I think many of you have heard of Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z now that it’s pretty much mainstream and it’s been shown on Cartoon Network. If you don’t watch it, your kids probably do, as they are the target audience. It’s been hugely popular over the years among Eastern Asians, and anime fans with myself included. Some anime fans love it, others hate it for various reasons. There have been debates about why it’s so great or why it’s not compared to other animes of similar genres. Some might just think of it as eye candy for boys. Well, I like it. I first watched it when I was like seven.
It all began with a manga (Literally means comic book) created by Toriya Akira in 1984 known as Dragonball. Dragonball now consists of three series, a bunch of movies, manga, and a heck of a lot of merchandise. The first series is known as Dragonball, and begins the tale. The second series, Dragonball Z, continues the tale, and the third, Dragonball GT, continues the tale even further.
The story of Dragonball revolves around a child named Son Goku. Although the origin of Dragonball is Japanese, the character is based on a character in a Chinese myth known as ‘Journey to the West’. Son Goku, in the Chinese myth is a monkey who was born from a rock and grew up becoming a powerful but defiant warrior, who is later restrained under a mountain, for challenging Buddha. 500 years later (Yes, he’s immortal), Goku is freed by a monk called Genjou Sanzo, on the agreement that he will aid Sanzo in his travels. Sanzo later gathers two more companions, who come in handy as it was a time full of demons and Sanzo isn’t all that powerful. The other two are Hakkai (a pig), and Gojyou (a sea monster?).
Now back to Dragonball. Goku is a baby boy and is found by an elderly martial arts master called Son Gohan, in the mountains. What’s strange is that this boy had a tail and great strength. Overlooking this, Gohan decides to raise this baby as his grandchild and gives him the name Son Goku. The child turns out to be highly mischievous but one day, Gohan accidentally drops the child on his head from a great height but the child survives. The child went from being bad to good from that day on. Being a martial artist, Gohan, raises Goku while teaching him martial arts, while living in the rural areas. Goku becomes a strong, but naive boy, however, one day, Son Gohan is killed by a giant ape, so Goku must grow up on his own, not knowing many things in life. Goku only possesses one item to remember his grandfather by, and this was an orange crystal ball with four stars on it. This was one of seven Dragonballs! Gathering seven enables you to summon Shenlong, a magical dragon that can grant any one wish.
One day, a sixteen year old girl Bloomer, shows up at Goku’s looking for the Dragonball. Bloomer shows up while Goku is training, and as Goku has never seen a car before, he destroys it thinking it was monster (since monsters were common in the mountain area where he was living). Bloomer even shoots Goku in the head with a gun but he survives!
Bloomer is a genius and is the daughter of a rich and famous inventor in the City. She found it by tracking it with a Dragon Radar, a gadget she invented to find the mysterious Dragonballs. Goku, refuses to give the Dragonball to her so Bloomer persuades him to come with her, thinking she could use him as a bodyguard and to use the Dragonball (which disappears for a year after use). So they go on the journey together gathering the remaining six Dragonballs. They meet up with a wide variety of characters, from enemies to those who later befriend them.
They meet up with Master Roshi, the Turtle Elder or Ancient Wise One (aka: God of Martial Arts), a perverted but powerful old man, who later trains Goku. Hakkai is another they meet. He is a perverted, walking and talking pig, who has the ability to transform into any form for five minutes. He used the ability to terrorize a village to get the village’s daughters but later is dragged on the journey to locate Dragonballs. Yes, walking, talking pig. We see many other animal-people through the series. Rather odd.
They also encounter an enemy, who is later befriended. The enemy is a bandit called Yamcha (with his trusted companion Pooey, a flying cat who can also transform and is an acquaintance of Hakkai (victim of his bullying when in Kindergarten)). Bull demon (also a Journey to the West character) and his daughter Chichi (which means boobs =Þ ), who Goku befriends and who he promises to marry. Goku was naïve and thought marriage was something to eat, hence the agreement.
