Dragon Ball began as a manga written by Akira Toriyama, chronicling the adventures of a cheerful monkey boy named Son Goku, in a story that was originally based off the Chinese tale Journey to the West. The manga was soon adapted into one of the most popular anime ever made.In Dragon Ball, Goku and a huge cast of friends and enemies search for the magical Dragon Balls that they could use to make a wish come true. Of course, no sooner had someone gathered and used the Dragon Balls than they would have to be sought out again. On top of all this Goku was training up to fight in the periodic "Strongest Under the Heavens" tournament. The series is generally broken down into the following sagas: Emperor Pilaf, the first World Martial Arts Tournament, the Red Ribbon Army, Tenshinhan, King Piccolo and Piccolo Jr, with minor filler plots. After defeating these major threats to the world, Goku finally won the tournament on his third attempt and went off to get married.
The later series.
After that, the anime (and the American version of the manga from that point) experienced a name change to Dragon Ball Z, while it continued uninterrupted as Dragon Ball in the Japanese manga. The reason was the Dragon Ball Z period had a change in focus from martial arts comedy to more serious epic battles. At the start it revealed that Goku was not simply a boy with a tail but one of the last of the alien race, the Saiyans. He was sent into space shortly before the Saiyan planet was destroyed (shades of Superman). Goku and his friends, reinforced by former enemies (a recurring theme) had to fight progressively more powerful villains. Although Goku and his martial arts skills (which let him and his friends fly, throw energy blasts and read minds) dominated the battles, the story was mostly about Goku's son Gohan and how he faces the challenges. Running seven years and nearly 300 episodes, the series can be broken down into the four primary Big Bads of the series: Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu. Both Dragon Ball the manga and Dragon Ball Z the anime came to a triumphant conclusion after Gohan is married and his own daughter Pan enters the "Strongest Under the Heavens" tournament.Since Dragon Ball saga was a superhit, Dragon Ball GT was created as an anime-only continuation by Toei, with some character design by Toriyama. GT was not as well received, lasting 64 episodes before cancellation (although this was still much longer than originally intended), and its status as part of ''Dragon Ball'' canon has since been compromised, because...After several years of no new media beyond video games repeating the history, Dragon Ball was brought into a new generation with the announcement of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, simply titled Dragon Ball Online. While it has, as of yet, only been released in Asia, it should be noted for one important reason: Dragon Ball Online takes place on Earth, 216 years after the events at the conclusion of the manga series, and according to Akira Toriyama, who has been one of the hands-on lead designers of the game, is considered canon to the world of Dragon Ball. So far, three playable races have been announced: Human, Namekian, and Majin.The success of Dragon Ball is hard to dispute — it became one of the biggest hits ever in Japan, Americans always have an idea of what it is when they hear its title, every single Latino who grew up during the 90's has watched it, it's still running on TV and merchandising is alive and well. It is sometimes derided for being simplistic and for drawn-out multi-episode fights with little story progression. However one must keep in mind that the show is primarily aimed at kids and teens age 10 to 18, with older adults not really in the picture. Dragon Ball is supposed to be fun and thrilling, and it generally achieves this.There were many Non Serial Movies (only a few could be wedged into the series' timeline) released at least once a year, three set in the Dragon Ball timeline and thirteen for Dragon Ball Z. Two made-for-TV movies were made for Dragon Ball Z, which are technically in canon. There was also a seventeenth feature film based on the original series produced to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the franchise, as well as a web special in 2008 produced to commemorating the 40th anniversary of Shonen Jump.To date, there's been three Live Action Adaptations: The American-made Dragonball Evolution, which came out in 2009, and the earlier, campiers, Chinese Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins and Korean DragonBall: Fight For Victory Son Goku.From 2009-2011, Toei aired Dragon Ball Kai (Dragon Ball Z Kai outside Japan), a "refreshing" of DBZ from the Saiyan to the Cell Games arcs with almost no Filler or Padding.Now also has a Spin-Off manga called Dragon Ball SD in Saikyo Jump by Naho Ooishi which began on December 3, 2010, exactly 26 years after the first chapter of the original series was first published in Shonen Jump. As of June 21, 2011 there's another Spin-Off called "Episode of Bardock", What If? Bardock survived, also by Naho Ooishi; later in the same year the Bardock short received an Animated Adaptation, and Shueshia started to reprint brand new copies of the original manga, all of it in its original 42 Volumes glory, although with a different stylized logo for "Dragon Ball".There are a couple of Abridged Series out there, including Alternate Reality DBZ and the enormously popular version by Team Four Star. There's also a weekly podcast hosted by the Daizenshuu EX crew. Finally, it's worth mentioning Dragon Ball Multiverse, whose drawings are impossible to differentiate from the official material.Needless to say, its impact on Shonen manga is, well... impressive — to say the very least, its influence now impossible to not see in almost any work in the subgenre. Although not the first employ the vast number of the tropes its most associated with, it became the de facto face of them. To this day, the Shonen work, and various Anime in general that use elements from, pay homage, or parody, this series continue its legacy. For proof, one need only look as far as these three anime — often considered the most current and direct of its spiritual successors: Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach.*
Absurdly Sharp Blade: Subverted by the Z-Sword. Everyone thinks that it's unbreakable and stupidly sharp, but it's not, though the material it was pitted against was ridiculously sturdy.
Played with when King Cold believed that Trunks only managed to kill Frieza because of his sword (which probably does qualify for this trope). Amused, Trunks decided to let Cold test this theory and gives him the sword, knowing that Cold would attempt to kill him with it. When Cold attempts to kill Trunks with it, Trunks stops the blade with his hand and kills Cold with a ki blast to the heart.
Accidental Truth: Goku was pondered about being a space alien (by Oolong). Then the Saiyans arrived.
Oolong was the person who took the idea most seriously until Z. Bulma/Yamcha/Puar/Oolong try to come up with a reason for Goku turning into a Great Ape (the first time) but basically stop at "He's not from Earth!" and "OMG, he's going to kill us just like he trampled Gohan!" It's not investigated upon until Dragonball Z when Akira Toriyama decided to come up with the Saiyan race. Oolong however, had a couple of throw away comments near the Piccolo arcs so Toriyama may have planned to use the alien bit around there.
Maybe even earlier, as the Narrator frequently calls Piccolo (Sr. and Jr.) aliens.
Acrofatic: Fat Majin Buu and Dodoria, but just about every main character can fly and do acrobatic stuff, so it's kinda cheapened here.
There's still Yajirobe.
Acting Unnatural: Frog Ginyu was trying to steal one of the Dragon Balls. When Gohan spots him, he starts leaning against the ball and whistling nonchalantly, which only makes him more suspicious because he's a frog.
Action Film Quiet Drama Scene: When Trunks recounts why he came back in time, and you get a feeling of the despair he must feel being the only defense for all the people against the Androids who have ravaged the entire world, leaving only a handful of people behind.
There is an inherent problem with translating directly from the manga page, which the original anime did. Primarily showing an explosion on the comic page takes up one panel with a half-second glance while it takes 90 seconds of the anime to animate (To say nothing of Talking Is a Free Action). To fit one manga into a half-hour show meant that there was plenty of padding and reaction shots. Dragonball Kai is cutting that down to a third of its original length and thereby allowing for a swift watch almost equal to reading the manga.
Of course, this itself is being mocked by many commentators such as the writer of Alternate Reality Dragon Ball Z— a great many fans are practically cheering about being given LESS of the show to watch, which would be any marketing expert's wet dream.
A particularly notable example is Vegeta; in his first appearances in the anime, he looked like this◊; as soon as he got to Earth, however, his armor was the blue-and-white color scheme we're used to and his hair had become black... which extends retroactively to events that take place well before his first appearance, up to and including childhood◊. No explanation has ever been given, but it seems to have been a mistake on the animators' part.
A mistake that was corrected in the remake, Dragon Ball Kai.
Adaptation Expansion: While the anime contains a lot of filler, it also contains a great deal of expansion of the story arcs, often for the purpose of developing the characters. The most positive version of this was the Saiyan Saga, which showed us the year that passed before the Saiyans arrived, as far as fleshing out Gohan's training and Piccolo's Heel Face Turn as a result of his time with Gohan. Toriyama himself was also indirectly involved with some of the filler, with the anime's producers developing it based off of his suggestions.
As well as giving some actual screentime to, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Chaotzu before the Nappa fight. The latter three heroes also got a well-deserved Crowning Moment of Awesome when they thrashed the Ginyu Force as part of the training they received from Kaio-sama.
Actually, Toriyama was not as involved with the anime as some would think. He states in an interview that he "had faith" in the anime staff. He gave the occasional filler idea, such as Yamcha being a baseball player, but not much else.
Adaptation Induced Plot Hole: Several, due to how the anime was ridiculously close to the manga at almost all times. One particularly jarring example though, happens in a filler scene at the end of the Freeza-saga; After Namek has exploded, Vegeta realizes that, now that both Goku and Freeza are dead, he's the strongest fighter in the universe, and is now free to take over the world. Gohan attempts to stop him, and the two have a brief fight which ends with Vegeta being stopped by Piccolo from delivering the final blow, before he flies off on his own. This entire scene is never mentioned again, and it completely contradicts his motivations in the very next episode, where he is back with the rest of the group, completely calm, and shown to actually want Goku brought back to life so that he may fight him again and prove that he is the better fighter. Heck, he's actually the one to give them the suggestion for how to revive him!
There's also a very significant difference between the manga and anime versions of Namek's explosion. In the manga, Goku is shown flying towards Frieza's ship with several Ginyu pods in sight. He finds the ship useless, flies up and says Namek's about to blow (and the view shifts to King Kai). In the anime, Goku is helplessly raging above the ship while we actually SEE the planet go up in smoke and supposedly take him with it without much doubt. Since we actually SEE his on screen death in the anime, his later explanation that he "found a pod, jumped in, hit the button and made it out of there" is certainly in line with the MANGA. As for the ANIME version, it's utter Canon Discontinuity/Retcon/Ass Pull considering how far they went to SHOW him dying.
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. A popular fan theory to work around this is that Dr. Flappe and Gero were partners on the android project.
Adaptive Ability: Saiyans, Cell, and other villains to extreme degrees.
Adipose Rex: The Big Bad of the first movie is King Gurumez, who's fat because the cursed rubies he's torn up his kingdom to excavate have given him an insatiable appetite...as well as turning him into a giant monster.
Adorkable: 16-year-old Gohan. Studious, socially awkward, and has a love of superheroes while failing to realize that the only person who thinks Great Saiyaman is cool is his 7-year-old brother.
Goku, Yamcha, Krillin (growing up with someone as goofy as Son Goku really rubs off on you), Goten and every lovable and goofy member of the Ginyu force is a rare evil example.
Adult Child: Son Goku is a rare positive example of this trope, despite being an Idiot Hero and does cause a lot of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments. There are also moments when he tries to give the responsibility of saving the earth to other people—namely children like Gohan, Goten, and Trunks.
Chi-Chi, Gohan and Goten really pulled the short straw with this one.
Majin Buu is the bad kind of adult child, though he does redeem himself.
On the other hand, Goku survived on his own for years in the wild, as well as fought multiple battles as a child/teenager without anybody batting an eye. It's not entirely surprising that he would project those standards onto his kids, unaware of how his Saiya-jin heritage might have affected his situation differently.
The Ginyu Force was an elite team of Frieza's most powerful fighters... Who also play Jan-ken-pon to decide who gets to fight, bet on candy bars and hot fudge sundaes, and made ridiculous poses for fun.
The Ageless: Master Roshi and Fortuneteller Baba, both having drank from the Fountain of Youth.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Inversion: it took Dr. Gero 16 androids to finally get any that were evil. Then they killed him because they weretooevil. It's also implied that there was resentment from before they were converted.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Bulma was infatuated with Yamcha early on when he was an arrogant rogue, then when he somewhat settled down, she decided that Vegeta(whom she fell in love with) who is as bad as it gets, tickled her fancy.
And in the meantime, she also had the hots for General Blue and Zarbon.
Subverted when she first saw Goku as an adult, who she also had the hots for, and Goku is as good a guy as it gets... only for him to get engaged on the same day with Chi-Chi.
All There in the Manual: Lots of supplemental info on Saiyan biology, answers to plot holes and much more can only be found in the Daizenshuu books.
Chi-Chi in general. Let's not forget that, until #18 gets her upgrade (or, if we're going by natural ability, Videl) Chi-Chi is the strongest woman on the planet. No wonder Goku likes her..
And I Must Scream: Piccolo tries to inflict this to Super Buu by destroying the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Apparently Buu has a grasp of this trope, and quite fittingly screams his way out.
Gohan sealing Garlic Jr in the Dead Zone also qualifies.
Also the likely fate of anyone who falls victim to the Evil Containment Wave, being trapped in an otherwise empty container until someone opens it back up.
Animation Bump: The anime was animated almost directly from Toriyama's manga drawings, and, as a result, frames and images that come directly from the manga are noticeably more detailed than other frames.
In the remake of Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Kai, the designs of the characters during the opening, ending and mid-episode interludes all contain MUCH higher quality.
That's because those scenes are being freshly animated where as the episodes themselves are just remastered from the 1989 series.
It should be noted that in general, scenes chosen for use in Dragon Ball Kai are often the best animated sequences available from Z and is often at its best quality during the fights. This becomes a little jarring during the Goku vs Freeza fight, as the editing team was forced some of the more poorly animated sequences, thus the animation jumps from high quality to low quality and back occasionally during this fight.
Anime Anatomy: Subverted in Dragon Ball Kai. Due to the show airing on a morning timeslot, they had to censor baby Goku's penis and balls, but his genitals were censored to a degree (i.e. covered up by the furniture he was sitting on).
Anyone Can Die: Everyone on Earth in the entire span of the Majin Buu arc alone has died or has been dead around the time with the exception of Dende (who has died before) and Mr. Satan (or Hercule) and his puppy (Bee). Even the Kings Of All Cosmos have died (The Supreme Kai hasn't died before, but sort of had experienced death through Kibito, who he merged with). Before the Majin Buu saga, you can expect at least one casualty amongst the protagonists in every major battle. It's even lampshaded at one point...
"Yes! We're going to make it through this without losing anyone!" —Son Gohan, watching Piccolo's Curb-Stomp Battle with Android 20. Sadly, It Got Worse.
Everyone in the Dragon Ball universe save for Mr. Satan has died/been absorbed/eaten atleast once. Even Majin Buu himself.
Alternate Continuity: The Non Serial Movies of the original Dragon Ball series are direct retellings of earlier sagas distilled into movie format, entirely incompatible with the manga and anime series. The 10th anniversary special, The Path to Power is another continuity retelling Goku's origins with the Red Ribbon Army and Muscle Tower.
Apocalypse How: Future Trunks went back in time to prevent the world being wasted by Androids, after the Z-Fighters were killed and Goku died of an alien heart disease.
