History DragonBall / TropesAToD

* BeeAfraid: Roshi trains Goku and Krillin by tying them to a tree with a beehive and watching them freak out.

* BrickJoke: In the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, the announcer calls out Master Roshi for blowing up the moon in order to stop a rampaging transformed Goku, citing several petty reasons including the inability of werewolves to transform. Three years later in-universe, one of the competitors at the 22nd Budokai is a Man-Wolf who is angry with Roshi for removing his chance to transform. Roshi reverts him to human form using hypnosis, whereupon he happily leaves, saying he can now pick up women. This leads to another brick joke: Roshi notes that Man-Wolf's human form is a {{gonk}} and that he's unlikely to be any more popular, but when he's revived at the end of the King Piccolo arc, there's a pretty girl mourning at his grave, suggesting he did manage to score after all.

* AdoptiveNameChange: Goku's original name was Kakarott. He gained his current name upon being found and adopted by the elderly Son Gohan after the former crashed on Earth.

* {{Adorkable}}:
** Yamcha was adorkable during his teenage years but he grew out of it a little as he got older. Yamcha was afraid of girls and super awkward around them when he was a teenager, even though his dream was to fall in love and get married. He even wanted to use the Dragon Balls to make it so he would not have panic attacks around girls anymore.
** Kid/Teen Chi-Chi (the former more so), because of her massive crush on Goku and her constant blushing and crying.
** Kid Goku with all his naivete and wide-eyed wonder at the world. He thought the lights in the city were stars.

** Tien went from being an ArrogantKungFuGuy to an honorable fighter who respect his opponent.

*** In his fight with Goku at the 22nd World Marital Arts Tournament, he performs better in the anime where he's able to match Goku with Goku only having a slight advantage. In the manga, the fight is far more one-sided with Goku dominating Tien until Chiaotzu paralyzes Goku, allowing Tien to badly injure Goku. Although Tien gets on Chiaotzu for this and allows Goku to pummel him as repayment, the damage was done.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: All living things have ''ki'' as a sort of mystical lifeforce. With training, otherwise unremarkable humans can make their ''ki'' pool larger and stronger and learn how to channel it into [[KiAttacks shooting energy beams]], flying, being bulletproof, telepathic, and have SuperStrength that'd make them outright near ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' level. You'd still not really be much of a match for most androids and aliens, but still.

* BruceLeeClone: One appears during the 21st Strongest Under The Heavens Tournament, facing off against Krillin. After the latter no-sells a flurry of kicks from him, he promptly quits.

* CallBack:
** Much of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament contains flashbacks and comparisons to earlier in the series to juxtapose Goku as a Child and Goku as a Teenager going on Adult. This ranges from Goku's first meeting with Chi-Chi after asking her to marry him, to more subtle things like Jackie Chun/Goku knocking Yamcha/Chi-Chi out of the ring without touching them.
** When Chi-Chi meets Master Roshi she doesn't believe he could be the same man who trained her father so she throws her boomerang at him, which he [[EpicFail completely fails to block]]. When Goku meets Old Kai he doesn't believe he could be as strong as he says so decides to throw a energy beam at him. Guess what happens.

* CameBackWrong: Actively [[DefiedTrope defied]] during the King Piccolo arc. When Krillin is killed, Bulma is worried that if his body decomposes before he can be resurrected with the Dragon Balls he'll come back as a zombie, so she builds a stasis pod to keep him fresh. She later builds similar pods for Roshi and Chiaotzu. And when Goku finds out that Kami has the ability to restore the destroyed Shenron, he tells his companions not to burn the bodies. As it happens, however, the Dragon can restore anyone perfectly so long as there hasn't been too much time since their death.

* CanonImmigrant: Because of how impressed Toriyama was with the Bardock special, Goku's father gets a cameo later on in the manga. Later, he created his own interpretation of Bardock in ''Dragonball Minus''
* CantCatchUp: Although not as obvious as ''Z'' since everyone in the cast remains useful to various degrees, but once Goku surpasses someone they never become his equal again. Both Tenshinhan (after Goku manages to defeat King Piccolo) and Yamcha (when he hears that Goku is training under Kami-sama) note this in-story.

