Dragon Ball Z

*The* most popular anime series in North America.

Years have passed since Goku defeated Piccolo in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Goku and Chi-Chi now have a son (Gohan), Piccolo reformed, and... What's that spaceship doing, flying into Earth? Turns out, the arrival of Raditz kickstarts the Saiyan Saga, and Goku is revealed to be a Saiyan too... albeit one who "didn't complete his mission", thanks to the events that kickstart the comedic half of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Popularized anime in the States, mostly the Shonen genre. More anime based off of Weekly Shonen Jump manga were localized after *Z* made it big in North America.

The series is the Trope Namer for Planet-or-Villain Saga, in which a story arc is named after a location or the arc's main villain, and Padding Filler Z, in which there's too much filler in an anime series.

## Tropes

* Obscurity, much?: Early videogames based on the series in North America. The anime itself subverts this.
	+ The parts of the manga adapted into *DBZ* were *renamed* Dragon Ball Z in America to avert this trope.
* The Colbert Effect: Popularized anime in the US.
* Action-packed: As opposed to the first half, at least.
* Planet-or-Villain Saga: The Trope Namer, this happens in every single one of its sagas, except a few fillers.
* Padding Filler Z: To the point where a recut was plausible. Nevermind that this anime is the Trope Namer.
* Cartoon Network Isn't Teletoon: At least for the original cut of the anime. The recut has all OG DBZ material (except the Majin Buu arc and all the filler) subvert this between Canada and the US thanks to Nicktoons.
	+ Averted between Japan and the rest of the world, due to the fact that Japanese over-the-air networks do not qualify for this trope since the majority of the networks there are Japan-only.
		- However, this is played straight on Japanese cable TV.
	+ Also averted between the US and LatAM feeds of Cartoon Network. Also partially with Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Super due to both airing on Toonami/Adult Swim stateside (keep in mind, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim share not just an owner (Warner Bros. as of 2019), but they also share a channel space in the US).
	+ Home media releases normally don't count for this trope, but Dragon Ball GT was released on Game Boy Advance Video (with the rest of the franchise not coming alongside it) in addition to regular DVD releases.
	+ Episode 98 of *Dragon Ball Z Kai* exaggerated this. While Nicktoons and eventually The CW both ran the episode in the US, it was never aired on Japanese TV and had to come out on DVD in order to be released in its native Japan *at all*.
* Pop culture: Dragon Ball Z merch by the truckload (even more so in the Americas), Toonami loves talking about it, etc.
* Satisfactory Conclusion: The end of the Cell arc could be counted as this (and it *was* for the Nicktoons run of Dragon Ball Z Kai), but the end of the Majin Buu arc is the True ending.
* Size Changing: Not in height, but when changing from his Imperfect Form to his Semi-Perfect Form, Cell gains more muscles. Perfect (and Super Perfect) Cell has smaller muscles (usually), but is stronger than Semi-Perfect nonetheless.
	+ And of course, the "Great Ape" transformations among Saiyans. Vegeta gets the most extreme example in the anime, and Goku... not at all since his tail was removed to the point where it can no longer affect him.
* That's a Capital Idea: It took Toei Animation until the late 2000's to catch on the fact that all the filler was taking away from the story. So, owing to the semi-comeback they made with Futari wa Pretty Cure, they recut the series. The rest is history.
* Jewelrunes: The Namekian language is a little difficult to understand, but it's required to make a wish using the Namekian Dragon Balls. Not good when Frieza decides to blow up Namek.

TBA.