Dragon Ball Z TV Anime Series - Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z is the anime continuation of the hit anime series Dragon Ball based on the manga of the same name by Akira Toriyama. The show ran originally in Japan on television from 1988 to 1995 over a total of 325 episodes. It was Dragon Ball Z that helped push anime into the spotlight overseas and win massive success.
Sagas
There are four main story arcs (sagas) in Dragon Ball Z.
- Saiyan Saga
- Namek saga
- Android / Cell saga
- Majin Buu saga
Saiyan Saga
The Saiyan Saga continues the story of Son Goku and his family following the aftermath of the fight against Piccolo Jr. at the world tournament. Goku takes his son Son Gohan, now 4 years old to visit friends at Kame house. At the same time elsewhere Piccolo is confronted by a large Saian warrior called Raditz who we later learn is Goku’s brother. Raditz quickly leaves Piccolo in search of Goku after demonstrating his overwhelming power. Raditz appears at Kame house much to everyone’s shock and demands that Goku join him. Refusing, Raditz attacks Goku and Krillin leaving them winded and unconscious respectively before taking Gohan with him.
Goku and Piccolo form an unlikely partnership with the understanding that Raditz is a threat to the world they both live in and they must work together to stop him. They set out to fight the mighty Saiyan to discover that even together they are heavily outclassed. Seeing Goku injured causes a small Gohan to explode with rage and head butted Raditz in the chest knocking the wind out of him. Goku eventually manages to grapple Raditz and hold his arms back while Piccolo blasts a hole through them with a special beam cannon killing both outright. With his last breath Raditz tells of the two other Saiyans headed for earth fat stronger than he. Piccolo takes Gohan with him to train in preparation of the Saiyans arrival.
Two years later the Saiyan general Nappa and Vegeta, prince of the Saiyans, arrive on Earth. After indulging in the destruction of some cities and military forces the two are confronted by the Z Warriors. Deeming their power levels to be too low Nappa insists on using the remaining saibamen in his collection to be their opponents. The saibamen are defeated, but not without cost as Yamcha is killed by a self detonation attack. The remaining warriors ready themselves to fend off the giant Nappa. Without much difficulty Nappa overpowers and kills almost all of the remaining fighters bar Gohan and Krillin. As Nappa is about to land the crushing blow on Gohan, Goku appears and takes up the fight breaking Nappa back with a Kaioken attack. Vegeta stating no need for a Saiyan that can not move quickly disposes of his incapacitated ally.
Goku and Vegeta duke it out until exhausted, Vegeta uses his great ape form and crushes Goku underfoot. Yajirobe luckily however plucks up the courage to slice off Vegeta’s tail with his sword before escaping. Vegeta is then hit with a spirit bomb and defeated. Krillin picks up Yajirobe sword and goes for the kill but is stopped by Goku, claiming he will be the one to defeat Vegeta in person. Now with Piccolo dead the Z Warriors realize the only way to wish back the people lost to the Saiyans is with the Namekian Dragon Balls and so they head for Namek.
Namek Saga
Gohan and Krillin head to Namek with Bulma in Evil King Piccolo's original Namekian spaceship while Goku recovers in hospital. They aren’t the only ones however as Vegeta and the space emperor tyrant Frieza are also searching for the Dragon Balls on Namek. Gohan and Krillin Bump into Frieza’s men and save a small Namek child called Dende. Vegeta meets his old rival and elite soldier Cui and kills him. Gohan and Krillin about collecting the Dragon balls while avoiding the Freiza’s henchmen. Vegeta goes about killing Freiza’s henchmen while collecting the Dragon balls. The two forces ally when confronted by the Ginyu Force, Frieza's elite fighting squad. It’s totally hopeless as the Ginyu Force are far too strong for the trio to defeat. Just as all hope seems to be lost Goku lands on the planet and heads towards the battle. Goku wins easily but ultimately has his body stolen by Captain Ginyu and then later returned in an extremely damaged state. This put Goku out of action while Krillin and Gohan steal the Dragon Balls and wish Piccolo back and to Namek. Frieza catches wind of this and soars over to the two. Furious, Frieza attacks Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta. Vegeta manages to fend him off is his first form until he transforms. Outclassed and losing badly the team are on the brink of utter defeat until Piccolo appears and holds off Frieza's second form. Frieza transforms again and Piccolo is now unable to keep up. Hope seems lost, Vegeta is not the super Saiyan he thought he was and Piccolo is near death when Goku arrives. Vegeta is killed by Frieza and buried by Goku who swears to avenge his people and planet. Frieza takes a spirit bomb head on and surviving, blows up Krillin in his rage. This initiates Goku's Super Saiyan transformation. Gohan takes Piccolo away while the battle between Goku and Frieza rages on. Eventually Frieza decides to blow up the planet. Goku manages to defeat him and escape. The Z Warriors are all in turn wished back to life on Earth along with all the Namekians and people who died in the Saiyan attack.
Android / Cell Saga
Some time later, a mysterious young man appears and defeats Mecha-Frieza and his father King Cold. He reveals himself to be trunks, a Super Saiyan, and warns the Warriors about the future threat of the Androids, giving Goku an antidote to his foretold heart disease. The Androids appear, Goku is the first to fight but is weakening quickly due to his heart disease. Vegeta then appears as a Super Saiyan, surprising everyone and destroys android 19, forcing Dr. Gero to flee. They give chase but it is futile as Gero has no power level signature and can't be tracked. Trunks reappears and tells the Warriors that they are not the androids he was expecting. The Warriors then go to Gero's lab and find him awakening Android 17 and 18. They swiftly kill Dr. Gero in a moment of rebelliousness before they awaken Android 16. The Androids quickly deal with the Z Warriors before heading on their road trip to Goku's house to kill him as per 16s programming.
