actually, the movie dragon ball was an adaption of the original Dragon Ball series, and not the sequel Dragon Ball Z series
Can anyone explain the plot of this show? Looks to me like an endless succesion of pointless violence. I just don't get this one. What about the plot changes for the american version? I've seen the show on the International channel, and there are serious casualties! Just what up wit' dis' thing?
Can anyone explain the popularity in American considering how *bad* D-Z is as an example of Japanese Anime. *Especially the artwork and animation quality
Give me Ranma 1/2 any day
Hey Flangepart and Jay'O Conner if you don't like it don't watch it and stick to Disney to watch.
I haven't seen too much of the anime--but I am enjoying the manga thoroughly.
The first series (just "Dragon Ball") is pretty light-hearted fare, with plenty of gunfire and explosions--and of course hand-to-hand combat--but so far little serious injury or death "on-screen." Plenty of "gag" injury, though--for example, an evil ninja performs a fancy lunge at the hero, only to impale his butt on the hero's pole.
The second series, ("Dragon Ball Z") however, has had: cities and civilizations wiped out, children graphically killed, victims' bodies devoured by their killers, characters blowing themselves up, hearts torn out, and assorted other fatal and near-fatal beatings--yet little of the near-constant sexual humor of the first series.
I'm not buying it for this violence, or the constant "power-up" fistfighting routine--there's always an infinitely stronger villian right around the corner--but I do like the characterization and the weird humor and wild situations. The tour and training session of Heaven the dead hero (!) goes through early on in "Dragon Ball Z" is very, very strange.
Damn it! I was writing a nice sized post on this, and you beat me to it! What worse, you did a better job at it than I was. Argh! :)
Good post.
Boy, you guys really miss the point in Dragon Ball Z you see everybody get killed but you also see them come back to life with the help of the Dragon Balls. Like I said before if you don't the kind of cartoons Japan makes well don't watch them.
We do understand the story, Chris1--and if you could actually comprehend what you read, you'd understand that.
Spelling it out for you: I like the Dragon Ball manga, and Cullen seems to like it as well. I was merely commenting on the marked difference in the two manga series' attitudes.
Also: being resurrected from death by a fictional magical object isn't really the point of Dragon Ball; if that were the case, it would be pathetic writing at its worst. It's just another bizarre development in a wild story full of bizarre twists. Of course I haven't read the entire series yet, but so far the point seems to be that "ultimate power" and wish-fulfillment are not all they're cracked up to be...but I can see where something like that would zip right over your head.
You're not as smart as you seem to think you are. Maybe you need to watch more hours of television each day to make you even smarter! :) :) :)
Chris1 says - "Like I said before if you don't the kind of cartoons Japan makes well don't watch them."
Reading your posts shows that you’re a big fan of the DBZ series, and I can respect that. I'm a big fan of Speed Racer, which is in many ways both worse and better than DBZ, and I might get as irritate and as quick to defend SR as you seem to be for DBZ. Probably not, but let's let that slide.
The problem is, we're not talking about ALL Japanese cartoons when we talk DBZ. We're just talking DBZ. Jay O'Conner, in his post, mentioned Ranma 1/2, which is, in my poor opinion, a better series than both DBZ and SR. R1/2 happens to hail from Japan.
So does SR, incidentally.
In other words, you might want to alter you defense of the program a bit. No one here (so far) has questioned the quality of Japan's Cartoons. Just that of one program, DBZ.
Now, as to your first point, ("you guys really miss the point in Dragon Ball Z "), I believe everyone whose posted here knows the point of DBZ. Namely, to show various struggles between two forces (be it groups or individuals) in an entertaining way. Same as any other work. Whether or not the show reaches you or leaves you cold is a matter of personal preference.
Me, I prefer show with fast cars, cool gadgets, obnoxious little brothers and the pet monkeys, and people who talk REALLY REALLY FAST.
I'm strange that way.
Stay cool. :)
Like I said before if you don't the kind of cartoons Japan makes well don't watch them.
Actualy, I like them quite a lot. I realy like "Akira", "Ghost In The Shell", "Ninja Scroll", "Perfect Blue", "Iria", "Vampire Hunter D", and many others.
For series, I liked Ranma 1/2, Masison Ikkoku, Slayers, Bubblegum Crash/Bubble Gum Crisis, Crying Freeman and others.
I like Japanese Anime, I don't like DB-Z. The animaton and artwork is so bad, compared to other Japanes work, I can never get past that to pay much attention to the story. I have watched maybe a half a dozen, though, and the stories seem incredibly slow, not due to complex character development or intricate plot but sheer repetition in a seeming effort not to lose the attention of the target audience of 6-9 year olds, I guess
Yeah, what Jay said! Chill, Chris 1. I don't get Dragon Balls... uh...Ball-Z...and don't mind saying so, is all. Akira - Iria - Slayers - Eat man - Patlabor - Macross - Tenche Muyo - Capt. Tylor - these and others i find intresting....but not the Ballz. It just don't butter my toast. Oh, and Naussica....gotta like Naussica!
