Dragonball Z

In an effort to inform people as to what Dragonball Z is...

First things first. READ THE MANGA. It beats the anime out 10 to 1 and doesn't include any filler. Much better. -edit- VIZ has gone back and changed the ratings of the US manga to 13+, and has ceased editing.

Dragonball Z is the second in a series of anime by Toei Animation, based on the popular manga Dragonball. Dragonball Z was created to highlight the shift by Akira Toriyama moving towards the martial arts (heh) aspect of the stories. It introduces Son Gohan, Son Goku's son (ehh), and a slew of other characters, including Vegeta (Bejita), Frieza (Freeza), Cell, and Majin Buu.

Dragonball Z, when watched subtitled, is excellent(relative to the US version). Unfortunately, when Funimation brought it to the US, rampant cutting and bad writing marred the english release of the show. The constant grunting during fights, the stupid lines, the irritating music played at innappropriate moments, the odd motion that seems like fast-forward, and jumpy, bad cuts to make their mouths almost match the english lines, all added by Funimation.

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Update on May 01, 2001:

A node was just added mentioning Dragonball AF. Dragonball AF DOES NOT, AND NEVER WILL, EXIST. I sit in a channel on IRC frequented by DBZ fans, and they spout this rumor every few weeks, for the past year and a half. The most in the way of proof is some picture touted to be "Super Sayian 5," which is nothing more than a peice of fan-art. Sorry people. Dragonball is FINISHED.

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_{This is one of my highest rated nodes. I don't even LIKE Dragonball* anymore!}

Dragonball Z is also based on a Chinese Myth. Characters such as Son Goku, Master Roshi, the Ox King, the tortoise, Oolong as well as others were taken from the Myth. What's the Myth? Well it's more of a story than a Myth. It's the story of a monkey who was very naughty (and whose name was also Son Goku) and he was the pupil of a Shaolin monk. The Shaolin monk had two other pupils: a pig (Oolong) and an ox (the Ox King). Most of Dragonball Z is not like the myth though. The androids, the nameks, the world-destroying Saiyan-Jin are inexistant in the Myth. However things like the cloud and the red poll that Goku used for example were directly from the Myth/Story.

Note that the Chinese Myth (btw there's a PlayStation Game that's called Magic Monkey which is derived from the Myth as well) is full of martial arts, mystic powers and monkey vs. Buddha action!

Note also that Dragonball Z is a sequel/continuation of Dragonball which is more closely related to the Chinese myth. In fact, in Dragonball Z, most of the original characters such as Chi Chi's father and Oolong started to appear less than in Dragonball.

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1. Kudos goes to dragoon who corrected me in the spelling of Dragonball Z instead of Dragon Ball Z. Some high power figure of E2 ought to delete that complete misleading series of nodes.

2. Thanks to JustSomeGuy who pointed out that Dragonball series were more closely related to the Chinese myth than Dragonball Z. So I've added a few corrections.

3. Benabik added that Chi Chi's father was the Ox King. (I did not know of his name in DB beforehand.

DragonBall Z... This show is universally acclaimed (most popular cartoon in Japan and France) as being the best action cartoon series ever. I personally prefer the English version to the Japanese, but that's because the Japanese have a tendency to put voice actors with very high voices in their shows (see anime explained), and that bothers me to no end, as I'm a stickler for good sounding voices. If you're wondering what that means, I can say that I'm not even sure, but Piccolo and Vegeta, in my opinion, have the best voices in the series, but this is beside everything.

This show, with it's extensive backstory (that has its roots in Dragon Ball), colorful characters (With green, blue, purple, and red skin, nonetheless), awesome fighting scenes, and annoying as hell cliffhangers (must watch on tapes, one episode isn't enough) just keeps me coming back for more, and more, and more.

The Premise

Okay, you've got this guy, Goku, who's the best fighter on earth, and this group of warriors called Sayains have sent him to destroy the earth, however, due to being hit on the head when he was little, he lost all his evil intentions.

Piccolo is a green-skinned antannae-headed Namekian with a gravelly voice and a penchant for getting a wee bit pissed at everybody. He originally wanted to rule the earth, but due to a recent enlightenment, well... actually, Piccolo has a strong sense of honor, and when Goku dies protecting the earth, Piccolo has a change of heart (but this also could be because he spends a solid year training Goku's son). So Piccolo fights for the side of good, and he's a badass.

