Dragon Ball GT

Dragonball GT began life in 1996 as the immediate 'sequel' to Dragonball Z. However, its creator Akira Toriyama was only used as a character consultant and its clear from watching the show that it has taken on a new creative and artistic spin.

For the first 25 episodes the show returns to its roots with the original Dragonball, filled with oddball humor, various locales (and its denizens), and of course the hunt for the black star dragonballs. The premise of the whole series is that Son Gokuh has been turned into a little boy again by the evil Pilaf, and now must beat the clock to recover the black star dragonballs which have now spread out across the galaxy (as opposed to merely the Earth).

As they wrap up their dragonball hunting, they unleash a mutant machine named Baby whose goal is to get revenge on Gokuh and take control of everyone on Earth. I won't spoil the plot from here on.

What I truly enjoyed about this series was that all the characters seemed to have evolved and changed, although not in a way that alienates their original personality. Vegeta is still a hardass who wants to be the strongest fighter ever, but (as he had conceded at the end of DBZ) knows Gokuh is #1 and has made a life for himself with Bulma and his two kids. Trunks has turned from an arrogant brat into the mature Future Trunks we saw back in the Cell saga. It is this great attention to detail and plot that made this a joy to watch.

The final two episodes are filled with raw emotion- deservedly so, for it represents the end of three generations of great anime. So long, Gokuh!

This show is taking a lot of heat from die-hard fans of the popular manga and anime Dragon Ball Z, because it is a revisitation to and - in some fashion - a retelling of the original dragon ball series, on a much grander scale and in increasingly obfuscated terms. The basic plot and premise of the beginning of this series is simple; a trio of child heroes disembark from earth in a rocketship to find powerful magical artifacts called 'black star dragon balls', that have been scattered across the galaxy. The result, known under the name Dragon Ball GT, is an anime series that is fair in its own right, but succumbs to its ambition. Not only does the fact that GT has been written by a large number of different storyboard writers cause the whole to be diffuse and incoherent, but the series had been canceled before its due date as well, making watching GT a laborious effort for some.

Despite this, it's hard to blame GT for how it might or might not have turned out, because the series is at its very core a large marketing exercise, a service to fans worldwide who were not ready for their favorite anime series to be decommissioned just yet. The moral of the story behind GT, then, is that trying to please everybody at the same time is a fool's errand.

GT incorporates the playfulness and adventure-element of the early Dragon Ball series, as well as the high-octane fighting from Dragon Ball Z. Fans of the former may just end up complain about the latter, and vice versa. At the same time, the resulting series is neither as original nor as exciting as either Dragonball or Dragon Ball Z. The first half of GT utilizes the same archetypical main characters as in Dragonball - Goku, Trunks and Pan in GT, compared to Goku, Yamcha and Bulma from Dragonball. The 'new' character of Pan, although often fun and rebellious, is not always interesting and may at times test the limits of your patience with her pre-pubescent levels of self-reliance. GT is a mixed bag, a mutt amongst anime that you either learn to like or love to hate.

What vexes many Dragon Ball afficionados the most is that GT introduces a lot of plot holes to the formerly reasonably tight storyline of its predecessors. Many of these storytelling oversights can be attributed to alterations of the original plot. Resultingly, GT can be considered somewhat of a retcon because of it, if not a downright non-chronicle addition to the Dragonball universe. BUT...

... let's be fair now and consider that Dragon Ball Z itself isn't exactly famous for its storyline depth to begin with. One might even argue that if it weren't for the Saiya-Jin and Freezer sagas, and the thoroughly interesting and well-developed character of Cell, Dragon Ball Z wouldn't have enough story to wrap around on itself and make a hole in the first place. What GT doesn't fail to bring, then, is an engaging little plot, even if it diverges from the canon. Said plot is interspersed with a myriad of interesting locales, characters and villains, and allows for a variation not seen since the early stages of Dragonball (I am of course referring to the recurring theme of high-octane battles over barren mesas). Also, perhaps by virtue of their absurdity, GT boasts less emphasis on the by then truly cyclopean power levels of the characters it features, whether that is for the better or worse.

In conclusion, GT is definitely worth a once-over. Find out for yourself if you love or hate it, but don't think it isn't worth watching, because it is. 6/10

DBGT starts of ten years after the end of the Dragon ball z series, with Goku training on Kami's lookout. Gohan is an adult now , married to Videl, and has a slightly out-of-control adolescent daughter named Pan.

The series, being the only one NOT based off a comic series by its creator -Akira Toriyama, tries to be a balance between the previous two. Keeping the goofy fun of the first series, with a group of youngsters (Goku gets wished back to a child in the first ten minutes) on a quest for the Dragon balls, and mixes it with the action packed fights of the DBZ series.

Its decent and its kinda nice seeing ur favorite characters getting a little older, if youre a fan. And Basically thats what it comes down to, if you're a fan, you'll like this series. If not, it probably wont be the one to convert you (but it could).

I feel like I am the only person that sees how incredibly pathethic weak they made the characters in GT. I'm not sure if you have forgotten how powerful people were in DBZ, example in freezia saga they were able to make nuclear type blasts just by lifting a finger. In DBZ they would move at like 5000mph and punch each other with force that makes the earth crumble around them. DBGT IS PATHETIC! They are supposed to be super powerful SS4 or whatever, but the explosions and speed was far to little to even be slightly believable. Some times it looks like they move at 10mph and when they punch, no effect to the ground around them, just a simple very slow weak looking punch with no effect to anything. Its a freaking SS4, when a punch makes contact it should make a huge shockwave and make the ground crumble. The biggest blasts in GT were nothing compared to DBZ's. People need to stop basing how powerful guys are by how powerful they saythey are, and how powerful they ACTUALLY are animated as. In the freezia vs guku, they were by far animated strongest. SS3 was animated too weak in DBZ, it actually felt at times more of a downgrade in speed and power than an upgrade.

Dubbing was bad. Anyone that is satisfied with DBGT needs to watch the ss1 guku vs freeiza fight right now just to refresh your memory on the power the series is based on.(English dubs are poor though)

DBGT- 1/10

PAN character is the most irritating and annoying thing I ever seen. it ruined the show