The three now travel in search of the Dragonballs but the balls get stolen by a short, weird looking, rich man and he manages to lock up Goku, Bloomer, Hakkai, Yamcha and Pooey in a steel prison with a glass roof that amplifies the suns heat enough to cook them. Luckily, they were captured at night. Goku tells his friends about how his grandfather was
killed by a monster on a night similar to that one, and how his grandfather told him not to look at the full moon. It was a full moon on that night. His friends become scared but they tell Goku to look anyway. Goku begins to transform into an ape, while increasing in size about over 100 times, they manage to escape from the prison thanks to this.
Goku returns to Master Roshi for training but Krillin, a short monk with no nose shows up, also requesting to train with Master Roshi. So they do and we see how they train to become stronger. We see them fight in a martial arts tournament.
At one point, Goku faces a worthy adversary who defeats him and kills a young boy’s father. We see how Goku trains to become stronger to defeat the tough opponent. Also, Goku promises the boy to bring his father back to life by using the Dragonballs so Goku is the only one who gathers them. However, an evil army known as the Red Ribbon Army also gather them and Goku has to fight them. Goku destroys the army.
So the story continues. The characters do manage to gather all seven on various occasions and make various wishes but sometimes, bad guys manage to use them. Often the good guys use them to bring people back to life. At one time, Krillin, Master Roshi and others are killed by a demon named Piccolo. He’s an evil green person and he is later defeated by Goku, but piccolo manages to give birth (yes, it’s a ‘he’) before he explodes.
Later in the story we see Goku fight in more martial arts tournaments. We also see him grown up (and without his tail as it was removed by God (another green man, who is linked to the demon Piccolo and if one dies, the other dies also)). God was the one who created the Dragonballs and they disappear if he dies. We also meet up with Chichi, who Goku has forgotten but they later get married after Goku remembers who she was. Not everything is peachy though, as the son of Lord Demon Piccolo has also signed up at the martial arts tournament. Goku defeats Piccolo Junior but lets him live?
We see Goku fight various enemies, one more powerful after another and we see how he overcomes various challenges. We see how he trains and learns new techniques, and we see how he meets various other characters. All these events lead up to Dragon Ball Z. It would be a bit incomplete without knowing Dragonball (first series) as you would not know who the characters are, which is why I included the above.
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The story then continues with Dragonball Z (DBZ), with a young boy crying in the woods, who we’ve not met before. The boy has the word ‘Son’ on his clothing in Kanji (Chinese/Japanese) and has the four star Dragonball attached to the top of his hat, oh and a tail. It’s Son Goku’s son of course! His name is Son Gohan (named after Goku’s late grandfather).
A small sphere shaped spacecraft lands and a man appears from it. A farmer fires at the man with a shotgun but the bullet is caught and is thrown back at the farmer, which kills him. Who is this man? Goku and Piccolo Jr. (the evil green guy), sense the immense power and investigate. After introductions, we learn that this alien is Raditz. He is from a race known as the Saiyans, a powerful race, but few remain. A race who look like humans but have a tail and transform into giant apes upon seeing a full moon. The race were brutal and destroyed, stole, killed, etc, etc. Goku didn’t know about his ape transformation before Raditz revealed it. Goku was sent to Earth to conquer/destroy the planet, so Goku's life was saved while the majority of the Saiyans were wiped out by a very powerful alien. More on him later.
Hang on, didn’t Goku have a tail? Yes, Raditz happens to be Goku’s brother but he’s on Earth to invade so Goku and Piccolo battle it out. Goku dies to give Piccolo a clear shot by holding Raditz, using a energy beam move, which opens a hole in both Goku’s and Raditz’s stomaches. Yes, this is quite bloody.
Before Raditz dies, he announces that there are two other Saiyans, even more powerful than he and that they will attack Earth, then dies. Knowing this, Goku trains to become stronger in the after world but he must first travel across a snake path to a small planet where King Kai lives. King Kai is a powerful man who likes cheesy jokes. The other fighters (they call them Z fighters) are told about this Saiyan invasion and also train to become stronger to prepare to fight the two Saiyans approaching Earth. Piccolo takes Gohan and trains him because Gohan wants to fight. Piccolo grows fond of Gohan and vice versa during their training.