The series slowly updates its Scale of Destruction as it progresses. Villains show some restraint most of the time by keeping to destruction below their class ratings.
It starts with Class Sub 0, then goes to Class 1 by Piccolo Saga, Class 3 by the time Raditz appears
Class 4 at the start of Namek, before going on to Class 6 and ending in Class X when Namek goes boom.
At the end Cell Saga it's at X-2, when he threatens to take down the solar system.
Majin Buu quickly upgrades to X-3, and is clearly X-4 and even X-5 rated (when he learns instant transmission).
The ultimate one is when while fighting Vegetto, he goes even further to threaten a Class Z multi-dimensional collapse when he suffers an epic Villainous Breakdown.
Arc Villain: Most of the standalone villains, notably Garlick, Commander Red and Pilaf.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Freeza states that three things he does not tolerate are cowardice, miltary insurrection, and bad haircuts.
Artistic Age: Gohan during the Cell Games fits Type 1, while little Goku in the original Dragon Ball goes in Type 2.
Ass Kicking Pose: Frequently. Parodied by the Ginyu Force members, whose poses are anything but asskicking.
The same applies for Gohan as the "Great Saiyaman".
Asshole Victims of Genocide: Frieza's genocide of the Saiyans was pretty bad, and Bardock's attempt to save them all and rebel against Frieza's empire was, without a doubt, heroic. But, we should always remember that the Saiyans themselves were violent, arrogant, blood-thirsty creatures who probably would have gone out and destroyed worlds anyway, even if Frieza wasn't in power.
No, they wouldn't. The expressed reason for why they wiped out planets is because Frieza was there in the first place. They didn't have the technology to spread across the stars, so Frieza allowed them that opportunity in exchange for being useful tools in galactic domination. They would have essentially remained barbarians if it wasn't for Frieza. Frieza's influence made them even worse. In fact, the modern Saiyans are Frieza's Gone Horribly Right of an entire race. So he wiped them out.
A modern comparison could be made to the Krogan-like the Saiyans, they were 'uplifted' far too early to grow out of their barbarism so they could be used by the more advanced races. The side effect was the Krogan began populating Citadel worlds causing a war, and the Saiyans became too strong for Freeza-a Complete Monster but a Genre Savvy one, to ignore. Thus, the Krogan got the Genophage inflicted on them, and the Saiyan's were wiped out.
Autodoc: The healing tanks used by Freeza's forces.
Avenging the Villain: Piccolo's son - up until he let Gohan get to him, at least.
Awesome, but Impractical: The second stage of the Ascended Super Saiyan, the level in between Super Saiyan 1 and 2, gives a huge boost in power, supposedly as much as a Super Saiyan 2. Unfortunately all the muscles that come with it drastically decrease speed, making it practicaly impossible to actually hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta both realized that the second form was useless due to the loss of speed, and Cell calls out Trunks for using such a foolish technique.
Another could also be the Spirit Bomb. Considering it takes a long time to gather enough energy to use and that Goku is left defenseless while doing so, it is difficult to use in actual combat. Usually, live bait is used to help him. It was used three different times.
Vegeta: He gets hit with it, but by the next episode he's up and kicking ass again. It takes Gohan falling on him (while transformed) to finally get Vegeta to say "No mas.". The rest is history.
Freeza: He also gets hit with a massive one. However, it does little more than cut his tail in half and hurt his left eye. He gets up, shoots Piccolo through his lungs and kills Krillin in the span of about two minutes. Although if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have Super Saiyan Goku.
Buu: It's finally decided that THIS is the ONLY way he's going to be defeated. Goku positions himself and the designated live bait (Vegeta, Fat Buu, and Mr. Satan) proceed to keep Kid Buu busy. Goku finally unleashes it but somehow Buu is STILL able to fight it off and Goku doesn't have any strength left to force it with his own ki. The final wish is to restore Goku's strength and he finally manages to put it away with a blast of his own helping it along.
Needless to say, the Spirit Bomb is very awesome, but it has never SOLELY gotten the job done.
Ax Crazy: All forms of Majin Buu, especially Kid Buu.
Ahem, Broly.
Frieza, especially in his Final Form.
And even more-so when he gets pissed.
Back from the Dead: Probably the most granted wish from the eternal dragon in the series.
Badass Normal: Mr. Satan and Yajirobe are the only fighters with no grasp of ki.
Yajirobe fights an enraged kid Goku to a standstill, single-handedly kills one of Piccolo Daimaou's minions in a single strike, and manages to cut Oozaru Vegeta's tail off when Gohan and Krillin failed to.
Mr. Satan. Despite the fact that Buu could kill him several million times over, he chose to face him. After multiple, comedic failed attempts at killing him, he eventually befriends him, teaches him that killing is wrong and, because Buu didn't know any better beforehand, Buu swears off killing at the request of his new friend. Of course something goes wrong...
Which, in turn, gives him a chance to show off just how badass Mr. Satan really is.
Goku's acknowledgment of Mr. Satan at the end, despite the latter's comic relief status, is legit.
It should also be pointed out that Mr. Satan legitimately won the World Tournament. The Z Warriors were either dead or dealing with the fate of the universe at the time.
In the manga, by the time the Buu arc kicks in, Krillin is acknowledged as the most powerful human being in the world. While he is fairly superpowered at this point it's all just because of rigorous training. Of course, all characters that are still relevant by then are hundreds of times stronger than he is.
It really should be mentioned that, during the last portions of the Frieza saga, he was second weakest person on Namek (with the useful in a different way-Dende being the weakest). Despite this, he was able to slice of a portion of Frieza's tail, and, had he taken the initiative of attacking Frieza after blinding him, could have cut the tyrant in half.
Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon army is probably the most triumphant villain example. By real world standards he was strong, fast, skilled and cunning - his only mistake was going up against a Saiyan.
Of course at that point, Col. Silver didn't know Goku was alien. Nobody knew Goku was alien. Goku didn't know he was alien!
Bad Future: There are at least two alternate timelines of them in the Dragon Ball universe. One of which Future Trunks is killed off for real.
According to Daizenshuu 7, there are 4 timelines in the Dragon Ball universe.
Bastard Understudy: Adjutant Black to Supreme Commander Red of the Red Ribbon Army.
Bardock Can Breathe In Space: Certain aliens are able to survive without air. Saiyans aren't one of them. Doesn't stop Bardock from flying into space to confront Frieza and speak to him, too.
In some filler episodes, Vegeta is seen flying between planets without a spaceship or any apparent breathing apparatus.
Also when Vegeta blows up the planet Arlia in a filler episode, he and Nappa hang out in space just standing in their open pods.
There's a much earlier, and often ignored example of when Goku used used Nyoibou to extend and put Boss Rabbit and his Mooks on the Moon. You can likely excuse Goku for him holding his breath, but the rabbits?
The manga was in a much more comedic setting at the time, and Toriyama once stated he just didn't care. That only made thing worse when you think about the rabbits when Master Roshi (as Jackie Chun) later blew up the moon.
Frieza survives in space with half his body and head missing.
Evidently, both surviving in the vacuum of space, and surviving a high degree of grievous bodily injuries are both traits of his race. Cell, being a Biological Mashup with Frieza's cells can also survive in space.
Broly is strongly implied to have this ability as well.
Vegeta and Bardock didn't "breathe in space" for long. It's probable that the Saiyans cannot actually survive in space, but their superior physical abilities and chi powers grant them the ability to withstand vacuum exposure for a limited amount of time.
Beam-O-War : This series is likely the Trope Codifier.
Beam Spam: Vegeta in particular is notorious for using this... ...to little effect.
Become Real People: Subverted. Krillin uses the Dragon Balls to wish Androids 17 & 18 fully human. When the dragon says he can't, he wishes to remove the bombs inside their bodies instead. 17 and 18 are actually augmented humans who are still able to have children.
Better Than New: Goku and Vegeta frequently sustain life-threatening injuries, only to quickly come back stronger than before they were injured (and remain stronger going forward). In one case, during the Namek Saga, Goku is injured and placed in one of the Saiyan healing tanks for several episodes. He emerges not only healed but far better than before his injury, due to being immersed bodily in Saiyan DNA.
This is actually just a natural ability of Saiyans, what doesn't kill them quite literally makes them stronger. This is shown at one point by Vegeta ordering Krillin to blow a hole in his chest so he can be healed and become stronger. While he doesn't become as strong as he'd have wished, he still gets a huge power boost. Referred to as Zenkai, this ability is the first part of why the Saiyans are able to become so unconscionably powerful. It also explains the power of training being so exponential for them.
Between My Legs: This shot is used very often in the anime, often in fight scenes.
Beware the Nice Ones: Son Goku and especially his eldest boy Son Gohan: People in this universe are nice because they can afford to be nice.
Beyond the Impossible: The Supreme Kai thinks this when he finds out how powerful the earth Saiyans are. To explain: this guy is the series' equivalent of God and yet his power level is nothing compared to them. The saiyans outgrew him by refusing to accept a limit to their potential power.
Big Bad: Emperor Pilaf, Commander Red, Master Shen, Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, and a few others thrown in-between.
Big Damn Heroes: Piccolo pulls this off for Gohan in nearly every DBZ movie before the post-Cell timeskip.
Big Eater: All the Saiyans. Even the humans after long bouts of training.
Majin Buu's appetite for sweets can't be matched by any Saiyan in their dreams.
Bilingual Bonus: 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."
Blood Knight: The Saiyans are an entire race of them!
Even Goku is such a gigantic blood knight that, while about to slam a spirit bomb into Majin Buu to finally kill him, he explicitly says he wants him to reincarnate just so he can fight him again!
Cell, having Saiyan cells, loved the thrill of fighting enemies stronger than him, and even held a tournament, the Cell Games, just so he could fight Earth's strongest.
Boobs of Steel: Pretty much inverted completely. The female fighters (Eighteen, Videl, etc.) tend to be modestly endowed, while the non-fighters (such as Bulma) are fairly stacked.
Played straight with Ranfan, a finalist of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. Her entire fighting style revolves solely around flashing her boobs as a distraction (which being a Shonen manga it always works) given how she had battled her way through the Elimination round without anyone discovering her secret weapons she must logically be a very skilled martial artist when fighting fair.
Boring, but Practical: Solar Flare. This attack blinds the opponent temporarily by have the user emit a light as bright as the sun. It has only failed ONCE, and that was against Omega Shenron, it works on everyone else, guaranteed. It only gets used every once once and a while for some unknown reason when the strategy of "Blind enemy the kill them while they're trying to recover" is a legitimate strategy.
Bowdlerise: In the first dub, having to meet standards for syndicated kids' shows, the villains were always threatening to blast people into another dimension, scenes of wanton destruction accompanied by throwaway lines implying nobody got hurt, and Tien says that his arm can grow back after Nappa breaks it off. The second dub, while the voice acting wasn't exactly stellar early on, thankfully reduced the amount, allowing death and even keeping small amounts of blood, if inconsistent.
Being fair, Tien can grow extra arms for a time, so growing one back isn't entirely unlikely.
Not to mention that the Other World/afterlife is treated like another dimension, as Master Roshi's sister Baba can go there and back without a problem due to her ability to travel through different dimensions, so that dub was technically right in referring to Other World as another dimension.
Also, in the first dub, extra objects are written to cover all nudity, both front and back. The only thing that was different is Recoome's buttocks. While the first dub had a black strip of clothing covering his butt in a few episodes, the cloth strip is missing in the second dub. And this was shortly before Vegeta used the Coup de Grâce to finish off Recoome.
Brainless Beauty: Krillin's once-girlfriend Maron during the Garlic Jr. arc.
Brawler Lock: Goku does this with Freeza, Cell, and Vegeta. The former two during their respective arcs, and the latter during the Buu arc.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the 8th chapter of manga Son Goku sends Yamucha in the air with his punch but Yamucha bounces of the frame's border back to the ground.
In later chapters there are a few instances, where different characters refers to the fact that it's a manga, such as discussions of acceptableness of dirty jokes in a manga for children.
One that stuck in the anime: Gohan addresses the audience near the start of the Buu arc that Krillin grew his hair out after quitting fighting.
During the Majin Buu arc, Krillin notices that the author is cheating by recycling panels (to be exact, Goten and Trunks's fusion training sequence is reused over and over) and Toriyama himself pops out behind him to apologize.
As he's the closest thing this show has to a Deadpan Snarker Krillin in general tends to be the king of this. At one point when a random fighter in a Tournament was being obnoxious and underestimating the Z Fighters power, Krillin remarked that the guy "had one-shot character written all over him."
Break the Cutie: Mostly Gohan, but Goten and Pan aren't exactly left out. Another example occurs late in Z with the Supreme Kai's comrades/True Companions getting taken out by Buu, and his mentor is killed right in front of him.
Chaozu's merciless wrecking at the hands of Nappa, followed by a tearful farewell and a kamikaze explosion. Which was pointless.
Future Trunks also has this moment when all of the Z-fighters except Gohan die, and even more so when Gohan dies.
Brick Joke: Early on (in volume two of Dragon Ball), Oolong comments that Goku's amazing qualities have to be due to him being an alien. Fast forward a decade or so...
This was a complete coincidence and not a true brick joke, though. At this point the series was still at gag martial artist manga status, and given the fact that he's known for his forgetful nature, there's no way this was something Toriyama had planned all along.
However, Major Metallitron scans Goku, and it says in a corner he's not human, though doesn't know what he is. Which happened in the Red ribbon arc.
Very early on in the series, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong run into the Boss Rabbit Gang. After Goku beats up two of the grunts, they call in their boss who threatens to turn them all into Carrots. Later in DBZ, we learn Goku's Saiyan name is based off the word "Carrot." Maybe Toriyama is an Unreliable sourceof information?
Brother Chuck: Almost all of the original characters from Dragon Ball vanish completely by the end of the Buu saga. Akira Toriyama has admitted that for some of the characters it was simply because he forgot they existed, like Lunch.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Bulma. Taken more literally in Playboy Bunny outfit when she and Goku encountered Monster Rabbit. Her father, Dr. Briefs, also qualifies.
Muten/Master Roshi definitely counts. Imagine an elderly pervert being titled "The Invincible Master" of martial arts.
And then there is the Ginyu Force. Frieza hires them as enforcers to take out Vegeta and retrieve the Dragon Balls. After seeing their entrance, full of ridiculous camp, dumb poses, and flowers, you may think he's made a huge mistake. Until you watch one member of the team beat Vegeta like he was nothing, without ever dropping the camp.
Goku and Piccolo save a bus full of children in episode 125.
Imperfect Cell stops and and absorbs an entire bus full of rugby players in one episode, and when Vegeta fights Android 18 he inadvertantly blows up a truck full of paperclips.
Butt Monkey: Krillin and Yamcha. This is lampshaded in Dragon Ball Abridged where there is an actual tally of how many times Krillin is treated like a butt monkey (the "Krillin Owned Count").