Gohan, Goku's son, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu, are the weaker, backup type fighters until way later in the series when Gohan grows up. They usually just stand around and add commentary while someone else fights or is getting their ass kicked.

Now, the basic plot of the show is that someone bad comes along, and Goku, the strongest fighter of the planet, has something bad happen to him (i.e. He's not strong enough, he dies, he's incapacitated by heart disease, he gets his ass beat and put in a recovery capsule). Then, everybody else has a turn at fighting while Goku gets better or stronger or what have you, in some way. Then Goku steps in and beats the collective ass of whatever's in his way, and is then stopped by something else. Repeat.

The average episode constitutes of a lot of people mugging for the camera, and insulting each other before they actually fight, and episodes usually end right as someone is about to throw a punch, which heightens its addictiveness and adds to a general sense of "Hey! What happens next?" syndrome, causing a body to watch it over and over again.

Dragon Ball Z: I'm addicted and I like it.

Disclaimer: Rant about DBZ that may or may not contain spoilers

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My family and I immigrated to Canada when I was about ten years old; before that I lived in India. The situation is probably different now, but back then there wasn't really a lot of anime on TV over there. I only came across this show when I was about twelve years old. And my God, it was fucking awesome. To go from I Am Weasel to people shooting fucking energy beams out of their hands, you can't even imagine how psyched twelve year old me was. I didn't get to watch the entire show, but I watched enough that it just always stuck with me as an amazing show.

Eventually YTV stopped showing it and I moved on to other things. Years went by and I found myself in university. It was exam time so obviously the most natural thing to do was to start watching Dragon Ball Z again. Watching this show when one is (theoretically more) mature is not the same as watching it as a kid. To be more specific, the show loses a lot of its wow factor and instead makes one yell out "What?! No!!! Don't do that!!!". It has so many frustrating things about it, enough so that they make this once amazing (in my mind) show somewhat less so.

Firstly, why the fuck does it take fucking forever for anything to happen in this show? I don't get it. I may have been trying to procrastinate when I started watching this show, but my God, the amount of time that the show itself wastes in pointless charging up and explanations and flashbacks is enough to make one rage quit. It's such a problem that there's a version of DBZ out there called DBZ Kai that cuts down on the yelling and fillers. Anime in general likes stretching out the plot into as many episodes as they can but DBZ has to got be setting some kind of record.

Next there's the fact that so many of the problems that occur on the show could have been solved if the saiyans weren't so fucking proud. In the Android/Cell Saga, they had multiple opportunities to stop the problem from getting as big as it did (i.e. having the world almost get destroyed). Instead, they let the androids/Cell get strong(er) because they wanted to test their strength against these new foes, because they wanted a challenge; destroying Cell before he absorbed Androids 17 and 18 would have been too easy for Vegeta... Can you imagine a fire fighter waiting for a fire to get bigger because its current size isn't enough of a challenge? No! Because that isn't responsible behaviour!

Speaking of Vegeta, why does the show always make him second best?! It is incredibly frustrating to watch one of the most badass characters constantly get his ass kicked before Goku or Gohan finds the strength to finally take the bad guy down. It isn't that he is portrayed as weak or useless, quite the opposite; often without his help, Goku or Gohan would never have been able to win. However, just once I'd like to see a major battle where he is the sole winner. He may be an arrogant prideful man, but he is still a major character damn it!

Speaking of Goku! He is a terrible husband and father! He constantly abandons his family in order to go train. What kind of "hero of the earth" does that?! In fact, this terrible parenting is a running joke on Dragon Ball Z Abridged. I'm not saying that a show can't have a character who is a bad spouse/parent, but giving these flaws to the main character who is supposed to be the source of inspiration for people, both within the show and without? Heck, Picollo and Vegeta spent more time raising Gohan and Trunks respectively than Goku did Gohan and Goten, and they were both originally the bad guys! What the hell does that say about Goku?!

Overall, I can't hate the show, I really can't. No matter how frustrating or stupid the plot and the show might be, it is still incredibly awesome to see one of them go Super Saiyan and kick ass, not to mention how badass the music becomes when you've got one of these guys yelling at the top of their lungs. Don't believe me? Listen to this and then listen to this and tell me you don't get goosebumps! I will always have something to say about DBZ's shortcomings, but I will also always have a special place for it.