When they arrive, the fighters all fight them, but many die in the process. Some rather cruelly. Goku was wished back to life but he needs time to return because he needs to travel back the way he came. The two Saiyans are Vegeta (think vegetable) and Nappa. Nappa fails to defeat Goku so Vegeta kills him for failure. The two Saiyans are (barely) defeated after Goku’s return but Goku lets Vegeta live and leave.
Piccolo had died saving Gohan during battle so the Dragonballs disappeared. The characters find out that Dragonballs on Earth were an idea from another planet that was brought over by God, who is actually a member of an alien race known as Namekians on the planet Namek, and so Gohan, Bloomer and Krillin head off to planet Namek, thinking there was no danger to locate the Dragonballs to revive the fighters who died fighting the Saiyans. However, there happens to be an even stronger being (Frieza) after the Dragonballs, so Goku must also go to Namek to fight. He trains during his journey. Vegeta is also after the Dragonballs so he ends up on planet Namek also. We later see Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo siding with each other to fight the all-powerful alien-being, Frieza (yes, like ‘freezer’). Vegeta dies though. Frieza has the ability to transform to power up.
Krillin, Goku’s best friend since he was a child is also killed by Frieza. This pis…I mean angered Goku so much, he evolved into the legendary Super Saiyan. Saiyans are a rare race because Frieza feared that the legend would come true and killed all other Saiyans along with the Saiyan planet. The transformation involves Goku’s hair changing into a golden colour, and it become spikier and eyes become green. His muscle size increases and along with strength, power and speed. Anyone a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog? Sonic has also been known to undergo this change into Super sonic, in some Sonic games. Sonic’s spikes become golden yellow. Goku defeats Frieza, which is predictable no matter how many times he falls. Everyone is brought back to life, including all Namekians, killed by Frieza and his minions, and are transported to Earth via the help of the Namekian Dragonballs (this includes the part Vegeta). Goku wasn’t transported back to Earth because he wanted to train on another planet for a while (he learns how to teleport on that planet).
A year later, Frieza, returns(!) with the help of alien technology and his father who put him back together again. A young man known as Trunks appears, he too is a Super Saiyan and easily slices and dices Frieza up with his sword. He also kills King Frieza, Frieza’s father. We find out that he is from the future and he gives Goku some heart medicine.
Next saga involves fighting androids, of the Red Ribbon army. Goku had destroyed the army in the first series but someone from the army survived so there we go. We see the return of Vegeta, who had been living on Earth with Bloomer but Vegeta had also turned into a Super Saiyan through training (and being pissed off at a few things since it’s anger that triggers the transformation to begin with). Vegeta and Bloomer had a child together called Trunks. So Vegeta helps Goku when his heart starts to hurt. The saga continues and we see how the first two androids are defeated. There are two more powerful ones though who look more human. These are android #17 and #18. #17 is male and #18 is a female. They are siblings and were originally human. The Z fighters, including Super Saiyan Vegeta, all struggle against the two androids. Goku is still ill with his heart condition and healing.
Next saga is the Cell saga, an android created from cells of the fighters Frieza, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Tenshin Han (another Z warrior, he has 3 eyes!). Cell absorbs androids #17 and #18 a powers up to be ‘Perfect Cell’. Vegeta and Trunks (who happens to be Vegeta’s future son) train in a room where time is accelerated so 1 day of training is equivalent to 1 year of training. Goku also trains Gohan in that room and makes Gohan a Super Saiyan too. So they fight Cell and Goku dies again. He can’t be revived again because he has already been revived once before. Android #18 is regurgitated before this though. Krillin, who’s in love with the android, wishes her to be human.
The Saiyaman saga stars teenage Gohan. We see him grown up a bit. Oh, by this time, Goku has another son called Goten and Vegeta’s son, Trunks is a bit older. They can already turn into Super Saiyans even as kids. Gohan was playing super hero and had Bloomer make him a gizmo to hide his identity. The gizmo creates a green and orange suit with a helmet. Gohan does all these cheesy poses. Oh and there’s this girl, Videl (devil spelt backwards), who’s in the same class as Gohan, and also the daughter of a martial artist, Mr Satan (see the humour in that?). Mr Satan took credit for defeating Cell even though he’s weak compared to the Z fighters and is a normal human. Videl was suspicious of Saiyaman’s identity. Gohan later teaches her how to fly.
