Dragonball and Z discussion

[CyberCubed]

I really like the story of DBZ. Its basically the best "superhero" show to come out of Japan.

Other than the filler in some of the fights, the show always made it exciting to see who Goku and friends would fight next. Most of the main cast was also likeable.

I also love the sense of dread in the series. The heroes are always one step behind the villains in every saga, so to see them improve and find some way to beat the villains is always fun

[Wesley]

Fun fact: I have never watched Dragonball or Dragonball Z. It was never aired in Ireland. I did see the live-action movie a few years ago and thought it was awful.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Wesley

Fun fact: I have never watched Dragonball or Dragonball Z. It was never aired in Ireland. I did see the live-action movie a few years ago and thought it was awful.

My friends and I went out to see that movie, but we already had below 0 expectation so we weren't disappointed with it.

[DarkFell]

Originally Posted by Wesley

Fun fact: I have never watched Dragonball or Dragonball Z. It was never aired in Ireland. I did see the live-action movie a few years ago and thought it was awful.

Watch a few episodes of DB or DBZ on Youtube.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

Anyway, the reason I like Dragon Ball more than the other two series, is due to the fact that those seemed to deal with real martial arts. It wasn't all "power level" stuff, or "ki blast, ki blast, ki blast." I also liked Dragon Ball more because it was more comedic, was more of an adventure, and the others (Chichi, Tenshinhan, Chaotsu, Yamacha, Kuririn, Turtle Elder, Oolong, Puar, Lunch, Yajirobe, etc.) all did more for it compared to DBZ.

I do really appreciate DB's fun attitude and focus on real martial arts, and wished Z had kept that. But I will say that the power level introduction was supposed to be a parody of itself. Nobody was supposed to take it seriously because you can't measure power like that, as Goku & friends noted.

Nobody seemed to get that memo, which makes it hilarious. Power level arguements are the funniest ****.

Originally Posted by ssjup81

I liked Dragon Ball GT in the beginning, mainly because it was going back to the whole "Dragon Ball" dynamic.

Oh man, same. I felt like turning Goku into a kid was a lazy way to do it, but aside from that, I was completely down for GT's premise... until we learned that they completely forgot how to write other characters.

AND IT'S SO UPSETTING, because early GT combined what I liked the most of DB [the adventure and the cute fun] with what I liked the most of Z [planetary travel]. And they ****ed it all up.

But anyway, I prefer Z to DB honestly, but I can't entirely explain why. I guess it's because Z inverts DB's feel and comedic scale? DB is mostly funny with fights, and Z is mostly fights with some funny. Z wasn't known for comedic moments, but when it's funny, it's funny. I might also like Z more just because I enjoyed its villains a lot more.

I'm also a fan of the earlier Z sagas that played with planetary travel and aliens and the like -- I absolutely LOVE their time on Namek, and the Bardock special is my favourite of all things DB. The Saiyan race interests me so much and I just wish there was more to them that made them very distinct from humans instead of just being... ripped humans that have a few quirks. Oh well I still love them.

I also wish we could have had more info on Freeza's race... good god there was some cool potential in there. They were all so awesome. Freeza for best villain, don't even care.

[My favourite characters: Vegeta, Freeza, Piccolo, Bulma, 18, 16, Mr Satan, Bardock]

[pennydreadful]

I watch it for Vegeta. I'm one of those people - I don't even care. I will sit through ten crappy episodes for just two minutes of Vegeta action. I think he's brilliant.

Originally Posted by FoxBoxKid

One of my pet peeves is when people insist on referring to characters and things in the show by their Japanese name, like Kuririn or Saiya-jin. If you're typing in English, why not use the English names? Another pet peeve, for anime in general, is when people say dubbed anime is never good.

I use the Japanese spelling of names generally, because with a lot of anime, I've either read the manga first or watched the Japanese version first. Like ssjup, it's second nature to me - that's how I learnt their name initially so that's how I spell it. *shrugs* I don't really see that it matters; you can still tell which character is being referenced.

