Dragon Ball Z (1989) – SMCB 238

The first time I saw an episode of Dragon Ball Z was when I caught an episode of the Saban version of the Namek saga when I was 7 or 8. I had never seen anything like it so I was hooked instantly and continued to watch every Sunday morning until it seemed they ran out of new episodes (which was frustrating since it ended with Goku landing on Namek). Once I found out they started showing in on Cartoon Network I of course started watching it again and would even constantly buy the new videotapes as they’d contain episodes that hadn’t aired yet. So it’s safe to say I was obsessed with this show when I was younger.

However, as sad as it is to say, I just can’t get into this show anymore, at least not in the same way I used to. Now that I’m older, those same flaws that you guys mentioned at the end of this episode became much more apparent to me and got to me more than they did for you guys.

When the fights are sometimes pointlessly dragged out, like having an entire episode where Frieza promises to beat Goku without using his hands only to break that promise by the end of the episode, then it really wears me down and makes me not even care when something cool happens.

The way this show treats characters who aren’t Goku and Vegeta is probably the biggest flaw of this show. Even when the other characters do get to do something, like Piccolo cutting Babidi in half, it doesn’t mean anything as the very next episode shows that he’s alive and has him healed by Buu. Sure, Krillian got his potential unlocked by the Guru, but not long after he gets beaten up by Recoome and Frieza. Even Trunks, who has such a cool introduction, doesn’t really get to do anything afterward until he returns to his own time, a time without Goku and Vegeta, to kill his androids and Cell. This flaw also makes the tedious formula an even worse problem as we’ll see these character training for the next strong threat too, only to do nothing and get beaten up; they’re basically jobbers.

Even the Justice League, with powerhouses like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, has heroes without powers like Batman and Green Arrow and show that they can still be very useful.

There definitely is good things about this show though, like the animation and the lore. I also wouldn’t be so hard on the characters being sidelined for Goku and Vegeta if they weren’t fun and cool characters.

This may sound weird but my favorite character in tis show is Mr. Satan/Hercule as I feel he has the most interesting character arcs in the show. He lies to the world about beating Cell and lets the glory get to his head to the point where even he starts to believe his own lies, only to get a rude awakening when Majin Buu shows up. He confronts Majin Buu to keep up his image and but nothing he tries to beat him works and only entertains Buu, so much so that he makes him his friend, which Hercule goes along with just so he can find a way to kill him later. However, after spending time with Buu he genuinely befriends him, realizing that he’s no different than a child who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong and even gets him to promise not to kill anymore. Then all that stuff with Super Buu and Kid Buu happens but even then Hercule still proves his worth by getting all the people of Earth to lend their energy to the spirit bomb, becoming the hero he always lied about being.

Dragon Ball Z Kai definitely does a good job of cutting down the filler but I feel like they could’ve done a better job. The fight between Frieza and Goku was still a little too long and they kept in the pointless subplot about Ginyu stealing Bulma’s body. Still it’s definitely paced better than the original series so I’d still recommend watching it this way.

While I can still enjoy this show to a degree, I can’t bring myself to call it a great show like I once did, and it has become more of a guilty pleasure.