* CashLure: In the censored version of Dragon Ball, Bulma uses money as a bribe instead of her panties.

* CastFromLifespan: Demon-king Piccolo is able to create eggs which hatch into specialized and competent minions, but doing this depletes his own life force and accelerates his aging. He seeks the dragon balls in order to regain his youth to counteract this.

* CCGImportanceDissonance:
** Tapkar was a gag character during Dragon Ball Zs World Games Saga whose in-show stint was as a FragileSpeedster, but in Score's original Dragon Ball Z card game his card powers were so over powered not only was he banned, they named a redemption after him.
** The still limping (maybe crawling?) game community (as of 2011) discovered the Supreme West Kai, who only shows up in a FlashBack, was far superior to all the older strategies.

* CerebusSyndrome:
** The series went though this after [[spoiler: Krillin was killed by King Piccolo's henchman Tambourine]].
** Inverted with the Buu Saga, which had a far more humorous tone than much of the preceding material.

** Goku had no problem killing or causing massive harm to his opponents at the start of the series. By the end, he is much more reluctance to kill and has better control of his emotions since he doesn't loses his temper as easily.

** PlayedWith. When Goku was a kid he was often hailed as a prodigy for not only his natural strength and talent for fighting, but his ability to learn advanced techniques after only seeing them once and being able adapt quickly while fighting. Then, it's {{Subverted}} when he learns that he's an alien from a super strong alien race that was born for battle and his abilities are considered normal. In fact, he's on the low end of his race. However, this trope is PlayedStraight again when Goku's quick adaptability and natural talent far surpasses any in his race, even the Saiyan Prince who really was a child prodigy, to the point that his low power level compared to other Saiyans at the start of the series could easily be chalked up to being raised on Earth and not fighting strong opponents in space like the other Saiyans.
** Krillin is a downplayed example. While he was never was as talented as Goku, who is a HumanAlien from a fighting race, compared to other humans he was still an exceptionally strong child. He was able to [[TrainingFromHell survive Master Roshi's training regiment]] and would have been second only to Goku in the 21st Martial Arts Tournament if Master Roshi hadn't entered. He also learned the Kamehameha on the fly with no prior training at the age of sixteen while it took his master fifty years to develop it. The only things that really held Krillin back were his lack of self-esteem, which was an effect of the bullying he received from the monks at his former temple, and his occasional bouts of arrogance.

** Launch. She disappears after the Saiyan Saga in season 1 of the anime, and after the first chapter in the manga.

** Goku would occasionally fight like this. The "scissor" move of his Rock Scissors 'n' Paper technique is eye-gouging and sometimes he uses this technique by pretending to use one move and instead using another one (shouting "paper" and using "rock" instead, for example). He also resists Tien's Solar Flare technique by wearing Master Roshi's sunglasses, and ''will'' continue this tradition in Z.
** Krillin is very much this as kid. He tries to beat Goku at the 22nd Tournament by grabbing his tail and pulling the old 'looking over there' trick when that failed. He almost ring-outs Jackie Chun by throwing panties on the ground and kicking him when he dived for them. He also most infamously allows Yamcha to win against the invisible man by causing Master Roshi to nosebleed on him when he pulls down Bulma's shirt.

** Master Roshi. Especially in the 21st tournament: in his battle with Krilin he uses ''spittle'' to gain a temporary advantage and ultimately knocks him out with an attack from behind, and against Goku he resorts to DrunkenBoxing, hypnosis (the announcer actually calls him out on this, to which Roshi replies that it's Goku's own fault for falling for it), ''[[ShockAndAwe an electric torture attack]]'' (this one would have forced Goku to surrender, had he not seen the full moon right as he was admitting defeat), and ''using Goku's own AwesomenessByAnalysis against him''.

