Dragon Ball Z is the second installment and the longest running anime series of the Dragon Ball franchise. The first was just "Dragon Ball" where it revolved around Goku as a child along with companions Bulma, Yamcha, Tien, Chaozhu, and Master Roshi, and Krillin. Dragon Ball itself was basically for children and teenagers with not many serious things going on. In a sense it’s similar to Smallville on the CW network.
Dragon Ball Z takes place a few years where Dragon Ball ended with the wedding between Goku and ChiChi and where Goku won the tournament. He lost the previous two tournaments one to Master Roshi as Jackie Chun and the second to Tien. Dragon Ball Z gets pretty interesting where it revolves around Goku who’s in his early twenties at the moment along with still being married to ChiChi. There’s introductions to new characters such as Piccolo and Goku’s son Gohan.
It’s a fantastic and sci-fi oriented martial arts anime loaded with action. With Dragon Ball Z, there’s something for everybody. Dragon Ball Z is the most popular anime series of the franchise with a load of Dragon Ball Z movies that come along with it. Though there’s a lot of action, there’s a lot of humor associated with it as well. Goku is basically the most powerful character but at the same time, he can be pretty dense.
The American dubbed version is a bit more tame than the Japanese version. There’s more adult content in the Japanese versions especially with the movie. Interestingly enough, all the arcs are connected to one another as they introduced new regulars and recurring characters. One character that becomes a regular in Dragon Ball Z is Vegeta, the prince of all Saiyans which Goku is. Vegeta is one of the few living Saiyans in the universe asides from Goku. Gohan happens to be a half-Saiyan.
As DBZ progresses, Goten and two version of Trunks are introduced. Krillin’s wife 18 also becomes a regular at the end of the series.
The Americanized version mainly appeals to kids. In short, it’s been reduced to nothing but a kid’s show in the United States. But it’s not the case back at the country of origin, Japan. The plus they have going for them is with the American audience consisting of mainly kids the fighting is pretty fantastic and unrealistic. There’s hardly any realistic violence present in Dragon Ball Z, which makes it a child-friendly anime to watch. As long as you don’t show them the authentic Japanese versions.
The main thing that annoys me is that the fighting is too long and it detracts from the story. The pace of DBZ is drastically slowed down due to the constant fighting. Afterwards, it just gets boring and you get annoyed to the point where you just want one side to go down and progress with the story.
There’s hardly anything to take from DBZ. It gets boring after awhile. For mythology fans, DBZ is inspired by Son Goku the Monkey King. The Saiyans grow into Oozuru form which is the giant ape form under a full moon or something that mimics a full moon. Full-Saiyans are born with a monkey’s tail where their source of power comes from. But Goku had his tail ripped off already. However, Gohan was born with the tail and had to get his torn off by Piccolo.
Interestingly enough, it’s a fifty-fifty chance that a Half-Saiyan is born with a tail. Goten and Trunks were not born with tails.
Another humorous tidbit is that most of their names are derived from clothes, vegetables, and so forth. Goku’s real name Kakkirot comes from "carrot." Vegeta is derived from "vegetable". Bra is derived from bra. Nappa is derived from "Napa". Radditz is derived from "raddish". Piccolo is derived from "pickle". Bulma is a type of underwear. Trunks is obviously trunks. Frieza is derived from "freezer". Koola is derived from "cooler". Pan is derived from pan. Nail is just nail. Brolly is derived from "broccoli". The list goes on.
If you want an anime with lots of fighting, then this is for you. Dragon Ball Z might still air on the Toonami block on Cartoon Network that airs Saturdays from 7-11 PM.
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