Last saga is the Buu saga. A new technique is discovered known and Fusion. This technique involves two people roughly with the same power and of the same size doing a dance to ‘fuse’ together to form a more powerful being. Goku returns from the after world to visit but he has limited time because he is still dead. We see him with a halo above his head. He went back to take part in the martial arts tournament.
The bad guys try to control Vegeta and they make him more powerful. Vegeta only let them do it to get the power up though, but he has always had a bit of evil in him. However, he does love his son Trunks as we later see in the saga. Vegeta sacrifices himself later to try to defeat Buu, peachy pink alien is born with the help of some other aliens, to no avail. The rest of the saga shows how they defeat this new enemy.
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What I like about it is how they develop the characters. Characters not only change their personality, but appearance also. Characters can change what they wear. It’s great
Pictures of Dragonball Z
Z Fighters
to see how characters can ‘grow’. Some literally grow, for example, Goku and Chichi as we see them as children, but as adults later in the series. Others change from evil person who’d break someone’s leg unnecessarily, to someone who’s kind. There are so many characters throughout each series. There's even an anime cross over where characters from Doctor Slump (an earlier anime by Akira Toriya) appear and interact with Goku.
i.e. Piccolo, originally an evil character who wants to conquer the planet and avenge is father becomes one of the good guys. He grows fond of Goku’s son, Gohan, and even sacrifices his life to save Gohan. He becomes good friends with Goku and often helps fight evil even though his powers are nothing compared to the Saiyan’s.
i.e. Vegeta, a prideful Saiyan. The prince of the Saiyans who cares for no one but himself. Even killed a comrade for failure and is well, evil. Stubborn character who always wants to be stronger than Goku. We see him change a lot in the Buu saga where he hugs Trunks like a father would. He then sacrifices his life to try to defeat the enemy. Also, he’s quite funny at times.
Also, to do with physical appearance, if a character receives a scar, then the scar stays! There’s some blood throughout the series but characters can die and we see them lying on the floor dead. We occasionally also see Goku butt-naked and with his genitals hanging out when he’s young, with Goku being the naïve, non-modest, boy that he was but I think they probably censored this from the American version.
The music in the US version shown on Cartoon Network is a rock to heavy metal style music. I much prefer the original. Reason for the change into the heavy metal style is the result of the target audience.
To be honest, I didn’t think that it was entirely suitable for kids when I watched the unedited versions. DBZ can be very violent and would accumulate many complaints with the moments of nudity. Violence isn’t as bad as some other animes but some moments can be a bit gory. FYI, no breasts appear in the show at all.
Also, there’s the pornographic magazines that Master Roshi reads and probably some other adult-ish references, like Master Roshi staring at certain parts of a woman and drooling or getting a nose bleed. (Nose bleeds are a Japanese idea of a guy getting over ‘excited’ over a woman and is often used in anime for humour). Some moments where someone is shot in the head but doesn’t die might be bad for kids to see too.
As the target audience, in the US version, are teenage boys, they have heavily edited the episodes to make it more suitable, however, I find some of the censoring to be pointless. Like how they edited the word ‘HELL’ on some character’s tee shirts to say ‘HFIL’ by removing two lines. I hate this kind of censorship. Oh well. Also, to sync. words in with when characters speak, they’ve had to change the wording and sometimes completely change what the characters say to fit everything in or because they didn’t think it was suitable for kids. Another reason why I prefer the original version (with subtitles since I don’t speak Japanese). English voices also don't seem to suit some of the characters and is a bit annoying.
