Dragon Ball Z: Doragon bôru zetto
Tags: tragedy, violence, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Dragon Ball Z picks up five years after the end of the Dragon Ball anime, with Son Goku as a young adult and father to his son Gohan. A humanoid alien named Raditz arrives on Earth in a spacecraft and tracks down Goku, revealing to him that he is his long-lost big brother and that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the Saiyans (サイヤ人, Saiya-jin). The Saiyans had sent Goku (originally named "Kakarrot") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a severe head injury soon after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission, as well as his blood-thirsty Saiyan nature. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission, which results in Raditz kidnapping Gohan. Goku decides to team up with his former enemy Piccolo in order to defeat Raditz and save his son, while sacrificing his own life in the process. In the afterlife, Goku trains under Kaiō-sama until he is revived by the Dragon Balls a year later in order to save the Earth from Raditz' comrades; Nappa and the Saiyan prince Vegeta. During the battle Piccolo is killed, along with Goku's allies Yamcha, Tenshinhan and Chaozu, and the Dragon Balls cease to exist because of Piccolo's death. Goku arrives at the battlefield late, but avenges his fallen friends by defeating Nappa with his new level of power. Vegeta himself enters into the battle with Goku and after numerous clashes Goku manages to defeat him as well, with the help of Gohan and his best friend Kuririn. At Goku's request, they spare Vegeta's life and allow him to escape Earth. During the battle, Kuririn overhears Vegeta mentioning the original set of Dragon Balls from Piccolo's home planet Namek (ナメック星, Namekku-sei). While Goku recovers from his injuries at the hospital, Gohan, Kuririn and Goku's oldest friend Bulma depart for Namek in order to use these Dragon Balls to revive their dead friends. However, they discover that Vegeta's superior, the galactic tyrant Lord Freeza, is already there, seeking the Dragon Balls to be granted eternal life. A fully healed Vegeta arrives on Namek as well, seeking the Dragon Balls for himself, which leads to several battles between him and Freeza's henchmen. Realizing he is overpowered, Vegeta teams up with Gohan and Kuririn to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of mercenaries summoned by Freeza. After Goku finally arrives on Namek, the epic battle with Freeza himself comes to a close when Goku transforms into a fabled Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiya-jin) and defeats him.
Upon his return to Earth a year later, Goku encounters a time traveler named Trunks, the future son of Bulma and Vegeta, who warns Goku that two Artificial Humans (人造人間, Jinzōningen, lit. "Artificial Humans") will appear three years later, seeking revenge against Goku for destroying the Red Ribbon Army when he was a child. During this time, an evil life form called Cell emerges and after absorbing two of the Artificial Humans to achieve his "perfect form," holds his own fighting tournament to decide the fate of the Earth, called the "Cell Games". After Goku sacrifices his own life a second time, to no avail, Gohan avenges his father by defeating Cell after ascending to the second level of Super Saiyan. Seven years later Goku, who has been briefly revived for one day and meets his youngest son Goten, and his allies are drawn into a fight by the Kaioshin against a magical being named Majin Buu. After numerous battles resulting in the destruction and recreation of the Earth, Goku (whose life is permanently restored by the Elder Kaioshin) destroys Majin Buu with a Genki Dama attack containing the energy of everyone on Earth. Goku makes a wish for Buu to be reincarnated as a good person and ten years later, at another martial arts tournament, Goku meets Buu's human reincarnation, Uub. Leaving the match between them unfinished, Goku departs with Uub to train him to become Earth's new defender.

Review: I mean it is awesome.This anime is based on the later part of the Dragon Ball manga written by the insanely talented Akira Toriyama.
The series goes across four main sagas- Saiyan, Freeza, Cell and Majin Boo. It takes place over a time span of about 27 years, which is pretty cool, and something you rarely get to see in a show like this.
Some character you will like a lot more by the time the series is finished.
Dragon Ball focused more on humour and martial arts, this focuses more on powerful ki blasts, hardcore action and ridiculously powerful character.
And you will still be sad when it ends.The Dragon Ball Z movies can be seen as separate stories, as most do not fit into the timeline of the series well.
The music of the series is nothing spectacular either, although I like the theme songs to the series a whole lot.This is the show that, along with Evangelion: Neon Genesis, helped me get into anime, way back when I was just a dumb kid.
