Dragon Ball Z

Director
Minoru Okazaki
Production
Bird Studios, Fuji TV, Toei
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
291 episodes
Year
1989

Dragon Ball Z

By Maxcell
28th Apr 04

Before I start, let me say this. No matter what you DBZ fans maybe thinking, the jap version is EXACTLY THE SAME as it's U.S. counterpart as far as important stuff in concerned.

So what do I have to say about it? When I began watching it the first saga was basically all the other characters fighting for dear life while they awaited the aid of the main character Goku. It was ok, it dragged on a little to long, but it was at most adverage. It really didn't make sense....but hey, sense when does anime HAVE to make sense?

Well appearantly Akira Toriyama has trouble realizing that the show doesn't have to make sense. He tried to explain EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN DETAIL of tranformations and how nature works in DBZ when he really didn't need to. As a result, DBZ is hella confusing, it is not un-common to hear geeky fanboys on the bus who have both SEEN the show argue about what actually happened during an event.

"Nu Uh! Gohan DID go Super Saiyan 2 when fighting gorlock in the realm of pot-pie!"

"No he didn't! He couldn't do it becuase of lack of training!"

Yes, you can imagine my pain. Basically, niether side is right or wrong, it's not THIER faults Akira didn't get off his ass and explain this crap better so idiotic fanboys such as theese two won't make me hit myself in the head with a beer bottle.

Anyway, the second saga rolled around and it was basically the characters fighting for thier lives while waiting for Goku's aid. Then the third, which was basically the characters fighting for thier lives while waiting for goku's aid-wait....isn't that THE SAME DAMN THING!? Why yes, yes it is.

So does DBZ make sense? No, it doesn't. And MAYBE that'd be ok if akira didn't try to give the illusion that it actually does which leads to nothing but confusion among the fanbase.

The characters of DBZ are so great in number, they rival Star Trek in cast size. Everybody has a favorite character becuase there are so many of them....and this is another problem. There are way too many characters for the plot to keep up with. It got to the point that most of the characters really served no purpose at all. It was basically this: if your hair didn't turn gold, you didn't get any attension.

And while i'm on the subject; the characters are spoiled rotten, they really are. In the late episodes (or far before then actually) the characters just become ridiculusly powerful. You see, this spawned from the Freiza saga (which was the longest, most boring five minutes ever) by the end, everyone knew Goku as the strongest person in the universe (I know, that's really stupid) and at that time....there was really no reason for the show to continue. BUT IT DID. And what's the only thing that could've kept it going? More villians. And these villians had to be more powerful than the main characters currently were at the time. So what's the obvious sulotion? The main characters got even stronger, and the process repeats over and over from there out.

Presentation...my god.

The animation is poor, the art style is often mishapen and badly drawn, the sound is very unrealistic and the music can be enjoyed....if you have awful taste in music. Also DBZ (both dub and sub) features some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard. NONE of the voices fit, Funimation got a full grown adult male to do the voice for a 4 year old girl, what the hell is wrong with them? In the japaneese version they got a woman (and yes, you can tell by the voice) to talk for Goku, who is a full grown adult male. Why? That's just stupid.

So what is there to say? The plot really doesn't make sense, it's too long, alot of the characters are useless, the plot for each saga is nearly the same, it breaks a filler record with sagas like "the great Saiyaman" which last for 30 plus episodes, the emotion is un-realistic, and to top it all off it looks and sounds like crap.

DBZ is an anime that will be remembered for years to come......but is that a good thing? Altough there's alot worse anime out there (just look at Yu-Gi-Oh!) there's also alot better anime out there as well. Overall, DBZ can only be reccomended if you like ot be annoyed by longly drawn out sagas or mindless action.

The dragon, doesn't have the balls.

4/10

-- Maxcell 28th Apr 04

Dragon Ball Z Images