First there was dragonball, then came DRAGONBALL Z which showed(I don't know if it was a first run or a rerun) in my country in 2000. I was 11 going on 12 that year and having loved Dragonball, i immediately grew to like its sequel. Oh how I enjoyed the toys, the keychains, the trading cards, even my water bottle which had pictures of both young and grown up Goku. I was enthralled by the awesome action and captivated by the vast array of cool looking characters. But that was a long time ago. Watching it now, 9 years later, the series does not hold the same amount of appeal as it used to. It's a "frog in a well" syndrome. Apparently I only thought Dragonball Z was that great because I was never exposed to anything better. For starters, the characters I once thought were "cool" are still cool, but nothing else beyond that. 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. There are a couple of instances where the characters get some development and really shine as being remotely likable, but those come rarely and tend to get buried under all the action.The story is split into a number of distinct "sagas" but each of them progress slower than a sloth/snail hybrid. The pacing drags to the point of being unbearable only to the most patient and devoted of viewers. The horrendous story progression is not helped by the fact that every episode features lengthy rambling monologues, badly timed close-up shots that linger for too long, unnecessary dialogue and other cheap amateurish tactics just to fill up 25 minutes for an episode which contains no more than 15 minutes of actual story material. What starts off as an interesting premise soon falls into a set formula that goes from unoriginal to just painfully boring. The director's decision to follow different groups of characters on different adventures was a poor one and just made the convoluted plot so much more confusing. The fights are intense, epic and would please any action junkie out there. 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). Thankfully, it makes up for that by providing some stunning and highly detailed artwork. So many anime fans extol the fact that Dragonball Z was so influential in making anime as famous as it is and influenced a whole generation of anime and manga creators. They cite Dragonball's numerous spin-offs and products as a testament to its greatness. Guess what, Adam West's Batman was influential too but I would hardly call it a good show. A popular show does not mean a good showIn the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. 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. It is like a hot air balloon. It is beautiful to look at and even grand to behold, but look any deeper and it's just an empty basket and whole lot of nothing inside. This show has his moments like some good character progression, but nevertheless, it has too many flaws to speak of.

I first saw Dragon Ball Z on the International Channel. 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. It was an entirely different show. 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. Since then, I've gone to collecting it on DVD so I can watch the show as I am accustomed to watching, in Japanese. It's definitely not for children. It has profanity (and for some reason some of the profanity is in English some of it is your basic "k'usos"), nudity, blood, violence, and a lot of death (see Bejita;).I keep my kids from watching those. They can see it on Cartoon Network if they want. That's just fine. The show was definitely "dumbed down" for children as if should have been for a non "Adult Swim" show. (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.

The reason why DBZ is so long because the manga lasted 11 years. The anime writers had to make fillers because sometime they were catching up to the manga story. So they had to give the manga writer some breathing. I also recall the character in YYH had to train before or during the battles. 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. At lest Goku has lost some battles in both series while Yuske has yet to lost. How lame is that? And don't get me started on the music from YYH.Eh, I don't know. I liked the Buu saga. Not because of its story, which was the most ridiculous of the three, but because it had some of the coolest battles in the show. I also love the furious game of one-ups that goes on between Buu and the good guys (Goku goes SSJ3, then has to leave. Then Gotenks arrives, but Buu becomes Super Buu. Gotenks goes SSJ3, but then diffuses, but is saved by Gohan who kicks the crap out of Buu. Buu counters by absorbing Gotenks and Piccolo, then Goku comes to fuse with Gohan, but Buu absorbs him, so Goku finally fuses with Vegeta, but Buu absorbs them, but then they rescue the others from inside his body, but then he becomes Kid Buu, etc etc etc). One side keeps topping the other throughout the whole saga, which left me on the edge of my seat when I first saw it. I don't really see why they had to make GT though. 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.

And that is saying alot. This show is about as intelligent to watch as say watching paint dry, but at least watching paint dry isn't as annoying. 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. Its like a little kids show except for the violence. The only reason I have ever even seen the show is cuz sometimes I am forced to watch this dreadful piece of garbage. Scale from 1 - 10, I give it a ZERO, and thats WAY higher than it deserves. People who's intelligence is about the same as someone who likes Teletubbies or Barney might enjoy this drivel.