But I agree, dub purists can be painful.

Originally Posted by Wesley

I did see the live-action movie a few years ago and thought it was awful.

Everyone thought the live-action was awful. The very fact that you've mentioned it has caused a gateway to hell to open up somewhere, and our earthly flesh is now in peril. I hope you're happy, young man.

[CyberCubed]

The Dragonball Z dub was tremendously popular and spearheaded Toonami and the initial anime wave with Pokemon and Sailor Moon.

Given that happened more than 15 years ago, its no surprise that so many adults have nostalgia for the DBZ dub as they were all kids when it was originally airing.

Personally I really like the english voice actors for the DBZ cast, its only the scripting errors or dialogue changes that FUNi shouldn't have done.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

I watch it for Vegeta. I'm one of those people - I don't even care. I will sit through ten crappy episodes for just two minutes of Vegeta action. I think he's brilliant.

Yeah, for several, several years I was one of those people too. If Vegeta didn't appear during something, I didn't give a **** about it. Over time it slowly became "if Vegeta or Piccolo didn't appear", then "if Vegeta/Piccolo/Freeza didn't appear" and so on.

But Vegeta will always be the best.

[CyberCubed]

So people only watch for one particular character? Am I the only person who watches shows for the majority of the main cast?

Watching for only one or two characters makes zero sense, especially since there's whole episodes and tons of scenes certain characters are not even in.

[Peanut]

I think I'm going to do what CyberCubed did with Avatar and watch this series for the first time and then be completely out of touch and insane with my critique! Watch for it!

[pennydreadful]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

So people only watch for one particular character? Am I the only person who watches shows for the majority of the main cast?

Watching for only one or two characters makes zero sense, especially since there's whole episodes and tons of scenes certain characters are not even in.

Stop saying "Am I the only person" every second sentence. You're not better than other people just because they do things you don't; we all put our pants on one leg at a time, like every other person out there.

Seriously, who gives a crap if someone else watches a show for one character? It's not hurting you. You don't like it when others take shots at you for how you spend your time.

Why don't you stop hiding behind your Comic Book Guy persona and show the real you sometime - I'd wager there's a likeable person back there if you dropped the mask.

[Netkeeper]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Am I the only person who watches shows for the majority of the main cast?

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

Stop saying "Am I the only person" every second sentence.

[pennydreadful]

[DarkFell]

Really got into TFS DB Abridged. Since I've seen a good deal of the episodes (and lots of filler episodes), the abridged versions are pretty funny IMO.

Gonna have to go with the Cell Saga episodes as my fave. It was also fun watch Son Gohan take Cell down a few pegs in the later episodes of The Cell Games.

[pandaderek]

My worst experience with Dragon Ball Z is when Cartoon Network kept replaying the whole Namik series from the beginning because they didn't have the whole series, at that time. So, one day, they'd have a new episode, then, the next day, they start from the beginning.

[DarkFell]

Originally Posted by pandaderek

My worst experience with Dragon Ball Z is when Cartoon Network kept replaying the whole Namik series from the beginning because they didn't have the whole series, at that time. So, one day, they'd have a new episode, then, the next day, they start from the beginning.

I remember that as well..which is why I was beyond excited when the Trunks Saga was finally shown. Because we finally got to leave Planet Namek BEHIND.

[Netkeeper]

Yeah, those were some dark times, and I definitely think it contributed to Trunks' popularity as well.

[shuriken]

Anybody check out team four star's DBZ Abridged series? It's fun stuff.

[DarkFell]

Originally Posted by shuriken

Anybody check out team four star's DBZ Abridged series? It's fun stuff.

Oh yes I have. Even got to meet them in person when they came to my city's last anime con.
They were a trip.

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by Peanut

I think I'm going to do what CyberCubed did with Avatar and watch this series for the first time and then be completely out of touch and insane with my critique! Watch for it!

This made me lol