* ContinuitySnarl:
** The ''Manga/OnePiece'' x ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' x ''Dragon Ball'' special, being a crossover special, brings out a truckload of these.
*** Zoro and Zebra stalemating with Vegeta's Galick Gun. [[note]]Zebra's case would make more sense, but even then Vegeta's Galick Gun has enough power to ''obliterate'' an entire planet.[[/note]]
*** Luffy and Toriko being able to fight with Goku on even footing.
*** Gohan being [[TheWorfEffect worfed]] before he gets to do anything.
*** Luffy and Toriko and their allies being able to last against an enemy Goku and the Z-Fighters had difficulty against.
*** Luffy and Toriko being able to damage the Akami whereas Goku needed his Super Saiyan forms to do so.

** And now ''{{Manga/Toriko}} '''and''' Manga/OnePiece'' at the same time!

** Master Roshi. He's short, [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld old]], and is an [[DirtyOldMan unabashed pervert]]. Yet he easily takes out a squad of Red Ribbon Army soldiers that invade his island, destroys an entire mountain and later the moon with his Max Power Kamehameha, and comes close to defeating King Piccolo on his own.

** After the 21st World Tournament nearly every opponent the main cast faces ends up receiving one of these whether it's in the elimation rounds or the actual finals. The only fighters in the tournaments that can stand a chance against the main cast are the main cast or the BigBad of the arc.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The King Piccolo Saga started Dragon Ball's move from a light-hearted comedy manga to an action-drama.

* DeathIsCheap: ''Every single character'', with the exception of [[spoiler:Supreme Kai]] and [[spoiler:Mr. Satan]], dies at least once. Only two good characters have stayed dead permanently ([[spoiler:the Namekian Grand Elder and Android 16]]).

* DetonationMoon: Master Roshi, as [[PaperThinDisguise Jackie Chun]], blows up the moon during the 21st Budokai Tenkaichi to stop a rampaging Oozaru Goku. Later in the series, Kami restores it, but only after he permanently removes Goku's tail....only for Piccolo to blow it up again in the Saiyan Saga to stop a rampaging Oozaru Gohan. [[DependingOnTheArtist It occasionally disappears and reappears after that.]]

** Goku originally started out as a wild monkey boy from the distant mountains with inexplicable endurance and martial arts talent compared to normal people. Nowadays he's more famous for being [[LateArrivalSpoiler descended from alien heritage]] and defeating ever-more-fantastic villains with ki blasts.

* ArchEnemy: Goku and King Piccolo and later his son Piccolo Jr. Goku despises King Piccolo for murdering Krillin and Master Roshi and made it his personal mission to kill him. Piccolo Jr hates Goku for killing his dad and ruining his plans to take over the world. It isn't until [[EnemyMine they join forces against Raditz]] later that they stop being enemies.
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Master Roshi is MadeOfIron and fast enough to catch bullets, but whenever he gets on Bulma's nerves (usually by trying to grope her) he always ends up the worse for wear.

* ArtefactTitle:

** The title of the work itself has been zig-zagged over the course of its history. Dragon Balls are the focus of three arcs out of ten, and while most non-tournament arcs do have them featured at some point with great importance, they aren't the focal point like in the Pilaf, Red Ribbon Army or Namek arcs.

** Despite being 12 and then 15 after the timeskip, Goku doesn't look a day past 8 or 10 years old. He finally looks his age after turning 18. We learn much later that Saiyans age slower than humans and therefore have longer childhoods.

* AsLongAsThereIsOneMan: Master Roshi fails to re-seal King Piccolo, expending his life in the process. He then tells Piccolo not to feel too comfortable, as one day someone strong enough will come to challenge him, and dies afterwards.

