Nothing much to add except that I'll never forget watching Namek about to explode in 10 minutes and that lasting like 3 episodes
This will sound cringe, but Dragon Ball Z might have had the biggest impact on race relations in our generation. Damn near every single guy in middle school got into Dragon Ball Z on Toonami.
Whoops, was immediately reminded how Mr. Popo was drawn. On the other hand, this kid would have died from 400 bee stings had he never learned of Full Power.
It feels like a distant uncle died, grief is weird. I care more about this than any older extended family members passing
Was it true that he retired but then saw how bad GT was so he unreturned and made Super to replace it?
Gohan walking. Ssj2. One handed. Kamahama killing Cell was the best. I remember yelling and jumping around.
I'll never forgive him for giving into the fans after killing off Goku, and bringing him back, when the story likely would have been far better without him.
Goku was an absolutely terrible character. One beat, zero development over the course of the entire series, including Dragon Ball. Just rinse repeat writing with a new power up every time he got his ass beat instead of actually trying to write something different because Goku fanboys just jizzed all I've themselves every time he got a new Deus ex machina. Just a terrible fucking series after Raditz killed him.
Buddy that's like the first 10% of Dragon Ball Z which is what so many of us got introduced into Anime and the storyline on Cartoon Network. In terms of actual story writing I won't argue otherwise, but Goku's arc with Vegeta then Frieza is an enormous reason why Anime crossed into the US.
I was amped about the show when I was 13. People can like that the show was so huge in introducing a wider audience to anime, but Toriyama should have stuck to his guns and kept Goku dead and made Gohan the main character. It could have actually been a well written, interesting story. Hell...just NOT giving Goku power up after power up would have been better.
- Saiyan saga was great - Frieza great - Cell, pinnacle of dragonball IMO - First half of Buu saga, elite. --- point of no return ------ - poorly written finish to Buu - GT had some good concepts but was crap overall - super a disappointment IMO outside of some elite parts and the Broly movie (have not seen Moro arc, heard great things) but essentially, yes. The big flaw of DBZ is toriyama got cold feet when it was time to pass the torch to Gohan, Trunks and goten. It cheapened Goku's sacrifice vs Cell the other part was DBZ had so many powerups it started to turn into a farce. SSJ3 was pushing it. I actually love UI, but it took too long for Toriyama to stop smashing the Super Saiyan X button and get more creative with powerups
Tournament of power and more specfiically, Ultra Instinct Goku vs Jiren was the best anime moment since the Super Saiyan 3 episode aired in 2002.
More or less agreed, best DB moment since SSJ2 Gohan for me. didnt know Dragonball was still capable of producing something like that. I would also put the new Broly movie as a close 2nd
Goku's sacrifice, Gohan's coming of age vs Cell and his father/son Kamehameha, Vegeta's atonement vs. Buu, Vegeta's Galick Gun vs. Goku's Kaio-ken, Goku's Kaio-ken x10 vs. Hit and first time going SS vs. Freza Toriyama is responsible for a lot of happy memories watching DBZ with my brother Fanboyed so hard over some of the ToP moments DBS: Broly, Battle of Gods, Super Hero - all chef's kiss
As someone who grew up watching Dragon Ball without subs and no dubs back in the late 80s early 90s. I never once watched DB for character development or growth, just the fights and power ups. Seems the younger generation had a real problem with not killing off Goku but I never believed he would kill him off. It’s like killing off Superman. I know the story was leaning that way but Goku became a part of the zeitgeist in the US late in the process. So killing off Superman wasn’t happening.
I loved Dragonball and DBZ as a kid. Frieza and Cell sagas were incredible. I’ve never been super into anime but that was still a show I gravitated toward. I remember stumbling on it as on TV after school and hoping so much that another episode would come on afterwards.