In retrospect, I can see why people rank this arc favorably in fan polls. (sigh) I wish I could say the same about the rest of it.
Rating: 5/5
Anime Android Saga - No. 19 and No. 20
Oh boy... this arc. It's the bane of my existence. There is nothing Dragon Ball has ever released, canon or otherwise, that rivals my frustration with this arc. I know well I'm in a very small minority here, this arc usually ranks very high in fan popularity polls. So, what exactly does it do wrong? A lot.
Freeza's Back And... He Sucks!
The arc begins with Freeza coming to Earth and being instantly obliterated by an unknown time-traveler. You're telling me Trunks, with his incomplete training, is stronger than Mecha-powered-up Freeza? Yeah, sure. Right off the bat, something feels very wrong with the writing.
The time-traveler Trunks then proceeds to reveal two important things: 1) He's Vegeta and Bulma's child. 2) The Z-Warriors will all die in 3 years because of two Androids.
Yamcha's a Cheater... No, Seriously!
Now, let's discuss the first one. It makes absolutely no fucking sense and it spits in the face of everyone who watched the original Dragon Ball. The in-universe explanation is that Yamcha suddenly suffered from a bad case of character derailment and went from a supporting loyal boyfriend afraid of social interaction with women to a cheating playboy.
The out-of-universe explanation is that Toriyama needed somebody to bear Vegeta's child. Toriyama doesn't like writing women or relationships, so the only viable option was Bulma. Now, let's pretend for a moment Lunch never existed here. This is so atrocious that even the voice-actors for both Yamcha and Bulma complained to Toriyama about it, and Toriyama told them: "Deal with it!"
Apparently, Toriyama prides himself in being a lazy writer.
"Oh My God, We're All Going to Die in 3 Years?! Let's Do Nothing!"
Now, for the second big revelation, Bulma devises a plan that will fix all of their problems and save the world instantly, but the "heroes" threaten to kill her if she intervenes with their deadly fight. Actually, only Vegeta does, but nobody else seems remotely interested in stopping him.
Remember when Vegeta was smart, cunning, knew when to fold 'em and was rooting for both Goku and Gohan to surpass him and become Super Saiyans during the Namek Saga? Yeah, that was Old!Vegeta. Meet New!Vegeta: an unbearable, moronic, whiny man-baby with an insufferable complex on being #1, so much he'll put his and everyone else's lives at risk while nobody does anything to stop him.
The Androids Arrive And... They Suck!
I fully understand why Toriyama's editors asked him to switch up the villains. No. 19 and No. 20 simply do not instill fear and look silly. Their battle is completely one-sided and the only reason why they're even allowed to be threatening is because they take out the weakest member of the bunch (Yamcha) and because Goku was suffering from heart failure. Oh, and Vegeta becomes Super Saiyan off-screen, then he arrives and kicks the two villains' asses effortlessly.
Gero runs away, but Bulma conveniently knows where he's going and tells the heroes, because she read it in a magazine. Okay, hold up, you're telling me Bulma knew all along where Gero was located, and she did nothing about it? Not to mention her coming to the battlefield and bringing her baby along with her, which nearly gets both of them killed?!
Final Thoughts
As you can probably see, "the plot moves forward because the characters all act like idiots" is very prevalent in this arc. It begins with Toriyama's trademark inconsistent power scaling and bad use of The Worf Effect, it plays by derailing the characters and turning them into annoying unlikable idiots, and it doesn't even offer threatening villains or good fights to justify its existence. All in all, not a good start.
Rating: 1/5
Anime Namek Saga (Pre-Ginyu) - An Incredible Return to Form
After the filler and worf effect-heavy, but enjoyable Saiyan Saga, it's time to review the Namek Saga. For some reason, some fans prefer to split the Namek Saga into the trip to Namek, the battle with the Ginyu Force and the battle with Freeza rather than the characters' entire adventure on Namek.
For this review's sake, I will also split them up like that, not only because the review would get too long otherwise, but also because I consider the first part of this Saga to be generally excellent while I consider the second and third parts to be... not that, but I'll get into that later.
After the Battle
The arc starts with the gang grieving over their fallen comrades and discussing what they should do now that the Dragon Balls are no more. When Popo, also struck with Kami's death, shows them a way to get to Namek and use their Dragon Balls to reverse the situation.
