Thanks in large to Cartoon Network and Toonami, many westerners grew up watchingDragon Ball Z. As well as serving as afantastic gateway anime, the series' success also encouraged viewers to check out its predecessor,Dragon Ball, with the general consensus at the time being thatZwas the better of the two due to its high-octane fight sequences and stronger visuals.
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As time has gone on though, and with subsequent watch-throughs, a lot ofDragon Ballfans are now starting to change their minds, with many now believing thatDragon Ballis better thanDragon Ball Z. Of course, this kind of thing is highly subjective, so not everyone is going to agree, but there are a few things that the originalDragon Ballanime arguably does much better thanDBZ.
Martial Arts Mastery
Though it featured some supernatural elements right from the get-go,Dragon Ballstarted life with a much heavier focus on martial arts than its successor. A lot of the series' earlier storylines revolve aroundGoku’s training, with new techniques often playing an important role in his victories rather than the Saiyan simply relying on brute force or flashy transformations as he ends up doing later on.
For those with an interest in Japanese martial arts, theDragon Ballanime will likely make for a much more satisfying watch thanDragon Ball Z. The regularWorld Martial Arts tournamentsensure that there’s a healthy supply of well-structured one-on-one battles for viewers to sink their teeth into, while also introducing them to a large and diverse cast of secondary characters in the process.
Better Pacing
For as iconic asGoku’s fight with Friezais, many people remember it for all the wrong reasons. The five-minute countdown to Namek’s destruction is perhaps chief among them and is often ridiculed due to the fact that this supposed five minutes somehow manages to span multiple 20+ minute episodes.Dragon Ball Z Kaidid improve the pacing of this sequence a little, though, ultimately, this is an issue that plagues most ofDragon Ball Zin one form or another.
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By comparison, fights in the original run ofDragon Balltend to be a lot more fluid, with very little filler used to pad out the series. Of course, that’s not to say that it doesn’t still have issues from time to time, but, for the most part,Dragon Ballkeeps things moving at a much healthier pace thanDBZ, ensuring that viewers spend a lot more time staring at their screens than they do glancing down at their watches.
A Focus on Adventure
Fighting may have always played a central role inDragon Ball, but the original series made a point of exploring a few additional themes and ideas as well. A lot of episodes had a heavy focus on friendship and adventure, with these two motifs working together incredibly well and perfectly complementing the overarching martial arts narrative that really defined the series. Sadly, this all changed in the years that followed.
With the transition toDragon Ball Zcame a drastic change in ideas, with the franchise shifting to a repetitive cycle that quickly became stale.Each new saga brought with it an even more powerful enemy, with Goku and his friends then relying on new Super Saiyan transformations to eventually save the day. Granted, the series did take viewers to an alien planet at one point, but Toriyama and his team opted to focus on a stream of near-constant battles rather than explore planet Namek to its fullest.
Humor and Fun-Filled Episodes
One of the major consequences of the aforementioned shift in focus was that the tone ofDragon Ball Zwas a lot more serious than it was inDragon Ball. This, in turn, meant that there were far fewer opportunities for fun and humor in the former. To be fair, this isn’t exactly a big issue when looking atZas a standalone series, especially given its target audience, but it did create a rather blatant disconnect between it and its predecessor.
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This is because humor played an important role throughoutDragon Ball, with a young Goku often getting himself into trouble due to his immature antics. It could perhaps be argued that the franchise itself aged with its viewers, withDragon Ballbeing more age-appropriate for pre-teens andZtargetting a teenage demographic. Looking at both through older eyes, however, there’s a certain charm toDragon Ballthat just can’t be found inDragon Ball Z.
Better Character Development
There’s definitely an argument to be made that some of the humor found in earlyDragon Ballepisodes hasn’t aged all that well, though it arguably still works due to Goku being a child. This also allows for a lot of intense character growth, with Goku forced to mature at a rather rapid pace due to the serious situations that he finds himself in. By contrast, however,DBZGoku barely changes throughout the seriesand is consequently one of the shallowest shonen anime protagonists of all time.
Goku’s not the only character with an interesting arc inDragon Balleither. Both Piccolo and Chien are incredibly well-developed, gradually shifting from foe to friend over the course of theclassic anime series.DBZfans may point to Vegeta’s redemption arc as an example ofZ’s ability to adeptly explore its characters too, but, when all’s said and done, Vegeta’s arc is incredibly similar to Piccolo’s, just stretched out over a much longer period of time.
