History YMMV / DragonBall

** Bulma. While she has plenty of fans, many found her constant whining grating. This was especially troublesome in the Namek Saga, because unlike all the other instances of Bulma complaining, it was in an arc [[TheLoad where she was completely unnecessary]]. It got even worse in ''Super'' due to her being much more involved in that series than before while her importance to the plot of the episode often varies between her being negligible or not.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Special mention to Europe (especially France, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy) and several countries in Latin America, where the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise is not only probably ''the'' most popular anime in history, but also a full-blown pop culture classic. The fact that it became popular in those territories ''way earlier'' than in the U.S., definitely helped.[[note]]Although the anime was released in the U.S. in 1989, around the same time as Europe, it took a whole decade and several re-releases for it to really catch up in the early 2000s. By that time, ''Dragon Ball'' had been a ''massive'' juggernaut in Europe and many Latin American countries for years.[[/note]]

** Though he's most likely meant to resemble a {{Djinn}}, Mr. Popo's appearance is a point of contention for Western fans, since his pitch-black skin and red lips make him look uncomfortably similar to a [[{{Blackface}} minstrel character]]. The actual black characters in the series aren't much better, since Toriyama tends to draw them with cartoonishly large pink lips.

* CreatorWorship: Fans love to make fun of Toriyama's lack of planning, forgetfulness, and his tendency to leave behind his human characters, but make no mistake that the fanbase loves him and are skeptical of any work that doesn't have his involvement. This love extends to other manga authors like Creator/EiichiroOda, who practically worships him.

** PowerLevels. One side of the fandom thinks they basically ruined the series, by way of shoving increasing portions of the cast into CantCatchUp territory, removing any believable scale from the story, and turning fights into which character can output the most brute force followed by a CurbStompBattle from the winner. The other side of the fandom simply can't imagine ''Dragon Ball'' without those strict and unforgiving strength rankings, slugfests between characters of planet-cracking might, and massively-hyped surges up the ladder triggered by a new transformation or TrainingFromHell followed by a cathartic stomping, and treats the whole concept as SeriousBusiness. The fact that post-''Z'' portions of the series have started to play merry havoc with the whole concept, [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe letting the supporting cast catch up through means of varying believability or having characters make showings well outside of their supposed powerscale]], doesn't help the debate--the latter side obviously hates it, while the former side views this as less power levels being done away with and more them still being around but treated inconsistently.

** A major extension of this is the debate over whether the series should be primarily serious, or primarily silly. On one end, you have people people argue that comedy has been baked into ''Dragon Ball'''s core from the beginning, that Toriyama himself has been a consistent advocate for the comedic side of the franchise, and that the comedic parts of the series could still pull off action and drama, and consider the action-heavy parts of the series to be mindless violence for its own sake. On the other end, you have people who argue that the series hit its indisputable peak of popularity when it was strictly a serious action show and the high points of the series almost all come from its serious dramatic arcs and big fight scenes, and consider the comedic parts of the series to be annoying, childish, and not particularly funny. The debate can probably best be summed up as "'''Dragon Ball'' isn't just about fighting and violence" versus "yes it is."

* InformedWrongness: Goku meeting Chi-Chi at the 23 Tenkaichi Budokai and not remembering her is treated as an example of him being an idiot. While Chi-Chi's identity is obvious to the audience, Goku had only met her once, over six years earlier. It actually speaks well of Goku that he remembers her at all. It's less blatant in the anime where he had seen her in a few filler arcs between then, but he still only had two other meetings with her in the past six years.

** The Crane Hermit, Master Shen. He is an evil and bitter old man, but he's like that thanks to King Piccolo's cruelty. He watched his fellow students and friends be slaughtered by Piccolo's children and was then forced to watch his master humiliated by Piccolo himself. After witnessing the futility of being good and the failure of justice, he turned away from his master's teachings.

* EvilIsCool: Piccolo and his father, King Piccolo. They're just both completely badass. King Piccolo is [[KnightOfCerebus one of the first villains to be competent]], as he's a HeroKiller several times over, and Piccolo Jr. almost defeated Goku in the 23rd Budokai.

* CatharsisFactor: After seeing Tambourine kill Krillin and so many other heroes ruthlessly, it was ''immensely'' satisfying to see Goku give Tambourine a NoBarredHoldBeatdown, with Tambourine getting killed by Goku thereafter. In fact, Goku felt he hadn’t suffered ''enough'' and prolong the beating as much as he can.

** Beerus proved a popular antagonist on his introduction in ''Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods'' for providing a wildly different and [[LaughablyEvil fun villain]], but he was also criticized by those who found less him interesting than previous villains, annoying, and to be a KarmaHoudini given he does whatever he feels like while getting no commupance for it. This continued with his later appearances, with some fans liking his fun antics and CharacterDevelopment in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. Beerus' critics dislike him for his presence killing tension [[note]]''Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F'' for example suffered from Frieza's threat diminished given that the movie made it clear Beerus could kill him at any moment[[/note]] on top of appearing when his presence doesn't add anything besides comic relief. Not helping things is that the best received plots since Beerus' introduction have been the ones where his involvement is kept to a minimum.

** Well, "hate" is too strong of a word, but in the UsefulNotrs/UnitedStates, while ''DBZ'' is a cultural icon, the original series is far more obscure and mostly known only by fans of the franchise. In parts of Asia and Europe, it's ''Dragon Ball'' that's the better known of the two.

** Well, "hate" is too strong of a word, but in the U.S., while ''DBZ'' is a cultural icon, the original series is far more obscure and mostly known only by fans of the franchise. In parts of Asia and Europe, it's ''Dragon Ball'' that's the better known of the two.

** Goku, despite being one of the most popular anime characters out there, isn't really liked by everyone. Some see him as an unlikable moron who dooms the people around him for the sake of a fair fight, and [[LackOfEmpathy thinks nothing of it]], and his dopey attitude can even come off as [[SmugSuper callous at times]]. The fact that he's constantly touted online as the most powerful, unbeatable fighter in all of fiction can also make some people just sick of him and the arguments that he could beat anyone. There's also the fact that he's the ''main focus'' and always the one to save the day, which can make for a very frustrating experience.

* AmericansHateTingle: Well, "hate" is too strong of a word, but in the U.S., while ''DBZ'' is a cultural icon, the original series is far more obscure and mostly known only by fans of the franchise. In parts of Asia and Europe, it's ''Dragon Ball'' that's the better known of the two.

** Specially outside the U.S., and specially among people who prefer the original manga to the anime adaptation, some people really take issue whenever ''Dragon Ball Z'' is called "the sequel to ''Dragon Ball''", since that's not how the story was originally conceived. The manga never used ''DBZ'' for its title in Japan and most other countries, and it was always presented as a single series. Also, by the time the anime got its name changed, the manga was almost reaching the Frieza Saga. The fact that in Japan ''DBZ'' was marketed, not as a sequel, but as a rebranding to signal that (at the time) the show was thought to continue for only one, two seasons more, tops, doesn't help the issue.