Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball has become a super-franchise that's attained a foothold on pop-culture like Star Wars and MARVEL, even if it's a somewhat more niche taste for some fanboys out there. Ever since 1996, when Dragon Ball Z (or DBZ) first got imported in the United States via Cartoon Network, the franchise's status in Western popular culture has become cataclysmic in scale and its characters have become household names, especially Goku himself.

Anime has become an interesting paradox in the entertainment industry: some relish its high-detail animation and storytelling whilst some reckon too many are all the same as each other. Yet in Japan anime is simply a domestic term for 'animation' period: not just specific to their own stuff. DBZ is like a nice concentrated form of all the good stuff that's come to define anime over the past couple of decades, even if it has some of the cliches built-in as part of its story. Thankfully the cliches add to the charm and over-the-top nature of the show's many fight scenes and character-driven comedy helps make DBZ a plentiful experience for even the most casual viewers of animated television.

This show is an energetic blast from the past that still has loads of charm and appeal for modern television audiences everywhere. Even if this isn't the very start of Goku's story (the original Dragon Ball covers that), it's still a great introduction to some of animation's most memorable characters.

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 :)

Probably the greatest animated series of alltime.The drawings are simply superb, the characters and the whole story is so complex and thrilling you simply can't miss it. It's great the way they involve humor features in an epic story. 9,9/10

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.

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.