Anime

I liked Frieza better. Partly because the whole Namek arc was this cool cat and mouse race to find the dragon balls while ducking him. Trying to trust former baddie Vegeta. Then it being Piccolo's home coming. Finally the face off with the strongest being in the universe. The ending of Goku achieving the legendary super saiyan to Vegeta's shock, bittersweet for him because it wasn't him doing it but he got to see Frieza eat shit. Then finally a cliff hanger if Goku survives Namek explodin' or not.

The series felt very [insert universe strongest baddie here] after Frieza. Okay maybe a pass for the androids because it was cool to see Future Trunks but I didn't like Cell and I really stopped paying attention during Buu.

I think it would've been fine to continue if they had actually committed to handing off the protagonist stick to Gohan. Let people actually die so there can be permanent consequences at any point in the future of the story, keep things fresh, focus on different kinds of stories, etc. As long as it's the Goku and Vegeta show they're going to be getting up to the same shit, but Gohan could've moved the story in a genuinely new direction and let it evolve.

As it is, though, it's basically just marvel-tier slop. Which is fine I guess. I do like the slop. I see the big meat man go rawr and shake the universe and i go pog

Agreed. The theme of fatherhood is so strong in that saga, which is the perfect theme for ending your series with a handoff to the protagonist's son. Buu Saga went on too long, DB Super honestly feels like Dragon Ball's "Zombie Simpsons" era - and now they're gonna tack even more into the universe because

Just let it die damn.

the majinboo thing went on and on and on and it jumped the shark

Agreed but without buu saga we couldn't have the bestest (and most campiest) form ever - SSJ3

I agree but Buu was funny

The Great Saiyaman Arc and parts of the World Tournament Arc right afterwards are actually the highlight of the series to me (subs, if that matters). They're just so silly and low stakes and don't spend hours fighting the same fight. Like, I was actually laughing at Goten and Trunks in a trench coat.

Mostly agree, I like Buu well enough but the saga dragged on terribly. Super has been 90% miss for me, though I thoroughly enjoyed the two most recent movies. Piccolo was always my favorite character and anything that makes him relevant again gets my uncritical support. DB Super Hero even follows up on a bit of that Cell saga Gohan focus that got abandoned with Buu.

Idk I MOSTLY agree but then we wouldnt have gotten Vegeta's sacrifice yaknow? And thats big doins.

show should have ended with part i remember from kid years

Wasn't there some later story arc where pretty much everyone on planet Earth was killed except for a few Z-Fighters and it was just a "oh shit that just happened, ok moving on" moment in the overall series?

That's what team four star is.....for.

Boo was just more cell really

but I liked Gohan's high school arc. Toriyama should've committed to the super sentai bit.

Agree, Buu very quickly went off the rails and down hill. But as an old guy, Super is the remake of GT right?

The whole series peaked here

Just watch DBZ Abridged and then watch Battle of Gods and Resurrection F, then ignore everything else.

Actually the movie fan edit of the future trunks saga was ok, but yeah super is deeply mid. Actually the original cut of DBZ is kinda mid too, Kai fixes some of it but it's still way too fucking long. Abridged is basically the canon DBZ experience IMO.

Dragon Ball Z should have ended.

Didn't Akira Toriyama originally want to end at Frieza?

I agree completely

I felt like the Buu saga had weaknesses, but overall I still liked what it had to offer the canon:

The fusion dance (but also potara earrings); I mean it birthed a ton of fused fanfic characters and such, that should tell you how awesome it was.

Some of Buu's forms like Super Buu; these ranged from the cool (Kid Buu) to the kind of silly (The first Buu form).

The Great Saiyaman; watching Gohan try and be a Sentai superhero was actually kind of funny and very humanizing.

"Everyone give Goku your energy!"; now that's a powerful ending.

There were though some stuff I felt was terrible, for example their introduction of super saiyan 3; Super Saiyan 1 and 2 were introduced in a really cool fashion, but Super Saiyan 3's introduction was terrible, add on that as well that he was merely holding his own against Kid Buu and failed to fight off Super Buu (or maybe it was Buuhan) and you have a form that's not even being presented as cool and powerful as SSJ1 and SSJ2 were presented.

The Frieza and Android arcs did so much, and indeed the Frieza arc was probably the strongest arc in the entire show, but I really feel like the Buu saga offered a lot to the existing canon.

Dragon ball super though I certainly hate; I wrote a gigantic essay at one point to break down how much I hated it; I hated it so much that by the time I finished writing it I realized from someone's post that I'd entirely forgotten about the evil Vegeta clone arc.

Hilariously though, I still love the world of DBZ so much that I still get excited to watch the anime when it comes out.