* ATrueHero: Most of the main characters are martial artists and other fighters by trade who primarily fight for sport or to challenge themselves. This caused a lot of controversy when much of the dialogue was [[{{Woolseyism}} changed in the English dub]] to make the heroes sound a lot more like superheroes, including Goku's infamous "I am the Hope of the Universe!" speech. The tricky part is the Main/{{wuxia}} influences in the source material: 99% of the characters are of the wandering hero archetype, where protecting the innocent and doing the right thing is just as important to a martial artist as being strong, but they don't go out of their way searching for injustice and often have their own goals to pursue (like a good fight for Goku). This can be confusing for western audiences when the characters fly, dress up in bright costumes and shoot lasers from their hands.
** That being said, the character most agreed upon to be heroic and courageous is Trunks, who took it upon himself to fight not for sport but to protect the people of his world and is more than willing to [[CombatPragmatist forego a good fight to take care of a threat immediately]]. Mr. Satan/Hercule is also a major character for debate (again, both in-universe and out) because while he is cowardly in overwhelming displays of power, he is more than willing to put his life on the line to save people against more mundane threats, and will even [[CowardlyLion muster the courage]] to do his part against [[PersonOfMassDestruction a world-threatening evil]] when it's clear he has no other choice. For that, some consider him (despite his [[FakeUltimateHero proclivities]]) to be ''the'' [[BadassNormal truest hero]] of the story. And of course there's Gohan as the Great Saiyaman and Videl, who fulfill the usual superhero tropes early in the Buu arc. In general any protagonist in the series can be "traditionally" heroic when push comes to shove, but only the aforementioned characters have it as part of their core character.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Those killed by Piccolo and his minions are forced to spend the rest of eternity in limbo unable to cross over to the afterlife. Reviving Piccolo's victims to spare them from this fate is part of the reason why Goku is so desperate to restore the Dragon Balls after Piccolo destroyed them. The fact that Raditz isn't stuck in limbo after being killed by Piccolo's reincarnation is the first sign of his HeelFaceTurn.

* BeeAfraid: Roshi trains Goku and Krillin in the original ''Dragon Ball'' by tying them to a tree with a beehive and watching them freak out.

* BigBad: King Piccolo. He is the reason that the titular Dragon Balls exist. Kami created them as a symbol of hope to humanity after Piccolo's first rampage. Even after his death, he lives on through his son, Piccolo Jr, who inherited his soul and all his memories.

** Yajirobe and Tien pull off magnificent ones nearing the end of King Piccolo arc as well, saving Son Goku from certain death twice.

* BilingualBonus: Shen Long is Chinese for "Dragon God." The names of almost all his alien characters - along with Bulma's family and Piccolo and his minions - are straight English or derived from it. And apparently according to Toriyama, Vegeta and Trunks use English for their attack names because he thought it sounded "more alien."
* BittersweetEnding: The end of the King Piccolo Saga in the anime[[note]]Funimation abruptly ends the arc immediately after Piccolo's death, considering the denouement that resolves nearly all of the bitter elements to be the opening act of the next arc.[[/note]]. Piccolo has been defeated and the world is free. However, the capital of the world got destroyed, many beloved characters are dead, and Shenron is gone making it impossible to wish anyone back. Also, Piccolo released one last off-spring before dying.

* BrickJoke: In the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, the announcer calls out Master Roshi for blowing up the moon in order to stop a rampaging transformed Goku, citing several petty reasons including the inability of werewolves to transform. Three years later in-universe, one of the competitors at the 22nd Budokai is a Man-Wolf who is angry with Roshi for removing his chance to transform. Roshi reverts him to human form using hypnosis, whereupon he happily leaves, saying he can now pick up women. This leads to another brick joke: Roshi notes that Man-Wolf's human form is a {{gonk}} and that he's unlikely to be any more popular, but when he's revived at the end of the King Piccolo arc there's a pretty girl mourning at his grave, suggesting he did manage to score after all.

* AccidentalTruth: After witnessing Goku's first transformation into an Oozaru (a gigantic were-monkey), Oolong wonders if Goku's "some kind of space alien". Much later, at the start of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' it's revealed that Goku actually ''is'' an alien.

*** When fighting Tien during the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament Chiaotzu manages to paralyze Goku several times, allowing Tien to score free hits on him.

** Goku's starting gi is a pale blue in the anime, and turns to red once Goku gains the Turtle School gi, based on varying manga colourings. In the manga his gi is more commonly orange or even yellow depending on the chapter; ''Z'' would correct this by bumping the Turtle School gi colour to the famous orange.

