Dragon Ball Z
Overview
Dragon Ball Z is a fighting anime. It's little else.
Storyline & Narrative
Dragon Ball Z's assorted... "stories" follow our heros as they fight everything.
Over and over again. Forever.
Once all of our normal heros (that is to say, anyone who's not Goku) have had their asses kicked, Goku shows up in the nick of time (he's always busy somewhere else when the fights begin), gets his ass kicked, then powers up, and destroys his enemies, and there was much rejoicing. Yay.
This all takes about 6 episodes. There are 120+ episodes in the main DBZ series. This plot is repeated every time, throughout the series.
The movies offer some diversion, but in the end, follow the same basic storyline.
So! To recap : Normal Stars are having fun. Super Powered Enemy fill-in-the-blank with Power Level x shows up and kicks normal stars' asses. Goku shows up, and gets his ass kicked too. Goku gets more powerful, and wins. Now you've seen every DBZ ever made, all you need to fill in is the names of the enemies.
Oh I forgot. There's the dragon ballz. Collect all 7, and win a chat with the mystical dragon, who will grant wishes. This is used to bring characters who died in the fight when fill-in-the-enemy showed up back to life. This only happens about every 6 episodes as well, so it fits perfectly into the timetable.
Characters & Dynamics
Goku is the main character in DBZ. He's a saiyan, which means he gets tougher after every fight. He's also a goody two shoes, and a bit of a dork.
Gohan (Gohan means "rice" in Japanese) is Goku's son. He still has his saiyan tail, which means he can turn into a giant monkey.
Piccolo is a green insect-man from the planet Namek. He's probably the coolest person in DBZ, since he has an attitude, like if he's bitter about being cast in such an incredibly bad show.
Krillin is normally the biggest recipient of the big ass kicking. He's pretty much useless, and he knows it. So he's always wetting himself whenever he faces a new enemy with some rediculous power level. Krillin is good for comic relief.
Vegeta(ble? what is it about food?) was the enemy everyone loved, and so became a regular part of the show. He's got an attitude too.
Animation & Visual Direction
The art in DBZ is pretty ok, although a bit sparse on detail. The actually ANIMATION is minimal, the rapid fighting scenes are basically repeated blurs over and over again. I don't mean they move so fast that it blurs. I mean if you freeze the scene, you will see they drew in blurs.
The entire fight sequence is typically repeated twice per fight, if not more.
The best part about the animation are the mega super ultra big attacks. ie the screen goes completely white.
Voice Acting & Soundtrack
Unfortunately, I haven't seen DBZ subtitled. DBZ fans would tell you that's why I don't like it. I disagree. I don't think anything could save DBZ from being at BEST mediocre, and at worst, trite.