I grew up with the edited and dubbed version, which is great for kids, but if you are looking for the true series, try and get your hands on some DVDs with Japanese language options.
No matter how you want to watch it, I would just advise you to sit down, switch off, and enjoy.With the upcoming Dragon Ball live action movie, I can only hope that it is successful enough to warrant a few sequels, as a Dragon Ball Z movie would be awesome.
I would not expect it to quality cinema, just a whole lot of fun.There is also a sequel to the series, known as Dragon Ball GT, which is not based on the work of Akira Toriyama.
The american translated versions may lose something in the translation, but the show is still a very cool show, and I hope Cartoon Network picks up the entire seven year run of the series.
I watch the series everyday on Cartoon Network when they air two episodes side-by-side (which makes since seeing as how the show moves along so slow).
The show is divided into "sagas" or series of episodes telling a certain story.
It has everything a good anime needs: action, comedy, powerful evil guys and so on.
A lot of you probably think that the Simpsons is a good anime.
The Super Saiyan themes add that little extra to show the mood that the fighters are in when they power up.My favorite character is Vegeta and Piccolo.
Toriyama's Freeza saga was probably the best-told part, despite the fact that the anime completely f-ed it up--the reason for everyone to be there in the first place actually made sense, and the transition from the Vegeta fight to the Freeza fight (and the reason Vegeta eventually joined with the rest of the group) was actually logical.
I noticed that most of the negative comments written about this series all talk about how the show's sagas are basically the same thing over and over again (and yes I know they basically are).
How could they know all the sagas are pretty  much the same thing over and over again if they only watched two or three episodes?
Probably the greatest animated series of alltime.The drawings are simply superb, the characters and the whole story is so complex and thrilling you simply can't miss it.
The Best Anime Series, Toriyama = genius.
The people who view classic series/movies such as this as negative obviously didn't really watch it.
I admit the FUNimation version isn't as great as the original Japanese, but it is still a great anime series, easily one of the best.If you're new to the show, watch it from the very beginning to understand.
The only reason i gave it a 9 is because in some sagas like Frieza for example the graphics kind of suck and the tendency of the series to"kill time" like showing us the terrain and stuff which clearly is annoying,other than that the plot is awesome with minor holes, basically this is my favorite anime of all time since i was in the 6th grade!I remember back when i couldn't wait to catch an episode of DBZ only the sad part was that the only network that actually aired it in my country was RTL II,but i quickly got used to it,learned German :P and actually understood the series,and in comparison to the us version it was pretty good,the soundtrack was the original Japanese one and it didn't have to chsese lines like funimation does,in other words good ol RTL II saved me some trouble :D.
Dragonball Z, yet messed up by English editing and translation, is the greatest and best animated cartoon in the world.
Gohan, Kakarot's son, and his friend Krilian, leave for the Planet Namek to find the Dragonballs, 7 magical balls which when joined can call forth the Eternal Dragon who grants any three wishes you want.
I was 11 going on 12 that year and having loved Dragonball, i immediately grew to like its sequel.
There isn't really much character development to speak off as the stories are more focused on the plot and the characters are just pre-set anime stock characters, put in place to advance the plot from one fight to the next.
However some exceptionally poor animation and an over usage of animation short cuts give this whole show a very cheap look even for its time.(Some of the worse episodes of G I Joe were better animated than Dragonball Z).
To kids who are not exposed to greater world of animated series and graphic novels, Dragonball Z would no doubt be one of the best shows around.
People's minds tend to get clouded by the fact that Dragonball Z was so influential or might have been one of the first anime they ever watched(and thus introduced them to anime in general) that they remember only the good points and overlook the numerous jarring flaws of the series.Objectively speaking, Dragonball Z definitely does not deserve its current rating of 9.0/10.
This show has his moments like some good character progression, but nevertheless, it has too many flaws to speak of..
It was entirely in Japanese with no subtitles, yet I could still get the gist of the story.When tried watching the English dub on Cartoon Network, I couldn't get over it.
The music is different, the dubbing is horrible, they cut out huge scenes practically blotting entire episodes, digitize out a lot of the blood, change a lot of the great lines, for some reason change a lot of the names, and basically change plot points.I couldn't stand it.
(But don't ask me why CN never thought DBZ qualified for Adult Swim instead of "Inuyasha.") However, if you are an adult, and want to watch the best anime show this side of "Akira," definitely watch DBZ, but ONLY in Japanese..
