Goku. I'm so sad.

[Stupid Bunny]

Danarchy said:
A bunch of videos

It's over NINE THOUUSAAAAAAANNDD!!!!! Funny...I was just watching some of those earlier. :P

My memories of the series was that each episode was Goku looking constipated and saying something along the lines of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!!!" with closeups of whatever villain he happened to be fighting freaking out and looking scared. Then he actually finishes charging up three episodes later, takes three more episodes to actually release the kamehameha, and at that point it fails somehow, and the villain snickers contemptuously, prompting Goku to start over with charging up. My god, it was a silly show.

But this movie will suck.

[Richo Rosai]

StupidBunny said:

It's over NINE THOUUSAAAAAAANNDD!!!!! Funny...I was just watching some of those earlier. :P

My memories of the series was that each episode was Goku looking constipated and saying something along the lines of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!!!" with closeups of whatever villain he happened to be fighting freaking out and looking scared. Then he actually finishes charging up three episodes later, takes three more episodes to actually release the kamehameha, and at that point it fails somehow, and the villain snickers contemptuously, prompting Goku to start over with charging up. My god, it was a silly show.

But this movie will suck.

I have had no knowledge of this franchise in the past save the ubiquitous images of the characters, but this description compels me to seek it out.

[Snarboo]

Trust me, it isn't worth it.

Although, if you must, at least watch up to the end of the Freeza saga. They actually managed to drag out a plot point that was supposed to occur within 5 minutes for over 10 episodes. I am not kidding.

[MasterOFDeath]

Snarboo said:

Trust me, it isn't worth it.

Although, if you must, at least watch up to the end of the Freeza saga. They actually managed to drag out a plot point that was supposed to occur within 5 minutes for over 10 episodes. I am not kidding.

That was the world being destroyed or something stupid like that, right?

[Snarboo]

MasterOFDeath said:

That was the world being destroyed or something stupid like that, right?

Yeah, pretty much. Freeza shot a beam directly into a planet's core, and it was supposed to destroy it in five minutes.

[Kira]

I've only liked the paper version of Dragon Ball anyway... (and it's same for Naruto).

[Sharessa]

Snarboo said:

Trust me, it isn't worth it.

Although, if you must, at least watch up to the end of the Freeza saga. They actually managed to drag out a plot point that was supposed to occur within 5 minutes for over 10 episodes. I am not kidding.

Yeah, the Sayan/Namek/Frieza Saga was actually pretty entertaining, but his stupid long-drawn-out death annoyed me. JUST. DIE. I think him coming back from the dead and showing up with his dad who was supposed to be 10x more powerful than him only to be killed again within one episode with his dad high-tailing it out of there was pretty hilarious though. After that, the show got more and more ridiculous, though the android saga had some good points. The show basically comes down to this...

BAD GUY 1: Haha! I am the most powerfull being in the universe. My power level is over 5000!
GOKU: Oh no! How will we ever defeat him!
*GOKU bulks up to a power level of 5000, defeats BAD GUY 1
GOKU: we did it!
BAD GUY 2: Haha! I am the most powerfull being in the universe. My power level is over 10000!
GOKU: Oh no! How will we ever defeat him!
*GOKU bulks up to a power level of 10000, defeats BAD GUY 2
GOKU: we did it!
BAD GUY 1: Haha! I am the most powerfull being in the universe. My power level is over 15000!

And it just keeps on going from there until they finally kill Goku off. I think Vegeta was always my favorite character because he was always an asshole, especially to Goku, who I thought was a horrible main character.

Oh, spoilers BTW.

[VileSlay]

yeah, vegeta was was the best. so over the top it's not funny. ya gotta love the training sessions in the series to. like training in 100x normal gravity or the hyperbolic time chamber. when piccolo was training gohan was priceless.

piccolo: "the full moon turned him to a monster. I blow up the moon now."

[Creaphis]

It's even more ridiculous than Danarchy says. It's not that Goku bulks up to unthinkable levels of power 5000 at a time - numerically, the power level of each major bad guy is like 1000 times higher than the previous, yet the good guys always manage to catch up. (And for that matter, the visible destructive power of the characters hardly grows.)

And they never actually kill Goku off. They always resurrect him again through some absurd plot device. Mostly dragonball-related.

I actually did like the show when I was younger, though, and it holds a soft spot in my heart. I've seen most DBZ up until some point within the Cell saga, and the part that I would say is the best is the Garlic Junior saga, because:
1. Characters aren't summarized by their power levels so often.
2. The less-used characters take the lead.
3. The story spans a more reasonable number of episodes (ie. far fewer)

Heh, I'm totally going to download those episodes now. Let's see if my good opinion of them is correct.