I like the show so sue me ok. I like all kinds of movies and cartoons from Japan from way back in the late70's like Battle of The Planets and Speed Racer and the ones in the 80's like Leo The White Lion and others. I'm just saying if you don't like a harsh cartoon like that please don't watch the show if it makes you get upset. But now I get my ass chew up by this by all you guys including SQUISHY why you guys copping an attitude with me about a cartoon show for. I thought this is a site were we can give out our opinons about stuff to one another but I was way wrong about that so good bye and thanks for letting me be on this site.
Chris1,
Your problem was coming off like this:
"Hey Flangepart and Jay'O Conner if you don't like it don't watch it and stick to Disney to watch."
This is obviously meant to antagonize Flange and Jay. They were antagonized, but came back with intelligent and well thought arguments - to which you had no good counter. Hence, you look like a rube.
Andrew
Vincent,
Thank you. That was much the reason I professed to not being well schooled in Dragonball or Dragonball Z. In my defense, it is a fine line and not easily noticed by a casual viewer. I'll make corrections to the review at first opportunity.
Andrew
Whiny putz. Can't take your own dish, hah? If you don't like it, go watch Disney. *(Cough.)
PS: Not a damn thing wrong with Disney, although I'm sure many would disagree (with a lot more intelligence and grace than Chris1). Just watched The Emperor's New Groove on TV Sunday, and loved it. It's the Disney version of a Warner Brothers' Looney Toon: wacky and slaphappy, but with all the smashing visuals, songs, and moralizing (ahem) you come to expect from Disney. Oh, sure, the script is short and seems to have a lot of cuts, but it does the job and David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton all do top-notch jobs (Spade is only bad when he's playing "sincere"--what does that tell you?). I'm gettin' the deluxe DVD.
The "point" of Emperor's New Groove as Chris1 sees it: people get turned into llamas, but they get, like, turned back, or something. The real point: smarmy asses get their faces rubbed in it eventually, and if they don't like it, they can stay the hell away from the boards.
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Run, coward!
--Sinistar
The most surprising thing about Dragonball Z, for me, is not so much the level of violence, but the fact that it's marketed directly to kids. There seems to be an assumption on the part of a lot of people, broadcasters and parents, that if it's animated, it must be for kids. In Canada, DBZ is carried by YTV, a network geared mainly to kids, and it has appeared in prime-time and afterschool slots. YTV is noted for running Beast Wars under the title 'Beasties,' and War Planets as 'Shadow Raiders' because they apparently can't have 'war' in the title. The content is apparently not so important. The violence on DBZ is not really that severe for an adult to watch, especially after the obvious editing, but it's not appropriate for small kids, in my opinion.
Actually, the editing for television consists mainly of taking out the most severe instances of dismemberment, changing the demons' "HELL" t-shirts to HFIL (Home for Infinite Losers) and saying that everyone who was blown up before our eyes was "sent to another dimension." I don't know if this is just something YTV requires, or whether this version is aired everywhere. It reminds me of the old Star Blazers episodes, where any enemy soldiers who get blown away are very plainly referred to as robots. Bulls**t. It doesn't fool anyone, and it's anoying.
I used to like DBZ. It has a way of sucking a viewer in, and it's interesting for a while. The reason I stopped watching was that it requires such an investment of time. I just couldn't spare the time every day to see how things turned out. I began to get tired of the show during all of the lead up to the fight with Frieza, and was completely sick of it by the end of the fight with Frieza. Five minutes of battle can be made to last for half a dozen episodes, depending on the circumstances. Remember when Goku was going to land in "20 minutes?" I got tired of hearing that, for example, Namek was going to explode in five minutes and then actually seeing it sometime the following week. Too many episodes went absolutely nowhere, and it just took too long for a story to progress. It was all about the story arc, with nothing particularly special in the individual episodes. There is also way too much filler, in the form of irrelevant side trips, and scenes of minor characters reacting to the battles. I won't even go into the repetition. I tried to watch the Cell saga, but eventually just said to Hell (HFIL?) with it. After a while, you realize you're being jerked around by a cartoon, and you tune out.
Compare this to Star Blazers, which had a good story arc, as well as interesting stand-alone plots for each episode. An important obstacle was overcome in each episode and progress was shown. Star Blazers is still my favourite after 20 years.
Looks like i'm not the only one who hasen't got a continuing "Dragon Ballz jones". As Andy C said, its hard to keep up with a show as it is, and if the show makes it unnessarily hard, it just won't float the barge. I've never seen the Patlabor T.V. series, but the two movies realy work for me. The "Snow falling on Tokyo " scene, during the tense military stand off in the second film, is what i like about Anime's style. Great use of music,too. I knew the movies were based on T.V. shows, but the plots drew me in ,and i could get behind Ota's hotheadedness, and Capt. Goto's skill as a manager without too much trouble. What can i say, it worked for me. Same with Macross Plus. Great visuals, great music.