A lot of hardcore anime fans diss Dragonball Z because it's so simple and there is hardly any plot after the Saiya-jin Saga.But on weekdays, when you need something fun to watch, then it's a great show.
When I was roughly 11, and still getting into the whole 'anime' scene, Dragonball Z was one of my first series.
But by chance, I saw an episode of the original version, and never went back to the dub.
It does succeed in being a wildly popular children's show, because that is what it was made to be for North America, not a mirror of the original.After constantly seeing the dub on TV, and all the hype surrounding it, I simply told myself it was garbage, people know nothing, and just stopped watching the series all together.
There were many other fans like me at that time reviewing Dragonball Z on IMDb, and to you I say, get off your high horses.
I think it's hilarious that even the 'master creators' can take the time to appreciate Toriyama's work.I'm sick of seeing so many stuck-up anime fans regard shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc (despite in truth, some of those shows aren't very good no matter what version you're watching) because they don't showcase the utter brilliance and beautiful animation of the likes of lets say, Miyazaki.
The best thing about Dragonball Z is it's characters.
The music and voice acting (props to Ryo Harikawa and Masako Nozawa) really set a good tone to whatever scene they're in, and almost makes up for the plot lag.Almost.
Dragonball Z has a pretty good plot, it just drags and drags and drags it as far as it can, making the series last so long, and scenes go unbearably slow.
If you watch an episode, notice how many times the animators bring you shots of them staring/breathing/pointless setting/random face reactions.
The fighting is absolutely great in this show, though the dub edits out all the good stuff.
The major character is Son Goku (voiced by Masako Nozawa), who is a man with incredible powers (actually from another planet).
I'm a dragon ball z fan for 15 years and I'm still watching it to this day.
YYH characters are not all that interesting while some of DBZ like Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan Trunks and Goku are more interesting then the entire cast of YYH.
I guess because the fans wanted to see what it was like for the Z squad when they grew up, but if you ask me, the Buu saga took care of that pretty nicely..
I don't mind the English dub either, because Goku sounds a lot better in the English version than he does in the Japanese (I think he is dubbed by a gal).
Though if you are a fan of the show you will notice how some of the characters from the original Dragonball are just phased out more and more as this one progresses.
Likewise Dragonball I haven't seen the original Japanese version but the censored American version is still entertaining.
The person who originally reviewed Dragonball Z admittedly wasn't a big anime fan.
Dragonball Z is the best ACTION anime to ever come to America from Japan.And as for Ghost in the Shell.
Watch the whole series before passing judgment and if you don't like it keep your opinions to yourself..
A sequel to the original Dragon Ball saga that debuted in the mid 80s, this successor to the manga based comic book franchise has it all...pryotechnics, stunning animation, and catchy phrases like "This goes to 1000!!!".
I don't know what the big deal was about there being english dubbing in Dragonball Z.
I'd rather watch Dragonball Z dubbed AND with some of the scenes cut out then try to figure what they are saying in it was in its original format.
I find this to be a better anime cartoon than any other one I've seen because of the deep storyline and martial arts action.
I also like the fact that this cartoon picks up off five years later after the original Dragonball.
(I especially like Goku's Kayoken attack) But the strange thing is that the people have strange looks on their faces!
It's like a soap opera, but it's got great fight scenes.
Personally I love this show as it, but is I have never seen a subtitled version so I cannot comment on that, for all I know it could be better.
Unfortunately the station I watch it on only runs like a 50 or so episode loop so I haven't even seen the destruction of the ginyu force.
From what I've seen you'd be better off buying the english comic version being released by Viz or the original Japanese volumes.
I can understand not having the characters swearing like in the original, but c'mon kids have heard the word death before.
Dragonball Z is the Best Anime I have seen.
THIS ANIME ROCKS.The reason I say this is because it is true.Before,I use think that Pokemon was better than this.After I saw a episode,I got hooked on it.But the english version is very cheesy.So I suggest that you watch the Spanish version of DragonBall Z to see the things you will never see in the DUB version:).
Although this may cause some odd comments, Vegeta is my favorite character aside from Goku.
DBZ is by far the coolest anime I ve seen( and Ive seen lots) The storyline is very in depth and interesting,the characters are especially cool,because theyre not all the same,(like other anime)and the action in the show is awesome.
