I sometimes forget that there was no separation in the manga.
You have to admit, between Z being mostly first in America (though the very first Arc of Dragonball did air on television first before someone finally went back and got the full series), it's easy to make the mistake.
One Strip! One Strip!Dragon Ball in the USA was shown weirdly.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimariWell, Goku did have to show us that he and his friends were going to save the day.
Which they actually didn't do if you recall. More like they spoiled Pilaf's day, and only barely.
One Strip! One Strip!True.
Saiyan Saga also predates the massive Power Creep, Power Seep.
Sure, they were powerful, and Vegeta could destroy a planet, but it took effort to do so.
Edit: Also, when I brought up the why didn't Goku train in the afterlife and then come back via Baba's one day on Earth ability, Rinsankajugin stated that she probably just died.
I accepted that at the time, but it occurs to me that with her prediction abilities, and her ability to move back and forth through the afterlife (she's actually physically there when she brings back both Goku and Vegeta) that avoiding death via Androids should have been pretty easy.
And the future revealed that Yajirobe is still alive (even if via last second Senzu), so Baba stands a pretty good chance of being alive, so my previous statement about why neither Goku nor Piccolo took advantage of both the opportunity to train in the Afterlife and her ability to restore people to life still stands.
And I dare any one (including Popes) to counter me!
Stop Handsome Rob....IF YOU DARE!
edited 3rd Oct '16 7:58:19 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!My god, I tried putting this on WMG, but the page is not working for me.
I have this theory on Black Goku.
Goku Black is losing sight of his original personality
When Zamasu took over Goku body, he started to gain Goku personality traits more and more with each day. This explains why he is so interested in gaining more power, compared with Zamasu, That Zamasu is slowly disappearing, only leaving a Evil Goku in sight. Sorta like Piccolo when he fused with somebody, only more of an sicko twist in it.
edited 3rd Oct '16 10:45:57 PM by Tomodachi
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.That's not even slightly similar to what Piccoro did...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I don't think I will ever understand how people consider the Saiyan 'event' as a full-blown 'Saga'. I mean, it was really short, and mostly served to set up Namek and the Freeza Saga. I consider it to be the first third of the Freeza Saga, not a whole Saga in its own right.
I guess it comes from reading the manga, where the whole Saiyan arc took up only 4 volumes (49 chapters), compared to the Freeza Saga's collective 11 (135 chapters, including the Saiyan arc), the Cell Saga's 8 volumes (91 chapters), with the Buu Saga at 7 volumes (97 chapters, due to the volumes getting longer).
To contrast, the 'Dragon Ball' portion took up 16 volumes, with slightly less than 2 volumes taking up the initial search for the Dragon Balls (22 chapters), 2 and a half volumes dedicated to training with Roshi and the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai (31 chapters), 3 and a half volumes for the Red Ribbon Army (45 chapters), 1 volume for Baba's thing (15 chapters), about 2 volumes for the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai (24 chapters), about two volumes for Demon King Piccolo (26 chapters), and two and a half volumes for training with Mr. Popo and Kami and the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai (33 chapters).
I just consider the first third of Dragon Ball to be three main Sagas, each one ending with one of the three tournaments.
It had a beginning, middle and end. Character arcs were introduced for Piccolo and Gohan and led to their logical conclusions. A threat was introduced, they trained for the threat, and then they beat the threat. Sounds like an arc to me.
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!It's a saga...just like the Android stuff is before Cell arrives.
Doesn't need to make sense, as it wouldn't.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Because alliteration.
Seriously though, it's it's own self-contained storyline with it's own separate rise and fall, so while I personally just lump them all together into one big Freeza arc I can understand why people would separate them.
It's not like the Androids, where Cell's story appears in the middle of 17 and 18's party before their story can really go anywhere - the beginnings of the Freeza saga explicitly happen because the heroes want to reverse the effects of the already concluded Vegeta storyline - it's more "immediate sequel" than "one story / two parts," and there's a lot of Arc Welding there. That's why the Namek stuff builds the way it does.
edited 4th Oct '16 3:04:34 AM by KnownUnknown
I've kind of stopped thinking of them as sagas in the first place. They're just really long arcs, to be honest. Sometimes artificially-lengthened arcs, but still arcs.
Also, I don't really understand why you'd split up the Androids and Cell. While Cell kind of comes out of nowhere, he's very much still related to the Androids business. And there's a nice Bookends with both the beginning and the end of the arc relating to Future Trunks.
edited 4th Oct '16 3:04:32 AM by LOLypop1224
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!Just because it doesn't go through the same arc fatigue as Namek - Boo doesn't mean it isn't a long arc in itself. Four volumes is a lot of material, especially compared to the arcs that come before it.
Saiyan arc has a very clear beginning and end, and calling it part of the Namek arc does both arcs a disservice. Besides, it is incredibly clear that the Saiyan arc was not written with the Namek arc in mind, given all the retcons.
And combining the Dragon Ball arcs that way doesn't make sense. The first arc and the 21st Budokai have nothing to do with each other. Ditto for RRA and 22nd Budokai. Furthermore, the 22nd Budokai leads directly into the Piccolo Daimao arc, why would you decide to separate them when everything else gets combined? It's very arbitrary.
I agree with Mad Skillz, Saiyan arc best arc. Followed by... maybe the Daimao arc. Then some order of Namek / Android / Boo.
Sounds like you don't have a very wide exposure to other opinions then, because as pointed out, "Z"is more popular worldwide. The internet fanbase only presents a vocal minority of fans, even then, those opinions will differ depending on where you go. I've been in several different Dragon Ball communities, and the majority preference is different in each one.
![]()
They're welded together about as much as duct tape could manage
edit: Oh, in terms of Sagas? that's just Funi's influence speaking, probably. Dragon Ball is a saga. A handful of arcs doesn't make a saga.
edited 4th Oct '16 3:46:19 AM by Saiga
Hunting for the Dragon Balls leads into the 21st in that Roshi is introduced, shows his incredible power, and Goku makes a promise to train with him after they're done searching. Similarly, the Red Ribbon army introduces Taopaipai, who is the biggest physical threat in that arc by a landslide, which leads into the 22nd, where his brother and his brother's students are introduced, one of whom explicitly wants revenge for Taopaipai. In this context, Krillin's death feels more like a cliffhanger for the next saga with Piccolo and Piccolo Jr.
There is definitely more of a connection with Kuririn's death than there is with the other things you mentioned.
Roshi recurring doesn't make it a saga. Otherwise the first arc is part of the 23rd Budokai saga, because it introduced Chichi.
Tao Pai Pai's connection to the Crane School was an easy way to establish new antagonists, it wasn't really that important. Furthermore, Tao Pai Pai is not the biggest part of the Red Ribbon arc, despite how memorable he is. He's a freelance assassin.
Those are really a stretch. Square peg, round holes.
It just fits better to me to have Dragon Ball separated into 6 neat little Sagas, the first three ending with Tournaments, and the last three ending with climactic battles against huge villains who were a physical threat for at least the latter half of their respective arcs, with Piccolo Jr. being the transitional point.

I did give you an opportunity to rephrase your comment to clear up any potential miscommunication.
edited 3rd Oct '16 5:35:00 PM by PushoverMediaCritic