Dragon Ball

An amazingly unique concept with heartwarming storyline and screenplay. As you watch it you feel light and stress free. Amazingly binging.

Dragonball is one of the best cartoons ever made. Dragonball Z is a bit disapointing compared to this one. Dragonball tells the story of Son Goku, a kid with a tail(?), who's origin is really explained only on Dragonball Z, and the story is all made up around 7 crystal balls that when all are together, allow you to ask any wish to the Dragon. It doesn't have all those "Super" stuff of Dragonball Z, all characters have different combat tactics and special moves, and they obtain their skills through hard training and not fury or spells. For Dragonball Z fans, if you want to see Bulma still young and more beautiful, Yamcha still an honourable fighter and Piccolo a bad guy, you have to see this!

The first (and the best, in my opinion) Dragon Ball series.

Very underrated to this very day , being often overlooked in order to focus only in the events from Dragon Ball Z...But honestly, skipping the original Dragon Ball as a whole, if anything lessens all the enjoyement the sequel series could have.

If I have started watching Dragon Ball Z without having seen Dragon Ball first (Like many fans from the United States did) I would have been completely lost, completely unable to follow the story and the way the characters interact.

In Dragon Ball we are able to witness the very beginning of Goku's journey and how he meet his friends, and the way he kept improving himself as a fighter. The emotional impact of the deaths of some characters in the first arc of Dragon Ball Z is largely connected with the original series.

Piccolo's transition from villain to hero is not as good without having the chance of seeing how he firstly appeared in the series as the main antagonist. (And honestly, is the most convincing redemption arc from Dragon Ball, along with the change of heart Tenshinhan had)

Some people dismiss the series simply because of its whimsical nature, focusing mostly in the "serious" parts (Like the Frieza and Cell saga), but being fun and whimsical is precisely one of the biggest charms Dragon Ball as whole has, opposed to other, more dramatic fighting shonen anime, including those series inspired by Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super have tried to capture the same kind of charm the original series had, without success.

I have watched this show and i guarantee its good. Well it may start off a little slow but it gets really good. It's child friendly and adults will enjoy it too. Like Dragonball Z and Dragonball Gt it will keep your interest. The fighting and powers of the warriors can keep children and adults all over the world amused. The show does have a little bit humor to it than the other two series, but thats what it was originally created for. The humor doesn't stop the show from having a good plot. Throughout the show they have great adventures and they always meet new allies and villains. To the last comment, I wouldn't say that your comment wasn't true, but I don't want to say it was true. The creators have made special uncut versions, but those must be bought on DVD or VHS. The edited version airs on television. They just wouldn't put extreme adult content on a show for children. So, what if a few of the characters like girl magazines and one is obsessed with females its all part of the humor. There are no female body parts that are revealed in the show, not even on the uncut versions. So, when i was reading the last comment I figured that the person who wrote must be misjudged. Watch the edited version. If you are not offended by anything enjoy the uncut version which is more adult oriented.

I've lived in Mexico for a few years and grew up watching various anime. For some reason, many of them such as Dragonball weren't as popular in the US and many European countries back then. It's only since the turn of the century that this franchise hit the US.

I stopped watching the series years ago. This has mainly to do because I didn't really like the English dub of DBZ with lot's of cuts and a complete new soundtrack. It's just recently that I rediscovered the whole franchise through the internet and my conclusion is that these original series from the DB trilogy are actually much better than DBZ.

If you don't like DBZ & DBGT or think they Jumped the Shark at some point, it's probably due to one of these reasons:

-The characters grew ridiculously strong and got stronger every minute.

-The battles became long and monotonous.

-Too much time was wasted in having people stare at each other explaining the plot which wasn't always that interesting.

-The villains got too far fetched (Majin Buu is a great example).

-Several characters lost its importance.

-You don't like these kind of anime at all.

Except if it's the last one, I think you're probably going to prefer the original DB cause most of these aspects weren't nearly as exaggerated. This show is in its essence an adventure story based on an old Chinese tale called A Journey to the West. It revolves, in this case, around several martial artists so it does contain a lot of fights. What differentiates this show from its successors is that, since this is where it all began, none of the characters were too Godlike to start with. The fights were therefore not only way shorter (a few episodes at max) but also funnier and more interesting. It wasn't all about who's the strongest one? The reason why I prefer DB above DBZ is almost the same one as why I never really liked the English dubbed DBZ. It really became too over the top at one point and I felt like they tried to make the show cooler than it already was.

Another characteristic that DBZ and DBGT lacked is the atmosphere. Most of this anime takes place in a fictional type of China with a plot which belonged to the fantasy genre. In DBZ however, it switched over to science fiction and most of the fights took place in open fields.

The last aspect is the characters. Of course, Goku is the protagonist, but this series also introduced a lot more iconic characters with all unique aspects. The antagonists on the other hand were also much more interesting since most of the weren't actually "super villains". At the beginning you had Pilaf who was basically a comic relief followed by the Red Ribbon army containing several kinds of bad guys and ending up with Piccolo Daimaoh who, up to date, is my favourite DB villain.

I still like DBZ but sometimes I really wonder whether it would've been better for them to quit much earlier because I was a bit disappointed by the way it ended.

One other thing. It's only now when I realize that this anime is definitely not meant for little children, it's meant for everyone who likes anime. Some parts, I enjoy more than I used to because of the mature sense of humour. If you want to watch it, look for uncut versions.