I'm not happy about this either...
It's been a long journey, but I've finally finished it. The series of Dragon Ball. No, not Dragon Ball Z, just Dragon Ball. The first one. The series where Goku (our plucky, young, super-strong hero) is still just an innocent kid and not the bulked up, super-Sayain character with lightning blonde hair most people probably think about when they hear of this franchise. In fact, there's no Sayain at all in this series all together – how disappointing – but I'll get to all of that in a moment.
Initially I was going to write this really long backstory about how I willed myself to watch all 153 episodes of this mildly entertaining children's cartoon, but then I thought... fuck it. It's the Back-Blog. Sween's watched Human Centipede. Keith and Webber have watched Knucklehead. I see that no defense is necessary in my decision. Dragon Ball seems to be an extremely popular series, and – simply put – I wanted to know why. Unfortunately, with the first series down, I'm still no closer to finding any answers to this question.
So, what's with this story? The story follows a little boy sporting a monkey's tail named Goku. When we first meet him, we find him just chilling in the middle of the woods waiting for his grandfather to return from some sort of excursion. He's discovered by this young girl, Bulma, who's on a quest to collect all seven Dragon Balls, of which Goku is protecting one – protecting it for his grandfather, although unaware of the power that it holds.
"What exactly are the Dragon Balls?" I hear no one asking. Great question! There's some mythical dragon that sends seven Dragon Balls scattered throughout the world. Whenever all seven are gathered together, the dragon will appear granting a wish to one person. After the wish is granted, the balls take off, scattering to the far reaches of the world and will remain as inactive stones for one year before becoming Dragon Balls again. There was also an episode that explained the reason for the wish-granting dragon's existence, but I totally forget what happened – I burned through these episodes pretty fast.
Anywho, refusing to give away his grandfather's Dragon Ball, Goku agrees to join Bulma on her quest, bringing the Dragon Ball along with him. So begins our journey and slowly we build our main cast throughout the entire first season and are gradually introduced to additional characters throughout the later seasons. But, for the most part, the central cast is established within the first 20 or so episodes.
Ok, so what did I think of this show? I give it two out of five thumbs up.
There's some mild action fun, but it's found few and far between the senseless, overdramatic dribble that stretches on for episodes at a time. In fact, that might be my largest compliant with this series, that it purposely seems like it's trying to run out the clock as if it's getting paid by the minute of being on air (well, they probably are). Each time a character stumbles into a big fight, prepare yourself as that fight will likely stretch out over multiple episodes. And the more important the fight, the more episodes it will bleed over to. I think the record was something like 6 or 7 episodes to conclude Goku's fight with his main rival, Piccolo Jr.
This whole tactic wore me down fast. You see, there's a very simple formula they use to make these fights so long. First, they would have character A gear up to do some major move against character B. Now, while character A is charging their attack we cut to other supporting characters on the sideline who add expository dialogue before character A finally performs the attack. Looooong pause as the dust settles. Finally character B climbs to their feet proving that they've survived the assault. Both characters A and B have some sort of tea-time conversation (despite them being in the middle of a life or death fight) commenting on both their attacks and blocks, which concludes with character B now commencing to charge up for their attach. Rinse and repeat until there's a victor.
It wears you down after a while. It got to the point where I was honestly considering just watching all of the recaps that start each new episode. Sure my experience would be nothing more than the narrator saying, "Last time on Dragon Ball..." but at least it would have saved me hours of watching characters screaming at the top of their lungs while charging their super attacks.
Now, I suppose I could get into each saga's story arc, but it basically switches from one story arc focusing on getting the Dragon Balls, to the next (when the balls are inactive for a year) where Goku is likely either training to be better or participating in this worldwide fighter championship. So, not spending any extra time discussing that crap.
The more I write this, the more I remember how tedious the show really felt. To be fair, I always played it on the background while doing other shit. I never gave it my full attention, but, then again, its doesn't ask for it. It's a dopy cartoon that was churned out at lightning speed for years on end.
