Dragonball Z

***Dragon Ball Z*** is a 1989-1996 Japanese anime television series created by Akira Toriyama and produced by Toei

    Animation. It serves as the sequel to the original *Dragon Ball* anime.

## Plot

*Dragon Ball Z* picks up five years after the end of the *Dragon Ball* anime, with 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 "*Kakarot*") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a traumatic brain injurysoon 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 King Kai 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, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu (with Chiaotzu sacrificing himself to save Tien), 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, but is ultimately also defeated thanks to the efforts of Gohan and Goku's other surviving allies Krillin and Yajirobe. At Goku's request, they spare Vegeta's life and allow him to escape Earth. During the battle, Krillin 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, Krillin 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 Frieza, 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 Frieza's henchmen. Realizing he is overpowered, Vegeta teams up with Gohan and Krillin to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of mercenaries summoned by Frieza. After Goku finally arrives on Namek, the epic battle with Frieza 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 Androids (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 Supreme Kai 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 Supreme Kai) destroys Majin Buu with a "Spirit Bomb" 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.

## Why It Rocks

1. Amazing animation.
2. Tons of memorable moments, such as Goku becoming a Super Saiyan for the first time.
3. Likeable heroes such as Goku, Gohan, Bulma Briefs, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin and Future Trunks.
4. Awesome villains such as Nappa, Captain Ginyu, Frieza, Perfect Cell and Kid Buu.
5. Epic and action-packed battles.
6. The voice acting for both the original Japanese version and Funimation's English dub is superb.
7. Great music by Shunsuke Kikuchi (for the original Japanese version) and Bruce Faulconer (for Funimation's English dub).
8. Spawned a ton of movies and TV specials, including *The Tree of Might*, *Cooler's Revenge*, *Broly, The Legendary Super Saiyan* and *Bardock, The Father of Goku*.
9. Many video game have been spun-off from the show, such as *Budokai 3*, *Super Dragon Ball Z*, *Budokai Tenkaichi 3* and *Dragon Ball Xenoverse*.
10. The famous *"**IT'S OVER 9000!!!**"* meme originated from an episode of *Dragon Ball Z*.

## Bad Qualities

1. The Majin Buu Saga is often considered to be one of the worst story arcs in *Dragon Ball* history.
2. Moral guardians often targeted this show back in the 2000s due to its heavy amount of violence.
3. Tons of filler, though it's not as egregious as *Naruto'*s.

## Reception

In Asia, the *Dragon Ball Z* franchise, including the anime and merchandising, earned a profit of $3 billion by 1999.[103] In the United States, the series sold over 25 million DVDs as of January 2012.[104]

### Cultral Impact and Legacy

*Dragon Ball Z* was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's "Top 100 Animated Series",[105] and was also listed as the 50th greatest animated shows in *Wizard* magazine's "Top 100 Greatest Animated shows" list.[106] The series ranked #6 on *Wizard's Anime* Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".[107]

*Dragon Ball Z'*s popularity is reflected through a variety of data through online interactions which show the popularity of the media. In 2001, it was reported that the official website of *Dragon Ball Z* recorded 4.7 million hits per day and included 500,000+ registered fans.[108] The term "Dragonball Z" ranked 4th in 1999 and 2nd in 2000 by Lycos' web search engine.[109][110] For 2001, "Dragonball" was the most popular search on Lycos and "Dragonball Z" was fifth on Yahoo!.[111]

In 2005, media historian Hal Erickson wrote that "*Dragon Ball* may be the closest thing on American television to an animated soap opera — though this particular genre is an old, established and venerated one in Japan, the series' country of origin."[112] In 2015, Ford Motor Company released two commercials featuring characters from the series, the first advertising the Ford Fusion and the second for the Ford Focus.[113]

### Ratings

*Dragon Ball Z'*s Japanese run was very popular with an average viewer ratings of 20.5% across the series. *Dragon Ball Z* also proved to be a rating success in the United States, as the premiere of Season Three of *Dragon Ball Z* in 1999, done by Funimation's in-house dub, was the highest-rated program ever at the time on Cartoon Network.[114] In 2002, in the week ending September 22, *Dragon Ball Z* was the #1 program of the week on all of television with tweens 9-14, boys 9-14 and men 12-24, with the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday telecasts of *Dragon Ball Z* ranked as the top three programs in all of television, broadcast or cable, for delivery of boys 9-14.[115] In 2001, Cartoon Network obtained licensing to run 96 more episodes and air the original *Dragon Ball* anime and was the top rated show in the Toonami block of Cartoon network.[116] Beginning March 26, 2001, Cartoon Network ran a 12-week special promotion "Toonami Reactor" which included a focus on *Dragon Ball Z*, which would stream episodes online to high-speed internet users.[117] Many home video releases were met with both the edited and unedited versions placing on in the top 10 video charts of *Billboard*. For example, "The Dark Prince Returns" (containing episodes 226-228) and "Rivals" (containing episodes 229-231) edited and unedited, made the *Billboard* magazine top video list for October 20, 2001.[118][Note 4]

The first episode of *Dragon Ball Kai* earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of *One Piece* and behind *Crayon Shin-chan*.[119] Although following episodes had lower ratings, *Kai* was among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings every week in Japan for most of its run.[120][121] Towards the end of the original run the ratings hovered around 9%-10%.[122][123] *Dragon Ball Z Kai* premiered on Nicktoons in May 2010 and set the record for the highest-rated premiere in total viewers, and in tweens and boys ages 9–14.[124]Nielsen Mega Manila viewer ratings ranked *Dragon Ball Kai* with a viewer ratings with a high of 18.4% for October 30 – November 4 in 2012.[125] At the end of April 2013, *Dragon Ball Kai* would trail just behind *One Piece* at 14.2%.[126] Broadcasters' Audience Research Board ranked *Dragon Ball Z Kai* as the second most viewed show in the week it debuted on Kix.[127] On its debut on Vortexx, *Dragon Ball Z Kai* was the third highest rated show on the Saturday morning block with 841,000 viewers and a 0.5 household rating.[128]