Dragon Ball Z was my favourite show for a very long time. Suure the fight scenes lasted for seasons, but, I loved it! lol
Of course! It's a classic. I doubt anyone who grew up with Anime, or even these days, would forget. I think that besides Pokemon, it was a very popular gateway into the genre. I remember when I was young I couldn't stay up late enough to watch it except on Fridays so I used to record it on VHS so I didn't miss an episode! *shakes granny stick around* IN MY DAY...
One of my favorites, actually. The series does get some flak for being drawn out, but Kai fixes this. It's been edited to fit in more with the flow of the manga, which is very nice. No more of those panning shots of landscape, people grunting on the sidelines, or spending an eternity powering up. Vegeta is my favorite.
I like Gohan until the Majin Saga. He has some fine moments there, but they don't compare to his growing up during the Saiyajin and Frieza Sagas, or his epic moments in the Cell Saga. And then GT happens, where everybody, including Gohan, becomes a joke.
I'm more familiar with Dragon Ball Z than Dragon Ball. I love both series but, DBZ, stands out to me more.
His fight with Super Buu was neat, but yes, everything else was kind of a let down. Of course, this mostly had to do with the fact, beginning in the Cell Saga, Toriyama wished to make Gohan the new focus. He even killed Goku off to cement this, but the fans wanted Goku back so, despite the work he'd put into it, Gohan received a downgrade. Personally, the series should have ended with Frieza's defeat. Goku fulfills the Super Saiyajin prophecy, defeats Frieza thus being an avenger, leaving Gohan as the implied savior of the planet. However, I could deal with the series ending after Cell, too, since that is when it, pretty much, was stated: Goku is for real dead, and Gohan is taking over. Also, it was nice to see Vegeta have his moments. The only thing I liked about the Majin Saga, aside from Gohan's fight with Super Buu, was Vegeta's stalling for time: [YOUTUBE]ukvkCBg6vQc[/YOUTUBE] "What did you think? That I was going to roll over and die from an attack like that?" I'd include his pre-sacrifice conversation with Piccolo, before he blew himself up to take out Majin Buu as well, but that was bittersweet. Considering he's my favorite character, seeing him removed for any period of time was a bummer, to say the least.
Lol it was too good of a show for it to end after the Frieza/Cell saga anyway though. I still ended up enjoying the Majin saga. Oh and Vegeta is just plain awesome.
I'm on the fence about it continuing. On one hand, I do enjoy the show, but as it goes further along, more and more characters take a back seat. Individuals who were pretty strong in Dragon Ball, become afterthoughts in Dragon Ball Z, like Tien and Piccolo. It practically becomes the 'Super Saiyajin Super Show'. At least during the Saiyajin and Frieza Sagas, everybody had a role to play, and had their moments to shine. But beginning with Cell, it was always the same few individuals, and that was something that hurt the series, in my opinion. As a kid it wasn't such a big deal, but now that I'm older, it is something I have noticed and tend to dislike. It's hard to believe that Master Roshi was, at one time, the strongest fighter on planet Earth. Or that Yamcha was, at one point, serious competition. It's even harder to believe that Piccolo was considered the big bad, but was downgraded to a sideline character, which is a shame because I always liked Piccolo's ability to be a bridge between the heroes and villains. He may not have liked Vegeta, for example, but he could understand where he was coming from. It's a shame that was never explored in more detail, than a scene or two, here and there.
Majin Buu saya was alright compared to the Perfect Cell saga. I think it had some good things like Vegeta admitting Goku was the better fighter and finally help defeat Buu. I didn't like the way Gohan was handled in the Buu saga either, I wish they've done much better. Dragon Ball was actually the second of the two that I watched, and a lot of it seems more exciting and fun to watch. I never expected Tien to be merciless and evil in Dragon Ball but it was cool seeing him questioning his master's motives and betraying him to become a good person. A lot of the characters are really great in Dragon Ball, and I wished it carried on over to DBZ after the Frieza saga. Vegeta and Piccolo had the most interesting character developments in Dragon Ball Z, seeing them completely change from who they once were from the beginning to the end. Gohan was really excellent in the Perfect Cell saga. I think my favorites were definitely Piccolo and Gohan.
