The Dragonball franchise is pretty much the Harry Potter of the anime world: you either like it or hate it but there's no denying the mass appeal that it has to people of alll age groups. That Akira Toriyama could create some thing so hugely sucessful is alone a testament to his genius. It really says something about the franchise when a bunch of people rip off and imitate your work (DBZ GT) and still manage to make it remotely sucessful. Personally, I liked the DBZ manga, they were amusing and the fights were pretty good and even though it was about 42 volumes long, I still felt that it really wasnt dragged out too much. My main problem with DBZ, the anime, is its length. The last time i checked, the DBZ anime totaled about 250 episodes long (I used to know the exact number but I have long since forgotten). Most of those episodes are full ofSirValiant wrote:Possible Spoilers (Though it would seem you've all watched the show)
You guys are all overlooking the genius behind Dragonball Z. The show is real, as in it portrays the characters in a real way. When there's humor, its because the characters are real and being themselves. The perhaps the most important thing is the psychology in Dragonball and Dragonball Z and how it is true to reality. GT kinda loses it. In studying the characters as they mature and grow older, their behaviors are relevant to their environments and lifestyles. Thats truly the genius that creates the emotions and humor in the show.
Goku as a child had no restrictions and was never remprimanded by Gohan allowing him to grow up being very self secure. The only realization he has of his self is his power, and that derives from his natural need to be a protector.
Vegita on the other hand was raised with great expecations. He was to be a great warrior and so much was expected from him. He struggled with not being good enough, and the loss of his father made his heart even darker. Later, his upbringing is evident in his constant monologues regarding his own strength, especially in comparison to Goku's.
Much can be said about all the characters, but if your going to focus on just the fighting and powering up, your not seeing the real Dragonball Z. Would you expect someone to just go Super Saiyan for no reason out of the blue? Perhaps rather than watching the show on mute you should pay attention to some of the dialogue and understand why some of the fights are so long and some of the powering up takes so long. Not to mention the complete progression of the fighting in the series building toward the buu saga. This comes into play when differentiating war from battle. The buu saga is filled with many, many battles over a long war against the evil Buu. The fights are quick in resolve, which is the opposite of what you people were complaining about, but the ultimate fight was drawn out. Then you must consider that these are the strongest fighters in the universe. Would you expect a short anti-climactic apocalyptic battle? Personally, I feel the briefness of the movies take a bit away from the greatness. To have a saga focused on Brolli would have been amazing.
Anyways, I'm not trying to tell you what to feel or what to like, I'm just saying that there's a lot more to the show than most people realize.
The entire problem with the series is that its just too full of filler. I mean it had its moments, but there was just too much stalling in there. I realize that DBZ itself, if the length of the manga is anything to go by (I believe it was 42 vols.), is a VERY long series (longer than GASP! Ranma) and could not have possibly been compressed into anime form in no less than 150 episodes.EarthCurrent wrote:English Version:
RAARGH!!!! POWER UP X 12 EPISODES!!! RAARGH!!!
Japanese Version:
RAARGH!!!! POWER UP X 12 EPISODES!!! RAARGH!!!
[I got this figure by comparing the Inu Yasha manga to the earlier episodes of Inu Yasha, which were, almost word for word, a carbon copy of the manga. After doing some involved calculations (I had a LOOOT of free time on my hands), I came up with a formula that determined the minimum length of any series, given that it is a carbon copy of the manga (basically uses the manga as a script and follows it faithfully). Using this formula I plugged in the # of vol. of manga in DBZ (42) and did some crap with a rate constant and came up with 150 episodes.]
Now I realize that making any anime a carbon copy of the original manga form is a bit of a stupid idea and animes should have at least a minor degree of uniqueness to differentiate it from the manga, but even if there were some minor filler episodes or little bits and pieces here and there, the total length of the whole DBZ anime is still too long. This means that there is WAY TOO MUCH CRAP THAT SHOULDNT BE THERE. In fact, THERE ARE WHOLE EPISODES WORTH OF CRAP THAT SHOULDNT BE THERE. But then again it all comes down to personal taste.
I personally couldn't stand all the pointless stalling present in the anime, which is why I never want to watch it again.Bebop0083 wrote:theres two types of people in this world. those who like dbz and those who hate it.
The movies weren't too bad though, since they were short.
