DRAGONBALL Z: Animated Cult Epic

By: Frederick C. Szebin
Date: Sunday, January 02, 2000

Manga master Akira Toriyama gave the world a gloriously addictive gift in the form of this animated series, aired in America on Cartoon Network. In it, we were introduced to Goku, a super-powered young man with a charming naiveté and the strength to save the world. With him are friends Krillin, Yamcha, the tiny Choazu, three-eyed Tienshinhan, sometime enemy Piccolo, and not to mention his family, his overly protective wife, Chi Chi and son Gohan, who has inherited more than his father's powers. There is also a myriad of supporting characters: pretty, but hot-tempered Bulma; shape-changing pig Oolong; wise old Kame (actually a doppelganger to Piccolo) and his friend Mister Po Po--each with their own history extending from the 1980s series, DRAGONBALL, which featured them all as younger versions of themselves. In DRAGONBALL Z, they are all grown and face greater dangers than they ever imagined.
The epic tale is a series-spanning adventure that builds threat upon threat, each more deadly than the last. It began at a happy reunion of the Dragon Ball characters, grown up, getting together since their last meeting in the previous series. But that is spoiled by the evil Raditz, a Saiyan warrior, long-lost brother to Goku. Raditz brought Goku and Piccolo together to stop the Saiyan and save Gohan, Goku's sensitive five year old son who holds a power greater than any of them could have dreamed of.
That battle led directly to the training for and fight with two other Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa, who decimated many of the supporting characters as Goku, training in another dimension for this fight, raced to help his friends. It was during this time that we watch Gohan grow and expand as a character from a whiny five year old to a brave soldier with his own weapons to bring to the table, trained under Piccolo who, in DRAGONBALL, wanted nothing more than the total destruction of the boy's father.
With one fight over, yet another began, spanning the galaxy to the planet Namic, Piccolo's home world, where the powerful and evil Frieza and her minions gather the seven magic dragon balls that will enable him to wish for immortality, and thus subjugate the Universe with his immense energies.
This is all a vast oversimplification of the entire concept. What makes DRAGONBALL Z (the Z stands for Zen) such a vital and entertaining program is not only the incredible battles (which are virtually constant), but also getting to watch the changing of these animated characters. Actual character growth in a cartoon! The most impressive of all is Gohan who, by the age of eight, is a brave fighter taking on the worst the Universe has to offer. There is also Piccolo: once evil, dark, compassionless who, thanks to Gohan, learns to care, to even love and call someone a friend, to accept sacrifice time and time again. Even Goku changes, but in more significant ways. Losing that naïve childlike attitude that made him so endearing, he slowly becomes a cosmic powerhouse struggling to hold on to what he is.

The show also has humor, sometimes when you least expect it, silly laughs that only serve to make it more addictive. There are goofy little characters like angry, impatient Chi-Chi, a frightened mom ready to fling herself into the void to save her son no matter who she has to step on to get there. Bulma is forced to go from one danger to another on Namic, all alone, frightening Krillin more than Frieza does once her ire is raised. Master Roshi has his moments, humming loudly to himself in dress shirt and tie, but no pants. Where he was planning to go is anyone's guess, but that doesn't matter. The man who trained Goku in the DRAGONBALL series, stoop-backed with a bristling white beard, is one more of the lovable characters of this distinctive program. Then there is the vicious Ginyu Force, Frieza's personal army; proud, fierce, dopey with their posing contests. They decide who is to kill whom with a rousing game of 'Rock-Paper-Scissors'. 'We're being captured by a bunch of goof balls,' Gohan incredulously announces.
The show may be more popular with its very large fan base for the fighting, however. Someone is always fighting someone, and I'm not talking fisticuffs, here. The characters are super-powered enough to put any energy-flinging Marvel hero to shame. Annihilating bolts and balls of energy fly higgelty-piggelty, ripping up planets and characters alike. Nearly everyone can fly, so most battles take place in mid air. But sometimes the battles go on a little too long, forsaking pacing for machismo, with characters being a little too indestructible for dramatic good. And everyone has to 'power up' to bring their energies to a level of appropriate destructiveness, a task that sometimes makes everyone look like they have cosmic constipation, and many times slows the energy of the show to a near crawl.
But these are quibblings. DRAGONBALL Z is genuinely addictive because we get to watch the characters grow as they fight. The huge amount of destruction is all the more entertaining because we know who is at the heart of all of that devastation. Hidden within the animated pyrotechnics are hints of spiritualism, camaraderie, love, friendship, compassion, honor and duty, forcing yourself to be the best you can be even after you've picked yourself up off the ground, finding that well within yourself to not let your loved ones, or yourself, down. That seems quite a lot for a cartoon (what an almost insulting word that is becoming) to take on, but DRAGONBALL Z does it without preaching. Hell, it doesn't have time to preach with all the fights that need to take place for the story to keep moving. I don't know if that action is inappropriate for younger viewers or not. I would have loved it at any age (36 now, and still counting), but parents are warned that it might incite, well, excitement.
Many DRAGONBALL Z episodes and movies (three available in America so far: DEAD ZONE TREE OF MIGHT, and WORLD'S STRONGEST) are available on video in edited and unedited versions. There is some blood, sometimes even a pinch of nudity (TREE OF MIGHT has a happy little Gohan baring all in a fit of full-frontal glee). Cartoon Network doesn't show this stuff, however. Rest of the world gets to see the multi-colored hues of alien blood and Gohan's animated dinky; but Americans, I guess, are too gentle for that. The heart of DRAGON BALL Z is made available to us by Cartoon Network, if not the details. With excellently conceived and drawn characters (despite the usual stiffness of Japanese animation), multi-layered scripts, happy jolts of humor and nearly non-stop action on global scales, DBZ has found its rightful place as a cult hit that deserves to be more than that. POKEMON, keep your head down.

Produced by Funimation Productions. Written by Christopher Neel and Terry Klassen, based on Akira Toriyama's DRAGONBALL Z manga. Airs on Cartoon Network, part of Toonami, Monday-Friday 5:00 PM, e.s.t. Voices: Christopher Sabat, Sonny Strait, Sean Schemmel, Dale D. Kelly, Stephanie Nadolny, Tiffany Vollmer, Mark Britten, Chris Cason.

More From Mania

The Dragonball Movie: Hooray or Nay?

Dragonball Z Movie #09: Bojack Unbound
(Saturday, August 14, 2004)
Year in Review: FUNimation in 2003
(Monday, February 16, 2004)
Dragonball Z: History of Trunks
(Friday, March 1, 2002)
Dragonball Z: Z Warriors Prepare
(Friday, March 1, 2002)
Dragonball Z TV #15: Namek - Trouble
(Thursday, February 7, 2002)
Dragonball Z Special: History of Trunks
(Wednesday, December 20, 2000)

See more related content