DRAGON BALL Z
STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
291
RELEASE
January 31, 1996
LENGTH
24 min
DESCRIPTION
Goku is back with his new son, Gohan, but just when things are getting settled down, the adventures continue. Whether he is facing enemies such as Freeza, Cell, or Boo, Goku is proven to be an elite of his own and discovers his race, Saiyan. He meets many new people, gaining allies as well as enemies, as he still finds time to raise a family and be the happy-go-lucky Saiyan he is.
(Source: Anime News Network)
CAST
Gokuu Son
Masako Nozawa
Vegeta
Ryou Horikawa
Gohan Son
Masako Nozawa
Piccolo
Toshio Furukawa
Kuririn
Mayumi Tanaka
Trunks
Takeshi Kusao
Bulma
Hiromi Tsuru
Freeza
Ryuusei Nakao
Jinzouningen 18-gou
Miki Itou
Cell
Norio Wakamoto
Muten Roushi
Hiroshi Masuoka
Bardock
Masako Nozawa
Videl
Yuuko Minaguchi
Jinzouningen 17-gou
Shigeru Nakahara
Majin Boo
Kouzou Shioya
Goten Son
Masako Nozawa
Tenshinhan
Kouichi Yamadera
Yamcha
Tooru Furuya
Lunch
Mami Koyama
Chi-Chi
Naoko Watanabe
Pan
Yuuko Minaguchi
Shen Long
Kenji Utsumi
Mister Satan
Daisuke Gouri
Mr. Popo
Toku Nishio
Jinzouningen 16-gou
Hikaru Midorikawa
EPISODES
Dubbed
RELATED TO DRAGON BALL Z
ANIME ActionDragon Ball
ANIME ActionDragon Ball GT
MANGA ActionDragon Ball
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ANIME ActionDragon Ball Kai (2014)
ANIME ActionDragon Ball Super
ANIME ActionDragon Ball DAIMAREVIEWS
Xelrog
An okay show with a lot of nostalgia behind it. Gotta respect the longevity, at least.Continue on AniListYou've seen it. I've seen it. Grandma Mildred has probably seen an episode or two. It's Dragon Ball Z, of course!
(The Z, by the way, stands for nothing whatsoever--it's just there because it looks cool.)
Dragon Ball Z is a series that everyone knows and most members of this site look back on fondly as the cornerstone of their childhood (or teenagerhood, or mid-20's-hood). This makes it a difficult series to offer an objective critical analysis for--but as some of you may know, I don't own a pair of nostalgia goggles, so this review isn't going to be sugarcoating anything. If you still have any kind of positive relationship with your inner child, leave now.
Writing: Let's face it. Dragon Ball Z isn't about the story. As long as there was some new bad guy for Goku to fight, all was well with the world. And while they weren't nearly as bad as they were in the original Dragon Ball, the series still has more plot holes than you can shake a Power Pole at. Like many marketable shows both then and now, more focus is placed on the characters than the events they're involved in--and boy oh boy, Dragon Ball Z has plenty of characters. From Appule to Zarbon, just about every archetype imaginable is covered, and while characters aren't devoid of depth, most of them are simple enough for viewers to find something to identify with in all of them. Oh, and let's not forget filler. I don't really mind it the first few times I watch a series, but the sheer volume of it in the first season makes it difficult to start re-watching this show from the beginning.
Art: As old as this series is by now, the artwork is, of course, a little dated. But that's not really an issue for me. Graphics, animation... DBZ is pretty average for its time all across the board. As would be expected, the artwork is more refined than the original Dragon Ball, but not as much so as GT.
Sound: Dragon Ball Z may well have more English dubs than any other anime in existence. The current one, however, and the one most are likely familiar with, is the FUNimation dub, which, while not the most faithful adaptation in the world, was a lot moreso than others from the period and still effectively maintained the spirit of the show. Free fun fact: Dragon Ball Z was the show which launched FUNimation as a licensing company. As for the Japanese dub... well, Goku sounds like a Japanese schoolgirl, and that was enough to turn me away from it. But it is, of course, more faithful, so the choice is yours.
Dragon Ball Z is a series which I really feel never hit its mark musically. There are actually two complete scores for the series--the original Japanese score, which included tracks from the original Dragon Ball and used the same style of music and orchestration therefrom, and the heavy, "action-y" score by Bruce Faulconer for the early English adaptations of the show. The former is suited to the more laid-back scenes of the show, but I feel often falls short when the action inevitably begins, whereas the Faulconer score has the opposite problem: It just sounds silly hearing those heavy action sounds while someone frolics through a meadow. What really struck home were the soundtracks to many of the DBZ fighting games (the Budokai series, specifically), which had a unique combination of both these styles which I would have loved to hear in the show itself--but, oh well. One can dream.
Bottom line, is Dragon Ball Z a good series? ...not really. Is it still fun and enjoyable? Sure. Hell, I must have seen the whole thing at least five times by now. Despite the glaring plotholes, mostly-static characters, and relatively linear plotline, it manages to maintain interest throughout, and while action for the sake of it isn't worth much, it pulls it off reasonably well. If you're one of the handful of people who has not seen this series, I would recommend it solely because an anime fan who has no experience with Dragon Ball Z is practically unheard of.
2JZ
A nostalgic and very creative anime that everyone should try!Continue on AniListI started watching Dragon ball Z at a very young age and even when I was young I loved it. I grew up watching the ''my language's dub'' and fell in love with the show. Dragon ball Z is an epic anime with brilliant fight scene's and great characters.
If you are looking for a great fighting anime look no further.__Story__ Dragon ball Z is a story about a naive man named Goku trying to be come stronger but powerful villains stand in his way and try to take over the world kill him blah blah blah. That is the story in its simplest form.
Now I will review the story. Dragon ball Z has emotional moments, funny moments,
really cool fights, romance and the occasional plot twist.
Dragon ball Z story is very enjoyable and will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat or cursing at your TV. The show has a lot of fights and they are amazing, it is what every one wants to see, super powerful beings kicking the crap out of each other. Dragon ball Z has quite a bit of humor as well example: Krillin (not being able to get girls or getting his but kicked all the time) Goku (Food humor and idiocy)
Vegeta (Goku getting on his nerves).__Art__ Dragon ball Z art is good but dated (but of course we are looking at a 1996 anime here)
__Sound__ I will review the sound in two sections Japanese Dub
on the background music and the voice actors
and then the English dub.Japanese Dub
First I will start with the background music.
The Japanese background music can fit the scenes very well but it sounds very old like a seventy's cheesy horror movie. What I like about the Japanese background music is in some scenes they don't add any background music whilst FUNimation's sound track have music in EVERY scene.
What I don't like about the Japanese music is that it can get very annoying.English Dub
I am reviewing the FUNimation's dub and not ocean dub or any other dub so this is purely based on FUNimations dub.
Funimation's music fits in very well with the fight scenes and that is what I like about it, because it makes the fights more dramatic and cooler but when there is no fighting I hate FUNimation's music purely because it doesn't fit the scene's well.
FUNimation has done a brilliant job when choosing their voice actors. Each character voice suits them really well.__Character__ The characters in Dragon ball Z are truly unique.
You have:
Goku the ''Naive Hero'' of the story,
Vegeta the short tempered bad ass,
Gohan the son of Goku.
The characters all fall into place although there are some useless one's and it would not matter if they are there or not. Goku learns of Vegeta and Vegeta learns of Goku.
They have such good characters and they are not your average heroes.__Enjoyment__ Dragon ball Z is a very fun series very easy to get into so I can recommend this anime to anyone!
__Overall__ I would have to give it a 8/10
Happy Watching!~~~~~~~~__
victorsam93
Amazing Shounen. Terrific fights and soundtrack!Continue on AniListThat's for sure one of my favorite anime. When I was ten or eleven, after school, I ran towards home every day to get on time to watch an episode of DBZ. I could say it's intertwined with my childhood. My friends and I played pretending to be the characters; we collected toys and pictures. Anyways, I'm doing this review, especially for Naruto's fans and newer shounen that haven't watched this series.
I've watched its sequel (DBS) and, after that, videos related to it, like reactions, reviews, news, and so forth. One thing has caught my attention, the commentary section on youtube. I know the internet can be hateful most of the time, but this was a little awkward for me. DBZ fans were saying trash about Naruto as if only for its existence Naruto would be offensive. Eventually, Naruto's fans got tired of this and trashed DBZ as well, consequently turning it into a fight of soccer team's fans.
Without a doubt, DBZ is one of the inspirations for Naruto and newer shounen, so it has its merits. I think we have to accept that time has passed and, at least, for me feels good seeing a new generation have the same feelings and care for their own anime almost in the same way we did.
I have to admit that I didn't watch many episodes of Naruto. I went until the episode of Zabuza on the bridge. Not because I didn't like it, but when Naruto got released in the open television, I wasn't that interested in anime, and I got into my actual vibe of watching short series afterward. The few episodes I've watched made me believe this series has the potential to be even better than DBZ. (it's only natural, doing something based on previous knowledge, one can understand what it's good and bad, what has worked or not about its predecessor.)
Finally, the review.
DBZ has outstanding animation for the time it was released and even for the current time. The transformations and power-ups are pleasant to see (Impossible to forget the first Super Saiyan transformation). Saying the characters' design is creative is an understatement. They are so different in color, size, shape. Akira Toriyama (its creator) flexes hugely on that; his creative mind is on a whole another level. I don't remember seeing that diversity in any anime I've watched.
The sound is also a show for itself. Again, the transformations and fights. You feel the thunderous punches, the blows of energy, the landscape being destroyed. The sound is that good. The opening, oh god, the opening. An engaging rock style, I think you'll gonna listen to that every single episode. I remember two openings, one for Buu's saga and the other for Cell's. Maybe there are more, but I don't recall. Either way, the ones I remember are fantastic.
The plot, well, it's not that good. Graeter fans try their hardest to fix it's holes, arguing the most bizarre things. It's an almost-300-eps anime, so it's impossible for it not to have flaws. I'm sure the same applies to Naruto. I don't see that as a problem since the story is engaging, the world-building is terrific, and the characters are interesting. DBZ, despite the natural violence of a 90's fighting shounen, it's a wholesome story in its core. You'll watch with a smile on your face most of the time. Before I forgot, shout out to the villains. Their motivation is not the brightest, no gray areas, but still, they are fantastic. One more thing, prepare for whole episodes of talking before the fight. The characters staring each other talking trash. Who watched Frieza`s saga knows that. rsrsrs. Don't be a crybaby about that. You can now watch multiples episodes at once; I had to watch it one episode a day (and no weekend episodes!).
So, Naruto's fans (and other shounen's), please, give it a try. You won't regret it. And my DBZ fan's comrades, please, respect Naruto. Both can be good shows. Instead of maligning other's anime, invite their fans to share this amazing experience of watching DBZ.
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SCORE
- (4/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inJanuary 31, 1996
Main Studio Toei Animation
Trending Level 8
Favorited by 12,061 Users