Dragon Ball Z (part 2)

Aaaand we're back! My apologies for taking so long, but now we'll get back to the original topic! What was I talking about? Oh yes, reasons why I don't like DBZ! Remember, I have plenty of *SPOILERS* so if you want to read DBZ, don't read this. Without any more delay...

No Point in Having a Group: Now as I've stated in the previous post, Goku and Gohan are more powerful than their allies, despite the fact that they had the exact same amount of training, due to the fact that Goku was born under the right star and Gohan was born in the right womb. Naturally, they win 99% of the battles in the series.
I ask you, what's the point of having so many allies, such as Krillin, Yamcha, and Vegeta, if they aren't going to that much use, except to provide cannon fodder? Now in my opinion, when you have a group of heroes, they should all provide an important purpose within the group, in a similar way to the protagonist or with an ability that he or she lacks.

I understand that as a protagonist, Goku has to get the most glory. Believe me, I do. But why can't any of the other characters get their moment of glory? Why can't they have any other use besides showing how awesome Goku is? As in, at least with Dragon Ball, it sort of started off as having team members be useful; Bulma and her gadgets often aided the group, and then you had Oolong the pig, who could transform. Basically, it was a basic group of brawn, brain and unique abilities...
But, as you know, brains have no place in Dragon Ball Z!


Time Skips: Throughout the plot of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, we see our characters grow older, going from, usually starting as young teenagers or young adults and going all the way up to being middle aged. Time skips are, as you can guess, used to skip over long periods of time between the aging and time periods between the arcs of the story. While I appreciate the fact that Toriyama for getting straight to the point, this does present one problem...

Lack of character developement! Characters will suddenly change, new characters will be introduced, marriage occurs, kids are had, and we're not shown any of it! I mean, how cheap is it to take two characters who initially hate each other, like, let's say, Vegeta and Bulma, and then TIME SKIP! They're now married and have a kid.

Or, how about, let's say, Goku dies AGAIN, and TIME SKIP! Chi-Chi now has a 7 year-old son named Goten with no foreshadowing or hints whatsoever.

Sounds stupid, right? Well, my good friend, those actually happened. One idiot I met tried to justify it by saying it's funnier that way; well, it's NOT funny! I got my smartiness insulted!




Brawn > Brains: Another flaw with DBZ; fights are not only repedative, but often in fights, only the ones who are the most powerful in brute strength will win. In Dragon Ball, this wasn't an issue, as Goku and others would have to use strategy and clever tactics in order to defeat their foes. However, in DBZ, equippment, where you fight and strategy matter not; all that matters is who is stronger and faster.
And as anyone can tell you, the humans biggest advantage is his BRAIN. Even in senseless action movies, the protagonist has to use his head. Not here, though.

Where's the fantasy?: This problem is rather small, but here's the thing; Dragon Ball was, for the most part, mythical. It had demons, dragons, shapeshifters and Goku's origins were a mystery. However, come Dragon Ball Z, all the magic was replaced with science; both Goku and his last antagonist, Demon King Piccolo were revealed to actually be aliens. Don't get me wrong, Dragon Ball had quite a few science fiction elements, but I enjoyed the mix of sci-fi and fantasy! Why take away the other?

How can anyone thing this guy is an alien?

Kids can do what?: This is also a minor problem, and that would be the children. No matter what arc of the story one is in, there NEEDS to be little kids. Why? Because kids can't relate to adults, that's why! That's what make Batman and Superman better; if they were kids!
Sarcasm aside, my sense of logic is thrown out the window when I see children around 7 years old easily fighting city-destroying monsters. Why? Because they were born to powerful parents and as we all know, skill is inherited. It's a nice message; if you weren't born under the right star, you have no hope of being as good as those who were.
Another thing that bothered me was at the end, Goku's granddaughter, a 4 year old, easily took down a 7 ft. tall bodybuilder. Now, either she was born with martial arts training inserted into her head or they basically groomed her into a cute little assassin...



Not sick at all.

Those are just the major problems. If I pointed out every minor problem, my blog post would be a mile long.
So, one must ask me, do I think Akira Toriyama is a bad writer and unworthy of his fame? To be perfectly honest, no, I don't think that. Along with Dragon Ball being a lot of fun, despite what I said about it, I've enjoyed many of Toriyama's short stories. I just happen to think DBZ is his weakest work. So, in short, I suggest you give Dragon Ball a try, but leave DBZ untouched.

XOXO,

Some guy