Once again, it's an awesome set-up and a great beginning. Every single moment with the characters mourning after their dead friends is golden and the entire preparation for their trip builds up what the audience is sure to expect during Namek itself. But after a while, the first big problem of the arc becomes evident: Bulma.
For some bizarre and unexplained reason, Bulma does a complete 180 on her personality and motivation when they're about to depart. She shows herself completely willing to go to Namek and resurrect her dead boyfriend, but as soon as she's on Master Roshi's house, she becomes extremely whiny, angry with Kuririn and Gohan for no good reason, and completely unwilling to go to Namek.
And if memory serves me right, Bulma does nothing of substance in the entire arc, so... Why is she going again? The justification, or so as I understand it, is that she's the only one who can repair the spaceship should it be damaged... which doesn't happen. And she's the only one who can repair the Dragon Radar should it fail... which also doesn't happen. So, in the end, Bulma ends up contributing absolutely nothing other than providing the anime with a bunch of stupid, worthless Filler scenes.
Fake Namek
During their trip, the gang is caught on a detour, being captured by a spaceship of children who lost their parents to Freeza. Although these episodes are a bit boring, I do enjoy their presence here, and their foreshadowing of the villain before he is properly introduced.
The trip on Fake Namek, though? Yeah, that's unforgivable. The entire story hinges on Idiot Plot. The aliens wanted a way out, and instead of asking politely to the heroes to help them escape, they make this entire pointless adventure illusion for them. And even when Bulma offers them to escape together, they refuse for no discernible reason. It's pretty bad, but at least, it's over quickly.
Arrival on Namek
Meanwhile this is happening, Vegeta is healing on the "Freeza Something Planet." It is then revealed after a brief talk with a throw-away villain named Cui that Freeza had been listening to their scouters all along and now is interested in the Dragon Balls himself.
Maybe what makes the entire journey throughout this arc so fantastic is the way it brings back the focus of the show on adventuring and on searching for the Dragon Balls, whereas previously, they were treated as an afterthought rather than the main goal.
Everybody is after them, but because there are villains so much more powerful than the heroes fighting amongst themselves to get there first, the heroes are forced to sneak from place to place undetected while also helping whatever Namekians are caught on the crossfire. There is just so much potential for conflict by all parties involved that the Namek Saga excels on its storytelling.
It also helps that Namek serves as a fantastical setting, giving the show ample opportunity to explore uncharted territory and build its lore around characters like Piccolo and Kami. And it also does help that for the most part, Goku is kept entirely out of the picture, allowing the stakes to rise and feel real again.
The Zenkai Bullshit
The second big problem I have with this arc is how it introduces one of the worst aspects of this entire franchise: The "Zenkai."
Vegeta meets with Cui again and effortlessly wipes the floor with him, even though Cui was supposed to be stronger than Vegeta. Vegeta tells him that every single time a Saiyan loses a battle and comes back from near-death, they become much stronger. I have several issues with this plot-point.
First, because it nullifies most of the original Dragon Ball. For the most part, Goku became stronger from rigorous training and pushing himself to the limit. He also learned how to sense Ki because he trained for three years with God himself to attain that ability. But here comes Vegeta, saying that all Goku needed to do was get his ass beat and he would magically obtain all of that without the slightest bit of effort. This put a sour taste in my mouth.
Secondly, because from this point on, battles in Dragon Ball become less about using strategy and intelligence to defeat your foes, and more about taking ridiculous power-ups and transformations out of Toriyama's ass and justifying them with "because Saiyan." The battles becomes so obvious and repetitive that each single one of them in this arc play out exactly like this:
Vegeta meets enemy > Enemy beats Vegeta to near-death > Vegeta recovers > Vegeta meets enemy again > Vegeta effortlessly kills said enemy > Rinse and repeat.
Final Thoughts
Although I hate, and I mean, really hate the concept of the Zenkai, and although I felt Bulma was a completely wasted character who did nothing but bitch and whine her entire time on screen, I can excuse these given how wonderfully this arc utilizes its cast of heroes and villains with their several different goals and motivations, all the while bringing the Dragon Balls and the genre of adventure back into focus while giving the story a more mature and darker take than the original ever did.