[Snarboo]

Creaphis said:

(And for that matter, the visible destructive power of the characters hardly grows.)

That's something that always bothered me about DBZ. Despite the power levels increasing throughout the entire series, the character abilities and destruction never seemed to match what they were telling us. Freeza, the weakest villian in the series, actually caused the most destruction, destroying the original planet Namek if IIRC. In fact, each new bad guy creates less and less destruction, ending with Boo, who's biggest claim to fame was eating everybody after turning them into candy.

I think Toriyama just had a brain fart and couldn't figure out how to represent greater power levels.

[Prince of Darkness]

Snarboo said:

I think Toriyama just had a brain fart and couldn't figure out how to represent greater power levels.

But how would he do it? They already looked like they were being drip-fed steroids, what would they do? Grow other limbs?

I can see it now...
"His power level is over 9000!"
"How can you tell?"
"He has five arms!"

[Snarboo]

What would you do with that much power? We're talking about people who theoretically have the power of gods, and they best they can muster are huge muscles and energy beams? Oh, and punching people really hard. :p

Sometimes subtlety is best. Imagine a villian so powerful he could stay hidden, but could control and turn anyone into a powerful, living weapon. And not just one person, either, but millions of people. How do you fight something like that, something that might not even have a body and could be timeless? Or how about pulling a Transformers and having a being the size of a planet?

The possibilities for representing power are endless. Superman is represented better than any character in DBZ and is theoretically more powerful, besides having more depth. I have to chalk up the sheer stupidity of how things are represented in DBZ to either uninspiration or an odd sense of humor on Toriyama's part.

[Jim Rainer]

Snarboo said:

Oh, and punching people really hard. :p

Not to mention really fast.

[Fletcher`]

Doom Marine said:

... But the question still remains: will it suck harder than the Super Mario Brothers movie?

Hey wait, that wasn't THAT bad.

Snarboo said:

I was into it around the time its popularity grew, but looking back on it I feel kind of stupid. Either way, I don't expect this movie to be a real classic.

[Fletcher`]

SHit, doublepost.

[Butts]

the original dragonball from back in the day wasnt too bad, it had actually a decent story, was mildly entertaining, and didnt revolve around grunts, beams, and fights all the time. it was more like... an anime. real animes are actually pretty cool.

[Jim Rainer]

Yeah, if I remember correctly the original was actually entertaining on it's own regard with storyline, without all the fancy light effects and grunts.

[MasterOFDeath]

Why hasn't someone referenced this yet?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/31681

[Stupid Bunny]

The original had Master Roshi, a horny/hilarious old man.

[Sharessa]

Snarboo said:

What would you do with that much power? We're talking about people who theoretically have the power of gods, and they best they can muster are huge muscles and energy beams? Oh, and punching people really hard. :p

Heh, that reminds me of the one part of the Cell Saga that I actually did like (and one of the few parts of it I actually watched). When they were having that big tournament or whatever that Cell was staging, the people holding it had some machine that they were having everyone punch to measure their power level. Then the main characters step up and just start tapping it and maxing it out and the judges or whatever are like "WHAT!?". Then when it's Vegeta's turn, being the arrogant ass he is, he just punches it, breaking it and sending it flying. <3 Vegeta.

[Ichor]

I think that was just after Cell.

[Kira]

Ichor is right.

[Butts]

that was when the fat pink dude came in, and that funny ass hercule guy did too.

[Creaphis]

Snarboo said:

ometimes subtlety is best. Imagine a villian so powerful he could stay hidden, but could control and turn anyone into a powerful, living weapon. And not just one person, either, but millions of people. How do you fight something like that, something that might not even have a body and could be timeless?

But does this sell merchandise?

[Stupid Bunny]

Butts said:

that was when the fat pink dude came in, and that funny ass hercule guy did too.

I don't remember the Hercules dude, but the pink guy was Majin Buu. I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck he is exactly, although mutated wad of gum is kind of where I've settled. He scared me for some reason.

[Technician]

How can no one remember Hurcule? He was in practically every episode of the Cell saga and most of the Buu saga.

I think what pissed me off about this series sooo much was not the show but the broadcasters. They would run you about half the way through a saga and then back track you about two sagas behind and that would take you close to a year before you manage to make your way back to where you left off. That pissed me off so much.

[Butts]

hercule lived with buu at one point, but lived with the "good" version, before he got annihilated by the "mean" one. those episodes werent too bad. hercule kicked ass, haha.

[Technician]

Did the Buu saga end Z ark until the GT series?

[Shaikoten]

Fun fact: The character known as "Hercule" in the US dub was in fact "Mr. Satan" in Japan.

[Kira]

Technician said:

Did the Buu saga end Z ark until the GT series?

Yeah, and GT wasn't in the paper version of Dragon Ball.