Dragon Ball Z

It may have been years since this ORIGINALLY came out, but to most of us Americans, the show is brand new material. Sometimes people may say the shows tend to "drag on," but this is a clever way to keep you begging for more and tuning in again and again. Also, the characters actually develop and change throughout the series, unlike some other shows. The american translated versions may lose something in the translation, but the show is still a very cool show, and I hope Cartoon Network picks up the entire seven year run of the series. The adjusted script makes some previously "possibly offensive" terms absent, replacing them with less intimidating terms like "bully." But this show IS for kids, and if they didn't take away some terms, it wouldn't air. Then we would be stuck buying the videos for $15.00 a piece instead of taping entire sagas for free. ;) The voice actors aren't spectacular, but they get the point across and tell a good story. The storylines are intriguing and make you want to watch every last episode to see what happens next. The show, despite it's older animation techniques, is still a good looking animated piece. I watch the series everyday on Cartoon Network when they air two episodes side-by-side (which makes since seeing as how the show moves along so slow). The show is divided into "sagas" or series of episodes telling a certain story. My favorite sagas are the Saya-jin Saga, Frieza Saga, Garlic Jr. Saga, Android Saga, and the Cell Saga. I hope this show keeps airing again and again. It's truly remarkable.

Dragonball Z, yet messed up by English editing and translation, is the greatest and best animated cartoon in the world. Kakarot, the star, with the help of Piccolo, fight off Raditz and that starts the show. Vegita and Nappa come and after some fighting, Nappa is destroyed and Vegita leaves to rejuvinate. Gohan, Kakarot's son, and his friend Krilian, leave for the Planet Namek to find the Dragonballs, 7 magical balls which when joined can call forth the Eternal Dragon who grants any three wishes you want. Frieza, another villain, is also on Namek and so is the rejuvinated Vegita. After a mess of episodes of fighting, Kakarot finally arrives, destroys the Ginyu Force, Frieza's private army, and fights Frieza, practically destroying the Planet Namek in the process. The show continues on and on but is always great to watch.

First of all, yes I am a big anime fan and yes Dragonball Z is my hands down favorite anime. And let me tell you I've seen quite a bit. I'm not saying it's the best show out there, it's just "my" favorite. But I didn't write here just to praise the show. Not that at all. Here's why I wrote. I noticed that most of the negative comments written about this series all talk about how the show's sagas are basically the same thing over and over again (and yes I know they basically are). The writers of these comments also, more often than not, talk about how they hated the show so much that they stopped watching it after two or three episodes. Here is the weird part. How could they know all the sagas are pretty much the same thing over and over again if they only watched two or three episodes? More over, if they only watched two or three episodes of a show with well over 150 episodes, they have no right to write any kind of commentary about it at all. Finally, one more point. Lets say yes they did watch more episodes. If they hated it so much, why keep watching? If it was "that" bad, why watch another episode? There must have been something there that cried out for them to keep watching. Something they couldn't ignore no matter how much they tried. Something that had them watching every "crappy" episode in every "crappy" saga. And lets face it, if a show has that, it can't be all bad :)

I was going to write a huge long comment on this, but a lot of people really seem to hate this show so I just can't be bothered preaching to the unconvertable. I will say, however, I am a big fan of anime and this is one of my favourites. It's certainly my favourite anime TV series. People don't seem to realise that this is for kids, so screw the voice acting (which is better than many other kids shows) and animation (which is also better than many other kids shows). Comparing this to serious anime like Akira is like comparing He-Man to Gladiator. DBZ is light on the brain and heavy on the adrenal gland. Once you get into it it becomes very addictive, and your imagination covers over any bad acting or animation. Unless you have no imagination... Watch it from the beginning and just let yourself get sucked in to the amazing fights and ever increasing displays of power.

Wha-? Are you crazy, Nah...the thing is, I really like this show, and it's NOT because of the fighting. Too many people just dimiss the show as a mindless punch-a-thon, as "that fighting anime that turned me off all fighting anime." The thing is, the characters are all really nicely developed. As we watch the show over the years, we get to see the characters grow, and it happens so gradually that we don't even realize it's happening. Toriyama's Freeza saga was probably the best-told part, despite the fact that the anime completely f-ed it up--the reason for everyone to be there in the first place actually made sense, and the transition from the Vegeta fight to the Freeza fight (and the reason Vegeta eventually joined with the rest of the group) was actually logical. I think the show has a lot more substance than everyone else says, but I realize by now that everyone's already made up their mind about the show and no matter what I say, their opinions will stay the soon.