Rating: 4.5/5
Anime Namek Saga (Ginyu Force) - Wasted Potential
In my last review about the Namek arc, I've mentioned how there are three parts of it. This is the second one and covers the fight against the Ginyu Force. Now, remember what I said about the Namek arc being an incredible return to form, filled with adventure, strategy and character? Yeah, at least two of those take a hike when the Ginyu Force shows up.
"Let Me Unlock Your Non-existent Potential"
After Zarbon's defeat, Freeza decides to employ his top force to get rid of Vegeta: The Ginyu Force. Meanwhile, Gohan and Kuririn travel to Guru's place so he can "unlock their hidden potential." In other words, the plot pretends Gohan and Kuririn will get a power-up, but in reality, every single enemy they fight for the remainder of the Namek Saga curb-stomps them. Not a very good beginning.
Right afterwards, Vegeta arrives and prepares to kill Gohan and Kuririn when he suddenly feels the Ginyu Force's Ki. It terrifies Vegeta so much he decides to make a temporary alliance to get rid of Freeza and his goons. Okay, quick question: Why didn't they let Guru unlock Vegeta's hidden potential?
Evil Power Rangers Enter The Scene
The Ginyu Force arrives on Namek and wastes zero time in establishing their characters: They're an Affectionate Parody of Super Sentai and I love them for it. Their ridiculous poses, their Psychopathic Manchild tendencies, and how despite their goofiness, they're extremely competent. They're all a bunch of fantastic goofy villains to what would otherwise be an old, boring "Wait for Goku" routine.
The battles against the Ginyus are, unfortunately, not good. With the sole exception of Ginyu, every single battle is about who has the bigger power level, or in Guldo's case, about for how long the show can waste your time with that one nearly-completely-useless ability he has.
What saves these episodes from being completely worthless is, once again, the Ginyus' extremely lovable personalities. How Recoome keeps making ridiculous poses, how the other Ginyus keep making jokes about betting their lives on chocolate, and how they threaten each other with lines such as "If you lose, we never invite you to have ice-cream with us ever again!" Okay, this is comedy gold.
It all ends, predictably, when Goku arrives, effortlessly wipes the floor with the Ginyus, and gives Vegeta a senzu so he can finish the job and kill them off with the power of the Zenkai Bullshit.
Final Thoughts
The Ginyu Force arc is definitely not as great as the previous episodes, but it has its moments. While the members of the Ginyu Force are all lovable and entertaining, their battles are not. It's all a repeat of the fight against Nappa, where nobody is remotely competent, despite Gohan and Kuririn having "their potentials unlocked" from Guru. The fight against Ginyu is at least watchable, though.
Rating: 3/5
Anime Saiyan Saga - Great beginning and end, shoddy middle
After 15 years of having zero contact with this franchise, I had decided to start binging all of it from beginning to end. From the original Dragon Ball to Z, from Z to GT, and from GT to Super.
Keep in mind that I'm a lot less forgiving about its flaws than most fans. I'm not approaching this franchise from the viewpoint of a long-time fan who grew up with it, I'm approaching it as an adult who spent his entire lifetime on the internet hearing random people proudly declare this is "The Best Anime Ever." So... expect some Hype Backlash here.
The Awesome Beginning
After finishing the original Dragon Ball, I couldn't help but find the show to be a bit meh. I mean, don't get me wrong, the sagas of Pilaf, Master Roshi and Uranai Baba are generally excellent and pretty enjoyable in their own right, but the rest is kind of repetitive and boring. It all changes once Z begins though...
Z begins with a time-skip, Goku and Chichi are now married and have a son together. Suddenly, they're attacked by an alien who claims to be Goku's brother and the entire story is turned upside down. I simply love the way Dragon Ball Z begins. It's shocking, mysterious, dreadful and the stakes have never been higher. Raditz is defeated at the cost of Goku's life, and it's then revealed he has much stronger friends who are now coming to Earth to finish the job.
The entire set-up at the beginning is amazing, from the beginning of Piccolo's redemption arc and Gohan's growth into a warrior to Goku's sudden death and the general feeling of hopelessness the remaining cast has to deal with. Unfortunately, things slowly start going downhill from here...