But with fans loving the next series, Dragon Ball Z, it made me think that the original should be better. Rather, it's scaring me from progressing any further.
Shame.
And then there's this...
Initially I was going to write this really long backstory about how I willed myself to watch all 153 episodes of this mildly entertaining children's cartoon, but then I thought... fuck it. It's the Back-Blog. Sween's watched Human Centipede. Keith and Webber have watched Knucklehead. I see that no defense is necessary in my decision. Dragon Ball seems to be an extremely popular series, and – simply put – I wanted to know why. Unfortunately, with the first series down, I'm still no closer to finding any answers to this question.
So, what's with this story? The story follows a little boy sporting a monkey's tail named Goku. When we first meet him, we find him just chilling in the middle of the woods waiting for his grandfather to return from some sort of excursion. He's discovered by this young girl, Bulma, who's on a quest to collect all seven Dragon Balls, of which Goku is protecting one – protecting it for his grandfather, although unaware of the power that it holds.
"What exactly are the Dragon Balls?" I hear no one asking. Great question! There's some mythical dragon that sends seven Dragon Balls scattered throughout the world. Whenever all seven are gathered together, the dragon will appear granting a wish to one person. After the wish is granted, the balls take off, scattering to the far reaches of the world and will remain as inactive stones for one year before becoming Dragon Balls again. There was also an episode that explained the reason for the wish-granting dragon's existence, but I totally forget what happened – I burned through these episodes pretty fast.
Anywho, refusing to give away his grandfather's Dragon Ball, Goku agrees to join Bulma on her quest, bringing the Dragon Ball along with him. So begins our journey and slowly we build our main cast throughout the entire first season and are gradually introduced to additional characters throughout the later seasons. But, for the most part, the central cast is established within the first 20 or so episodes.
Ok, so what did I think of this show? I give it two out of five thumbs up.
There's some mild action fun, but it's found few and far between the senseless, overdramatic dribble that stretches on for episodes at a time. In fact, that might be my largest compliant with this series, that it purposely seems like it's trying to run out the clock as if it's getting paid by the minute of being on air (well, they probably are). Each time a character stumbles into a big fight, prepare yourself as that fight will likely stretch out over multiple episodes. And the more important the fight, the more episodes it will bleed over to. I think the record was something like 6 or 7 episodes to conclude Goku's fight with his main rival, Piccolo Jr.
This whole tactic wore me down fast. You see, there's a very simple formula they use to make these fights so long. First, they would have character A gear up to do some major move against character B. Now, while character A is charging their attack we cut to other supporting characters on the sideline who add expository dialogue before character A finally performs the attack. Looooong pause as the dust settles. Finally character B climbs to their feet proving that they've survived the assault. Both characters A and B have some sort of tea-time conversation (despite them being in the middle of a life or death fight) commenting on both their attacks and blocks, which concludes with character B now commencing to charge up for their attach. Rinse and repeat until there's a victor.
It wears you down after a while. It got to the point where I was honestly considering just watching all of the recaps that start each new episode. Sure my experience would be nothing more than the narrator saying, "Last time on Dragon Ball..." but at least it would have saved me hours of watching characters screaming at the top of their lungs while charging their super attacks.
Now, I suppose I could get into each saga's story arc, but it basically switches from one story arc focusing on getting the Dragon Balls, to the next (when the balls are inactive for a year) where Goku is likely either training to be better or participating in this worldwide fighter championship. So, not spending any extra time discussing that crap.
The more I write this, the more I remember how tedious the show really felt. To be fair, I always played it on the background while doing other shit. I never gave it my full attention, but, then again, its doesn't ask for it. It's a dopy cartoon that was churned out at lightning speed for years on end.
But with fans loving the next series, Dragon Ball Z, it made me think that the original should be better. Rather, it's scaring me from progressing any further.
Shame.
And then there's this...
You should be on the next episode of Kevin and Steve Watch Anime So You Don't Have To
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