Well said. I always had a hard time with the Majin Saga, for some of the reasons I've previously explained. Buu was a rather lazily constructed villain, and that, I think, is why I never could enjoy that arc. Frieza was built up to be this supreme evil, while Cell was a biologically engineered weapon of revenge, by an old Dragon Ball villain organization. Buu was powerful, but lacked any real personality. There's the Hercule-Buu moments, yes, but that was a temporary blip. Kid Buu, despite looking cool, didn't do much for me. I wanted to see Frieza taken down. I wanted to see Gohan overcome Cell. With Buu, there was no significant investment. I wanted Buu to be defeated, so it could end. Before the Majin Saga, there was no numbers tacked onto the Super Saiyajin transformations. You were just a Super Saiyajin. Gohan, when he snapped at Cell, had just awakened his inner-power. It was only called Super Saiyajin 2 later on, when they introduced Super Saiyajin 3. This, in my opinion, cheapened the whole Super Saiyajin status. But this would have happened, with or without Buu as a villain, so long as the series would have done something following Cell. As for Dragon Ball, the tournament fights meant more. Everybody had a reason for entering, for wanting to win, and it was interesting to see those motives, competing against one another. And of course, Master Roshi as Jackie Chun was hilarious, especially when he'd flip out over pretty ladies, LOL. Which is how his identity was confirmed, too. I, too, liked Tien's transformation.
As a kid, I was obsessed with this show, lol. But have since lost a bit of interest in this type of show, but it it still holds a place in my heart for nostalgia, lol. And I still do enjoy watching it. Last August I went to see the movie in theater and it was awesome. I do agree that ending the series with Cell may have been a good idea. I don't at all agree with the idea of "the show was so good it should continue." I don't like long, drawn out shows. I prefer them to be shorter, and meaningful. My favorite shows are the ones that are 1 or 2 seasons long. However, I did enjoy what the Majin Buu saga had. I thought Buu was fun to watch. I enjoyed seeing Gohan as a teenager, and take on the identity of Saiyaman. The thing I disliked most about the majin Buu saga is the fact that that Goten and Trunks became super Saiyans. That makes no sence!! Why did everyone have to struggle so much to achieve this form while these 7 or 8 year old kids get it by training with their parrents? Future Trunks trained his whole life grlwing up with everyone dieing around him, and didn't transform until he was a teenager. (Maybe 11 or 12? Not sure) so why did this alternate version transform so easily??
I used to be obsessed with DB/DBZ, but DBZ took every DB character not named Goku, and made 'em damn near useless, Just look what they did to Yamcha (I can't be the only guy who actually likes Yamcha, can I?). Damn that Saibaman, Yamcha won that fight, and the damned walking snotball explodes, killing him. Hell, Toriyama straight up FORGOT about Launch! She was so freaking awesome, too.
I was never a big Yamcha fan, but I do agree he gets a lot of flak, and for no good reason. He got cocky, that's why he was killed. It probably didn't help though that, even before, he was simply a stepping stone for showing how strong Master Roshi or Tien was. He was already on a down hill path... ... but people tend to dislike Yamcha for the same reasons they like Vegeta. Both have lost fights due to being cocky, but somehow, Vegeta is adored. If it wasn't for Vegeta, Cell could have been killed, and that whole mess avoided -- yet, everybody loves him. Toriyama had a tendency to forget things. Notice how Vegeta's tail never grew back, or Gohan's, despite that being a plot point early on. When asked about this, Toriyama just says, he forgot about it. So, I wasn't too surprised about Launch's absence. Doesn't make it right, but that tough side Launch had, found a home in Android #18.
lol, yeah. Funny thing is, I have had many debates with Dragon Ball fanatics who hail Toriyama as sort of this god of writing. And they defend every little detail as if it is meaningful and makes perfect sense. When the man outright admits that he made some mistakes, lol. But these people always try to either twist his words around, or deny any fault. As a teenager, I spent way too much time on the youtube comments, arguing with these idiots. I was even deemed "not a true fan". No, I loved Dragon Ball. More then anything. I was obsessed. But I was well aware that it was not perfect, lol.