Several Episodes of Nothing
A short while after Piccolo kidnaps Gohan, the anime starts a 10-episode long training montage for the surviving heroes, all the while Goku has to run a very, very, very long pathway to reach a new mentor who can train him for the Saiyan's arrival, while the rest of the gang gather the Dragon Balls to revive him.
Now, I don't think any of these episodes are particularly bad. I do love some good old Dragon Ball adventuring, but the problem is that the plot only barely advances during this portion. I do know most of these episodes are straight-up Filler, but I do think some of them are essential to showcase Gohan's growth.
But the one thing that makes these episodes particularly frustrating and a complete waste of time is what comes next...
Several Episodes of Worf
I'm just gonna say it right here, I despise this part of the story. You see, Akira Toriyama is a pretty big fan of The Worf Effect and uses it at least once per every single arc. But this here is probably the biggest offender of the misuse of this trope not only in the entire franchise, but also in the entirety of media.
Right after their 10-episode long training montage, the heroes start falling one by one. In fact, they suck so hard that two of them gather up all of their energy to commit a suicide-attack on Nappa to absolutely no effect. So, you're telling me all of those 10 episodes were nothing but a massive waste of time? Geez, thanks Dragon Ball!
So, Goku is resurrected and effortlessly beats Nappa to a pulp... you know, the one who massacred the entire team before? Proving once and for all that everybody who's not named Goku in this franchise only exists to get their asses kicked and/or killed... Isn't that beautiful? (/s)
Despite my heavy distaste for this set of episodes, there are two moments I love: The first one is Yamcha's death. For me who watched the original Dragon Ball, seeing Bulma lose her mind over her boyfriend's death, who she's been mistreating and abusing over the course of the series, was immensely powerful.
The second one is Piccolo's Sacrifice. It's one of the best redemption arcs that Akira has written in the franchise. The entire journey, from Piccolo kidnapping Gohan to bonding with him and putting himself in harm's way, despite making plans to turn his rival's kid against him, is just too beautiful.
An Actual Challenge
After Nappa bites the dust, the fight against Vegeta begins. The fight against Vegeta is pretty unique in that he's the first enemy to ever give Goku trouble. I mean sure, we had Tao Pai Pai and King Piccolo before, but it was nothing a quick visit to Karin's tower didn't fix. This time, the stakes are real!
Vegeta is a foe that even after training, Goku still couldn't beat and wouldn't have beaten if his friends didn't intervene. For once in Dragon Ball history, four characters gang up against a single powerful enemy instead of going one-on-one. Where was this determination during the Nappa fight?
Vegeta's transformation into an Oozaru, Goku finally understanding he was the one who killed his grandpa, him trusting Kuririn and Gohan with the Genki-Dama, Yajirobe growing a spine and helping the heroes, and Vegeta's own fake moon biting him in the ass at the end were all delightful to watch.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly, I would've liked if Raditz stayed longer. He was a much more interesting character and a better choice for the final villain than Mr. "I'm An Elite!" But alas, as soon as Raditz bites the dust, he is quickly forgotten and never mentioned again, like his whole existence was just a plot-device to get the story going.
The other thing that drags down this arc is the heavy amount of Filler and The Worf Effect that happens right afterwards said Filler that makes a good portion of this arc feel pointless and frustrating to watch.
But overall, the Saiyan Saga is pretty enjoyable. The important characters and their respective arcs are well set-up and executed, the important fights rely more on strategy and group effort than raw power, and it's a great beginning that demonstrates Dragon Ball is growing with its audience and not afraid to explore more mature territory.
Also, its ending paves way for the next arc, which I personally consider to be the peak of Dragon Ball Z.
Rating: 4/5
Anime Dragon, dragon, rock the dragon, Dragon Ball Z!
Ah, Dragonball Z. Once an innocent retelling of Journey To The West, then the Ur-Shonen fighter. Really, what is there to say about the series?
Obviously, it's a requirement of every anime fan, young or old, to at least be familiar with the show. If you were born in the 90s like me, you remember fondly watching in anticipation as Goku was ready to battle the all-powerful Freiza, only to have to rewatch the entire series on Cartoon Network just before it occurred. And who could forget spending ten minutes on a dial-up computer, all so you could see a ten-second clip of Goku turning Super Saiyan? That was childhood, man. Every single character in the series, from the anti-hero Vegeta to the tough-but-fatherly Piccolo, were relatable to any kid. And of course, the fights were amazing at the time.
