Unfortunately, flashy battles cannot hide the fact that the show simply lacks the fun and creativity of the original Dragon Ball (which I admittedly liked more than Dragon Ball Z okay, I will now go into hiding). Admittedly, the fighting is pretty simplistic as the characters repeatedly grow to new power levels and just beat the Hell out of each other, but what it lacks in creativity it makes up for with pure, testosterone-fueled martial arts mayhem. Simply put, Dragon Ball Zhas some of the best choreographed, most stupefyingly awesome fight scenes aound. No matter how much criticism I can lay on the series, I still maintain that it pulls no punches when it comes to action. It pains me to say it, but after taking a good hard look at it critically, I found it simply doesn't carry the same charm it had all those years ago. As a kid, I found myself hopelessly addicted to the sight of watching two guys blast the hell out of each other while spewing out iconic lines like 'Its over 9000!!' After all these years, however, I have finally gotten around to writing a review of this show. Yeah, i know, there's a lot of time wasted on grunting, and screaming, if you focus strictly on the dialogue, but if you examine the whole story itself, it is without a doubt, a masterpiece.ĭragon Ball Z is an anime that holds many fond memories for me (and probably for you too, if you're reading this review). Folklore like Wearwolves (as iv mentioned), and countless examples of modern pop culture hits like Superman, and the Terminator franchise. There are traces of ancient mythology like the epic of gilgamesh. There is very clearly a similarity to the whole 'full moon, wearwolf' idea, but instead of a wolf-like creature, it's a giant ape, wich ties back in to his original inspiration, which was the journey to the west.Īnother thing that is so great about Toriyama's work, is the vast array of inspiration that he draws from. One of the best example's i can think of, is the transformation to Great Apes. What makes a good writer is someone who can put just the right twist on something to make it his own. The best story tellers we know of, with the exception of the earliest recorded stories surviving through history, can all have their best stories traced back to prior stories, even William Shakespeare.

At best you might be able to be the first to use a certain prop (for lack of a better term) like computer technology, or setting, like freshly colonized Mars, but when it comes down to actually writing a story, it will already have been done. Everything has already been done, and has been for a long time. If you know anything about creativity, be it writng stories, or music, or anything, you know it is completely impossible to do anything 'original'. Toriyama does a fantastic job of drawing from inspiration, without blatantly ripping anything off. I do believe this is something that has been done somewhat frequently through history though in the form of epics and the like, but I can't think of anything else in modern pop culture that follows a character from childhood to adulthood at a relatively realistic pace without making use of flashback episodes, or after-the-fact spinoff series'. I will stand behind that statement no matter what argument anyone wants to make.įirst of all, by covering a story from the main characters childhood all the way till his mid life (so far), Akira Toriyama does something that (to my knowledge) nobody else in modern times has done. This is not only a fantastic Anime, but one of the best stories ever put together in the history of literature.

I find it hard to believe the low ratings DB and DBZ have on this site.

Dragon ball z episodes