** One of the more infamous examples occurs in a {{filler}} episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, a "Dr. Flappe" is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later Toriyama would write Dr. Gero as the creator of the androids. [[AllThereInTheManual A later guide book]] would {{Handwave}} this by saying Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.

** In the anime, Commander Red is initially built up as a more intimidating Bond villain type, while in the manga he's a bit of a joke from his first scene. His height and even his face isn't revealed for several episodes, he has a violent cat-like pet and he's fantastic at pool and golf.

** The introduction of Tenshinhan ([[DubNameChange Tien]]) and Chiaozu. In the manga, they first turn up at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. But the anime introduces them as the villains of a filler episode while Goku is doing his solo training.

** Goku is a member of a warrior race from another planet sent to Earth to exterminate its population, a fact that even Goku is ignorant of.
** Kami and King Piccolo are revealed to be two-halves of a nameless alien from Planet Namek.

*** In his fight with Goku at the 22nd World Marital Arts Tournament, he performs better in the anime where he's able to match Goku with Goku only having a slight advantage. In the manga, the fight is far more one-sided with Goku dominating Tien until Chiaotzu paralyzes Goku, allowing Tien to badly injure Goku. Although Tien gets on Chiaotzu for this and allows Goku to pummel him as repayment, the damaged was done.

* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Goku. By the age of 12 he was living by himself in the wilderness and traveling the world.

* ATrueHero: Most of the main characters are martial artists and other fighters by trade who primarily fight for sport or to challenge themselves. This caused a lot of controversy when much of the dialogue was [[{{Woolseyism}} changed in the English dub]] to make the heroes sound a lot more like superheroes, including Goku's infamous "I am the Hope of the Universe!" speech. The tricky part is the Man/{{wuxia}} influences in the source material: 99% of the characters are of the wandering hero archetype, where protecting the innocent and doing the right thing is just as important to a martial artist as simply being strong, but they don't go out of their way searching for injustice and often have their own goals to pursue. This can be confusing for western audiences when the characters fly, dress up in bright costumes and shoot lasers from their hands. The character most agreed upon to be heroic and courageous is Trunks, who took it upon himself to fight not for sport but to protect the people of his world and is more than willing to [[CombatPragmatist forego a good fight to take care of a threat immediately]]. Mr. Satan/Hercule is also a major character for debate (again, both in-universe and out) because while he is cowardly in overwhelming displays of power, he is more than willing to put his life on the line to save people against more mundane threats, and will even [[CowardlyLion muster the courage]] to do his part against [[PersonOfMassDestruction a world-threatening evil]] when it's clear he has no other choice. For that, some consider him (despite his [[FakeUltimateHero proclivities]]) to be ''the'' [[BadassNormal truest hero]] of the story. And of course there's Gohan as the Great Saiyaman and Videl, who fulfil the usual superhero tropes early in the Buu arc.

** In the Funimation dub, the Power Pole. The name is taken from the Harmony Gold script from 1989, where Yamcha makes it very clear that the Power Pole is so-named because it gives the wielder immense power, hence the name. The Funimation dub dropped this additional aspect (it'd cause a lot of logistical problems in the Tournaments where Goku can't use it, let alone when he foregoes it altogether), but the name was kept.
** The title of the work itself has been zig-zagged over the course of its history. Dragon Balls are the focus of three arcs out of ten arcs, and while most non-tournament arcs do have them featured at some point, they aren't the sole focal point like in the Son Goku, Red Ribbon Army or Namek arcs.

* AdaptationDyeJob:
** In the original manga, Bulma, her father, and her two children all have purple hair (although Bulma did also appear in some color illustrations with blue-green hair). In the anime, Bulma's father and son still have purple hair, but Bulma and her daughter have blue-green hair. Also, Bulma is also shown to have violet eyes in some of Toriyama's color illustrations, while the anime goes with blue.