Also lampshaded in the World's Strongest movie/special. After Piccolo and Gohan are repelled by the Big Bad, Krillin flies in to take a shot, only to be knocked away before landing so much as a single punch, at which point we hear him thinking "Nope, didn't think so..."
Some of the villains such as Ninja Murasaki and Guldo would qualify.
Cash Lure: Appears in the censored version, to replace Bulma using a lure of panties.
Call Back: They pop up from time to time, but the king of this is the Strongest Coffee Candy in the Universe - a similar visual shows up near the end of Dr Slump.
Thematically, the Buu Arc is a throwback to the gag-heavy atmosphere of his earlier works.
SCREAMING Your Attacks: Played straight most of the time. Future Trunks averts this - he's silent during his initial fight aside from normal speech. (And on top of that, his attacks don't actually have names until the video games.)
In at least some cases, it seems to be necessary. Captain Ginyu's body switching attack apparently doesn't work unless he can actually vocalize the "CHANGE NOW!"
By the end of the series, even the final big bad Super Buu is desperately trying to play catchup with the Saiyans. Gohan was able to effortlessly defeat Super Buu without the need (or ability) to transform. Later, when Buu had absorbed Gohan and obtained his power, he was easily beaten by the original Super Saiyan form of Vegetto, who was probably capable of at least one and probably two more levels of Super Saiyan transformations on top of that. The only reason there was any tension at all for the final battle against Kid Buu was that Goku and Vegeta didn't want to fuse again on PRINCIPLE.
It should be pointed out that Vegetto was able to handle Buu even before transforming.
That's actually only in the anime. In the manga, Vegetto transforms immediately after forming, implying he might not have been able to get the job done without doing so.
Really, this trope applies to anyone who isn't Goku and Gohan (and anyone who isn't fused with them). The series reaches a point (arguably around the time Perfect Cell shows up) where not even Saiyan blood is enough to make you relevant.
The fighters of Dragon Ball lampshade it after Krillin, Roshi, and Chiaotzu's resurrection.
Master Roshi: Goku is something very different from you and I, and Kami has obviously recoginized it. To be honest, I'm chopped liver in comparison to that monkey-tailed boy.
Cash Cow Franchise: For the twenty-five years and counting.... here's to another 25.
Celestial Bureaucracy: All souls in the afterlife have their deeds listed in a file like a resume, and stamped by Lord Enma/King Yama for approval to go Heaven or sent to Hell.
Censor Suds: In episode 49, Bulma stands up in her bubble bath and bends over, conveniently covered by soap suds.
Cerebus Syndrome: The series went though this after Krillin was killed by Piccolo Daimaou's henchman Tambourine.
Inverted with the Buu Saga, which had a far more humorous tone than much of the preceding material.
Chekhov's Gun: The Spirit Bomb. Goku learns it in the Saiyan Saga, and it does alright. Nothing to write home about, really, but it did send Vegeta running. Frieza just shrugged it off, so it didn't seem like a big deal. Then, 10-12 in-universe years later in the Buu Saga, Goku uses one to completely eradicate his opponent, an unstoppable being of literal pure evil that once came back from being turned into so much smoke.
To a degree, Goku showing Goten and Trunks how to become a Super Saiyan 3 in the Buu Saga.
This was a filler scene in the anime, but either way.
The artificial moon that Vegeta created to turn Oozaru during his fight with Goku in the Saiyan saga winds up playing a significant part in his eventual downfall.
Chekhov's Skill: That weird language Shen (Kami) and Piccolo were speaking in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai? It's actually Namekian, the language of their native planet and Bulma learned to activate the starship that Kami came from to travel to Namek, with Krillin and Gohan, and is needed to use the Namekian Dragon Balls and make wishes to the Namekian Dragon God, Porunga. In a spectacularPound of Flesh Twist, Freeza found the latter out the hard way.
He also completely masticates everything that surrounds him in the Latin-American dub. His performances as a Large HamDeadpan Snarker are some of the most hilarious highlights of the series in this version.
Chickification: ChiChi, # 18, Videl... even Pan, to a degree.
It affects each character in different ways. ChiChi didn't so much become a weaker character as just retire from fighting, becoming an Education Mama as tough as she ever was (Z is littered with "Oh, you forgot ChiChi could kick ass, didn't you" moments). # 18 didn't go through Chickification at all, retaining her entire character, but just joined pretty much the entire cast besides the Saiyans as mostly unimportant. Videl's pretty much the only one who went through true, complete Chickification. It's pretty jarring in her case, since the episode first showing it is a Time Skip, so the change happens practically within a single episode.
To a significant extent, many of the supporting cast are shown to abandon or retire from fighting as time wears on. In some cases, it's because their skills have become increasingly obsolete (Tien, Yamucha, Krillin, etc.), but in others it's a personal decision. Gohan is probably the most notable of the main cast to retire to a more domesticated lifestyle, so it's quite possible that his more pacifistic nature would rub off on her. This doesn't mean a valid argument couldn't be made for Chickification, but there are circumstances existing that could justify it.
To be fair, Tien never retired from fighting or training, as we see him training at a couple points during the Boo Saga. Krillin and Yamcha, however, are both stated to have retired from both fighting and training.
Clothing Damage: Absolutely mandatory. A fight is not a fight otherwise!
With Goku you could accurately predict where they are in the battle by measuring how much its been damaged. Or even the saga itself.
Actually true for everyone to various degrees.
Cloudcuckoolander: Bulma's parents. Bulma herself sometimes skirts on this from time to time.
Collectible Card Game: Three of them, with honorable mention of DBZ being the theme of a set of Ani-Mayhem. The first game was surprisingly popular and well-liked, lasting for several years and covering all of Z and GT.
And spawning a video game as well.
The first Score of the games (they made two) still has fans who buy, sell, trade, and play the game AND it inspired the community to create an online CCG based around fixing the rules and broken play styles.
There is also a card-based battle game on the Gameboy Color called DBZ: Legendary Super Warriors. There are 125 cards in this turn-based game, some cards can be only used by specific characters. There is also a super-rare card with 'AKIRA' written on it in Japanese. To get this card you must win all of the story mode battles without losing a single match (resetting the gameboy does not count, as long as progress is not saved as a loss).
Combat Commentator: There is a recurring character who fills this role whenever a World Martial Arts Tournament is taking place. It seems like he has been announcing every single World Martial Arts Tournament since his introduction in the story during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. It's interesting to note the gradual change in his physical appearance as the plot progresses, with him being first introduced as a blonde, clean-shaven young man wearing a suit and sunglasses, and on the next tournament he grows a mustache, and on his most recent appearance, on the Buu Saga, he has a lankier physique and a more proiminent widow's peak on top of his mustache. This characters is also perhaps the only human other than Goku's friends who knows that it was the Z warriors, and not Mr. Satan, who have saved the Earth from all the dangers that threatened it.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: Before they go extinct, they Saiyans are a fairly powerful race. After Freeza kills them, the surviving members start growing exponentially in power until they're the most powerful beings in the universe.
Convenient Decoy Cat: Krillin, Gohan and Dende are trying to hide from Vegeta, who just learned to detect ki. When he sensed Dende's small ki, a dolphin jumps off the water, leading him to think that was the ki he sensed and leave.
Crapsack World: Namek after Frieza showed up (and in the past, as the backstroy also tells of weird weather patterns on Namek that killed many or drove them off, which was the main reason Kami was sent to Earth)
Granted, there are 7 magic balls that are usually used to bring everyone back to life.
Played straight with the world of the timeline Future Trunks came from. There are no magic balls in that one.
The entire Ginyu Force basically personifies this trope. The only reason they come off goofier after the fact is because Goku shows up and easily takes them out.
Cryptic Background Reference: How did Yamcha get those scars? And how come Senzu beans/revival doesn't heal them?
Curb-Stomp Battle: Probably the most famous example is Trunks coming to earth from the future and utterly destroying former Big Bad Frieza in one episode. It previously took Goku & Co. an entire saga of fighting him, whittling his body down to nothing, and then ensuring his death by allowing a whole planet to explode, only to watch in horror as he was resurrected by his even more powerful father via robotic technology! After all of that, there's no argument that Frieza had this trope coming to him.
And the only way Trunks can top that is by defeating Frieza's father with even less effort!
Actually, King Cold was weaker than Freeza, by Freeza's admission and according to Cold's bio in Daizenshuu 7, stating him to be "somewhat inferior" to Freeza.
Cute Is Evil: Majin Buu. Naturally the fat pink guy is a genie who destroys the world.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Both the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb can kill the wielder (the Spirit Bomb can destroy the world if Goku's not careful).
The Mafuba/Evil Containment Wave. The original and classic Dangerous Forbidden Technique, seen specifically in the original series. Using it would allow you to seal someone (usually an baddie or Big Bad) inside of a small household object like a little jar or a electronic rice-cooker. However it always kills the user (with the sole exception of when Kami does it and Piccolo reverses it on him, and it's likely only because both weren't human that they didn't die from it), even if it fails, like Muten Roshi does when trying to stop Piccolo Daimaou.
Another possible candidate for this in a different fashion is also the dub-named "Devilmite Beam", which allows the character Akkuman to use a single move to kill anything with a speck of evil in their hearts as long as they can't regenerate themselves (luckily Goku is pure-hearted, so it fails to work on him). It doesn't have any ill effects, but it's probably considered forbidden in a different way.
Tenshinhan's Kikou-hou or Spirit Cannon is also very definitely this: a Cast From HP technique that reduces the user's lifespan every time it's used. It's powerful enough that Tenshinhan was able to temporarily stop second-tier-Cell from attacking when no one else could even touch him, to allow for the Saiyans to finish their training in the Room of Spirit and Time. This, of course, caused Tenshinhan to very nearly die (he was saved by a Senzubean, as usual).
Darker and Edgier: Dragon Ball Z wants you to know it'd darkier and edgier than its predecessor, doing so by killing someone off on-screen in the first six minutes. While it was only a farmer who's been shown for about two minutes, it's far earlier than the first on-screen death in Dragon Ball (a random store owner during the Red Ribbon Army arc).
The Tree of Might movie.
Future Trunks's timeline is Darker and Edgier than the main timeline.
David Versus Goliath: Discussed in the Ocean dub version of one Dragon Ball Z episode ("Time's Up!"), when Piccolo tells Gohan, "Remember the story of David and Goliath..." before they sense a premonition that Goku is approaching.
Dead Hand Shot: As Vegeta draws his final breath on Namek, his tear-blurred vision fades from his point of view, and we next see a close-up of his gloved hand falling onto the ground, followed by a shot of his body shivering with his eyes closed before becoming still and lifeless, followed by a gust of wind blowing on his body.
Death Is Cheap: Every single character, with the exception of Supreme Kai and Mr. Satan, dies at least once, and only two good characters have stayed dead permanently ( Guru and Android 16).
Well I wouldn't go that far. Yamcha, Oolong, Tienshenhan, Chaotzu, and Piccolo all start out as enemies, and then there's Vegeta, who was a big bad, and Androids 16 and 18, and Fat Buu.
Almost all of Goku's friends were either enemies or rivals prior to joining him. Even Bulma tried to kill Goku during their first meeting. Good thing Goku is Immune to Bullets.
Demoted to Extra: One of the reasons why some fans prefer the original series over DBZ is that while DBZ is an infamous offender of this trope, the original series for the most part averted this.
Basically, if you appeared in the original series at all and your name wasn't Goku, Piccolo or Krillin this happened to you. Hell, even Piccolo and Krillin were sort of getting there towards the end.
The abridged series has a scene that beautifully points this out.
But in all fairness not even the original series was entirely immune to this as this fate definitely happened to poor Ox King shortly after his initial appearance. Kind of sad considering on how just about everyone didn't really get hit hard by this trope until DBZ came in.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: ChiChi slaps Majin Buu, the scourge of the universe, in the face and gets turned into an egg and crushed in response.
Chibi Trunks also moons and flips off Brolly in DBZ Movie # 11
Roshi to Broly in the first Broly movie
There's a title page in the manga that shows some of the heroes literally flipping off Cell.
Then again, in the anime, Mr. Satan stuck out his tongue, slapped his butt, and called Cell weak, while the reporter he was with proceded to flip Cell off. Luckily for the both of them Cell was able to ignore them.
During the Frieza saga (befor Goku turned Super Saiyin) Goku caught Frieza's tail, and decided to say this to him:
Goku: Man, when's the last time you had a bath? Yeah, no foolin'. Woo, it's downright unpleasant back here!
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Demon King Piccolo does the unthinkable after getting his big wish and blows the Dragon into pieces with one shot. At that time in the series, that was pretty much equivalent to killing God.
Arguably this happens constantly from that point onward, as every villain after that is way stronger than Piccolo.
Disney Death: Probably an even more overused use of this trope than the trope namer itself.
Old Kai.
Dispense With The Pleasantries: When a squadron from the Red Ribbon Army comes to recruit Master Roshi, thinking he is a scientist, the leader of the group utters this phrase word for word after an extended conversation where Roshi is mocking the organization.
-> Grandpa Gohan(after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail): Goku, does your backside still hurt?
Doing in the Wizard : DBZ kinda does this. It doesn't do away with fantasy elements completely, mind you, but it does explain Goku and Piccolo's powers as being alien rather than supernatural. It doesn't explain all the other weird stuff in the series though...
The Dragon: Pretty much one per story arc, from Mr. Black to Commander Red all the way to Dabra to Babidi. The best example being Captain Ginyu, leader of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, The Ginyu Force, to Frieza.
Dragons Up the Yin Yang: The titular Dragon Balls summon a wish-granting dragon when brought together.
Drum Bathing: Goku commonly uses this as the default bathtub at his house. One notable moment is in the Tree of Might film when he bathes in it with Gohan.
Played straight by The Ocean Group dub, during his first battle against Goku, Vegeta remarks that Bardock was an average fighter, but a brilliant scientist, and yet after this there's no mention of Bardock's influence or just what he did for the Sayans in the their scientific field; of course this remark about Bardock doesn't exist in the original manga nor the japanese dub of the anime.
E-F
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Happened to Planet Vegeta, Planet Namek... and even Planet Earth itself (twice if you include GT).
Also, the Saiyans (excluding Goku and the Saiyan children), Freeza and Majin Buu have had histories of doing this for kicks.
Easily Forgiven: Goku toward villains, over and over again. If Goku ever says he "won't forgive" someone or that there'll be "no mercy" for that person, don't believe him; he's lying.
Also deserving of mention is Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after the royal line of the Saiyans' king*
Every male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name.
after they defeated the Tuffles.
Emergency Energy Tank: Senzu beans, which instantly restore physical energy to 100%, as well as instantly heal injuries (as shown when eating a bean put Vegeta's arm back in place after it was dislocated by a kick from Android 18).
Tien Shinhan's "Volleyball Technique." He hits his opponent into the air like a volleyball. Lampshaded by the announcer.
Executive Meddling: The entire Android and Cell arc is the result of Toriyama's former editor, Torishima, not liking the character designs of the villains.
