AllSunday
It took my years to truly appreciate the brilliance that is Dragonball Z. I wish I had overlooked my own ego years ago so I could have loved this again and again. When I was roughly 11, and still getting into the whole 'anime' scene, Dragonball Z was one of my first series. It was the English version, and I thought it was great. But by chance, I saw an episode of the original version, and never went back to the dub. The subbed is far superior, in voice acting, dialog and music. No, I am not the kind of fan to hail 'ALL DUBS ARE GARBAGE, NEVER CHANGE ANYTHING FROM THE ORIGINAL!!!', for I have the guilty pleasure of sitting down and enjoying dubs many a time, but in this situation the dub is nothing in comparison. It does succeed in being a wildly popular children's show, because that is what it was made to be for North America, not a mirror of the original.After constantly seeing the dub on TV, and all the hype surrounding it, I simply told myself it was garbage, people know nothing, and just stopped watching the series all together. I couldn't stand to look at what it had been reduced to and sought more 'intelligent' animes (Vampire Hunter D, Hellsing, Fushigi Yuugi, Escaflowne, Akira). There were many other fans like me at that time reviewing Dragonball Z on IMDb, and to you I say, get off your high horses. Dragonball Z is pure entertainment.Just look at the fact that such manga creators like Eiichirô Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Kouta Hirano (Hellsing), Taito Kubo (Bleach), Shin'ya Suzuki (Mr. Fullswing), Kôshi Rik(u)dô (Excel Saga), and Kentarô Yabuki (Black Cat) were all genius creators on there own, and all admitted to being influenced by Dragonball. I think it's hilarious that even the 'master creators' can take the time to appreciate Toriyama's work.I'm sick of seeing so many stuck-up anime fans regard shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc (despite in truth, some of those shows aren't very good no matter what version you're watching) because they don't showcase the utter brilliance and beautiful animation of the likes of lets say, Miyazaki. Miyazaki's works and Toriyama's works are completely different, plain and simple, but they're amazing in there own ways. The best thing about Dragonball Z is it's characters. Everyone of them in there own little world that sucks you in and makes you care. The universe Toriyama created alone is great and wildly original. These different races and different values are alone allow some praise to the show. The music and voice acting (props to Ryo Harikawa and Masako Nozawa) really set a good tone to whatever scene they're in, and almost makes up for the plot lag.Almost. The biggest problem the world has with Dragonball Z is it's plot and pacing, and no. It's not plot less, and people who would go as far to say that are exaggerating. Dragonball Z has a pretty good plot, it just drags and drags and drags it as far as it can, making the series last so long, and scenes go unbearably slow. If you watch an episode, notice how many times the animators bring you shots of them staring/breathing/pointless setting/random face reactions. That is the biggest flaw of the show.If you can overlook the lag, and the obnoxious hardcore 'I'm-too-good-for-this' otaku's, and truly appreciate this world that Akira Toriyama has created, then it's your treat. Truly one of the best Animes/Mangas ever created 8/10
ein2021
First of all, yes I am a big anime fan and yes Dragonball Z is my hands down favorite anime. And let me tell you I've seen quite a bit. I'm not saying it's the best show out there, it's just "my" favorite. But I didn't write here just to praise the show. Not that at all. Here's why I wrote. I noticed that most of the negative comments written about this series all talk about how the show's sagas are basically the same thing over and over again (and yes I know they basically are). The writers of these comments also, more often than not, talk about how they hated the show so much that they stopped watching it after two or three episodes. Here is the weird part. How could they know all the sagas are pretty much the same thing over and over again if they only watched two or three episodes? More over, if they only watched two or three episodes of a show with well over 150 episodes, they have no right to write any kind of commentary about it at all. Finally, one more point. Lets say yes they did watch more episodes. If they hated it so much, why keep watching? If it was "that" bad, why watch another episode? There must have been something there that cried out for them to keep watching. Something they couldn't ignore no matter how much they tried. Something that had them watching every "crappy" episode in every "crappy" saga. And lets face it, if a show has that, it can't be all bad :)
richard_wright
Not, I hasten to add, the punishment inflicted by the strangely drawn participants of this anime, but the torture of having to listen to yet more irritating, whiny dialogue thanks to the geniuses behind the English dub who seem to be aiming at a 6 year old level. And if you think that's bad, wait till you see the animation, all 5 frames of it. Disney this is not, and calling it substandard would be a kindness. The plot is as follows: Overlong, boring fight scenes. Cut to overlong, boring bonding scenes. Then it's back to the fight. Now bonding. And then.. you get the picture. You might feel sorry for the people involved in this mess, that is until you find out they made 291 twenty five minute episodes of it. That means that either a) they were in it for the money and didn't mind having this on their CV (how sad) b) they had no taste and thought they were involved in a multi-part story to rival Lord Of The Rings or c) They were complete morons. I'll leave it up to you to decide..
anarchy316
I don't know what the big deal was about there being english dubbing in Dragonball Z. I'd rather watch Dragonball Z dubbed AND with some of the scenes cut out then try to figure what they are saying in it was in its original format. Who wants to try to figure out what they're saying when it's in another language? I know I don't! I find this to be a better anime cartoon than any other one I've seen because of the deep storyline and martial arts action. So who cares if it carrys on like a soap opera? I'd rather watch THIS kind of soap opera than those you see on stations like ABC, CBS, and NBC. I also like the fact that this cartoon picks up off five years later after the original Dragonball. To me, that makes it more interesting. I give this show high ratings and I hope there will be another Dragonball series that carries on after Dragonball Z (I don't consider Dragonball GT to be a REAL continuation of Dragonball Z).