** Goku's gi is a pale yellow color in the manga but orange in the anime.

** One of the more infamous examples occurs in a {{filler}} episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, a "Dr. Flappe" is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later during ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Dr. Gero is revealed as the true creator of the androids. [[AllThereInTheManual A later guide book]] would {{Handwave}} this by saying Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.

** General Blue who nearly killed Goku and his friends countless times and executed his own men for minor infractions is done in by Tao in a very anticlimactic fashion.

* ATrueHero: Most of the main characters are martial artists and other fighters by trade who primarily fight for sport or to challenge themselves. This caused a lot of controversy when much of the dialogue was [[{{Woolseyism}} changed in the English dub]] to make the heroes sound a lot more like superheroes, including Goku's infamous "I am the Hope of the Universe!" speech. That said, the original manga also included many scenes where the characters state that protecting the innocent and doing the right thing is just as important to a martial artist as simply being strong, making the dilemma very inconsistent. The character most agreed upon to be heroic and courageous is Trunks, who took it upon himself to fight not for sport but to protect the people of his world and is more than willing to [[CombatPragmatist forego a good fight to take care of a threat immediately]]. Mr. Satan/Hercule is also a major character for debate (again, both in-universe and out) because while he is cowardly in overwhelming displays of power, he is more than willing to put his life on the line to save people against more mundane threats, and will even [[CowardlyLion muster the courage]] to do his part against [[PersonOfMassDestruction a world-threatening evil]] when it's clear he has no other choice. For that, some consider him (despite his [[FakeUltimateHero proclivities]]) to be ''the'' [[BadassNormal truest hero]] of the story.

** It may be stretching to call him "normal", but Tenshinhan is the only character to successfully use the Mafuba and not die after using it. Though it did make him practically useless for the rest of the King Piccolo arc.

* BeamOWar: One of the series' staples. The manga would not feature one until the Saiyans arrived much later, but the anime featured a brief clash of beams in the battle of the Kamehamehas during Goku and Jackie Chun's fight in the 21st Martial Arts Tournament.

* BigDamnHeroes: Goku pulls this off several times like a pro. He comes to save Bulma and Krillin from General Blue seconds before Krillin's skull could be crushed in and he rescues Tien before Drum can crush his heart.
** Yajirobe and Tien pull off magnificent ones nearing the end of King Piccolo arc as well

* CameBackWrong: Subverted. When Krillin is killed, Bulma is worried that if his body decomposes before he can be resurrected with the Dragonballs he'll come back as a zombie, so she builds a stasis pod to keep him fresh. She later builds similar pods for Roshi and Chiaotzu. And when Goku finds out that Kami has the ability to restore the destroyed Shenron, he tells his companions not to burn the bodies. As it happens, however, the Dragon can restore anyone perfectly so long as there hasn't been too much time since their death.

** Launch, at least her blond personality, when from shooting at Goku and his group to seeing them as her friends and actually tries to protect them.

** A downplayed example. Krillin never was as talented as Goku, who is a HumanAlien from a fighting race, but compared to other humans he was an exceptionally strong child. He was able to [[TrainingFromHell survive Master Roshi's training regiment]] and would have been second only to Goku in the 21st Martial Arts Tournament if Master Roshi hadn't entered. He also learned the Kamehameha on the fly with no prior training at the age of sixteen while it took his master fifty years to develop it. The only things that really held Krillin back were his lack of self-esteem, which was an effect of the bullying he received from the monks at his former temple, and his occasional bouts of arrogance.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Launch. She disappears after the Saiyan Saga in season 1 of the anime, and after the first chapter in the manga.

* ClarkKenting: Master Roshi's "Jackie Chun" disguise involves removing his sunglasses and putting on a bad wig, and that's it. Several characters do manage to either figure it out or come close to figuring it out, but he always manages to somehow convince them that he's not Roshi after all.
* ClothingDamage: As the more serious battles progress, the characters involved find their outfits steadily ripped to shreds, usually resulting in the last fighter standing having the tattered remains of their pants and nothing more.

