Dragon Ball Z

Doragonbooru Zetto
Also Known As: DBZ
Genre: Action
Format: 291 Episodes
Allegiance: Toei Douga
Director: Nishio Daisuke
Vintage: 1989-1996
Intelligence Agency Report by: Phate
Seven years have passed since the original quest for the Dragon Balls. Mysterious forces from the depths of space now threaten Earth, and a new opponent has revealed himself to non-other than Son Goku’s brother. Soon after that, Son Goku and his friends are now in a desperate battle for Earth, and must make sure that the Dragon Balls do not fall into the wrong hands. Will they be able to summon enough power and strength to once again triumph over these overwhelming odds?

Field Agent Report by: Phate
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
5.25
7.75
6.00
5.50
8.50
Overall 6.00
(not an average)

Dragon Ball Z is a title which should be familiar to most otaku out there. Widely regarded by many as their favorite anime out there (I think this is mostly due to an extreme lack of anime consumption), this show has said to even be the pinnacle of Japanese animation. And I have no idea why.

My guess is that it’s the redundant and uninspired fights consisting mostly of grunts and big flashy balls of energy. After all, what pre-adolescent (or even adolescent for that matter) wouldn’t like seeing that sort of stuff? Well, once you get out of that state and realize just how boring the fights really are, it all gets old very fast. Add this in with below-par animation and you don’t have that great of a show visually speaking.

To make it worse is that the mediocrity doesn’t end there. Dragon Ball Z is 291 episodes, and consists of three main sagas, each one almost the exact same as the last. Because of this, the plot is very repetitive, and is going to cause anyone who’s been exposed to the better anime of the world to fall asleep very quickly. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, as the characters of Dragon Ball Z (some of them) are likely to interest you. While the villains aren’t anything to write home about, it’s the “good” characters that I found so entertaining. Yes, their jokes aren’t very humorous, and some can be quite annoying, but I just couldn’t help but find myself attached to some of them.

Now there is one other high point in Dragon Ball Z besides the characters, and that would be the great music laden throughout the show. I’m especially fond of the songs Cha-la Head Cha-la and Unmei no Hi ~ Tamashii tai Tamashii. However, the decent characters of Dragon Ball Z and the great music aren’t enough to keep this show up. Others shows’ characters easily surpass those of Dragon Ball Z, and you could always just buy the soundtrack. Take my advice, and leave this one alone.