Expy: Master Roshi is an expy of God from Dr. Slump (not to be confused with Dragon Ball's Kami-sama), at least in appearance. (He frequently acts more like Senbei Norimaki, though.)
Extreme Omnivore: Yajirobe, who eats Cymbal after defeating him.
ImAHumanitarian And briefly considered eating a (presumably) dead Goku before deciding he would probably taste bad.
Eye Scream: Ironically, Goku in the early series gave this to Yamcha using his Jan Ken Fist (otherwise known as "Rock, Paper, Scissors Attack") Goku delivers a "Rock" (a punch), which Yamcha blocks, delivers the "Scissors" (eye poke) to his eyes, then finished it off with "Paper" (a slap) that knocked him away.
Vegeta is hit by a blast to his right eye as an ape.
Earlier than that, Goku did it during his fight with Piccolo Jr when the latter grew gargantuan. For a guy who's pure of heart, Goku really likes being a dick and hitting people in the eyes.
Face Fault: During the Other World Tournament mini-arc, an entire stadium of people execute a Mexican Face Fault!
Fakeout Escape: Vegeta is imprisoned inside a healing tank on Frieza's ship. When he breaks out of the healing tank, it alerts the guards. So he blasts a hole through the wall to them think he has escaped the ship; while Frieza's henchmen are searching for him outside the ship, he takes the opportunity to go steal some dragon balls and then escape.
Though to his credit, he is a kind-hearted and caring person who genuinely wants to help people.
While he's nothing compared to the Z fighters, his strength and martial arts skills are nothing to scoff at; most normal humans couldn't come close to his strength.
And he was responsible for helping Goku power up his final Genki-Dama against Buu by convincing the people of earth to lend him their ki. Goku even declared him worthy of his "World Champion" title.
Fan Disservice: Early on, Goku got a full-frontal nudity shot in every volume... and he was only a kid.
In some parts of the world child nudity (or even adult nudity) isn't as big a deal as it is in the U.S. Kids, especially boys, aren't considered sexual beings, and they are free to run around naked until they decide on their own they're too old to have no sense of shame whatsoever. Child nudity is often played for laughs, but it can also highlight the innocence and the purity of the nude child, which in Goku's case is actually true.
Fanservice: To defeat an invisible man, Krillin removes Bulma's shirt in front of Master Roshi (and the audience), giving him a colossal nosebleed that reveals the invisible man.
In the manga Bulma's breasts are shown completely exposed in some scenes.
Fantastic Racism: Freeza's fear-driven extermination of "the Saiyan-monkeys." The Saiyans themselves were, as a rule, disdainful of anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
Fate Worse than Death: Garlic Jr. from the anime continuity is one of the few villains who actually got his wish for eternal life... except soon after, he fell into the Dead Zone. Twice.
Fiction 500: Bulma's family, due to them owning Capsule Corp.
Filler: DBZ is one of the most notorious of all anime series for this, including not just adding extra arcs, but stretching out battles because the manga hadn't concluded them yet. And we mean stretching them out.
Here's a good example. Frieza Saga. Namek's Destruction. Five minutes to go. Five Episodes later - "...Two more minutes!..." Two Episodes later - "Only one minute to go!...". Two more episodes later — Frieza's defeated. One episode later — Finally the planet goes Kaboom...and Goku escapes! Ten Full Episodes. Ten episodes of extreme heroic asskicking, but still...
First Girl Wins: One of the early known animes to avoid this. Bulma is the first girl and is easily the lead female of the first series in every aspect except that she's not the love interest. She did mention that had Goku mature faster or had she known he would grow up to be such a stud, she would had so tapped him. One theory as to why she went after Vegeta is her regret that Goku was already taken.
Played straight with Gohan and Videl though.
Final Battle: The final battle of the series is Goku and Vegeta vs. Kid Buu in other world. Goku wins by gathering all of the people's energy from Earth to form the Spirit Bomb.
Sixth Ranger: Tien (One could almost consider Gohan as this, due to his much more stoic and mysterious attitude when he exits the Hyperbolic Time Chamber)
The Smart Guy: Piccolo (at this point too weak to do anything but strategize; he later even admits this in describing why he refuses to enter the tournament at the end of the show)
The Big Guy: Gotenks and Ulitimate Gohan (power levels switch so often in this show)
The Chick: ...Videl? No one really fits this well.
Follow the Leader: Inspired a lot of current shonen manga. The creators of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach have all admitted to being inspired by Dragon Ball to certain levels of degree.
Naruto goes so far as to having the titular character wear florescent orange/yellow and blue attire, similar to Goku. Except he's a freaking ninja. Also in part two of the series Naruto switches to an orange and black suit similar in design to Goku's gi. They also share a massive appetite and both turn into giant monsters.
Even video games such as Sonic the Hedgehog were influenced by it as well, even giving Sonic a Super Saiyan-esque transformation as early as Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
The Force Is Strong With This One: Mostly starts with the Saiyan Saga, after which almost all the main characters were trained in ki-sensitive.
Forehead of Doom: All over the place. In fact, it's something of an iconic trait of Toriyama's artstyle.
Foreshadowing: Any time a character in the first anime comments on how Goku must be from another planet due to his quirks (having a tail, being a Big Eater, etc). Despite this, it still comes as a shock to everyone when they discover that Goku really is from another planet.
So was Fat Buu, before Mr. Satan convinced him otherwise. Although there was the matter of never being told this was wrong, but rather that this was a good way to get his masters to give him cake…
There was also Cell, who's only objective was to test out his "perfect body"…by killing everyone and everything. Even further, he wanted to see everyone's face to contort in terror at the sight of him first.
For Want of a Nail: The main timeline is very different than Trunks' timeline, for no discernible reason other than later on in his timeline Cell went into the past, creating the main timeline where he's already there; even though Cell apparently took no steps to actively change anything (in fact, being in a cocoon the whole time), there are several differences, though Kami briefly theorizes this may because time travel just messes with reality in general rather than needing anyone to change anything. Such changes include:
Androids #17 and #18 being inexplicably more powerful but nowhere near as evil.*
Apparently, the versions Trunks was expecting killed Gero before he could tune up their perpetual generators and tune down their personalities to make them more controllable.
Dr. Gero turning himself into an cyborg and making #19.
Events happening earlier or later than they're supposed to, like Goku getting sick with his heart disease much later than Trunks expected.
And, of course, Cell being there in the first place, which causes widespread carnage and such.
The end result is Trunks being very confused.
It would be more accurate to call it a Parallel Dimension than an alternate timeline.
Freaky Friday Flip: Captain Ginyu has the power to switch bodies with anyone, which he does with Goku. Eventually however, it backfires on him when he tries to take Vegeta's body and ends up in a frog's instead, rendering him harmless as his power requires the use of his voice. Later, when he meets Bulma, he acts nice to her and she makes a translator for him. He proceeds to switch bodies, then travels to Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo, Bulma hanging on. He tries to switch with Piccolo, only for Gohan to throw Bulma frog in the way, fixing everything.
Eventually leading a group of frogs in the Capsule Corporation Compound if the series is to be believed.
Genre Savvy: Both Krillin and Yamcha react pretty much how any real person would in these situations, basically knowing beforehand how something is probably going to go down, and how to avoid it or take advantage of it.
King Piccolo upon being released from the eletronic jar. The first thing he does is start killing off martial artists, knowing that they are the only threat to him. Later, on getting his Eternal Youth he kills Shenron so no one could (easily) use the Dragon Balls again. His only mistake was not killing Goku sooner.
Vegeta in the Namek saga. He didn't take on a fight he knew he couldn't handle.
Just about everybody of the Main Cast in the 25th Martial Arts Tournament. It was a forgone conclusion to everybody involved that the Final Match of the Junior Division was going to be Trunks Vs. Goten. Krillin lampshades once or twice, and Videl is surprised when Gohan shows very little interest in one Goten's victories.
Z is sci-fi, while the orginal series is more fantasy.
The Gloves Come Off: Vegeta does this in the Buu Saga, by letting Babidi take control of him solely for the power boost that it involved.
God Is Flawed: Very apparent with the Supreme Kai, who is just that: the Supreme God of the Dragonball universe. Unfortunately, he is not too wise as he not only hastens Majin Buu's release by allowing Gohan's energy to be stolen at the world Tournament but also was the key reason the Z sword was broken. While that actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, the Supreme Kai's expressions and words immediately after the sword broke made it clear that he believed things had taken a turn for the worse. Topping it all off is his incredible underestimating of the Saiyans, whom he believed were strong but not too strong. It's only when Vegeta decimates Pui Pui that he begins to realize the Saiyans are stronger than he thought.
Going to Give It More Energy: Son Goku does this once. You think Vegeta's going to try this against #19, but he just rips off his arms and blows him away conventionally.
Goodnight Sweet Prince: Used in the English Dub of Dragon Ball Z when Freeza was going to kill Vegeta.
Of course, Vegeta actually is a prince...and in comparison to Freeza, quite sweet.
And let's not forget Bulma's mom, who seems to be immortal. Or made entirely out of plastic.
This is something of a running joke, where Goku pretty much just stopped aging while Chi Chi and Bulma continues to do so. Lampshaded by Chi Chi in GT. Bulma, however, doesn't seem to notice that her mother now looks younger than her.
Vegeta states that Saiyans stay in their prime longer than humans in order to fight longer, which explains why those two don't look any older. The only dramatic change Goku has is his height.
Gratuitous English: Most alien and supernatural creatures have name-puns based off English words, and Toriyama had said that Vegeta's attacks used English names to highlight his alien nature.
Gratuitous Italian: Piccolo's name can be either translated as "small" and "little" in Italian.
Gratuitous Japanese: In the Japanese version, of all things. The second opening contains the words "Ippai oppai", written in English letters and appearing completely out of context. It means "Lots of boobs".
The Greatest Story Never Told: The heroes' exploits often go unnoticed by the population of the world. It all started when Goku single-handedly took down the Red Ribbon Army, a dangerous organization that has terrorized the world for years, but nobody ever found out who did it. When Goku killed Piccolo, there were reports of a boy fighting the Demon King, but the image was so bad and it was so dangerous to get closer that nobody could tell who it was specifically. When Goku beat Piccolo Jr., all the spectators had long left the premises of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament once they found out who exactly contestant Ma Jr. was. Freeza and his father are galactic tyrants who were threatening to destroy the Earth, but again nobody ever found out that the Z warriors managed to stop them. Lastly, Mr. Satan took the credit for defeating Cell and Buu. It's a good thing Goku and his friends don't care about fame.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: Subverted in a recent web special where everyone is surprised the wife of Vegeta's brother is an adorable cartoonish alien. The exception is Master Roshi, who points out that Saiyans seem to have strange tastes in women. Unfortunately, he said it in earshot of Bulma AND ChiChi, and gets severely beaten for it.
Played straight with Zangya, one of Bojack's henchmen.
"Space Chicks are hot!"
-Krillin regarding Zangya
Inverted with Zarbon, who is a green skinned space man.
And subverted in that his true form/Game Face looks like a ridiculously overmuscled humanoid toad.
Greek Chorus: Any time a character is on the sidelines, they become this.
Guns Are Worthless: A major part of the universe in so far as martial artists go. Starting with Launch spraying gunfire like confetti at other characters to no effect in Dragon Ball and continuing on to Raditz catching a shotgun blast with his bare hands, guns are fundamentally useless.
Future Trunks easily deflects a few blaster shots just before he kills Frieza. Also, Gohan catches an entire clip from a submachine gun fired on full auto with the same hand, bullet by bullet - something Master Roshi had also done before.
It's practically a Dragon Ball tradition to show conventional military forces challenging the likes of superpowered villains such as Buu or Cell. The humans (or sometimes aliens) attack en masse with their guns, tanks, and airplanes, only to be annihilated. Then we find out that they never learn anything from this, because they try it again.
Well, given that Muggles don't know how to use ki attacks and such, artillery fire is pretty much all they have to fight with.
To be even fairer to the ordinary citizens of the Earth, we only know of five times in the whole of the Dragon Ball canon when the entire army's firepower was ineffective against an enemy: King Piccolo, Nappa, Cell, Buu, and the Androids - and all five are separated by a timespan of years/decades. With these odds, it really isn't an unreasonable solution to try and kill these creatures with regular firearms.
Half-Human Hybrid: It helps that Saiyans are incredibly similar to humans, but genetic mixes often prove to be stronger than purebloods. Gohan, Goten and Trunks are all half-Saiyan, and Pan is quarter-Saiyan and, thus far, the only female to use a Kamehameha (and only in the non-canon DBGT, at that).
He Is All Grown Up: Hot damn 16-year-old Gohan is one fine piece of man.
Chichi's reappearance during the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai counts as well.
Goku's reappearance at the same tournament is the same way. Even Bulma was starting to fall for him.
Heroic BSOD: (well, more like anti-heroic) Vegeta suffers one for about half of the first Broly movie after The Reveal that Broly is the "Legendary Super Saiyan" and therefore unbeatable. Even a peptalk from Piccolo is unable to clear it up, Vegeta only joins the fight when his royal pride gives him a kick in the pants.
Heroic RROD: Especially Goku's Kaiou-ken power-up technique. It strained his body so hard that Yajirobe's congratulatory slap on the shoulder was agonizingly painful to him.
In Movie 8 (Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan), Paragus was crushed in his space pod by his son Broly, and then thrown into Comet Kamori, the comet he'd planned on destroying the planet and everybody on it, including Broly.
Lampshaded by Paragus himself, whose dying words question his ironic fate.
Holdthe Line: While Goku is recovering in the healing tank, Gohan, Krillin, Vegeta, and Piccolo, must survive Frieza's transformations and attacks until Goku can join the fight.
Homage: Dragon Ball is a homage to the classic Journey to the West, particularly the first arc, with Bulma in a gender-flipped Xuanzang role, Son Goku is Sun Wukong, Oolong is Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha is Sha Wujing. Dragon Ball Z, at least the first few parts of it, is a homage to Superman and Western Sci-Fi themes).
Honor Before Reason: Son Goku's unfailing and unconditional love for all life has turned practically every villain he met, with the exception of Freeza and Cell, into paragons of heroism.
Even Buu, who is pretty much evil incarnate, was transformed into an incredibly nice yet timid person after being killed simply on Goku's wish, and NOT to a dragon.
Hot Dad: Son Goku, Kurillin and especially Vegeta have been worshipped as such amongst certain fangirl communities. Heck, even Piccolo is subject to this worship, with his fatherly relationship to Son Gohan as justification. And the same with Gohan after Pan's birth.
Hot Mom: Pretty much every mother on the show - especially Bulma's {unnamed} mother.
Vegeta vs. pretty much anyone more powerful. He may lose, but he'll go down kicking and screaming.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Gohan and Videl. GT's art style skewered it, but in most manga images, her shoulders are level with his waist. Also inverted with Krillin and 18.