** Master Roshi. He's short, [[OlderThanHeLooks old]], and is an [[DirtyOldMan unabashed pervert]]. Yet he easily takes out a squad of Red Ribbon Army soldiers that invade his island, destroys an entire mountain and later the moon with his Max Power Kamehameha, and comes close to defeating King Piccolo on his own.

* DeathIsCheap: ''Every single character'', with the exception of [[spoiler:Supreme Kai]] and [[spoiler:Mr. Satan]], dies at least once. Only two good characters have stayed dead permanently ([[spoiler: the Namekian Grand Elder and Android 16]]).

* DidntThinkThisThrough: After seeing Roshi fail to seal King Piccolo with the mafuba because he missed the rice cooker he was using as a container, Tien makes a point of practicing with ki blasts until he can reliably hit the rice cooker. When he turns up to fight King Piccolo, he realizes the rice cooker is now broken from being hit with ki blasts and can't serve as a container any more.

-->''He's not the first great warrior (or the last) to be brought low by a girl's panties--''

** Master Roshi wears a wig to pose as Jackie Chun at the World Tournament as a lesson for his students, Goku and Krillin, who are also enrolled. Part of the reason why Goku and Krillin don't believe Jackie Chun is their master is because they believe Master Roshi would curbstomp both of them in seconds, while Goku fought about evenly with Jackie and Krillin did respectively well.

* TheDreaded

* AdaptationExpansion:

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The first ''Dragon Ball'' dub done by Funimation, which only dubbed the first 13 episodes, edited out a lot of stuff such as nudity, changing the dialog to get rid of the sexual humor which completely rewrote Master Roshi's character, and cutting scenes like Goku taking off Bulma's underwear.

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Early in the series, Goku uses Nyoibou to extend and strands Boss Rabbit and his {{Mooks}} on the Moon. There are [[MoonRabbit regular rabbits living there]] already.

*** Even in ''Super,'' [[spoiler:decades after every non-Saiyan has been DemotedToExtra and Goku has literally become a god, Chiaotzu's telekinesis still manages to hold him in place longer than the efforts of the rest of the cast combined.]]

* ActorAllusion: When Goku first meets Yajirobe in the Japanese version, he comments on how his voice sounds a lot like Kuririn's, referencing how Creator/MayumiTanaka voiced both characters.

* AdaptationExpansion: Does this with a few episodes.
** A notable example; in the manga, there's a scene where a female Red Ribbon officer [[TheSmurfettePrinciple (and apparently the only one in the whole army)]] known as Colonel Violet presents Commander Red with a Dragon Ball. In the anime adaptation of that episode, not only does the audience see Violet retrieve it, but later, upon realizing that Goku's attack is going to spell the end of the Army, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere she loots Red's riches and gets out of Dodge]].
** The search for the six-star Dragon Ball in the Red Ribbon Army Saga is also expanded greatly. In the manga, Goku swoops in, beats up two {{mooks}}, beats up Colonel Silver, and leaves with the Dragon Ball. In the anime, this storyline is expanded to include [[GoldfishPoopGang the Pilaf Gang]], Chi-Chi, the Ox King, and a shifty antique shop owner.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** In the anime, Commander Red is initially built up as a more intimidating Bond villain type, while in the manga he's a bit of a joke from his first scene. His height and even his face isn't revealed for several episodes, he has a violent cat-like pet and he's fantastic at pool and golf.
** Tien has two minor examples:
*** In his fight with Goku at the 22nd World Marital Arts Tournament, he performs better in the anime where he's able to match Goku with Goku only having a slight advantage. In the manga, the fight is far more one-sided with Goku dominating Tien until Chiaotzu paralyzes Goku, allowing Tien to badly injure Goku. Although Tien gets on Chiaotzu for this and allows Goku to pummel him as repayment, the damaged was done.
*** In the manga, Drum completely outmatches Tien, who doesn't land a single blow before going down and nearly being killed. In the anime, Tien puts up a better fight and manages to score several hits on Drum, making him bleed. He even gets to use the Evil Containment Wave and is only foiled when Drum shields Piccolo.