Anyway, those kind of things, you don’t get them in cartoons! Also, I like Goku’s special move. The Kamehameha (‘Kame’ means turtle in Japanese). This move involves shooting a beam of energy from both hands put together, much like Ryu and Ken from the games/anime/manga/comic Street Fighter (2). Also, must love the comedy. Some moments are funny. For example, Goku not knowing how to tell whether someone is male or female so he either touches the person crotch or asks them, even when the person he’s asking is so blatantly, obviously, a guy. I’m probably drawn to this series because I like martial arts and comedy. I’ve also mentioned that Dragonball is aimed at boys and is full of eye candy for boy. I think the Super Saiyan transformations and the energy beam, the impossible and inhumanly fast martial arts techniques are for this purpose. I rather like the Super Saiyan transformations because of how they look with the golden hair and green eyes. Also the golden auras they have surrounding them when powering up.
The Super Saiyan transformation was extended. It went from SS1 (Super Saiyan 1), to SS2, SS3 in the DBZ series. It even went to SS4 in GT (third series). First stage and second stage looked great. SS3 gave Goku long hair and no eyebrows making him look evil. SS4 only appears in the last season and it just made Goku and Vegeta look like purple monkeys. I only like SS1 and SS2.
A few reasons why some people dislike it is because of the length of the sagas and how powerful the characters become. The cliff hangers at the end of most episodes probably reduce the shows popularity. This is mainly in Dragonball Z, the second series, where a battle with a boss can last for 30 episodes or more. People who had to wait a week before seeing the next episode would probably get sick of this. A lot of episodes are like…
…Oh no, Goku’s going to lose, no wait…he’s powering up….uh oh, the bad guy powers up. Goku’s losing….no wait….he’s winning….nope…losing…winning. He wins! You get the idea.
I find that a little annoying but I guess that’s what they do for suspense. I do think they could have toned it down a bit though and shortened to fights.
I personally did not have the problem of having to wait a week between episodes, as I’ve always had batches of episodes as I did not watch it on Cartoon Network. I had them on tape. Used to have Chinese dubbed episodes and then later found Japanese episodes with English subtitles.
The power thing is the other thing. Some characters are so powerful that they can destroy planets. A lot of people find this to be over the top, and is probably why they don’t like Dragonball Z/GT. First series isn’t as bad.
Lastly, maybe how the characters can all be revived by wishes. It's strange. We see the characters in the after world in heaven and hell. Characters can return to the world if given permission but they'll have a halo above their head. This makes deaths not as serious in the series although there are sad moments when characters die.
The movies and specials don’t all relate to the series, which is a bit silly. In terms of merchandise, there are trading cards, playing cards, figures, action figures, stationary, posters, wall scrolls, etc, etc, etc.
To conclude, I would recommend Dragonball Z to those who like anime, video games of the fighting genre, martial arts, etc. Also, it’s for those who have patience since it is quite long. The version shown on Cartoon Network can be recommended to kids as it’s censored anyway but not if you don’t want them watching anything related to fighting. I’d recommended the uncensored Japanese version with English subtitles for anime fans. Some people love it, but some people hate it. I love it but I’m just a big kid. =Þ
Long review…I probably bored the life out of most of you. Sorry! There's more but I've missed out some stuff I felt wasn't all that important to keep this from going on too much.
Thanks for reading!
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never liked this though i give you an "E" for the detail you wrote about this in
HotBabes 05.12.2004 15:14
My 12 year old is into this, he collects everything about it, comic books figures etc! This was exceptional because every little bit of info was there and it made good reading! :-) Lynn
china_wolf 23.08.2004 00:44
Whoa how long did it take for you to write all of this? Good stuff! -Win
Advantages: Great variety in plot and story line, characters are al unique and progress in there own way, and all serve their own purpose. Takes place on a variety of scenes, and is just great all round fun to watch. The fight scenes are also incredible to watch. Disadvantages: Some scenes go on for a tad too long, there are many shots of the characters just breathing which gets kind of annoying.
Iceblade 15.10.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dragonball Z
Advantages: Great variety in plot and story line, characters are al unique and progress in there own way, and all serve their own purpose. Takes place on a variety of scenes, and is just great all round fun to watch. The fight scenes are also incredible to watch. Disadvantages: Some scenes go on for a tad too long, there are many shots of the characters just breathing which gets kind of annoying.
Iceblade 15.10.2001 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dragonball Z
Jun 1st, 2004
exceptional by (17%):
very helpful by (83%):