Hulking Out: Goku and Gohan's Oozaru transformation.
And, to and extent, their initial Super Saiyan and SS2 transformations(respectively), both being shown to increase their muscle size noticeably(Gohan actually appears to get TALLER).
And of course there's the "Ascended Saiyan" (AKA "Super Saiyan 1.5") as shown in the Cell Saga by Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks (who actually took it so far he hulked out to the point of losing speed and mistook that for surpassing Vegeta).
Humans Are Morons: It turns out that humans are selfish, childish, misguided idiots who only worry when something bad happens to them, can't put anything in perspective, and will only do anything as simple as, say, raise up your hands to fuel the Spirit Bomb when a voice encompassing the Earth asks (Vegeta actually said "please" the first time, although he didn't even give them that much detail 'cos they're so dumb), and defeat the Big Bad when their Fake Ultimate Hero tells them do it. Not that the aliens are any better...
I Am Not Left-Handed: Numerous villains deliberately limit themselves in combat.
As do the heroes. Usually in the form of weighted training; these will be thrown away immediately after the villain reveals his own handicap. Our hero is also not left handed!
I Am X, Son of Y: "I am Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyan Warrior Race!!"
Idiot Hero: Goku, although much of that is because of a major head trauma, and he lived a sheltered life until he turned 12. And technically, Mr. Satan.
Impossible Task Instantly Accomplished: Master Roshi took 50 years to develop the Kamehameha Wave, and is first seen using it to extinguish a burning mountain. He levels the mountain, but that's not the point. The point is, Goku performs a weaker version of it almost immediately after seeing this feat.
Kid Buu takes it Up to Eleven, mastering both Kamehameha and Instant Transmission on sight.
Inaction Sequence: Used and abused in Z, to the point that some viewers started calling the series "Drag-On Ball".
Interspecies Romance: There's quite a bit going on here with the Saiyans not being human. More obvious with Tarble and Gure.
I Need You Stronger: Vegeta and Cell take turns letting their opponent get stronger for a better fight. Doesn't work very well for either of them.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: If a Saiyan with a tail looks at the full moon, they transform into giant ape-like creatures that typically go on a berserk rampage. This can be stopped by cutting their tail off.
A mechanical and physically augmented girl nonetheless.
It Got Worse: Famous examples occur in: the very first arc of the manga, the Piccolo Daimao Arc, the Saiyan Arc, the Namek/Frieza arc, the Cell Arc, and the Buu Arc.
Jerk Ass: Vegeta and Piccolo. Even though they both end up being the Jerk with a Heart of Gold, the former has more than a few instances where he's just a plain a-hole, even when he turns to the Z Fighter side.
Join or Die: This is Frieza's main method of recruitment. According to dialogue amongst Frieza's henchmen (which was drastically changed in the Funimation dubbing), Frieza's modus operandi was to wipe out all but a handful of a race save for the most promising or useful individuals and offer them a place in his empire. He promised those that joined that their race would eventually gain a more prestigious place in his New Order and those that refused were simply made extinct.
Kid Hero: Subverted with 9-year-old (physically 10) Gohan during the Cell Games. Gohan's hybrid human-Saiyan heritage make him potentially the most powerful being on earth. Too bad his gentle personality rendered him unable to use that power and potentially kill Cell, even when the villain threatened not only his life but the lives of his friends.
Played straight with Goku in the original Dragon Ball. A caring, gentle boy who unlike Gohan was perfectly capable of using his status as one of the strongest guys on the planet.
Kill 'Em All: What Majin Buu eventually did to natives of Earth. You can do that when you have an attack called "Human Extinction." And thanks to this, Hercule/Mr. Satan is the only character in the entire series who has not died at least once.
Well, the most notable at least. Others such as Fat/Good Buu, Lord Enma, Fortune Teller Baba and the minor characters born post-Buu arc do not die either.
Large Ham: Mr. Satan. Honorable mentions to Vegeta and Frieza.
Last Villain Stand: Frieza's last shot at Goku. Frieza had lost all his minions, failed to obtain immortality, had been demonstrated as not being the strongest in the universe, had even been cut in half, and was only alive because Goku decided to give him enough energy to survive his injuries. Instead of using that energy to try to escape Namek before it exploded, Frieza tries to kill Goku one last time.
Laughably Evil: Almost every single major villain had his fair share of comedic traits. Majin Buu takes this trope to the extreme.
Lawful Stupid, Chaotic Stupid: Goku offers to spare Raditz' life and ends up spending his own to make up for that blunder. He doesn't get smarter later on, but his power level usually made up for it.
Albeit, some of his Idiot Ball moments are as much due to naivete as stupidity. He wises up a little as the series goes on. Goku appeals to the better nature of his enemies, but if they prove irredeemable, he has no problem doing what he must.
Laxative Prank: Bulma does this to Oolong when he refuses to cooperate with her in helping find the Ox-king. She gives him a candy that he thinks is delicious, but really it's a laxative, and every time she whistles, he will have an emergency. Goku tries this on Oolong, too.
LEGO Genetics: The logic of Cell's creation: He's created from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Freeza, King Cold, Tien, Gohan, Krillin, and Yamcha's DNA. He's born knowing all their techniques and possesses all their strengths.
It's even implied that many of Cell's personality traits derive from some of his 'parents'. He inherited Goku's love and desire for a challenge, while at the same time getting Frieza's tendency to lose it when he realizes he's outmatched. His politeness comes from Freeza, and his arrogance from Vegeta and Freeza.
Licked by the Dog: Gohan's got an entire musical number dedicated to how much he loves Piccolo, the literal embodiment of evil.
Also happens to Buu later on.
Lightning Bruiser: While this applies to every fighter in the series, Broly is the ultimate example of this trope. He's a walking mountain of muscle, with the power and brute force to match, but still possesses speed enough to completely avoid the attacks of Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks and Piccolo (he simply chooses not to for most of the fight). This trait also nullified whatever advantage Future Trunks may have had when he temporarily became a similar Mass of Muscles to fight Perfect Cell.
It's Lampshaded in the second Broly movie, where several characters comment that he is slow relative to his strength, but he's so bloody powerful it doesn't matter.
Keep in mind Broly's speed was compared to Goten and Trunks', both of whom were Super Saiyans. It's the equivalent of a middle-aged man chasing two hyperactive kids.
At 100% power, Freeza's final form is almost three times bigger than it is at base level power. Unlike the other examples, the additional bulk does not slow him down, and in fact he is at his fastest while in this state. In fact, the drawback is that this power is uncontrollable.
Like Father, Like Son: Does anyone remember Vegeta shoving a ki blast in Cell's face to distract him during Teen Gohan's Ultimate Kamehameha? Now what was it that Trunks did during the second Broly movie again…
Frieza kills Vegeta with a death beam, Cell does the same to Trunks.
Limited Animation: A side effect due to all the filler in Z, It fares better somewhat in the other series though.
Living Prop: Bulma and Vegeta's daughter, Bra, and Krillin and 18's daughter, Marron. Given their overall plot relevance, they mainly exist as a way for Toriyama to establish that their parents were/are still romantically involved, without having to actually write romance, as he was both shy about it and afraid he'd be terrible at it. Goten and Trunks served the same function while also being legitimately relevant characters in their own right.
Make Room For The New Plot: At the end of the Frieza arc, "Frieza comes back to Earth with his dad for revenge" would be a major plot conflict. But then Future Trunks arrives, beats the snot out of both of them single-handedly, and warns the heroes that they need to prepare to fight an enemy far stronger than Frieza.
Market-Based Title: While the animated adaptations have the same name as they do in Japan, the manga version is only called Dragon Ball there. The French version followed the same title pattern as the Japanese one, but in the United States, the parts of the manga that correspond with the Dragon Ball Z anime were released with the Z attached.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Several, starting with Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Son Gohan, Sr. > Son Goku > Uub
Also: Mutaito > Tsurusennin > Tenshinhan & Chaozu
Mutaito > Mutenroshi > Ox-King > Chi-Chi > Son Goten
Arguably, Piccolo > Son Gohan > Videl
In that case, Piccolo > Son Gohan > Trunks in the alternate timeline
Mayfly December Romance: Implied. Saiyans appear to age more slowly than humans. This becomes quite noticable later in the series, where pure-humans Chi Chi and Bulma have gradually aged while pure-Saiyans Goku and Vegeta have barely aged at all. Even Pan, who is one quarter Saiyan, is confirmed to live to at least 110.
Meaningful Funeral: In Dragon Ball Z, when Vegeta dies at Frieza's hand on Namek, Son Goku buries him on the spot with a few understanding words. In the English dub, the eulogy is a bit more long-winded.
Megaton Punch: It's not played for laughs; the characters are simply very strong. Often followed up by the character moving quickly behind the victim (like he just teleported there) and hitting him with a downwards blow that sends the victim crashing to the ground.
The Messiah: Goku loves life. All life. In full swing by the time of the Piccolo Junior arc of Dragon Ball, after which the only villain Goku himself is directly responsible for killing is Kid Buu.
Mighty Glacier: Trunks when he reaches Ultra Super Saiyan (a level that sits between Super Saiyan 1 and 2), which sacrifices speed for power. In this state he possessed enough power to kill Perfect Cell, but lacked the speed necessary to make it useful. Perfect Cell, Goku and Vegeta also reached this level, but were savvy enough to figure out its critical weakness and elected not to use it (Vegeta choosing to stop at Ascended Super Saiyan, and Perfect Cell and Goku going onward to the Full Power stage). In fact, Trunks doesn't figure out this form's weakness until Cell explicitly tells him why he can't win with it.
Actually, it's implied Cell made him think he could win, as he went to a similar stage saying he could do it, but then returned to his "perfect" form, because well it wouldn't be perfect. It later reappeared again when Cell had his own Unstoppable Rage against Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, which Trunks was the one to point out its ineffectiveness.
Missing Episode: Material was cut in the original version of Z's Ocean dub of seasons 1 and 2, mostly for violence, but sometimes smaller arcs were too.
Mundane Wish: Played With when Emperor Pilaf has finally gathered the seven Dragon Balls, and is so overcome as he begins to make his wish to the dragon for eternal life that he stammers a bit. Oolong the anthropomorphic pig takes the opportunity to leap between Pilaf and the dragon and wish for women's panties. Of course, still averted if you consider that Oolong is quite pleased with this turn of events.
My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: In the Toonami version, a virtual Saiyan warrior (conjured by Mr Popo's training room) uses this line to ridicule the secondary characters' power levels.
The Needless: The Namekians don't need food, only water. Frieza (and presumably the rest of his family) doesn't need to breathe.
Nemean Skinning: As Goku said to Bulma and the others when appearing in an attire based on the skin of a tiger: "It was either him or me, I swear!"
Never Say "Die": Taken to the extreme in the first 53 episodes of the Ocean Group dub. Getting blasted into ashes was called "being sent into another dimension". After the Ocean dub resumed in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, as well as other English-speaking countries, the show went from that to merely saying "destroy", "hurt", and "gone" as well as other words that essentially meant to kill or be dead. Late into the Buu saga, however, the dub suddenly stopped this, and "kill" and "die" were used as often as in the FUNimation dub, which was completely exempt from this. The "another dimension" thing is sort of justified as death is a multiverse of many heavens for different planets that even a few living people can freely travel too. (Going back after death has limits, though.)
This only took effect from the fifth episode of the original broadcast. Some lines were re-recorded for subsequent airings of the first two episodes but episodes three and four kept references to death even (or especially) on the DVD release. Episode 66 of Daizenshuu EX featured some sound clips.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Vegeta is behind everything. Everything. Read the page for more details than your mind can handle.
It also could be stated that had Piccolo simply ignored Raditz and simply shut up about the Dragon Balls, a large portion of the conflict would have been avoided in DBZ. I suppose his eventual demise was a form of Karmic Death.
Of course, by the time the androids arrived everyone would have been significantly weaker had the Saiyan and Namek sagas never happened, and everyone probably would have been killed.
The androids themselves might have been weaker too, since they were modeled after the various heroes, and Dr. Gero would not have had access to data on the other Saiyans or Freeza and King Cold. Of course, none of this would have prevented Babidi from coming, and then everyone would have truly been screwed. (He possibly might not have gathered enough energy to resurrect Buu, but he still had Dabura. . . .)
The arcs with Buu and Babidi are only shown to occur in the main timeline where Future Trunks did a lot of unnecessary time traveling (stopping Mecha-Frieza and King Cold being the first). That in itself plays the trope straight, but again, the events of Future Trunks' timeline (and most of DBZ) would not have happened if Piccolo didn't tell Raditz about the Dragon Balls. Nappa, Vegeta, Mecha-Frieza, and King Cold would have never come to Earth for revenge and Goten, Trunks, and all of the other kids would have never been born. Piccolo would have never merged with Nail or Kami and Dr. Gero wouldn't have the data to make the Androids as strong as they were.
Kami making the Dragon Balls in the first place. He made them to make the world better but people only wanted them for selfish purposes (Pilaf taking over the world, Oolong wanting gold, Vegeta wanting immortality, etc.).
Piccolo has another one when he fights 17 for the second time. Because he powers up, Cell can locate him and therefore the androids, speeding up his plans to absorb them. Had he waited for Vegeta and Trunks, 17 and 18 would have gone the same way as 19 in half the time, before Trunks takes out Cell like he does upon returning to the future.
Gohan does it too during the Cell Games, letting his rage cloud his judgment and refusing to finish off a clearly outmatched and half-destroyed Cell because he hadn't suffered enough. Of course, Cell can regenerate, and then he decides to just blow everything up...
Even moreso than Kami making the regular Dragon Balls; how about the Black Star Dragon Balls? They work just like the original ones did, only they scatter over the entire galaxy when a wish is made, and rather than turning to stone for a year, they destroy the Earth in one year's time if they're not all gathered and brought back! I know you made these before you expelled your evil side, Kami, but still, what were you thinking?! Or was that just your trial run?
The entire premise of the Shadow Dragon Saga in GT. The threat is their own fault for using the Dragon Balls too much throughout the history of the show.
Not using too much, using too nicely. Negative energy built up because all the Z-Fighters' wishes were nice, such as bringing back the good guys/innocents who had been killed. If something like Oolong wishing for lots of money had happened, the issue wouldn't be one.
Seriously: count how many times people were resurrected with Dragon Balls. It's THE most common wish they made.
Although, one of the Shadow Dragons was created by an evil wish and the other was created by a wish that was selfish at face value but noble in reason. These dragons' natures would be shaped oppositely by those of their wishes just the same, however.
Especially during the Cell and Buu arcs - quite a few problems would have been solved if the Z senshi hadn't gone in with both guns blazing.
And after we establish that everyone is, in fact, strong enough to survive all but the most devastating ki blasts, Goku doesn't manage to get off Namek in time... He does.
If Goku hadn't found Ginyu's space pod, he would have suffocated in space.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Vegeta, Gohan, & Videl took some of the worst beatings in the series history. Vegeta and specially Gohan also got to pummel others into submission.