Of course, even the Ur-fighter has its faults. The filler used in the series is legendary; lest we forget, the entire Majin Buu saga, which took place within one day, took 78 episodes and two years to complete. Character development was filled out with some characters (Vegeta's struggle with not being the universe's greatest fighter), but not with others (During the Buu saga, Gohan, once the world's most ultimate fighter, was defeated after his first powerup). As the series dragged on, more of the characters seemed unnecessary (seriously, who gave a fuck about Puar and Chaotzu?), only there because Akira Toriyama couldn't kill them off. Speaking of killing people off, the series relied too much on the reviving nature of the Dragonballs. Someone could possibly die? Who the fuck cares? We've got Dragonballs! In fact, the one thing I liked about Dragonball GT, as "blasphemous" as it was to the series, was that it actually understood this Deus Ex Machina and made it into a viable plot point. Also, many actually interesting characters, villains included, were often left out of the limelight; Raditz, Goku's brother, was killed within three episodes of his introduction.
When you think about it, Dragonball is just like any other show of its day: there are problems with it, but nostalgia makes it a staple for all anime fans. Watch a few episodes to get you familiar with the characters, then read the plot summaries on Wikipedia and read Dragonball Multiverse or Dragonball Abridged.
Anime An Anime Classic....and with good reason!
DBZ has plenty of jokes as it's expense, and many of them warranted. But I can definitely see why it was so impactful.
The Dragon Ball world is quite an intricate and intriguing world, made up of concepts from seemingly every genre. At it's core it's a Classic Martial Arts tale, blown up to scale and thus supplemented by Science-Fiction and Superhero Fiction. I will give this to Toriyama-San, he is very good at keeping everything feeling like a single tight whole despite how scatter-brained as a whole. The series is very inventive with these, combined concepts from these different genres in a way that feels whole.
One other thing that is very good about Dragon Ball (Z) is the characters. The characters are very good at being archetypal without being just archetypes. Goku and Vegeta are both clear iconic personalities but still develop and grow over the series, something that is hard to balance. My personal favorite character is Gohan.
That said, the series is not without it's obvious faults. Particularly with the anime, much of is stretched out in the way only Shonen can expect to get away with these days. Likewise the series had a bad habit of just introducing plot elements in without foreshadowing in order to reach a proper conclusion, which I suppose is what happens if you write in the way Toriyama-sama does.
DBZ is the father of the Modern Shonen Genre, with all it's good and bad points. I would suggest most action fans give it a try, in particular the shorter manga or the shortened Anime Dragon Ball Kai.
4/5
Anime Would have been perfect if it was shorter.
Dragonball Z. Oh, does that bring up memories. To this day it still has some of the best choreographed fights in any medium, not just anime. There were a string of great arcs with memorable villains, and it seemed to get better and better.
But it just went on too long.
The first problem that came up was the redundancy of characters. In the android/Cell saga Tien and Piccolo had what to do and everyone fought, but with the Buu saga if you weren't a Sayain you had no business being on the show.
Another problem was the way the show dealt with death, or rather didn't. Someone died, and the dragonball brought them back. That worked for a while, but it could not go on forever without the show losing its tension and death its meaning. That was why the end of the Cell games was so effective. Goku chose to stay dead and there was no way to bring Android 16 back at all. Gohan had to live with the guilt of both of those deaths for the rest of his life and use them to make himself stronger as a person and not just as a warrior.
But when we got to the Buu saga Goku came back for a day, then had his rematch with Vegeta. I know many people like that fight, but to me it was simply too late. What Gohan did in the Cell games rendered their rivalry meaningless, and the fact that they weakened Gohan to rekindle the rivalry just made it worse. Not to mention the fact that Vegeta was so obsessed with fighting a dead man.
The real kicker was when Goku was brought back to life for real. The whole point of him choosing to stay dead was that his part in the story was over. But no; he's the main character and hero again, so we can throw out all the development of the younger generation.
I was rather pleased with Kai, however, both for improving the english dialogue, the pacing,and for ending right after the Cell games and not including the Buu saga. That is certainly a case of 'less is more' and actually felt more complete than the original Z.
The less said about GT the better. *shudders*
Anime 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