But still, even the English version its an amazing show (tells ya sometin) If your going to watch any anime,this is the one.
Now, I have seen the fansubbed versions and I must admit that they are better, but what we have in America isn't bad and I am a fan of anime.
The dubbing was typically bad, though perhaps not quite as bad as some (possibly because what the characters are saying is complete crap anyway).This series has few redeeming qualities about it, if any at all.
Poorly animated - there are so few frames put into the movement of characters, coupled with the fact that almost everything is looped OFTEN, and sometimes even blatantly repeated in the same episode, makes this very poor.3.
When the characters do talk to each other, it's usually about how they're going to beat the guy they're talking to, in 4 or 5 episodes time when they actually stop grunting and try and fight.4.
Really, I could eat a bunch of Archie comics and crap out a better animated action series..
I mean, if you want to see an anime with repetiveness and confusion, see that dang "Yu-Gi-Oh!".With the arrogance of Vegeta, the smart-aleckyness of Trunks and Goten, and the funny child-like character of Mr. Buu/Fat Buu, it's quite enjoyable.
The villians are cool, and it's nice when they find a villian that's really so evil they're entertaining.(especially Babidi, he's such a wicked little troll^_^?) Although I was wondering how many times they would have Vegeta become GOOD before he actually BECAME GOOD, he is indeed one of the finest characters.
The animation is quite nice, but how many times does the good guy have to save the world from impending doom?
Do NOT watch any dubbed anime.
I like Anime.
Dragonball's story and characters are its weakest point...
Death loses all dramatic function because when a character dies we all know he'll be back.The series is mediocre at best.
I like anime most of the time, but sheesh....
Of the, like, two and a half episodes that I bothered to sit through, there was absolutely no story, horrible dialogue, and some snore-inducing fights.
The villain will beat the living snot out of the hero for minutes on end, with the characters watching from afar and saying things like, "Master, surely he cannot defeat the wicked Hiroshabitoktok!
There are many more anime shows and movies that they could be watching if they are into the genre.
If you are new to anime, I recommend finding a much better series, like getting fansubs of some of the older Gundam shows.
The animation is bad, the voices are annoying beyond belief, and the plot is like watching a Street Fighter game, there is no plot other than to annoy people in its idiocy.
My favourite being Supreme Kai.Voice Acting (English Dubbed): Bad. The voices change in the middle of the Frieza Saga and again in the start of the Android Saga.
Upon request of people hailing this anime as the "best of all time", I decided to give the undubbed version a try (albeit not being a big fan of anime to begin with) and found it as dull, meandering and insipid as the English dub.
If you're an intelligent person looking for good anime, I suggest you save your time for something worthwhile like "Ghost in the Shell"..
I'm basically used to English Dragon Ball Z, but after a few bad comments of it, I'd like to make my opinion.
They don't really like censoring all in all but the dub is not at all bad.
Dragonball Z has been maligned more than any other Japanese anime series(Except maybe the infamous "Pokemon").
The show doesn't really begin to develop real good animation until the Buu saga, around 1993 or so.
DBZ is one of the few animations-American or Japanese-in which the characters grow with the audience.
As far as character development, although many of the original Dragonball characters don't really change that much(Including Goku), it's intriquing to watch the development of the characters introduced in the show-particually Gohan, Vegeta, and Trunks.So despite a few problems, DBZ is an okay show.
With more characters, more villains, and more episodes, "DBZ" is one of the best animated shows I can think of.
The action in battles was amazing (The father son KameHameHa was probably my favorite Dragon Vall scene of all time) and the dialogue was great as well.
My favorite anime serie, I guess.
(minor spoilers)This is set 5 years after the original Dragonball serie.
The first set of episodes, the Saiyan saga (1-35) are particularly good, loaded with action, and they reveal Son Goku's past (he's an alien from a race called the Saiyans).
The Freeza saga, which follows it, was great, and exploited the Vegeta character that fans seemed to love, telling his past, showing his emotions.
Well, to sum it up, I watched episodes from most animes, including Escaflowne, Evangelion, Ranma 1/2, etc, and I find DBZ to be the best..
Dragon ball z is great but they made too many episodes.(spoiler alert) For instance it takes like 5 episodes for the planet namike to explode.I think in the original version it ran year round.But I don't know oif they did that hear.Overall I'd have to say that this is a okay series but I'd reccomend you watch dragon ball gt.