No Ontological Inertia: Half the tension and drama in the entire series is based around the Dragon Balls vanishing if their creator dies.
The Noseless: Krillin. Parodied early in the manga when he's fighting someone who defeats enemies through his body odor, which he struggles with until Goku points out he's drawn without a nose.
No Social Skills: Goku and ChiChi had both lived pretty sheltered lives before they turned 12, the latter's was only so because her dad was needlessly violent and overprotective of his wealth and daughter, not to mention living on top of Frypan Mountain. Goku, on the other hand turned into an Oozaru in a full moon, and accidentally killed his grandfather, and he only taught him how to fight, fish, and be nice to girls, and that's it. No important social skills were taught to Goku, unfortunately, and he had to learn some of them himself (such as, humorously, the difference between boys and girls). Even to this day, he still struggles, but at least he looks good in a tuxedo.
Then there's Majin Buu, the Laughably EvilBig Bad who isn't actually all that evil, just misguided. Ironically, when Goku fought him and the relationship between Babidi and Buu was now breaking down, he asked him as to why he listens to Babidi as Buu is too gifted a fighter to do so. This ironically played a part in Buu getting rid of Babidi. When Mr. Satan asked why he kills, he answered that his creator Bibidi said "kill", while Babidi said "destroy". Mr. Satan pointed out that those two are gone, and he could do something better and kinder with his time. When Buu asked if killing is bad, Mr. Satan said it is. Afterwards, Buu simply said "Okie-dokie! Buu no kill no more." For that short time, Mr. Satan actually saved the world by asking the Big Bad to stop.
There was also the Saiyans, notably Vegeta, who were raised for fighting, not really manners or socially acceptable actions.
Vegeta: Service woman! Bring me a drying cloth at once!
Not Quite Dead: Some villains were quite notorious for this, more so in the movies.
Frieza: Why do you loathe what I've done so much? Saiyans are just as ruthless as I am! They were killers, all of them! And you have the gall to condemn what I've done. You and your bloodthirsty race!
Goku: They paid for their mistakes!
Frieza: Heh heh heh heh. Is that why they died? I thought it was because I killed them!
Goku: You're just a beast, with no conscience!
Frieza: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So I'm a beast, huh? Oh, and what about you, Mr. Super Saiyan! Aren't you just like me?
Goku: Hmph.
Frieza: So the jury's still out on that one. Let's just give it a little more time.
No Sell: Sometimes, when the difference in powers is too great, some characters can completely ignore the attacks of their enemies. Once Cell became Perfect Cell, he completely ignored Krillin's flurry of blows as well as a Kienzan to the neck. Broly managed to take the combined strength of all the Super Saiyans in the cast as well as Piccolo without as much as budging from their attacks. This was actually subverted on a fight between Perfect Cell and Vegeta: Vegeta dared Cell to take his Final Flash full-on. Confident that Vegeta couldn't hurt him, Cell accepted the challenge. Cell ultimately changed his mind at the last second and decided to dodge the blast, since it was far more powerful than he expected, but he still got part of his torso blown off.
Not So Harmless: General Blue. Goku made such quick work of the other Red Ribbon officers, it came as a tremendous surprise when Blue turned out to have the edge over him. Especially given that Blue's own superiors were dismissive of him as a bungling idiot who they'd probably dispose of after his next failure.
Then all that trouble he caused in Dragon Ball GT in just the first episode?
Novelty Decay: The titular magical orbs start out as the awesome Holy Grail of all mystical artifacts, then eventually become relegated to fuel for resurrections as the series continues.
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep: In the Ocean dub of one DBZ episode, Krillin mutters out this prayer when he and Dende are confronted by Vegeta on Namek, until a whale shows up and distracts him.
O-Q
Obfuscating Stupidity: It's hard to tell what ratio of Roshi is a senile pervert to noble genius martial artist, but it's probably not an even split.
Some fans have grown Epileptic Trees on the idea of Mr. Popo secretly being more powerful than most of the cast for most of Z's continuity. Evidence to this conclusion includes the fact that Goku never explicitly overcame him in a fight, and that in the Buu saga he demonstrated the ability to catch Trunks and Goten by the feet while they were both Super Saiyans. It's such theories as this, and the fact that he could easily have defeated Demon King Piccolo, which led to his portrayal in Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Abridged.
Mr. Popo fighting Goten and Trunks was filler, at least.
The original series features Hiro, an ordinary human who manages to get to the top 8 of the World Martial Arts tournament by sheer clumsiness alone. When he squares off against Yamcha, Yamcha mocks his foolishness...only for Hiro to suddenly punch Yamcha out of the ring. He is just an ordinary guy, yes…but one that Kami possessed at the time to fight Piccolo.
Obsolete Mentor: Master Roshi, Korin, Kami... Pretty much all the mentor characters, really.
Oddly Common Rarity: Later on in the series, every surviving Saiyan (along with their hybrid offspring) ends up a Super Saiyan. It's even lampshaded:
Vegeta: [after hearing from Trunks that Goten can also go Super Saiyan] "What is this?! Some kind of Super Saiyan Bargain Sale? When was it that the transformation to the legendary warrior of the Saiyan race was reduced to a child's play thing?"
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the ending for Bio Broly, after Broly's mutilated clone was defeated by Goten, Trunks, and Krillin, Goku learns he has to go to HFIL due to Broly acting up and somehow suppress him, to which he ended up delaying to finish his (presumably huge) meal. The fight's outcome, not to mention the fight itself, is never revealed nor shown, as the movie ends right there.
Off the Rails: Dragon Ball Z's Tournament Arc, in which Goku shows up despite being dead, thugs under control of the Big Bad interupt a match to steal Gohan's energy, Trunks and Goten knock out a masked fighter and steal his costume so they can compete, two thirds of the contestants fly away during the first round, and Hercule tries to salvage the tournement by turning it into a battle royale. Then Vegeta blows up a chunk of the stadium.
This tends to happen at many tournaments. The third one in Dragon Ball involved the mechanically revived Tao Pi Pi trying to kill off the heroes, Chi Chi and Goku getting engaged after their round of 8 match, Kami coming down and possessing a contestant to get a shot at Piccolo Jr., and a battle between Goku and Piccolo Jr. that, in the end, results in the complete destruction of the entire island that the tournament is held on which, despite the strength of the characters that came through in later tournaments, remains the most destructive tournament battle in the show's history.
It's even commented on in the show, where previous to this World Martial Arts tournaments occurred every three years, but the gaps between the next two were 11 and 7 years respectively.
Oh Crap: A fair amount. Notable ones include Frieza seeing Goku become a Super Saiyan and Android 17 seeing that Piccolo wasn't firing randomly and was instead setting up an unavoidable attack, though these are by no means all of them.
Old Master: Korin, Shen, Kami, and Roshi. Later on, even Goku himself to Uub.
Ominous Walk: Cell does this regularly knowing that his enemies' own fear will make them easier to defeat.
Cell's footsteps sound oddly mechanical for a bio-genetic clone.
Those sound effects are supposedly claimed to sound "claw-like". Which makes sense with his original, insectoid form... Not so much after he transforms and ends up with normal feet.
It could be his boots...
Omnicidal Maniac: Nearly every Big Bad, with Kid Buu being the ultimate distillation of the trope.
One-Woman Wail: Happens often with tragedies and deaths.
Only the Pure of Heart: The condition for riding the Nimbus or controlling the Spirit Bomb. For the record, the number of people in the show who can do either can be counted on one hand.
Most fans jokingly think he gathers not the hopes and dreams of people, but their stupidity, in a concentrated form called "Stupid Energy" from a line he said in the Budokai games and Infinite World:
Cell: "Okay, planet, give me that stupid energy!"
To clarify, the "pure hearted" line regarding the Spirit Bomb (Genki-Dama) was only uttered by Krillin in Movie 3 (Tree of Might). Cell's claim to be able to create the Spirit Bomb is from the manga, too.
The anime does establish that only the pure of heart can deflect the Spirit Bomb, which is what Gohan was able to do. So could Kid Buu, but that was more likely because he was pure evil.
Baby has his own version of the Spirit Bomb; created by pure hatred.
Though it could be argued that being "pure of heart" does not mean you have to be pure good, and Cell was able to make his own Spirit Bomb due to the fact that his heart was pure, only pure evil.
"On the Next Episode of..." Catch Phrase: The Japanese version of each anime adaptation has Goku start each episode preview with "Osu! Ora Goku!", roughly "Heya! I'm Goku!", while some episodes in the Funimation dub have Goku say, "Hi, this is Goku! Join me on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z..."
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Vegeta's justification for helping Goku, which gradually loses its credibility as their respect for each other strengthens.
In the non-canonical movie, Vegeta hilariously shouts "Kakarotto Wa Ore No Mono Da!!" when Android 13 is beating his rival to death, and charges in to protect Goku. The context of this sentence is "Kakaroto is MY PREY hands off him", but "Ore No Mono Da" is usually used by jealous ex-boyfriends to say "belongs to me" (a good English translation is "Kakaroto is MINE").
Opt Out: Goku's giving the right to fight Cell to Gohan and also his initial refusal to be resurrected by the Dragon Balls.
Opposed Mentors: Master Shen and Master Roshi. The former trains brutual fighters for benefit and the later uses training for personal discipline.
The Other Darrin: As explained, doing all those fight scenes really strains the throat. Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation had non-stop screaming for the better part of an episode. And a few seiyuu did die by the time Kai aired.
Our Gods Are Greater: The Kaio. Interestingly, a lot of the characters are actually stronger than the Kaio, and the highest ranking Kaio has actually already been killed.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Saiyans transform into giant rampaging monkeys when they see the light of a full moon. Cutting off their tails prevents this, but until they reach a certain age, it will grow back.
Out of the Inferno: A lot of Big Bads, but Cell is the worst offender...particularly after he achieved perfection.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Krillin is THE poster boy for this, but it applies to just about anyone who isn't a Saiyan.
Overtook the Manga: The Garlic Jr. saga and Otherworld Tournament were created as a stopgap before the Trunks and Saiyaman sagas began.
Padding: The reason all those battles took so many episodes; Toriyama hadn't written the outcomes in the comics yet.
Pals With Jesus: Goku [and co. through him] personally knows all the deities, and is stronger than them.
Panty Shot: Bulma provides a few of these in early episodes.
Pet the Dog: Piccolo took Gohan to train him to fight the Saiyans, but ended up caring about the kid. Fat Buu literally did this with a puppy he found, learning that being nice can be more fun than hurting people.
Phosphor-Essence: Every character who goes Super Saiyan glows. While other characters can summon a Battle Aura, Super Saiyans are constantly glowing, as indicated by their clothes and skin tone being lighter even when the Battle Aura is off, and the hyper saturation of their hair in the most recent special.
Planet of Copyhats: When the Saiyans are introduced, they have a lot of the traits that Goku has already become known for.
Pocket Protector: In his first meeting with Mercenary Tao, Goku survives a beam shot that should've killed him thanks to an indestructable Dragon Ball inside of his shirt.
Potty Failure: Oolong, Krillin, Trunks and even Bulma pee their pants at different points of the anime. Only Bulma's and Oolong's accidents are present in the manga, and these examples sometimes overlap with Bring My Brown Pants.
Pound of Flesh Twist: Freeza's immortality wish is stopped by a language barrier.
Power High: Piccolo's infamous "Yes! Yes! I feel great! I can do this!" moment when he fuses with Nail. Nail even teases him about it in in The Abridged Series.
Power Levels: DBZ, Saiyan Saga to Freeza Saga, after which it was abandoned as the numbers became inceasingly (and exponentially) ridiculous. Toyed with in Buu Saga.
By ridiculous, we mean that Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, who is the strongest, (albeit non-canon) character in the series, has a power level that is easily calculated at above 80 billion!
To clarify: Frieza's second form is stated to have a power level of over 1,000,000 and is weaker than Goku's base. Super Saiyan 4 is a combination of SS 3(x400) and the Oozaru(x10). The fusion dance is stated to increase your power to ten times the fighters' power combined. Even if Vegeta had only barely managed to match Goku's base power from Namek, this puts it at 2 million times ten (fusion, 20 million), times ten (Oozaru, 200 million), times four hundred (SS 3, 80 billion). And of course, this is disregarding any increases in power levels between the Namek and the Buu sagas (when fusion was first introduced).
Actually, no. Fusion was never stated anywhere to be a multiplication of 10 times the combined power of the fighters; that's just a common, yet baseless, theory fans use (along with it being 50x). The closest the fans get to this is in the Super Exciting Guide where Vegetto is said to be Goku's power multiplied by Vegeta's, and Potara is said to be "like multiplication". Also, Super Saiyan 4 being a combination of Super Saiyan 3 and Oozaru is pure speculation.
Averted, as any character dependent on power levels alone would be owned.
Lampshaded in the web special by none other than Vegeta. In the web special, his younger brother Tarble is introduced, saying that a couple of remnants of Freeza's army followed him back to earth, and that he needs help fighting them. Naturally, Goku immediately obliges, but Tarble uses his scouter on him and reads a hilariously low power level, so the young Saiyan prince politely refuses Goku's help on the grounds of him being "too weak". Cue Vegeta saying that scouters are not reliable measurement for the real power level of a warrior, and Goku demonstrating this by turning Super Saiyan in front of him and making Tarble's scouter literally explode on his face due to overloading.
If we're talking about how unreliable the scouters are, Vegeta lampshades it even earlier (storyline-wise). Take a look at this line during his trouncing of Jeice on the English dub of Kai:
“Anyone ever tell you you fools put way too much stock in those silly little gadgets!? I think fighting these Earthlings would have taught you that by now!”
The Power of Friendship: In Dragon Ball Online, Krillin revived the Turtle School with this basis, in order to compensate for the general lack of strength humans have compared to aliens.
The Power of Love: Goku and (even more so) Gohan are always able to find a hidden reserve of power to protect the ones he loves.
(Or, to put it another way, he's normally powered by this, but hurt the ones he loves and...)
Prodigal Hero: Piccolo may count, as he (or rather, his father) had been apart from Namek for years and only comes back when it's targeted by Frieza.
Psychoactive Powers: Goku and Gohan both get stronger when those they love are threatened.
Saiyans are word plays on vegetables: Vegeta, Kakarott (carrot), Brolly (broccoli), Bardock (burdock) and Raditz (radish).
Saiyajin—the Japanese name for Saiyans—is a play on "yasai", the Japanese word for "vegetable." Similarly, Tsufurujin ("Tuffles" in the dub) is a play on "furutsu" or "fruits." One of the only Tsufurujin who is named in the source material is called "Dr. Raichi" which is a play on the fruit lychee.
Bulma is a corruption of buruma, those panty-shorts schoolgirls from Japan wear in PE classes, which is itself a corruptions of bloomers. Her dad is Dr. Briefs, and her kids are Trunks and Bra/Bulla. Even Krillin lampshades Bulma's name as well in the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball:
Krillin: It's so nice to see you again, Bloomer. Bulma:[angry]It'sBULMA!