At the same time, Cell has arrived from another timeline in which he killed Trunks and stole his time machine. Cell starts to absorb humans in cities while hiding his power level. Piccolo attempts to find him after fusing with Kami and does so, managing to trick him into explaining that he aims to absorb the Androids to perfect his body. Piccolo has the upper hand but Cell manages to escape. The search begins for the Androids, to kill them before Cell can absorb them. This fails as Cell manages to absorb 17 despite 16s interference and becomes semi-perfect Cell. Trunks and Vegeta appear having trained in the hyperbolic time chamber and are more than powerful enough to deal with semi-perfect Cell, however Vegeta in his pride allows Cell to absorb 18, excited about fighting something stronger. This backfires horribly as perfect Cell is now far stronger than anyone else and there is no chance of stopping him. Cell then declares his will to hold a tournament called the “Cell Games” in which everyone will fight against him one by one. Goku and Gohan go into the hyperbolic time chamber to train and also train by remaining in Super Saiyan form while doing daily activities, thus getting used to the strain on their bodies while using the form.
The battle begins with Goku versus Cell. Goku seems able to fight equally with the monster but stops half way and giving Cell a senzu bean tags Gohan in. Gohan is reluctant to fight and can't understand why his father would do this while Goku is confident he can win. Cell is intrigued by what Goku says but struggles to bring out Gohan's anger until he crushes 16s head beneath his foot. Gohan explodes into a maelstrom of fury and emotion, becoming the first ever Super Saiyan 2. Cell is outclassed by a vast degree, so much so that a punch from Gohan turns his guts and he regurgitates Android 18 reverting to his semi-perfect form. Defeat unacceptable to Cell he turns to self detonation. Goku teleports Cell to King Kai's planet and the two are killed in the resulting explosion. Cell however is able to regenerate due to having Piccolos cells, Frieza's cells allowing him to survive in space, and Saiyan cells giving him a Zenkai boost after recovering from a near death experience. He returns in Super Perfect Form and is now too strong for Gohan to defeat. Cell then Landing a killing shot on Trunks, Vegeta becomes enraged and attacks to no avail. Vegeta is brushed aside and almost killed before Gohan covers him and loses the ability to use his arm as a result. Cell fires a Solar Kamehameha at Gohan who returns with a one handed Kamehameha. Gohan is losing the beam struggle until Vegeta distracts Cell with a Big Bang attack and Gohan pours all of his energy into the Kamehameha and wins.
The Warriors try to wish Goku back but he refuses as training in the Other World is great and he believes that when he is around, trouble will soon follow.
Majin Buu Saga
A few years later, Gohan is going to college and now has a younger brother, Goten. Vegeta has given up training because of Goku’s death and also has a son, Trunks. Goku announces that he will make a 24 hour return to join the next world martial arts tournament. Vegeta is excited by this and also decides to join along with some other Z Warriors, including Gohan, Krillin, 18, Piccolo and in the junior division Goten and Trunks. Mr Satan and his daughter Videl are also competing in the tournament. First up the junior division is utterly crushed by Goten and Trunks until they face off in the final round (making rules to not turn super Saiyan) with Trunks winning overall. The pair both decide to join the adult division in disguise soon after. Krillin is first up and quickly wins his match followed by Piccolo against Kaioshin. Piccolo forfeits the match before it begins, knowing that Kaioshin is a divine being. Videl and Spopovich is next. Videl is completely demolished by Spopovich, so much so that Gohan involuntarily turns Super Saiyan in pure rage. Spopovich and Yamu steal Gohan's energy and escape. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin and Kaioshin fly off in pursuit of the two villains. They encounter Dabura and enter Babidi’s lair to defeat all of Babidi's henchmen. Ayer some fighting Majin Buu is born and quickly kills Dabura. Vegeta becomes possessed and he and Goku end up fighting. Vegeta goads Goku into fighting by killing a section of the tournaments audience with an energy blasts and wins by knocking Goku out (not realizing Goku was hiding his Super Saiyan 3 form). Vegeta heads to Majin Buu and self-destructs to try and kill him but ultimately fails. Gohan is taken to Elder Kai's planet to have his power unlocked and Goku holds off Majin Buu for some time while everyone gets to safety.
Buu separates into two by purging the evil part of his personality and is subsequently absorbed becoming super Buu. Goten and Trunks learn to fuse to fight against Super Buu but is absorbed too along with Piccolo. Ultimate Gohan appears and is quickly overpowered and absorbed too. Goku and Vegeta arrive and fuse with the potara earring to make Vegito. Vegito easily deals with Super Buu until he too is absorbed. Vegito however, defuses inside the magical Majin Buu and frees all of the other absorbed Warriors. Buu loses his control and becomes Kid Buu. Kid Buu destroys Earth and all the people on it before rampaging through the universe. Goku and Vegeta face him on the planet of the Kai's and he is defeated with the help of a spirit bomb. The spirit bomb is made by wishing back all of the people killed by Buu and having Mr. Satan convince them to lend their energy to Goku.
Goku wishes that Kid Buu be reborn as someone good and hopes to be able to fight against him again someday. The world returns to normal except for the populace thinking that it was Mr Satan who defeated Majin Buu. For this Mr. Satan donates large sums of money to Goku's family. Gohan and Videl marry and everyone is set for peaceful times.
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama