The only part of the original Dragon Ball I find unimpressive is the original dragon ball hunt. It's all over the place, and its good moments seem to appear by sheer luck, rather than as an intentional development. By comparison, the RR arc has a more consistent structure (Goku travels to a place, the RR army is causing trouble, Goku kicks their asses), and throws a few memorable villains at us in the process.
I definitely enjoyed the original DB a lot, though. The gradual shift from a comedy series, to a martial arts series, to higher-stake super-powered fights, with everything in between, that's a pretty cool journey. It feels like the world is changing alongside the main character's growth.
This is true. For all my criticism of how Dragonball shifted as it did, shuffled certain characters out of the way, and became something totally different from what it started as, I'd have to admit that it worked out for the best because the world constantly changed, along with the characters.
There's a lot of good and bad in there for me, but seeing Goku go from a child, to an adult older person, to a father, to a grandfather has been a great ride.
Do I wish Toriyama had taken a few different steps? Yeah. I think I always will. Do I want to get rid of a lot of what he did do? Probably, even if that's massively arrogant of me.
But at times, I do feel like I like the series just as it is just as much as I wish it were different.
One Strip! One Strip!I should have added this to my "don't care for Goku Black" list long ago, but, his power is basically a canonical version
of Broly's fanon power.
"Gets stronger thanks to his unique Saiyan status and beats the piss out of Goku and Vegeta, beating the latter in seconds (but this is canon because Zamasu waxes on about how great his stolen body is!),"
vs
"Gets stronger thanks to his unique Saiyan status and beats the piss out of Goku and Vegeta, beating the latter in seconds (but this was due to a line Broly utters in the dub!)."
The blame might actually be on Toei here.
edited 28th Oct '16 8:01:54 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!There's two things Dragon Ball has going against it here in the states;
1) It was localized extremely late, at least when most of us watched it I'm assuming. When Dragon Ball first came on air, the series was already on the last legs of the Buu saga, which was around 2003.
2) It started off mostly as a Gag Series with some martial arts thrown in for good measure. It didn't really get serious until the RRA, and even then, Goku steamrolled them.
So yea, Dragon Ball is a pretty easy case of Sequel Displacement; why do you think so many people who grew up on Z are completely baffled by Super's lighter tone and focus on humor, it's not the Dragon Ball they grew up with and it's reconcile that image of the series you had in your head for so many years.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I respect Dragon Ball, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again like I would with Z, especially the pre-King Piccolo stuff. Gag series tend to be hit or miss for me.
This song needs more love.I recall there was an early dub of the first arc of Dragon Ball. It aired on the WB (possibly before it was the WB) early mornings, and also on YTV.
But they only got through the first arc, then Funimation jumped straight to Z. Most of the voice actors in that first Funimation dub (Oolong, Bulma, Puar, Roshi and Yamcha) came from that first Dragonball dub.
Years, later, Z finished up and Dragonball started airing again to fill in the backstory of all the characters who appeared before the Z portion.
Call me nuts, but on some level, I do prefer Dragonball, mostly due to the characters not being so powerful they could destroy the world by sneezing (even if they have the control to avoid that).
Though that's not really much of an issue anymore.
One Strip! One Strip!There were...was much less flying fights, that was decent.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I started reading the manga, in order, from my local library. Didn't even know how popular the series truly was or who the hell Broly is until years after I finished. In my mind, Dragon Ball is an inextricable part of the series, and it hurts to see people just casually disregard it as a gag series, when I can so vividly remember the heartwrenching and awe-inspiring moments.
From Goku doing a sick motorcycle jump to save Bulma from that Pterodactyl, to the insane awesomeness of Master Roshi vaporizing a mountain by accident, to Goku talking about his grandfather dying to the full moon monster and the sense of dread that washes over the group when they realize that Goku is the full moon monster, to Roshi training and raising Goku in Gohan's stead, to all the amazing battles in the 21st Strongest-Under-The-Heavens Tournament, and all those are just from the first two arcs! The two moments of Dragon Ball that affect me most, are Goku's reunion with Grandpa Gohan, and Demon King Piccolo killing Shenlong, something never even considered possible before then.
edited 28th Oct '16 1:57:12 PM by PushoverMediaCritic
Let's put it this way: if early Dragon Ball was really such a crucial, amazing part of the series that you can't possibly understand or be a fan of the story without it, no one would have been able to start watching the series at Dragon Ball Z and still enjoy it.
And this isn't just a Funimation dub thing. Toei made Kai, and it started from Raditz. It aired on Japanese TV starting from Raditz. And no one seemed to mind.
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!Then it came back with Buu. Also, it had low ratings because it just wasn't the right era for Dragon Ball anymore; animation wise it looked worse than every other anime that was in production at the time, which probably didn't help at all.
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!Australia also aired the Z anime first, and only aired DB much later on cable, but I never really watched it (mum wouldn't let me) and we got both manga series early on which I read from my library. Z was what I had the most exposure to at school from people talking about it, but I had an easier time getting the DB volumes from the library and I read that in full before I saw or read Z in full.
Edit: Starting Kai from the start of DB would have been stupid. The DB anime isn't a perfect adaptation but it is far better paced than the Z anime and would not benefit anywhere near as much from a Kai style cut. The whole point of Kai was to produce a version of Z without the horrendous amounts of padding. DB pretty much already got that from its first anime.
edited 28th Oct '16 5:02:28 PM by Saiga

I had a lot of nostalgia for Toei's Z anime, but Kai is so much better to me that the only things I miss from Z are the Bruce Faulconer songs. And above Kai for me is the manga in its entirety, Pilaf to Buu.