Piccolo and all of his minions/spawns are musical instruments: Tambourine, Cymbal, etc. Other Namekians are typically named after words meaning "snail" and "slug", with Namek itself being a shorthand of "namekuji", the Japanese word for "slug".
Frieza and all of his relatives were named after things related to the cold, as a pun on how cold-hearted and cruel they all were.
Kuririn (Krillin) is a pun on "kurin" ("water chestnut"). His and 18's daughter Marron, as well as his similarly-named buxom filler girlfriend before 18, is named after the French word for "chestnut".
Gohan and Videl's daughter Pan is arguably the best example of the whole franchise, drawing influence from Goku, Chi-Chi, Gohan, Mr. Satan, Videl and Piccolo. Goku's saiyan name (Kakarot) is a pun on "carrot". Chi-Chi is Japanese for "milk" or "udder". In Latin America Dubs (where they speak Spanish), the name is literally changed to "Milk" for censorship reasons. Gohan is a homophone for "cooked rice" in Japanese. Videl is an anagram for "Devil" and Mr. Satan has "Satan" in his name. Pan could refer to the Japanese AND Spanish word for Bread (following her paternal side: food) or referring to Pan of Greek Mythology (following her maternal side: mythology). The coup de Grace comes from Piccolo, whose named after the musical instrument. Piccolo was a mentor, father figure, and close friend of Gohan, Pan's father. Pan could thus come from the musical instrument of the PAN flute. For those keeping track, 3 different races of beings (Human, Saiyan, Namekian) and at least 11 people are direct influences to her name. If you include indirect influences, you could almost say half the cast came together JUST TO NAME HER.
There are many, many more examples than just the ones above. Not enough room to list them all, and some (like the Ginyu Force) require some Bilingual Bonus to understand.
Readings Blew Up The Scale: Power-detecting "scouters" would helpfully indicate this to you by exploding off of your face.
Somehow, your ear isn't blown off by this event, either.
Not if you can deflect shotgun blasts with your bare hands.
Just how extreme this can be is in the Frieza saga, when Super Saiyan Goku's power level causes all the sensors as far away as planet #79 to overload, destroying the whole lab complex *and* killing the goons.
Reality Warper: Janemba was said to possess powerful psychokinesis and was able to use this ability to almost overthrow the Kais themselves by turning the Otherworld council into small, jellybean like fragments and allowing all of the previous Big Bads to escape from Hell.
Master Roshi (aka Muten Roshi), despite looking in his 70s since the start is actually 300 years old, as is his rival the Crane Hermit and his brother Mercenary Tao. Roshi and Crane are old enough to have been young monks when King Piccolo ravaged the Earth 300 years ago. Garlic and his son Garlic Jr., nemeses to Kami in a Non-Serial Movie and anime filler are also at least 300 years old. And if you think that's astounding, Roshi's older sister Uranai Baba, is 500 years old. In anime filler, Roshi's turtle celebrates his one thousandth birthday. Mr. Popo has been attendant to every Guardian of Earth (or at least a large number), so he's much, much older.
The Nameless Namekian separated into Kami and King Piccolo 300 years ago, having already been about 200 when this happened. Non Serial Movie villain Lord Slug and Namekian elder Guru (who actually does look his age) is also from this time. Oddly enough, prior to remerging with Kami, Piccolo Jr., King Piccolo's reincarnation was about 14 years old (though he had already merged with an older Namekian in the Frieza saga). Namekian merging is... complicated.
The Kais are in the millions of years old. The Eastern Supreme Kai killed Bibidi, the creator of Majin Buu, five million years ago, making Bibidi's son Babidi at least that old. Numerous other demons and deities from both the original manga and anime filler are likely at least as old.
Old Supreme Kai takes the cake here, as he's ridiculously old even by Kai standards. He actually does look pretty old, but he counts his age a "15 generations". Logically, he'd be talking about Kai generations. Considering that Eastern Supreme Kai has not visibly aged in 5 million years, this would be an unbelievably long time indeed.
Redemption Failure: Buu is convinced to stop his rampage by Mr. Satan/Hercule for a time, but his destructive nature breaks free and later takes control once entirely after a criminal shoots his pet puppy and wounds Mr. Satan.
Red Eye: Kid Goku does this to "Jackie Chun" during their match.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: This relationship exists with Goku playing the red to various other characters, although Vegeta is the best and longest running example. They even have the right colors on their uniforms.
And then there's Mez and Goz, an actual pair of a red oni and a blue oni.
Mirrored to an extent in their sons, Goten and Trunks.
Red Shirt Reporter: The reporters investigating the mysterious disappearance of Ginger Town's inhabitants; they get to suffer the same fate, i.e. being sucked out and absorbed by Cell.
Reincarnation: Dragon Ball loves this trope: Piccolo being the reincarnation of Piccolo Sr. and Uub being the reincarnation of Kid Buu. Interestingly, both of them are good guys, are reincarnations of Big Bads (of the Complete Monster variety at that) who had epic fights with Son Goku and both had a "rematch" with him in a Tenka'ichi Budokai.
Piccolo Jr. took longer to befriend Goku, because he actually remembered his past life; while never as evil as his previous self, Piccolo Jr. was initially quite ruthless and went through a somewhat prolonged Heel Face Turn (fueled by two Enemy Mine arcs in a row, and Goku's son as a Morality Pet) after his defeat. He also looks the same as Piccolo Sr. because in addition to being his reincarnation, he's also his clone.
Reluctant Warrior: Notwithstanding his reluctance to kill, from the Cell Saga onwards, Goku shows a strange reluctance in being Earth's protector and always holds back in all his fights, to the point where he again plays his Idiot Hero card. Instead he put his hopes on Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Piccolo and even Vegeta and it really backfired on him in the Buu Saga.
The Renaissance Age of Animation: Made and dubbed during this period (and quite possibly the trope codifier for starting the North American Anime craze of the mid-late 90s). One of the hundreds of Anime spawned during this period and one of the several dozen that caught on in America. You can confidently say that this series is one of the main reasons Anime became popular during the 90s outside of Japan.
The Rival: Dragon Ballruns on this, after which it gets demoted somewhat for Z.
Rival Dojos: Crane School and Turtle School in Dragon Ball.
Road Sign Reversal: Bulma was fleeing from General Blue through an abandoned pirate hideout. She came to an intersection and drew an arrow on the ground in dust to tell Goku which way she went, but Blue got to it first and changed it to point the opposite direction.
It's also one of Goku's attack sets, the Janken fist. "Rock" gives a solid punch, "Paper" gives a fierce slap, and "Scissors" gives an eye-poke. Perhaps this is why when fighting a Big Bad, you never "Rock, Paper, Scissors" on who gets to fight him. Ask Vegeta.
This is also how Goku, Gohan and Vegeta decide who fights Puipui, Yakon and Dabura in Babidi's ship. Kaioshin about has a coronary watching them.
Played for laughs when Goku first introduces Gohan to Master Roshi, Krillin, and Bulma. Gohan plays with a crab, who for obvious reasons can only use "scissors".
Rousseau Was Right: The philosophy that defines the entire franchise; easily missed if all you focus on is the (admittedly awesome) action sequences. The warm heart that drives the story celebrates unconditional kindness and faith in fundamental human decency; proven by the fact that virtually ALL of Goku's friends minus Kurilin and Bulma were once black-hearted villains who were shown kindness and hence given the chance to earn their humanity.
While not a black-hearted villain, Krillin did have a bit of a mean streak at the beginning of training with Master Roshi in Dragon Ball. As part of Goku and Krillin's training, Master Roshi picked up a rock, drew a Turtle symbol on it, and threw it into the Forest for only one of them to find. Krillin manages to get the rock by tricking Goku in allowing him to "examine" the rock.
The Runaways: Androids 17 and 18, starting from when they were human.
Sad Battle Music: In Dragonball Z episode 25, Krillin and Gohan fight Nappa to a sad fighting theme. Averted in the Western dub, where it is replaced with a more action-y theme.
Sculpted Physique: No, not the chiseled bodies of the protagonists, but the seemingly carved from rock, steel, or plastic looking villains and aliens. ... who also had a set of washboard abs.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Piccolo was one of these, sealed into a simple electric rice cooker. Buu was also sealed in a veiny-looking ball so that it would be easier for Bibidi to control him and transport him from place to place.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Discounting the Non Serial Movies, if Freeza had not taken any steps to avert the prophecy of the Super Saiyans, chances are Vegeta would never have turned against him, and therefore Goku would never have reached that point, and it would never have happened. Nice Job Fixing It, Villain.
Taking into account the flashback and the Bardock special, Freeza already seems to have noticed the discontent among the nobles of Vegeta. The final straw was when Bardock, a mere footsoldier, managed to complete a task that even Freeza's elite forces were unable to do. His problems started when he tried to enslave the people of Vegeta, but his genocidal tendencies certainly didn't help matters.
Sensor Character: Early on in Dragon Ball Z, the ability to sense power levels without a scouter or other device is part of what separates the good guys from the bad guys. As the series goes on, more and more people become able to do it on their own.
Sentai: The Ginyu Force is an allusion to these kind of shows.
Serial Escalation: Take your pick. Mostly the special attacks and transformations.
Shoot the Medic First: Freeza kills Dende as soon as he realizes Dende is the one who's been healing everybody.
Shout Out: To Disney's Cinderella. Say it with me now, "Bibidi, Babidi, Buu".
The scene where King Cold's menions rebuild Freeza is an obvious shout out to The Six Million Dollar Man, right down to the dialogue.
Go read Dr. Slump, then re-read Dragon Ball. There's more visual references than one would think. Example: Vegetto gets turned into a talking coffee drop...
In the episode where Nappa destroys several news aircraft, one of them is a Shuttlecraft from the Star Trek movies, complete with Warp nacelles, twin-line markings and NCC-1701-A on the side.
The helmet Chichi wears in early in Dragon Ball, with the forehead laser and the throwing blade, seem to have been inspired by the Emerium Beam and Eye Slugger used by the eponymous hero of Ultra Seven.
Ship Sinking: Double subverted with Bulma & Yamcha.
Single Specimen Species: The Buyon in Muscle Tower back in the early series could resist Goku's Kamehameha unharmed, and no other is ever seen again. Much later on in the series (and curiously also related indirectly to the Red Ribbon army) we get Cell (who does reproduce all by himself, compromising his uniqueness, but that doesn't last long).
Sinister Silhouettes: Ginyu Force is seen as this at one point, and one of the earlier opening sequences has Vegeta and Nappa as silhouetttes doing a Power Walk.
Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke: Any major attack in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi video game series.
Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: HIGH. Many examples but notably Freeza annihilating all the Namekians, Dr. Gero succeeding in killing Goku via Perfect Cell, Cell achieved his perfect form and almost destroyed the world and Buu killed almost all of humanitylife itself AND did destroy the Earth plus countless other planets.
Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Most of the major Dragon Ball enemies are global threats (except the 22nd Tournament, which slid down to a strictly personal threat). Then the threat level started to crank up from the Freeza saga onward, all the way up to threats to all existence in the Buu saga and Dragon Ball GT.
Or the Earth Dragon who is even more snake-like than the Namekian one?
Snap to the Side: Raditz does this whenever Goku grabs his tail.
Happens alot in this show, really.
So Last Season: Everything. Attacks, power-ups, warriors, Big Bads, everything. It gets to the point were if something was used last season, you can be sure that it's not going to have any real impact now. In particular, the Spirit Bomb went totally unmentioned after it failed to kill Freeza, so when Vegeta suggested using it against Kid Buu, Goku was visibly shocked at the suggestion.
The most notable subversion of this, however, is likely the Taiyou-ken/Solar Flare. It maintains incredible utility far past its original inception back in Dragon Ball, serving as the only form of effective defense against higher level foes. It's even later used by Cell against the heroes themselves to useful effect.
May be interpreted as a running theme of the series. Which is that there is no ultimate power, invincible warrior, supreme skill, unbeatable technique, etc. No matter how mighty you are or think you are, someone, somewhere, sometime (possibly even you yourself in the future) will either be or become, better. The pinnacle of Bad Ass of each saga is either directly or indirectly turned into a running joke in the next. This includes the Super Saiyan transformation itself, which goes from legendary uber power-up enabled only by appalling cost, to something schoolkids do for fun.
Lampshaded in one of the OVA's. "They are as strong as Freeza you say? Aww, that's boring. But perfect for the kids!" Who are under 10 at this point.
This is especially true for each of Vegeta's finishers, of all things. He used his Galick Gun once against Goku, then never again. He used his Big Bang once against Android #19. Not counting anime filler where he uses it against a Cell Junior and against Goku during their second fight, he uses his Final Flash once against Perfect Cell.
Subverted with Babidi's Elite Mooks who were defeated so easily by the heroes it even shocked the King of All Cosmos. If anything, they were slightly mightier than the Big Bad of two seasons prior. Even The Dragon was just as strong as last season's Big Bad at full strength.
It should be noted that said dragon, Dabura, is NOT defeated so easily...at least when he fights Gohan.
Although he would have been, had Gohan actually trained for more than a few months before the World Tournament. Or transformed to Super Saiyan 2. Which he should've been able to do regardless of having his power drained and incompletely restored.
Subverted in the Red Ribbon Army Saga. After Goku kicks the grenade into Tao Pai Pai's face, he just mows through an entire army, shrugging off a direct hit from a sniper rifle. Staff Officer Black's powered armour is actually less of a challenge than the ruthless assassin Tao.
Spell My Name with an S: The romanizations of many characters' name tend to vary between Japanese media. Even the English adaptation of the manga and anime can't seen to agree on which spelling to use.
Spheroid Dropship: Frieza's Saiyan Pods are of the sufficiently advanced variety that has interstellar capability.
Spinoff Babies: Although its anything but this, the original Dragon Ball was both advertised and came off as this to American viewers due to Z being localized first.
A more straight example may be GT, which turned Goku back into a kid and pushed his granddaughter Pan to the forefront.
Spirited Competitor: Goku. Cell acts like one, but that changes when he starts to lose.
Majin Buu is an incredibly spirited competitor. He's like Goku in many ways.
Spoiler Title: Pretty much every episode of the English dub of Z had this problem. Particularly bad are when the title of the episode reveals the death of a character.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Krillin's signature attack (though many of the other Z-Warriors can do it too) is the Destructo Disk; a concentrated disk of Ki energy thinned to a razor sharp tip. Frieza and Cell also have a remote-controlled variation.
Stealth-Based Mission: Thoroughly outnumbered by aliens individually stronger than they are, quite a large part of the Freeza arc ends up being this for Krillin and Gohan.
They were seriously lucky Vegeta was providing a handy distraction by killing Freeza's Dragons and Mooks; Gohan and Krillin go almost entirely unnoticed by Freeza until the Ginyu Force arrives. Of course, this meant they had to hide from Vegeta too.