** In the manga, there's a scene where a female Red Ribbon officer, Colonel Violet, [[TheSmurfettePrinciple (and apparently the only one in the whole army)]] presents Commander Red with a Dragon Ball. In the anime adaption of that chapter, not only do you see her retrieve it, but later, upon realizing that Goku's attack is going to spell the end of the Army, she loots Red's riches and gets out of Dodge.
** The search for the six-star Dragonball in the Red Ribbon Army Saga is also expanded greatly. In the manga, Goku swoops in, beats up two {{mooks}}, beats up Colonel Silver, and leaves with the Dragonball. In the anime, this storyline is expanded to include [[GoldfishPoopGang the Pilaf Gang]], Chi-Chi, the Ox King, and a shifty antique shop owner.

** One of the more infamous examples occurs in a {{filler}} episode of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. In this episode, a "Dr. Flappe" is credited as the creator of Android 8. Years later during Dragon Ball Z, Dr. Gero is revealed as the true creator of the androids. [[AllThereInTheManual A later guide book]] would {{Handwave}} this by saying Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.

** The introduction of Tenshinhan ([[DubNameChange Tien]]) and Chaozu. In the manga, they first turn up at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. But the anime introduces them as the villains of a filler episode while Goku is doing his solo training.

* BrickJoke: In the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, the announcer calls out Master Roshi for blowing up the moon in order to stop a rampaging transformed Goku, citing several petty reasons including the inability of werewolves to transform. Three years later in-universe, one of the competitors at the 22nd Budokai is a Man-Wolf who is angry with Roshi for removing his chance to transform. Roshi reverts him to human form using hypnosis, whereupon he happily leaves, saying he can now pick up women. This leads to another brick joke: Roshi notes that Man-Wolf's human form is a {{gonk}} and that he's unlikely to be any more popular, but when he's revived at the end of the Piccolo Daimao arc there's a pretty girl mourning at his grave, suggesting he did manage to score after all.

* CameBackWrong: Subverted. When Krillin is killed, Bulma is worried that if his body decomposes before he can be resurrected with the Dragonballs he'll come back as a zombie, so she builds a stasis pod to keep him fresh. She later builds similar pods for Roshi and Chaotzu. And when Goku finds out that Kami has the ability to restore the destroyed Shenron, he tells his companions not to burn the bodies. As it happens, however, the Dragon can restore anyone perfectly so long as there hasn't been too much time since their death.

* CantCatchUp: Although not as obvious as ''Z'' since everyone in the cast remains useful to various degrees, but once Goku surpasses someone they never become his equal again. Both Tenshinhan (after Goku manages to defeat Piccolo Daimaoh) and Yamcha (when he hears that Goku is training under Kami-sama) note this in-story.

* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: Chichi and Goku first meet as children, and Goku promises to marry her, thinking marriage is a kind of food. He says so when an angry and all grown-up Chi-Chi brings it up in the Tenkaichi Budokai; Chichi is saddened upon realising that she had been sort-of waiting in vain... but Goku then adds that he doesn't want her to be sad and that he takes his promises seriously, so he officially asks her to marry him right there.

* DarkestHour: Near the end of the King Piccolo arc, the world is at its lowest point. King Piccolo has conquered the capitol and outlawed the law itself, swearing to destroy one city each year just to savor the despair and chaos. The world's greatest martial artists have been murdered, including Krillin. Goku is missing and believed dead. Master Roshi [[SenselessSacrifice died in a failed attempt to reimprison Piccolo,]] and Chiaotzu was killed trying to use the Dragon Balls against him. All that stands between Piccolo and complete global domination is Tien, slowly being broken down by Piccolo's demonic spawn Drum.

* ADogNamedDog: Goku opts to call the mouse he rescues from Pirate Cave... Mouse. Also, Muten Roshi's turtle is named Kame, the Japanese word for Turtle.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Piccolo Daimao introduces himself as the [[PresidentEvil new ruler of the world]] by kidnapping the King and forcing him to broadcast the new world order.