I had been meaning to watch DBZ for YEARS. I remember watching one episode of it on Adult Swim when I was a kid. At the time, I had definitely heard of the show before but I hadn’t seen a single episode. I don't remember exactly what episode I watched (I think it was during the Planet Namek saga where Vegeta and Frieza or maybe it was Piccolo floating in the air and talking to one another about something idek) but I do remember changing the channel after 5 minutes because 13 year old me thought it was boring as shit. I was like: "Where's ... the fighting at?"
I was always curious in watching this show somewhere around that age but I just never got around to doing it. I think watching that small part of whatever episode I happened to stumble across dashed my interest in watching it. I think I just wasn’t really the patient type back then as I ended up watching SpongeBob instead because that was more of my speed. But even though I never got to watch this show as a kid, I somehow knew so much about DB lore.
Like I knew some of the character's names, knew what a Spirit Bomb and Kamehameha Wave was and knew what going Super Saiyan meant. I think that just shows how iconic DB as a franchise actually is. Even my parents know what Dragon Ball is and they don’t even watch anime. I was also very familiar with the "It's over 9000!" line but that's only because I saw a YouTube video of Rocket Jump doing a music video parody on it. Yeah, anyone remember that? So anyway, now that I have finally watched it and completed it, I can safely say that this is the greatest anime ever made…if you’re like 12 years old.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked it and I can definitely see why it’s considered an anime classic, but I didn’t love it. It’s kind of how I feel about Dragon Ball as a series overall. I like it, but it’s not a huge favorite of mine as far as shounen goes. I think ever since I’ve gotten into anime, I feel like I’ve seen better shounen than this. Sorry, there’s just a lot of hits in this genre. Also I think if I had given this show a chance on the day I had randomly stumbled across that one episode, I might’ve enjoyed it way more and maybe had been a fan of it. But watching it as an adult, it didn’t really hit that hard for me tbh.
I think the reasons for this, starting with the first one, has to be easily my biggest problem with this series, and that’s the pacing. Yeah, that whole meme about this show being only like 9 episodes straight of powering up and screaming is very accurate. Because there’s a difference between making a purposeful slow burn and just being slow for the sake of it. Now on one hand, I think this very slow pacing actually works if you watch it in the context of when this show came out. But on the other hand, if you don’t watch it with that framework and just judge as if you were watching it today, this approach is very dated and it’s apparent why most shounen nowadays aren’t made like this anymore.
Because manga artists don’t seem interested in writing long stories anymore and it becomes more obvious when you see manga artists blatantly shut down plot points or aspects about it that could milk their series for longer. Unfortunately, Dragon Ball was made during a time where mangakas didn’t really care about that, which is the reason why this show can be difficult to come back to by today’s standards. Now I have heard that DB Kai fixes the pacing issues and adheres more to the manga’s story so I might check that out someday to see if that’s true, but as of now, the pacing in this show fucking sucks, I’m sorry.
Another problem I have is that this show has that one trope that I absolutely hate in shounen. It’s the trope where during a fight between two characters, they’ll stop it for no reason other than to talk to one another about their powers or to give small character development. And every time I see this it pisses me off because I feel like there should be a more efficient and nuanced way to give this kind of information. I know that anime isn’t the most subtle medium ever and that’s just part of the appeal, but why does it have to be like that? Some of my favorite anime at least have some subtlety to it. I’m very much a show don’t tell guy and this series isn’t really like that.
Anyway those are my dumb nitpicks, so let’s talk about why I actually like this show. First of all, I cannot deny the massive impact of Dragon Ball. Like this series created anime fans period, and if you think about it, it’s no wonder why this series is so influential. One weird thing that I love about Dragon Ball as a series overall is just how cute it is. Idk some of the characters in this show and their designs like Pan and Majin Buu and Goten are just so adorable to me. I also thought this show was surprisingly funny, which is something I didn’t expect. I mean it’s not lol funny but I chuckled a few times. And this all makes sense because the author of the DB manga, Akira Toriyama (RIP) did start as a gag humor mangaka.
And this series' characters and their designs are pretty much iconic at this point. You’d have to travel miles to find someone who doesn’t know who Goku is and it doesn’t matter if they watch anime or not. And I pretty much like every character in this show (except for Yamcha) but if I had to choose one character that I like the most, I think it would be Piccolo. I just love how he goes from this evil villain who wants to destroy Goku to becoming a huge softie once he gets closer to Gohan. And moments like this that remind me why I like this show as much as I do.
Because for me, I could give less of a fuck about powerscalling or Saiyans or whoever is the strongest in this series because that doesn’t really interest me. I’m more interested in character interactions and relationships and figuring out if the story flows in a logical and engaging way. Speaking of story, I’ve heard people complain that Dragon Ball has no story to it, and idk if these people have even watched the show. Because there is actually a story, believe it or not. Yeah it’s pretty simple and not very complex and super overarching compared to other shounen, but in the context of this show, I think it works just fine. Because with this show in particular I really tried to watch it with the mindset of someone who is living in the early to mid 90’s (or the 2000’s if you watched it on Toonami) and just casually watching it weekly. I think that’s the most ideal way to watch it because binge watching it through a modern lens isn’t the most fun compared to other shounen.
Personally, I try to enjoy watching movies or shows with the mindset of when they were originally released whenever I can, but if I try to compare this to other shounen that I’ve seen out there, it’s pretty standard fare for me. So again, putting myself in the mindset of a little kid watching this show while it was first airing or doing reruns definitely saves it for me. But I can’t deny that without that framework, the show is kind of ok, but it does get points for its cultural significance.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: DBZ, Dragonball Z Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ Information Type: TV Episodes: 291 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Apr 26, 1989 to Jan 31, 1996 Premiered: Spring 1989 Broadcast: Wednesdays at 19:00 (JST) Licensors: Funimation Studios: Toei Animation Source: Manga Demographic: Shounen Duration: 24 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 8.181 (scored by 845,245 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #4072 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #112 Members: 1,226,518 Favorites: 38,438 Available AtResources |
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