It's indicated during the tournament arcs that they're not so commonplace. The Crane and Turtle students were something else to behold in the three tournaments they participated in, bringing amazing, fantastic arts into the ring that blew everyone away with their spectacle; before that, they were rare to occur if ever, and mundane fighters like King Chappa ruled the ring. After the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, when all the ki-using characters left the ring, it went right back to those mundane arts.
By the time of the Cell Saga, it's been over a decade since anybody's seen Goku, Piccolo, et. al in the ring. Mr. Satan is the new Goku, wowing the crowd with his unbeatable skills. Between his credibility as the World Champion, the amount of time that's passed since Goku and Piccolo literally destroyed the ring, and the fact that the abilities demonstrated in the Cell Games are several degrees of magnitude higher than anything Goku and his crew ever showed off in the Tenkaichi Budokai, it's not hard to understand why people were willing to buy into his claim that it was just dirty fighters using special effects.
edited 7th May '15 6:49:05 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I've always been really confused as to why Martial Arts wasn't more popular after Dragon Ball. How did Master Roshi not have a constant stream of students after three tournaments in a row that showed that Kung Fu can give you super powers?
My various fanfics.Dead People Dying Again
Unnoun is right; it's pretty clearly asserted that if dead people die, they experience Cessation of Existence. It's the difference between killing your body and killing your soul. You don't come back from the latter in any form, ever.
He didn't want any. He didn't even want to take on Goku and Krillin. Plus he's hard to find.
edited 7th May '15 6:49:41 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.This isn't Bleach. Souls die when they're killed.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!Of course I am. My username should never be capitalized though, so you aren't.
Although, the cessation of existence thing is only mentioned in the anime. And I think I remember it contradicting another thing.
Ox King never learned the Kamehameha and he trained with Roshi.
Of course, he did get a power level of 900 according to two separate sources.
So he could punch things really really hard.
edited 7th May '15 6:59:05 PM by unnoun
Unnoun didn't say that I did! Yes, I have to take credit for it, that's not sad or anything!
edited 7th May '15 6:57:12 PM by LSBK
Now I'm going to point out that the Bankai is basically just a fancy Kaiou-ken: A 5-10x power boost.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!At which point I will remind you that the 'Big Three' that followed Dragon Ball all took heavy inspiration from DBZ.
To quote Vegeta:
"I liked [Bleach] better when it was called Yu Yu Hakusho, and I liked that show better when it was called DRAGONBALL Z!"
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari
I certainly haven't missed that. I've also been trying really hard to not quote that line in the Bleach thread as I watch the anime.
Ultimate Gohan was cool, shame he only lasted a couple chapters. I wish we knew exactly why Toriyama changed his plans for him. This sort of thing sounds like textbook Executive Meddling, but Toriyama claimed he made the decision himself.
He could've just been being nice, I suppose.
Editors are, generally, a good thing. Without them, Android 20 would've been the Big Bad of the Android Saga.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari![]()
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He just felt Gohan wasn't well-suited to the role. He wasn't exactly wrong in that, either; Gohan pretty consistently hated every moment of having the "Save the World" spotlight on him throughout the series.
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He wasn't his editor at the time.

But according to Saiga, dead people just regenerate!
Is Saiga wrong about something!?
...I mean, Goku isn't worried about dying when he fights Buu on Earth because he's already dead.