Suddenly Shouting: Bulma uses this for snark value when complaining about how recklessly endangering her companions are.
Super Mode: Super Modes to be precise. Super Saiyan, then 2, 3 and 4. Not counting False Super Saiyan, Legendary Super Saiyan and the 2 Ultra Super Saiyan levels.
Superpowered Evil Side: The kind-hearted and sweet Son Gohan becoming bloodthirsty and sadistic when he fought Cell as a Super Saiyan 2.
Goku, to a lesser extent when first transforming into a Super Saiyan.
Technically Majin Buu fits this trope, as he physically splits into his good and evil halves, followed by the evil side demonstrating its superiority quite easily and then taking control of the entire body.
In the same vein, we have the Nameless Namekian splitting into Piccolo Sr. and Kami in Dragon Ball's backstory.
Majin Vegeta is a subversion. Vegeta is Not Brainwashed and is no different with the powerup than he would be otherwise.
"The blood of the Saiyans must be completely cut off. Not because I believe in ridiculous legends, such as the Super Saiyan, history's greatest warrior, but because I do not feel well with them around."
3 quarters of the world population is turned into candy! He keeps the earth intact so that he can devour sweets on every shop in the planet. And it even unlocks deeper levels of his power!
Closer to the trope, Piccolo take the Ki blast from Nappa to save Gohan during the Sayan saga.
Talking the Monster to Death: When all the Saiyans at that point couldn't save the Earth, Mr. Satan stopped Majin Buu from turning it into a lifeless mudball doing this.
Tangled Family Tree: Due to equal parts intermarriage, fusion, time travel, cloning and absorption.
Team Dad: Trunks to Pan, Goku, and Gill/Giru in the first half of GT.
You could make an argument for Master Roshi (Kamesennin) in Dragon Ball through about the Saiyan saga for DBZ being the team dad/grandpa.
Another good argument can be made for Piccolo, as he often acts as both the father figure and mentor for several of the younger members, as well as the voice of reason.
Temporal Paradox: Trunks's and Cell's time-traveling shenanigans results in quite the merry-go-round. Made weirder by the discovery that his time machine actually goes into another timeline instead of its own. On the plus side, it avoids the usual Mind Screw.
Episode of Bardock has Bardock go back in time to Planet Plant before it was inhabited by Vegeta. It turns out that Chilled, one of Freeza's ancestors, comes to the planet with a scouting force. When Bardock fights him he becomes a Super Saiyan and totally whoops his ass. This means that Chilled was the one who created and passed down the legend of the Super Saiyan, and that Bardock is the legendary Super Saiyan from 1000 years ago that Freeza and Vegeta are always talking about. Given this new context, Goku being the next Super Saiyan (or at least the one who will defeat Frieza) is completely logical.
Actually, the original Super Saiyan whose legend the Saiyans passed down through their generations isn't Bardock, but another Saiyan whose power in fact destroyed their original homeworld, which led to their coming to Planet Plant.
Temporal Mutability: The "branching timelines" version, of which there are at least three: one for the main characters, one for Future Trunks, and one for Cell (the one who gets the most screentime), which is why destroying timeline 1's larval Cell does nothing to him and Trunks can't prevent the Androids from existing in his reality. On the bright side, he gets strong enough to take them apart when he returns, along with his timeline's Cell.
Tranquil Fury: Numerous examples, but most notable is Goku as the first Super Saiyan who doesn't destroy himself in murderous, unbound rage (though he did take a couple minutes to torment and terrorize Frieza before offering to leave peacefully). Gohan's fight with Cell is similar, though it treads closer to Gohan becoming uncharacteristically sadistic before he regains his composure.
Transformation Is a Free Action: Literally every time someone charges up, the most that is done about it is stand around and comment on how their power level is going up. At least once, Vegeta waits around for a perfectly killable enemy to power up fully just so he could have a more interesting fight. It doesn't end well.
Subverted yet also played straight at the same time only once when Trunks attacks Cell while Cell transforms into his Perfect Form. It doesn't even work.
Too Dumb to Live: Mr. Satan is literally the champion of averting this trope. Even with the amounts of comic relief pain he suffers (slapped by Cell, being blown away by the Kung Fu Sonic Booms of the Saiyans fighting the Big Bad complete rocks smacking his face, harming himself when jumping off a cliff of the homeworld of the Kaioshin, after believing it's all his dream, and still afterwards etc.), he ironically is the only non-afterlife-resident member of the cast who didn't die ever.
Freeza twice barely survives a battle with a Super Saiyan, the first time due to a mercy act, and the second due to an Ass Pull miracle. Both times, he deliberately returns for more.
In a more literal example, Bulma's mother, who does not understand the concept of swiftness in a life-or-death situation. For example, upon hearing that West City is going to be destroyed, she decides that she MUST find just the right dress for the occasion instead of packing up to flee the city.
Three-Point Landing: Almost everybody does this when falling, except when they fall flat to the door.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Vegeta finally settles on "good guy" and shows no signs of wanting to go back to a villain, until Majin Buu shows up.
Totem Pole Trench: Done by Goten and Trunks to enter an adults-only tournament in Dragon Ball Z. And the best part is, they are competent at fighting in tandem like that, only stopping at #18, who blows their ruse in the semifinals.
Troubled But Cute: 20 years of fleeing for your life from two homicidal androids has left Future Trunks emotionally scarred (and serious).
Future Bulma too.
True Companions: Goku, Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Ooling, Puar, Turtle, and then any kids any of them might have. Other characters, like Tien, Piccolo and Vegeta, might become something like friends with the rest but aren't usually seen hanging out with the others.
Tsundere: Videl to Gohan. Gohan mentions it to Bulma in a conversation but what makes it less clear is Videl's status as an [[Action Girl]]. As Gohan mentions, she has no interest in romance. If you need any more proof, pay attention to the close-ups of here face when Gohan is teaching her how to fly.
T-Word Euphemism: Lord Pilaf's minions and the English localisers on the "K-word".
Unskilled, but Strong: Some Z villains, most notably Freeza, who had innately high levels of Ki, but zero knowledge in how to control it.
Basically, everybody in Freeza's empire. Since Scouters are completely useless against somebody who knows how to control his Ki, Freeza and his minions probably never encountered people who could do it before they came to Earth. Interestingly, this would include Nappa and Vegeta.
And then Vegeta would become one of the guys showing them the error of their ways. After turning on them, of course.
This trope actually causes wonder at how so many fans are still hung up on whatever power level numbers somebody says they picked up from a doujin or something.
This was Captain Ginyu's downfall when he switched bodies with Goku. With Goku's body, he had strength available to potentially become the strongest being on Namek, but he had no knowledge of how to use Goku's techniques, such as the Kaio-ken, so he turned out to be unable to use any of that power.
Subverted and then immediately played straight when the Dragon is summoned at Capsule Corp. Everybody else in the city freaks out... until they learn it's from Capsule Corp. and assume it's just another experiment, continuing with their lives.
Villains Want Mercy: Raditz pulls this out on Goku after being grabbed by his weak point. After Goku lets him go, however, he hits him in the stomach and Goku has to sacrifice his life to defeat him. Later, when Freezer begs SSJ Goku for some energy after being sliced in two by his own attack, Goku complies once again but not before calling out Freezer on how many people had probably begged him some mercy and he hadn't given them any. Freezer, of course, then uses the energy for one last ditch attack but Goku just blasts him off.
Wanting Is Better Than Having: Master Roshi battles his pupils in the Tenkaichi tournament under the guise of Jackie Chun. He believes that Victory Is Boring, so he tries to prevent them from winning so that they'll always strive to become stronger rather than rest on their laurels.
Wasteful Wishing: Subverted. Oolong's wish for panties was a waste, but wasting the wish prevented Pilaf's rise to power.
Weaksauce Weakness: For Goku and Raditz, grabbing their tails rendered them instantly powerless. Goku, however, was able to overcome this weakness through training, which Krillin found out the hard way.
Apparently, as the Z-Fighters found out firsthand when they tried grabbing Nappa's tail, elite Saiyans like Vegeta and Nappa either straight averted that weakness from birth or were able to subvert it through training themselves before we even saw them in the series.
In each of their respective Non-Serial Movie appearances, the embodiments of evil Hirudegarn and Janemba become defenseless when enraged/insulted.
We Are Team Cannon Fodder: All the same reasons for Can't Catch Up. At one point every main character besides the Saiyans attack the Big Badwhile he is preoccupied with dueling Kamehameha waves. And he just shrugs them off.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Future Trunks is constantly looking for Vegeta's approval. It isn't until Cell kills him that Vegeta realizes how important his son is to him.
Ginyu as well...yes, 'he' shows up again, but what about his body?
I think it appears in one of the filler episodes, having been teleported along with everyone else from Namek. It still acted like a frog.
What Is This, X?: In the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball, in one episode, when Bulma gets surprised that she has to wear a Playboy Bunny costume: "What is this, Easter?!"
What the Hell, Hero?: Piccolo delivers this to Goku when the latter sends his 11-year old son (9 in the manga) to fight Cell without helping him.
While never explicitly stated, the looks of Goku's friends' faces said it all when Goku gave Cell a Senzu bean right before Gohan fought him.
Funnily enough, Goku delivers it to aforementioned son (after Gohan becomes his Superpowered Evil Side) when Gohan refuses to finish Cell off.
Vegeta letting Cell reach his Perfect form and letting Babadi turn him into Majin Vegeta are more egregious examples.
He even explains why he did it in the latter case. He also tries to throw off his responsibilities to his family, but Goku does not buy his excuse and decks him.
Vegeta later pulls a What the Hell, Hero? on Goku twice after his second death: The first was when he learned about Goku's SSJ 3 transformation, and was bitter because not only did this mean Goku held out on him during their fight, but had Goku revealed his SSJ 3 to him, Vegeta would not have had to resort to the Heroic Sacrifice / Redemption Equals Death method in his failed attempt to stop Majin Buu. The second time was when he learns that while Vegeta was still in the afterlife, Goku, in exchange for Old Kai having Gohan unlock his full potential so he could defeat Buu, offered for Old Kai to either grope, kiss, or have nude pictures of Bulma, resorting to a severe (albeit somewhat comical) tongue lashing from Vegeta.
When You Snatch the Pebble: Goku goes to Karin's Tower to drink the Super Spirit Water, which he hears will make him much stronger. Actually getting the bottle of water from Karin, however, is a daunting task because of Karin's swiftness. When Goku finally does get the bottle, he is told that it contains just ordinary water—his attempts to take the water were what increased his strength.
Wax On, Wax Off: Both this and the above trope come back again during the King Kai arc of Goku's training, where he's told to first catch Bubbles, a monkey, and whack Gregory with a mallet. Sounds simple enough, considering Goku is an alien with super speed. King Kai, however, conveniently forgot to mention that his planet's gravity is 10 times that of Earth, which means even taking a step took tremendous effort on Goku's part, but not for Bubbles or Gregory, who have lived on the planet for so long the latter can fly at subsonic speeds!
Broly. Big Time (although in his case, his great insanity was more related to his traumatic past than to his actual power)! Baby Vegeta in DBGT is a more straight example, as upon gaining the Golden Ape form, he progressively gets worse in terms of his mental and emotional stability.
Partially with any Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2 in the beginning. They struggle to keep ruthless aggression down and are not so nice anymore.
Kid Buu's ridiculous power is only rivaled (and actually augmented) by his utter insanity.
Frieza would lose his rational thinking and grip on reality the more he powered up. This was one reason why he chooses to stay in his weaker forms.
Vegeta was also heavily implied to be Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. In the former's case, he had to be taken by Frieza, one of the universe's most evil characters from his father, King Vegeta, when he was a little boy in what was heavily implied to be a deal Frieza forced upon him. Then, Vegeta is forced to obey Frieza's commands or else he would murder his dad, and despite this, Frieza killed him anyways, and then committed genocide against his own people, and even afterwards he was treated by a slave by Frieza and his henchman, especially Frieza and Zarbon. When Goku learns of these details when Vegeta was dying from Frieza puncturing his hear with a death beam, even Goku took pity on him.
Broly is another case. It is heavily implied in his debut film that Broly barely even had a chance to be anything else, as other than Goku's crying next to him, he also ended up being nearly executed by King Vegeta for no reason other than simply because King Vegeta feared Broly's power level of 10,000, a high power level especially for his age. Then he narrowly survived Planet Vegeta's destruction at the hands of Frieza (his powers were literally the only reason he and his dad even survived Vegeta's destruction), and if Shin Budokai is anything to go by, it is also heavily implied that Frieza's destruction of Planet Vegeta contributed a LOT to Broly's Ax Crazy nature, and he later ends up being brainwashed by his own father.
The Worf Barrage: The Kamehameha was the ultimate energy technique in Dragon Ball and it always did some damage even if it was only Clothing Damage. Raditz negating the attack full out was a sign of things to come. And the Spirit Bomb is only a finishing move once in the whole series.
The Kamehameha was shown to be still be fairly powerful throughout the series while the Sprit Bomb thing was somewhat averted in the non canonical movies where it was used no less than 3 times to kill the big bad in the films.
Besides, the true finishing occasion in the series with the Spirit Bomb? The last Big Bad. (This applies to GT as well.)
"World of Cardboard" Speech: Several. Goku's declaration that he has turned into the feared Super Saiyan to Freeza, and later verbally shreds him talking about how he was bested by "a monkey." Vegeta also got a few in the Majin Buu saga, one right before he kills himself to defeat Buu. Some time later he acknowledges that he will never fully surpass Goku, but that realization is what leads to the solution to finally stop Buu.
Wuxia: The anime adaptation lovingly pays homage to the conventions of the Classic Shaw Brothers Kung-Fu films of the 60's, in lighting, movement, costume design and especially the sublime musical score by Kikuichi Shunsuke.
You Are Already Dead: In the seventh movie Future Trunks battles Android 14, their fight comes to an end when their blows collide with Trunks using his sword, Android 14 comes out seemingly unscathed he runs out at Trunks and his body splits in half just before he reaches him.
You Fight like a Cow: Vegetto was a master of this. And then he got turned into a jawbreaker. And continued.
For the minority who don't know: This is literally true. Vegetto is turned into a small ball of hardened sugar. That kicks ass. And throws insults. Yes.
Vegetto: "I'm not any ordinary candy. I'm a jawbreaker, the strongest piece of candy there is!"
Lots of it between SSJ 2 Goku and Majin Vegeta's epic battle.
Vegeta: "You've become quite the escape artiste."
Goku: "Maybe you should work on some better finishing moves."
You Fool!: Goku yells this at Frieza just before finishing him off with an energy wave when he refuses to give up the fight. This was Frieza's secondBackstab Backfire, after Goku had both invoked Cruel Mercy and then saved Frieza's life after he cut himself in half.
In the video games, Android 17 yells this during guard counter attacks.
4 reviews 
